The Voyager of the Seas first maiden journey was in 1999. The ship then underwent extensive refurbishment in 2014. We had the pleasure of sailing on her during her 2015 Christmas cruise - 18 - 29 December 2015.
My husband and I have been to Chops Grille on other Royal Caribbean vessels and have been very impressed by their food and service. It has been more than 2 years since our last cruise and we were craving for Chops Grille's Fillet Mignon. This craving has definitely been heightened by all the very positive comments about Chops Grille on various Royal Caribbean's Facebook groups.
To maximise the "book ahead and get a % back" offer, we made 3 bookings to visit Chops Grille. (Do note that this offer has been replaced by the current offer.) Embarkation day - for dad's big birthday celebration, Christmas eve - just to celebrate and on the final day - for my birthday. The great thing about going back 3 times with a party of 6, was that we got to try most of their menu!
Setting
The restaurant is located on deck 11 aft, right next to the Windjammer buffet. There are floor to ceiling tinted windows giving you a great view out. This is a perfect place to watch a sail away if you want a quieter atmosphere.
The setting has a very plush theme. Heavy red velvet curtains line the window. The red theme continues with plush red velvet dining chairs and a long leather booth. Dining tables are of a deep oak brown colour with a woven place mat at each seat.
Food
Soups and Salads
The King Caesar - Romanie lettuce, reggiano cheese, not-so-crispy crutons creamy caesar dressing with optional caviar. Very fresh.
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| King Caesar |
Crispy Goat Cheese Salad - Crumbed and deep-fried goat cheese with thin slices of granny smith apple, radish, candied walnuts, cranberries on a bed of rocket, topped of with a balsamic vinegarette dressing. If you're worried that this cheese is going to be strong and "goaty"-pungent, rest assured this is a cream delight of a much milder variation.
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| Crispy Goat Cheese Salad |
Forest Mushroom Soup - Creamy mushroom soup, scented with white truffle oil.
Three Cheese Roasted Onion Soup - Melted gruyere, asiago and parmesan cheeses in a french onion soup. Ridiculously salty - close to inedible. Had to get the waited to get the chef to dilute the soup.
Signature Appetizers
Colossal Shrimp Cocktail – 3 enormous shrimps served cold with a chipotle, cucumber, tomato, lime dressing on the side. The name "colossal" did live up to the size expectations. It was huge! The shrimp was cooked perfectly, very fresh and the dressing was quite funky - cool, sour, spicy blast all at once.
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| Colossal Shrimp Cocktail |
Pan-roasted Jumbo Scallops – 3 pan-fried scallops served (no shell), topped with with a sprinkle of bacon, onion, apple, and hot
mustard jus. I'm a huge fan of scallops, and this was perfect to me. The scallops were cooked just right - not, as often, overcooked. And as the saying goes, "Every thing's better with bacon", and indeed it's true with this dish. The bacon brought a salty tone to the dish, making it a whole lot more flavoursome.
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| Pan-roasted Jumbo Scallops |
Charred Beef Carpaccio – 6 very finely shaved pieces of rare charred beef, parmesan cheese,
shaved asparagus, truffle mustard dressing. Taste wise this was good, but as the beef was shaved way too thinly, it was actually very hard to lift it off the plate without destroying the slice. Would be interesting to have it slightly thicker.
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| Charred Beef Carpaccio |
Dungess Crab and Shrimp Cake – Crab meat cake, crumbed coated and deep fried, served with a remoulade sauce. Good, but not fantastic.
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| Dungess Crab and Shrimp Cake |
Grilled Black Pepper Bacon – Slow-cooked Berkshire pork,
sweet and spicy glaze. This is really not your every day appetizer. The pork is mildly smoked, grilled, very juicy and tender. I highly recommend this dish as one to try if you want something different.
Meats and Poultry
All steaks came with an option of one of three sauces - Red wine jus, Pepper sauce or Bearnaise sauce.
Grilled Fillet Mignon - The Fillet Mignon is one of Chops' signature dishes. It comes in 2 sizes, petite at 6oz or the full size at 9oz. The meat is super tender, super juicy, super flavourful. A must order if you visit Chops. As the fillet is rather thick, you might like it slightly more done than normal. (I usually go for a medium rare, but medium here is fantastic.) If you were wanting to go "light" and opt for the 6oz option, I would suggest not. Go for the 9oz with the thicker steak and just eat less 2/3 of it. The thickness does change its taste.
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| Grilled Fillet Mignon |
Roasted Organic Chicken – Roast chicken with red onion jam, croissant stuffing and truffled chicken jus. The chicken was very dry. Disappointing - the main dining room offered better roast chicken.
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| Roasted Organic Chicken |
Dry-Aged steaks are available at an additional cost. These are cuts of steakhand selected from USDA prime beef raised in Iowa and Nebraska, then dry-aged in a climate-controlled room for nearly four weeks to achieve the pinnacle of flavor, tenderness, and aroma. This dry-aging process can only be found at select steakhouses worldwide, and now, in a cruise industry first in the Royal Caribbean fleet.
