2 years of Royale lunches

Royale is one of the places in Porto that is dear to us. I’ve lost count of the number of times we had lunch there, and on top of that we dropped by many times to grab a bread or some of their excellent pastel de natas. It’s just become part of our daily lives here.

I remember being excited about their opening after we first heard about them. Finally, we would have an alternative to supermarket bread within walking distance. After they opened, we were very happy that they were also doing lunch menus. One more for our “lunch rotation”, we thought.

Since then, I feel like we’ve been though their ups and downs with them. Initially, we had our doubts when they were trying to find their footing. Then things were great for a while. There was a guy in the kitchen who was doing a wonderful job with the dishes. Later we would learn that his name was André, after him and Royale parted ways, and he joined the kitchen of another part of our lunch rotation at Goela. Things were meh for a while, and the time between our visits were getting longer.

It wasn’t long before (I think) they had some new folks in the kitchen, because suddenly, almost every dish was coming out amazing. From that period, almost a year ago, I still remember an eggplant parmigiana they had, it was that good. I believe there has been another change in the kitchen since then, but the quality stayed more or less consistent.

For all that change in their kitchen, their front-of-house staff has remained pretty much constant. In my books, that’s always a good sign. They always treat us well, and if they’re sticking around, Royale must be treating them well also. I think that goes for most of their staff. I remember one day the place was so full we had to sit at the bar chairs at the back, overlooking the baking area. They were busy, but also having a lot of fun back there.

Their lunch menu is ever-changing, which is rare. Most restaurants usually have maybe 15–20 dishes they rotate through. When looking for pictures for this post, I couldn’t find any pictures for the same dish, from different days. Every day there is one fish or meat dish, and another vegetarian option. Every week they feature a soup and a type of salad. My wife really likes that because if she doesn’t like what’s on the menu, she falls back to the salad. Also, their soups and salads, especially their soups, are consistently very good. They also tend to have at least a couple of sandwich options available every day.

Beyond their lunch menus, their bakery is also good. They make good French croissants (also Portuguese ones, if that’s your thing), and their pastel de nata is one of our favorites in town. When we have house-guests from out of Portugal, Royale is where I typically go to get them good natas to taste. I also quite like their bread with olive.

At this point, we feel very settled in our neighborhood in Porto, and I think the same goes for Royale. Here’s hoping to another two years.

You can find them on Instagram.