Royal/T

I know this is a little too late. But it’s just for nostalgia’s sake that I’ll leave a review based on my experiences. I went there a few times. First time it was a surprise and I fell in love with the place. The atmosphere just felt right for the suburban area in which they were located. The ambient was just right. I loved their Kyoto Sunset tea. It was a must-​have. The fact that they’re gone really closed a book in one of the best ideas to have ever been put to practice. Sadness, this place was awesome :(

High Tea
So we went there for high tea service. eh… What I really enjoyed was the art and the pop up shop. Onch Movement was doing a feature inside of the place, along with other art pieces. While we waited for our tea, we walked around absorbing all of the different pieces and took pictures. Onch’s jewelry was cute a quirky. So sad that they closed down.

Why do I discover everything I feel like having has closed?!
This place was good while it lasted… a little weird in that it was a maid café but the food was good and the space was definitely unique.
My friend and I had the crispy rice with tuna and micro greens, the grilled chicken salad (which had the most lovely lavender vinaigrette, and the chicken katsu sandwich.
I hope they re-​open somewhere else! I spent eight weeks in Tokyo this summer and would definitely have a greater appreciation for the menu now.

I came for the last pop-​up dinner (Cordero Negro) this Thursday before their closing. Their lease ends at the end of this month, so they’ll be leaving and becoming a traveling pop-​up affair instead… I’m so sad!!! I don’t understand why! Why not renew the lease and have a consistent place loyal patrons can go to, and also do a roaming pop-​up thing as a side expansion?! Like those food trucks that end up all opening store fronts while keeping their trucks going. It’s the best of both worlds!
Royal/​T is seriously my most favorite place in the whole wide world. I’ve been here since they first opened and have had countless meals here, even hosted my friend’s birthday party here as well. I’ve seen all their exhibits, tasted all their foods. Everything is awesome. The staff are all super sweet and friendly, Susan is a wonderful person to work with when coordinating for an event. There is no other place in Los Angeles like it.

I think this place closes at the end of the week. If you’ve been planning on coming here, Do it now!
How sad. This place is closing. There is no other place around like it
The owner has displayed some of her art collection here for the past few years.
Occasional art exhibits, workshops, parties and other fun events. The most memorable event I attended was this sanrio/​hello kitty thing where the Hello Kitty artist came in from Japan and signed autographs for fans. Very cool
A gift shop with lots of interesting stuff and café with waitresses dressed in maid outfits.
I’ve never eaten here so i can’t comment on the food. From the looks of the food though, i would say it is good but not spectacular. I have had the milk tea here and it is ok. Not very special.
Parking: street/​meter. can be bad at times

My friends and I rushed to get here as our livingsocial deal was going to expire soon… and found out on Sunday that they only had 7 more days before they were going to close because the landlord won’t let them renew their lease. They still haven’t found a place yet, but I hope they do!
I would love to go to Japan for their maid cafes, but can’t right now, so this is kind of close. The food is ok, but you don’t really come here for the food.
I started off with a Brut Rose, which was delicious and light. I had the chicken curry katsu, which was ok (thin curry, warm katsu that wasn’t too crunchy)– again, wasn’t here for the food, though it was certainly on my mind as I was starving. It took a while for everything to be prepared since we had 6 people including me.
The waitress Phoebe recommended the salmon bowl to one of my buddies and I had to steal some. It was served on brown rice with edamame. The salmon was cooked perfectly– crispy exterior and tender and moist inside. The brown rice and edamame provided a contrasting texture and was cooked perfectly too.
The Rooibos lemonade that my friend got hot was alright. It tasted like Lipton tea with hot lemon. Maybe I’m unphased because of all the honey lemon tea I drink.
I loved our waitress so much that I had to take pictures with her! They let me wear my maid costume so it was fun dressing up and confusing other customers!
Overall, a fun experience in a comfortablely hip atmosphere.

