Tuscan grill review - italian it isn't

[dinosaurdem]

We're Italian and while onboard Silhouette 2 weeks ago we are 3 times at Tuscan Grille. We absolutely loved it. We thought it was way better than Qsine and Murano (although there was nothing wrong with either of those two). We thought the ciopppino and carpaccio were to die for. The arugula insalata was delish. And although I'm not big on red meat I ordered the ribeye all 3 nights. The accompanying baked Mac and cheese was so good. The prosciutto in the antipasto was like butter. My sister is a trained chef and loved every dish. Just goes to show how different the experience can be from one ship to another.

 

Jo-Ann

 

We went to the Tuscan Grille three times on the Connie and loved it. Nothing spicy. On a dozen Celebrity cruises, I have had only one spicy dish and that was when I asked for jalapenos in my crepe in Bistro.

[tanelicus]

is more of a Italian steakhouse type of experience. Does anybody have a menu that they can post? We are planning on going to Qsine, but may try this as well.

 

Update: I just checked the Celebrity website and its on there. Looks like an interesting menu.

Edited April 26, 2012 by tanelicus
updated info

[LINGBER]

The experience in the specialty restaurants really does vary by ship. Loved Murano on the Eclipse ,even on two different sailings, and thought it was mediocre at best on the Solstice this past Christmas. It seemed the recipes had changed. Same items but presentation and taste was very different.

 

On both ships we enjoyed the Tuscan Grill; but it was so outstanding this last trip on Solstice, that I have it booked twice on our upcoming 12 night med cruise. However, I would not have been at all happy with the Jalapenos! or even anything spicy where I wasn't forewarned. The onion soup is a favorite and so is the antipasta plate which is served to the table family style before the starters. Just delicious:)

[jaymebs]

I would have to agree that Tuscan, in my opinion, is not truly reflective of traditional Italian cuisine( Northern or Southern)

We tried all the specialty restos on Silhouette, including a repeat at Quisine, and found the Tuscan was our least favorite.

Not bad by any stretch of the imagination, but nothing to rave about( again just my opinion)

Also it could have been our menu choices. I've read many wonderful reviews on the steaks, but we didn’t go that way.

My wife had the Mediterranean sea bass, which she found to be excellent

I went for the bone in veal scaloppini with a marsala sauce

I was expecting pan seared veal, no breading, with traditional marsala

What I got was a fried breaded veal, much like you would find in a veal sandwich, or the base for a veal parmesan, with the sauce served on the side to drizzle on

Again, it was very good for what it was, but it wasn’t what I was expecting

The wine selection was very good, and I was pleasantly surprised to find a brachetto desert wine on the menu from the Piedmont area in Italy where we are fortunate to be able to spend a lot of time in

One thing that surprised me was the steak tartar. I love tartar and Carpaccio.

However, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a portion of this massive size. it was actually intimidating. I’m not a small guy, and can usually plow my way through anything, but I couldn’t finish this. Raw meats, in my opinion, are meant to be enjoyed moderately. This portion could have been for a table of four. I know people are looking for value, and size of items relates to value with some, but this was overkill in my opinion

All in all, it was a pleasant way to spend an evening, and I would recommend trying Tuscan but temper expectations and choose your menu items carefully

 

I agree. Not a Italian restaurant.

The difference starts with the menu. The Tuscan Grille serves as "primi piatti" what actually are antipasti. After, you can chose a soup or a salad, but in Italy the soup is antipasti and the salad is served just before the desert.

Then, you chose a pasta, what in Italy is the primi piatti.

 

I know Celebrity make adjust to the american taste, but in this case they gone beyond the limit.

 

When I go to an italian restaurant, I expect to have antipasti (prosciutto, mozzarella, etc), primi piatti (pasta or risoto) and/or secondo piati (or piatti principalle - meat, fish).

 

Jayme

[ClaudiaB]

Sorry you had a bad meal.

 

It's funny, though, how things are perceived differently by people. Tuscan is our favorite specialty - yes, over Murano - and we eat there at least two or three nights on a 2 week cruise. There are so many things there we love. I don't care if it's Italian, or French or Greek - it's just good, and the service is perfect. I find Murano a bit slow and pretentious. The best filet I've ever had on board is in Tuscan Grille.

 

Good thing there are lots of choices.

