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Hours
Sun
7:30 - 21:00
Mon
7:30 - 21:00
Tue
7:30 - 21:00
Wed
7:30 - 21:00
Thu
7:30 - 21:00
Fri
7:30 - 21:00
Sat
7:30 - 21:00
What is Travellers’ Choice?
Tripadvisor gives a Travellers’ Choice award to accommodations, attractions and restaurants that consistently earn great reviews from travellers and are ranked within the top 10% of properties on Tripadvisor.
Ratings and reviews
4.5
RATINGS
Food
Service
Value
Atmosphere
Details
Someone from this business manages this listing.
Learn More
CUISINES
Fusion
Special Diets
Vegetarian friendly
Meals
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Brunch, After-hours
features
Can a gluten free person get a good meal at this restaurant?
Details
About
Simplicity, imagination and quality of produce are key at The Royal. Head chef Francois du Toit (La Colombe, Manna Epicure) believes that food should be honest. If you say tomato it must taste like tomato, if you say fillet you should get the best our country has to offer. This philosophy together with the use of modern equipment (such as the use of Sous-Vide and Pacojet) results in creative but unpretentious dishes with "taste" as main ingredient.
CUISINES
Fusion
Special Diets
Vegetarian friendly
Meals
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Brunch, After-hours
FEATURES
Reservations, Outdoor Seating, Seating, Parking Available, Serves Alcohol, Full Bar, Free Wifi, Accepts Credit Cards, Table Service
Contribute
4.5
215 reviews
Excellent
126
Very good
63
Average
17
Poor
7
Terrible
2
Laurie W
Bristol12 contributions
Oct 2023 • couples
We have had variable food here before but they have upped their game. The dining area at the back of the bar has been smartened up and the service was excellent. House wine by the glass was good value.
The food was excellent and very good value for the quality. Some interesting menu choices …… the kingclip and beef rib were both very tasty and a good step above normal fare for the price.
Written 21 October 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
RichardRenard
Cape Town Central10 contributions
Oct 2022 • couples
We love dining, we love fine dining, we love casual dining, we actually love most kind of dinings. As long as it done with passion and the flavors work. And yes, mostly that brings us to the big names. We love La Colombe. As well as “La Petite”. FYN, etc. Overseas we often treat ourselves with a 1, sometimes 2 and every now and again 3 Michelin star dining experience.
And if there is something they all have in common it’s that flavors are so well balanced.
Now back to the Rijsttafel we had at the Royal. An explosion of flavors we have not found before in SA. In Indonesia yes, in the Netherlands and Belgium as well. But to be honest not even there was it as good as this one. We will definitely be back and hope that this wasn’t just a once off succes. Well done to the kitchen and to the very friendly serving staff.
Written 10 November 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
marelisel
Cape Town7 contributions
Feb 2020 • none
We were blown away by the effort that was made for us on our anniversary. I called to make a reservation and advised them we will be celebrating our anniversary. We arrived to roses on the table with a beautiful decorated table on the stoop outside of the hotel. We were offered a glass of Brut on the house to kick off our celebrations for the weekend and enjoyed the sunset.
Our starters and mains we could not fault, we both enjoyed every bite with every now and again saying to each other how delicious our meals were. The staff was also so friendly when we arrived and really made our special evening even more special.
We will definitely visit again, thank you.
Written 8 February 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
DGESuffolk
Bury St. Edmunds611 contributions
Jan 2023 • none
Attention to detail is probably one of the key features that's sets apart a Michelin-starred restaurant from the rest. It's not exactly rocket science: a good chef and his team, good produce, good staff training and good management. And judging by the surprisingly adventurous wine list, the restaurant at The Royal must have aspirations to be up their at the top. Sadly, so much falls flat because of al lack of attention to the basics of getting food on the table. The food actually isn't at all bad, but on two occasions in the last week, the service has been dire to the point of being laughable. Young waiting staff are fine, but give them reasonable smart clothes, a name badge, some training on how to greet customers, training on the difference between starters and main courses, training on how to actually serve a plate of food, and training on pouring wine. The kitchen need some training on timing, too. Why spoil a well-cooked piece of kingklip by serving it on lukewarm, lumpy mash with cold veg and a cold prawn so-called 'veloute', which was nothing of the sort. The Royal may have had a refurb, but no thought seems to have been given to the restaurant experience, and one has to blame that on management and the owner.