Forget clubs and bookstores. This place may be the new spot to find love.
The last couple times I’ve come to Royal/​T, I’ve seen tables of guys and tables of girls. (Also to mention CUTE girls who work here)
Such an odd phenomenon, do the group of guys come to check out the adorable ladies dressed in French maid costumes? Or do they know groups of girls come to celebrate birthdays/​bachelorette/​afternoon tea with hopes to use their pick-​up lines on them?
Either way, this place is fun to people watch as well as check out the latest exhibit, indulge in their café food & sweets, and browse their eclectic shop of cute things.
I come for the café and afternoon tea.
+ Royal/​T High Tea Set (⁴⁄₅), $ 19.50 — a three-​tiered tray, with assorted desserts, fruit and sandwiches. Also includes a small pot of tea. This serves one to two people. A great item to order when having afternoon tea with the girls. The tray varies with what bites are available. Mine usually are: top tier: brioche or a scone; middle tier: sweet squares of matcha green tea flan, brownie, coffee cheesecake, raspberry cheesecake; bottom tier: savory sandwich squares of salmon cream cheese, grilled zuchinni Panini, tuna tartare w/​avocado, chicken salad slider.
+ Green tea soba noodles, (⁴⁄₅), $ 13 — green tea soba noodles sautéed with market vegetables, mushrooms, black garlic, brown butter, oyster sauce. So delicious! You can taste a hint of green tea and it isn’t the grainy soba noodles. I love the fresh market veggies used (zucchini, shiitake & oyster mushrooms, broccoli, asparagus). Everything is chopped so pretty and delicate, no over-​size pieces.
Free Parking Lot on Lindblade Street.
I’m craving the green tea soba noodles and craving it for lunch today. Looking forward to trying their Royal Matcha drink too.
Oishii!

They are closing July 22^nd!
It was already pretty crowded at 11:30am on a Sunday, but we were seated right away. After that, however, there was quite a bit of wait so am glad we came early! I got the Royal/​T high tea set with iced matcha royal milk tea and friend got the 3-​egg omelet with kurobuta, shiitake mushrooms, and spinach as her filling. She also got their hot royal/​t milk tea.
Both of our beverages were tasty. I liked how fragrant and slightly sweet the milk tea was. You could definitely taste the soymilk in both of our drinks. My green tea was refreshing, but I prefer mine a little on the sweeter side.
I thoroughly enjoyed my mini sandwiches and desserts! I love trying different things on the menu and this allowed me to do so. I think the food in the high tea set changes all the time, depending on what’s available that day.
Bite-​sized sandwiches:
–Spicy chicken salad
–Salmon and cream cheese
–Veggie panini
–Tuna tartare open faced sandwich with avocado
Desserts:
–Chocolate/​almond/​cinnamon roll
–Brownie
–Cheesecake
–Mocha cheesecake
–Green tea flan
–fresh fruit
It’s a better deal to get the hot tea with the high tea set as you get a whole pot, but it was pretty warm outside so I opted for an iced tea. But at $ 19.50, I thought it was reasonable and it was quite filling! My friend must’ve enjoyed her salad and omelet because she finished it! I was way too stuffed to even try a bite and I love omelets!
We took a look around the small store afterwards. Lots of cute and odd knick-​knacks that are ridiculously priced. Fun to look at though. The servers in their french maid outfits were cute too and our server, especially was very sweet. Service was a bit on the slow side. The place was packed and we only saw about 3 servers.

This place has been on my bucket list for awhile and I had forgotten about it until I found out recently that they are closing August 2012! So of course I had to make the trip to LA to check this place out. We came on a Sunday afternoon and metered parking is free since it was Sunday so we parked along Washington and walked over but they also have a parking lot on Lindblade street.
The interior is smaller than I would have imagined it. The dinning area is in the middle of the store and there are two small stores on the side. Towards the back of the building there’s a little private room for parties and there was a birthday party going on while we were there. In the back, there’s another entrance and more artwork and a live DJ spinning as well.
We got seated and since we weren’t that hungry we ordered tea and desserts instead. We ended up ordering the Yuzu Sencha, Budding Jasmine Rose Tea, White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake and Green Tea Flan. Unfortunately for me, they were out of the Green Tea Flan :(
Oddly enough we got the cheesecake before our teas. The cheesecake was delicious, it was didn’t have the strong cream cheese taste like most cheesecakes but it wasn’t as firm as I wanted to be either. Our teas were okay, the Yuzu didn’t have a strong enough tea taste but watching the Jasmine rose bud bloom was fun, but took a lot longer than we expected, not like on national geographic where they fast forward everything lol. The green tea soba noodles and burgers looked so good! Too bad we weren’t that hungry and were planning to have an early dinner else where in Little Tokyo.
Our server wasn’t the friendliest, she didn’t even look like she wanted to be there, but another maid server who brought us our tea was super nice and would come over and conversate with us. I would want to try to make another trip up here before they close to try their food!

