Alternative ship dining

[TimothyG]

Anyone familiar with Ruths Chris Steak House? Not impressed with portifino's,

though it is very good, I would rather pay the nominal fee for dining at a

resturaunt with the quality of Ruths Chris. How did Portifino's get on RCCL?

[Nightrider]

Have eaten there once. Will never eat there again on my nickel....wait, on my stack of twenty dollar bills. Holy moly that's way too much money for a steak! We thoroughly enjoyed the food in the main dinig room on the ROS. I have been reading for days the comments about "poor" quality RCCL food and wonder what these same people eat at home. Our food was excellent!

[TimothyG]

I love eating in the ship dining room, really never had a bad meal, all was

very tasty. Love sampling all the deserts to make a decision. I eat at

Ruths once a year, My mother every Christmas asks me what I want under the tree and I tell her, mom don't spend any money on me, if you want to

get something, do it for the kids. But as usual she persists and tells me than

you'll have to be satisfied with what I get you, so I told her if you have to,

get me a gift certificate to Ruth's Chris, so it's been an annual Christmas present for me for the last several years. Last cruise I wanted a different

experience so we paid for Portifino's, to me the food wasn't all that better

than what you get in the main dining room. So for the additional dining fee

and a new dining experience, a resturaunt with Ruths Chris caliber would

be worth the fee. Don't get me wrong I really love all the food on board,

it's great, but for extra dining fee I'd want food to write home about.

[BobBeaSea]

Ruths Chris quality of dining in RCI alternative restaurants (Chops or Portofino) for $25.00? You are kidding us aren't you? :D

[pinkrosesdeb]

We were at Ruth's Chris last night and it is always over $100 per couple without drinks. Don't think you will find that onboard but we always enjoy our meals. Haven't had a bad one yet and we haven't tried one of the alternative restaurants yet. Think we will try Chops this time.

[TimothyG]

Sure would be nice

[TrentS]

Ruth's Chris and Mortons are 2 of my favorite restaurants, but as much as I love Chops, Chops isn't quite in that catagory, but it's also not as expensive. Chops is excellent though and I'll gladly pay $25 for dinner there over the dining room. Sorry to those who think the dining room food is great, I just don't care for mass produced cafeteria quality food.

[dc-snoopy]

Ruth's Chris and Mortons are 2 of my favorite restaurants, but as much as I love Chops, Chops isn't quite in that catagory, but it's also not as expensive. Chops is excellent though and I'll gladly pay $25 for dinner there over the dining room. Sorry to those who think the dining room food is great, I just don't care for mass produced cafeteria quality food.

 

Hmm...you and I don't seem to be eating the same food. I would hardly call what I've been eating on-board cafeteria quality food (perhaps in the Windjammer). I've gotten some very nice meals in the dining room, in fact all last week. We only found one or two entrees that were subpar and those were replaced by something else within about 5 minutes with no hassle for something better. I agree that it isn't 5-star food like RC, but it certainly is decent 4-star quality food. The prime rib was one of the better pieces of roast beef I'd had in a while (not that I eat too much red meat these days). It was certainly better than some of the wedding catering I've had to eat in the last few years and I know some of my friends/acquaintances paid some fairly steep prices for those meals.

 

Although DW and I considered going to Portofino's one night (I'm not a big red meat eater, so Chops didn't seem the place for us), since our dinner companions mostly wanted to stay as a group, we ended up not going and we never felt the lack. We had good meals (as you say, not great) that served us well. Maybe not as good as I prepare at home (or my various friends some of whom are serious gourmands or caterers), but then it was much less work!

 

To each his/her own.

[TrentS]

I'm not saying the dining room food was BAD, it's just that it's not the same calibur as Chops - Which I much prefer over the mass produced feel of the food I get in the dining room. It's probably as good as can be expected when they have to produce as many meals at once as they do. I just prefer the higher quality meats and cooked to order taste of Chops, that's all. It's worth it to me, to others I know it's not... As you said "to each his/her own" ;)