Now these are a strong/smart female characters!

Surprisingly, this drama went better with each episodes instead of worse.
The plot is pretty simple and conventional, goes through a bunch of tropes and the beginning is really predictable.
But the strength of this drama is really in the characters.

Ok, let's get it out of the way: Chang Le is a total Mary Sue: unbeatable fighting skills, can pick any lock, but also outwits people on palace etiquette while not even being a noble, knows how to play music, really smart, there is nothing she can't do. Except picking her makeup apparently because gosh that lipgloss was distracting in a historical setting (there's even a scene where Li Che gets a visible stain on his cheek x) ).
But all the other female characters were amazing: strong, smart, kind, nuanced. No cat fight over a man. The mini love triangle is never really one; I've been waiting for so long for a foreign princess rival that actually helps the main couple instead of trying to tear them apart! In this drama the men are actually the damsels in distress, such a refreshing change. Even Zhu Yan who is not the fighty type has her strength with her wisdom, kindness and common sense. This drama shows that (female) characters can be smart, figure out the evil plot without being kept in the dark for 20 episodes AND still be interesting.

There are 3 couples and romance was actually disappointing for me. The main couple went from friendly arranged spouses suspecting each other to life-death lovers in the span of one episode that was super dark and dramatic for no good reason and out of nowhere. No real romantic progression and I didn't feel the chemistry. I couldn't take the amount of cheesiness of their relationship at the end.
Zhu Yan and the 5th prince were your typical Romeo and Juliet tragic lovers from enemy families which is ok, just not my cup of tea and gosh they were overall naive, soppy and stuffy.
Nong Ying's character was great, nuanced, never black nor white, capable but not perfect, but her romance with Gong Sun Mo felt forced and would have better been brought up more gradually.

The OST was ok, I really liked the more modern song by Eleanor but the others didn't really stand out.

TL;DR: no groundbreaking plot nor amazing romance and chemistry but really refreshing change in female characters depiction.

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So much potential and yet...

I got pulled by the ratings but wasn't convinced at all by this drama.
Maybe as a filler no-brainer drama this does the trick.

The concept was really appealing, no palace intrigue, a pirate king and a super-heroin wannabe, there was so much potential to do something new there... but no.

I was on the fence about the FL at first but by the end of the drama I gave up on her. Her character is so poorly written, it's borderline split personality. She's supposed to be brave, clever, heroic and yet she ends up acting like a child, throwing tantrums and being over the top "cute" to manipulate the ML. Why couldn't she be like Chu Jie, a bit cold but at least with some maturity and consistency? Her skills are all over the place too, she's clueless in combat, next scene she fights with a sword and then again clueless and easily captured.

I agree with other reviewers that poor ML is carrying the entire story. The actor is doing a great job and it's like the same amount of effort was put in writing his character as it was the entire rest of the cast combined. Supporting characters were either cruelly unexplored or cliché after cliché.

The pace of the romance development is very off and all over the place. From hate to love very abruptly is one thing but later in the episodes they go back to bickering, wooing / hard to get as if they just met while they already confessed and are already married!

Plot-wise, all over the place again. There is like 2 subplots and it feels like a second season starting episode 15. It would have been better to drop the subplot with Zhao Yuan Ming and keep a more cohesive story.
I started ignoring all plot holes otherwise that would have been unwatchable, a lot of actions and events make no sense and their outcome even less.

I've seen warnings about the drama being low budget, I usually don't care, costumes and decors were fine. However they really should have saved the money for proper editors and sound technicians, instead of spending it on useless CGIed wolves.
The OST is very forgetable.

If you're looking for a good historical, non palace drama, with bandit boss ML and smart capable FL, with a hate to love and forced marriage romance, I highly recommend Cinderella Chef instead, which does all that much better than the Romance of Hua Rong.

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Best Chinese drama I've watched so far

I've mainly watched isekai romance Chinese dramas and this is by far the best I've encountered, the watch lived up the hype for me.
Really funny but also very clever plot and twists. The plot follows some typical pattern to an extend but also makes fun of some common drama tropes.
The whole concept of the matriarchal vs patriarchal cities was an unexpected setting and never fell into oversimplifications or feminist caricatures: simply a clever way to say that inequality is wrong, no matter who gets the shorter straw.
The first half is mainly comedy, the second half takes a more "serious" turn but still doesn't fall into tragic melodrama like most historical C-dramas do. My only qualm with this drama is the turn at episode 18-19, which if necessary could have been handled in a more progressive or more logical way.
In terms of acting, Rosy Zhao is amazing, I had only seen her in Cinderella Chef where her role couldn't be further than in TROTAR and I am so impressed by her Chen Xiao Qian. I'm a bit more reserved about Ryan Ding's performance as I found Han Shuo's character was sometimes out of tune when expressing emotions.
I was obsessed with the OST, another good point for a drama that was otherwise already marvelous.
I never rewatch dramas but I think this one would be worthy of an exception.
Now I'm sad because 1. the drama is over and 2. I'm scared I'll never find a drama that good x)

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Interesting and original setting, not fully exploited

This drama was an original mix of things which could be summarized as "good ideas, not always good execution".
You know these bags of cookies where they are good enough to keep you munching but not good enough to make you want to save or savour them? This drama is like that.

