Cucina del Capitano

[Bookbug53]

Is Cucina still open and free for lunch? It shows as a dining option on several of the ships but only lists dinner with a fee. 

 

We have eaten there before on Magic, etc on embarkation day to avoid the chaos of LIdo. Wanted to do so again on Sunrise in July. 

[blakesta12]

We were on the Magic last week and did indeed eat at Cucina on our first sea day for lunch and it was free.  Its open on sea days and embarkation for lunch for free.  I have never eaten there for dinner but i would assume that it is just a smaller menu when free maybe? 

 

But none the less it was delicious. 

[ABQrobin]

The lunch is free there BUT it is not the same menu.  It is pasta bowls, a small paper menu that you mark what you want, what type of pasta, sauce, and toppings.  It is good if that is what you are looking for at lunch.  

Dinner is a whole different menu, and $15pp charge.  Worth it.

[Bookbug53]

1 hour ago, blakesta12 said:

We were on the Magic last week and did indeed eat at Cucina on our first sea day for lunch and it was free.  Its open on sea days and embarkation for lunch for free.  I have never eaten there for dinner but i would assume that it is just a smaller menu when free maybe? 

 

But none the less it was delicious. 

Thank you. We have done this many times but it was not listed as a lunch option on the ships I checked.

 

I have not eaten there for dinner but I have seen their dinner menu. It is much more expansive than lunch. Might try it one of these days...er, evenings. 

[Saint Greg]

It may be listed as simply "pasta bar" in the fun times.

[Butterbean1000]

We haven't eaten there for lunch,  but we did have dinner there one night.  I have to say that I was underwhelmed.  I understand people love it, maybe it was just an off night.  Stay away from the house chianti. Bad stuff.

[pamesacruisin]

We ate there for lunch one day while on the Breeze.   As others said it was a pasta bar and you choose your pasta, sauce, and toppings.  You can get salad and there was bread.  It was okay except for the lasagna.  If I would have had to pay extra for it I would have asked for my money back.  Good place to go though if you want a quiet lunch away from the hustle and bustle.

[Joebucks]

I'm pretty sure it's just the pasta bar you will find on other ships just in the venue that makes you perceive it as a higher value.

[crusinpsychRN]

I got a huge portion of spaghetti at lunch, couldn't eat all of it.

[a4ofspades]

I was so grateful to have discovered it when we cruised on the Magic this year...we too used it as embarkation lunch and it was so relaxing and perfect!! I try to avoid pasta so had the protein and veggies there 3 days during our cruise and loved it. 🙂 

[Shaded Lady]

We've done both the free lunch (as others have said, pretty good pasta bar, stay away from the lasagna, IMHO) and the $15 pp dinner.

 

The dinner was really good from my viewpoint... I had the antipasto app, DH had the arancini and we shared... I then had the chicken parm and DH had the linguini and seafood if I recall.. the chicken parm was really good! 

 

The one thing that didn't jazz me was the apple crostini dessert (an apple tart of sorts). The crust was too thick and it wasn't great... I wish I'd gone with the gelato.

 

Other than that we really liked it. So much so we're taking the whole family on our upcoming Vista cruise!

Edited April 1, 2019 by Shaded Lady

[evandbob]

If you like OG, the Cucina will be fine, and it is open for free lunches on the Magic.

 

I passed by it several times during the March 17 sailing on my way to more edible food.  JMO, YMMV.

Edited April 1, 2019 by evandbob

[coevan]

IMHO, much better than Olive Garden. Of course the lunch was the Pasta Bella, not Cucina. 

[Saint Greg]

1 hour ago, coevan said:

IMHO, much better than Olive Garden. Of course the lunch was the Pasta Bella, not Cucina. 

 

Pasta Bella is on the Dream. Cucina is on the Magic. They both have the included pasta lunches (captains pasta bar) and the $ dinners. Basically the same place with a different name. Just like some ships have the pizza pirate while others have pizza Del Capitano 

 

Edited April 1, 2019 by Saint Greg

[schazzy]

17 hours ago, Shaded Lady said:

stay away from the lasagna

 

What's wrong with the lasagna? I've been looking forward to trying it.

[JaniceB]

Maybe someone can better explain the lasagna but I didn't like it, almost like a beef broth sauce.  

[Maraprince]

Will this be available as an alternative to the buffet on the Sunrise on boarding day or are we limited to the buffet?

 

MARAPRINCE

[teknoge3k]

I've eaten there at lunch several times and yep, free. I will say though, you may want to order 2 portions because the spaghetti portions are super small. It's an okay meal but as someone else mentioned if I had to pay for what I got, I would have been upset and only eaten there once. 

[Shaded Lady]

The lasagna was definitely weird, to me... it was kind of gritty and didn't have a tomato-based sauce... it was more a white sauce from what I recall and while it wasn't that bad, it just didn't taste like lasagna to me... the other pasta combinations were definitely more worthwhile to me.

[schazzy]

4 hours ago, JaniceB said:

Maybe someone can better explain the lasagna but I didn't like it, almost like a beef broth sauce.  

 

Hmmm, well, I'm guessing you're saying the meat sauce had a bouillon like flavor to it. Well, considering it's no extra charge, I might give it a try anyways, what do I have to lose?  

[schazzy]

4 minutes ago, Shaded Lady said:

The lasagna was definitely weird, to me... it was kind of gritty and didn't have a tomato-based sauce... it was more a white sauce from what I recall and while it wasn't that bad, it just didn't taste like lasagna to me... the other pasta combinations were definitely more worthwhile to me.

 

Ah, okay, yeah, sounds more like a French-style lasagna that uses a bechamel sauce. I've had that before, and like you said, it wasn't bad, but it's not what you think of when you want lasagna. 

[Saint Greg]

13 minutes ago, schazzy said:

 

Ah, okay, yeah, sounds more like a French-style lasagna that uses a bechamel sauce. I've had that before, and like you said, it wasn't bad, but it's not what you think of when you want lasagna. 

 

Definitely different. And I liked the one on Breeze better than Dream. I don't think I tried it on Vista.

[schazzy]

3 minutes ago, Saint Greg said:

 

Definitely different. And I liked the one on Breeze better than Dream. I don't think I tried it on Vista.

 

Well, I like trying different things, and maybe it'll be good on the Sunshine.

[Shaded Lady]

36 minutes ago, schazzy said:

 

Hmmm, well, I'm guessing you're saying the meat sauce had a bouillon like flavor to it. Well, considering it's no extra charge, I might give it a try anyways, what do I have to lose?  

I agree 100%! you might try the lasagna and love it! Worst case, if you don't like it you could ask for something different! That's what my hubby did the first time we had lunch in there...

[pamesacruisin]

The lasagna had a slab of tough meat in it that we did not care for.  It definitely wasn't good in our opinion and not what I'd call lasagna, but someone else might like it.  Wasn't a problem though because we didn't pay extra for it and plenty of other things to eat.  I'd certainly go again for free lunch because you can get a wide variety of pasta combinations.