Dishin with Janet (A Star Class Foodie Live Review) Allure Sept. 30th

[janetmojo]

Howdy from onboard in our crazy enormous suite [emoji15]. Getting on the ship was smooth but we did come over pretty early (10am) so we had to wait til about 11 to board.). We know better than to deal with the windjammer on day 1 so we had noon reservations for Chops. It might take a couple posts here...

 

Chops was very good, not amazing. We actually had better Chops lunch on Enchantment go figure.

 

Apps-Bread for the table, Shrimp Cocktail for both of us, beef carpaccio for hubby and we shared the wedge salad.

 

 

 

 

 

Shrimp was great (it’s shrimp cocktail [emoji23]), I didn’t try the beef, the salad was fair. Light on the good stuff (dressing, bacon and blue cheese.)

 

Up next entrees!

 

 

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[storknurse13]

Yummy!

[janetmojo]

I went with the chicken...

 

 

The skin was crispy and delicious, just way too much chicken.

 

Hubby had the filet, I stole a bite, it was very good.

 

 

He’s not a ship sauce guy, strictly A1 [emoji849].

 

We had fries (him) and Mac and cheese (me). You never know if the chicken comes with mashed potatoes, (it did this time.)

 

 

Hubby finished with the apple pie which for some reason was upside down [emoji23]

 

 

Spent the day unpacking, getting to know our way around, spent about an hour in the casino and headed to dinner at Giovanni’s. Hopefully we can stay awake for Aqua theatre show at 10:15. We are a little short on sleep.

 

 

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[Glide_Path]

Janet, thank you for bringing us along with your pics. Looking forward to more food reviews.

Were the sides at Chops fresh tasting, or did it taste like it has been sitting under the heat lamp for a while?

That upside down apple pie is just strange.

How is you first impression with Star class so far?

[laurasue]

Cowch! Bahahahahahaha. That’s amazing!

 

Loving the review so far. Keep on eating, and sharing!

[janetmojo]

Janet, thank you for bringing us along with your pics. Looking forward to more food reviews.

Were the sides at Chops fresh tasting, or did it taste like it has been sitting under the heat lamp for a while?

That upside down apple pie is just strange.

How is you first impression with Star class so far?

 

 

 

The sides were just ok, the Mac and cheese was pretty bland and hubby didn’t eat many fries (I just asked him and he said heat lamp.). I mean it wasn’t all bad or anything, we’ve just had better Chops food on other ships.

 

Star class, ha ha. Honestly it’s amazing but we also got a great deal on it. The reservations for dinner and shows are great but other than that we just don’t require much attention. We don’t snack, we haven’t needed anything really.

 

I’m about to post a quick follow up about our room.

 

 

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[janetmojo]

So a bit about this giant room. First off I can post pics or you can just search for Allure 1701 and check it out.

 

It’s HUGE! Way too big for two people, although there is only one regular bed so extra folks would end up on a pull out couch. It’s almost “cavernous” we keep joking about how many steps it is to the bathroom, closet etc. Its so not what we are used to. We even have a fairly small house.

 

There is so much wasted space, a whole set of closets we aren’t even using. A second full bathroom. Also and here’s the kicker...I guess bc it is so big and tall (2 stories tall and open) it makes a lot of noise. We have a loud rattling in the ceiling and a loud whistling from one of the windows. I’m going to see if anything can be done about that later today. I slept with a pillow over my head!

 

You might also want to pack some kind of small nightlight. The bathroom area is kind of open to the bed and so you can’t leave a light on in there at night. But there are three steps up/down in the night to the bathroom. Kind of a dangerous thing in the dark. I might be missing something. Also going to ask.

 

Headed to get some coffee and I’ll update on Giovanni’s last night!

 

 

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[janetmojo]

Giovanni’s dinner...

 

We arrived at 8pm and some larger family groups were just finishing up. We were seated at a table for two and given menus. We told them tap water was fine but once they saw our cards they brought bottled water (roll eyes). They took our wine order. We just asked for a Chardonnay on the package and they actually kept a bottle handy for us. As we looked over the menu they brought bread with dipping oil and automatically brought the meat and cheese board which I’m not sure we were going to order but ended up meeting most of it. Everything was yummy but it’s not nearly as fancy as the one at Jamie’s on Anthem.