Genres
Romance: I wanted to watch this drama mainly for the romance. Well, I would say don't come for this. The main couple's relationship is almost not developed for the first 20 episodes. There is no meaningful kiss until episode 42! Their relationship goes from nonexistent to deep and dramatic almost overnight, no real flirty infatuation phase. In the later part of the drama it's more of an old married couple dynamic with tacit understanding.
Bromance: this one wasn't expected but the relationship between Xia Chun Yu and Bai Chong Ye is complex and well brought on screen. I found it more interesting than the romance.
Time travelling: as everyone already said, bonus point for avoiding landing in the royal palace for once. The setting in an organized bandit gang was an interesting change.
Ye JiaYao doesn't really try to fit in which is in a way more realistic than other time travelling drama. She also brought some kind of feminist values to the past which was a pleasant surprise.
History: I'm not an expert in Chinese history but I'm pretty sure this drama is all over the place in terms of historical accuracy, it doesn't look tied nor faithful to any specific period. It's not coherent in the social organization either: in similar situations, women are left unscathed because everyone is nice, while in other similar cases there is rape because the past was ugly. Same for punishments, they can be super light and silly or completely over the top and violent for similar crimes.
Food: it didn't occur to me to consider this a food drama despite the title x) it's definitely not the main focus although it gets more attention in the second half of the drama.

Sets and costumes
It's historically all over the place and some people complained about how random and inaccurate the costumes are. If you look at it as a fashion exercise for "fusion" style, this is actually quite good. The bandit leaders have badass-historical hybrid uniforms while Ye JiaYao wears modern interpretation of traditional dresses (I loved that purple dress she wore for a good third of the drama!).
The sets are good but not breathtaking. There is a bit of Chinese steampunk here and there when they try to create flying machines or substitutes of kitchen appliances.

Story
As I said, the romance aspect is not this drama's forte especially in the first half. However the bandit organization intrigues were more captivating than expected. It had some political tint but with avoiding the whole woman plotting under protocol typical of palace dramas… until the second half of the drama where it turned into that :(
I don't know if it was the official intend but this drama is really split into 2 seasons of 28 episodes each. The first half is more self contained with one main story line and set of characters. The second season has multiple successive story lines and somewhat one underlying thread to tie the entire drama together and come to an end. Both seasons have entirely different casts save the main couple and Prince Yu. Even if the second season has endearing new characters, it's a bit hard to part with the cast of the first half after growing attached to them over 28 episodes. The 2 seasons are almost independent but some elements of the second season explain what was left unresolved in the first season and you can see what was planted from the start that you didn't notice. The second season has more cliche and unnecessary parts. Essentially everything connected to Liu Li doesn't bring anything to the overall story and is just there to frustrate the viewer x)

Characters
Ye JiaYao can look superficial and childish at the beginning of the drama and her strengths are only revealed later. She is actually way smarter than she looks, is resourceful and brave. She is not a damsel in distress and is often actually the one saving others. I don't think I've ever seen a female character standing her ground and her independence like that in a drama. She is also not swayed head over heels for the male lead and keeps some common sense (beginning of season 2).
Xia Chun Yu is a total male Mary Sue (or whatever the male equivalent is called). Intelligent, cunning, charming, handsome, unbeatable warrior, never dies from any injury and recovers from pierced organs overnight… He was too perfect to show much depth of emotion even if we can see him navigate his grief and remorse for his actions throughout the drama.
Bai Chong Ye was the most interesting character, playing a lot of mind games with everyone to protect his clan, his family and himself as a bandit boss. His personality was nuanced between his criminal background and his accountability as the head of the fortress with people's lives depending on him. You can also see some glimpse of self-consciousness of his commoner social background despite him being well educated.
Prince Yu is another complex character who would have deserved more exposure in the first season and more nuances in the second season. He was too easily caricatured near the end while they had managed to make him an ambiguous villain already.
I won't do the whole cast but just a quick mention for Ding Qi for whom the second lead syndrome was dangerously strong. It's a shame his character was discarded in a quick black and white way, there was definitely something to do here by bringing his changes over more episodes.

Overall
Really interesting mix in an original setting. It was not fully used to its full potential and the in-law family drama part was completely unnecessary. It would have been better to tie the whole drama together in one shorter season of 35-40 episodes instead of doing this weird unequal 2-season split.

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