Royale Eatery
http://www.royaleeatery.com
273 Long Street
Cape Town, South Africa
While scouring the variosu social networks in which I choose to engage my fellow Burger lovers, I came across a tweet from my BurgerBro Mark. He had just posted a favorable comment about a Burger in Cape Town, South Africa called the “Fat Bastard.” I clicked, read, salivated over the picture and replied “could be the only time in my life I could ever say I wish I was in Africa right now eating a Burger.” I then went back about my day until I found a full review and photos of said Bastard in the form of an email. But before we get into Mark’s guest review, I’d like to qualify Mark’s opinion on food; this man hand built his very own backyard smoker just so he could have more ways to enjoy his meat.
THE CONQUEST
Royale Eatery is a nice little burger spot on the infamous Long Street in Cape Town, South Africa. Long street features all of the bars, pubs and clubs that one could ever imagine. Whether you’re a tourist, student, hipster or rugby hooligan, there is something on this street for you. The inside of Royale features a slew of different decor styles. Each room is slightly different yet the pleasant quaintness (is that a word?) of it all ties each room together. (go to the website to see great photos of the space) The wait staff was fantastic, and the service matched it.
If you happen across this establishment, I suggest you sit upstairs (the stairway is accessed from the sidewalk through the door next to the main entrance) and out on the balcony so that you can keep an eye on all of the goings on that is Long street.
Cape Town is apparently getting hip to the micro-brew revolution that seems to be sweeping America (and the world). They carry a selection of the Brewers & Union beers that are brewed in Cape Town just a few blocks over from Long street. I tried the Berne, Steph Weiss and Dark Lager. All are german-style / inspired and to be quite honest, I wouldn’t kick any of them out of bed even if they farted.
Of course a good burger is never to be enjoyed alone. I was accompanied by Versus the Wolf, a great Cape Town rock band, as well as my buds Ariel and Kyle. Everyone got different things but I settled for the Fat Bastard…
THE BURGER
Royale Eatery proudly advertises that their burgers and sauces are hand made each morning for the utmost freshness. They offer several different types of burgers with a slew of options for toppings and accompanyments, I settled for the Fat Bastard. The Fat Bastard is comprised of two, 150g beef patties, 2 eggs, double bacon and double cheese. It also came with some sort of sauce but I didn’t catch the name of it. I did, however, notice how delicious it was.
The burger was ordered medium and cooked perfectly to specification. My side was a mixture of potato and sweet potato chips (fries). The fries weren’t as crispy as I prefer, but who cares. The burger was fantastic. It took me about 5 minutes to scarf the entire sandwich mainly because i didn’t come up for air while eating. They used slices of American style pork belly bacon instead of the standard English-style rasher bacon. The eggs were over medium which made the burger less messy and the bun was lightly toasted.
Leave it to the American to get the biggest, baddest, burger on the menu. The flavor of the beef was really good. I hear that beef in SA is typically aged 21 days before going to the butcher but I cannot verify if that was the case with the beef used in my patty. One can only hope. It was tender, flavorful, juicy and enjoyed thoroughly.
Thumbs up South Africa, this is a burger to write home to mom about. Or Rev.
7 out of 10
