Wonderland

[Kelly N]

Has anyone tried the Wonderland restaurant?  My husband wanted to try it because it seems like a whimsical atmosphere but I looked at the menu and thought, I probably couldn’t eat any of it much less pronounce some of these dishes. Do they have any other alternate menus?  And what would the kids’ menu look like? 

[Skid]

16 minutes ago, Kelly N said:

Has anyone tried the Wonderland restaurant?  My husband wanted to try it because it seems like a whimsical atmosphere but I looked at the menu and thought, I probably couldn’t eat any of it much less pronounce some of these dishes. Do they have any other alternate menus?  And what would the kids’ menu look like? 

Hi @Kelly N. We were at Wonderland on Symphony last month. You can see my thoughts and pictures on page 4 of my live blog here Scroll about a little more 1/2 way down the page. The only thing I'd add here is that I don't think the Mad Hatter is on all ships.

[JLMoran]

Hi @Kelly N. I was also at Wonderland last October, but on Anthem. There is no Mad Hatter there, and the space is much smaller and more dimly lit than the versions of the restaurant that you'll find on Oasis Class ships.

They do seem to be looking at changing the menu a bit -- on Symphony, I saw from menus that people posted there are now kids options, and the regular menu seems to be changed up a bit. It may be a while, though, before they roll those changes out to other ships (if ever).

While the food sounds bizarre when you read the names, it's really nothing especially out there. At first I thought I was going to be having a "molecular gastronomy" kind of meal, but it's nowhere near that level of weird. The only thing I'd say is that if you don't like seafood then you should absolutely skip this venue. While the servers will definitely do what they can to make the experience as good as possible, including getting you food from other specialty venues, I just don't think it's worth the hassle in that case. Here's my own review of our experience, where you'll see what lengths our server went through to make sure my wife (who does not eat any seafood) still had an enjoyable meal.

[FManke]

16 hours ago, JLMoran said:

 While the servers will definitely do what they can to make the experience as good as possible, including getting you food from other specialty venues, I just don't think it's worth the hassle in that case.

Doesn't this kind of defeat the purpose of going in the first place? 

[JLMoran]

14 minutes ago, FManke said:

Doesn't this kind of defeat the purpose of going in the first place? 

Well, in the case of when my wife and I went there we had figured on her having the chicken entree and us sharing the beef terroir, just so that she'd be able to have a decent meal around not really having any appetizers. Her big reason for going there was so she could have The World!  But our server wouldn't accept her skipping the starter courses and insisted on bringing her some soup and salad from Chops; got the feeling he was very new and trying really hard to make our experience as good as possible so he would garner a good rating, which I absolutely gave him in my post-cruise survey.

[FManke]

1 minute ago, JLMoran said:

Well, in the case of when my wife and I went there we had figured on her having the chicken entree and us sharing the beef terroir, just so that she'd be able to have a decent meal around not really having any appetizers. Her big reason for going there was so she could have The World!  But our server wouldn't accept her skipping the starter courses and insisted on bringing her some soup and salad from Chops; got the feeling he was very new and trying really hard to make our experience as good as possible so he would garner a good rating, which I absolutely gave him in my post-cruise survey.

Makes sense

[melski94]

We went to Wonderland on Symphony last month.  The food was ok but the dessert (the World) was the best thing I’ve ever eaten.  However, I was shocked and maybe a bit disappointed that there were so many kids in the restaurant.  We were looking for a more adult restaurant and thought so based on the menu but there were tons of kids there wanting to meet the Mad Hatter.  

[JLMoran]

5 hours ago, melski94 said:

We went to Wonderland on Symphony last month.  The food was ok but the dessert (the World) was the best thing I’ve ever eaten.  However, I was shocked and maybe a bit disappointed that there were so many kids in the restaurant.  We were looking for a more adult restaurant and thought so based on the menu but there were tons of kids there wanting to meet the Mad Hatter.  

Symphony is the first Wonderland to have a kids menu as an option, so I'm not surprised you saw so many there.

[Pen]

On 6/25/2019 at 11:32 PM, Kelly N said:

Has anyone tried the Wonderland restaurant?  My husband wanted to try it because it seems like a whimsical atmosphere but I looked at the menu and thought, I probably couldn’t eat any of it much less pronounce some of these dishes. Do they have any other alternate menus?  And what would the kids’ menu look like? 

My sister and I ate at Wonderland last year.  First let me say, I have the palate of a 4 year old and am NOT adventurous in my eating habits.  3/4 of the courses I did not enjoy.  But that being said, I had the best beef dish I've ever eaten and the best dessert of the whole trip.  Will I ever eat there again?  It will depend on whether I can edit what I get from the menu.   The decor, staff, and experience were super....I just didn't like all the courses.

