Aranya on Cunard: Here’s Everything You Need to Know - My Review
Aranya is one of the speciality dining options offered by Cunard. Following their launch of this venue onboard Queen Anne, I was able to give it a try to see if it lived up to the bold claims on the Cunard website. In this review, I’ll tell you everything that you need to know about this restaurant: what does it look like, what’s on the menu, what did my food look like, how much did it cost, and would I recommend it to you for your future cruises?
Aranya is an Indian restaurant, which is my absolute favourite international cuisine option. For this reason, I was really excited to give this one a try.
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At the point of releasing this article, Aranya is available exclusively on Queen Anne. In other words, if you’re travelling onboard Queen Mary 2, Queen Elizabeth or Queen Victoria, you’re not going to have this option available to you.
First, where is Aranya located?
We’re starting this review with arguably the most controversial topic when it comes to this venue: the location. On most cruise ships out there, you’ll often find some dining venues that share an overall part of the ship with the onboard buffet restaurant, and that’s the case here with Aranya.
There are two speciality restaurants that share part of Queen Anne’s ‘Artisan’s Foodhall’ (the buffet): Tramonto on the port (left) side, and Aranya on the starboard (right) side. They’re both at the back of the ship, and so you’ll pass them as you travel from the Artisan’s Foodhall to the Panorama Pool Club.
I do feel the need to stress that this venue is directly beside the buffet, and there aren’t actually solid walls separating them both. This is a design touch that I’d love to see change in future, due to the fact that I don’t like to feel part of an ‘included’ dining venue when I’m paying extra for my meal - I’m sure others will probably feel the same about this…
Aranya and Tramonto are found towards the back of the ship on Deck 9 of Queen Anne.
The Artisan’s Foodhall and Aranya share a space onboard. © Fraser at Sea
What’s the venue like?
Personally, I really liked the design of Aranya. Let’s come away from talking about the openness to the venue next door (I really don’t like that - incase you haven’t already figured that out…), and focus on the environment inside this venue.
Aranya features a very modern design, much like the rest of the ship. You’ll find an abstract black and white floor throughout, which actually works really nicely with the soft coloured furnishings in the space. The windows that run along one side of the venue, and the mirrored walls on the other, are adorned with window blinds that would fit in perfectly with your local curry house. It’s little touches like that that I appreciate so much in spaces like this onboard this ship.
I also really appreciated the golden colour pops throughout this venue: from the chairs to the flooring, to the plates and glasses on the table - it’s everywhere when you start to look around the room!
I’ve shown you lots of other dining venues on the cruise ships that I’ve travelled on that also feature their own bespoke bar. Aranya isn’t one of those venues, so you should come here ready to dine, rather than to enjoy a drink before your table is ready.
What’s on the menu, and what’s the food like at Aranya?
If you’re considering dining at Aranya on one of your future cruises, then this is probably among the most important questions that you have at the moment.
Aranya offers a menu that I can almost guarantee you is going to be very different to what you can expect from your local Indian restaurant on land. In my opinion, it’s an elevated experience versus most restaurants of this influence ‘on land’.
Cunard promises that this restaurant will take you on a ‘carefully crafted spice-led journey’, and I’d tend to agree based on what I ate here. I’ll show you my food choices shortly - here’s both the food and drink menus that you could expect when you dine at Aranya.
It’s worth highlighting at this stage that this menu is considered a ‘sample menu’, so may be subject to change slightly. However, it does offer a very good insight to the overall experience, and does reflect the menu that I ordered from while onboard.
Personally, I enjoyed the simplicity of this menu. I often visit Indian restaurants and really struggle to decide what I’d like to order due to the sheer scale of the menu, but not here - there isn’t a huge volume of dishes to choose from, but there is more than enough.
Here’s an overview of what we ordered while dining at Aranya.
Your meal at Aranya begins with Papadums and chutneys, © Fraser at Sea
Roasted Sweet Potato Tikki, with Cumin-beet puree, masala-yogurt dip and kale crisps, served at Aranya onboard Queen Anne. © Fraser at Sea
Spiced Slow-Roasted Beef Short Rib, served at Aranya onboard Queen Anne. © Fraser at Sea
Pot-sealed Biryani, served at Aranya onboard Queen Anne. © Fraser at Sea
Here’s our three desserts - one of each on the above menus, served at Aranya onboard Queen Anne. © Fraser at Sea
We found the food here to be very good - it was a step above the ‘included’ dining options, and we would dine here again if we were to take another cruise on Queen Anne.
That said, I do feel that I prefer a more traditional Indian food experience. I see what Cunard are trying to do here by offering a more elevated food offering, but I’d love to see it reigned back a little to offer some more ‘traditional’ Indian options.
How much does it cost to dine at Aranya?
At the point of my cruise, a meal at Aranya comes with a cover charge of $35 per person. This allows you to have one starter, one main course and one dessert.
If you would like to order an additional dish, there’s a $9 charge for each additional appetiser, a $15 charge for any additional main course and a $5 additional charge for desserts. Personally, I was surprised to see this note on the menu - I’ve seen cruise lines charging for extra main courses, but it’s fairly common for me to order a bonus starter or dessert when I cruise, and I wouldn’t expect to be billed for this when I’m dining at a restaurant that already comes at an additional charge.
So, would I recommend that you dine at Aranya during your cruise?
Well, this comes down to exactly what you’re looking for. If you’re looking for a quiet spot to enjoy a ‘date night’, then this restaurant probably isn’t going to tick that box thanks to it sharing a spot on the ship with the buffet. However, if you’re looking for a really different experience to the main dining room (and you enjoy Indian food), then I’d recommend this one for you!
I hope you’ve enjoyed having a look at my experience at Aranya during my cruise on Queen Anne. If you’d like to see more from that cruise, here’s my full video review - just click into the video below to watch now!
Underneath that video, you’ll find lots more of my Cunard posts. You can find even more by navigating through the menu at the top of the page.
