Luxury cruise ships have long had traditional steakhouses, but a pleasing sea change has influenced their style and menus over recent years. Do you need to don a suit to eat a steak? Should you carry a French dictionary, so you know the difference between entrecote and faux-filet? Do you have to navigate an entire cutlery set when all you’re eating is a slab of beef with modest side dishes? The Silversea Grill. I think not.
I realise that at times, cruise guests enjoy a sense of occasion: starched tablecloth, winking cutlery, sommelier with Bible-thick menu. But for me, that moment isn’t while eating a simple steak or grilled fish. I’ve been pleased in recent years, therefore, to find that the uptight, traditional steakhouse on top-end cruise ships has been relaxing like a perfectly done tenderloin just before it’s served.
Silversea has dispensed with a posh steakhouse altogether, replacing it with popular The Grill. It has a monastically simple menu, with mains bracketed in a small selection of salads and desserts and accompanied by vegetable skewers, fries or baked potatoes. You order a pork chop, T-bone, rump steak or glorious pink slab of salmon, generously sized and top quality.
You fling it on a hot rock and cook it yourself. For a posh vessel, the rising smoke, jumping fat and balmy sea breezes combine to create an unusual venue. Silversea isn’t the only cruise line to recognise the growing guest mood – at least some of the time – for unpretentious eating.
