Samba Grill is one of 皇家加勒比’s speciality dining options hidden away on 海洋光芒. 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.
I stumbled upon it by accident on the first day of our first cruise on 海洋光芒. I don’t remember what I was looking for, but I noticed the different paintwork on the ship on deck 12 above the Windjammer and saw the signs up for it so checked out the menu (or lack thereof). The menu board outside didn’t give much away, and unlike most venues on the ship during day one, the doors were closed.
The menu board only listed six things that are meant to be “popular favourites”. Those six things were the Brazilian name for the dish and a short description. There were photos, but they weren’t labelled.
On a long cruise, like our 18-night transpacific cruise, it can be an excellent opportunity to try one of the speciality restaurants, and 皇家加勒比 offers speciality dining packages that give you discounts on three, four or five speciality dining experiences. Normally, Samba Grill costs USD $30 per person, making it a great deal when done as part of a dining package.
So when we considered doing speciality dining, we wanted to make an informed decision about what we would be eating and if we were even interested. We needed more information about the Samba Grill though, and this, in turn, brought me to the conclusion that 皇家加勒比 is doing a terrible job of marketing this excellent restaurant.
We asked other restaurants and guest services for more information about the Samba Grill, but no one could tell us what was on the menu. So we decided to try and catch someone at the Samba Grill during opening hours. These hours are evening only, usually 6-10pm, and because it is solely accessible from outside on deck 12, that means braving the night time open air on one of the windiest parts of the ship. The wind was so fierce on the night that we went to check the menu that we felt like we were going to get blown into the sea at almost every step. When we finally got there, the door was locked shut, and we had to stand there in the wind, waving around and knocking to try and catch someone’s attention to let us in before we got blown off the ship.
After all that, they told us that the Samba Grill does not have a menu. Instead, it has a self-serve salad bar that you can access as you wish, followed by a serving of each of the seven different Brazilian style BBQ types of meat on offer, including the six on the menu board and an additional beef cut.
That wasn’t helpful at all, but I did find this notice about eating undercooked meats that made it more apparent what the different meats are:
- Frango: Chicken breast wrapped in bacon
- Linguica: Brazilian cured pork sausage
- Lombo: Crusted herb pork loin
- Fraldinha: Tender cut from the bottom sirloin
- Cordeiro: T-bone lamb
- Filet mignon: Tender cut from beef tenderloin
- Picanha: Prime cut of top sirloin
Since we don’t eat pork products that at least told us we would be interested in five of the seven types of meat assuming the bacon could be separated from the chicken easy enough. Unfortunately, they could not tell us any more about it. At the time, it seemed incredibly peculiar that there was so little information about this restaurant and what it serves.
Armed with that limited knowledge we were not going to bother trying it at all. Particularly since it still wasn’t entirely clear how the meat servings worked. However, we wanted to try Izumi’s and Giovanni’s Table, so we decided since we could get the dining package for three restaurants at basically the same price as dining at two, we decided to get the dining package and try Samba Grill as well.
Right off the bat, let me say: we are so glad we tried it.
皇家加勒比 needs to work on how they present Samba Grill. It is, in my opinion, the best speciality dining restaurant on 海洋光芒 yet it is so poorly marketed we would not have bothered with it at all except for the dining package. It’s like all the focus is on Chops Grille, Izumi’s and Giovanni’s Table with Samba just an afterthought. A short narrative of the way the restaurant works with a simple menu would sell the restaurant to so many more people.
Something to the effect of:
Join our gauchos (Brazilian cowboys) for an evening of Brazilian BBQ inspired salads, sizzling vegetables, and seven mouth-watering cuts of meat brought to your table on the skewer carved straight to your plate. You will get to try them all at your own pace, just turn your meat-light from green to red when you need a break, or red to green when you are ready for the next cut. Save some room, though, you don’t want to miss out on one of our delectable Brazilian desserts!
Add to that a menu that explains how it works, lists the permanent salad items, indicates what the seven types of meat actually are, says what the desserts are, and they would be all set. It would be no larger than the Chops Grille menu and make a massive difference to the restaurant appeal. However, I digress, so let’s get back to the experience.
The Experience
Booking was difficult. As we didn’t know what day we wanted to go, we needed to book in the morning for dining the same evening. However, the number in the cruise compass to call for bookings with Samba Grill never worked for us. No matter when we called, it just wanted us to request a callback. That wouldn’t be a big deal except that we didn’t want to wait around for a callback (and we never actually received one anyway). We also tried the main dining reservations number which just gave us the same thing whenever we tried. Eventually, after speaking to guest services a few times and being diverted to the same voicemail boxes, they were able to put us on to someone that could place the booking for us.
