Crown Grill Food Quality?

[1aCruise4wks]

My recent dining experiences at the Crown Grill have not been good.  Had two experiences on the Sapphire Princess last October and an experience on the Caribbean Princess two months ago - all of them bad experiences due to poor quality steaks.  On the Caribbean Princess, I spoke with a few other passengers who had exactly the same experience with poor quality steaks.  We originally planned to dine at the Crown Grill several times during our 20 day cruise but, after the first bad experience, we cancelled plans for any more.  Now, I'm not sure if I should make reservations for the Crown Grill on our upcoming cruise this fall.  I've noticed a few remarks on this forum about poor food quality at the Crown Grill on a variety of ships.  Is this something that is happening on all of the ships?  Has Princess dropped food quality in the Crown Grill fleet wide?

 

 

[JimmyVWine]

32 minutes ago, 1aCruise4wks said:

My recent dining experiences at the Crown Grill have not been good.  Had two experiences on the Sapphire Princess last October and an experience on the Caribbean Princess two months ago

Sapphire Princess does not have a Crown Grill.

 

That said, your own experience and the experiences with the people you spoke with are consistent with what many (but not all) people are experiencing.  There are many threads and posts about it, but to sum it up, the Ribeye steaks are getting panned repeatedly but the Filet Mignon still receives good reviews, as do the apps, sides and desserts.  So if you are a fan of Filet, I think you could make a nice dinner out of a Filet plus all of the other offerings on the menu.  Of course, if your past bad experiences were with the Filet, than let than be your guide and ignore me. 

[1aCruise4wks]

JimmyVWine, from a physical viewpoint, the Sapphire Princess doesn't have a Crown Grill but they take a back section of the Horizon Court at night and convert that into a "Crown Grill" where they offer the standard Crown Grill menu, along with the "elevated" service level of a Crown Grill.

 

I should note that all of my bad experiences were with Ribeye steaks.

 

[msmoger]

13 minutes ago, 1aCruise4wks said:

 

I should note that all of my bad experiences were with Ribeye steaks.

 

 

Actually it's called Sterling Steakhouse on the Sapphire. The menu is basically the same as The Crown Grill.

 

Edited April 5, 2023 by msmoger

[Steelers36]

I will say that we too had less than acceptable quality beef in CG last Fall (by that I mean for what it used to be and what we ought to expect with the cover charge and the marketing). 

 

However, I would consider my experience (and anyone else who last cruised several months ago) to be at least partly irrelevant and would defer to reports of guests attending CG in the past month.  You are asking about this coming Fall which is some months away yet and who knows what might change?

 

I'd just keep monitoring when members report here or ask any friends on ships in the interim.  You can always book and cancel after trying once.  

[Eleanor Rigby 14]

My DH and I ate at the Crown Grill on the Crown Princess within the last month. We usually love NY strip steaks when we eat out at a steak restaurant at home but we both decided to try the rib-eye steaks. We ordered them medium and they were delicious. Cooked exactly the way we wanted them to be…pink in the center. We were given a sampling of all three salts on our plates which we really enjoyed.We had the Black and Blue Onion soup which tasted great…and the marinated goat cheese and tomato salad, also good. I had the baked potato with sour cream and chives, DH had the red skin mashed potatoes….neither of us had any complaints. We shared the asparagus (they gave us maybe five spears altogether) and the creamed spinach(which was okay but I wished it was a cheesy creamed spinach, it was not). For dessert we had the salted caramel crème brûlée cheesecake which was probably my favorite dessert of the entire trip. The service was a little slow but we were okay with that as we still made it to the 7:30 show in the theatre. We would definitely eat at the Crown Grill again.

 

Full disclosure: we sat at a table facing a window with another table directly in our view. The couple sitting there ordered the rib-eye steaks also. At one point they abruptly left their table without any word spoken to their waiter. We could see on the plates they left behind that the steaks were extremely rare and not much of them were consumed. I have to say their steaks were the reddest color I have ever seen…not anything I would ever eat. Maybe this was the reason they left their table so suddenly…or maybe they wanted REALLY good seats in the theatre…I have no way of knowing. 

 

Just trying to give you a fair assessment of how the rib-eye steak experiences went that particular evening. Hope you enjoy your fall cruise!

Edited April 5, 2023 by Eleanor Rigby 14

[FrankieJayIII]

I have never had a good steak in a restaurant except for 1x in Texas at Longhorn. 

 

I have tried many steakhouses and no one does it quite like home grilled. 

 

I am going to be on the Ruby in May and this is my "anniversary dinner".    Believe me.  I will be more critical than the worst of cruise critics as I have rarely if ever been impressed with steak in a restaurant.    Unfair ?  Maybe... but even the best steakhouses just don't cook great steaks anymore.