Overall it was a great trip, although I would like to strike our trip to Chops out of my mind. I am very happy that we did that one first because if we did that meal on our last night it would have soured the trip. Izumi and Jamie's saved the trip after that experience.
Embarkation
5 out of 5
Very easy
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
5 out of 5
Main dining rooms were great, LOVED Jamie's Italian and Izumi, in fact if you have an unlimited specialty package go to these two more than once. Food and service were fabulous! It will be worth it! Hated Chops Grille, in fact when you look on their website under the best specialty dinners they aren't even listed on there. You need to go into dining to see information on them now.
Onboard Activities
5 out of 5
The ifly was really fun!
Entertainment
I am not a night person so I didn't go to these
Children's Programs
Adult trip
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
Izumi and Jamie's Italian was amazing, our waiters (Raphel - Izumi and Christopher -Jamie's) were right on point, they knew the menu, gave us suggestions, and were extremely attentive. In both restaurants, the managers came by to ask how we were doing, and in Jamie's when it got a little crowded the manager even took our dessert order. We did not wait long for food and everything was cooked to perfection. I cannot recommend those two restaurants enough.
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for Chops. It took them a while to seat us even though there were many empty tables, you could barely see the menu because it was too dark and the food was not what was expected of a steakhouse or any specialty restaurant. The lobster bisque tasted like beef soup with lobster water and tiny particles of lobster in it. The spicy shrimp didn't taste spicy nor did it look like a spice even touched it. My steak was cooked perfectly but it was bland, like nobody had time to season it and just threw it on the grill. The "sharable" sides were given to us in tiny portions, and even though we were told we could have more, we just had to ask, we didn't even finish the tiny portions because they weren't even very good.
The macaroni and cheese was watery and soupy and the noodles were soft, the truffle french fries looked like someone grabbed a bag of frozen fries, cooked them until they were too dry to eat, and threw some truffle salt on them, they didn't even put enough of that on there. Our waitress was nice and tried to do her best but she didn't really know the menu and seemed to be in the weeds fairly quickly and we waited a while for our food. No manager stopped by any of the tables in Chops on my side of the dining room while I was there. I understand that the Windjammer or the Main Dining Room would have to make foods a little more bland since there are so many people that eat there (not that this happened in either place - I am just stating that you could understand that if it happened) but this should not be the case for a specialty restaurant.
As far as our room, we had yet another wonderful room steward (last trip our room was also extremely clean). Ferdinand was wonderful, always checking on us, he knew our names by day two and the towel animals were very cute. I didn't see a speck of dust anywhere and even though I have long hair and have to vacuum up after myself all of the time he must have done the same because there was nothing visible when we returned to our room at the end of the day.
Overall it was a great trip, although I would like to strike our trip to Chops out of my mind. I am very happy that we did that one first because if we did that meal on our last night it would have soured the trip. Izumi and Jamie's saved the trip after that experience.
Ship Quality
5 out of 5
Everythting was clean and easy to find.
Cabin / Stateroom
5 out of 5
It was SOOOOO clean our attendant was amazing!
Ship tip
Don't waste your money on Chops Grille, go to Jamies or Izumi. Also, enjoy all of the new shops when you get off at Nassau. The design is perfect and as someone who had been watching the news I felt really safe in that area!
I’m on the anthem as we speak and I agree our dinner at chops was just as disappointing and it took 2hours and 45 min. Very Slow and not so great service
What you described as happening at Chop could of just as easily been one of the other specialty restaurants as well. Except for the head chef of each restaurant, all the food prep and service personnel work on 2-3 week rotations at each different restaurant during the course of their 5-9 month on board contract. If you cruised a different week would the is the chance of a similar experience possibly at Jamie's or another on board eatery.
Sorry you had a bad experience at Chops. We've sailed on Anthem twice within 2 years, the last being last February, and have always had a pleasant if not excellent time
Thanks for your review. We will be on this ship in June. We booked Chops Grill for dinner one night as we tried it on another ship and enjoyed it. Hopefully, we have a good experience.
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