Their food is just ok, but their service and atmosphere is a definite 4 stars!
Came here because I got the Living Social deal, which might I add, I was SUUUPER excited about! cause I read about this place in a AAA magazine a long time ago and have been wanting to try it ever since.
When we first entered, I was a bit confused because there’s a shop and some art displays on the side with a cashier there, but she’s not the hostess, so don’t ask her for a table!
The café is actually right in the middle of this large room. The hostess and the cute waitresses are really nice! I was impressed with the service here.
I thought this would be a pretty cutesy/​girly place, but there was a variety of customers here– business people, teens, grammas & grampas, guys having lunch together, etc.
Unfortunately, I only came back to LA to move my stuff back home to the OC, so the one day I come back, I’m with my dad who is not a fan of trying new places.
Therefore… I didn’t get to try the 3 tiered tea set. big sighh.
BUT, we did try their brunch items– 3 egg omelet (you can choose 3 toppings and we got sausage, mushroom and cheddar cheese) and the smoked salmon plate
Omelet $ 9– Different from the usual American omelet! It’s like a flat egg pancake with the ingredients cooked separately and then placed on top of the egg, and then folded over, so none of the toppings are actually mixed into the egg. The sausage had this yummy smokey flavor and they used shitake mushrooms! so it was a nice surprise
Smoked salmon plate $ 11– About 4 or 5 good-​sized pieces of smoked salmon, a plain or onion toasted bagel, tomatoes, capers, cream cheese and a salad. The salad had a nice light dressing, which I like much better than heavy drenched salads. The smoked salmon was just ok. pretty much the same as anywhere else I would’ve gotten it, so just 3 stars for the whole plate.
It was pretty filling though
They have an extensive tea list! I didn’t get to try any, but I’d imagine they’d be good considering this is a tea place right?
Alsoo, I heard they’re closing in August! So you better go try this place before it goes away!

This is my swan song for the soon to be departing Royal/​t, as the store/​restaurant will be gone by the end of August. This is quite said news. I had so many wonderful memories here. Maybe it is because I was not a more dedicated supporter, so as punishment this place will have to disappear.
Royal/​t is an art space with a small little restaurant in the middle of it. You are served by maid, therefore making this the only maid café in Los Angeles I can think of.
My favorite thing here was definitely the Royal Milk Tea, which I will miss very much when this place is closed.
I am not quite sure what other things to say, but farewell Royal/​t. It has been swell.

***News: Royal/​T is closing this August 2012***
They’ll continue to host pop-​up events, but just won’t have a grounded home. It makes me want to cry. Why must you close, Royal/​T? Can we please gather a couple hundred people and protest? If that’s not enough, how about a couple thousand? Dear Royal/​T, just say the number and I’ll gather my soldiers!
Whenever I have guests in town, I bring them here. Chicks and dudes alike fall in love with this place! Especially if they have yellow fever. And even if they don’t, they still dig it. I love this place so much that I celebrated my last birthday here.
GETTING THERE: You can’t miss it. Unless your contacts get super blurry. Even then it’s hard to miss. The façade is decked out with fake vegetation. Awesome is an understatement.
FOOD+DRINKS: I would say the interior is ten times more fabulous than the food. I’ve eaten a variety of dishes on their menu before, but yesterday I wasn’t hungry, so I just ordered some cute tea: Budding Jasmine Rose.
INTERIOR: Love the architecture. Naked wooden beams, brick and mortar walls, textured concrete floors, along with a variety of paintings and sculptures… The interior is WOW. I wish I lived here.
PARKING: Time to use those quarters and dimes. Metered parking on the street. During peak hours, you may need to park further away.
CONCLUSION: I’m going to come here as many times as I can before they close in August. *tear*