 

(Sorry it was dark in there.)

 

Leslie ordered the ahi tuna crudo which he said was just ok. (That’s some meat and cheese from the board next to it.)

 

 

He also had the carpaccio (he’s a fan of the raw stuff [emoji23])

 

 

I had an appetizer sized (??) portion of the mushroom risotto, it was large. It was good not amazing. I make this at home so I’m picky [emoji12]

 

 

Next up entrees.

 

 

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[janetmojo]

Hubby heard people all around his talking about how great the filet was but he had one for lunch so he had the Branzino (which was pretty fishy.). It’s not a fish I have often so I wasn’t sure how to guide him.

 

 

I don’t think it was bad or anything I just think he was second guessing his choice (he was also still full from lunch so not a lot of it got eaten.)

 

I went with the Osso bucco with polenta and it was delicious. The portion was huge though. #somuchfood

 

 

We managed to share a chocolate hazelnut torte with a scoop of vanilla gelato and we really enjoyed it.

 

Hubby headed right to bed. And I enjoyed the Ocean Aria show at 10:15am.

 

Time to find some breakfast!!

 

 

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[RFerrington]

You kind of skipped over the whole checkin process. How did it go ? Was your Genie there to greet you or did someone else escort you to your suite (4 SC cruises so far and as of yet, our Genie has never been the one to take us to our suite !!) ? How was the luggage delivery ? We have never mastered the luggage part of SC. Our luggage has been mysteriously delayed every single time. No idea what we're doing wrong...

[janetmojo]

You kind of skipped over the whole checkin process. How did it go ? Was your Genie there to greet you or did someone else escort you to your suite (4 SC cruises so far and as of yet, our Genie has never been the one to take us to our suite !!) ? How was the luggage delivery ? We have never mastered the luggage part of SC. Our luggage has been mysteriously delayed every single time. No idea what we're doing wrong...

 

 

 

Sure! So we arrived earlier than recommended (10 instead of 11). We were just ready to leave the hotel [emoji23]. The check in at that time was very uncrowded. In fact even though we were escorted right thru to the waiting area people on our shuttle arrived the same time we did. We were seated in the Star class/Pinnacle waiting area and Charlie came to check on us about 10:40? Said Susan would be down shortly but they had some delays with the B2B cruisers. Susan came down about 11 and Charlie escorted two groups up about 11:15 while Susan waited with a big group. We were dropped off and then she came by to check on us and see if we had questions about the room etc.

 

We left for lunch at 12, back about 1:30 and luggage was there so I’m not exactly sure what time it came. Although we did get someone else’s garment bags oops.

 

 

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[RFerrington]

Charlie...my very favorite. I adore him. We've never had Susan but I've met her and others who have had her as their Genie have always raved about her service. Sounds like your embark went smoothly. That's always a good start !!

[janetmojo]

Where were we? Ah lunch yesterday.

 

Izumi sushi lunch, one of our favorites. I have been a little off sushi lately (not sure why) so you’ll see we ordered more non sushi items that usual. Since we are Star class we didn’t have a dollar limit on what we could order.

 

Edamame they serve to everyone.

 

 

My cocktail called a Spicy Okinawa (Sriracha and citrus mixed with agave, grapefruit juice and premium sake.

 

 

I’ll just say it was...interesting. Would have been better without the pulp?

 

Here is our Shrimp Firecracker Spring Rolls

 

 

Tasty.

 

We also got the Crispy Chicken Kara-age. This was a new dish for us. Very yummy fried chicken thigh pieces with a sweet and sour sauce.

 

 

And we also ordered some pork gyoza (we went a little crazy with the apps)

 

 

Next up the sushi!

 

 

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[janetmojo]

This was the tuna wasabi and it was probably our favorite item of the meal. We might have to get a few of these sent to the room ;)

 

 

We had a standard Nigiri combo.

 

 

And wrapped things up with a waitress recommended Baked Snow Crab and Eel Dynamite Chef’s signature roll. It was so good but we couldn’t quite finish it.

 

 

No dessert for us as we had chef’s table at 6:30!!

 

 

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[storknurse13]

Okay Izumi looks the best of all the food I have seen so far! My 7 year old wants exactly what you ordered! He is such a sushi foodie!

