Chops/Portofino menu incorrect on RC website. Here are correct menus from 9/20 sail

[lglancy]

In my obsessive planning, I printed off the menus for Chops and Portofino from the RC site and made reservations for both based on those menus. Once in the restaurants, we discovered the menus were different than those posted on the website. Here are the current, and accurate, menus as of the 9/20/09 cruise on the Mariner:

 

Chops: Appetizers

Shrimp Cocktail (huge shrimp, and delicious)

Dungeness crab and shrimp cake

Beef tenderloin and eggplant tower

Lobster Capaccio

Star anise cured fish trio

Roasted portabella caps

Soups

Cheese and onion soup

Forest mushroom soup

Salads

Not so traditional Caesar

Beefsteak tomato and purple onion

Chops signature (husband really liked-it has roasted beets((but that didn't scare him off!)), boiled egg and whole bacon slices)

Entrees

Alaskan halibut

Herb crusted jumbo shrimp

7 or 10 oz filet mignon (best we've ever had. Served with your choice of sauces they will add for you at the table. We tried and liked the green peppercorn)

New york strip steak

Broiled veal chop

Roasted rack of lamb

Beef rib eye

Boneless beef short rib

Free range chicken breast

Sides

Baked potato (size of a kids Nerf football, and so soft)

Whipped potatoes (husband said they were really good)

Roasted potatoes with proscuito and parmesan

Sauteed broccolini

Crimini mushrooms and leeks

Baby bok choy and shiitake mushrooms and oyster sauce

Steamed asparagus (had a good seasoning on it)

Fried onion rings

Succotash

Desserts

Chocolate mud pie (best dessert we've ever had, anywhere)

Passionberry duo

Caramel apple slice

Uptown cheesecake

 

 

 

Portofino: Appetizers

Prawn risotto (pretty good, not as good as I'd have thought)

Beef carpaccio

Buffalo Mozzarella

Smoked duck salad

Eggplant roulades

Calamari Italian style

Tomato and avacado cold soup

Tuscan bean soup

Gorgonzola salad

Caesar salad (okay, typical caesar salad)

Pastas

Penne with beef ragu and plum tomatoes

Pappardelle with porcinni mushrooms

Spaghetti with shrimp and scallops

Main courses

Sauteed tiger shrimp

veal saltimbocca

Grilled filet mignon (good, but does not come close to Chops)

Grilled halibut

Marinated chicken breast

Lobster and shrimp kabob (beautiful, scallops were delicious, the rest was average seafood. Served with 2 pieces of asparagus and sliced white potatoes in a weird tomato sauce).

Desserts

Tiramisu

Pistachio pannacota

Apricot ricotta pie

Flourless chocolate cake(delicious)

 

We enjoyed Chops very much and would dine there again. Portofino was just okay. Service was excellent in both, and it was nice to eat by ourselves with a perfect view of the sunset over the ocean. We chose nights one and five, as those seemed the weakest menu nights. We booked Chops ahead of time on the website, and had no trouble making a Portofino reservation on day three for day five at the exact time we wanted.

[Riverwinds 13]

Thank you for the updated menu. I'll be on the Freedom this coming Sunday :D:D:D:D and appreciate your posting. Oh, what a wonderful listing of choices.

[AdMaven]

Have reservations for Chops on our sea day coming up. Menu sounds yummy!!

[dougp26364]

We feel just the opposite about the filet. Chops is good but not as good as Portifino's. Of course I imagine this will vary from ship to ship as the food quality in the MDR has always seemed to fluctuate from sailing to sailing, even though the menu rarely changes.

[maxamuus]

Chops is good but not as good as Portifino's.

 

We had the same experience on the Mariner in July. Chops was good, but Portifino's knocked our socks off. :D

[azdmelani]

Thanks for posting. We leave on the Mariner on Sunday! Cant wait :)

[MICHLEV1974]

Thanks for the menu post, our group really appreciates it. I am looking for some opinions, this is our first time trying the specialty restaurants.

 

Do you feel that it is worth the money to take the kids with us for a special treat? The boys really don't care about the dining 'experience' but do appreciate a nicer steak and meat selection. They are 12 and very well behaved and excellent eaters. I am thinking it might be too formal for them?

 

Also, is this the same idea as the MDR that you can order more than one entree or is that just crazy bcs the portions are perfectly sized and you can't possibly manage more than one? ok, i look forward to your posts...thanks for starting this thread...:D

[Let'sGo!]

We felt Portofino blew us away while on Mariner this past May. We know we can get good steaks here at home, so if it comes down to making a choice, we'll book Portofino in a heartbeat. I STRONGLY recommend the eggplant appetizer and the mushroom pasta. I don't even remember my main course it was all a blur it was soooo delish!

 

Yes, you can order as much of whatever you want there, but you will come out sooooo stuffed. We didn't even want dessert, but our wait staff insisted we have something, so they prepared a little tasting plate of several desserts for us. It was just perfect.

