Review Royal Hotel - Essendon

Is this a fancy pub? No… Is it a warm, great place to have a relaxed meal and a drink? 150% YES! This is one of my favourite locals. Staff are always friendly and helpful, food is always well made pub grub, beers are consistently pedestrian through clean lines. You know what your going to get every single time and I love it. Uncomplicated, consistent, and wonderful.

The staff here are so lovely. Whilst staying here, they have made me feel so comfortable. The staff are very friendly and helpful. The Food is amazing! I got chips with salad and it was perfect comfort food. I would definitely come back here. Good job Team!

Just spent the evening here for a family birthday. Couldn't be happier Our group has a full range of people ( kids, seniors and adults). The kids both really enjoyed their kids meals. Seniors were extremely happy with their sirloin steak. The meat was tender and flavourful and the sauces were lovely. Pork belly with crackling was super tasty, my own meal of ribs was wonderful. Ribs were so tender you could pull them apart with your fingers. Best of all the service was excellent. Kathleen went out of her way to ensure we had all we needed and answered all of our questions with a smile and knowledge Would love to try the trivia night next time as everyone seemed to be having fun!

What happened to a "good quality & Traditional" Pub Meal????? Visited about a week ago so with my mother. The tables were sticky and getting stuck to our clothing. Customer Service is non-existent, we were told to place our orders & pay online. When the food arrived, the chips were dry and some even brown on the inside. I'm assuming the oil had not been changed in some time as the calamari was dark and tasted like stale oil. The schnitzel tasted processed and frozen after crumbing and also deep fried with this stale tasing oil which made the inside of the crumbing soggy. The gravy tasted foul, I couldn't bring myself to eat it. I expected far better service and quality of meals but it was like visiting an outback truckstop. Needless to say, I will not be returning if I wish to eat a quality pub meal in future. I would recommend hiring chefs who are trained to prepare and deliver fresh quality meals, not just basic cooks. Hiring Waiting staff to great you upon arrival, direct you to your seat and take your order along with any special requests. It's basic hospitality, really not that difficult to accomplish when a company takes pride in their venue and level of customer satisfaction.

I would like to comment on an event that transpired in front of my dinner with my family last night on the 21st of March. We overheard a patron demanding free drinks as compensation as they believed that the time for their dinner had taken too long. I was already appalled when they were screaming bar staffs name saying " Where are the free drinks for our late food" Our food then arrived for my party of 9, to which we were eating and enjoying our meals. This moment of grace did not last long as the same patrons were demanding their food and "free drinks" to make up for their delay. They then proceeded to demand for the manager. This is where we were all silently sitting there disgusted with the way the patrons were speaking. To summarise segments of the conversation when the acting manager met with them to deescalate the situation, included - "no where's the other manager! He's better than you" The conversation then escalated to one of the women dining screaming at the manager stating that she wants to know why her food was taking so long "as she ordered right after them" that the time it was taken is unacceptable! She was very aggressively demanding answers and compensation. This is where I would like to commend the manager and how he handled these appalling customers. She requested again to know how this happened. So the manager proceeded to give them the receipts and highlighted the time stamps. To which she did not order directly after them. This was yet again "not acceptable" to the patron. The manager then proceeded to explain that cooking a meal takes time as we would all understand and appreciate. They then again demanded that their meals be free. to which he calmly replied "we can not do that" they then proceeded to say that they will take their business elsewhere. The manager then stated he would follow up with the food and try and get it out urgently. When he was walking away all 3 of them were still proceeding to make a scene and demand free items or compensation. I myself am a manager of a team of 24. I would like to praise your manager's handling of these disgraceful patrons. as he tried his best to deescalate the situation and handled it calm and collectively. Personally I would hope that these individuals do not dine in public ever again, as it was disgusting the way they were behaving and down right aggressive towards all staff. Even their lack of consideration for others within the venue.

Is it fancy here? Nah. Is it great to eat lunch or dinner or to grab a drink and play pool or even to go to the pokies or even watch your AFL team play? Absolutely!! I love the bartenders/servers as they are so friendly!! I absolutely recommend the Fruit Tingle cocktail as it’s to die for or even the steak with garlic sauce. 🤤🤤

Perfect for a budget family dinner but with fantastic food and friendly service. Special prices for kids and pensioners. Will definitely come again. Parking along/behind BWS for hotel patrons only is handy.

