Royal Pig Pub + Kitchen

Reviews

Name: Lanae Lawford 
Occupation: Fashion Stylist 
Lives In: Hollywood, Florida
Restaurant Pick: Royal Pig Pub 
Reviewed:Royal Pig Pub + Kitchen

We had to pay for parking since street parking was occupied. That was a hassle. It’s a short walk to the entrance. The staff is uniformly dressed and inviting. We sat outside in a wicker chair table for four. The manager came out and moved us to another table in lieu of a private party. The menus are front and back sided cardstock. I fancy a simple menu that gets to the point whereas this menu didn’t confuse me with what it offers. The only distraction is the course descriptions such as “tasso” instead of ‘ham’ which could leave a non-pork eater unhappy if they ordered unknowingly. I ordered the Hawaiian Free Range Turkey Burger with Pineapple, Tasso, Mozzarella, Tupelo Honey BBQ and Avocado Mayo. It was sweet and savory. The burger sat up like a mountain heaped with the fixings. It was a challenge to eat respectfully, but one I embraced. I enjoyed the combination of the pineapple with the mozzarella. Our waiter was excellent and experienced enough to have a trainee at the time of our dining, it wasn’t that distracting. My fiancé ordered the One Half Rotisserie Free Range Chicken with Amaretto Cornbread Pudding, Collard Greens and Pan Jus. He substituted the collards for parsnip mashed potatoes which were not good. They lacked flavor and the fluffy consistency we expect from mashed potatoes. The chicken was mediocre but proportional. The presentation of both dishes was appetizing and modern. I like to see a beautiful inviting plate that’s worthy of an Instagram picture. Regarding price, the portions are great but the type of food (i.e. burgers and salads) does not equate to the price. However, I would recommend this as the perfect spot for after work happy hour networking.

Name: Robey Barnes 
Occupation:Pastor
Lives In: Pembroke Pines 
Restaurant Pick: Jack’s Old Fashioned Hamburger House 
Reviewed: Royal Pig Pub + Kitchen

Anytime you are walking down Las Olas on a Friday night, it’s a good night. This upscale pub is in the heart of downtown Ft. Lauderdale so you feel the rush of the city night life. It all adds to the liveliness of The Royal Pig Pub. We walked up and were greeted by smiling hosts. Being 8PM on a Friday night we expected to have to wait, but we were seated immediately. The inside is gorgeous- rich wood tables and booths surround the central bar. TVs are mounted in every viewing angle, including a personal TV at every booth. I noticed that somehow they don’t distract the guests that are just there for the conversation. You’d think with all those electronics that it would take away from the overall ambiance, but the warm lighting throughout creates a modern sleek but somehow homey pub feeling. My wife, our friends, and I sat at a booth. We ordered the Organic Pub Spinach Dip as an appetizer. It came out promptly and more than enough for four to share. It was a sharp cheese expertly melted in a skillet; the top was browned just perfectly. Whenever I’m at a new restaurant I always ask the server for recommendations. She described the Braised Pork Shoulder “Porchetta” and I was in, I didn’t have to wait long after I ordered for that tantalizing pork masterpiece to arrive. It may be a pub, but they care about presentation. The pork was so tender and the flavors were get-your-attention bold. From the first bite, I was wowed. The rub on the pork has strong peppery seasonings, but it’s the “horseradish crème fraiche” that really took it over the top. Personally, I think it takes some finesse to make a horseradish sauce with enough kick to make its presence known but not dominate the dish. The chef has it. The parsnip mash adds a great starch to break up the strong flavors. Trust me when I say that I wanted to finish the whole thing, but I had to throw in the towel. For a lively night out with friends, this was a hit. I will definitely be back, and next time I’m going to try the Fried Chicken and Waffles.

Name: Staci Langston 
Occupation: GIS Analyst 
Lives In:Miami, Florida
Restaurant Pick: The Local Craft Food + Drink 
Reviewed: Royal Pig Pub + Kitchen

We arrived about five minutes early from the opening time and we had to wait, but I suppose that was our fault for arriving early. We were seated right away and in a booth with its own TV, on Sundays they do a football menu and I guess wants to be the destination for people watching football. The menu had a lot of options, one side with food and the other side with drinks, and a separate smaller menu for Football Sundays. We got water and decided on our food. We got two appetizers and a round of drinks, the truffle fries were really good, I love truffle fries and these were exactly what I wanted. We also got the nachos, which come with three options for meat, I don’t remember what the other ones were but we got the spicy duck, and it came with 6 individually prepared nachos. They were really good, little individual tostadas with all the different components on the “chip”, there was a lot going on, it was good, but I found it difficult to even detect the duck on them. This would become a theme throughout the meal, everything was good, but probably could have had one or two things taken off and it would have been a way to taste some of the ingredients better. We decided to order a third appetizer and my husband and friend chose the Chef’s BLT which had pork belly, fried green tomato, grilled endives, pork cracklings, and mustardo. I am not a huge pork belly fan so I small tasted and it was quite good. It was a large piece of pork belly and when we cut into it everything just fell apart, but the individual components were good. We then ordered our entrees. I got the free range turkey club with cranberry walnut bread, cranberry compote, avocado, cheddar, and bacon. As my side I got sweet potato fries. My sandwich was a good idea and was a solid one on paper, but the bread really fell through. It was almost like dessert/breakfast bread and I wasn’t able to hold the sandwich together. I ended up just taking the bread off and eating all the other pieces of the sandwich individually. The turkey was so moist and flavorful and the rest of the ingredients were fine, again though, I think it was too much going on and you lost some of the better flavors by covering them up with a bunch of other stuff. The sweet potato fries were delicious, they had a glaze on them that was just wonderful, like if you put the holidays into a fry. My husband had the Porchetta and tuna sandwich with truffle fries. His sandwich was HUGE, it had ahi tuna, Porchetta, coleslaw, capers, and two separate sauces. He said it worked very well together and I tried it, and the coleslaw really pulled it all together, the tuna was a very faint flavor in the sandwich. My friends had the Cactus Jack Burger and the Brisket Philly (Sunday menu), they both thought they were really good. The brisket was very tender and moist and instead of BBQ sauce, had a horseradish sauce that she thought was really good. The burger got good reviews, but I didn’t try it. It was perfectly cooked to medium like he wanted, it had several different toppings on it, and he seemed to think it all worked well together. We were a little disappointed that the menu had a section called “Pub Favorites” that wasn’t available until after 5PM. On that menu there were several things that looked really good to us. My husband and I decided we would like to go back and get something off the after 5 menu. It is definitely a place that I would recommend and will hopefully return to whenever I am up in the area.

Restaurant Information