Voyager Of The Seas - Royal Caribbean International [Part II - Dining Options]

Onboard dining is not just on food but the ambiance, variety and the flexibility to decide when and what we like is also into consideration. In Voyager Of The Seas, it includes dining from casual to sophisticated, cupcakes to canapes and etc (many of them included in the price of your cruise). And if you prefer soft drinks, wine and etc to go with your meals, you can choose to pair meals with a beverage package and enjoy up to 25% savings on your favorite drinks.

In this Part II of my "Voyager Of The Seas - Royal Caribbean International" post I will be sharing some of the Dining Options we had tried during our trip onboard the Voyager Of The Seas.

MAIN DINING ROOM

Sweeping, multi-level ambiance, world-class cuisine and extraordinary personal service from a dedicated wait staff. The Main Dining Room serves exceptional, multi-course meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It is a 3 tier dining room located at Deck 3 (Carmen), Deck 4 (La Boheme) and Deck 5 (Magic Flute).

You can enjoy a new dinner menu each evening in an elegant setting, with two seatings nightly such as Main Seating(5:45pm) and Second Seating(8:00pm) or choose My Time Dining (Deck 5, Magic Flute where you can make reservation for your desired seating time, between 6:00pm - 9:30pm).

For family with kids, this is a "must" reservation for your family to enjoy a hearty complimentary morning breakfast with the DreamWorks Family such as Shrek, Po from Fung Fu Pandan, King Julien and etc.

Ham Omelette with Turkey Sausage and Hash brown

One of the sample dinner menu from Main Dining Room

Starters that we had during one of the night at the Main Dining Room. We love their Vidalia Onion Tarts which is one of their signature starters. The caramelized onions makes the tarts so flavoursome that it leaves you craving for more after each bite.

Their Asian main course dishes are rather average in taste compared to the western dishes so don't put too much expectation on the Asian dishes. I love the Deep-fried Shrimp and Potato Gnocchi if compared to the Stir-fry Noodles and Chicken

I am sure by looking at this photo above it makes you crave for some dessert at the moment. For me I think their Dessert is a Hit and honestly I love all kinds of desserts from hot to cold, fried to bake. Here the Chocolate Cherry Cake and Savarin are their chef recommended which you might want to give it a try during your next cruise trip.

WINDJAMMER CAFE

Windjammer cafe is at Deck 11 and this seaside cafe offers 3 main meals + afternoon snack per day in buffet-style starting from Breakfast at 6:30am(till 10:30am), Lunch (11:30am - 3:00pm), Tea-Break (3:00pm - 5:00pm) and Dinner (5:30pm - 9:00pm).

Here is some of our daily Breakfast shots! We are so excited to find some Asian fried noodles, Steamed Glutinous Rice Parcel and Steamed Bun during one of the breakfast buffet.

Buffet style Breakfast menu which they will rotate different items each day. But the common dishes are scrabble eggs, sausages, toast, muffins, oatmeals and etc.

Lunch menu with varieties like Salad Greens, Burgers and Fries, Rice and Noodles, Sandwiches and etc.

For Dinner, there is Sushi counter, Roasted Chicken or Lamb, Asian Noodle Counter, Salad Bar, Indian Cuisine and etc.

My favourite Dessert Counter which consists of different daily spread of cakes, pastries, cookies, ice-cream, fresh cut fruits and etc.

PORTOFINO ITALIAN DINING

Located beside Windjammer at deck 11, Portofino is an Italian fine cuisine restaurant with an intimate atmosphere and an upscale flavor. It opens from 5:30pm - 9:00pm and it takes about approximately two hours for dining. The prefer dress code is smart casual attire - jackets for men, dresses or pantsuits for women.

A nominal fee ranging from $20.00 USD applies to per dining guest, including gratuities. And the you may dine with children under 13 years of age before 7:00pm.

CAFE PROMENADE

Cafe Promenade usually opens 24 hours during the cruise trip serving sandwiches, cookies, pizza and etc. Other than snacks it also offers favorites like Seattle's Best Coffee and Ben And Jerry's ice-cream at your own cost.

Here are some of the snacks available at Cafe Promenade during afternoon tea or you can also check up Windjammer at Deck 11. Our favourite snack from Cafe Promenade are their array of piping hot Pizza and Chocolate Chips Cookies.

