Royal Caribbean’s main dining room menu is continually changing so that you will never experience the same food more than once on the same cruise. An assortment of menus are shared across all the Royal Caribbean ships, and they aim to coordinate dishes from this selection with the ports the ship will be at and the tastes of the primary demographics on board the vessel. Today’s menu was sampled aboard Radiance of the Seas, and I have also encountered it on Voyager of the Seas and Jewel of the Seas.
The Saffron Menu
Saffron. Everyone knows saffron, the legendary high-price spice commonly found in Indian dishes. It is handpicked from flowers that only produce a tiny amount of the spice, making it labour intensive and driving up the price. Royal Caribbean’s saffron main menu incorporates saffron into the pan-fried hoki fillet.
Main Menu
This menu isn’t a bad one to dip your toes into some of the different soups and consomme’s that we love trying whenever we cruise. I am not keen on rum though, so, for starters, I got the shaved cantaloupe and honeydew melon which comes drizzled with Midori yoghurt. Look, I’ll be honest, it’s just rockmelon and honeydew melon with a bit of yoghurt, so if you are one of those people (like my wife) who is not a fan of these two kinds of fruit, you won’t like it. It is, however, a light and refreshing dish that is perfect for leading into the main meal. It also happens to be the only vegetarian starter on the menu.
Wifey loves the double-boiled chicken consomme. She has picked it every time we’ve had this menu. It’s filled with warmth and flavour, just don’t expect lots of chicken or the ricotta-spinach gnocchetti, after all, it’s only a starter. This dish is also the starter included on the Vitality menu.
For the main course, I opted for the pan-fried hoki fillet. I’ll admit, I’m a sucker for intense flavours, and this dish features saffron, capers, sultana grapes and pine nut relish. Add to that the fondant potatoes, some good fish, and I’m sold! I really enjoyed this dish, particularly the pine nut relish which turned out to have the capers and sultana grapes in it. It was soooo good! This is also the main course dish on the Vitality menu.
Wifey was feeling the beef though, so she went with the carved filet of beef tenderloin well-done. We find that a lot of dishes are a bit light on the vegetables though and we often feel like we are craving more veggies after a couple of days at sea. So, she also ordered a side of steamed vegetables for us to share which comes with broccoli, carrot and asparagus. I don’t know what they season it with, but it tastes great!
Dessert Menu
Next up is dessert! Saffron doesn’t make it into the dessert menu at all, but the chef’s recommendation is the bittersweet chocolate souffle. No good if you don’t like the flavour of coffee. Wifey tried this one once before, and it was way too strong for her tastes, but I quite enjoyed it.
The desserts on this menu are varied, and all look delicious. I got the low-fat berry bliss along with the ice cream of the day, raspberry and lime sherbet. Yum yum! The berry bliss is a berry mousse in one of Royal Caribbean’s standard moulds with strawberry jelly on top. It’s served with a dash of low-fat yoghurt, some strawberry syrup, whipped cream and a dark chocolate stick. The flavours are great, but it doesn’t hurt to let it warm up a little on the table. Mine was still partly frozen. This dish completes the Vitality menu.
The ice creams and sherbets of the day come served with an amoretti biscuit and are quite a generous serving. You could have this on its own for dessert, or get it to have with your dessert. They don’t always do sherbets, but when they do, they are great!
Wifey was pretty full after her beef tenderloin, so she asked for a fruit platter. This isn’t on the menu, but it’s always available if you are just feeling the need for some fruit. The standard selection is rockmelon, grapes, kiwi fruit, watermelon and pineapple.
What’s your favourite?
Have you had any of the dishes from the saffron menu in the main dining room? What was your favourite? Let me know in the comments below.
