The Royal

I have gone to The Royal a handful of times, and each time I receive lackluster treatment. The staff are not people friendly and the drinks are way overpriced. I have always been told to avoid this bar by friends who have had similar experiences. I would take my money elsewhere, there are plenty of better places in downtown Bellingham to play pool, dance, and have a good time.

The manager Todd is a huge jerk, his bar has horrible service and is overpriced, AVOID AT ALL COSTS.

I moved to Bellingham from Seattle in April, and was really homesick. I missed the places where you could walk in and start a conversation with anyone and have a lot of fun. On a really boring Wednesday night for myself I decided to give The Royal a try. I had heard some unsavory things about this place, but I decided to try it for myself. Let me say that everything I heard bad about this place was completely unfounded.
It’s now November and I go to The Royal 1 to 3 times a week. The staff? Funny and pleasant as hell. The drinks? Perfectly priced (sometimes really cheap when they run their specials). Atmosphere? Great. Almost everyone that I’m currently friends with I met at The Royal. It’s become my «Cheers.»
Karaōke is done Tues-​Thurs, while on the weekends they have dancing. Maybe things have changed and The Royal had a different feeling before I moved up here. But as a gay African American Male, I feel more comfortable at The Royal than I do at Rumors. Come in, have some fun, and say hi! if you see me!

I’ve only been to the Royal twice in my two decades in Bellingham — the first was for a bachelorette party a few years back, and the most recent was to sing some karaōke with friends on a girls night out. Now, I’m not the biggest karaōke afficianado on the planet, but I was super impressed with the set-​up. And since we got there early, we were able to get in quite a few songs before the crowds arrived. The drinks were also insanely cheap! Bartender was funny and friendly, too. I would definitely go back for the karaōke again.

Well after reading all the other reviews I have to say none of them are on point. The Royal is a great college bar, two floors, Three different bars, so if you don’t enjoy one aspect you can check out the other two. I believe a lot of the reviews on Unilocal are motivated by the fact that we did our job. Looking through all of the negative reviews I recognize people that cannot handle their alcohol nor act like civilized human beings in a nightclub setting. The Royal is tougher than most when it comes to cutting people off and asking them to leave. The Royal is a very large establishment and designed to be fun. If you’re curious and really want to know what the Royal is and why it is been around longer than the rest of the nightclubs. walk up to the front door girl, tell her I read Todd’s review on Unilocal.she will let you in for free cover and you can judge at no cost to you. Then you can write a review of what you actually thought because you have been here.

This place sucks so hard!!! I wanted to let folks know how disappointed I am with this «venue». I went out last night with about 10+ of our friends and decided to come to your place for the first time since we moved here from Seattle. I have to admit that I was so disappointed to be harassed by their little bouncer from the moment I walked in to this place. That is after paying my own cover as well as the cover for 2 of my friends. I was told immediately by the little bouncer that I could not order a drink because I was too intoxicated. We were obviously targeted out by your little bouncer because we were gay. SO SAD AND SHAMEFUL!!! I told him that I was not getting a drink for myself but for someone else. After I got the drink, I was followed by this douched bag being harassed; until I gave the drink to the person it was intended for. This man has no idea who I am nor how I act and I was immediately singled out and watched for the entire 10 minutes that we were there. Recap: I got a drink and took it to my husband, only to be followed, harassed and berated by their «staff» as I gave the drink to my husband .
He then proceeded to tell us that we were too drunk to be there and took my husband and tried to put him in a headlock as he tried to move us out of your establishment. He had no idea who or what we were doing, but only the fact that he obviously didn’t like GAY people. How sad and disrespectful. It’s 2014 and I am surprised that a minority that works for there would be disrespectful to another minority. So sad and shameful in this day and age to be treated so poorly because of what someone thinks they know about me. I want to let everyone I know about their practices and how they treat people. In the 10 minutes I was there I gave your establishment over $ 20. It was the worst $ 20 I have spent in some time. I’d have better luck spending my money on a rabid raccoon to play with. I am going to let the everyone I know in Bellingham know about poor business practices, as well as notify all resources to let everyone I know and everyone else I can think of to get the word out of how bad they treat people. I don’t want anything from this place other than to treat people with respect and get the ones with the Napoleon complex out of their business. It really makes them all look like a bunch of ignorant idiots. It’s 2014 for Christ’s sake. Hey Royal… Grow up and treat people with respect like your slogan says your do!!! You might want to be careful on what you say to people because you never know who know whom. Bellingham is a small town with people who listen and don’t tolerate this type of treatment of people. Not to mention you did all this in front of people who help run the Chamber of Commerce in Bellingham! Well DONE!!! Thanks to last night, you now have over 300+ local people that will not come back to your place. Nice job!

Wish we could give this Bigot-​Trash-​Palace a –1 Star. Seriously. Listen to/​read the negative reviews. A friend of mine got kicked out for being openly gay. Seriously?!? In THIS day & Age??? Going there on a lark starts out as a joke & ends in some major drama because the staff are a bunch of bigoted throw-​backs. Nothing but trash keeps going back there. I know I never will! And, I’ll be spreading the word. Hope The Royal-​pain-​in-​the-​ass closes down Permanently!

This establishment doesn’t discriminate. They will stop serving anyone who they feel needs to be cut off and when that person gets combative and destructive they will be restrained and forcefully removed.
There’s two sides to every story, but some stories have surveillance footage to back them up.

I have had good times and bad times at the Royal. It depends on who shows up and your attitude. As long as they have pool tables, cheap drinks and dancing people will show but it is a hit and miss place for fun.

