Specialty Restaurants on ships

I am hijacking this subject from another thread...


"Diana Ball" wrote

And the specialty restaurant
(best food we've had on the seas) succeeded in evoking a big city supper
club of another era.


Which leads to some questions...

What do you think about "specialty restaurants" on ships?

If you go to these restaurants, what was your favorite meal?


I have to admit I dislike the concept of additional pay, specialty
restaurants on ships. I think dining in the dining room should be "special"
but it has become ordinary. Waiters singing, Maitre 'ds who think they were
born to spend their life talking on a microphone, trying to feed 3500 people
in 3 hours. Most dining room food and service is very good, but for me, it
is no longer "special".

My favorite meal in a specialty restaurant was on the Carnival Conquest. We
had dinner with my brother and his wife, it was their first cruise and their
honeymoon and Carnival does an excellent job.


--
George Leppla http://www.CruiseMaster.com

January 20, 2008 - GGC2008 - http://cruisemaster.com/adventure.htm
October 26, 2008 Sleazy 5 http://www.cruisemaster.com/sleazy5.htm

"George Leppla" wrote in
:

I am hijacking this subject from another thread...


"Diana Ball" wrote

And the specialty restaurant
(best food we've had on the seas) succeeded in evoking a big city
supper club of another era.


Which leads to some questions...

What do you think about "specialty restaurants" on ships?

If you go to these restaurants, what was your favorite meal?


I have to admit I dislike the concept of additional pay, specialty
restaurants on ships. I think dining in the dining room should be
"special" but it has become ordinary. Waiters singing, Maitre 'ds who
think they were born to spend their life talking on a microphone,
trying to feed 3500 people in 3 hours. Most dining room food and
service is very good, but for me, it is no longer "special".



I agree on the singing waiters and theme nights in general, forced fun
is not fun.If I shoose to go to a theme restaurant that is another issue
and I have enjoyed themed fare immensely including Don Vito's on the
Radisson Diamond.

Specialty restaurants that have been more than worth the charge are of
course those which did not charge such as the Italian restaurant on
Crystal and Signatures on RSSC Voyager, Great service, excellent food,
and total respect for the dining experience. On the mass market ships
that I have had the specialty meals I have found the the ambience was
the most special part. It was nice to have a relatively quiet room in
wihich to dine with less distraction, but I too am not fond of paying
for food on a cruise, it just doesn't work well in my head.



--
Joseph Coulter, cruises and vacations
www.josephcoulter.com

877 832 2021
904 631 8863 cell

George Leppla wrote:

My favorite meal in a specialty restaurant was on the Carnival Conquest. We
had dinner with my brother and his wife, it was their first cruise and their
honeymoon and Carnival does an excellent job.

My favorite was "Palo" on the Disney Magic. We went there for brunch and
another day for dinner and the food and service were excellant.

sue

Sue and Kevin Mullen wrote:

My favorite was "Palo" on the Disney Magic. We went there for brunch and
another day for dinner and the food and service were excellant.

sue

The restaurants where you pay, on Princess, were fine. NCL was better,
IMO, because they offered more variety, and the food was very good. The
best I have tried, were on Carnival.

Becca

Becca wrote:
Sue and Kevin Mullen wrote:

My favorite was "Palo" on the Disney Magic. We went there for brunch
and another day for dinner and the food and service were excellant.

sue

The restaurants where you pay, on Princess, were fine. NCL was better,
IMO, because they offered more variety, and the food was very good. The
best I have tried, were on Carnival.

Yes, the ones on the Crown Princess were very good also. We have only
done the specialty restaurants on the Magic and the Crown so far.

sue

Sue,

I have to agree with you. Palo on the Disney Magic was by far the favorite
specialty restaurant for both my wife Deborah and myself. However, we only
had the opportunity for dinner, having to cancel our brunch reservation,
because we opted to attend the seminar with Richard Sherman instead, from
the brothers song-writing team from Disney legends. But, that's a different
story.

Happy sailing,
John Sisker, SHIP-TO-SHORE CRUISE AGENCY®
(714) 536-3850 or toll free at (800) 724-6644 & (Agency No. 714.536.3850)
www.shiptoshorecruise.com



My favorite was "Palo" on the Disney Magic. We went there for brunch and
another day for dinner and the food and service were excellant.

sue

John Sisker wrote:
Sue,

I have to agree with you. Palo on the Disney Magic was by far the favorite
specialty restaurant for both my wife Deborah and myself. However, we only
had the opportunity for dinner, having to cancel our brunch reservation,

If you go back on the Magic, be sure to have brunch in Palo. Dinner and
brunch were very good, but IMO brunch was the better of the two meals.

sue

We have enjoyed the specialty restaurants on Celebrity (Normandie on
the Summit and Olympic on the Millennium) and on NCL (Cagney's, Le
Bistro and Bamboo on the Norwegian Dawn and Cagney's, Trattoria,
Shogun and Teppanyaki on the Norwegian Spirit). With the exception of
our very first NCL cruise on the Dawn, we have never eaten only in the
specialty restaurants on any given cruise, preferring to keep them as
a once, twice or three times (depending on the length of the voyage)
dining location for something different just for fun.

