ADV: Lounge @ Royal Oak Review

When it comes to pubs & lounges, Kuching still lags a little behind the big cities.

KL has great pubs like Sid’s and Delaney’s. But in Kuching, there’s only a handful of pubs I’d feel comfortable hanging out at without being intimidated by rowdy hooligans.

Hey, I love a good beer as much as the next guy, but if a pub is filled with people who doesn’t not know how to drink responsibly, I’m outta there. But the new Royal Oak at Hills is a little different.

Lounge @ Royal Oak is a new pub/lounge/restaurant taking up prime location at the Hills Shopping Mall, next to Pullman Kuching. They’ve only opened for less than 2 months and already they’ve been getting rave reviews all over the place.

It’s a great place because it’s spacious, not cramped. Service is quick because they have a huge team of staff always running around. 

The owner of the place, Sperry Kong is a big fan of Irish pubs, circular bars and being environmentally-friendly. He made all these elements come together in his creation.

The centrepiece at Royal Oak is the bar made out of recycled bottles. Look closely at the bar top, and you’ll realise that it’s made out of 1 sen coins.

Up the stairs is a loft where the dining area is located.

I came here, famished, on a Friday night at 8pm. It was just before the party crowd flocked the place, so it’s still quite alright.

We asked the waitress for recommendations, and she suggested that we start with a plate of Royal Spring Rolls.

I thought the presentation was cute, but fried spring rolls aren’t my favourite stuff to eat in a pub. Instead, I highly recommend the Royal Grilled Chicken Wings.

You get your hands dirty peeling meat off the bones, but as a pub grub, nothing beats a great plate of piping hot chicken wings, especially when it’s grilled and dripping with hot marinade sauce. Mmm…!

For mains, my dining partner ordered Sirloin Steak. It was a little too well-done for her liking and they skimped on the gravy sauce so she didn’t quite enjoy it as much.

I ordered their Royal Alfredo Pasta for myself and totally loved it!

The prawns were fresh, the pasta was tender and the sauce were done just right. It smelt great when the waitress brought them in, and tasted even better when I put a spoonful in my mouth.

Royal Oak is a Guinness outlet and this St Patrick’s Day Festival, like all good Guinness outlets, they are embracing the Irish spirit down to the core.

There are two food promotions concurrently running.

 

The first promo is a packaged deal. Buy4 half-pints of Guinness Draught together with a platter of finger food, and pay just RM60 nett!

At Royal Oak, they served us lamb meat balls and chicken patties. Don’t be misled though, because these aren’t your usual run-of-the-mill finger food at the pub.

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These are specially crafted finger food infused with the essence of Guinness.

The best thing is, different outlets throughout Malaysia are serving different Guinness-infused finger food from now till end of March, so there’s always an opportunity to try something new.

The other promo is to drink a bucket of Guinness Stout or 3 pints of Guinness Draught, and they’ll throw in a luggage padlock for free.

Not quite sure what relevance padlocks have to Guinness, or St Patrick’s Day.

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Maybe they are suggesting you padlock your partner up and do all sorts of kinky stuff. I DON’T KNOW LAH.

The important thing is this: the annual Guinness St Patrick’s Day Festival is happening again! This time round it’ll be held at 1Utama this Friday 19 March from 6pm onwards. The highlight of the night is the live stand-up by Malaysi
a’s best comedians: Douglas Lim, Kuah Jenhan and others. More information can be found at . 

Too bad this year once again marks the third time in a row that I won’t be in Malaysia for St Patrick’s Day. 🙁

I’m not in Malaysia but in Los Angeles right now. Technically, I should be more excited ‘cos St Patrick’s Day is bigger in the US, right?

Well yes. But not when I have a 42km marathon race to run in a couple of days!

I won’t be drinking. Instead, please Do me a favour and raise a glass to Arthur.

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Happy St Patrick’s Day!

AD: This is interesting! The Singapore government is leveraging on social media by inviting people from all over the world to ask them anything they’d like to know about Singapore at http://www.sg/live, while real-life everyday people are invited to answer the questions posted. To drive publicity, the Singapore government is even throwing in a pair of free tickets to Singapore for both question-askers and answerers.

I posted a question too: “I travel to Singapore a lot, and what I want to know is, "Where can I find best-value accommodation under SGD$100 a night in Singapore?"

Check out what others have to say about my question here.

25 Replies to “ADV: Lounge @ Royal Oak Review”

  1. I agree with you Kenny…I love drinking and enjoying the environment but when come the so call “HU LEE GUN” it spoil the night..i would rather go away….Anyway Guinness Stout is a nice drink..Cheers..

  2. I don like Royal Oak, i been there on the opening day, they are so rude.. Hate Royal oak. I shouldn’t hate tat place lah, just the person in charge for tat day really terrible. Haih..

  3. Most new drinking establishments are Raves initially. Real test for survival is between first and second year.
    Truth is, Drinking and bit of Rowdy go together pansy. Alcohol more often promotes Ego and Agression.

  4. choose what you advertise for, bro. I don’t think you’re that desperate for money. That place sucks!

  5. its a simple nice place to chill for a more mature crowd. its got a great atmosphere and music.
    pass by, you obviously dont know how to appreciate the finer things in life and you obviously dont run with the better crowd. you’re right, RO is not cut out for people like you.

  6. guess u didnt understand my point. was happy to know tat u r still bitter ’bout tat incident. bcos only miserable cant let go of anything especially when they think they r super right. in which i think u were super wrong. (big smile)

  7. Dude let me tell you they have a royal oak pub at Jaya One, that place really sucks, the waiters cant speak english and we waited 1 and a half hours for our food. The manager couldnt even be bothered to come over and apologise. Pathetic service, lousy food, my first and last visit to a royal oak pub.

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