American Diner vs Haven Restaurant

[exgman]

We just got off the Bliss and the Diner was offered for free on embarkation day. We went there and the food was good. The milkshakes aren’t free even with PP+, which kinda surprised me. My wife and I drank enough Veuve and Johnny Walker Blue to float a small ship, but we had to pay for a small milkshake 😳

I agree with those that don’t eat every meal in the Haven. My wife won’t eat anything that lives in the water and neither of us like to eat baby sheep and baby cows. We did eat breakfast every day and a couple lunches and dinners in the Haven and found the food to be very good and the service was outstanding. Actually, we found the service on Bliss to be outstanding everywhere we went. This was our first NCL cruise, but it’s definitely not our last. 

[MellaJoyce]

We just got off Escape last week. We were onto the ship by noon, but the Haven Restaurant wasn't quite ready for guests yet. So we all went to the American Diner for the "kill time" lunch. While the food was okay, I'd never on purpose choose that diner over the Haven Restaurant. We ate at the Haven multiple times throughout the week; the diner was kind of meh. In hindsight, even the food we saw/sampled from the main dining room buffet was better.

[pbenjamin]

We will be in the Haven for the first time in January.  I have studied the Haven Restaurant menus.  The breakfast menu looks wonderful and I imagine we will go there (or get room service from there) every morning.  With 3 specialty restaurants reserved for dinner, the Haven Restaurant will work out OK for dinner.  The lunch menu doesn't appeal to me though, there's only a couple of things that I would want for lunch on it.  I will probably do O'Sheehan's, the buffet or an MDR for lunch.  Having said that, another restaurant that I wouldn't otherwise go to seems like a good idea for the first day, so we'll probably go to American Diner.

[PTC DAWG]

18 hours ago, Sailing12Away said:

I'm always baffled when folks proclaim devout love of the Haven restaurant. I'm no food snob, so maybe that's why I don't notice enough of a difference to care. But the exact same menu every day is a no deal for me. We'll eat lunch there maybe 1-2x and dinner maybe 1-2x on a 7 night cruise. Who wants to eat the same thing every night?

 

Maybe it's just because I'm a picky eater and only find 1-2 things I would enjoy whereas the rest of you will go down the offerings and pick something different each day.

I go out of my way to try and eat different things on a cruise…different strokes I suppose..

 

agree on the non changing Haven  menu though..I would give the diner a go day one if I was in the Haven..lobster rolls sounds good to me..I had them either on The Escape or Getaway at the to go window at the seafood restaurant before..good eats. 

[debnjoe1438]

On 12/12/2021 at 6:55 PM, Calvin said:

If it helps at all, thanks to BirdTravels, I have attached a copy of the menu for the American Diner.

Also, because I am a pig, I'll probably try to do both the Haven and American Diner, if allowed.584262355_AmericanDiner (2).pdf

Thanks for posting the menu. The milkshake is about the only thing I would be interested in paying extra for. Not sure I would give up the Haven Dining Room for that.

[TowerOrchard]

We did Margaritaville in the past & will do American Diner on our upcoming cruise. Several reasons - Haven lunch menu is the least appealing of the 3 meals and no variety during the week. We've also found the Haven restaurant to be crowded during lunch on embarkation day - the crowd evens out during the week, thankfully.

 

We generally aren't eating a heavy lunch on that first day, so apps & drinks with low crowds works for us!

[kamikazecat]

Thank you all for your thoughts and for posting the menu. My son is a huge fan of ribs and since we can't get that in Haven, we may check out the diner after all. 6 days!

[psac]

It really seems like the Haven restaurants do vary in quality and in service ship to ship.  We loved it on the Escape pre-covid and they were super flexible with special requests, getting lunch items at dinner, etc. It was so good, we cancelled our free Ocean Blue (or is it Bayamo on that ship?) for another night at the Haven. 

 

In October on the Breakaway, the food was good, but nearly as good as the Escape. Worse though was the timing. It took two hours for one app, main, and dessert for the four of us, and that was with my father in law complaining that it was taking too long!   It got so frustrating we added a Teppanyaki dinner out of pocket, which we were happy we did, since it was the best meal on the ship.  It was only the second sailing after the restart, though, so I would give them the benefit of the doubt that they needed to get their bearings back in the kitchen. Also agreed the dinner menu is tough for non-red meat eaters, my mother in law had a problem with getting tired of their few fish offerings. 
 

Having said that, the one thing they did get right on the Breakaway though, was the lunch burger. One of the juiciest burgers we’ve ever had. I had it twice during the week, my FIL had it either five or six times during the week.  😁😁👍👍