[Blulady]

18 hours ago, Pen said:

My sister and I ate at Wonderland last year.  First let me say, I have the palate of a 4 year old and am NOT adventurous in my eating habits.  3/4 of the courses I did not enjoy.  But that being said, I had the best beef dish I've ever eaten and the best dessert of the whole trip.  Will I ever eat there again?  It will depend on whether I can edit what I get from the menu.   The decor, staff, and experience were super....I just didn't like all the courses.

I'm the sister!  I am more adventurous than my sister, but there were a lot of things food wise I didn't care for (the rye bread dirt thing, the eggs, etc. )  but, I absolutely LOVED the shrimp (there were only 2, and I could have eaten 50).  Like someone else commented and my sister said, the terroir of beef was beyond incredible.  We were thinking we would need to hit up the buffet after leaving Wonderland and then the beef showed up.  It was truly delicious!  For dessert we had the chocolate dome and the forbidden apple.  My sister loved the dome.  TBH, I didn't like either dessert, but I don't typically like dessert.  The forbidden apple was just 'meh'.  All in all:  I would highly recommend going at least once.  Go for the experience and chances are they will bring something that you'll truly enjoy. 

[JLMoran]

2 hours ago, Blulady said:

Like someone else commented and my sister said, the terroir of beef was beyond incredible.  We were thinking we would need to hit up the buffet after leaving Wonderland and then the beef showed up.  It was truly delicious!

And this shows just how subjective food is. I had the same beef dish with my wife, and I hated it from the first bite. It looked fantastic, but the texture, flavor, and smell were all a dead ringer for my mom's beef stew. And while much of mom's cooking brings back happy memories, her beef stew does quite the opposite for me.   It's the first and so far only time I've sent something back as personally inedible, but I made it clear to our waiter that it was nothing to do with the food and purely my own inability to get past those awful memories of choking down my mom's stew. My wife's reaction wasn't as strongly negative, but she didn't care for it either.

Our waiter was so upset with how we reacted to the beef that he got us each a filet from Chops, which was way above and beyond anything I'd have expected of him.

[Pen]

2 hours ago, JLMoran said:

And this shows just how subjective food is. I had the same beef dish with my wife, and I hated it from the first bite. It looked fantastic, but the texture, flavor, and smell were all a dead ringer for my mom's beef stew. And while much of mom's cooking brings back happy memories, her beef stew does quite the opposite for me.   It's the first and so far only time I've sent something back as personally inedible, but I made it clear to our waiter that it was nothing to do with the food and purely my own inability to get past those awful memories of choking down my mom's stew. My wife's reaction wasn't as strongly negative, but she didn't care for it either.

Our waiter was so upset with how we reacted to the beef that he got us each a filet from Chops, which was way above and beyond anything I'd have expected of him.

I truly wish if you are a repeat customer they would allow you to select from the choices.  It would have made our experience 10 times better.

[Traveler]

We were twice in wanderland , once on the Harmony with my father, it was a very nice experience and we all like mainly the beef and the shrimps  the fish was very dry.

The second time was on Symphony using the BOOGO offer (RIP). This time it was just my spouse and me. We still liked it but once you know some of the tricks it's different (like the desert and the hidden menu ) this time we also had the mad hatter. I still enjoyed the food but as others I think some of the food looks better than it taste . For example the re organized tomato , well let's just said I think a good fresh  tomato would taste better without all the effort, same for the olives. Will we go again ? Maybe if we will have a pkagage or if we will have with us cruisers which never experienced it yet. For sure I am planning to check the wonderland on the Spectrum of the seas  were the menu is total different , just three more month .

[cruisellama]

Love the food in this place.

[cruisellama]

On 6/25/2019 at 10:52 PM, Skid said:

Hi @Kelly N. We were at Wonderland on Symphony last month. You can see my thoughts and pictures on page 4 of my live blog here Scroll about a little more 1/2 way down the page. The only thing I'd add here is that I don't think the Mad Hatter is on all ships.

We really enjoyed it.  The food is definitely unique and the presentations makes the food look like a work of art.   Kinda of a little showmanship that goes on throughout the meal.  The drinks of the house are also very unique and can only be purchased at the Wonderland bar/restaurant

[cruisellama]

Dessert

[Va4fam]

We went to Wonderland on Anthem.  The experience is out of this world, very creative and festive.    The food was definitely different than what we would typically eat but we tried everything they put in front of us.   

Go for the experience if nothing else.   You can always go to Sorrento's later.

[JimnKathy]

13 hours ago, Va4fam said:

We went to Wonderland on Anthem.  The experience is out of this world, very creative and festive.    The food was definitely different than what we would typically eat but we tried everything they put in front of us.   

Go for the experience if nothing else.   You can always go to Sorrento's later.

I agree. My wife and I are foodies on dry land and appreciate Wonderland for the unique experience that touches all of the senses. While I can understand why some don't like it, we view Wonderland as a memorable part of the cruise experience.