Royal Tavern

Royal Tavern serves the best "dive-bar" food around. Great burgers, interesting soups, good nachos. It can get loud on weekends and later at night. The service is always friendly and warm.

The chicken sandwich was the best ever! Can't wait to have it again. Great service too! We had walked around the city for hours and were so thirsty, the server did not mind pouring us pint after pint of water(free). We weren't in the mood for booze as we had a few mile walk back home.

they have the BEST mimosas. they change the flavor all the time. melon and strawberry were both amazing. also the website's menus are out of date but it gives you a good idea of what type of food they have (my favorite things aren't on there: the eggs benedict, tater tot scramble) the hummus trio? perfection. i should become president of this place's fan club. love it.

This bar has consistently had good food for years. From the homemade mac and cheese to the vegan BLT. Good atmosphere and the music in the...

The best burgers in philly! Great selection of beers. Awesome jukebox music. Perfect Philly atmosphere. Tremendous service Great place to meet friends and family. Great place to go on a first date. Great place to go every Friday night.

This place is cool and the food is excellent. As they keep changing the menu, it's starting to get a on the verge of too expensive, but stil...

After a blast at the shore I headed over to Royal last night for some coldies. The food was perfect and the ladies were smoked too. Chal --man where were you last night. The beer was nice and COLD.

I refer to their burger as the "S*x Burger" Why? Because it's better than s*x. This is absolutely the best and most addictive burger I have ever had.

My husband and I had brunch at the Tavern on Memorial Day. The place was packed with customers but the food was excellent and the staff were very attentive. We have eaten there frequently and have always had enjoyable meals. The menu is varied and inexpensive and the quality of the food is top notch. Even more important the staff are friendly and take great care in serving all their customers. I had some leftovers which I asked to take with me. The bartender informed me that my leftovers had been thrown out and asked that we wait around until a new order was prepared. This was a really nice gesture and is only one of the reasons why we will be returning to the Tavern.

This place USED to be great. All the new staff are horrible. Give me Royal Tavern 2007/2006. Bring back the corndogs.

went here on a thursday night and it was pretty chill; had a good vibe. we didn't get any drinks, just dinner. the tempeh club i had was a little salty but really tasty. they have a variety of vegetarian/vegan friendly choices which is always a relief. i will say that $8 for a sandwich in a bar is a little much but it was good enough that i'd probably pay it again.

i stumbled across this place recently and was so surprised that i hadn't taken the chance to stop by sooner. I'm fairly new to the city & am finally discovering the better places in this neighborhood. the service was better than i expected (esp for a tavern/pub atmosphere) and the food was great. the beer selection was amazing and i was bummed out that i hadn't made it in time for their happy hour deal- half price beers!!! whoa! when i asked for help choosing from the menu the bartender was quick to let me know that the burger was "award winning." The atmosphere was really chill & i felt at home from the get go. Worth checking out!

They have a wide variety of beers on tap and bottled, but the very best thing is their burger. Is just the best I've ever had. Simply perfect. That fried hot pepper on top... addictive!

Royal's decor, music, customer service, and food deserve a perfect 10. This cute bar on passyunk plays awesome music ( although they did get...

Royal Tavern combines a high quality menu with a great atmosphere to make you want to come back again and again. The food prices could be a little lower and the service isn't always the best... but if you're in the mood for a massive plate of a nachos with a reasonably priced drink, then Royal Tavern is the place for you. Their sandwiches and soups are excellent as well- suffice to say I've never been disappointed by a meal at Royal. Unfortunately it's only gotten more and more popular over time and it can be near impossible to get a table on a weekend. If you're able to get a seat though, Royal Tavern comes highly recommended.

The Royal Tavern is a must when I come to Philly. The food is great, the staff is friendly, and the Bartender Duane is awesome!!!

I used to think this place was cool until last weekend. If you're good friends with the bartenders at the Royal Tavern, you can treat other patrons bad and get away with it. Staff have attitudes. Bar stools are usually reserved for local friends of staff so if you go, might as well just sit in the back. Oh, and the food is going downhill. Used to have a decent menu, but it's changed and become more expensive. If you like attitude with your grub, then the Royal Tavern is for you.

A friend of mine lives around the corner so we sort of tripped over the place. I was very impressed. They have a vegan/veggie selection on their menu which is very rare, and since one of the members of my party is vegan, we decided to try the food. Unfortunately I dont remember what we ate. It was some sort of vegan burger but it was amazing. The server was very attentive, the bartender was a good looking alternative boy;), it was an overall positive experience though the prices could have been a bit better, especially in Philly.

In Short The atmosphere is laid-back, with a deep-red walled, evening-only, pub with local brews and an alt-rock jukebox, opened by the owners of the Khyber. They're serious about bar grub here: Chicken wings are better than average, as are big salads. Standout sandwiches include a delicious duck club with cherry relish, a veggie concoction of spinach, goat cheese and pine nuts, and a popular brisket with cheddar with extra fries.

