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SPECIALTY RESTAURANT REVIEW
CHOPS GRILLE ANTHEM OF THE SEAS By Richard H. Wagner |
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Chops Grille
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Chops Grille has become the signature Royal Caribbean specialty restaurant. When you speak with guests in the upper tiers of Royal's Crown and Anchor loyalty program, it is not a question of whether they will go to Chops during the cruise but rather when they will go to Chops and often how many times. From experience, they know that regardless of the ship, Chops will provide a quality experience.
The Chops on Anthem is located on the starboard side of Deck 5 just off of the Schooner Bar. It is a dimly lit room decorated in in shades of brown. There are windows but as these look out at the lifeboats, the sienna-color curtains are kept drawn. Overall, in less politically-correct times, it would have been described as an up-market masculine décor, the kind favored by high-powered business executives in the 1950s. Chops style is also business-like. It does not aspire to the culinary artistry of a a fine dining venue. Rather, its strength is reliance on quality ingredients prepared in a straight forward manner. There is chicken, veal and a few varieties of seafood on the menu. However, this is a steakhouse and so beef is Chops' forte. On each occasions that I dined at Chops on Anthem, I had the nine ounce filet mignon, the king of steaks. Each time, it was cooked exactly as ordered, neither overcooked nor undercooked, tender and flavorful. Chops offers three sauces to go with the steaks but I did not find that any of them had enough personality of their own to enhance the flavor of the unadorned steak. For starters, the colossal shrimp cocktail is impressive. Often when shrimp get very big they lose their flavor but not so here. I also enjoyed the tender pan-roasted jumbo scallops. The forest mushroom soup was more flavorful than the three cheese roast onion soup. The service each time was efficient and friendly. |
Above: Chops Grille Pan-roasted jumbo scallops.
Below: A filet mignon with side dishes. 
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Cruise ship review - - Royal Caribbean International - - Anthem of the Seas - - Chops Grille