The Rooftop Garden Grill is an open air dining venue that requires a walk along the open deck to reach. While it can be an enjoyable ambience, it is only open weather permitting. High winds can making keeping one's napkin in place a real challenge. I'd also suggest choosing one's attire carefully so there's only one possible full moon visible on deck each night. It also butts up against where the big screen shows movies and in our case, NFL playoff games, which drew a large and rowdy crowd of those who wished to watch the game out under the stars. This restaurant has an upcharge of $45 per person plus gratuity. View the dinner menu here. This restaurant also serves lunch on sea days. Lunch is a reduced menu featuring an extra couple lighter casual options but also a reduced price of $25 per person.
The open air concept also involves an open kitchen which can be entertaining to watch. I watched one sous chef crank out tons of baked skillet cookies over and over. A little less so when you can see that your ordered dish is sitting out in the open for a long time waiting to be picked up.
We dined two different evenings here. Neither time seemed to be crowded so it was easy for anyone to switch to or pick a table that let you view the game through the bushes over your dinner. Since it was also garden themed inside the restaurant, Dad's seat on the first night was right up against a tree growing from inside the back of the booth bench. I may have been a little too giddy because this image made me go from "Hey there's a tree growing out of your head" to "You're a real life lemonhead!"
The first night started out fairly well in terms of service but then dropped off. I witnessed our assistant waiter routinely coming out of the kitchen and disappearing around the corner. I think it threw off our timing of the meal quite a bit because without him to help clear, our next courses were then delayed in delivery. Sometimes the food wasn't as hot or fresh as it could have been. Our Mason Jar water glasses started to become as parched as we were. Once we spoke up about it, the maitre'd and head waiter stepped in to get service back up to speed. We've had moments when a waiter gets called away and no one realizes their tables are no longer being covered (i.e. Cadillac Diner on NCL's Pride of America). I've since heard from fellow diners that first evening that they also lacked in service until management stepped in. The second night had moderately better service but some dishes seemed slightly less quality in taste and presentation that we repeated both nights.
From the Appetizer menu:
Pulled Pork Slider Trio - House Pickle, Tangy Carolina Style BBQ, and Crispy Onions. I'm not sure when Crispy Onions started being code for red cabbage coleslaw but the taste was good. The BBQ sauce was not spicy at all and easily passed the "I hate spice" picky eater test. I couldn't help but chuckle at the pickle spear intentionally cut into quartered slivers reminding me of green carrot stick garnish. Guess I missed reading about the great pickle spear shortage of 2023.
Smoked Chicken Wings - Dry Rub or Spicy Buffalo. This was Dad's choice for appetizer so you know he picked the dry rub version. We each sampled the other's pick for appetizer. Dad was pleased with the flavor but we both agreed that there wasn't much meat to the wings.
From the Salads menu:
Caprese Salad - Tomatoes, Buffalo Mozzarella, Basil, and Balsamic Reduction. I've since seen pictures of this dish that showed it as full size tomato slices and just as large slices of mozzarella. Our chef apparently chose to go the artisan pretty presentation route by offering halved cherry tomatoes and what looked like diced up chunks of a couple slices of mozzarella. The classic flavors of a caprese salad were there but it took a little more effort to get all the flavors in one bite than if it was big pieces I could cut across. This style also meant that several pieces got too much of the balsamic reduction and some never saw any.
Caesar Salad - Romaine, Toasted Croutons, Aged Parmesan. Better than The Retreat Pool and Bar but not as good as Fine Cut Steakhouse.
From the Smoked menu:
Mesquite Baby Back Ribs - 1/2 Rack or Full, Dry or Wet. Served with cast iron jalapeno corn bread. Dad ordered the 1/2 Rack and dry. He enjoyed the tender meat and good flavor. When I asked about the jalapeno corn bread, he said he'd never have known there was jalapeno in it if I hadn't mentioned it. Looking back at this picture I can see how it would have easily been missed. The red cabbage cole slaw makes a return appearance as a side for this entree.
BBQ Grilled Half Chicken - Slow roasted with house BBQ sauce, Bacon Mac 'n Cheese. This was one of the few entrees to intentionally come with its own side. There is a regular mac 'n cheese on the sides menu. The chicken was cooked well with a lot of meat and BBQ flavor.
From the Grilled Favorites menu:
Rooftop Beef Burger - 8oz Grilled Beef Patty, Beer Battered Onion, Porter BBQ Sauce, Bacon, Cheddar, and Brioche. I asked our server which he recommended between the Rooftop Beef Burger and the WTF Burger. He emphatically told me to get the Rooftop Beef Burger. This burger was a lot to eat and I couldn't finish it all. I wasn't too concerned about trying to finish it though because it looked slightly undercooked inside. The flavors were good together otherwise and I was glad to see that the rest of my pickle spear joined us for dinner on this dish. The french fries pictured below in the basket was a request from the Sides menu. Otherwise you would not get fries and the few onion rings with this entree.
From the Premium Cuts Menu:
Lamb Chops - Dad approves of this message and this dish. Though he ignored the dipping sauce cup. Was it some version of mint jelly? Was it some sort of aus jus? Did Jason Momoa really sing in that Superbowl commercial? Life's greatest mysteries.
From the Sides menu:
Creamed Corn on the first night we dined here. Dad ordered this to go with his ribs and said it was one of the best dishes of the night.
From the Dessert menu:
The two desserts right up our alley that we'd heard everyone rave about are the Mason Jar S'mores and the Warm Chocolate Chip Cookie with Vanilla Gelato. We each ordered one and sampled from both. Dad enjoyed both options but I found that the Mason Jar S'mores was too sweet for my taste. You really need to be ruled by your sweet tooth for that option.
Mason Jar S'Mores - chocolate mousse in between graham cracker crumbs and a thick layer of marshmallow on top. I was impressed that the graham cracker was ground fine enough that it didn't throw off the soft texture of everything else. However, the marshmallow layer was so thick that all I could taste was gritty sugar crystals after a few bites.
Warm Chocolate Chip Cookie with Vanilla Gelato
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