Crown Grill - Should I Bother ??

[kjg46]

We will have a family cruise on the Enchanted Princess this summer. One of our dining options would have us making reservations for seven adults at the Crown Grill. From the reviews I have read it seems the Crown Grill food is lacking not only on the Enchanted but also on the Regal and the Royal. Would Sabatini's be a better choice?

[JimmyVWine]

Only you know which way the seven adults will lean.  But based on the last month's posts of a decline in quality at the CG and the introduction of a new menu at Sabatini's, the meter is definitely pointing toward the latter.

[PrincessLuver]

We use to always enjoy the Crown Grill but on several recent cruises on several different Princess ships we found a lot of things lacking and not sure what is the cause for that.

 

The family now prefers Sabatini's where the menu is excellent and the service is usually the same.

[suzyed]

3 hours ago, kjg46 said:

We will have a family cruise on the Enchanted Princess this summer. One of our dining options would have us making reservations for seven adults at the Crown Grill. From the reviews I have read it seems the Crown Grill food is lacking not only on the Enchanted but also on the Regal and the Royal. Would Sabatini's be a better choice?

We ate twice in Crown Grill on Enchanted over NYE. The first night I ordered the lamb chops and they were just ok, but DH enjoyed his steak.  The next time we ate there it was excellent!! The steaks were perfect and the service was great!  The only annoying part was the couple at the table next to us were talking about how young they looked and the man asked for 9 pats of butter at the beginning of their meal so they would be soft for when he wanted to put it on his food.  Yes, 9 pats.   LOL!
Sabatini's were wonderful and featured a new menu! The manager was so attentive and helpful! Great experience!
We have both booked for our upcoming Regal sailing.

[riffatsea]

Weve had wonderful filet steaks and lamb chops in the Crown Grille as recently as this past,October

We've only eaten once in Sabstinis and hated it so haven't tried it again

Perhaps the new menu is better?

They just didn't know how to make Italian food!

Food is very subjective so only you can decide which menu you'd prefer and if you feel like trying it

[MissP22]

13 hours ago, suzyed said:

The only annoying part was the couple at the table next to us were talking about how young they looked and the man asked for 9 pats of butter at the beginning of their meal so they would be soft for when he wanted to put it on his food.  Yes, 9 pats.   LOL!

My only problem is that the "butter" on Princess just isn't worth eating, not that he wanted 9 pats.

It's completely tasteless, so why eat it a all? 

[antsp]

Who would care about someone elses butter count 

[lx200gps]

We've eaten at both the CG and Sabatini's multiple times on each of our last three trips, in September, November and last month. Once on the Enchanted, the last two trip on the Sky, for a total of at least 14 meals between the two restaurants. Hands down, the best bet was at neither of them, but at La Mer. In our experience, both Sabatini's and CG have declined noticeably. Service is still wonderful, though sometimes slow, particularity at Sabatini's, but the real problem is the tremendous variation in food quality. We found that on each visit, at least one of the courses was a disaster. Tasteless Onion Soup and inedible, uncuttable rubber lobster at the CG, or my personal favorite, the Braised short rib penne at Sabatini's, prepared so utterly devoid of any taste I turned it back untouched.

[MissP22]

18 minutes ago, lx200gps said:

We've eaten at both the CG and Sabatini's multiple times on each of our last three trips, in September, November and last month. Once on the Enchanted, the last two trip on the Sky, for a total of at least 14 meals between the two restaurants. Hands down, the best bet was at neither of them, but at La Mer. In our experience, both Sabatini's and CG have declined noticeably. Service is still wonderful, though sometimes slow, particularity at Sabatini's, but the real problem is the tremendous variation in food quality. We found that on each visit, at least one of the courses was a disaster. Tasteless Onion Soup and inedible, uncuttable rubber lobster at the CG, or my personal favorite, the Braised short rib penne at Sabatini's, prepared so utterly devoid of any taste I turned it back untouched.

We were almost tempted to go to Sabatini's & decided against it when we noticed the price had gone to $39. Alter reading the latest reviews I'm glad we didn't. I realize they're having a tough time of making a go of it with the increase in food prices but it is $39 which should cover their extra costs.

[wowzz]

36 minutes ago, MissP22 said:

We were almost tempted to go to Sabatini's & decided against it when we noticed the price had gone to $39. Alter reading the latest reviews I'm glad we didn't. I realize they're having a tough time of making a go of it with the increase in food prices but it is $39 which should cover their extra costs.

I thought the new price was $35 in Sabatinis? Still expensive though.

[LACruiser88]

In our experience, the service in  Sabatini's has always been way above the service we have received at the CG.  We also prefer the menu at Sabatini's.

