In episode two we explored all of the amazing specialty dining opportunities the Anthem of the Seas offered, but now I wanted to review all of the other dining options that are offered at no additional cost on the cruise.
There are four main dining room onboard the Anthem of the Seas. They are Silk, Chic, The Grande and American Icon Grill. They all serve delicious multi-course meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner. For lunch the American Icon had their normal menu, but a small buffet-style setup as well. In addition to a great salad bar, they offered fruit, a chocolate fountain, and a wide assortment of desserts, which included warm bread pudding.
We ate in Silk a couple of nights and in American Icon on another. The Grande and Chic are for passengers who requested set dining times(either an early or late seating). Silk and American Icon are designated for passengers who choose My Time Dining, meaning that they can eat at any time during dining hours. The good part about My Time Dining is that you don’t need to be limited to eating at a certain time. However, the downside is that there might be a wait to be seated during peak times, but you can make a reservation to speed things up.
The food served for dinner was absolutely wonderful. Instead of going over what we ate meal by meal, I decided to group the reviews in courses.
The appetizers were all really good. Let’s start with a common favorite, the shrimp cocktail. It is a descent size, although I think the ones at Chops Grill were larger. The Caesar salad was delicious, and all of the ingredients were excellent quality. Without question, one of my favorite appetizers is the escargot. It was very tender, and the garlic and butter flavoring was everything that you could hope for. The French onion soup was very tasty, but I think I would have liked a bit more cheese on it. But then can you ever have too much cheese? Finally, one of the tastiest appetizers I tried was the Korean pork tacos. It would not normally be something that I would order, but I was really glad that I did.
Now, for the main courses, they have something for everyone to enjoy. The first night I went with the New York strip loin with herb butter. The steak was cooked well and had a ton of flavor. The broccoli was steamed so that it was tender, but not mushy. My wife had the roasted chicken breast. The chicken was tender and juicy, and the mashed potatoes were full of flavor. On another night I was excited to see that they offered lamb chops. They were so tender and delicious, as were the grilled vegetables that accompanied them. My wife really enjoyed the shrimp scampi and the portion they served was rather large, but not so big there was no room for dessert.
Speaking of desserts, there was no shortage of sweet endings to your meals. Most nights everyone at the table shared a little of their desserts with someone else since it was tough to decide on just on thing. The Royal Chocolate Cake was very decadent but not too sweet. The Cherries Jubilee was good and not a really heavy dessert. The crème brule and tres leches was alright, nothing spectacular, but decent. I tried the Baba au Rhum for the first time and I actually liked it quite a bit. It is a spongey cake soaked in rum syrup and filled with whipped cream. On the night I had the cheesecake for dessert, I was a little disappointed. However, it was the night after I had the best cheesecake ever at Jaime’s Italian, so although it was decent, it had a hard act to follow.
Overall, the food at the main dining room was very good, but not as good as the specialty dining rooms.
