Royal Caribbean Cruise: Chops Grille

Chops Grille is an American steakhouse restaurant we ate at during our Royal Caribbean cruise on the Quantum of the Seas. It is a specialty restaurant, so it’s not included in your basic cruise fare, but since we had the unlimited dining package, we checked this place out for lunch and dinner.

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Interior

Chops Grille was kind of hidden on the fourth floor compared to the other dining restaurants I’ve been to. It had actual walls (unlike Izumi lol) and really felt like we were entering a restaurant even though it’s just another space inside the ship. The interior is classy with leather seats and large tables for group dining.

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Food

Most of their items are available lunch and dinner, with the exception of bigger cuts like the prime rib is only available during dinner service.

This is the free bread that is served in the beginning of your meal. I quite liked the pretzel twist as it had more flavour being salted. I also appreciated that the butter was already soft, unlike in the main dining hall.

Charred beef carpaccio

For my lunch appetizer, I selected the beef carpaccio. It is rare charred beef with parmesan cheese, arugula, and a truffle mustard dressing. Pretty simple and nice plating, I liked that the plate itself had an indent for sauces. The carpaccio is sliced very thinly.

Wild mushroom soup

For my boyfriend’s lunch appie, he chose the mushroom soup. It is scented with white truffle oil and chives. We quite liked the mushroom soup as we could taste the subtleness of the truffle and it was soothing to our hearts.

Tuna tartare

For our dinner appetizer, I chose the tuna tartare, which is kind of a gamble because by day 10 on our cruise, we have already figured out that sashimi (tuna or salmon) on the cruise is questionable and undoubtedly not as delicious as the sashimi we get in Vancouver.

Anyways, it is served in a cute little cake form with avocado, ginger and wasabi caviar. The tuna tartare was ok.

Lobster bisque

Since we liked the mushroom soup from lunch time, we were excited to have the lobster bisque (one of our favourite soups!). Inside it also has Brandy and tarragon cream. Unfortunately, we both found the lobster bisque to be really salty and did not enjoy it as much as the mushroom soup.

Filet

During lunch, my boyfriend ordered the filet – 9 ounces of their most tender cut of lean, midwestern beef. For sauce pairing, you can select between one of the 3: homemade Chops steak sauce, Béarnaise, au Poivre or Bordelaise.

My boyfriend did enjoy his steak but one thing to note is that we always tell the servers that we want our steak rare when we actually want it to be medium-rare. This is because we notice that if we actually ask for it to be medium rare, it comes out medium. Whereas if we ask for it rare, it comes out medium-rare. Not sure why that is that they can’t get it correctly, but even at Chops Grille, which is a steakhouse, we found this to be the case.

Petite filet

For my dinner entree, I got the petite filet, which is identical to the filet except that it is smaller at 6 ounces. I am not a big fan of steak so I feel like this is actually wasted on me. Even 6 ounces felt too much for me.

Grilled Atlantic salmon

For my lunch entree, I had ordered the salmon because I prefer seafood over steak. Chops Grille has a selection of seafood such as branzino, jumbo shrimp or lobster (costs additional).

The salmon is quite a large serving! It was soft and flaky so I enjoyed it, as well as the whole grain mustard sauce it is paired with.

Prime bone-in rib eye

The prime bone-in rib eye is only available during dinner service and many of us ordered it as it was the best bang for your buck. The serving is a USDA prime 16 oz. bone-in cut, well marbled for peak flavour and deliciously juicy. It is a huge slab of meat to eat for one person but yummy!

Gruyere cheese tater tots, mac & cheese, asparagus

For our sides, we chose asparagus, cheese tater tots and mac & cheese. I really liked the cheese tater tots because they were big and fluffy inside like a gnocchi. Asparagus was called “jumbo” on the menu, but they looked really skinny to me lol, and also a little under seasoned.

Key lime pie

For dessert I had the key lime pie with meringue on it. It was sour and not a bad choice after a heavy meat meal, but I still couldn’t finish it. The overall taste of it was just average.

Chocolate lava cake

My boyfriend chose the chocolate lava cake, which is a classic dessert. The warm chocolate did come spilling out after we cut it so that was good. Tasted nice with the vanilla ice cream and crumble, but overall was too sweet for us.

Apple pie

I also tried their apple pie dessert and wasn’t too impressed by it. The pie crust wasn’t flaky and was separated from the apple filling. Overall it tasted like it was “1 day old” apple pie.

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Final thoughts

Loewe’s rating: ⭐⭐⭐

This post wraps up all of the 4 specialty restaurants we ate on The Royal Caribbean. Out of the 4, I think Chops Grille is the best bang for your buck because you have lots of steak and meat options. In terms of steak, I do believe they are better than the regular dining hall on the ship so if you are a steak lover, give Chops Grille a try when you are on The Royal Caribbean.

If you are not a big fan of red meats like me, I say coming once or twice would be enough as I really can’t go about my day eating 3 courses for lunch and also dinner lol. Most of their seafood options have additional costs to it even if you have the dining package, so that was too bad.

Sincerely, Loewe