Dinner at Chops Grille-Vision OTS

I’ve finally made it to my last installment of specialty dining from my Vision of the Seas sailing in February. This restaurant was a little difficult at first for me to go back to. I had previously tried Chops on Oasis last year and was not a huge fan. After hearing from other fellow cruisers that it is better on the smaller ships in the fleet, I decided to give it a try.

This visit to Chops was a first for my mother and step father who were traveling with me as well. The appetizers of choice were the goat cheese salads, crab cake and the slab bacon with sauce. I will say since we ended up eating here twice during this sailing that they goat cheese salad was hands down one of the best things I’ve eaten from a Specialty Restaurant. The bacon was very good as well. However, I need to mention the crab cake. I was not a fan of it on Oasis but it was killer on this sailing!

I wanted to submit a second note about appetizers from our second dining experience on this sailing as well. We tried the jumbo shrimp cocktail and the tuna tartare as well. I really enjoyed the tuna because it was so fresh and crisp. The plating was gorgeous as well.

Between the appetizers and entrees we ordered one of the seafood towers. What a treat this was. There was an assortment of chilled seafood on both layers including lobster, shrimp, mussels and octopus. The tower was accompanied by three different kinds of sauces as well. This is definitely a must if you have a few people to share with.

The way that the entree round is presented is that each person will receive their meat on their own plate and sides are served family style. Our table ordered the ribeye, rack of lamb and the filet. For the sides we selected the mashed potatoes, truffle french fries, asparagus, mac and cheese, sauteed mushrooms and creamed spinach. The favorites were the asparagus, mushrooms and creamed spinach. I wasn’t too crazy about the others but was already feeling pretty stuffed at this point. I know that some people say that a good steak shouldn’t need anything but I really enjoyed the bernaise sauce in Chops too. All of the steaks were cooked to perfection. I recommed asking for just butter, salt and pepper when ordering. When I had this on Oasis it came out with a lot of dry herbs on top and I just wasn’t a fan of it.

Dessert time came way too soon. However, we all pushed through our full stomach’s to make it happen. The mud pie was a big favorite of the table and I have to say I actually really enjoyed the cheesecake even though I’m from New York and know what real cheesecake is! The serving sizes are huge!

To conclude, I’m glad that I have Chops a second (and third) try on this sailing. As some of you know from my live videos on Periscope, the Main Dining Room food was lacking which pushed us toward the specialty dining. The lesson learned is that you need to try something more than once. We are all human and are capable of error from time to time.

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