The Royal Hotel and Pizzeria — Restaurant in Lava Hot Springs

Let me first start with this. I have been here many times over the years. And I understand it was a busy weekend for Lava Hot Springs in general. That being said, this place needs organization. We were told the wait would be 20-30 minutes. It was an hour and 15 minutes. And we only got a table after they almost seated people who came in after us & when we pointed out an empty table than only needed cleaning. The food (mostly) came out quickly. There was one mistake, which happens, but the big mistake there was telling us that it would be 5 minutes until a replacement was out. It was 20 minutes. Basic human psychology lesson here. Over shoot the times. If you tell me 30 minutes and it takes 10. I'm much happier then if it was the other way around. Then the real kicker. For a 20 dollar pizza, the only thing with any flavor was the sausage. The crust was decent. The cheese and sauce and every other toppjng was tastless and bland. It was so bad. I would be hard pressed to spend 5 dollars on such a pizza. Between the wait times, the chaos, forgetfulness, and the very, VERY lackluster food, I should be giving 1 star all around. However. The foodie in me has to give a little wiggle room for the very busy weekend. I am sure that many employees have ideas to fix the problems present, and they should be given that opportunity. I don't know what's going on here, but the owner should definitely watch Kitchen Nightmares from Gordon Ramsey, and take the time to think and understand that most issues can be fixed by listining to staff that cares, and that pizza, of all things, is one of the easiest things to do well. It can be simple and delicious very easily. I cannot contain my disappointment and the price of the food, and the actual value of it. If the owner, in fact, reads this, do better. Listen to your staff. They almost assuredly have ideas for improvement and progression. And if not. Then it is a fight uphill that I would never chance. Good luck. It may be, many years from now, that I visit again. As for now, this sits quite healthy in the top 5 worst experienced restaurant adventures. Wether it's worth noting or not, it was a special day for me and my new wife. Odd that there are now 2 bad reviews here with this in it. We told no one. We expected no special treatment and asked for no discounts. There really is no excuse to spe d any money here untill a new owner that actually cares for people is in charge. We.mafe no fuss through the night, as we choose to make our day special. But if your patrons go to Mike's to grab a microwave dinner after eating you food, you effed up so hard, and so spectacularly, that a distaste for the location forms, so much so that I have a much greater chance of finding a better hotspring town, then ever attending again, I mean. Enough said. Do not waste your money hear. And I didn't even talk about the issues with the bar. A 7 dollar lemon drop should be a lemon drop. Ya know, the classic drink for many years. Not a few drops of alcohol in a mostly flavorless citrus juice. Also I've changed my mind. So many of these issues are mentioned by others. So. The 1 star all around has to apply. Especially for a tourist type place. It's just sad and sickening that most people that visit here are charged $50+ for such...

Horrible 1st and last experience at Royal Pizza. I am utterly shocked at how many 5 star reviews this place has. It was very busy, but that's not an excuse for the plethora of problems with this place. I've worked in busy restaurants & if staff is given the training & resources they need it isn't an issue. 1st issue was the horrendously inaccurate wait time we were given. We waited over twice as long as they told us was the longest wait. We were told it would be a 20-30 minute wait for a table of 7 which is fine. We even got a text showing we reserved the table at 6:39PM, but weren't seated until 8:45PM. I understand waiting over an hour happens sometimes, but wildly understating the wait time by half is a quick way to really upset people. 2nd issue was after 40 minutes we politely asked if it would be much longer & if we were next on the list to be seated. They said yes & there should be a large table leaving soon. 15 minutes later they start telling a group of the same size that came in well after us they'll be seated next. I overheard & had to go clarify with the hostess, that "we were here before that group & you said we were the next group to be seated so why are you telling this group they're going before us?" She looked very embarrassed, looked at her computer system & apologized saying yes we are next. It just sucks that they were picking and choosing instead of following the reservation list. 3rd issue was finally after over an hour passed the hostess just asked if we could sit at different tables on opposite sides of the restaurant. Getting very hungry we agreed, but then we looked in the seating area & saw an open table that could seat us all, it just had to be cleaned real quick. We kindly asked if we could just get that table cleaned off then we can all sit together. Looking frustrated the hostess said yes & cleared the table for us. I don't know why we were asked to split our group up when it would take less than 2 minutes to clear a table. 4th issue was the waitress also giving highly inaccurate wait times 3× longer than she said. She accidentally mixed up someone's order which is fine we're all human! The problem was she told us it'd be out in 5 minutes, & it took over 15 minutes. Everybody was practically done eating before 1 person even received there pizza, because we were told it'd take only 5 minutes. 5th and most important problem, after all the bad service issues and extremely long wait times, the pizza was grossly bland & disgustingly overpriced. Store bought frozen pizza has more flavor & is a fraction of the cost. I hope the managers/owners realize they have major issues & work...

We only ate there. Was ok... Their pizza selection looked quite good and the place had the welcoming aroma of a traditional pizzeria, but we just weren't in the mood for pizza that night so we ordered Buffalo wings which were very very good... beef fingers which matched what you'd expect if you're familiar with them... and lastly the chicken Alfredo. This dish, while ok as far as overall flavor, was made with regular spaghetti noodles instead of the traditional fettuccine or linguine which I was a bit disappointed about. The sauce was ok as well, but a little runny and definitely nothing to write home about. The biggest disappointment, for me, was the dish it was served in, but again... tavern... not a 5-star Italian restaurant and so perhaps some grace is deserved here... I was just really disappointed when this "differently/non-traditionally" made pasta dish came out in some kind of a small, barely lunch portion sized dish but heaping.. I guess to give the illusion that it may actually be worth the price as far as portion size is concerned and definitely prior to considering the other, aforementioned, let-downs (if expecting something you'd typically get anywhere else that is). Besides not being overly filling, having an odd noodle selection, and sauce being quite runny, pulling those long spaghetti noodles out of that dish and not have to fight noodles and the chicken from cascading out of this narrow dish while doing so, required careful fork work and patience. I still gave them 4 stars because their clearly not a pasta house and their pizzas did look great and our wings were tasty. The chicken Alfredo dish is just maybe something they should either explain to people before letting them order, be made more like the average person might expect, or just be removed from the menu so people don't feel compelled to write long, somewhat negative reviews about this particular menu item. Bottom line, if you're expecting to enjoy what you may understand is a normal Alfredo dish AND you didn't eat before you came and hoped for something a bit more filling for the price (with respect to the Alfredo dish), then definitely do not order this dish. And if you're not in the mood for pizza then plan your Sunday evening meal better than we did and get to the Chuckwagon restaurant down the street before they stop taking in guests at 8:30pm and the only place left is the...