[riredsox]

Tuscan was very good every time I went. However the Steak Tartar was spiced with something spicy hot which I usually like but it doesn't belong in Tartar. That was disappointing to me and I did say something about it. Everything else was wonderful... Happy cruising

[JonnyCT81]

I love their Steak Tartare, I usually get two :-)

[dinosaurdem]

I believe that Celebrity shoots for a steakhouse with an Italian flair. Princess does Italian better. That said, I prefer everything about the Celebrity specialty restaurants, except for the price. With the exception that, in my opinion, Qsine is more of an entertainment than a serious restaurant. I have been on 15 Celebrity cruises, almost all of their ships and in every restaurant except the grill. I have never had any dish that I considered hot, in fact, to make the pad thai served in the Asian restaurant resemble anything I ate in Thailand, I had to add considerable heat. That said I realize that there are some people, like my daughter-in-law, from rural Indiana, who finds a little black pepper to be incredibly spicy.

[Lovecruisestoo]

We ate at the Tuscan Grille on the Reflection and thought it was terrible. The steaks tasted like a very cheap cut of meat and my husband's side pasta was terrible. We tried it again and paid the surcharge for aged beef .. the steaks were a little better, but not great. Not worth the money. AND, this has replaced the Murano restaurant on all the smaller ships? And, we are not a fan at all of Qsine (our opinion, you may love it). No more crepe restaurant, either. Sad. So, if you want to eat in the Murano you have to book one of the newer, larger ships.

[Spursgirl]

Sorry you had a bad meal.

 

It's funny, though, how things are perceived differently by people. Tuscan is our favorite specialty - yes, over Murano - and we eat there at least two or three nights on a 2 week cruise. There are so many things there we love. I don't care if it's Italian, or French or Greek - it's just good, and the service is perfect. I find Murano a bit slow and pretentious. The best filet I've ever had on board is in Tuscan Grille.

 

Good thing there are lots of choices.

 

Completely agree. We have never had a bad meal at Tuscan Grill and have also had wonderful service there. The reverse is true of our experience at Murano, mediocre food and sloppy service

[TFLG]

We've been to the Tuscan on 3 different ships and it's been slightly different each time. I've never had anything remotely spicy there. I've had the crab cakes and they were great with no hit of jalapeno. I've had the cioppino and it's never been spicy. Once it was very good and the second time it was worse than I can get at a chain restaurant here in town. (Best cioppino around here, Pacifica in Palm Desert!). I find the quality in the Tuscan to be less than adequate considering the cost, so we only go if we can score a 2 for one deal. I think the portion sizes on many of the dishes are far too large for an average person. I wish they would cut the portions sizes and up the quality.

[CHEZMARYLOU]

This post is 5 years old and the menu at Tuscan has changed considerable over the years. The dry aged beef concept is fine but the cuts are not the best. We were disappointed in the steak my DH chose. Otherwise, we enjoyed the food and the service was great on our last cruise. We're disappointed to not have the Murano's equivalent restaurant on our Alaska cruise.

[4774Papa]

You're definitely from north of the Mason-Dixon line if you think jalapenos are hot. :)

 

I don't recall any spice in any of our dishes at Tuscan. I just recall wonderful service.

 

In all seriousness, I'm sorry your meal was ruined. I can offer you this advice (no sarcasm, etc.--just one CC member to another). Next time you run into something too spicy, you should immediately request some dairy (preferably milk). If you're a vegan (not likely if you had seafood), please note that soy, rice or almond milk won't help. You need the casein from actual dairy products.

 

Hopefully, the rest of your cruise worked out better.

Yes, jalapeños are one of the tamer Mexican peppers. My Mom's family was from Texas, I was born there and still go frequently. I cut my teeth on spicy food. Still, I have my limits, especially when I go to an Indian restaurant.

 

Never heard of jalapeños in Italian food. I might find it a good thing, but it does sound unusual.

[C 2 C]

This post is 5 years old and the menu at Tuscan has changed considerable over the years. The dry aged beef concept is fine but the cuts are not the best. We were disappointed in the steak my DH chose. Otherwise, we enjoyed the food and the service was great on our last cruise. We're disappointed to not have the Murano's equivalent restaurant on our Alaska cruise.

 

I thought I was in an alternate universe... or time warp.

