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Roy's Restaurant

About.com Rating 5 Star Rating
User Rating 3.5 Star Rating (3 Reviews) write a review

By , About.com Guide

Roy's Restaurant

Shellfish Combo at Roy's Restaurant

©2006 Judy Hedding

The Bottom Line

A meal at Roy's is no ordinary event, and it comes with a high price! You can expect to pay about $50 (excluding beverages, tax and tip) for a meal that includes one appetizer, one entrée, and a dessert. The wine list is extensive, but also not inexpensive. Now that I've had a Hawaiian Martini or two ($10 each), I'll never look at a martini the same way again!

Pros

  • Fabulous flavors
  • Beautiful presentation of foods

Cons

  • Expensive
  • Noisy Dining Room

Description

  • Roy's is a class act, from the decor to the dishes.
  • Roy's is not necessarily a place to take the kids.
  • A prix fixe dinner with three courses is available, and is a very good value for the money.
  • Roy's has three locations in Arizona: Phoenix, Scottsdale, and Chandler.
  • Prom night, birthday, or just because you're in love--Roy's is a good choice.
  • Make sure you order the Roy's Melting Hot Chocolate Soufflé well in advance of dessert time!

Guide Review - Roy's Restaurant

It was a special occasion, and I wanted to visit Roy's. We'd been to Roy's before--Pebble Beach--and we were not disappointed here.

Roy's menu changes every day, but there are certain favorites that you'll invariably find on the menu. This evening, three of us each ordered an appetizer and an entrée. We ordered two Chocolate Soufflés to share for dessert.

Instead of a typical appetizer (although not much at Roy's is really typical) I ordered the Lakanilau Roll ($17) from the Sushi/Sashimi choices to start. Since it really isn't an appetizer, it is definitely suitable for sharing. We also tried the Lobster Potstickers ($9) and the Lump Crab Cake ($14). I am hard pressed to pick a favorite here. The Crab Cake was wonderful, and when we go next time, I'm not sure I'll be able to pass that up.

For our entrées we ordered the Shellfish Combo ($28), the special Ono with avocado ($26), and the Filet Mignon with Gorgonzola ($29). All our meals were prepared as ordered, but the Ono was a little less done in the middle than we would have liked. The portions at Roy's are all adequate. You won't leave hungry, but on this evening not too many people took food with them, either. Verdict on the entrées: delicious.

We probably should have tried another dessert instead of ordering two Chocolate Soufflés ($8.50), but how could we? Very sweet, warm, wonderful.

We'll be back to Roy's for another special occasion.

All locations, prices and offerings are subject to change without notice.

User Reviews

 1 out of 5
Fish specialist? I don't think so., Member Westprog

This is possibly the most upmarket restaurant in Ahwatukee, and we thought we'd give it a try. This is what happened. We booked online - the booking system is so simple and easy, I wonder why all restaurants don't use it. Select time, date, number of people, and you're in, with an Outlook reminder on your calendar. When we got there, there was a trainee at the reception desk, who was a little muddled by the system. She was friendly and cheerful, though, and we were brought to our table quite quickly. As we sat down, we were brought a plate of beans with a slightly hot sauce as a free appetiser. They were very pleasant, but sticky. No means was provided to clean ourselves off, so we had to lick our fingers and wipe them on the napkins. We decided to go for the Pris Fixe menu. It seemed OK, and certainly saved money compared to the Table d'Hote. The opening course was Dim Sum for us both. They were quite well flavoured, but far too dry. For the second course, one of us had the trout, and the other the steak. The trout was significantly overcooked, as was obvious as soon as it was put on the table. It may be a feature of the dish, which is stuffed with ham - perhaps it is impossible to cook the stuffing without overcooking the fish. In that case, it's a pointless dish. Since we were told that the restaurant were fish specialists, this was quite disappointing. The steak was well cooked and tender, but the accompanying frites were so salty that it was impossible to taste what might have been some quite delicate and interesting flavours. For dessert, we had chocolate souffle. One expects a souffle to be light and fluffy. What we were served was neither - a hard outside with a runny middle. As a hot chocolate cake it was quite acceptable, and probably the least disappointing course. A very pleasant (if expensive) bottle of local wine was the only part of the meal to do its job. The ambience? Businessmen talking loudly on mobile phones and a large aquarium. A total of over a hundred and twenty dollars made it a pretty expensive meal - in itself that's deducted a star. At a cheaper place, two or three stars might have been possible. As a gastronomic showcase, this was a severe disappointment, especially considering the generally favourable reviews we've seen. I doubt we will return.

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