Samba Grill is one of Royal Caribbean’s speciality dining options hidden away on Radiance of the Seas. It is not on every ship, in fact, it’s not on any others at all, so it’s unique in that regard, and in the cuisine. Samba Grill is a Brazilian inspired restaurant that serves salads, grilled veggies and seven different cuts of meat straight off the rotary grill skewer. First, though, you have to find the restaurant.
We don’t usually bother with speciality dining. After all, why pay extra to go to a fancy, fine-dining restaurant when the main dining room is already a fancy restaurant with fantastic, fine-dining food. This cruise though, aboard Radiance of the Seas, we scored 25% off for our booking during a pre-cruise promo, so we decided to book Chops Grille for dinner on Wifey’s birthday. You can also book on board by visiting the restaurant or giving them a call from your in-room phone.
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.
On our way from Christchurch to Queenstown for our holiday we went through Lake Tekapo. Our plan had been to arrive here around sunset time so we could get a few nice photos at the Church of the Good Shepherd with the sun setting in the background over the lake. Then we would go get dinner at Mackenzie’s Bar and Grill looking over the water as the sun finishes setting. Unfortunately with our flight into Christchurch delayed we weren’t in time for sunset. We definitely didn’t miss out on Mackenzies Bar and Grill for dinner though! We tried this place out on our honeymoon because they accepted Bartercard which helped keep our costs down and we absolutely loved it, so since we were going through at a meal time we didn’t want to miss out.
I didn’t get any photos of outside unfortunately since it was dark, but it is just here:
Ignore where Google Maps actually places it further up the highway, it’s incorrect. If you use the above location and jump on Google Streetview, you will see the “Observatory Cafe”. That is where Mackenzie’s now is located.
