Royal Stacks, Chatswood

Prior to its grand opening, a lot of hype surrounded Royal Stacks with promos seen on Instagram and online so I was eager to visit and see what exactly was so great about this place.

Throne on Display Outside Restaurant (Prior to Grand Opening)

Realistically, their main drawcards are their burgers and frozen custards. The burger selection is reasonable with 8 options (or 9 if you include the off-the-menu McDowell burger) including one vegetarian option. Available sides include fries or potato gems with optional cheesy sauce. Regarding their frozen custards, they have quite a selection of flavours ranging from the good old plain vanilla to the fluoro-blue cookie dough (reminiscent of the Cookie Monster).

Originally the plan was to visit on their grand opening day (31st Aug 2016) but due to last minute plans, I had to postpone to the next day. As my dinner companion, Charmander, was arriving late from work, I decided to scout out the restaurant and take the prerequisite pictures.

Queue Outside Restaurant

However part way through my photo-taking, I noticed that the queue had been cut off by barricades. Upon consultation with staff, it turned out they blocked off the queue to allow for the kitchen to "take a break for 5-10min" - READ: they needed time to catch up on orders and clear customers. The wait ended up closer to (and exceeding) 25min so customers were clustered outside the barricades and forming their own line... As compensation, they handed out up to a dozen frozen custard samples to those near the front of the line - however by the time it reached me (boo to those that pushed into the line!), there was only the Banana Split flavour left, which I declined (sorry, but the banana flavour does not cut it for me). In the end, the customers at the front of the impromptu queue got impatient, removed the barrier and walked up to the counter after the given estimated wait time was up.

Whilst waiting in line to order, we were given the option to taste-test their frozen custards so I sampled their swirled nutella flavour - sweet custard flavour with nutella swirl. The custards didn't look that "frozen" - it was suspended in a state I personally call a"potential dairy hazard" as it's not quite frozen but not quite melted so it had the potential to cause a bad stomach.

Front Counter

Frozen Custards
(Blue Cookie Dough; Banana Split; Salted Caramel;
Vanilla; Ferraro; Chocolate; Nutella Swirl; Oreo)

After placing our orders, Charmander and I sat at the remaining free table off to the side of the front counter/kitchen:

Seating Area

Interestingly, they installed booth chairs within a small rectangular seating area off to the side of the front counter, which I thought was poor design. The booth seats took up considerable room and made the tables (and additional seating) arrangements rather awkward, especially when you involve large groups of people sitting together.

After a short wait, the buzzers went off and we finally got to pick up our orders from the pick-up counter:

Miss Elizabeth (top) and The King (bottom) Burgers with a Small Potato Gems

The Miss Elizabeth burger ($11.50) was small and resembled a glorified cheeseburger with a single meat patty, Swiss cheese and truffle mayo. Charmander also ordered a side of small potato gems ($3.90), which were deemed too salty - the potato gems were pre-seasoned before frying but then additional salt was sprinkled on top, causing a salt overload.

Potato Gems (S: $3.90; L: $6.70)

On the other hand, I ordered The King burger, which was significantly larger (I wasn't sure just how big the burger would be so I didn't order any sides):

The King Burger ($14.80) - Single Beef Patty, Tomato, Butter Lettuce,
Mac&Cheese Croquette, American Mustard and Special Burger Sauce

Okay, there's not really a civilised way to eat this burger when the burger is too tall to fit in your mouth... The beef patty was rather thin and practically hidden under the special burger sauce - well eclipsed by the thick mac&cheese croquette, which was very cheesy and basically took up almost half the burger. Surprisingly, the mac&cheese stayed in one piece. I still don't get this single-layer-of-leafy-greens business...

Cross Section of The King Burger (i.e. Half Eaten)

Overall, the burger was slightly salty (because of the cheesy goodness) but otherwise a decent burger to try.

Royal Stacks is located opposite Hurricanes (Myer side) on level 3 of Chatswood Westfield. Location wise, it's convenient to get to if you're in the vicinity for shopping.

But the real question is - is it worth the wait and hype?