“Be yourself. Everyone else is taken.”
That’s the mantra at The Royale Magnificent Burgers, a quirky-cool new concept that opened here early this year. On the back wall, a row of clocks is labeled with off-the-beaten-path locales, including a missing clock labeled “Bermuda Triangle.” A bangle of hearty onion rings adorns a giraffe’s neck. Lampshades ensconced in birdcages hang above the booths and an upside-down umbrella dangles near the door.
You get the picture. It’s refreshingly different at The Royale, a place with a little something unique for everyone.
Directed by the well-seasoned teams of Apheleia Restaurant Group and PlanB Group, the design and ambience of the restaurant have been meticulously crafted from ideation to reality. The breezy, whimsical Wes Anderson-inspired theme is carried throughout the menu and décor, with surprising details at every turn.
The menu is predominantly American with worldly accents. For each dish offered, there is an experience the owners want to share with customers – a story to tell. In the quest to find the perfect preparation style for French fries in poutine, for example, the owners took an R&D trip to Peru.
The Incas of Peru were the first to cultivate potatoes around 8,000 BC to 5,000 BC. “We wanted to see what the process of cooking a French fry was from their perspective,” said Brady Urrunaga, The Royale’s opening general manager. After blanching them in salt water for a full day, potatoes are fried at a low temperature, chilled and then fried again at a high temperature to achieve perfect crispiness. “Longer process. Tastier product,” Brady explained.
And tasty it is indeed. Although it is traditionally known as a Canadian dish, The Royale has put a new spin on poutine that is sure to make it an instant favorite for even a native Texan. The Queso Poutine is made up of house cut fries, tomatillo salsa, Royale queso, cilantro pesto, taco-flavored cheese curds and roasted jalapeños. If this doesn’t do it for you, perhaps the Classic Poutine will.
After devouring a favorite app or salad, entrees come served on a silver platter, a fancy complement to a vast array of burgers. The team at The Royale truly offers a burger for every personality. Diners can choose from seared tuna, turkey, chicken, shrimp, lobster, veggie and wagyu beef.
In the quest to create the perfect burger, the team decided to partner with A Bar N, a local wagyu ranch. “We were drawn to both the flavor profile and health benefits of wagyu and so we decided to use the wagyu in all our burgers,” said Richard Ellman, co-owner of Apheleia Restaurant Group. “We are definitely one of the only, if not the only, burger concepts that has a variety of burgers all of which are wagyu,” he added.
If burgers are stars of the show at The Royale, milkshakes are the love interest. Stunningly garnished and crafted at their DJ-Booth-style milkshake station, these sweet creations deserve every bit of their rock-star status. A boozy upgrade for shakes is also available for the adventurous.
Nestled adjacent to the movie theater at Parker and the Dallas North Tollway, it is perhaps no accident that the restaurant is rich with cinematic flair. When the curtain is drawn, but you’re not quite ready for the movie to end, head over to The Royale for an encore of your own making.
The Royale Website > [codepeople-post-map]