ROOM SERVICE

During one of the days where we had our off shore excursion, we decided to try their special Suite Guests Dinner Menu for room service because we are all too tired to leave the room.

But no matter morning, noon, teabreak or whatever timing you want, you can simply make a order (room service 24/7) to enjoy breakfast in bed, coffee and cheesecake at your leisure time at your balcony, or a delicious dinner like what we did. All these are complimentary except between midnight and 5:00am where an additional USD$3.95 service charge will be applied.

Delicious Starters and Main Courses served in room service and their plating is still as same as what we had in their main dining room.

Love their dessert, I can just similar wobble up all the desserts to replace my main course.

OTHER DINING OPTIONS

For Suite Guests, there is another place for afternoon tea other than Windjammer and Cafe Promenade. You can visit the Concierge Club Lounge at Deck 9  to enjoy some hot food, cake and pastry as well as beverage such as coffee, juice and cocktail.

Johnny Rockets is an American restaurant onboard similar with everything you could expect from the shoreside restaurant (with authentic 1950s decor, a menu filled with all-American favorites and etc). A fee of $4.95 USD applies per dining guest and soda, bottled water and milk shakes are offered at current menu prices. It opens from 11:30am till midnight.

Ben And Jerry's located at Deck 5 of the Royal Promenade, opens from 11:30am till 2:00am. So whenever you needs so chill out you can drop-by and have scoop of your favourite ice-cream. (payment can be made through SeaPass Card)


For more photos related to this post on Voyager Of The Seas - Dining Options, please click on the link HERE (photos from Cuisine Paradise facebook page). Till then stay tune for Part III which features our offshore excursions to Penang and Phuket.

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Reunion Dinner At Peach Garden, 33 OCBC Centre

Last year our combined family reunion dinner was organised by my brother and it was held at "Si Chuan Dou Hua Restaurant - 四川豆花饭庄" at UOB Plaza(post HERE). And this year it will be my cousin's turn to source for the dinner venue as well as selection of menu.

Finally after some research he decided to held the dinner at one of the newest "Peach Garden(桃苑)" outlet at level 33, OCBC centre.

From the photo above, you can glance that our menu for this year is "Chef's Recommendation Lunar New Year Special Set Menu" that consists of 1 Yu Sheng as appetiser, 5 Main Courses and 2 Desserts to cater for 12 Adults.

Upon arriving at the restaurant there is a pool of "Tangerine(柑)" available near the entrance counter for customers to pick up as a symbolise of "Good Luck". Other than tangerines there are also bottles of  Peach Garden homemade special "XO Sauce" on sale for customers to purchase home.

Before dinner starts there are some delicious "Almond Cookies(杏仁饼)" from Peach Garden that is served as snack. And most of us who tried agrees that these cookies do taste light with a hint of delicate Almond flavor that is not too overpowering. Some even believes that Almond cookies symbolise "COINS" which will bring good fortune too.

As usual the 1st dish for any Chinese New Year Menu will be "Yu Sheng(鱼生)" which symbolise good luck, prosperity, promotion and etc. According to the waitress this dish is known as "福星高照" and she will help to add/pour in the ingredients one at time with auspicious greetings used for Chinese New Year before we starts our "Lo Hei(撈起)".

Other than the usual Shark's fins and Abalones, "Roasted Golden Suckling Pig(金陵片披乳猪)" is another popular dish to be included in traditional Chinese New Year Reunion menu which symbolise "Gold and Good Luck". For this dish the crispy skin layers are eaten with either flat bun or thin wrapper together with hoisin sauce.

While the reminding parts of the suckling pig is usual cut into small pieces and braised with "Mei Cai(梅菜)"  or deep-fried with seasoning shown above. Eveyone comments that this is indeed a very delicious dishe as the crispy outer layer is being infuse with a light and tasty salt and pepper seasoning which makes it goes choice to go with either beer or wine.

Next on the list is this "Double-boiled Shark's Fin with Shrimp Dumpling and Mustard Green Soup(亭汤中鲍翅水饺菜胆). To me this soup is nothing really special perhaps just a good soup broth that tops with a small piece of "Sharks Fin" and Shrimp dumpling.

This "Braised 1 Head Whole Abalone with Sea Cucumber and Lettuce(原只１头鲍鱼海参菜)" is one of my aunt's family favourite dish as they loves the texture of Abalones.To us the sea cucumber is nicely cooked with a soft and gluey texture but the abalone was rather a bit bland to taste. Still prefer the braised abalone from Ah-Yat or Owen.

