Regent Seven Seas Cruises is revolutionizing its gourmet dining experience fleet-wide by transforming its signature restaurant, Compass Rose, into the largest specialty restaurant at sea. The new concept and menu for Compass Rose offer an unprecedented, fully customized epicurean experience with an unequaled variety of gourmet options available nightly. Completely transforming the main dining room experience, the new Compass Rose experience brings together two Regent Seven Seas Cruises hallmarks –exquisite gourmet dining and unrivaled personalized service.
This bold, innovative new culinary approach provides guests with a seemingly endless combination of dishes to choose from during dinner service at Compass Rose. Guests can select from more than a dozen different meat, fish and seafood items, have it prepared to taste, garnish with a sauce of choice and pick from a wide variety of side dishes and accompaniments to complete the meal. Additionally, each evening the ship’s executive chef creates nightly specials, which adds more than a dozen mouthwatering appetizers, pasta dishes and entrée choices to the menu. To complete the meal, Compass Rose will offer a separate dessert menu with international cheeses, premium handmade ice creams and delectable pastries, cakes, crumbles and soufflés.
“In much the same way we changed the luxury cruise market by offering the industry’s only true all-inclusive luxury experience, we’re now revolutionizing the dining experience by introducing the largest specialty restaurant at sea,” said Jason Montague, president and chief executive officer for Regent Seven Seas Cruises. “Our culinary team has created a truly extraordinary dining experience for Compass Rose with a degree of customization and variety typically reserved for more intimate specialty restaurants. We tested this new menu concept on a couple test cruises over the summer and our guests absolutely love it.”
The menu for Compass Rose is divided into two equal portions. The left-hand side provides guests with the ability to fully customize their dinner, while the right-hand side feature’s the executive chef’s nightly specials as well as a multi-course “menu degustation.” For the customizable section of the menu, guests can select from a list of high-quality entrees that include seafood items like lobster, shrimp, scallops, salmon and dover sole, or specialty cuts such as New York strip steak, filet mignon, lamb chops and veal medallions.
After making their selection, guests determine how they would like it prepared – grilled, baked, broiled, poached, or roasted – and select from a complementary list of sauces to garnish the dish, such as madeira-truffle, creamy herb, hollandaise, green peppercorn and hickory barbeque. From there, guests can choose from more than a dozen side items that range from lyonnaise potatoes, potatoes gratin and sweet potato fries, to sautéed spinach, Brussels sprouts and green asparagus.
Adding to the variety, the ship’s executive chef will prepare a list of special appetizers and entrees for the dinner service. Since Compass Rose is the ship’s primary dining room, the dinner specials will change nightly with sample entrees that include veal medallions oscar, braised turbot fillet, cornish hen, roasted duck Beijing style and seared mahi mahi.
Capping off the gourmet meal, guests will find a dessert menu filled with new decadent offerings each and every night. The dessert menu will always feature a selection of fine international cheeses offered with a glass of port wine, assorted crackers and French bread along with a variety of handmade premium ice creams and sorbets. Guests will delight in nightly specials prepared by the ship’s pastry chef such as Tanzanian chocolate cake, almond croquant, bananas foster and Viennese apple strudel.
“The culinary teams on our ships have always been able to cater to our guests’ special culinary desires with advanced notice,” said Bernhard Klotz, senior director of culinary for Regent Seven Seas Cruises. “The new Compass Rose menu is so encompassing and customizable that guests with special dining requests no longer need to make them in advance, our chefs can prepare whatever their heart’s desire a la minute.”
Along with the dinner menu, Regent Seven Seas Cruises is also reinventing the lunch menu for Compass Rose on Seven Seas Navigator, Seven Seas Voyager and Seven Seas Mariner. In celebration of the launch of Seven Seas Explorer, Compass Rose on the line’s other ships will feature lunch selections from the three specialty restaurants on Explorer — Prime 7, Chartreuse and Pacific Rim. As with the dinner menu, the lunch menu will be updated daily and feature entrée items such as Croque-Monsieur or Croque-Madam from Chartreuse, Aromatic Duck from Pacific Rim and Yellowfin Tuna Salad from Prime 7.
Guests on Seven Seas Explorer and Seven Seas Navigator were treated to a preview of the Compass Rose menu during a multi-week test period, and it will remain as the standard menu for those two ships moving forward. The menu is scheduled to debut Nov. 9, 2016 on Seven Seas Voyager and Seven Seas Mariner on May 13, 2017, following each ship’s scheduled dry dock.