There are all kinds of eateries on cruise ships lately — from elegant French eating places to informal Italian trattorias and sushi bars. However maybe none are as common — or as commonplace — as cruise ship steakhouses.
If a cruise line has room for only a single restaurant on a vessel along with a principal eating room and an informal buffet eatery, it is more likely to make it a steakhouse. By our rely, there are greater than 100 of them on main cruise ships catering to North Individuals.
Cruise big Carnival alone has 24 steakhouses on its 26 ships.
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In lots of circumstances, the steakhouses are as elaborate and chic as any you may discover on land, with pretty, marbled, mouthwatering cuts of USDA Prime beef that has been dry-aged for weeks.
Along with all of the traditional meat cuts, from New York strip to porterhouse, the onboard eating places can even serve up traditional steakhouse seafood alternatives resembling Dover sole and lobster. You may count on all of the traditional sides, too, from sauteed spinach to potatoes each which manner.
This is our record of the very best cruise ship steakhouses afloat, plus what a meal in one of many onboard eating places is more likely to value you.
How a lot do cruise ship steakhouses value?
On many ships, the steakhouse is the date-night restaurant — the place you go for a particular night time after sending the little ones to the kids’s program.
In lots of circumstances, onboard steakhouses include an additional value, usually a flat price starting from round $39 to $55 per particular person, not together with drinks and gratuities. Provided that meals in the primary eating places on ships are included within the value of a cruise, this may appear steep to a cruiser. However in comparison with the everyday steakhouse on land, it is a discount.
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Even with the price of a bottle of wine added in, it is doable for a pair to have a full steakhouse dinner — appetizers, mains, sides and dessert — at some cruise ship steakhouses for not rather more than $120 earlier than gratuities.
On some ships, there is not any value in any respect to dine within the steakhouse. Many higher-end traces, resembling Oceania Cruises and Regent Seven Seas Cruises, embrace the price of eating in steakhouses and all or most different eateries of their fares.
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The very best cruise ship steakhouses
Beneath are our picks for the very best steakhouses at sea. A few of them, as you may see, are on the best luxurious ships; others are on probably the most mass-market of vessels. A few of them include an additional cost, whereas others are included within the fare. What all of them have in frequent is that they provide an exquisite array of traditional steakhouse dishes.
Prime 7
The place you may discover it: All Regent Seven Seas Cruises ships
Regent operates a number of the world’s most luxurious ships, so it comes as no shock that it affords a number of the most elegant and upscale steakhouses at sea. On all six Regent vessels, the road’s Prime 7 venues have a recent aptitude with burnished woods and wealthy earth-tone materials, in addition to supple leather-based wing-back chairs.
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As for the delicacies, it is every thing you’d count on from a high-end steakhouse, with a selection of New York strip, porterhouse, filet mignon and different beef cuts which are all USDA Prime and dry-aged a minimum of 28 days. Non-beef menu objects embrace Alaskan king crab legs and Dover sole. Starters embrace jumbo lump crabcakes, traditional steak tartare and clam chowder.
Value: There is not any further cost to dine at Prime 7, however reservations are required.
Tuscan Grille
The place you may discover it: All Solstice Class and Millennium Class vessels
Billed as an “Italian steakhouse,” Tuscan Grille is a steakhouse with a distinctly Italian twist. Along with traditional steakhouse fare, resembling New York strip and filet mignon, it serves up a variety of Italian pasta dishes (with handmade pasta) and different Italian-style delicacies. Fish dishes, for example, embrace swordfish acqua pazza Castelvetrano, which is made with olives, fennel, celery and leeks. There’s additionally a tuna romanesco with kalamata olives, capers and tomato.
A typical starter at Tuscan Grille is an antipasti board for the desk that includes artisanal salami and cheeses, and the wine menu is filled with regional Italian choices. The decor is rustic magnificence with a recent, minimalist edge.
A few of the latest Movie star Cruises ships within the line’s new Edge Class sequence of vessels have a separate steak eatery known as Superb Minimize Steakhouse.
Value: $55 per particular person for dinner ($50 if bought upfront of crusing); $30 per particular person for lunch
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Polo Grill
The place you may discover it: All Oceania Cruises ships besides Sirena
If it is a traditional steakhouse you need, Oceania Cruises is your line. The Polo Grill eating places on Oceania ships are the embodiment of the traditional steakhouses of previous with decor that options crisp white linen tablecloths, darkish wooden furnishings and supple, high-back, burgundy leather-based chairs — and a menu to match.
The objects on the menu embrace all of the traditional beef cuts, from a 32-ounce porterhouse to a 10-ounce New York strip (all USDA Prime and dry-aged for 28 days). Seafood decisions embrace such steakhouse classics as grilled swordfish and complete Maine lobster (steamed with drawn butter or au gratin), and there is a traditional Caesar salad as well (ready tableside, after all).
For these on the lookout for the final word in steakhouse privateness, word that the Polo Grill on the road’s latest ship, Vista, has a personal eight-room eating room — a primary for the road.
Value: There is not any further cost to dine at Polo Grill, however reservations are really useful.