In both the Normandie and the Olympic, the food was exceptional and we
enjoyed choosing dishes that were prepared tableside--lots of fun to
watch your dinner materialize before your eyes. The service was
outstanding, but often a bit too much. Personally, I don't like being
escorted into and out of the dining room if I have to slip out for a
minute or so--always struck me as a bit too over blown. What made
those dinners extra special was dining with good friends on virtually
each occasion.

On the NCL ships, our favorite has to be Cagney's--shrimp cocktail and
steaks that are out of this world! We also really enjoy
Teppanayaki--as much for the food as for the show of seeing it being
prepared. Shogun, Bamboo and Le Bistro were also wonderful. What
strikes us as particular nice about these venues is the smaller, more
intimate rooms that make your meal seem a lot more special. Frankly,
we have seen little variation in the service we have been treated to
between the NCL main dining rooms and the specialty restaurants. But
the main dining rooms are much larger and, consequently, that much
busier in comparison to the smaller specialty rooms. We also like the
new variety of dishes in the main dining rooms, and the fact that
certain items are always available just in case nothing on the menu
strikes your fancy. We have rarely had a problem making reservations
(we like to eat later than most people anyway) and never had a problem
once a reservation was made.

PegNDerek

George Leppla wrote:
I am hijacking this subject from another thread...


"Diana Ball" wrote

And the specialty restaurant
(best food we've had on the seas) succeeded in evoking a big city supper
club of another era.


Which leads to some questions...

What do you think about "specialty restaurants" on ships?

If you go to these restaurants, what was your favorite meal?

On my very first cruise, aboard the NCL Leeward, we ate in Le Bistro.
I remember it being a very nice meal. As this was our first cruise, we
had nothing in which to compare our onboard dining experience - it was
all great, because it was new and different. And, at that time, NCL
was still traditional dining. The only thing I specifically remember,
food-wise, from that cruise, were the great homemade cookies that they
put out every afternoon...trays of them...and they were great.

Following that first cruise were cruises on RCI, Princess and HAL. The
company in the dining room for those cruises was so great, that the
food quality, presentation and taste became of secondary importance to
us. We looked forward to our meals in the main dining room, just for
the fun. I believe there was a specialty steakhouse option on Sea
Princess at that time, but I'm not sure the others even had an
alternative dining venue, other than the buffet restaurant.

On two subsequent HAL cruises, I've dined in their Odyssey restaurant,
and I've had great meals. But, I'm not sure I'd spend the extra money
again...I was traveling with different people on each of those
cruises, so the second Odyssey meal was so that my co-cruiser could
also experience the meal.

My last cruise was on the Miracle...and I enthusiastically agree with
Diana B. The specialty steak house on board that ship is top notch
dining. And, the venue, itself, is beautiful. We had a great meal
there - I'd highly recommend the splurge to all Miracle passengers.

I guess, if the cruise lines did away with the specialty restaurants,
I wouldn't miss them. But, while they're there, I'll probably continue
to treat myself to one meal during the cruise.

Lee

On Aug 30, 11:30 am, LeeNY wrote:


On two subsequent HAL cruises, I've dined in their Odyssey restaurant,
and I've had great meals. But, I'm not sure I'd spend the extra money
again...I was traveling with different people on each of those
cruises, so the second Odyssey meal was so that my co-cruiser could
also experience the meal.


In my experience the specialty restaurants that give the best service
and presentation are the ones most memorable ... all the great foods
seem to blend together ... and invariably they were great ... but the
service we had on HAL's Mighty Zuidy ... stood out ... They had a team
nationality concept ... and all the wait staff in the specialty
restauant were Romanian ... Besides being well trained ... they also
seemed to look out for on another ... This worked extremely well as we
felt constantly doted on ... yet never annoyed ...

The other memorable one was the Sushi on the NCL Dawn ... My wife's
brother in law and I were at the Sushi bar ... taking a tidbit here
and there as they passed by ... when we found the chef made us a
special plate ... having noticed our preferences ... then after
talking about Suchi and Sashimi with the server who brought that ... a
little later we got some other goodies not even part of the regular
assortment ...