Dry-Aged NY Strip Steak 16oz ($18) - Bursting with a mature aged-flavour, the strip steak is a wonderful piece of meat. Unfortunately, the staff had a mix up in order and the steak came well done, so we had to return it. The second piece came back, but wasn't rested long enough, understandably. Lots of potential and could be better
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| Dry-Aged NY Strip Steak |
Dry-Aged Porterhouse Steak 20oz ($19) - Ordering this was an interesting lesson on different cuts of meat! When the Porterhouse arrived on the table, it came looking more like a T-bone steak. In Australia, what we call Porterhouse is the Strip section of the T-bone. Apparently an American Porterhouse steak is a T-bone, but with more tenderloin. The meat had good flavour, not as food as the Strip Steak, but very meat was very dry.
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| Dry-Aged Porterhouse Steak |
Roasted 1.5 lbs Maine Lobster ($21) - Huge lobster. Comes whole with head, tail and all its legs. This is possibly the only place on the ship where you can get the lobster whole. The lobster in the main dining room on formal "lobster" night normally comes only with the tail section. The lobster is absolutely delicious, juicy, and cooked perfectly.
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| Roasted Maine Lobster |
Sides
Gruyère Cheese Tater Tots - This is not your every day tater tot. This is a super sized version of a tater tot with rich creamy gruyère. It is crispy on the outside and hot and silky smooth on the inside. Delightful. For my Australian readers, tater tots are American for potato gem or jewels.
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| Gruyere Cheese Tater Tots (Potato gems) |
Creamed Spinach - My memories of American-style creamed spinach was from my late mother-in-law's kitchen. Spinach cooked from a can and cooked to a mush of green, and tasting like grass. This was NOT that. Thankfully. This creamed spinach still retained it fresh spinach taste.
Grilled Jumbo Asparagus - Grilled asparagus - not sure if it's really 'jumbo' but I was happy with it. Fresh greens, cooked al dente.
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| Grilled Jumbo Asparagus |
French Fries - French fries served with truffle oil. Didn't like this dish as the fries were soggy.
Truffled Corn - Corn with truffle oil. Good.
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| Truffled Corn |
Roasted Mushrooms - I'm not sure if this is actually 'roasted' - what's served looked more like pan fried sliced mushrooms. But despite the different labelling, it tasted great. Great earthy taste.
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| Roasted Mushrooms |
Mashed Potatoes - My family would say this mash potatoes can compete with the one I make at home. (Secret home formula!) It's great - very smooth and silky. I'm sure there's lots of that secret ingredient that most people don't want to know!
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| Mashed Potates |
Salt Baked Potato - Jacket potato served with sour cream and chives.
Sautéed Spinach - Fresh spinach sautéed al-dente with a sprinkle of salt. Yummy.
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| Sauteed Spinach |
Desserts
Chocolate Mud Pie - Served as a slice from the larger pie with a berry coulis side in a glass jar. This is a very dense, very rich chocolate pie. If you are craving chocolate, this slice will definitely fix that. This pie is pretty sweet - average for the Australian tooth, a little too sweet for the Asian.
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| Chocolate Mud Pie |
Liquid Centre Chocolate Cake - A small dome chocolate cake with warm gooey centre, served with coconut ice cream and
caramelized banana. This is a pretty good dessert, my only problem with it is the consistency - one day this has the gooey centre, the next it didn't have the gooey centre.
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| Liquid Centre Chocolate Cake |
Red Velvet Cake - Most of us know that this is probably not for kids, unless you want them hyperactive. This is a bright red cake with layers of cream cheese frosting. Tastes nice - although I admit I'm not a huge fan of red velvet.
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| Red Velvet Cake |
Huckleberry Cheesecake - Baked cheese cake on a crumbed crust with citrus and mountain huckleberry coulis. This is my favourite dessert of the lot. Mildly sweet, an a little tart from the berry coulis.
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| Huckleberry Cheesecake |
Ice-cream or Sherbet - Every evening there is a selection of ice-creams on offer, however there is only 1 flavour of sherbet per night.
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| Sherbet |
The Truffle - Frangelico, Stolichnaya vodka, espresso served cold.
Haute & Steamy - Absolut Vanilia vodka, Creme de Cacao
Dark Coffee, Whipped cream with caramel sauce drizzle. This drink is super smooth, rich and indulgent. Loved it.
Hot Shot Espresso - Patron XO Coffee, Baileys Double Shot of
espresso, Steamed milk
Bavarian Coffee - Peppermint Schnapps, Kahlúa, Coffee,
Whipped Cream
Cafe Grande - Tia Maria, Creme de Cacao Dark, Grand Marnier,
Coffee, Whipped Cream
Overall
The best main course is the Fillet Mignon in terms of price and flavour. I think it's totally worth if to visit Chops Grille at least once in on your cruise. If you are on a longer cruise (of more than 7 days), I will suggest to visit Chops not more than twice. This is because of the relatively small menu, and by the 3rd visit you'll run out of options on what to order. My suggestion to Royal Caribbean to improve on Chops is to have a special menu of 1-2 special mains every night.
We hope to visit Chops Grille again on our next cruise!
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