I am a big fan of the Royal Tavern. The bar menu is quite large and pairs non-typical (for a bar) flavors together. The fries are done just right, crispy and browned, especially the 3 kinds with garlic and parsley. That said, I'm disappointed in the way the Mac and Cheese has changed for the worse since the Royal opened. It used to be a cheesy, homestyle miracle and is now a bland, creamy (not cheesy) mistake. I also miss the small salad that used to come on the plate, because the $7 version is only worth about $4-5, especially when it's missing the accoutrements. Daily specials are imaginative, but the basics aren't remarkable. Soup is not offered in a cup-size and serves as a meal, but rarely interesting enough to finish. Also the tapas for $10 was a total joke.

The food here is unbelievably good, and it is the BEST BANG for your buck. The short ribs are excellent, and the guac burger is the best burger I've ever had, hands down. This place needs more press because I've never heard a thing about it - if I hadn't stumbled in, I would have not discovered this pleasant surprise.

I went to the Royal Tavern for breakfast yes breakfast. What a great find! I have the breakfast taco, which was absolutely wonderful. I have also gone for lunch prior and had the best burger and fries. Highly recommended by me.

Drop everything & grab a burger or 4 at Royal. Best in Philly. Menu is unique and food is great. Definitely not your typical bar. Service could use some work.

I met my husband here, so I think Royal Tavern is great. The food is better than most restaurants. The wine list is great and it's easy to find parking. Some outstanding menu items are the the chicken, ahi tuna, onion rings, pork chop and french fries. But most regulars just order off of the specials board or get the excellent burgers.

Royal Tavern's french fries are my top reason for going to this cool neighborhood bar but they also have a pretty cool decor. The lighting's...

I posted a review here several months ago, referring to Royal as having possibly the best bar food in the city. However, they keep changing their regular menu (and also increasing the prices!), and some of the best sandwiches (like the duck club) have disappeared. Beer prices have also all increased.

This place is a find. I've eaten here four times. 3 times at night and today I had brunch there. It was great. Probably the best brunch I've had in Philly since the Blue in Green went to crap. Today, our server was helpful without hanging around too much. She knew what was in everything (one of my friends thinks he's is "lactose intolerant"). And when we told her we were heading to the Ritz for a movie she got us in and out quickly. At night I've always had a good time at the Royal. There's always a good crowd without having to wait for a table. The waitstaff is fun (I don't know what the other reviewer is talking about) and the beer selection rocks. And of course the food is always surprisingly good and sometimes even inspired (try the duck club) for a neighborhood pub.

This place rocks. Royal has the best bar food in Philly. It's almost an insult to call it bar food, because it's so much better than your standard bar (or tap). Best french fries and fish and chips in Philly.

It's a Great neighborhood spot. As has been said, it's a lot like the Standard Tap. However, there's some servers there with major attitude. One time i was there and our server was drinking. My thought is that if you are gonna drink on the job, you should be a lot friendlier.

I love the ambience of this bar - friendly, relaxed, good service. The beer list is pretty good. The food for the most part is very good - My favorites are the duck club, spinach sandwich, and steamed clams. The one thing I find consistently inedible is the pork barbecue - I've never eaten so much salt and vinegar - and this is coming from an aficionado of salt and vinegar chips and carolina barbecue. Overall, I love coming to this bar!

I walked by this place a few times before stopping in, because it looks like some hole-in-the-wall joint. Turns out the food is very tasty and the beer is cheep.

I've tried this place a half a dozen times and every timeI am shocked at how good it is. It's nice to go to a place where the specials are special and not just food they're trying to get rid of. The best French Fries in Philly bar none. The place is cozy, but a little loud sometimes. A friend of mine at work dragged us here instead of Monks for happy hour and boy am I glad he did. I want to move to this neighborhood now, but in the meantime at least there is usually parking in the school lot.

How about a smile? Just a little smile? Would it kill you? We had a grumpy little dark hair server, who never smiled, she actually seemed annoyed to serve us. I don't go out to be treated like this, it ruined the whole experience, made the place seemed poorly run and dirty to me.

I was shocked to discover that this neighborhood bar had such great food. From the outside it looks like all the other bars in the 'hood that have been around forever and are frequented by old men, but once you walk in and sit down, it is an entirely different experience. The Brisket Sandwich is great and the French Fries are quite possibly the best in town (yes, better than Monk's). The prefect out of the way place to hang with friends, have a drink and, surprise, eat well without spending too much.

This place was really bland, the food was pub grub, the beer was extremely remedial and the service was slow. This neighborhood may be trying to get gentrified but the bar is not there yet, they've got some work to do in order to be best of philly.

Great beer selection! Plus there is solid, relatively creative pub fare. The lighting is a little weird (very dark in some places, way bright in others), but it's always packed & friendly.

Neighborhood place with a decent pub feel. Warm and comfortable atmosphere and the food is very good for a bar. Only complaint is the music needs work. At times, 3 minutes of silence occurs between songs?

I first went there with a party of 6 and we all loved our food. I highly suggest the Brisket Sandwich or the Fish and Chips. While the food is great, the place is really a bar. The lighting is pretty dim, there's nothing hanging on the walls and the bar area takes up over half the place. The drinks were surprisingly inexpensive. My pint of Paulaner was $4. I've told several friends about the place and they've all been satisfied. I've been back about four times in the last month and it's been consistently good.