This place looks really cool! It’s like, well is, a little art gallery… that also sells the most obscure Japanese stuff. I almost bought the burger coasters and couples hooking cups.
I came here for the café though. I have always wanted to see what a Japanese maid café would be like. All the maids were cute in their little outfits and were very nice. Thumbs up for good service.
We got the High Tea Sampler Set and went with the Royal/​T Milk Tea and it was simply refreshing. I couldn’t get enough of it. It wasn’t too sweet and it was perfect with the food we ate. The sandwiches on the bottom tier were great. The Tuna Tartar was the best. The Veggie Panini was also good. They were all very light and savory.
The middle and top tier had the desserts and they were not the best. I did like the fresh raspberries and blueberries. The coffee cake and cheesecake were alright. Nothing special. The mousse and the bread pudding I didn’t like. The bread pudding was a little heavy and the mousse tasted good, but for some reason I really could not eat more then a few spoonfuls and there was a lot. In the end those 2 were the only things unfinished.
Overall great presentation, great service, amazing drinks, and some so so food.

I just recently came back to Royal/​T for an event and it was just as interesting and fun as the last few times there. The first time I was at Royal/​T was in 2010. Then I came back in 2011 with some friends. This is a great spot to hang out with some of your girl friends becuz it’s such a cool, artsy, tea-​like place to just catch up on your latest and greatest. I had heard news about them closing their doors in the summer of 2012.
Everyone is jumping on the «Pop-​up» Restaurants idea so they too will be joining on that CRAZE.
I’ve always been here for some kind of event and it’s a great place to have one. Their food can be catered to fit any artsy deal. This time my event was a big baby shower bash… I mean BIG! The place was pretty much all taken. The food was catered and since I was taking pix of the event and mingling with friends, I completely forgot to take any food pix. I can attest that the 3 times I’ve been here, the food have been consistent. I mean, simple food = yummy! You won’t find fancy stuff here, just tea-​like fun comfy foods. I think places like this is more about the experience, then it is about the food and drink. Though their teas are pretty good, coffees, not so much! Café style with an artsy twist… I like.
Here’s my 2 cents of advertising for them: If you haven’t been here and wanna try it out before they close their doors… I really recommend you hopping on the 405 Fwy and get here ASAP. August is just around the corner.
You know you have to just come to see for yourself…“the MAID SERVERS”. They alone are considered an ART… moving ART I must add. They are always so cute and sometimes… a little creepy if you are attracted to the «young Asian» thing! I hope the men that come into this place are not Pedophilers. Some of my guy friends told me they are very uncomfy eating here but for my female friends, we love it.
So…check them out and see what you think!

LOVE IT!
Food is good, get the tea sampler, tea is delightful and the restaurant is also an art gallery! Talk about different.
Try their tea + sandwiches/​pastries platter — $ 20 and perfect for sharing!