Lovely to have a little lift for the disabled at The Royal. So easy for those with mobility issues to get into the venue. Lunch was enjoyable and the Manager and staff are wonderful too.

Located on a busy corner in the middle of Essendon, the Royal is your standard pub that is reliable and typical of what you would expect for this kind of establishment. It was busy on a Friday night, and seemed to have a lot of regulars hanging out. <br/><br/>We stopped here for a quick dinner and drink, and I found the service to be efficient and friendly, with our food arriving promptly. My gnocchi was quite tasty, although the presentation isn't that important here. It's the kind of place where the taste is more important than the looks, and the menu has your standard pub classics. It's a good pub with a relaxed vibe, certainly not pretentious, and the people are lovely.

Well... Where to begin. After years of avoiding the place, the wife and I decided to give it another chance. Dining out in the bistro we had a friendly waitress although it appeared to be her trial shift. The food took an eternity to arrive for such a low populated night. One fellow customer who appeared to be mentally challenged/handicapped was crawling on his hands and knees sniffing seats of fellow patrons.. the staff appeared to have known him because they asked him to settle down. He let out a aggressive yell and scuttled out like a crab you'd find at the local pier. Everyone had a nice little chuckle, To top it of the food was an abomination and was over cooked..

Thank you to 3 security guys to botch to my Friday night on 23/11/2019 after 01AM !!! well done!! I hope you always seating and playing your phone when you on duty !!!

A group gather regularly in and around Essendon and I was fortunate enough to be invited. This night was at The Royal Hotel which has had some incarnations over many years. We started with a few drinks in the bar that already has Christmas decorations lining the walls and hanging from the ceiling. The cocktail list was impressive and an espresso martini at $13 is a very reasonable price. After a few drinks, we made our way to our reserved table and perused the menu. It's quite extensive with something for everyone. Thursday night being $20 steak night, it's worth coming for that alone. I however, went for the lamb ragu and many others chose parmas, pork belly and gnocchi. Unfortunately, I was only able to snap one good photo of my friend's pork cutlets - the photo of my lamb ragu was blurred. The pork cutlets were nicely cooked and I had to write this down to cover off exactly what was on the plate - 250g grilled pork cutlet on a bacon, apple and cabbage craise with broccolini and cider jus - $28.50<br/>The bar, as you would expect has wine, beer, soft drinks, cocktails and more. We ordered a couple of bottles of wine that were reasonably priced. The service was excellent and a big thank you to Nicole and Kathleen who navigated the complexity of our orders. Much appreciated.<br/>The Royal Hotel is kid friendly with highchairs available, wheelchair accessible and disabled friendly. Good parking around the area but just read the signs as it can be tricky.

Came here for Sunday dinner because it's in the Entertainment book.<br/><br/>Friendly staff. Not too busy. Easy parking. Quick service.<br/><br/>The portion sizes were quite small and needed some more flavour. Was still quite hungry after my Salmon dish.<br/><br/>My boyfriend Lincoln L ► Lincolns Scholarship House wasn't too impressed with his pasta dish either.

From the i ordered i felt like i was more of a nuisance than anything. The food might be great. i just had chips because there are no other vegetarian options so i don't know. My point is, the reason it was a 1 star experience for me was down to just one staff member who made me feel so uncomfortable for daring to order a drink. I'd be really sad to find out that the rest of the staff are great, but this one guy really ruins it for the rest of you.

Jo, one of the waitresses who works here is so lovely and is the reason why we will come back again. Steak night is great on a Thursday and good value for money!

