Royal B - Fantastic!

Last night we went to Royal B for my Grandma's birthday. My grandparents know I want to be a food writer, so they told me I should write a review. Here it is. 😀


It’s not every day that your grandmother turns 72. To celebrate, my grandpa took her out to Royal B in Destin for dinner. This is a great restaurant from the fine folks who blessed New Orleans with Brennan’s and Commander’s Palace. I got to go along.

Walking into the restaurant was an immediate relief. It was comfortably - not stiflingly - warm and a welcome change from the frigid breeze outside. We were greeted with a warm smile from the hostess, who regarded us as if we were old friends she hadn’t seen in years. It didn’t look like they were having an incredibly busy night, and we were seated right away.

Two servers promptly arrived at the table, whisking away unneeded glasses and flatware. One offered my grandmother a black napkin, which confused all of us. When asked about the significance of the black napkin he just laughed: “She has on black pants. We offer the black napkin so you don’t get white lint on your dark clothes.” None of us has ever heard of this, and we were all impressed at the attention to such a small detail. Drink orders were then taken, and water glasses were brought to the table.

(Let me digress for just a moment and talk about the drinks. This place has an extensive martini menu, and there were some very creative choices. The Bananas Foster Martini sounded particularly interesting, but I just stuck with the classic: Gin. Dirty.)

On to the appetizers. It took us all quite some time to decide what to order. Everything looked fantastic. My grandpa chose the escargot in garlic butter, my grandma picked the oyster bisque, and after much consideration I ordered the potato croquettes. I’ll start with the escargot: I had said that I would taste everything that arrived at our table, and I immediately cringed at the thought of eating snails. I had tried them at school, and it wasn’t a great experience. Clearly, that was a fluke. The ones at Royal B were the perfect taste and texture. There was even enough butter in the bottom of the dish to soak up with a piece of the nice crusty bread served with our food. The potatoes were a textural adventure. Coated in crisp toasted almonds, the insides were creamy and smooth. I didn’t get a chance to try the oyster bisque, but I was informed that it was perfectly seasoned.

I don’t think it would be possible to make a poor decision regarding entrees. It was a task trying to pick what to order, and it took all three of us quite some time to make our final decision. Grandpa got the veal with wild mushrooms. I was able to get a small bite, and WOW. If you’re a fan of veal, this is one to try. Grandma ordered the salmon, which was served on a bed of saut?ed spinach, topped with shrimp, lump crabmeat, and hollandaise. I have trouble cooking salmon. I always get it too dry in places, and not cooked enough in others. This piece was phenomenal. It was nice and moist, and the spinach was awesome. (It’s a big deal to get me to refer to spinach as “awesome,” by the way.) The only minor complaint was that it was slightly on the salty side, but that was easy to overlook. My entr?e, the red wine-braised duck, was unbelievable. The portion was enormous - I was the only one with leftovers to bring home. Two gorgeous legs of duck with roasted root vegetables and stone ground grits… it was almost enough to make me shed a tear of joy. The duck was so tender, it fell from the bone with little effort. I purposely left some on m plate for two reasons: I wanted to have the leftovers for lunch today, and I wanted to try some dessert.

I was still thinking about Bananas Foster after reading the martini menu, but there was one other dessert that was calling my name. I ordered the Lemon Curd Tartlet with blackberry sauce. The crust was crunchy and sweet, and the tart lemon curd blended beautifully with the slight bitterness of the blackberry sauce. My grandparents both ordered Caf? au Lait. I tried a sip, and it was easy for me to see why each of them practically licked the last drops from the bottom of their cups. Someone at another table did order the Bananas Foster, and we were lucky enough to get to see one of the servers do a tableside preparation of the dessert.
After our meal, our server stopped and chatted with us about restaurant life and just life in general. He was very friendly and didn’t make us feel like we were just another table to earn a tip from. That’s the biggest thing that impressed me about Royal B. I’ve spent a lot of time talking about food, but the service must be mentioned. These people are obviously very well-trained and have had lots of experience. We never had to ask for anything - every need was anticipated.

If you’re a looking for a great place to have dinner on that special occasion, or you just feel like treating yourself to a great dining experience, put Royal B on your to-dine list.

http://www.royalbrestaurants.com