Built the same year as the Empress Hotel in Victoria, BC, the Royal Alexandra was considered the major railway "corporate" hotel in the west, whereas the Empress was designed more for tourism.

A large hotel, the Royal Alex contained 450 rooms (substantial for that period) including several luxury suites, and a multitude of large public rooms — of which the Café was the favourite banquet hall. Remarkably, this room was never modernized as so many other rooms had been over the years — it was maintained much as it had been built — with its grand space. It was referred to early on as the European Dining Room, to distinguish from the larger, more formal dining room, known as the Alexandra Room. In later years it carried other names such as the Oak Grill and the Selkirk Dining Room.