The "Braised Soon Hock with Yam Paste(芋泥焖笋壳鱼)" was rather miserable in appearance and taste. Before this dish is serve I was rather excited to see how the chef will incorporate "Yam Paste" into the dish but when it comes the serving appearance immediately gives it a "F" grade. Perhaps the waitress are pretty busy and they did not even ask us whether to serve the fish in whole or in individual portion. And we can only see a few yam cubes in it rather than what is mentioned as "Yam Paste" so I think there is nothing special about this dish which is just braised fish with yam cubes in sauce.

Last dish is "Saute Live Prawns with Noodles and Homemade Sauce(干爆生虾捞面)" with lots of LEEKS(蒜) that symbolise "money" whereas the noodles in this dish symbolise "longevity in health".

Finally it's Dessert time, as usual there are two different types of dessert in the Chinese New Year menu. The 1st one shown on the photo is "Dried Glutinous Rice Ball(干捞汤圆)" where the black sesame fillings rice ball is coated with grind peanuts.

Second dessert is rather something new apart from those usual mango pomelo or red bean soup. This is known as "Ice Refreshing Pearl Tea(冰凉珍珠茶)" that serves with mini chewy pearls and cold refreshing jelly together with fragrant tea.

Overall this is a great Reunion Dinner where everyone gets together and stay as a family that shares happiness and funtime. And as usual every year after reunion dinner, Uncle James will give each of us an advance ang bao known as "Ya Sui Qian(压岁钱). In the olden days, during Chinese New Year eve the elders will prepared some advance money to be given to the younger generation as this said New Year's money is use to suppress the evil spirit and the junior will have money to spend in peace in coming New Year.

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Jia Wei Chinese Restaurant @ Grand Mercure Roxy Singapore

Earlier this week, I was invited to a tasting dinner at Jia Wei Chinese Restaurant together with Maureen from “misstamchiak blog”. This Chinese restaurant is at level 2 of Grand Mercure Hotel which is located in the heart of Katong that is just 15 minutes away from Changi International Airport. Within the hotel itself, there are two restaurants and bars that serves different varieties of food range from fine Chinese cuisines to authentic Singapore's Traditional Buffet dishes and Western delights.

Jia Wei Chinese Restaurant has being operating in Grand Mercure Hotel since December 2007, which will be coming to its 4th years of operation this December. This Chinese restaurant offers an exquisite and oriental fine dining experiences with its fusion Chinese cuisines created by its award-winning Chef, Lee Tuck Seng (李德胜).

Chef Lee brings with him over thirty years of culinary experience culled from his various postings in various renowned hotels and restaurants. His is specialised in Cantonese cuisine where he always continuously refines the art of cooking through improvisation and experimentation. I love what Chef Lee’s has code for his philosophy towards his work; “Put your whole heart in it and your plates will reflect it”.

To start off with the dinner, we each have a bowl of “Hot & Sour Soup” as starter before the main dishes are served. The taste of this soup is just nice for our liking as it is neither too spicy nor sour compare to most of the Szechuan Hot and Sour Soup. According to Chef’s Lee, he actually used “white peppercorns” that makes the taste mild instead of the usual “Szechuan Peppercorns - 花椒 “ which gives a more numb and spicy taste to the soup. And I must agreed this is quite an appetising soup to stir up our appetite for the upcoming dishes.

"Grilled Cod Fish with Chef's Special Sauce" is my favourite pick out of the 5 tasting dishes from the menu. From what Chef Lee has shared, he actually used some salted plum (水梅), tomato sauce, chilli oil and etc to create this sweet sauce which I think it has a quite similar taste towards Teriyaki sauce. With this suace, he used it to brush on the cod fillet before and during the baking process in order to achieve the attractive golden brown colour on the surface of the fish. There are also some side vegetables such as baby corn, mushroom and broccoli that makes a great combination with the drizzle sauce too.

This “Roasted Chicken with Garlic” platter comes with a few pieces of roasted chicken and Mock Goose (素斋鹅 - usually you will find this crispy bits served on top of the vegetarian bee hoon) that tops with some crispy fried minced garlic. The chicken has a very crispy outer skin and surprisingly the meat is still very tender and juicy when bites. If you prefer, you can eat this with their special chilli sauce which I think goes pretty well with the chicken.

