Wayne H.
Yelp
We were in town on business and met up with a friend here. I didn't realize it was in the Langham hotel, and yes, I should've known better, but this place is quite dressy. Even with nice jeans, a button-down shirt, and nice sneakers, I felt pretty underdressed.
While waiting for our friend, we decided to start with a couple of negronis. We weren't asked about type of gin we wanted but it didn't taste like anything top shelf - my guess is Bombay Sapphire or Tanqueray and the sweet vermouth tasted like something lower end, like Martini Rosso. Again, not a super luxurious negroni, but it did the job. When we got the check at the end, though, we were surprised by the $25 price tag(!), though.
Once our friend arrived, we ordered a couple of starters to share and a prime bone-in ribeye to share while our friend opted for the NY strip. We also ordered a couple of sides to share.
The service here is great, but it did feel a little slow that night. I'm not sure if they were understaffed - it was the day before New Years Eve, so maybe a bunch of people were off. However, when we asked for things, they came promptly - we just wish we saw the server a little more often, especially to top off water and things like that.
We started with a large Caesar salad to share and our friend also got the lobster bisque. Both were really good and I really enjoyed the Caesar salad a lot, though it's a VERY large portion. If you ate that before your steak, you'd likely not be able to enjoy your steak very much.
The steaks came out and the temps were absolutely perfect, which is to be expected for a steakhouse. The bone-in ribeye is such a huge cut that the two of us that shared it could barely finish it. In fact, if we were driving home afterwards, we would've taken a couple pieces home to eat in the morning with some eggs, but since we were staying in a hotel, we just slowly finished it as we had nowhere to store it or reheat it later. The steaks were tender and juicy, and had been trimmed perfectly to leave just the right amount of fat around the cut without it being overly chewy and fatty. None of us really got any wood-fired flavor in our steak, which was a bit of a disappointment given the name.
To go with the steaks, we had the roasted wild mushrooms and duck fat fries. The mushrooms were killer - if you like mushrooms, you should absolutely get this as a side. The fries were good - not quite as crisp as we would've liked, but nice a creamy inside and their aioli was good as well.
Overall, the meal was great. All in, the meal was nearly $800 though, including the $25 negronis (x 2), a bottle of still water ($20 - lol), a bottle of wine, and our food. Quite pricey, even by Southern California standards. Given the price, it would only be appropriate for us for celebrations, but in terms of steakhouses, there are many options in the area that I'm sure are a bit more affordable than The Royce.