Wonderland: Imaginative Cuisine on Royal Caribbean

Wonderland, one of the speciality restaurants on board the Royal Caribbean International fleet, presents a new “Imaginative Cuisine” concept that will amaze you with its combinations and setting.

Forget the menu concept, with a classic series of courses. Forget classic table settings with elegant tablecloths and white porcelain plates. Twist your concept of flavours, of combinations of ingredients. There will be no first course or second course. Are you ready for ‘Imaginative Cuisine’. Welcome to Wonderland!

It is undoubtedly one of the most eclectic and innovative restaurants on board Royal Caribbean International‘s ships, as well as cruise ships in general. Present on all Oasis and Quantum class units, it is located in different spaces depending on the ship’s structure. However, they are all united by a carefully designed but distinctive ambience, unconventional, where everything appears strange and peculiar. Different types of furniture, colour combinations that focus on red, black and white, but also fine pieces setting the table, with candelabra, sumptuous glasses and designer plates.

You will be welcomed accordingly, by a character wearing a tall top hat, who will introduce you to the restaurant and escort you to your table. Wonderland is one of the Royal Caribbean speciality restaurants that require a reservation and a fee to be paid. If you are early, and we would recommend that you go early… the bar is the ideal place to wait for your table, enjoying one of the extraordinary and scenic cocktails on offer here.

The show starts immediately: a courteous and attentive staff will welcome you, a sometimes friendly and sometimes intentionally creepy figure will tell you the story of Alice in Wonderland. But, above all, you will have to start discovering the menu by dipping a long panel into a liquid and moistening the parchment in an elegant golden frame. The first extravagant items from the menu will then appear: a series of dishes, or rather tastings, seemingly incomprehensible but which will give you a good idea of the ‘gastronomic journey’ you will shortly be embarking on.

Five elements dominate the menu and inspire the dishes. Sun, Ice, Fire, Earth and Sea. Each of the first three themes represents a series of three starters. A few will be brought to you to begin with and you can go on until you have tried all nine. Just seeing what is served will be a real treat. The names on the menu are deceptive: a Caprese will never be a real Caprese but an eclectic combination of mozzarella and tomato. As for the crispy cones… they are really small ice cream cones filled with crabs. One surprise after another, which will amaze you with rising to the final sweet notes.

Terra and Mare are the main courses and you can choose one of seven dishes. Chicken, Risotto with Mushrooms, Rib and Pork are the basic ingredients of the Land. Lobster, Halibut and Sea Bass those of the Sea. You have to jump in a little at random, because seasonings and combinations will upset your expectations anyway.

You can get all the courses of the first three parts of the menu, served freely at the table according to your taste and ability to continue. You can instead choose one of the dishes proposed in the last part, representing in some way the main course.

Every single course is a true culinary experiment, prepared with exclusive ingredients and the result with more or less extreme proposals by the chefs on board. Not everything will please you, but it will certainly make you think and be impressed, especially thanks to the helpful explanations provided by the waiters.

Fish, meat, vegetarian options. Elegance in the composition of the dishes, attention to every little detail. Rare ingredients or extravagant combinations. The important thing here is to astonish, to experience, to break out of the ordinary. And Wonderland succeeds in this perfectly, overwhelming every stereotype and teasing us from start to finish.

An end that can’t get any better with the arrival of the desserts: a triumph of art and gluttony. Not just lots of beauty, such as the delicately melting chocolate sphere, but also substance. Excellent pear, divine chocolate…

Wonderland represents a truly different and extremely innovative concept of cooking. The common theme is amazement and experimental. About the rest, there are no rules. You order what you want, or rather, you order nothing: you let yourself be carried away by all the samples that arrive on the table, sniffing and biting here and there. The aim is not to like everything, perhaps we can’t like everything, even some of the more intriguing proposals (placton, tomato water, crudités, etc.). It is rather to impress us and leave us with something special. And it succeeds perfectly: an added value to the cruise, a trip to a wonderland… that you don’t often get to do again.

Also enjoy the adventure with the → Reel from Cruising Journal

More information, prices, menus, photos and videos of the Wonderland restaurant on Cruising Journal, with Royal Caribbean reviews, tips and cruises on offer.