I came here on a perfect day and at a perfect time for high tea. Parking was really convenient because I came on a Sunday so there are plenty of street parking for free and I did not have to deal with all the confusing parking signs. I was really excited to finally try this place out. From the exterior to the interior of Royal/​T, it had me really impressed. I cannot believe I did not try this place until now!
I ordered the 3 tiered high tea set which comes with a choice of one of their teas from the menu. I ordered the rose budding jasmine tea and the iced latte because I wanted to see how their coffees are. I think they change up the items for their high tea set once in awhile because I was looking at some pictures on Unilocal and I had different items than the high tea sets I saw in the pictures. But this is what was served:
1^st Tier:
Cranberry scone
2^nd Tier:
Flan
Fruits
Raspberry cheesecake
Green tea pudding
3^rd Tier:
Turkey sandwich
Tuna with avocado tartar
Smoked salmon sandwich
Panini with roasted bell pepper, Zuchini, egg plant and portobello mushroom
All of the items were really good. My favorite was the raspberry cheesecake and the tuna with avocado tartar. The coffee was also delicious, it was not too acidic and the coffee aroma was definitely there. My boyfriend ordered the Kobe Beef burger and it looked really juicy and delicious. He was too selfish and didn’t let me have a bite of it though! :(
The ambiance is really good. The dining area is situated in a wide open space with plenty of lighting. There are different art pieces that surrounds the walls of the dining area too. There was also a live dj mixing jazz music, which adds on to the wonderful dining experience.
The service was really good. All the waitresses are dressed in cute, rated E french maid outfits. They are all very attentive and make sure that all your needs are fulfilled.
After the meal you can spend some time to look around the art exhibit. The curator for this exhibit is Amber Noland. I really enjoyed all of the art pieces! There is also a store where you can buy some gifts for your friends or fun and cute items for yourself.
I just bought the living social deal for Royal/​T and it was $ 10 for $ 20! So I am definitely coming back again soon!

REVIEW NUMBER 69 ;)
Finally! After 2 years of saying I will try this place, I finally did. I found out about this place when they first had the Hello Kitty Exhibit. I expected this place to be bigger but no complaints because the ambiance was nice! There was even a live dj playing some jazz music. I really like jazz! I am used to dj mixing edm, so it was a nice change. My friends and I decided to eat then walk off our calories. My sister and I ordered their high tea set with budding jasmine rose tea and we also ordered a iced café latte.
I was amazed by the tea… I at least took 10 pictures of different time lapses and at different points every time I saw the tea flower bloomed more. I am such a dork xP. After I got over how cool the tea was I finally tried it. It went well with the desserts. I personally do not add sugar or honey to my tea so it balanced out the sweetness of the desserts I ordered.
The high tea set comes with sandwiches and desserts. The sandwich that was my favorite was the open faced sandwich with tuna tartar and guacamole. My favorite dessert was the cranberry scones. It is just something about scones – crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside that makes them delicious. When I saw the high tea tower came, I thought I could have destroyed it all myself. But actually, it is the perfect amount for 2 girls. It could be because I had lunch shortly before I came here. As for the café latte, I always have to try coffee from a restaurant if it is on their menu. I have to say it is delicious! I loved it.
The waitresses are so kawaii neh! They are super nice too. One of the waitress immediately came up to us and asked if we wanted a refill on our tea when the teapot was nearly empty. Also, whenever we needed something, they assisted us right away.
We chose to go on a Sunday so parking was not an issue. Street parking is free on Sunday! Knowing how great this place is now, I will come more often!

Cute lil’ in restaurant store, great waitresses in cute uniforms, pleasant atmosphere, meticulous plating of food!
I’ve heard many great things about Royal/​T before, and I’m glad that I finally got a chance to go. I got lost a few times while driving, but I was glad that I finally found parking and the place itself.
Royal/​T has a good amount of space, and I really enjoyed the atmosphere. There is a store in front that sells Momiji dolls, Pullip dolls, other types of dolls, blind box/​re-​ment (ice cream, tokidoki unicorno, other characters), cute teapots, plushies, plastic jewelry, etc. I wanted to buy a tokidoki plushie, a couple plastic rings, and a momiji doll, but I was so glad that I resisted. That would have put me over $ 70 right there!
The service is great, and everyone seemed to be at least satisfied with their food. Their plating is very beautiful, and the food itself tastes pretty good. Their milk tea is cute, but I heard that it was more at the bitter end, not your typical tapioca milk tea types of milk tea.
I ordered the tuna takaki salad, and it came with lots of greens, four pieces of seared tuna, and three crispy rice rolls. It says the dressing is a spicy peanut dressing or there was the word «spicy» in there somewhere, but it wasn’t spicy at all. (this is coming from me, a girl who thinks extra hot at curry house is still not hot enough!)
The soba noodles were a popular item within the group I was with. The portion of those was amazing that I wished I got that instead, but tuna takaki is so yummy though. Their portions are more than decent, a good amount. It justifies their prices.
The waitresses were all cute and the service was great. I kind of want their uniforms, but where would I wear that to? My work probably wouldn’t allow it, lol. It isn’t showy, but it’s definitely on the cosplay end. LOOOOVE!
Parking was a bit odd, but there are plenty spots around the area. Good ‘ol Culver City.
I would definitely come to Royal/​T again, and maybe I’ll actually not resist and buy a bunch of stuff the next time I go.

