An old boozer on the south coast is the latest branch of a thriving family tree of gastropubs
The Royal, 1 St Johns Road, St Leonards-on-Sea TN37 6HP (01424 547 797). Starters £5-£9, mains £12-£17, desserts £5, wines from £18. From September, The Royal is going to be open from Tuesday-Saturday for dinner and Wednesday-Sunday for lunch
Imagine you could DNA test the recently reopened Royal in St Leonards on the East Sussex coast. Perhaps you’d start by taking a sliver off the dark polished bar and mix that with a dollop of their sweet, lubricious pork rillette. Add a few of the borlotti beans off the monkfish dish. Blitz it with some of the mirabelle tart with crème fraîche. Dissolve the sample in a solution, ideally a mixture of crémant and Italian merlot, before spinning it through a centrifuge until the unique gastronomic genome revealed itself. I can tell you exactly what you’d find: that this venture is but the latest branch in a delicious restaurant family tree stretching back almost 30 years.
The meringues come with strawberries and cream, because it is the law that they must
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