You shouldn’t even be able to give this place one star. There should be a survey question «What are the odds of getting date raped here?» because my answer would be «very high». Read the other reviews, but REALLY read the GOOD reviews — because it gives you an insight on the kind of human garbage that would like this place.

this place doesn’t even deserve 1 star.
This place is as phony as it gets. If you like to be surrounded by a bunch of kids dressed homogeneously and see a bunch of girls barely past puberty dressing like hookers this is the place for you. There’s a handful of men, 40+ years old, who hang out here because they will only date women who are fit and under 30 (though the men are not). If you are a person 30+ years old who likes to hang out here you are in total denial about your age and it shows. If you want an adult drink that doesn’t taste like a jolly rancher or a cheap «hipster» beer, avoid this place at all costs.
This place reminds me of clubs I used to go to in high school when I lived in the city. Different themes in each room (3 rooms), a bunch of bartenders that are likely pedophiles, horrible music so loud you can’t hear what people are saying, a bunch of kids hanging outside the door smoking. Every guy looks the same here (saggy jeans, oversized sweatshirt, and trucker hats). There’s no heat in the winter because they just wait for people to fill it up, so if it doesn’t fill up you’re freezing. The front door just sits wide open.
I hate this place. It does not suit Bellingham. It gives me the creeps when I am there.

This place is TERRIBLE. I used to go here sometimes before I graduated from WWU and it was ok then until Glow started to pick up, so I went there instead. But this place is always empty which can show how no one cares to go in here. The people that do go in here are the ghetto people of Bham. I mean honetly who still wears over sized polo’s, long southpole shorts and all white generic Nikes? Anyways, the DJ also plays the wackest songs and uses music videos. There is no mixing skills done whatso ever. Might as well just play a playlist on serato auto mode. What’s his name Jester? terrible. Anyways, I went here recently with some friends when visting and stood on the empty dance floor for 20 secs and got kicked out of it. Seriously bro? I wasn’t drunk or anything and told him to screw himself and that I would kick myself out and ban myself personally lol. Not coming here again. All in all theres much better places to go in Bham and don’t waste your time here. Knowone comes here for a reason.

I would always pass by The Royal but never go in. They have pool, usually no cover, and the times when I went it was fun enough. I didn’t go very often, but I can’t knock the place. Any place that has pool in B’ham I usually went to at least once, and is more than alright in my book.

The Royal, well I go there because the music is WAY better then Rumors music down the street, DJ knows what he’s doin I give him a 5 star. The only thing I hate is NO one dances, all they do is stand on the sides in the dark scared of what people might think of them with mean & angry looks on their faces, thats why I give this place a 3 star. I don’t even care what they think, I still get down with my get down no matter what! You might have seen us (my husband & I) I get all kinds of stupid LOL! & I buy my drinks down at Rumors & don’t bother buying drinks there so… No comment

Though the Royal may have a negative stigma attached I feel the most comfortable and secure there. Not only do they try and listen to the patron but they also seem to honestly want to bring the customer back and take care of them. Great drinks and good customer service unbelievable selection of drinks

The best part of the Royal is how much the vibe changes in different nights. I’ve been here quite a few times on Thursdays for cheap drinks, pool an darts and thoroughly enjoyed it. The upstairs is chill and a good place to hang out on weeknights. Weekends are a completely different matter! It’s amazing for the people watching (all of the county kids all dressed up), but oh-​so ghetto. I’ll stick to Thursday’s.

I’m with Carly B. on this one.
KARAOKE. That’s really the only word you need to care about. Check the schedule and plan your life accordingly.
Cheap drinks + Karaōke = fun times had by all. Sure we can complain about the crowd but what do you expect with such cheap drinks? Just ignore the douchery and have a good time. Or you could sing R.E.S.P.E.C.T and teach them a life lesson. AMIRITE?!

KARAOKE! And if you show up early you get to dominate the mic.
$ 2 well drinks, how can you go wrong with that?
Our bartender was right out of Cocktail, juggling and fire breathing.
Its a club, the guys got more annoying as the night went on, but the cheap drinks and karaōke will keep me coming back.

Back when I lived in Bham many years ago, my friends and I all had a mutual deep dislike for this place. Everything is tasteless at the Royal… from the bad DJ voice, mean bouncers and front door people, bad energy and atmosphere (This was our perspective from about 10 years ago)
I ended up going back to the Royal about 3 years ago when visiting bham from NY, hoping maybe this place might’ve gotten better but I had the worst experience ever. The front door guy was thinking my New York State ID was fake (even though there’s no valid reason he should’ve came to that conclusion), he started giving me a hard time, we were clearly a friendly group of 4, 2 guys 2 girls. After about 5 minutes of questioning me, I just asked for my ID back so that we could leave to another place. The guy refused to give me back my ID and started calling the police so they can check my ID. After about 20 minutes of trying to keep my cool, the cops came and after checking my name and everything, they just simply gave me back my ID. I felt so violated. The people that worked at the front were just really ignorant and it just made me so mad that they would treat people like this (I don’t know if the same people work there… this was like 3 years ago) I could never even think of going back to this place, the experience here kinda ruined my trip.
My friends really believed that we were given the treatment we were because of our race. This place takes civilization back many years.

Here’s the thing about the Royal, they never cut you off. Seriously, if you want to float down the Amazon River of booze, pop in here. Have to love that about college bars.
The bad news? You HAVE to be near liver failure drunk to be in here for longer than 10 seconds. If you can get past the group of people throwing up in front of the door, can maneuver around the people trying to conceive children on the dance floor, and can find a seat in a booth, drink up sailor, you are going to need it!