Disappointing Chef's Table Rhapsody of the Seas

We routinely book meals at specialty restaurants and other wine & food events so when we were able to book spots on a recent Rhapsody of the Seas Chef's Table on sail away night we were pretty excited. Then the event got moved to another evening, which was OK but since we didn't discover this until we boarded we were left with the main dining room which was not a bad experience, just not what we were hoping for.

Finally the big night arrived and about a dozen of us were seated. The good news is that after similar culinary experiences we left the table stuffed and "slightly" inebriated on good wine and that did not happen here; we were comfortably full and close to stone cold sober. The why is the bad news. Here are the courses and pairings:

• Hearts of Palm with avocado, tomato and a champagne vinairgrette paired with a Nobilo Icon Sauvignon Blanc
  
• Sweet Pea Soup with truffle poached egg, Nueske bacon paired with a Beringer White Zinfandel
  
• Butter Poached Lobster with caviar buerre blanc paired with Penfolds Koonunga Hilll Chardonnay
  
• Briased Short Rib Ravioli with horseradish cream & veal glaze paired with Estancia Monterey County Pinot Noir
  
• Prime Beef Tenderloin with morel mushrooms & smoked garlic - potato puree paired with Clois du Bois California Cabernet Sauvignon
  
• Chocolate Sabotage - duo of chocolate mousse, ganache, chocolate lava cake paired with Sandeman Ruby Port
  

The food was "fine" - I though slicing the tenderloin along the grain a little strange but was able to accept that - although a number of the dishes appeared in similar manifestations in the main dining room over the cruise. The wines......I would not serve any of these wines to guests in my home. There were some respectable producers - Clos du Bois for example - but a "California" appellation did not fit the upscale dining experience we had expected. Penfolds makes some excellent chardonnays but the Koonunga Hill was scraping the bottom of the barrel and then there was the Beringer White Zin.

When I pay a premium price for a dinner with wine I expect to be served a premium product. This Chef's Table was definitely not what I expected.

What a letdown! They should be ashamed serving those wines at the Chef's Table. We had fabulous wines at Chef's Table on Oasis last year including a perfect Rosso di Montalcino with the Ravioli. What a difference a year makes!

We just had the same exact experience on the Radiance of the seas. The food and presentation where good but the wine pairing was 2 buck chuck. the entire table complained and received 20% off the 2nd half of our group canceled. We complained to all who would listen but just kept hearing the - its corporate - line over and over. Here as above we had an amazing Chefs Table on the Allure last year. Also noticed the the entire wine by the glass has become lower shelf offerings also

I guess wine aficionados have to two simple solutions;

1) book "chef's table" like experiences on other cruise lines, or

2) not waste the money on what RCL is offering.

Our decision is to take our business elsewhere when possible, not just because of the Chef's Table experience but other disquieting episodes.

White Zinfandel:eek:

We routinely book meals at specialty restaurants and other wine & food events so when we were able to book spots on a recent Rhapsody of the Seas Chef's Table on sail away night we were pretty excited. Then the event got moved to another evening, which was OK but since we didn't discover this until we boarded we were left with the main dining room which was not a bad experience, just not what we were hoping for.

 

Finally the big night arrived and about a dozen of us were seated. The good news is that after similar culinary experiences we left the table stuffed and "slightly" inebriated on good wine and that did not happen here; we were comfortably full and close to stone cold sober. The why is the bad news. Here are the courses and pairings:

• Hearts of Palm with avocado, tomato and a champagne vinairgrette paired with a Nobilo Icon Sauvignon Blanc
  
• Sweet Pea Soup with truffle poached egg, Nueske bacon paired with a Beringer White Zinfandel
  
• Butter Poached Lobster with caviar buerre blanc paired with Penfolds Koonunga Hilll Chardonnay
  
• Briased Short Rib Ravioli with horseradish cream & veal glaze paired with Estancia Monterey County Pinot Noir
  
• Prime Beef Tenderloin with morel mushrooms & smoked garlic - potato puree paired with Clois du Bois California Cabernet Sauvignon
  
• Chocolate Sabotage - duo of chocolate mousse, ganache, chocolate lava cake paired with Sandeman Ruby Port
  

 

The food was "fine" - I though slicing the tenderloin along the grain a little strange but was able to accept that - although a number of the dishes appeared in similar manifestations in the main dining room over the cruise. The wines......I would not serve any of these wines to guests in my home. There were some respectable producers - Clos du Bois for example - but a "California" appellation did not fit the upscale dining experience we had expected. Penfolds makes some excellent chardonnays but the Koonunga Hill was scraping the bottom of the barrel and then there was the Beringer White Zin.

 

When I pay a premium price for a dinner with wine I expect to be served a premium product. This Chef's Table was definitely not what I expected.

The nerve! White people problems.

I hate to give up the perks of Diamond+ status.

We are going to give Celebrity a try for a 2017 Baltic

Loyalty has its privileges. I think they carry over to Celebrity and Azamara and the products are very different, albeit at a nominally higher price. You can find some great suite deals on Celebrity. The "Chef's Table" on Azamara was over the top.....if the road of excess leads to the Palace of Wisdom we were there.

I'm glad I found this thread

We were going to book this on our upcoming TA, since we had enjoyed it so much on the Allure

But I guess we will do a dining pkg and enjoy 3-4 specialty dinners instead

As an Australian I'm appalled they served Koonunga Hill as a quality wine, particularly a white wine. Their chardonnay is not quite bottom shelf stuff, but not far off.

Saying that, Koonunga reds are better than their whites

The nerve! White people problems.

So true....if you plopped a bottle of unscrewed Annie Greensprings in front of me I would be.delighted as well.as nostalgic:p

No I am not a.sophisticate or wine saavy so I am clueless to quality and to the winery name.dropping but I am willing to.spend $$ to be educated;)

The nerve! White people problems.

That just about says it all.:D

Of course, any student of wine knows that just about all current French wines are being grown on root stockss from American disease-resistant plants, because the US saved France's wine industry when a root-blight descended upon it in the latter half of the 19th century.

Don't immediately dismiss wines from newer growing regions. Some have been deemed equal or occasionally superior to some of the classic vintners.

Clos du Bois makes some excellent wines but serving a generic "California" instead of a Napa or Sonoma appellation when there are a number of excellent recent vintages for an upscale dining experience is just not right in my book. The same with the Penfolds chardonnay, an excellent producer with a broad product offering and RCL served from the bottom of the barrel. A white zin instead of a classic French rose? Why not? But a white zin that retails for under $5/bottle......a perfectly reasonable offering on the wine list in the main dining room but at the Chef's Table.......

They don't have to serve Penfolds' Grange or fifty year old vintage port instead of a ruby but something above the fold on the wine list would be nice.