Royal Caribbean Cruise: Jamie’s Italian
Jamie’s Italian is an Italian restaurant by celebrity chef, Jamie Oliver. I’m not sure if they have locations elsewhere since I have not seen any in Vancouver, but they do have locations on the Royal Caribbean cruise line as one of their specialty restaurants. And since we got the specialty dining pass for our 10 day cruise with Royal Caribbean, we ate at Jamie’s Italian several times and actually tried almost everything on their menu.
Interior
The interior of Jamie’s Italian is quite nautical. They had booth seating, large circular dining tables and small tables. They even have a fake little patio outside (since this restaurant is located inside the boat, it doesn’t actually have a real patio facing the waters).
Food
Their lunch and dinner menu is almost the same, except that the dinner menu has a few more dishes in the main section. Please note that since we have the specialty dining package, everything we ate here was free so I will not be including any prices.
Famous meat plank
In our first group dinner at Jamie’s Italian, we ordered their famous meat plank, which our server informed us would feed 6 people. The platter includes San Daniele prosciutto, Tuscan fennel salami, ’Nduja Artisans coppa piccante & pistachio, mortadella with tomato crostini, bocconcini mozzarella, pecorino Sardo & chilli jam, focaccia and some olives & pickles.
Presentation was beautiful and my favourite items were the little cheese triangles and the mortadella with tomato crostini. A great appetizer to share with impact and goes with a lot of wine pairings too.
Creamy burrata
Y’all know we love our burrata! We ordered this for lunch one day and was pleasantly surprised at how much burrata they give you. It is served with slow-roasted tomatoes, carta di musica and arugula. Personally I would have preferred a different carb pairing than the carta di musica because it is very thin and not that flavourful, but at least it didn’t break like I thought it would with the cheese on top.
Crispy squid
Another one of our favourite appetizers – fried squid! The serving is small but perfect for 2 adults, they include squid tentacles and full little baby squids, fried and served with lemon and garlic mayo.
Black truffle arancini
So far, Jamie’s Italian appetizers are hitting it out of the park because we also really like arancini. They are kinda like little deep fried risotto balls. These ones have crispy black truffle and mozzaerlla inside and a truffled Béchamel for dipping. The truffle taste is not too overpowering. For 6 people, we ordered 2 servings of arancini (6 balls in total).
Garlicky prawns
The garlicky prawns also have a smaller serving size, with around 4 prawns cooked with herby garlic butter and served with a chilli & crunchy ciabatta bread. I wasn’t a big fan of peeling the shrimp cause it’s work (lol) but also all the garlicky sauce is on the shell! The sauce was good though to dip the bread in.
Tomato bruschetta
I am actually a big fan of tomato bruschetta because I find it to be a very light and refreshing appetizer. But since it doesn’t really have any protein in it, I am always hesitant to choose it over other appetizer choices. One order comes with 2 servings. The tomatoes are slow-roasted and served with bocconcini mozzarella, extra virgin olive oil, balsamic & basil. Yummy and juicy!
Tagliatelle bolognese
We are finally entering the pasta section! First we have the tagliatelle bolognese, which uses rich pork, beef & red wine ragù with aged Parmesan. The pasta is cooked al dente and the sauce is very tasty for a simple but high quality pasta dish.
Creamy penne carbonara
I ordered this for lunch on a separate occasion because carbonara is one of my favourite pastas! I usually don’t order it though because it is so simple to make at home.
Jamie’s Italian’s carbonara uses penne, which is not my favourite pasta type but it was cooked al dente so it tasted fine. Love the creaminess of the carbonara sauce and the smoky pancetta!
Truffle tagliatelle
This unassuming pasta was one of our favourites! They use truffle cream, a little bit of fresh truffle and nutmeg, which enhances the truffle flavour. Again, the pasta is cooked al dente and even though it looks so simple, it packed a lot of flavour.
JI burger
I noticed a lot of other passengers ordering this burger so I decided to give this a try on a different day. The burger uses juicy prime beef with a brioche bun. They also throw in smoky pancetta, sticky balsamic onions, aged cheddar, tomato, mostarda di Cremona burger sauce and some fries.