We were hoping to be there for sunset since the cruise compass indicated Samba was open from 5:30 pm that night. After all, that’s part of the reason to go to the speciality restaurants right? They do have some of the best views. Unfortunately, though, it was wrong, and they weren’t open until 6:00 pm. So we booked for then, and just caught the tail-end of the sunset.
Bread
Upon our arrival, we were shown to our table and brought some warm cheese-filled bread balls. Then we were presented with what appeared to be a menu.
These bread balls don’t look like much, but they are unbelievably amazing! They are soft and warm with a strong cheese flavour. On the inside, they have a gooey cheese centre. YUM!
The “menu.”
It turned out the menu wasn’t a menu after all. It was a drinks list and had a narrative on it that explained the inspiration behind Samba Grill.
How Samba Grill Works
Our Maitre’d then explained to us how the restaurant works. Your table number is double-sided mostly serving as a stop light for the main course. One side has a red background, and the other has a green background. These sides indicate whether you are ready for the main meal, the BBQ meats, or whether you need a break from them for a little while. He suggested that we get some salads, but not too much, then turn the stop light from red to green, letting our gaucho know that we are ready for the main course. If we need a break or have just had enough, turn it back to red, and they will know to stop bringing out meats and check if we are ready for dessert.
It sounds pretty full on doesn’t it? It’s not, the restaurant is very relaxed, but the whole experience is as much a show as it is a mouth-watering meal.
The salad bar
So, we headed to the salad bar and picked up some things to try. While the bar is small, there is a decent selection of salad, cheese, bread and the like that are different to what is served elsewhere on the ship. It was unclear whether or not the items on the salad bar change, but the options that were there were yum.
Some of the options included:
- Lettuce leaves
- Olives
- Sliced tomato
- Sliced purple onion
- Sliced cucumber
- Ceaser dressing
- Thousand island dressing
- Italian dressing
- Potato salad
- Seafood salad
- Green bean with tarragon vinegar salad
- Smoked salmon
- Grilled mushroom with pesto salad
- Garlic crostini
- Marinated mussels
- Calamari salad
- Grilled asparagus
- Radicchio with balsamic glaze
- Assorted cold cuts
- Brie cheese
- Carrot and celery salad
- Baby mozzarella ball cherry tomato salad
- Feijoada soup
- Assorted cheeses
Main meal
Just after we sat back down, our gaucho came to the table and asked us how we like our meat cooked. They could do it anywhere from rare to well-done. We made our choice, medium-well for wifey and medium for me.
We turned our sign around to green straight away, so we could try and get some of the meats with our salads. At this point, we hadn’t been told there would be any vegetables served at all so we thought that it was going to be eating salad and then the meats on their own one after the other. We weren’t too excited about that. It turned out though that they still didn’t bring out any meats until after we had finished our salads, Before the first meat arrived, two sauces, salt flakes, and two bowls of goodies were brought out for the table. It turns out the salad bar is your starter.
The sauces were chimichurri and creole, while the first bowl had grilled vegetables, including squash, zucchini, tomato, onion and carrots.
The second bowl had excellent steak fries and super sweet deep fried banana’s. A little unusual I know, but it reminds me of the islands where fruit, especially banana, is commonly served as part of the main meal. Apparently, it is also common in Brazil.
Soon after the vegetables and fries arrived, the first meats were brought out.
Pork sausages and chicken breast wrapped in prosciutto
Our gaucho arrived at our table with a skewer holding two Brazilian pork sausages and two pieces of Brazilian-inspired chicken breast wrapped in prosciutto. We don’t eat pork, so we skipped the sausages and unwrapped our chicken. It wasn’t the stand-out meat of the night, but it was cooked perfectly, moist and tender.
I should mention, you don’t want to do the Samba Grill if you are in a hurry, like most restaurants on board, you can expect your meal to take two hours if you try all the meats.
Filet Mignon
Our first meat arrived about the half-hour mark. Then 10 minutes or so later, our gaucho came with our next cut, filet mignon. After serving it straight from the skewer to our plates, our gaucho made sure that it was cooked to our liking. If not, he would take it back and make sure it was right.
After checking it, we noted it wasn’t quite right but close enough, so we were happy with it, and we didn’t want to wait longer for it. I have to say; it was superb. Chops Grille is known for their filet mignon, but the Samba Grill filet mignon is significantly better. It’s a pretty similar size, so I assume the meat is the same, the difference just being in how they cook it. We were blown away by how good it was, and the creole sauce with it was fantastic. If you want to see the filet mignon at Chops Grille, check out my review.
羊肉
Next came the lamb, cooked to perfection. It was served off the skewer again, of course.
We were starting to get pretty full by this point, especially considering the salad, vegetables, chips and banana’s we had also eaten. Fortunately, up next was the pork loin which we don’t eat. So we had a bit of a break and contemplated calling it a night, after all, we had the filet mignon already. Surely the remaining two beef cuts, the striploin and tenderloin couldn’t be any better.
