Royal Caribbean Cruise: Wonderland

Wonderland is a specialty restaurant located inside the Royal Caribbean cruise line. They are described to be an “imaginative” experience with the theme of Alice in Wonderland. We came here for dinner once as part of our specialty dining package during our 10-day cruise to Hawaii from Vancouver.

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Interior

The interior of Wonderland features big whimsical chairs and a very purple/darker kind of lighting. It looks like something out of the Mad Hatter’s tea party.

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Food

The menu for Wonderland is kind of interesting. You start off with a paintbrush and some water and you have to “paint” to see your menu.

Mostly, they ask you to select your main from one of the 2 categories: earth or sea. For appetizers, they bring out a selection so you don’t really have to choose.

Tomato water

It actually pains me that this was one of the appetizers they brought out because this probably ranked #1 in top things I didn’t want to order from the menu. This tomato water is presented to us in test tubes with is described to be a pepper spherification (I’m assuming these are the little pearls/balls in the water) and bread foam (??). To drink this, you are supposed to use your tongue to push the bread foam in and drink the water.

Anyways it was pretty gross and just tasted like a bunch of salty water to me. The bread foam was not soft so I had to push harder than I expected with my tongue, only to find an explosion of salty water. Ew.

Citrus seas shh

This appetizer was really cute upon presentation. It features spicy tuna in a ceviche-like form, served with floral yuzu granite inside an emptied out lime or kiwi shell. And obviously, this is a cold dish.

To eat, I actually had to first remove the giant ball of yuzu ice, which was refreshing and sour. The spicy tuna underneath was ok, didn’t taste super fresh or anything but it tasted fine.

Crispy crab cones

Next we have some crispy crab cones, which look yummy. It is topped with cilantro, avocado mousse (which looks alot like the avocado spread they have in the breakfast buffet lol) and an ohba leaf. The cones held its shape pretty well when eaten and had a nice crunch. My only note is that it didn’t have a very strong crab flavour, is all.

The bird’s nest

This was a fun appetizer – the appearance resembles deviled eggs but instead it is made with blue cheese and hot sauce. The bird’s nest underneath is also fully edible with crispy noodles and it arrived inside a layer of smoke. Taste was not bad!

Mad Hatter’s potted shrimp

Probably my favourite appetizer – the potted shrimp. The shrimp is large and wrapped in a crispy noodle crumb, served on top of a cup of scotch bonnet. I liked dipping it into the little cup. The taste is similar to the ebi mayo.

Off menu – salmon

This was off the menu so I don’t remember what it is called, but essentially it is salmon 2 ways – one thin sheet of raw salmon on the bottom and then a cooked salmon rolled on top with a mustard sauce. Overall, the presentation looks better than how it tasted.

Liquid lobster

This was a tasty one biter – the lobster is “liquidated” kind of like a lobster bisque with some actual lobster meat, plus bone marrow and caviar. A very rich and savoury one spoon.

The chicken and the egg

For my main, I chose the chicken and the egg. It has a cooked chicken breast with crispy skin and potato purée. Overall, I would have to say I wasn’t a big fan of this dish. The chicken was dry and the potato puree wasn’t as smooth and silky as I’d like it to be. Vegetables were cooked quite hard as well.

The rib “I” luscious short rib

My boyfriend ordered the short rib as his main. We were pleased that the short rib was actually very tender so that was great, but the presentation looked pretty bad to me (HAHA). The plate is very strange with lots of dips to hold different sauces.

Halibut cooked in clear paper

My friend orders the halibut cooked in clear paper. It is served with a mushroom sauce and potatoes. Unfortunately, my friend found the halibut to be quite flavourless even with the mushroom sauce.

Branzino in crispy bread

The branzino is fried and hides a bed of rice. I found the branzino to be ok only if you eat it with the crispy skin, everything else is just meh. Rice is also average and feels like a very “caucasian” kind of fried rice.

Magic mushroom

The desserts are certainly fun and whimsical in presentation. The magic mushroom was very cute with chocolate dirt and meringue and fruits. The mushroom itself is soft and kind of has a marshmallow texture. The taste of the dessert was mostly just average without any specific flavours speaking out.

Forbidden apple

Another very pretty dessert – the forbidden apple has raspberry cremeux, a brown butter crumble and yogurt ice cream. I liked seeing the apple be sliced and it being all soft and cake-like. Taste-wise, it was similar to the mushroom (just meh) although the yogurt ice cream added some more flavour to it.

The world

This was my favourite dessert out of the 3 – peanut butter ganache, Valrhona chocolate mousse and salted caramel ice cream. They pour hot chocolate on it so the world melts and you can see the peanut butter ganache on the inside. This dessert was sweet and fun!

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Final thoughts

Loewe’s rating: ⭐

I thought Wonderland was a lot of fun and I think it’s really cool how they are trying to experiment with food science and turn tomato into water and all that stuff, but I truly am not impressed with how everything tasted in comparison to how it looked. Presentation is all 8+/10 – whimsical, fun, wacky and silly. Taste, however, was all below 5/10 for me and really what is a restaurant that has food that tastes bad… just a gimmick.

Out of everything we tried, the only dishes I would recommend are the short rib, the potted shrimp, liquid lobster and the world chocolate dessert. We also ordered cocktails expecting they would be very fancy and whimsical with bubbles or cotton candy and smoke, but they were mostly normal-looking and tasted like melted candy.

If you have a dining package for Royal Caribbean, I think it is still worth trying (especially if you have the unlimited dining package) since it’s such a fun and unique experience. But when you have unlimited food options on the cruise that frankly taste better, there really isn’t much belly room for bad tasting food. So I wouldn’t recommend you to pay and eat in the Wonderland al le carte style.

Sincerely, Loewe