It’s time to take a look at another “Steakhouse at Sea,” this time we cruise into Chops Grille which is featured on just about every Royal Caribbean cruise ship with a few exceptions.
Like most steakhouses on land, Chops Grille is a dark wood, white tablecloth restaurant that features prime beef, seafood, and chicken. Because it’s one of the ship’s speciality restaurants, dinner at Chops Grille is not included in your cruise fare. Dinner here will cost between $35 – $39 per person depending on the ship, and for the most part, reservations are required and should be made in advance of your cruise.
Whether you’re looking to celebrate a special occasion, treat your significant other to a “date night,” or gather the family for a dinner, Chops is the place to go. It’s usually the most popular of all the speciality restaurants onboard!
I’ve had the opportunity to dine at Chops Grill on Allure of the Seas, Independence of the Seas, and Quantum of the Seas. The menu is pretty much the same across the fleet, but in my experience the quality and preparation varied quite a bit between ships.
Let’s start off with the soup and salad. The classic steakhouse favorites, Caesar Salad and French Onion Soup, are of course on the menu – after all what would a steakhouse be like without them!
If you want to skip over soup and salad and move into appetizers, there are several to choose from – including bacon! Yes, bacon! For those who thought that the only place you were going to find bacon on the ship was at the Windjammer at breakfast or on top of a Johnny Rockets burger, think again. But this isn’t ordinary bacon. This is thick cut, slow cooked Berkshire pork with a black pepper crust and a sweet and spicy glaze which makes it so good.
Other appetizer selections include yet another steakhouse staple, the shrimp cocktail, as well as scallops, crab cakes and even some beef carpaccio.
Once the starters are out of the way, it’s time to move on to the main event… the entrees. At Royal Caribbean’s Chops Grille, there’s no shortage of steaks. If you’re in the mood for beef, you can choose a filet mignon, New York Strip, slow braised short ribs, or a veal chop. Want to kick your beef up a notch? For an additional charge on top of the regular per-person surcharge, Chops Grille offers dry-aged, USDA prime beef raised in Iowa and Nebraska, in the form of either a New York strip or a porterhouse.
In the mood for seafood? Shrimp, tuna and a branzino is on the menu along with a roasted 1 ¼ lb Maine Lobster (additional charge for the lobster). There’s also a roasted chicken breast available.
Side dishes in a steakhouse are just important as the entree and there’s no shortage of them at Chops. Potatoes come as fries, croquettes, mashed or baked, while veggies including asparagus, mushrooms, spinach and corn round out the selection. I recommend ordering a few sides for the table as they are enough to share with everyone.
If you managed to save room for dessert, there’s a few things for you to dive into such as a Chocolate Mud Pie, Liquid Center Chocolate or Red Velvet Cake, cheesecake, or just some cookies and ice cream.
So let’s talk about the food itself.
I have mixed feelings about Chops Grille. On Independence of the Seas my fiancee and I had our entrees cooked above the temperature we asked for on both nights we dined there and service one evening wasn’t the best. However, the entrees would have been delicious had they been cooked the way we ordered them. You can read more in-depth about that experience here and here.
While on Quantum of the Seas, I had a similar experience with my rare filet being cooked a bit too much, but I wasn’t as critical of Chops Grille during that cruise which you can read about here.
Overall, I would rate Chops Grille on Royal Caribbean as an average steakhouse. It’s not one of my favorite cruise line speciality restaurants but does offer up an overall good experience and a nice diversion from the main dining room steak and seafood offerings. I wouldn’t shy away from dining there on future cruises and of course, the service and preparation is going to be different from ship to ship and from day to day.
I’d love to hear your thoughts about Chops! Be sure to leave a comment and tell me about your experience. In the mean time, be sure to read about other Steakhouses at Sea including the Pinnacle Grill on Holland America Line and Eataly Steakhouse on MSC Divina.