Royal City Restaurant & Tavern is a weeknight-dinner answer first and a sit-down restaurant second — a broad, low-priced Chinese-Canadian menu in Guelph that most tables meet through a takeout bag rather than a chair. It stretches from Cantonese chow mein to a Western sandwich, built for family orders, weekend pickup, and the night when nobody wants to cook. The name is borrowed honestly: Guelph has long answered to the nickname the Royal City, and the kitchen at the north end of Edinburgh Road took the title for its own. It keeps the same hours every day of the week, eleven in the morning to nine at night, holidays included.
The cooking is Cantonese-Canadian comfort food, the canon a generation of Ontario grew up ordering. Cantonese Chow Mein anchors the noodle side; Sweet & Sour Chicken Balls arrive breaded and lacquered in bright red sauce; General Tao's Chicken carries the sweet-hot register that disappears first from a shared table. Behind them runs a deep bench: Chicken Fried Rice and the house Royal's Fried Rice, Jar Doo Chicken Wings, honey garlic spareribs, beef with broccoli, Singapore chow foon, wonton soup, and sharper Szechuan and Gung Bo plates for anyone who wants heat set against the milder picks. Portions are built for sharing and for leftovers. Price is the through-line: an Egg Roll still goes for two dollars, a combination plate runs ten, and most mains land between nine and fifteen.
Low posted prices, $10 combination plates, and the $33.99 dinner-for-four bundle make value the most obvious reason to choose Royal City.
The current menu covers appetizers, chow mein, fried rice, sweet and sour dishes, Cantonese favourites, Szechuan dishes, soups, seafood, and Canadian plates.
The official site is organized around online ordering and pickup, which fits Royal City's practical weeknight and family-order appeal.
Royal City's biggest strength is simple value: $10 combination plates, a $33.99 dinner for four, low appetizer prices, and a menu built for filling comfort-food orders without stretching the bill.
The menu is classic Chinese-Canadian comfort food: chow mein, fried rice, chicken balls, egg rolls, wings, spareribs, soups, Szechuan dishes, and Canadian plates. It is familiar by design.
First-timers have three clear anchors: Cantonese Chow Mein for the classic noodle order, Sweet & Sour Chicken Balls for the familiar favourite, and Special Dinner for 4 when the meal needs to feed a group.
The official site is set up around online ordering and pickup, with a visible pickup path and a short quoted wait time. Royal City is especially practical when the plan is a quick comfort-food order at home.
Combination plates, the dinner-for-four bundle, fried rice, chow mein, chicken balls, egg rolls, wings, spareribs, and Canadian dishes make it easy to build one shared order for mixed appetites.
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