Thoughts on Anthem's Dining

We just returned from the Anthem's inaugural Caribbean cruise. Overall we had a wonderful trip. The ship is beautiful and we had plenty to do whenever we wanted to do something. Overall we'd rate our sailing an 8 out of 10. What brought this down a bit though was our dining experience.

Before I detail, a bit on our cruise background. This was our 20th cruise overall and our 4th with RCCL. Our last RCCL cruise was about 10 years ago on the Jewel of the Seas. We knew going in that the dining experience would be different here (no main dining room) and this was really one of the things that drew us to this ship. We had reservations for dinner at 8:30 almost every night with 5 of the 12 nights in specialty (for pay) restaurants. The remaining 7 nights were in the included venues.

Night 1 we hit Jamie's. Food was great and the meal was nicely timed. No issues here at all.

Night 2 we ate in The Grande. Disaster. Service was SLOW. We're talking 45 minutes between courses with no visits from the waiter in between slow. This was the case for the entire section we were in. One table of two next to us simply gave up on dinner half way through and just left because they got tired of waiting. Food was sub-par with a steak that to me tasted like something out of a frozen dinner. NOT what we expected at all.

Night 3 we moved to Chops Grille. We paid for this and it was top notch. Great service, great food.

Night 4 American Icon. Service OK but food was less than tasty. I ordered a Fillet and it tasted and looked like a hunk of pot roast. Heavy flavor of green pepper. Bad enough that I sent it back and switched it for something else.

Night 5, Silk....wonderful. Delicious food and fast service

Night 6, Chic. For this one, combine the slow service of Grande and the bad food of American Icon. We also had breakfast in Chic that morning and the service was equally slow. At this point we're recognizing a trend.

Earlier in the week we attended a food demonstration in one of the lounges and the head chef said on several occasions "if something is not up to your expectations, please say something so we can take steps to make corrections. We want the feedback." After the meal at Chic we went to guest relations and advised them of the issues. We did not complain - only said we wanted to offer feedback as requested. The guest relations person called the manager from Chic and he met with us. He took notes and was genuinely concerned.

I will not get into the specifics but he took care of us - including a request for us to 'please try Grande again'. We did a few nights later and the service/food were WAY better. I think we got some extra attention because of the conversation we had. We could see him watching over things.

Throughout the remainder of the cruise we ate in various venues and outside of the pay venues, the service/food was still spotty at best.

Wonderland was very good, Jamie's excellent and Chops was perfect one night and iffy the second time we went (both is service and in food quality). The only included venue that was good both times we ate there was Silk. No issues here at all. Johnny Rockets?? YUM YUM YUM!!!

Hard to say for sure what the root cause is for all of this but to us, the staff seemed very stretched. Too many passengers and not enough staff to handle the demand. While we did get our feedback addressed and got well taken care of once we made our feelings known, we would have rather not had to express our concerns at all by having quality meals/service from the get go.

I advise this not to complain - we still had a great cruise....but did feel the need to mention this so others can be aware. We would not hesitate to sail the ship again BUT we would have a different expectation of the dining experience going in.

Please let me know of any questions and I will be happy to try to address them here.

I certainly appreciate your review. It's well thought out and shows that when someone on staff asks for feedback, you should give it in the hopes of things improving, rather than looking for a "free meal" if you will.

We're sailing her for the Christmas holiday week. I booked dining so that I could manage the shows, which are new to us after sailing on Freedom for the last several years. Now that I know of some of the time challenges, I will certainly inform our wait staff that we have show reservations and need to be moved along. Will my family be willing to walk out part way through if things are not moving along and we end up sitting 45 minutes between courses? Not sure, but if that occurs, I will definitely speak to GS about the issue, as you did.

Thanks for the feedback.