 

As far as kids... there was a large table near us that had several kids. At first the kids enjoyed the ambience of it and the special attention, but then they seemed to grow bored. This whole dining experience takes much longer than even dinner in the main dining room. If you want to treat them to a nice steak, then order them the Chops $14.95 steak in the MDR one night. Otherwise, expect to spend at least two hours at dinner in Chops or Portofino.

[MICHLEV1974]

As far as kids... there was a large table near us that had several kids. At first the kids enjoyed the ambience of it and the special attention, but then they seemed to grow bored. This whole dining experience takes much longer than even dinner in the main dining room. If you want to treat them to a nice steak, then order them the Chops $14.95 steak in the MDR one night. Otherwise, expect to spend at least two hours at dinner in Chops or Portofino.

 

 

Thank you for your comments and suggestions. Great idea. Perhaps me and the girls can just eat dinner at Chops/Port and send the kids off to the club those nights and order the steak in the MDR while we are altogether for dinner on the other nights. Thanks! I had no idea you could do that.

[nenner1]

Thank you so much for posting these manus, they are very helpful! :D

[Craving A Cruise]

Our family of four had the same experience on the Mariner in August. Chops was very good but Portofino was the best! :D

 

Chops: (Day 5) Dh & I shared the portabello mushroom appetizer...yummy...kids had (huge) shrimp cocktails, the filet mignon was delicious and so tender it could be cut with a fork....unfortunately our baked potato was not cooked all the way through. Ds ordered a rib eye steak and was very pleased.

 

Side dishes are served family style. We shared crimini mushrooms and onion rings. For dessert 3 people ordered Mud pie, which was very good!! I ordered the caramel apple slice, which was disappointing. It was dry and was lacking apples. Maybe a scoop of ice-cream would have made it taste better, but at that point we were all stuffed. Overall, it was a good meal and worth the extra charge.

 

Portofino: (Day 4) We had a window table and was able to enjoy a beautiful sunset.

 

For appetizers we ordered the risotto, shrimp cocktails and calamari. Dh and I had the Tuscan Bean soup and it was fantastic! (Highly recommend it.) For the main course, 3 of us ordered the halibut and 1 ordered the Lobster skewer. The halibut was cooked to perfection and was the best I have had anywhere. When the seafood skewer was served all 3 of us were green with envy, as it looked (& tasted) fabulous.

 

For dessert, we ordered the sampler plate and the teens ordered the chocolate flourless cake. Both were scrumptious. We enjoyed our dining experience and it was a nice change of scenery from the MDR.

 

We look forward to dining in the specialty restaurants again on our next cruise. If I could only choose one, I would pick Portofinos. Dh, a meat lover, would select Chops. :D I suppose it is just a matter of personal preference. I suggest looking over the menus to see what appeals to you the most. No matter which one you select, I don't think you will be disappointed..

 

Enjoy your cruise!

 

 

 

We had the same experience on the Mariner in July. Chops was good, but Portifino's knocked our socks off. :D

[RCCFAN]

Thanks for all the info, I was curious if you could use an OBC to pay for dinner at the Chops and Portifinos? The menus and everyones reviews make it so very tempting!

[critterchick]

Thanks for all the info, I was curious if you could use an OBC to pay for dinner at the Chops and Portifinos? The menus and everyones reviews make it so very tempting!

 

Yes.:)

[jlp20]

In my obsessive planning, I printed off the menus for Chops and Portofino from the RC site and made reservations for both based on those menus. Once in the restaurants, we discovered the menus were different than those posted on the website. Here are the current, and accurate, menus as of the 9/20/09 cruise on the Mariner:

 

The menus for the MDR and specialty restaurants are made up months in advance. They change with the seasons due to the availability of the ingredients. In addition, problems arise when a certain item isn’t delivered to the ship on embarkation day for whatever reason.

 

We look at the entire week’s menu AFTER we board to choose which night to make alternate plans from the MDR.

[katiel53]

We felt Portofino blew us away while on Mariner this past May.

 

Yes, you can order as much of whatever you want there, but you will come out sooooo stuffed. We didn't even want dessert, but our wait staff insisted we have something, so they prepared a little tasting plate of several desserts for us. It was just perfect.

 

If you want to treat them to a nice steak, then order them the Chops $14.95 steak in the MDR one night. Otherwise, expect to spend at least two hours at dinner in Chops or Portofino.

 

 

 

We enjoy Portofino much more than Chops. I, personally, do not like food served family style and that's how sides are served at Chops.

 

Also, I know you can order more than one appetizer, but I don't believe you can order more than one entrée for the upcharge. I can't imagine anyone eating more than one entrée with all the food served, but I don't want someone to think unlimited entrées are served as in the MDR if in fact it might not be true.

[land lover]

Things have changed...we were on Mariner 10-11-09 sailing enjoyed Portinfino's, were told if we ordered another entree there is a $10.00 charge.