Royal East — Restaurant in Cambridge

Royal East Restaurant in Cambridge serves Malaysian cuisine with some Cantonese mainstays that were part of the original menu from years back. Back in spring 2022, a large group of 22 people dined at Royal East for $75 each which included taxes and tips. There is no surcharge for the room reserved. On the evening we had dinner, the restaurant was at 20% capacity. The women's bathroom has two stalls of which one had an out-of-order sign.

The grand total given to Royal East was $1,650.

On the menu were the following items:

• Appetizers (Roti Canai, Poh Piah, Halal Chicken Satay) • Bak Kut Teh (Herbal Soup) • Hainanese Chicken (deboned) • Dungeness Crab with Malaysian Chili Sauce • Beef Rendang • Pan Seared Whole Grey Sole Fish in Sambal Sauce • Udang Kelapa (Coconut Jumbo Prawns) • Malaysian Curry Tofu & Vegetables • Kangkung Belacan • Char Kueh Teow • Buh Buh Cha Cha (Dessert)

The food was delicious. My issue is the quantity of the food provided to the group of 22, based on the $1,650 given to the restaurant. I have the menu prices and estimate quantities of the food. In many cases, the quantities I noted are a generous estimate on my part:

4 Roti Canai 4 x $7 = $28 4 Poh Pian 4 x $8 = $32 4 Halal Chicken Satay 4 x $8 = $32 4 Bak Kut Teh 4 x $8 = $32 4 Halves of Hainanese Chicken 4 x $18 = $72 2 Dungeness Crab with Malaysian Chili Sauce 2 x $30 = $60 (high estimate) 4 Beef Rendang 4 x $21 = $84 2 Pan Seared Whole Grey Sole Fish in Sambal Sauce 2 x $21 = $42 2 Udang Kelapa (coconut shrimp) = 2 x $23 = $46 4 Malaysian Curry Tofu & Vegetables 4 x $15 = $60 4 Kangkung Belacan 4 x $15 = $60 4 Char Kueh Teow 4 x 10 = $40 22 Buh Buh Cha Cha (Dessert)-- 22 x $3 = $66 (high estimate)

Retail amount of food provided: $654

This means the restaurant collected approximately $1,000 for taxes and tips.

If you are in a large group, rather than planning a menu with the restaurant, I would recommend making a reservation and then order from the menu once your group arrives at the restaurant. The total cost will be significantly less than if you plan a menu with Royal East. For Udang Kelapa, each person at my table had exactly one piece of broccoli and one shrimp.

The Roti Canai was delicious, but two of them per table of 11 wasn't enough to go around. The Poh Piah is a veggie roll filled with steamed jicama and mixed vegetables in a wrap, drizzled with sauces. There were 12 one-inch pieces per table, which meant a small 1-inch piece for each person with one remaining piece per table.

No rice was included in the meal which is strange for a menu that is salty and spicy. The restaurant was parsimonious with the quantities given how much it was paid. For $75 per person, we each could have individually ordered 4 or 5 dishes and have enough for taxes and tip.

A group member pointed out that he was overcharged for a drink and the server shrugged and said the drink menu prices were outdated. The server had placed one water carafe per table and didn't replenish it...

I went here with a party of five. Briefly: awful service, okay food. The waiters unfortunately refused to suggest anything on the menu despite us asking multiple times. They claimed "everything is good" which was not very helpful considering it was our first time at the restaurant. They were also completely clueless about dietary restrictions such as being educated that the dish we were ordering did not contain pork, and also not at all helpful with suggesting serving sizes (they said for example that "everything is regular" but we found that we did not need to order rice for every person at the table - one dish was easily split between two people). Some of the food was really good: the garlic shrimp, the peanut shrimp and the sesame chicken.) Their proportions are large. The fried rice was overly doused in soy sauce, giving it a very cheap taste. The fish fillet was less fish and more some unknown fruit/vegetable mixed into the platter. Also, since we had gotten in late, we were the last table to be served before the kitchen closed. Once it did, the waiters made it a point to come to our table every ten minutes or so to ask us if we were done (we were clearly still eating). They then started flickering the lights above our table for what I can only assume was a not-so-subtle sign that they wanted us to leave. After which they also put the bill on our table and stopped us midway through our food to pay. I understand they wanted to leave ASAP but they should have just refused to serve us on grounds of being close to closing instead of harassing us once we were seated. Overall awful service really took away from what might have otherwise been a pleasant...

I have a group of foodie colleagues and today we were in Cambridge for work, so we decided to go out for lunch. We went to Royal East restaurant; they serve both Chinese & Malaysian food. One of my colleague is from Malaysia, and recommended the authentic Malaysian dishes. For appetizer, we had Roti Canai, Satay Chicken & Poh Piah. The satay chicken was too good, specially the sauce that came with it was very different than the normal peanut sauce that you get in any other restaurant. I loved the roti canai as well; the roti was fresh & flaky (which is good) & the chicken curry that was served with it was just awesome! For entree, we ordered Kurma Lamb, Hainanese Chicken, Beef Rendang, Pineapple Shrimp, Chicken Rice and Coconut Rice. The kurma lamb was spicy, flavorful but not hot and the beef rendang was hot & spicy. I did not like the Hainanese chicken much, as it is a steamed chicken dish, so I found the smell of chicken in it very strong. The rice dishes were very tasty too. All in all food was very good, every bite bursting with flavors and absolutely tasty. Being in Cambridge area it was obviously very busy, but the host was very courteous. I will definitely visit Royal East again and recommend you to try this...