OP: thanks very much for taking the time to post your thoughts. We were on the Anthem TA, the last revenue sailing before yours. It was our 14th cruise, but our first on RCI. Your post really resonated with me because we had similar experiences. We had great time, Anthem is stunningly beautiful, we were excited to try Dynamic Dining (as big fans of NCL's freestyle dining), but one big negative for us was the food and the service in most of the "complimentary" venues.

Too much of the food was not good (some was actually inedible), and the servers were too often harried. RCI needs more servers, and needs to train them better.

Our dining experiences were similar to yours (except that we did not enjoy the food in Silk, but the service was great. Go figure). We really enoyed our one dinner in Chops; excellent food and excellent service.

I did a detailed review (by subject and with photos) of the ship and our crossing, and in case it's helpful to others who are reading this thread specifically about dining, my comments on the various dining venues are here:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=48222842&postcount=26

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=48226040&postcount=31

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=48226188&postcount=32

(For anyone interested, my review thread is here:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2277588 )

. Now that I know of some of the time challenges, I will certainly inform our wait staff that we have show reservations and need to be moved along.

DEFINITELY do this. One night we did have a show scheduled after one of the dinners. We decided prior to dinner NOT to attend the show but had we wanted to we would have missed it for sure based on the length of the meal.

Turtles - I saw your review of Grande and you mention the dress code. We saw odd things.

While we were waiting for a two top (just like you) we saw one guy come in with slacks, a white shirt and a tie. No Jacket. They would not let him in until he put on a loaner jacket. 5 minutes later we saw another diner leaving the venue with jeans and an untucked polo shirt. If I was tie guy and got seated next to polo guy (who was not forced to wear a jacket) I might be inclined to get upset. At least tie guy made an attempt at formal. Polo guy looked like he was going to Burger King. No consistency.

Thank you for your reviews. We sail in March and hopefully things will pick up a bit.

5 minutes later we saw another diner leaving the venue with jeans and an untucked polo shirt. If I was tie guy and got seated next to polo guy (who was not forced to wear a jacket) I might be inclined to get upset. At least tie guy made an attempt at formal. Polo guy looked like he was going to Burger King. No consistency.

Of course, you don't know that polo guy wasn't given a jacket when he got seated, took it off as siin as he was seated and left it at the table.

Your description of service problems sounds painfully similar to what people were reporting on Quantum last year. Then the CEO went on a sailing, saw the problems first-hand and immediately added more staff and the problems supposedly got better. Is it possible that they're trying to cut back on staffing again? I'd heard positive things about the food, and we're going to be boarding Anthem 5 weeks from today so it is troubling to hear of food quality as well as service issues.

We too were extremely disappointed in the service in the free dining venues. After a couple of tries we opted for the buffet for dinner. Something we had never done on any other ship. The dinner buffet was pretty good and the cooks were very helpful with heating up meat for us.

Our party of 8 just got off the Anthem today. We concur with the sentiment that the free dining areas were poor, food quality-wise. Lot of repetitions too. (I mean, C'mon! Almost every entrée was accompanied by the same two or three vegetables: A carrot or two, an asparagus spear or two - or a couple of broccoli.). We too opted to eat in the WIndjammer once in lieu of the dining room. Sacrilegious thought a few cruises ago...

And the major disappointment foodwise was the abomination at Silk. really, really crappy food. Bland, tasteless slop and a firing offence for the chef.

And the major disappointment foodwise was the abomination at Silk. really, really crappy food. Bland, tasteless slop and a firing offence for the chef.

Just adds to the inconsistency. Out of all of our included meals we found Silk to be the best by far. I had lamb chops that rivaled any fine restaurant at home and all of the appetizers were tasty as well.

..

And the major disappointment foodwise was the abomination at Silk. really, really crappy food. Bland, tasteless slop and a firing offence for the chef.

As I noted in my review of the Anthem TA, our dinner at Silk was hands down the worst meal of the cruise. Except for the spring rolls (hard to ruin, especially dipped in duck sauce), the food was just bad.

Just adds to the inconsistency. Out of all of our included meals we found Silk to be the best by far. I had lamb chops that rivaled any fine restaurant at home and all of the appetizers were tasty as well.