Beef striploin
Fortunately, the striploin arrived before we turned our sign to red, so we gave it a try. The striploin is carved straight from the skewer to your plate, and it was terrific. It was the stand-out of the night, cooked perfectly with a crunchy, outer glaze from the seasonings. Since your gaucho carves it in front of you, you can have as much or little as you want. We had already had plenty of food, so we only had a small piece each, and we are happy we did! Add some chimichurri sauce for something different, and you can’t go wrong.
Tenderloin
Note: The meat list suggests the tenderloin is the filet mignon and there should be two striploin cuts. However, our gaucho told us this was tenderloin, so I’m not 100% sure which cut it is.
After how good the striploin was, we decided it was only fair to wait and see what the tenderloin was like as well. It wasn’t long before it arrived and was again carved from the skewer directly to our plates. A little piece was all we could handle, but it was excellent too. It was not as good as the striploin, but was well worth waiting for and trying.
Desserts
Once you’ve had enough to eat, turn your table number around, so the red side is visible, and your gaucho will be around to see if you are ready for dessert. If so, there are three options.
The choices are either creme caramel, pina colada pannacotta or layered chocolate cake. Once you let your gaucho know that you are ready for dessert, a waiter will bring around a dessert tray with one of each dessert on it for you to make your selection. We were kind of disappointed when they were presented to us as the options didn’t seem Brazilian inspired. We were even more disappointed when the desserts we had chosen left with the waiter, and there was a 10-minute delay before they were brought out to us. It’s probably a good thing though since it gave us a bit more of a break between courses.
I went for the pina colada pannacotta as it seemed the most “Brazilian”.
While it wasn’t mind-blowing, it was yum and very light, which is a good thing after a huge meal!
Wifey went for the layered chocolate cake.
I’m not sure what makes this one Brazilian inspired, but it was a big surprise. Slice it open and there was layer upon layer of crunchy, moussey, yummy chocolatey goodness!
总体
If I had to rank the meats we ate in order of mouth-watering goodness where one is the best, I would say:
- Striploin
- 羊肉
- Tenderloin
- Filet mignon
- 鸡胸肉
通常,我更喜欢鸡肉,所以我将其评级为5的事实是说牛肉和羊肉的品质如何!关于餐点的其他部分,沙拉是Samba Grill特有的。在船上其他任何地方都找不到。在我看来,其中一些非常吸引人,而其他人则没有。那不是为什么你在这里吗?
烤蔬菜味道很好。我不喜欢南瓜,但是我很喜欢,西红柿很甜。在我看来,牛排薯条很棒,是它们上最好的薯条 海洋光芒 无限制。然后,当然是炸香蕉了。不要忽略这一点。这是唯一可以在船上获得的地方,虽然并不是每个人都喜欢,但值得至少尝试一次。我个人真的很喜欢它们。它们是另一种香蕉,刚开始会比较坚硬,因此煮熟后,它们会保持坚硬,而外面变软并粘糊糊。用面糊包起来,就可以了。它们非常甜,在香蕉渗入的地方,面糊有点耐嚼,因此质地在不断变化。
甜点似乎没有特别的灵感,但它们很有趣,并在傍晚时分高调地制作。
Is It Worth It?
要前往Samba Grill,您必须支付$30pp的服务费或购买特色餐饮套餐。无论哪种情况,您都必须支付额外的费用。对于我们来说,我们拥有很多机上积分,因此我们决定在餐饮套餐中使用其中的一部分,然后尝试一下。值得。如果您是素食主义者或素食主义者,那不适合您。仅仅为沙拉,蔬菜和香蕉而付的额外费用是不值得的。如果您不吃肉,几乎其他任何一家餐馆都将为您带来更多价值。如果您确实吃肉,那么这里就是您想要的地方。
很难到达,尤其是在天气恶劣的情况下,但是,我们喜欢就餐体验,氛围,南美风格的音乐,羊肠和您的羊肉提供肉食的方式。服务非常好,尽管有两个小时的用餐时间,但我们从来没有感觉到我们在等待更长的时间来等待任何事情。那里的团队很友好,似乎很喜欢他们的工作,这使整个体验变得更加有趣。
然后,当然还有食物本身。它很棒,我认为是船上最好的特色餐厅 海洋光芒。鉴于它有多出色,令我惊讶的是Samba不在其他任何船上或销售情况更好。因此,鉴于此,您绝对希望确保在机上时尝试一下 海洋光芒.
你怎么认为?
您尝试过Samba Grill吗?你怎么看?您是否像我们一样喜欢它?你最喜欢吃什么肉?我希望在下面的评论中听到您的想法。