We came on a Monday night, $15 Parma night. The Parma was fresh and delicious. Quite a large serving with chips and salad. Not bad for a cheap Monday dinner out

This place is a real disappointment. They had the best steak sandwiches going around and for some reason whether it be a new chef or someother reason they changed them and now they are poor. Also they took their buffalo wings off their menu which was their signature dish

Wait. what just happened? That parma is there far too early. Yet that is pretty much the exact timeline from ordering the food to the parma’s arrival - I kid you not the kitchen at the Royal pumped out 6 chicken parmigianas in no more than five minutes, if you do the math on that thats more than one parma per minute. I’m all for a quick meal but when a parma comes out that q

Changed the Menu for Seniors - what a pity !. What a pity this restaurant had to go and change its Menu. For years a Friday night would be packed out with Seniors enjoying their regular meals. It used to be the only Hotel I could take my elderly mother for her Lambs Fry and Bacon fix and now its off the Menu. It seemed much emptier than usual for a Friday night. I asked how the patrons had taken to the new Menu and the reply - "some have had to get used to it, as they were used to their old menu items" - Duh !! They've made the Menu more diverse, and that's great for the younger clientele - but really when something works for a large proportion of your patrons - why change it ? They could have left the Seniors Meals the same. Our meals were more expensive, no Senior Discount and all fried - so no good for the tummy afterwards. We're going to find a new place to eat now.

Nice dinner!. Having read previous reviews, i was a bit apprehensive. Undeservedly so !!!!<br/>We started our meal by sharing the arancini balls, which were yummy, my partner then had the lamp lamb rump and I had the potted pie. Whilst the sides of mash and peas were a bt boring, the pie itself was delicious. <br/> My partner thought his meal was very good. <br/>We finished off with lemon merengue. Fabulous.

Average food. Went there for lunch, 1 girl working in bistro so it was a long wait time to get served. Ordered chicken burger & steak sandwich which was bland & average. Considering it was $20 each you would expect a tasty lunch. <br/>I wouldn't go back, the chef needs to taste his own food.

Enjoyable experience. After dropping our daughter off to the Ukrainian Hall nearby and having an hour to eat before the school production began, husband and I looked to see what eating opportunities were on hand. The Royal fit the bill. We were there before six so the bistro was not busy yet and we were seated and served very quickly by a very friendly and helpful waitress. Drinks were dealt with very quickly and our orders also taken very quickly. The menu is not very extensive but plenty of choice for us. I had the spaghetti marinara, which was filling, very tasty and very generous with seafood. Husband had a very nice meaty pie and chips, which he was very happy with. The Royal seems like a good place to drop into for a decent meal and is family friendly. Good waitstaff will make the difference.

Dinner date.. Great food and great service. very happy.

The worst Steak Sandwich in town.<br/>I turned up for lunch today and decided to have a steak sandwich for lunch, as I had a Parma the other night and that was below average. <br/>So here I was waiting for the usual steak sandwich to arrive- a nice thick piece of steak in a Turkish role with a decent serve of chips and salad.<br/>WELL was I surprised.<br/> I received the thinnest piece of steak in a HOT DOG ROLL, not to mention that it also came with a handful of chips that were of poor quality and let's not talk about the salad.<br/>How can they even try to present this type of poor quality of food to their clients..<br/>Never again.. Stay away...

Surpringly good.. I've never been fussed about Aussie pub meals, but i was really pleasantly surprised with the royal hotel. All our party had lovely meals, real calamari, nice fish, lovely smelling pies. We were met with a very warm welcome and the kids were completely catered for. Colouring pages, good meal portions, served first.... Very easy and enjoyable experience. We'll be going back...

If you like racism, it's the place to be. Do not under any circumstances go to the Royal Hotel Essendon. Unless of course you want to be subjected to listening to racist tirades against footballers, and upon calling the fellow patrons on this racism, you then get intimidated and harassed by up to 15 self proclaimed 'housos' and threatened with violence. The staff will do nothing and turn a blind eye. What year is it?

What a Shame. Sad to see what was once a bustling efficient bistro going downhill.<br/>After having partonised the bistro for several years I returned and had lunch there about six weeks ago - while the meal was fine, the service was close to non-existent.<br/>Believing this may have just been a bad day, I again returned to have lunch there last week.......& there I was thinking the place couldn't get any worse.....this time the service was atrocious - when you could actually see her, there was only one young girl, working like crazy to cover all jobs except cooking!! - It would seem the new management does not like the idea of staffing the bistro appropriately.....clearly customer service takes a back seat to profit!

Food was great service was very quick and personable all meals were very satisfying.