Lamb chops? I don't recall them among the Asian dishes (what we ordered). At any rate, I'm glad you had a much better experience there than we did.

Lamb chops? I don't recall them among the Asian dishes (what we ordered). At any rate, I'm glad you had a much better experience there than we did.

Yup. Had a mild curry rub on them. Tender, tasty and perfectly cooked.

Just adds to the inconsistency. Out of all of our included meals we found Silk to be the best by far. I had lamb chops that rivaled any fine restaurant at home and all of the appetizers were tasty as well.

We enjoyed Silk as well, both the food and service. Just goes to show how subjective food is. We noticed that it was quiet both nights we went, which probably helped them provide the excellent and attentive service we received.

We enjoyed Silk as well, both the food and service. Just goes to show how subjective food is. We noticed that it was quiet both nights we went, which probably helped them provide the excellent and attentive service we received.

Good point - both times we dined in Silk it was only about half full.

Removed wrong bread comment ...

Lamb chops? I don't recall them among the Asian dishes (what we ordered). At any rate, I'm glad you had a much better experience there than we did.

Remember that Silk, like the other main free restaurants has 2 menus, which alternate every 4 days. Maybe the lamb chops were on the one you didn't get? Although I haven't seen them listed on any of the menus that I have seen posted. I just found this site that has the Quantum menus from April (the set that was posted recently was missing the second menu for each place) and I don't see it on either of the Silk menus.

http://quantum2015.weebly.com/new-dining-menus-april-2015.html

The best lamb chops I've ever had on a ship were in the Lawn Club Grill on Silhouette. I actually overheard people talking about them in the pool one day after we'd been there and I joined their conversation to say that I agreed.

Remember that Silk, like the other main free restaurants has 2 menus, which alternate every 4 days. Maybe the lamb chops were on the one you didn't get? Although I haven't seen them listed on any of the menus that I have seen posted. I just found this site that has the Quantum menus from April (the set that was posted recently was missing the second menu for each place) and I don't see it on either of the Silk menus.

 

http://quantum2015.weebly.com/new-dining-menus-april-2015.html

 

The best lamb chops I've ever had on a ship were in the Lawn Club Grill on Silhouette. I actually overheard people talking about them in the pool one day after we'd been there and I joined their conversation to say that I agreed.

When we cruised on the Quantum in February, the selection at Silk was ok, but not up to standard as compared to the Asian selections in restaurants in NJ. However, we were surprised on the last of our twelve night cruise, we ate at Silk and lo and behold we selected lobster tails from the alternate menu. They were delicious and the service was exceptional.

We enjoyed Silk as well, both the food and service. Just goes to show how subjective food is. We noticed that it was quiet both nights we went, which probably helped them provide the excellent and attentive service we received.

But if the food is poorly prepared, then it shouldn't matter how busy the restaurant is, since they're not making it to order.

Wow... Astonishing how one person's dog food is another's culinary delight.

Our group of 8 found the chicken choices at Silk to be inedible akin to fresh roadkill on a hot Texas highway...

So the real question is, if the dishes had been prepared properly in a great restaurant would you have enjoyed them. Or are they just something you don't generally enjoy eating? As has been said many times, food is very subjective. No offense, but if you tell me that you eat at Indian restaurants every week and the same dish at Silk was terrible, that means a lot more than saying that it was the first time you had tried that dish.

But if the food is poorly prepared, then it shouldn't matter how busy the restaurant is, since they're not making it to order.

 

The food at Silk was not poorly prepared, IMHO.

To answer your question.. I have a palate that can appreciate most spicy foods and Asian cuisines from Indian to Thai to Chinese. The same could be said for most of my table mates . All agreed that the food in Silk was very bland/tasteless indeed.

Let's not even mention those disgusting fish tasting chips served once seated.. Blegh!

submariner, where are you from?

submariner, where are you from?

New York City. :D