At long last we have a pub in Silverdale that serves decent food. The Royal has been extensively refurbished over the past 18 months by the local Holgates family who own the nearby caravan park. This is a great location in the centre of the village and no expense has been spared with either the furniture and quality of the interior nor with the staff and experience of those running it.
I visited on the opening night when you would expect things to not run to smoothly but that wasn't the case. Excellent attentive staff, great bar staff with a friendly smile and the food was superb. This is quality pub food, simple but extremely well cooked and presented and very tasty.
The pub isn't massive and after a week of being opened I would definitely recommend booking a table as both locals, visiting walkers and local caravan tourists descend on mass. The ground floor is a really nice room, plenty of comfortable seats and tables in a kind of shabby chic style. They have 4-5 bench tables in a small enclosed outside space and also a long covered veranda where you can sit with a drink and watch everyone walk past. Very pleasant bar with a selection of local real ale and also very nice coffee and tea with homemade scones and cakes. Apparently they also do a tasty breakfast and again I have seen people early in the morning enjoying a coffee and cake.
Upstairs is the main dining room although you can watch throughout the pub, the whole place is exposed stone, wood burning stoves etc but upstairs also has the exposed roof beams and it really is very pleasant.
Overall, in Silverdale we currently have the Woodlands pub which is a local institution serving fantastic beer. The Silverdale hotel which has been awful for 2-3 years now and which I am not confident will ever return to anything like it should be and then we also have the Wolfhouse which is a cafe on the outskirts of Silverdale. Finally we have the excellent Cinnamon Indian restaurant opposite the Royal which means we can have a pint and then amble over for our curry.
The Royal is just what we have needed and I am sure it will get busier as the quality of the place gets out, it really does allow visitors to stop in Silverdale rather than pass through on their way to finding somewhere for a spot of lunch or dinner. Well done to the Holgates, it feels like a local pub as well so great job done.