Generally speaking, this burger was better than the burgers in the buffet or dining hall, but it wasn’t that amazing of a burger. The patty was certainly juice though. The fries were disappointing as they were soggy. I would not order this a second time as the pastas at Jamie’s Italian were much tastier.
Eggplant parmigiana
The main is fully vegetarian with a big piece of balsamic-roasted eggplant, tomato & basil sauce,
mozzarella & veggie Parmesan.
I am a big fan of eggplant, but this dish was just average for me. It tasted healthy though so at least we got that going for it lol. I just found the flavours to be lacking a bit because it was mostly the tomato sauce and arugula, so it tasted more like a salad to me.
Lamb chops scottadito
I didn’t order or try this so I can’t comment much on how it tasted, but here is how the lamb entree looks. The lamb chops are grilled under a brick and served with agrodolce peppers & salsa verde.
Pan-roasted salmon
I ordered the salmon as my entree for one of our dinners at Jamie’s Italian and it is a big serving! The salmon is sustainably sourced and paired with some shellfish, a tomato and white wine stew, topped with a garlicky aioli. I found the salmon to be slightly on the dryer side and again, flavour was just ok because again it was coming from mostly the tomato sauce.
Baked lasagna
Now I have to first say that I’ve never really liked lasagna but my boyfriend does, and when I tried Jamie’s Italian’s lasagna I actually thought it was decent. The lasagna looks like a small serving, but it actually isn’t. The beef and pork are slow-cooked with herbs and wine, then baked in an oozy Béchamel sauce with tomatoes, mozzarella & Parmesan. I really like how thin the pasta layers are – there’s lots of meat in this dish!
Chianti-brased short rib
My boyfriend ordered the short rib as his entree on night 1. The White Oak Pastures beef short rib is cooked low and slow, served with parmesan mash and horseradish gremolata. The short rib is quite tender so that was good!
Lemon meringue cheesecake
We are almost always too full to eat dessert, but here we have tried the lemon cheesecake, which is an interesting cross between a regular NY cheesecake and a lemon meringue on top. Cheesecake was quite dense.
Raspberry rippled pavlova
A pavlova is kind of like a meringue on its own, crispy on the outside and gooey on the inside. This one is served with zesty cream, macerated raspberries & smashed honeycomb. The meringue by itself doesn’t have much taste so it is very dependent on the sourness of the raspberries and the sweetness of the honeycomb.
Mango sorbet
A refreshing choice for when you are super stuffed with food. The mango sorbet is simple, fruity and light. They also have other options for sorbet flavours.
Tiramisu
We couldn’t make it to dessert on night 1 so we had to pack it to go. Tiramisu is the classic Italian dessert with chocolate shavings & orange zest. My main question is why is the cake cut like this lol. It looks like someone took 2 giant bites or they just decided to cut the cake using cups or bowls of some sort. Very strange presentation and I wonder if we didn’t get it to go, if it would look completely different lol.
Anyways, great tasting tiramisu and love the orange zest to give it a little zing. Wish there was more mascaropone cheese though.
Final thoughts
Loewe’s rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
We really loved Jamie’s Italian during our cruise on the Royal Caribbean. Out of all 4 specialty restaurants, we think it offered the best quality and consistency. In our 10 days on the cruise, we ate at Jamie’s Italian probably 3 or 4 times for lunch and dinner.
Our favourite dishes are the arancini, crispy squid, ANY of their pastas (they are all so good!), and the lasagna, which I guess is still kinda their pastas. Their pastas were honestly the best, better than their mains. You can ask the server for a small or large serving of pasta if you want the pasta to be your main instead.
Oh and also if you say “No” to dessert, they give you this:
I highly recommend anyone who is going on a Royal Caribbean cruise to purchase the specialty dining package or at least a package of some sort to eat at Jamie’s Italian because they are bomb!
I will be continuing to review the other 3 specialty restaurants on the Royal Caribbean Quantum of the Seas and will also be doing a travel recap so stay tuned!
Sincerely, Loewe
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