My first impression as soon as I stepped in front of the main entrance was WOW. This place is awesome. An art gallery that serves food, sells goodies, and has expositions! It was such an interesting and amazing place to spend time.
Got here and got seated right away by a waitress all dolled up with a french maid costume. It was kind of crowded because there was this tea festival or something going on inside too. We ordered the Royal Milk Tea — High Tea Set ($ 19.50). This came with a bunch of little open face sandwiches, desserts, and a kobe beef burger. The presentation was really nice since it came in like a tier.
At the top was the kobe beef burger which was amazing. It was really juicy and the cheese was perfectly melted.
In the middle were the desserts. They had cookies, brownies, fruits, and cakes. They were all pretty good.
At the bottom were the open face sandwiches. They were pretty small but they were pretty good. The sandwiches were chicken, tuna tartare, smoked salmon, and egg salad. My favorite was the smoked salmon but overall they were all pretty good.
Also, we got the Royal Milk Tea (it comes with it). It was like drinking those boba milk teas but warm. It was really good! I was surprised about how good it was and how it completed the whole food tier.
Great place for an enjoyable meal. I definitely recommend this place for a date.

I want to go backkkk!!!
Came here around this time last year with the parents and it was just the most adorable place ever. Im sad I couldn’t try any of their food items on the menu but what everyone was eating looked extremely appetizing.
We sat down after a good half hour or more of perusing the art work displayed near the entrance. They’re little shop and Christmas décor was so cute and made for good pictures as well (the pictures make me smile whenever I look through my photo archives)
Anyway, all the servers were dressed up as cute little asian dolls. Our server was really patient with us because there were so many tea options on their menu. She narrowed it down for us and we ended up ordering a pot of the rose bud? tea. I posted a picture so you can go and check it. It was sooooo good. Not sure why it was so good to me but it was soooo good. haha I guess there’s not much else to say about it…
Afterwards, we digested a little before dinner by exploring the art exhibit in the back. The exhibit at the time was really clean and simple, I really liked it a lot and hope to go back some day. Love art exhibits!
Street parking was a little difficult but we made it and it was very much worth it.

I think my server took an extra dose of her happy meds today because I was welcomed with an overjoyed young lady. She makes «Disneyland-​happy» seem mundane. At first I was a little put off but it could be worse. I’d rather be around «happy» than «grumpy» or «bitchy.»
My super happy server was also super helpful. In ordering a Portobello Mushroom burger she went to the kitchen to find out the ingredients of the pesto aioli for me: garlic, olive oil, mayo… SCREECH! (sorry for you non-​vegans that were hoping to know the other ingrediets but I stopped listening at that point.) The super happy server also helped my indecisive-​Libra tendencies and suggested which fries to get. My final order: Portobello Mushroom Burger, no aioli, no cheese, and the Sweet Potato Fries.
While waiting for my food, I glanced around the room/​gallery. I was sitting next to this shopping bag display which cut intricate tiny trees and created a diorama. (see photo) Pretty cool.
When my burger came out, the proportion of the mushroom to the bun looked awkward. It wasn’t an abnormally large bun or an abnormally small mushroom. Just and observation. The burger also had red bell pepper, tomatoes, lettuce, and cucumber which tasted like they were picked in rice wine vinegar and sugar. At first bite I was starting to think I missed out on the specialness that is this burger by nixing the aioli and chesse. But over time i was noticing that the flavors mixed well. The bun was not as intimidating as I first thought too. I was diggin it.
Super happy server steered me right with the sweet potato fries too! Perfectly crispy outside and fluffy inside.
Overall, me likey. Big portions, reasonable price, helpful staff, cool/​chill atmosphere. Bonus points for the cute gift shop.