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Fahrenheit 555 (and different Carnival steakhouses)
The place you may discover it: All Carnival Cruise Line ships besides Carnival Elation and Carnival Paradise
One of many nice paradoxes of the cruise world is that one of many lowest-cost operators — Carnival Cruise Line — has a number of the finest steakhouses at sea. At a set value of $49 per particular person, the steakhouses on Carnival ships (which frequently go by the title Fahrenheit 555, in addition to different names) are additionally a relative discount in comparison with related steakhouses on land.
Discovered on all however a handful of Carnival ships, the steakhouses serve all of the dishes you’d count on from a traditional steakhouse, from a 14-ounce New York strip to a 9-ounce filet mignon (each USDA Prime, aged 28 days). Different entree decisions embrace an appropriately marbled hunk of Australian wagyu beef, grilled lamb chops and Dover sole. Starters embrace heritage Berkshire pork stomach, bone marrow, hand-cut beef tartare and — after all — jumbo shrimp cocktail.
Carnival has a protracted custom of providing high-end steakhouses on its ships. The road started rolling out steakhouses in 2001 with the debut of its Spirit Class ships (the place, in one of many nice quirks of cruise ship design, the steakhouses are positioned in crimson domes that type the ahead parts of the ships’ funnels). There now are steakhouses on all however two of Carnival’s 26 vessels, with various names and decor.
Value: $49 per particular person (youngsters ages 11 and below can order from a youngsters menu for a flat price of $13)
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The Steakhouse at The Verandah
The place you may discover it: Queen Mary 2, Queen Elizabeth and Queen Victoria
Whereas all steakhouses supply some mouthwatering choices, the standard and choice present in The Steakhouse at The Verandah are merely very good. Count on sirloin cuts of wagyu beef, Alaskan king crab and sides which are so scrumptious it is troublesome to decide on only a couple.
Elevating the expertise are further touches that make all of the distinction. They embrace a waiter-presented showcase of every of the meats on supply, a number of specialty steak knives with various shapes and handles designed to cater to completely different hand sizes and an professional presentation of all dishes, particularly dessert.
Value: $45 per particular person for dinner, plus upcharges for sure objects, resembling a $30 complement for an 8-ounce portion of Earl Stonham wagyu sirloin and a $20 complement for a seafood platter for 2; $25 per particular person for lunch
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The Grill
The place you may discover it: All Silversea Cruises ships
The Grill on Silversea Cruises ships is not a steakhouse, per se, however it affords up grilled meats to rival lots of the steakhouses at sea — and with an uncommon twist. It is a restaurant the place passengers cook dinner their very own meats and fish at their tables atop sizzling lava stones. And by sizzling, we imply sizzling. The volcanic rock used for cooking is heated to 400 levels Celsius — about 752 levels Fahrenheit.
Supplied in an out of doors setting, The Grill is barely open for lava rock cooking through the evenings. In the course of the day, the venue serves rotisserie and gourmand salads along with providing a wide range of sandwiches and burgers.
Value: There is not any further cost to dine at The Grill, however reservations are really useful.
Crown Grill
The place you may discover it: Solar Princess, Discovery Princess, Enchanted Princess, Majestic Princess, Sky Princess, Regal Princess, Royal Princess, Caribbean Princess, Crown Princess, Grand Princess, Ruby Princess and Emerald Princess
The “Love Boat” line’s steakhouses are identified for his or her theater-style kitchens, which allow you to keep watch over the chef cooking your New York strip. They’re additionally identified for a large menu.
Among the many beef cuts obtainable are New York strip, Kansas Metropolis strip, rib-eye, filet mignon and porterhouse. Plus, there is a surf-and-turf possibility that mixes a filet mignon and lobster tail. Seafood decisions embrace Chilean sea bass and brioche-breaded king prawns (that is one dish) and a mussel and smoked sausage pot.
Decor-wise, the Crown Grill venues on Princess Cruises ships have a traditional steakhouse look.
Notice that the Crown Grill on one Princess ship, Regal Princess, options Goodstock by Nolan Ryan Angus beef, a premium Black Angus beef graded on the high finish of USDA Selection that comes from the ranching firm began by legendary Corridor of Fame pitcher-turned-rancher Nolan Ryan.
Value: $39 per particular person
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Pinnacle Grill
The place you may discover it: All Holland America ships
Holland America’s Pinnacle Grill is a steakhouse with a refined menu that includes a number of premium USDA Prime steaks. Along with traditional steakhouse dishes — from filet mignon to ribeye — the specialty restaurant serves an progressive number of contemporary fish (wild-caught king salmon from Alaska and Alaskan halibut, among the many decisions) in addition to pork, rooster and lamb recipes, together with vegetarian choices. Visitors might also select to share a particular 36-ounce bone-in ribeye for 2 at a supplemental cost.
The wine record showcases boutique alternatives from the Pacific Northwest, plus signature alternatives from world wineries that pair with the entrees.
Of word, the menu contains specialties designed by superstar chef David Burke, a member of Holland America’s Culinary Council. Amongst them are beef tenderloin with lobster dumplings and clothesline candied bacon. Jacques Torres, one other Culinary Council chef, designed his namesake chocolate souffle for the dessert menu.
Value: $46 per particular person for dinner; $19 per particular person for lunch (meals are half value for youths 12 and youthful or free once they order from the children menu)
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