Written 21 January 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
DGESuffolk
Bury St. Edmunds611 contributions
Mar 2022 • none
The stoep at the Royal may still be a great place for lunch, but standards seem to be falling precipitously. Service was slow and lacking any finesse, and both prawns and squid were unavailable, meaning that four of the limited number of dishes on the menu were also unavailable. And our glasses of chenin blanc were served warm. Not acceptable.
Written 23 March 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Fatb10ke
Bordon30 contributions
Dec 2024 • couples
We spent Sunday and Monday nights in Riebeek Kasteel when a lot of the other restaurants are closed so were delighted to find that the Royal Hotel restaurant (which is rated number one on TripAdvisor) was open. I don’t know if it’s because we were the only diners that evening or because it was a Sunday and the chef maybe was having a break but the food was distinctly average (and that’s being really kind!). My starter of steak tartare was grey on the outside and was on a plate without an egg on top and only two tiny triangles of toast. In all fairness it didn’t taste that bad but looked awful and certainly didn’t contain any love. That was followed by Indonesian lamb skewers with rice and that was also very underwhelming. Slightly overcooked marinated lamb with fried rice and some weird tasting little thing of vegetables at the side. My partner had Kingclip in hollandaise sauce with mashed potato for main course and she said it was like a 70s boil in the bag ready meal. Even the side of vegetables were swimming in water. I’m really sorry I don’t like writing bad reviews but I felt I had to on this occasion.
Written 2 December 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Johan M
Stilbaai76 contributions
Jan 2024 • couples
This is easy top 3 all time best dining experiences ever! I have been all over and this is world class. Absolutely 100% recommended
Written 18 January 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Astro
Johannesburg4 contributions
Feb 2023 • none
seating on the stoep watching the sun go down is just stunning, with amazing food to go with - service is a little on the slow side and a lick of paint will liven up the old lady
Written 10 March 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
RoyalriebeekCapeTown
Dear AstroEn32,
Sorry to hear that you must have been seated on our stoep near to where we had a leakage due to a problem with one of the geysers. My sincere apologies for that.
I hope you also noticed the state of our building in other areas. Maintenance is a high priority on our list. An historical building like ours needs a lot of TLC. Constantly. We therefore have painters on our payroll. Permanently. Every day of the year there is painting going on at some section of our hotel. And although we use the highest quality paint almost all sections are being painted once a year. This is much more than officially is required.
I hope you will visit us again to see for yourself that lots of loving care and lots of "licks of paint" go into this 160 year old landmark.
And may I add that although we are the oldest hotel we do go with the times. We offer super fast internet and are fully load-shedding proof up to stage 8 with our solar, inverters and battery backups.
Kind regards,
Robert Brendel
Written 9 April 2023
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
Michele B
Claremont198 contributions
Jun 2022 • couples
The service was outstanding friendly and warm the food delicious, beautiful views and ambience. The setting magnificent.
Written 19 June 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
moyza
3 contributions
Feb 2022 • none
service not so good but the food was excellent, pity fans not working on long front area but pretty spoy
Written 24 February 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Pierre S
Amsterdam55 contributions
Dec 2021 • couples
When you are in the area do not forget to stop and dine in the restaurant of the fabulous The Royal Hotel.
You will never forget the friendly people that serves you a really fantastic diner acompanied by the finest wines of the Swartland Revolution.
Written 18 December 2021
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Capetonian14
Cape Town Central169 contributions
Mar 2021 • none
We had a straightforward and good meal, good service, and the colonnaded veranda is very pleasant to sit on.
Written 8 March 2021
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Rafael skye
3 contributions
Jan 2021 • none
We decided to stop here on route home - the service was excellent and the food - salad fresh and served with a amazing dressing -
Written 14 February 2021
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
AMYB
6 contributions
Oct 2020 • none
stopped for a bite on the way home - service excellent - food great but disapointed with the salad but the rest of the meals excellent -
Written 19 October 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
FoodDrinkLove
South Africa21 contributions
Sept 2020 • couples
Beautiful old venue but definitely lacks management.
No atmosphere and lacks life.
No toilet paper in the ladies and after going to front desk the issue remained after 30mins.
Written 1 September 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
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