 

 

Onion Soup. loved it.. but it's gone

Steak Tartare. My wife loved it, it's gone,

Lasagna, loved it, it's gone

The Crab in the little crock pot, loved it but it's gone.

 

I'm not a beef guy, don't like fish much. The appetizers olives, cheese and stuff

 

 

We would take Murano or it's variations on the M-class ship any day rather than Tuscan, but hey they're all gone...

 

The antipasto is now, for me, the best part of the meal.. the rest is all downhill from past experiences....

 

 

Sometimes it's better to have a bad memory ;)

[capsplace]

Like the earlier remark, this post is five years old. Guess we'll make our own judgement.

[highway180]

We're Italian and while onboard Silhouette 2 weeks ago we are 3 times at Tuscan Grille. We absolutely loved it. We thought it was way better than Qsine and Murano (although there was nothing wrong with either of those two). We thought the ciopppino and carpaccio were to die for. The arugula insalata was delish. And although I'm not big on red meat I ordered the ribeye all 3 nights. The accompanying baked Mac and cheese was so good. The prosciutto in the antipasto was like butter. My sister is a trained chef and loved every dish. Just goes to show how different the experience can be from one ship to another.

 

 

 

Jo-Ann

 

 

 

We agree!

Being Italian we also love Tuscan Grill

We actually like it much better than Murano....... a lot.

But that is our humble option.

We partake at least 3 meals on our favorite TA 's

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[capsplace]

We agree!

Being Italian we also love Tuscan Grill

We actually like it much better than Murano....... a lot.

But that is our humble option.

We partake at least 3 meals on our favorite TA 's

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Thank you! My DH is Italian and we are both looking forward to Summit meals in Tuscan Grill. Sounds like the food is great!

[Ma Bell]

In all my years on Celebrity I don't think I have ever really criticized the food. It's true that sometimes it's better than others and generally it was better in the past but Tuscan Grill on our Reflection TA in April was the worst meal I have ever had on a Celebrity ship. There were 8 of us and we unanimously agreed that the food was terrible. The service was fine but we were really surprised at the poor quality of the food and the fact that with the wide variety of food we had, nothing was very good. Just one example, I don't know how it's possible to make a meatball that you can barely chew, but they did it. I'm also of Italian descent and even at the best of times I wouldn't consider Tuscan Grill to be great Italian food but the total experience was always enjoyable.

 

Another evening we ate in Murano and two of us had the lobster which was prepared table side. Mine was really salty, so much so that I only had a couple of bites. I didn't complain at the time because being with a group I didn't want to wait for another preparation and was going to let it slide. My friend also didn't eat hers for the same reason which we discovered when the waiter questioned why we didn't eat it. When we told him it was too salty he told us that wasn't possible. Not really a great thing to say. We tasted it...he didn't. It was exceptionally salty. Because we didn't see him add salt during the preparation, the only thing I could imagine is that it was stored in salt water and never rinsed off. We did have another dinner in Murano later in the cruise and it was wonderful. We had the Dover Sole.

Edited July 17, 2017 by Ma Bell

[awhcruiser]

The menu has changed in five years.

[Bo1953]

While I Am not Italian, some of my cousins are and they along with us, enjoyed Tuscan a great deal. As for Murano, I enjoyed that a bit more than they. I think Murano was a bit more fancy than they rather. LOL

 

At any rate, will be in Tuscan in a week or so first night aboard... Millennium...

 

As many of us know, food is very subjective and often times personal in terms of tastes and likes i.e. my spouse does not care for my cooking as I use almost no salt and thinks it is bland. I use a lot of herbs to counteract salt use and I think it is great, go figure? I like original flavour as much as possible and think salt alters it too much, for my taste, except for white potatoes for some strange reason, must have salt on them. LOL

 

bon voyage and bon appétit.

[Bo1953]

The menu has changed in five years.

 

a - I would hope so... often times menus get very stale, even the favourites.

 

bon voyage

[Ma Bell]

The menu has changed in five years.

 

No kidding. LOL

[awhcruiser]

Just curious why someone would want to dig up a 5 year old thread!

No kidding. LOL

[I_r_a]

>Just curious why someone would want to dig up a 5 year old thread!

 

Some people have a strong sense of history?

 

Ira

[Ma Bell]

The restaurant is still there and recent experiences would be relevant.