[MissP22]

21 minutes ago, wowzz said:

I thought the new price was $35 in Sabatinis? Still expensive though.

Sorry, maybe it was. I didn't really pursue it. We were satisfied with the regular food & didn't care to spend the extra $$.

 

[JimmyVWine]

1 hour ago, lx200gps said:

so utterly devoid of any taste I turned it back untouched.

So are we to assume that you could discern the taste of the dish by merely looking at it? 

[wrongwaywatson]

We ate at Sabatini's and The Crown Grill on the Enchanted in November 2022.  We did NOT like Sabatini's at all.  The food was just meh and the servers were rude.  They acted like we were bothering them when we asked them for something.  We ate at the Crown Grill later in the week and it was excellent!   We were relieved because we ate there in November 2021 on the Emerald and we were disappointed.  We didn't think it was worth the $29 upcharge then.  We would have really been unhappy to have paid $39.  But, like I said earlier, our Nov 2022 CG on The Enchanted was wonderful.

[MissP22]

13 minutes ago, wrongwaywatson said:

We ate at Sabatini's and The Crown Grill on the Enchanted in November 2022.  We did NOT like Sabatini's at all.  The food was just meh and the servers were rude.  They acted like we were bothering them when we asked them for something.  We ate at the Crown Grill later in the week and it was excellent!   We were relieved because we ate there in November 2021 on the Emerald and we were disappointed.  We didn't think it was worth the $29 upcharge then.  We would have really been unhappy to have paid $39.  But, like I said earlier, our Nov 2022 CG on The Enchanted was wonderful.

Wow, now that's a big difference from the attitude of the rest of the crew. There's all so helpful & can't do enough to make everyone feel welcomed. 

[wrongwaywatson]

31 minutes ago, MissP22 said:

Wow, now that's a big difference from the attitude of the rest of the crew. There's all so helpful & can't do enough to make everyone feel welcomed. 

There were six of us in our party and we all had the same impression of the waitstaff.   

[lx200gps]

1 hour ago, JimmyVWine said:

So are we to assume that you could discern the taste of the dish by merely looking at it? 

Yes, i did sample it before turning it aside. Apologies for my loose wording

[suzyed]

11 hours ago, MissP22 said:

My only problem is that the "butter" on Princess just isn't worth eating, not that he wanted 9 pats.

It's completely tasteless, so why eat it a all? 

Don't ask me!  I was just pointing out how annoying they were.  LOL!

[Kineticoh20]

In a word no! Since relaunch it was barely worth it at $29, $39 definitely not. Now my take is only regarding the ribeye.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[MissP22]

4 hours ago, Kineticoh20 said:

In a word no! Since relaunch it was barely worth it at $29, $39 definitely not. Now my take is only regarding the ribeye.

 

That's $39 plus the cost of the meal your missing in the DR  ...... and usually plus an additional tip for better service. 

[Plato123]

We tried the Crown Grill twice on our recent Royal Princess cruise and were disappointed both times.  We did enjoy Sabatinis, especially the Osso Buco on the very new menu. We also found their pasta to be excellent. In our view much better value and ambiance than the Crown Grill.

We do wish they had more Italian wines by the glass and within the Premier package..

[hunt182644]

On 3/15/2023 at 7:56 PM, suzyed said:

We ate twice in Crown Grill on Enchanted over NYE. The first night I ordered the lamb chops and they were just ok, but DH enjoyed his steak.  The next time we ate there it was excellent!! The steaks were perfect and the service was great!  The only annoying part was the couple at the table next to us were talking about how young they looked and the man asked for 9 pats of butter at the beginning of their meal so they would be soft for when he wanted to put it on his food.  Yes, 9 pats.   LOL!
Sabatini's were wonderful and featured a new menu! The manager was so attentive and helpful! Great experience!
We have both booked for our upcoming Regal sailing.

Let us know did they really look young, or you can tell me on the TA in Oct.😀

[cruisequeen4ever]

Crown Grill is the best! We recently had it 3 times on the Royal, and it was just as good as pre-pandemic. Sabatinis we usually do once per cruise because I have to have my burrata and calamari, but Crown Grill is always superior. 

[Yowman]

So I've prepaid for CG at the old rate.  Really looking forward to steak.  If I find it not to be at the level of quality I expect for Specialty Dining can I send it back and ask for something else?

[wowzz]

2 minutes ago, Yowman said:

So I've prepaid for CG at the old rate.  Really looking forward to steak.  If I find it not to be at the level of quality I expect for Specialty Dining can I send it back and ask for something else?

Yes, of course, assuming your complaint is valid.