Are Royal Caribbean’s Specialty Dining Restaurants Worth It?

Are the extra fee specialty restaurants on Royal Caribbean ships worth the additional cost? We recently visited all the specialty restaurants onboard Oasis of the Seas multiple times to give you our impressions and help you decide for yourself if specialty dining is worth the upcharge.

What Are Specialty Restaurants?

Royal Caribbean ships all have a variety of dining options that are included in your cruise fare. There is the Main Dining Room, which offers traditional sit-down restaurant service, the Windjammer, where you’ll find a large variety of buffet offerings in a casual atmosphere and a few other fast-casual places that vary from ship to ship.

For cruisers looking for an elevated culinary experience in terms of ambiance, quality and service, and are willing to pay extra for it, Royal Caribbean, as well as other cruise lines, has introduced Specialty Restaurants to their ships. These restaurants focus on a particular cuisine or theme, and promise passengers a premium dining experience.

What Should You Expect from a Specialty Restaurant?

This is simple, given the extra cost associated with these venues.

• Intimate setting with elevated ambiance.
• Exceptional service and attention to detail.
• Really good food.

How Much Extra Cost Are We Talking About?

Because Royal uses dynamic pricing, there is no definitive answer but these are current and typical prices for the offerings on Allure of the Seas:

Is There A Way To Pay Less?

Yes! Most of the time, you will see the option to purchase various Specialty Dining Packages in your Cruise Planner. Here you can see the options available for the same Allure of the Seas sailing:

If you were to buy the 5 Night Package, you’d pay $35.60 Per Person, Per Meal. Though you are spending more overall, if you know you want to try several of the Specialty Restaurants, this is a good way to save a bit of cash. This package would give you the ability to try any combination of available restaurants every night for 5 nights. So, you could eat at Chops Grille every night if you wanted, or try a variety of options.

You can also opt to try many restaurants for lunch, rather than dinner. The menus are typically a bit abbreviated, but so is the price:

Now That You Know the Options – Here’s Our Experience

On our recent Transatlantic crossing on Oasis of the Seas, we purchased the Unlimited Dining Package. This gave us the ability to eat at any Specialty Restaurant every night of the 14-night cruise, as well as lunch on sea days.

Chops Grille

This is Royal Caribbean’s signature steak house restaurant, and you’ll find it on every ship in the fleet.

Our first experience was pretty much flawless, with excellent, perfectly prepared food, served hot, with outstanding service.

Subsequent experiences were not terrible, but service was very slow for one meal and several of our sides were served at room temperature.

It should also be noted that one of our group is a Crown & Anchor Pinnacle member, and therefore able to partake in a dedicated lunch featuring the Chops Grille menu. During this lunch, the service was again on the (very) slow side, and the “Fillet” on the menu was tough and stringy, leading our Pinnacle member to conclude that a different cut of beef had been substituted.

150 Central Park

150 Central Park’s claim to fame is simple, yet elegant cuisine served in a comfy-chic welcoming ambiance.

The overall quality and presentation of the food in terms of taste was very good. The food was flavorful, well-seasoned and well prepared. What wasn’t as good was the kitchen’s ability to get the food out at the correct temperature. This was an ongoing issue no matter how many times we brought it to server’s attention.

For example, the signature bread in this restaurant is supposed to be served very warm, with melted butter on top. Once, it came out as it was supposed to. All the other times it was lukewarm at best, and cooler than room temperature and unable to melt the butter on top at worst.

Attention to detail was not up to snuff. When we asked for a beverage served in a certain way, the request was fulfilled incorrectly more often than not. When we asked to have some root vegetables (which were served as part of other menu choices) added to our entrée, the kitchen just threw some extra broccoli (not a root veggy last time we looked) on the plate, and it was cold at that. During one meal, one of our party of 3 didn’t get water when the rest of us did. Servers seemed rushed and sloppy, at one point leaning over the back of a chair to serve food instead of coming around to the side of the table.

Giovanni’s Table

Giovanni’s is an Italian restaurant serving a variety of pasta, meat and seafood dishes.

On the plus side, most of the food at Giovanni’s was good to very good, and a request to add some grilled chicken to the Gnocchi dish was fulfilled with no problem.

But there was an exception. The Chicken Carbonara was seriously lacking in flavor. Interestingly enough, on a different ship a few months prior, the Carbonara was a salt-fest.

Another issue involved the tables in the restaurant being just too close together, making it difficult for waiters to maneuver. At one point, one of our party took an elbow to the head because the waiter just didn’t have enough room to avoid diners. We also experienced issues with special beverage orders and food temperature.

Izumi

Izumi offers an inventive menu of Asian inspired sushi, soups, noodle bowls and more.

We ate lunch at Izumi on numerous occasions, and dinner once or twice, and the majority of our experiences went off without a hitch. The food and service were both very good almost all the time.

There were a few hiccups here and there. Tempura dishes, which by their very nature should be served hot, were occasionally served lukewarm. Cocktail consistency was lacking. When this was brought to our waiter’s attention, she did everything she could to fix the situation, and explained that she was less experienced in making cocktails. We were surprised to learn that there is no bartender making cocktails in Izumi, and instead each waiter is expected to mix their own.

Izumi Hibachi

Izumi Hibachi is a traditional Japanese group hibachi experience, complete with a chef that prepares food to order as well as providing entertainment.

Even with our “Unlimited” Dining Package, we paid an additional upcharge of $15 Per Person.

The food was very good, and very much in line with what you could expect at a similar restaurant shore side such as Kobe Japanese Grill. The chef was very good, and kept us all entertained with traditional food and spatula tricks as well as jokes and the “food toss”.

What wasn’t as great was the fact that the cruise line chooses to pack at least two people too many around each table/grill. And worse, even though our table was not fully booked, staff insisted it was, and refused to remove the two empty chairs and plates. This made what could have been a more enjoyable experience considerably less so, because we were so crowed that it was impossible to avoid knocking elbows with our neighbors.

Playmakers

Playmakers sports bar and grill serves traditional pub fare including nachos, burgers with fries and onion rings, along with quesadillas, pulled pork sliders and more.

We had lunch at Playmakers a few times. There were no notable issues and the food was very good.

The only thing of note was with the Poke Nachos we ordered. They were still good, but not quite as good as the same dish we’d had at the same restaurant on a different ship. The dish we got on Oasis was sparse in comparison.

Portside BBQ

Portside BBQ is a casual sit-down venue serving low-and-slow cooked meats including items like brisket and pulled pork, with classic sides like corn bread and coleslaw.

We ate here a couple of times and found it a thoroughly enjoyable experience. The food was delicious and very plentiful!

Johnny Rockets

Johnny Rockets on Royal Caribbean cruise ships is the same restaurant you’ll find shoreside, serving milkshakes, burgers, chili cheese fries and the like in a casual diner style atmosphere.

We only at here once, but the food and service were exactly as expected.

So, What’s The Conclusion?

IS Royal Caribbean’s Specialty Dining worth the price? Our conclusion is, well, MAYBE.

THE GOOD

These restaurants are smaller and more intimate, with enhanced ambiance and service.

The quality of the food is usually better than the Main Dining Room.

THE NOT SO GOOD

We found things to be hit or miss, and inconsistent. Sometimes things were great, but on more than a few occasions, food quality, attention to detail and service were lacking.

If you have a special event, such as a birthday or anniversary, you may find a Specialty Restaurant dinner worth the cost even if there are some hiccups. But given the significant upcharge, and considering your cruise fare includes numerous other options, overall, we’re going to pass.

We hope you’ve found this informative and helpful. If you have any questions or feedback, we’d love to hear from you.

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