I was there yesterday for dinner with my family ,was wait on food as they were busy but to my shock the food was awesome .As my experience say in other pubs when they are busy the chefs slap the food on the plate in this case the food was well presented and delicious after waiting for 35 min. Well chefs

Good food. Had the mega Parma and stuff chicken both of them were juicy and delicious it's good to know that the food quality is good as it was last when I came a year back . Will surely come again I rate this place as a up market pub give them 10/10 .

Fantastic food. I was there for seafood plate night ,had one and my wife had the pork belly loved it and after that had the sticky date it was delicious aswell . Will come back again.

Food tastes like Dog's Breakfast. We were in Essendon and thought we would try their restaurant for a meal. Ordered chefs special's pan seared fish and my husband ordered roast lamb after being told they did not have any gourmet sausages. The fish was the worst fish i have ever eaten. It tasted like it had been frozen for months,dried out and lost all its flavour and moisture. the veges were nothing to rave about. I do a better job at home with my steam vegs and I'm not much of a cook.My husbands roast was two very thin slices and the taste was disgusting. We complained to the restaurant manager Sonia about our meals and she told us that the fish comes frozen but couldn't tell us how old it was. We reluctantly paid our bill and won't be ever returning there again. This has to be the worst pub in Melbourne and we go to restaurants on a weekly basis. I can't see that they will be in business for very long. For the freshest fish go to Glenroy Fish Shop corner of Finchley Ave

I Just Don't Get It. Why do reputable eateries employ the worst staff. Is there a shortage of good hospitality staff in Essendon? Very quiet afternoon in bistro. Six people including the two of us...waitress rude and nowhere to be found. It is supposed to be table service but had to walk over twice to get service. Ended up going to the bar to get drinks....wait for this...i stood at the bar while "David" had his back to me playing on his smartphone...waited patiently until another staff member announced to David that there was a customer waiting....David glared at me and just stood in front of me....didn't say a word...i just stood there as well, waiting for David to say something like "Hi what can i get you?" But nothing....he just stared at me. I ordered, received my drinks, paid, received my change without even a grunt from David. Went back to my table, finished my meal....had to hunt down the waitress to pay.....wow what a circus...funnily the meal was good. Avoid at all costs diners

Wowweeee what a parma

Extremely bad service all workers state something different one min they charge u for coffee next min they don't ridiculous if u ask me should train there staff better to do there job no wonder they have so many fights and cops there

After enquiring about our meal after sitting in the bistro for 45 minutes we were informed that the waiter had forgotten to put through our order. After the offer of a free coke (how generous) they told me that what I had ordered was no longer available. Considering we sat down 10 minutes after the doors open I was a little annoyed. After asking for a menu they told me to call out when I was ready. 15 minutes and no service later we walked out. Considering the amount of great restaurants in the area I'm surprised they didn't attempt to rectify a crappy situation.

Had lunch here the other week.<br/><br/>Just the usual pub meals, service was fine, the man who served us was nice.<br/><br/>Food was just average nothing special. Had the Portuguese style burger, chicken was fine, the bread though didn't taste that great. Overall just average meal.

Great pub. Superb meals, have never walked out of the royal hotel hungry, nice cold beers and a good range of wines to choose from. all this and great staff who are friendly with smiles on their faces. for a good night out with food beer/wine and music head to the royal hotel.

Excellent service, staff generally go above and beyond with a smile on their face. Public bar meal prices are reasonable and the food meets expectations.

Reasonable pub food. We went on burger night and the burgers were $12 with big pile of chips. Kids burger was pretty big and our son can eat at the best of times, but struggled with his monster serve! Good amount of food for your money. Service was of higher quality than the food.... Which was a bonus!

Pub food. Have seen this place go from excellent to average. Ok meal but nothing to write home about, $3.60 for watered down premix soft drink and $6 for average wine. Burger was ok but much better value at a burger shop. If this is the only place open and you are hungry go for it but otherwise shop around

Been to the royal a few times now, not amazing by any means, but good quality, reliable Pub fare. They also have meal deals on certain nights which makes it an attractive dining option.

I like a bit of pub grub so the front bar lunch special of $15 for a chicken Parma, chips, a pot of beer and a$3 mystery bet trifecta is a winner for me! No fine dining here and the bar is modern Australian sterile

Consistently good. I've been here a few times and the meals have been consistently good. Really delicious, good serving sizes, value for money. And a very decent NZ sauv blanc for about $6 at the bar.