[janetmojo]

Where were we? Sorry for the delay folks, just having great fun on the Allure this week! Next up was our Chef’s table dinner. Now we had eaten a lot of sushi at noonish and the Chef’s Table was 6:30 (which is WAY early for us to eat dinner) so keep that in mind when reading.

 

We were to meet in front of the library at 6:20 and about 6:30 all 10 people were there and we were given a welcome cocktail, I THINK it was a Kir Royale. We were escorted through the Diamond Lounge (which was not open, they are using overflow in Blaze this week) and upstairs to where the table was set up.

 

We had a lovely time getting to know everyone at our table and that was one of the nicest aspects of the dinner.

 

There were rolls out (3 varieties) and butter. Our waiter introduced himself and I’ll be honest, he was pretty hard to understand. The chef came out and introduced himself and he was also fairly hard to understand. There was music playing in the background which we asked to be turned down, I don’t think it ever was.

 

Our waiter explained the first course and the wine. Scallop Carpaccio, yuzu vinaigrette, crispy quinoa with a Sauvignon Blanc.

 

 

 

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[janetmojo]

Having some app issues, hopefully it won’t keep up.

 

Scallops were good but a very tiny portion of actual scallops, each person probably had 1/2 a scallop. Wine pairing was tasty, I’m not a wine snob but I thought they went well together.

 

It was about this time though that we all realized we couldn’t really understand what they were saying about each dish. We got about every fourth word. So some of the Chef’s Table aspect about it was lost on all of us.

 

Next course was the Smoked Tomato Soup with garlic focaccia croutons and parm paired with a very light Chardonnay.

 

 

 

 

It was ok. I’m not a huge tomato soup fan and I mean I just think it is an odd choice for a $100 per head dinner?

 

Next up the Maine Lobster Salad with hearts of Palm, pineapple, cilantro and vanilla dressing paired with a heavy chardonnay (Oaked).

 

It was a great combination of flavors, a think a slightly sweeter note than normally paired with seafood but it worked for me. I finished hubby’s as he has a thing about sweet with any kind of meat (including seafood.)

[janetmojo]

(It’s not letting me include more than one picture per post right now so here is the lobster salad course...)

 

 

Next up was the entree. Now our waiter had asked if we wanted the filet, the pasta or the fish and he went on and on about the filet. We had already had filet two times in two days (I know, suite people problems) so hubby went ahead and ordered it bc they said it was so good. I asked for the pasta, I love pasta and hubby hates it so I don’t get to have it often. Waiter said he would bring automatically but I should order the filet and he would bring pasta to share? Umm ok, but I really just wanted pasta. Again he said I should have the filet? Fine bring the dang meat.

 

 

 

 

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[janetmojo]

Filet Mignon, truffle potato purée, asparagus, dorelaise sauce and a very small side plate of pasta (sniffle). Paired with a REALLY good Honig Cabernet.

 

[janetmojo]

 

Everything on the filet plate was SOOO salty. It was almost inedible. Honestly. We were kind of bummed, but I was full, hubby was tired and I ate my pasta.

 

Dessert was a Valrhona Chocolate Bar with salted Carmel, and dulce de leche gelato. (But it didn’t look like a bar.)

 

 

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[janetmojo]

Dessert was tasty but we were just kind of done ya know?

 

 

They also brought this tasty plate of treats that we carried back to our room and put in the fridge.

 

 

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[janetmojo]

 

Oh and a small shot of a dessert martini, I hardly remember it so it must not have been spectacular lol.

 

All in all I’m glad we did it once and I’m very glad we did it as Star class so it was only $50 total. If we had paid $200 I would have been not very happy.

 

A couple of final notes. We had to walk upstairs and the restrooms was downstairs, not sure how it works if someone needs accessibility help

 

They did give us some additional wine with some courses if we asked.

 

I was planning on posting a few more meals but I think I will wait til am and see if it lets me post more than one picture at a time.

 

 

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[tweetylori]

Loving your review and pics, thank you! Can't wait for more food porn!

[MrsBBuffalo]

Thanks for all your great descriptions and photos! We are both enjoying them. ;)

[Glide_Path]

That filet dish looked like it was very sauce heavy..... still following your food adventure, thanks for posting