We booked this place for our second speciality dining night on an 8-night cruise to the Bahamas.
The initial reservation process was easy through the Royal iQ app but limited as the app only allows reservation for up to five people, so I had to head to the restaurant directly to update my reservation to 7 people (4 adults and 3 kids) for our third night dinner on the first-time ever cruise.
On the third night, we arrived slightly early at 17:15 for our 17:30 reservation. The waitress has prepared the table for five people, so apparently the reservation was not updated. While one waitress mentioned that she'll add a table, the other waitress started reshuffling all the placemats to reconfigure the 5-people table to 7. It clearly does not fit, so we indicated and requested the waitress to add another table instead. The waitress walked away disgruntled and another waiter came by to put the tables together.
The time was 17:40 when we finished ordering, but the initial order did not come by until 18:20. The first one to arrive were the tonkotsu ramen and nabeyaki-udon for the kids. The ramen/udon came not cold, but not as hot as it should be. Rest of the order came by approximately 15-minutes follow that. An hour is what I would expect for a formal 5-course experience, not a casual Japanese dining. Even then, having had to wait for 40 min for your first order to show up is not what I'd expect. The table behind, while came into the restaurant later, had their full table of food delivered before ours.
Now it comes to the taste of the food. Having lived in japan for 15+ years, the food is not worth anything against the amount that they charge. For starter's, the miso ramen is salty, contains none of the usual Ingredients such as veggies, etc. such that my nephew only took one bite and immediately set it aside that we had to order another udon for him.
The Karaage(fried chicken) tastes decent but again, it's more of a Taiwanese popcorn chicken rather than the authentic Japanese fried chicken.
With respect to pricing, initially we thought that the pricing was reasonable for the menu items. For example, Karaage $8, ramen $13, sushi combo set $18. However, at the end of our dining experiences, we determined that this place is way overpriced for its cost performances.
I won't go into other details as I think above experiences already explain my ratings for the restaurant. For the record, the lead waitress did try to compensate the awful experiences by not charging us for the mochi ice cream at the end but simply because the bill has been finalized and it'll take some complications to alter the final bill.
For people looking for an authentic Japanese dining experiences, this will not be the place you'd like to spend $180 on. You'd have a much better experience with Wonderland onboard the Anthem of the Seas. read more