For vegetable dish we had this "Stir-fried Scallops with Asparagus" which you can still enjoy the fresh and crunchiness of the thick asparagus slices.

Homemade Fried Mee Sua is also one of my favourite noodle dishes other than Braised Ee Fu noodles. I have tried this similar fried mee sua dish in a few restaurants before and the one served at Jia Wei has definitely more “hidden” ingredients. Bad sad to say, this is not the best fried Mee Sua as compare to what I had eaten before, perhaps too many ingredients adds complexity to the taste of this dish.

Having a cup of this wonderful "Chilled Aloe Vera with Lime Sorbet" is definitely a good choice from the array of desserts on the menu. This dessert consists of 3 different textures such as the Aloe Vera cubes at the bottom of the cup that gives you crunchy bites, middle are some soft and silky jelly follow with a scoop of Lime Sorbet on top. The Lime Sorbet was kind of sour but it actually blends well with the jelly and Aloe Vera, which made this a very refreshing dessert after those dishes.

While chatting with each other during the dinner, I was sharing about my passion towards using Durian as an ingredients in my recipes blog when Jennifer suggest that in this case we must try their special Durian desserts which is available in their Ala Crate Menu known as "Deep-fried Durian Ice-Cream" and "Durian Paste" from Feast @ East Buffet Restaurant that is located at level 3.

This is indeed a special Durian dessert where the Ice Cream is coated with a layer of batter and deep-fried till golden and crispy. This must be done in a skillful way in order to achieve the right crispy texture for the outer wrapper and yet retain the ice cream from melting in the parcel. The ice cream parcel is then served with mango puree sauce together with some pomelo in it which you reminds you of the Mango Pomelo dessert(杨枝甘露). Overall the taste of the mango sauce goes pretty well with the ice cream parcel, but if you don't wish to mix the two flavour, you can mango sauce and just enjoy your durian parcel where the ice cream will starts to ooze out when bite.

The second Durian dessert is specially taken from Feast @ East Buffet Restaurant that is located at level 3 of this hotel. Personally I will still prefer the Deep-fried Durian Ice Cream than this Durian Paste, as I love the bursting layers of flavour from the crispy outer skin, durian and mango puree.

After the dinner, Maureen and I each received a box of complimentary “White Lotus Seeds with Macadamia Nuts” mooncake as mooncake festive season gift from Jennifer, Director of Sales & Marketing department of Grand Mercure Hotel. Other than baked mooncake, this year Jia Wei also came out with a new flavour snowskin mooncake known as “Moonberries”. With its high nutrient contest and antioxidant qualities, this ruby-red juice is the perfect ingredient for a mouth-watering mooncake selection suitable as gifts or personal consumption. If you are interested to get some as gifts, you can refer HERE for more details.

Recently Jia Wei has also launched an Executive Set Menus, which is specially created for busy executives. This Executive Set Menus (refer to their online menu list HERE) contain 4 separate menu sets, each of which boasts a selection of 4 menu choices. The 4 menu sets are rotated on a weekly basis, which mean you could enjoy a different choice from the extensive choices from each menu set.

But if you prefer something more rest and relax, perhaps you can consider their “Yum Char” High Tea that comes with varieties of dim sum, noodles and deserts. This Yum Char High Tea is available from Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 11.00am to 5.00pm. Despite on the High Tea time, Dim sum is also available on daily lunch menu.

Lastly, I would like to thank Ms Jennifer Narcis of Grand Mercure Hotel, Roxy Singapore and Ms Vanessa Koh of Asia PR Werkz Pte Ltd for hosting this tasting event.


Jia Wei Chinese Restaurant (家味酒家)
Grand Mercure Roxy Singapore
50 East Coast Road
(Opp. Parkway Parade Shopping Centre)
Level 2
Singapore 428769
Telephone: (65)6340 5678
Email: H3610-F01@accor.com
Website: www.grandmercureroxy.com.sg

Operating Hours:

Lunch:
11.30am - 3.00pm (Monday to Saturday)
11.00am - 3.00pm (Sunday and Public Holidays)

Dinner:
6.00pm to 11.00pm (Daily)

Yum Char(High Tea):
11.00am to 5.00pm (Friday, Saturday and Sunday)

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