Culinary highlights on board the Crown Princess

After we already told you about the Ultimate Balcony Dining on board the Crown Princess and now we would like to give you a further insight into the culinary highlights on board. Princess Cruises really does offer passengers a wide choice of high-quality food They have the normal restaurant offer, the buffet restaurant and the specialty restaurants, there is so much to try, that we didn’t manage to try everything. However what we tried has convinced us and therefore we would like to present you here four culinary offerings that we particularly liked:

1. Das Spezialitätenrestaurant Crown Grill

The Crown Grill is one of the specialty restaurants on board the Crown Princess. According to the shipping company, the steakhouse offers an exceptional dining experience. We tried out the dinner on one of the evenings. You pay an extra 29 dollars per person for dinner in this specialty restaurant. Among other things, delicious steaks and seafood are on offer. The price includes an appetizer, salad or soup as an intermediate course, a main course with various side dishes to share and a dessert. If you want another main course, there is the possibility to buy another main course for an additional 10 dollars. Another special feature of the Crown Grill is the exquisite selection of gourmet salt varieties, such as black salt from Hawaii.

The menu

We started with black tiger prawns with aioli and papaya salpicon. Salpicon is a mixture of finely chopped ingredients, including papaya. The combination of prawns, papaya and aioli was very unusual but went surprisingly well together. You should definitely give it a try.

We continued with a really delicious French onion soup and a shrimp and pancetta bisque. A bisque is a pureed soup made from shellfish. Just like onion soup, it is a French specialty. We found the onion soup much better, as we thought it had more flavor.

For the main course we once chose the sea bass with prawns and mushroom ragout in Champagne foam sauce. And the filet mignon. The side dishes go in the middle to share. It therefore makes sense to think together about which side dishes go well with the dishes. The friendly service team will be happy to advise you. We decided to try grilled green asparagus, sautéed mushrooms and garlic and herbs French fries. We simply couldn’t get past the French fries. They were also super tasty.

The choice of dessert was very difficult, so we chose “The Crown Dependence”. This dessert offers the chance to taste all five desserts in miniature form. We particularly like the lemon meringue tart.

Inside the Crown Grill you do not have a sea view while eating, but the elegant Steakhouse atmosphere and the excellent and attentive service have turned the evening into a great experience. The restaurant is also very suitable for celebrating in large groups. Sitting next to us at the table, for example, was a large birthday party and celebrated with 12 people at a long table a 40th birthday with several generations. At the next table for example, the father-in-law invites the birthday child and all the guests to dinner. A nice event, but even if you do not celebrate it is worthwhile the additional payment from our point of view for this wonderful meal and a relaxed evening.

2. Das Spezialitätenrestaurant Sabatini’s

Sabatini’s is the second specialty restaurant on board and attracts guests with Italian cuisine in an elegant dining atmosphere. It is on deck 16 at the stern and thus offers a magnificent view of the sea or the harbor at the departure of the ship from the cruise port. There were many couples in the restaurant with us tables for two, but there were also some round tables for larger groups. The surcharge at Sabatini’s, just like at Crown Grill, is 29 dollars per person.

Dinner starts with a greeting from the kitchen consisting of Italian bread specialties with Parma ham, foccaccia, special oil and balsamic vinegar, as well as various olives. Just like in Bella Italia. From the menu, we were then able to choose between various antipasti for starters, pasta variations as an intermediate course and various main courses and a dessert. We opted for burrata alla panna with tomato carpaccio as a starter. This dish was recommended to us in advance by some followers on Instagram, so we were keen to try it out. It really was a great tip and very tasty.

For pasta, we chose spaghetti alla scoglio (with seafood and langoustine). The dish looked great on its own. The main course was Tris d’Aragosta (lobster prepared in three different ways). The lobster was very juicy and full of flavor. Of course, it was removed from the shell beforehand. And for dessert, we chose Tiramisú al Cioccolato (chocolate tiramisu) with mascarpone cream and espresso ice cream. This dessert is part of the Chocolate Journey program, the chocolate program developed exclusively for Princess Cruises by chocolatiers, which offers a wide variety of specialties made from and with chocolate.

Sabatini’s with its Italian food and the great view was amazing. We were particularly lucky and were able to enjoy the sunset at a table next to the window. The view of the sea and the romantic atmosphere make the restaurant perfect for a dinner for two or for a meal on a special occasion.

3. Das neu gestaltete Slice

Another restaurant we would like to tell you about is Slice on Lido Deck 15, in the middle of the pool. Slice means piece and that is exactly what is on offer here: slices of pizza. The newly renovated Slice is famous for its freshly baked pizza. USA Today named it the best pizza at sea. Even before our trip, some of you wrote to us saying that we absolutely had to try the pizza at Slice. Of course, we did that too, several times in fact.

Every day in addition to the standard Margherita pizza, another great variety is offered. The Result: The pizza is really very crispy, the dough and the topping taste fresh and we were delighted with the flavor. Particularly nice is that you can also watch the pizzas being baked. Directly behind the glass pane the fresh pizza is prepared in front of the waiting cruise guests. That alone is fun and sets the mood for the pizza. Besides pizza there are also other offers at the Slice. There is focaccia, California toast and soft ice cream in the flavors vanilla, chocolate or Chocolate vanilla. The meals are all included in the cruise fare.

4. Der Salty Dog Grill

The Salty Dog Grill is the second fast food station on Lido Deck 15, and all the dishes on offer here are also included in the price except for the Ernesto Burger. Of course there are also hot dogs. One of them is called “Salty” Dog Hot Dog. It consists of 100 percent beef and the topping is freely selectable.

For those who like it cheesy choose the Chili Cheese Hot Dog with chili and melted cheese. Furthermore the handmade Princess Craft Burgers are grilled in two variations. Either classic or triple-smoked. The additional Ernesto Burger cost 5 dollars extra. It was voted as the best burger at sea by Cruise Critic. But we haven’t tried it, perhaps next time.

There are also two types of street tacos (chicken or chili) and two types of gratinated tacos. French fries with cheese and a chicken sandwich. We have the “Salty” Dog and the topped french fries with chili and cheese as well as the tacos. We didn’t like the tacos that much. They were very small and not that crispy, but it’s a grill and not a taco restaurant. The “Salty” Dog Hot Dog and the fries were delicious, you should try both.

We hope we have given you a good impression of these four culinary highlights. You can find more tips in our next article: the top 10 activities on board.

We would like to thank Princess Cruises Deutschland and Inter-Connect Marketing GmbH. This article is not sponsored, we are only reporting on our own impressions.