Enchantment of the Seas…The Yummy Part!

So one of the things that we tried on our last Freedom of the Seas cruise and fell in love with was the Chef’s Table experience.  Basically a 5-6 course tasting menu with wine pairings for a small group dining experience.  On the Freedom, the Chef’s Table was a table set aside in the WindJammer with a long table set up for about 20 people.  We started off with champagne and then moved to dinner.  It was amazing, even in the cafe instead of a proper private dining area.  It was just mom and I that time but since it was an all adult cruise this time, we convinced Michael & Peter to join us.

On the Enchantment, there is a separate room just for Chef’s Table, and it is limited to 12 guests per night.  We met in the R Bar for our champagne (since you are at the bar, you can get a different drink if you want, but who doesn’t like Champers??). One everyone has arrived, we moved as a group to the Chef’s Table room and were seated and given the evening’s menu.

The Sommelier introduced himself and gave us a brief overview of how the evening was going to go.  Then the food started coming out.  The Amuse-bouche went perfectly with the champagne (which they were happy to refill if you accidentally drank all yours before you were seated!).  I did not get a picture of that, but it was served on one of those ceramic spoons and it was yummy.

Next was the Hearts of Palm Salad.  This had lots of avocado in it, which can be filling.  The sweeter white wine did well to cut through the fattiness of the avocado though.

Its actually hard to see the hearts of palm in the salad, but they are there, I promise!  I really liked the champagne dressing too.

Next was the Sweet Pea Soup with a poached quail egg and bacon.

This was really good.  Plus, not everybody liked poached eggs so I ended up with three in my soup!!  This was a really fresh tasting soup and went very well with the unoaked chardonnay.

Then…Lobster!!  Butter poached lobster in case you needed more yummy words!  Topped with caviar!!

It looks a bit like a smiley face but that’s okay because I had a big smiley face as well with this dish!  The sauce was fantastic and it went beautifully with the delicate Chablis from Burgundy that was poured with this.

We were now getting into the “meat” of the menu (sorry!) and the pasta course was a Braised Short Rib ravioli.  Also at this point, the wines turned red, which makes me almost as happy as pasta and braised meats!!

This dish was super yummy and I might have actually licked the bowl.  This is really the point in the meal where you start getting a little full and start to think about pacing yourself.  Word of advice…DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT on this dish!!!  I would have happily eaten everyone’s plate.  It was that good!!  The lighter red wine was a perfect accompaniment and did not overwhelm the palate like a bigger red would have.  Which brings us to…

Beef Tenderloin with Morel mushrooms!!!

Perfectly cooked, and perfectly paired with Caymus Cabernet.  This was the pinnacle dish and it lived up to its billing.  The potatoes were light and fluffy and flavored with smoked garlic.  The beef was flavorful and the mushroom sauce was rich and meaty.  At this point I was happy that I had worn elastic waist pants!  We still had dessert to eat!

I am not a huge fan of sweets and can usually skip dessert with no problem in favor of the more savory dishes.  Our dessert was called Chocolate Sabotage and I did not get a picture of it for some reason!  I am sure it was fantastic.

So our Chef’s Table experience ended and we all left happy and fat!!  It was our favorite meal on board and worth every penny in my opinion.

As this was a short cruise and the casino was not particularly friendly to me, I did not earn any more free cruises, but I still have my 11 night Mediterranean cruise coming up!!  A bucket list cruise that I cannot wait to tell you about!