Specialty Restaurants, Pick Top 2!

[The Traveling Man]

2 minutes ago, YVRteacher said:

Yes, this is a post-Covid change implemented by corporate.  In the past head chefs on NCL ships used to have more autonomy.  Now corporate has developed a set of 21 menus for both lunch and dinner and the head chef must choose from those.  No more freedom to customize, although the menus don’t need to be in a set order.

Thanks for the update.

[The Traveling Man]

54 minutes ago, Named-Tawny said:

Teppanyaki is fun as an experience - I really enjoyed it.  The food isn't amazing, but it's a bit of a show as well.  Definitely worth doing if you haven't done it before (and only worth doing a second time if you really loved it).

One of the advantages of dining in one of the specialty restaurants as compared to the MDR is that main courses and some apps are prepared a la minute instead of en masse.  The kitchens are smaller and closer to the dining rooms than the main galley is to the MDR, so your food generally is much fresher, hot off the grill.  With Teppanyaki, from the grill to the plate is less than arm's length and takes about 20 nanoseconds!  You just can't get any better than that.  The menu is quite limited, however, so it's not the sort of restaurant you'll want to visit often, but the food is excellent.

[Biffire]

Picking the best dining venues, is very subjective. It pretty much depends on your tastes. You have to remember that the chef and culinary team are a big part of your dining experience. Each employee of the cruise line from the Captain to the chef to the waiter , work a contract, the lengths vary. They don't rotate entire crews all at once.So every time you go to any of the specialty dining locations, you need to be aware that the team will most likely be somewhat different than the last time. Your experience this week could be different than a fellow CC member had 3 months ago. There are certain policies, procedures and methods which should be constant, but things happen. I would suggest becoming a frequent NCL cruiser and rotating through the various choices. We have been to Moderno a few times, we are skipping it this time. We get two free and two from our Latitude status. So this time we  are doing Cagney's, La Cuchina, Teppanyaki, and Le Bistro. Next year we will most like change a couple out and try something else. The most important thing is to keep a positive attitude, try new things, and enjoy your vacation.

As to your question about weak nights in the MDR. My belief is that NCL has something like 14 different MDR menus they rotate through, in no predictable order. I have never found a way to know which nights will feature which menus. I often book our specialty dining 3-4 months in advance, so I just have to live with my choices. If one of the more savvy cruisers, knows how to predict the menus months in advance, I would gladly listen, but I don't believe it is possible. Some people might wait until the menu is posted daily to decide of they want to go to a specialty venue, but I thing getting a last minute reservation at your preferred time, would be very iffy.

[Jennsails]

@YVRteacheramazing pro tip, thank you! We aren’t vegetarian, we eat seafood (we call it vegaquarian) but love interesting preparations of cauliflower. Is that only served at Ocean Blue and can you order it along side a seafood dish? It sounds delicious! 

[Jennsails]

35 minutes ago, The Traveling Man said:

It depends on whether you are using a Free at Sea dining credit or a Latitudes dining coupon.  The Latitudes coupon specifies one app, one main, and one dessert.  The waiters usually allow multiple apps when using the FaS.

We have the free at sea, which was included in our cruise booking. Good to know that there’s a differentiation because I’d seen conflicting posts about that. Thank you for clarifying! 

[tuxala]

8 hours ago, The Traveling Man said:

La Cucina also ranks very high.  In fact, the best steak I've ever had at sea was not in Cagney's but in La Cucina. 

The spaghetti carbonara in La Cucina is the best I've had outside of Italy. It is on the menu as an appetizer, but you can get in an entree as well. Cagney's  -- meh.

[MagnoliaBlossom]

I agree with TravekingMan about the steaks in LaCucina - best on the ship.  Someone told us this many years ago and DH tried it - never ordered anything else there.  I’m an o so buca (that’s the best I can do with spellchecker). We love Ocean Blue as well, although on our last visit, right before the shut down, they seemed to have pared down their menu somewhat.  No more tuna steak 😱.  I miss the affogato in LaCucina as well, although the waiter asked the chef and he got one for me.

[YVRteacher]

37 minutes ago, Jennsails said:

@YVRteacheramazing pro tip, thank you! We aren’t vegetarian, we eat seafood (we call it vegaquarian) but love interesting preparations of cauliflower. Is that only served at Ocean Blue and can you order it along side a seafood dish? It sounds delicious! 

I’m sorry I don’t know.  It takes 20 minutes to marinate so another tip is to let Ocean Blue staff know you will be ordering it as soon as you arrive.  It would be an excellent idea to order one for the table and share.

[Jennsails]

1 minute ago, YVRteacher said:

I’m sorry I don’t know.  It takes 20 minutes to marinate so another tip is to let Ocean Blue staff know you will be ordering it as soon as you arrive.  It would be an excellent idea to order one for the table and share.

Ok this thread is officially making me very hungry! Great tips and I’ll definitely be looking forward to it. And in the interim I’m googling the recipe so I can try and make that myself! 

[YVRteacher]

47 minutes ago, Biffire said:

Picking the best dining venues, is very subjective. It pretty much depends on your tastes. You have to remember that the chef and culinary team are a big part of your dining experience. Each employee of the cruise line from the Captain to the chef to the waiter , work a contract, the lengths vary. They don't rotate entire crews all at once.So every time you go to any of the specialty dining locations, you need to be aware that the team will most likely be somewhat different than the last time. Your experience this week could be different than a fellow CC member had 3 months ago. There are certain policies, procedures and methods which should be constant, but things happen. I would suggest becoming a frequent NCL cruiser and rotating through the various choices. We have been to Moderno a few times, we are skipping it this time. We get two free and two from our Latitude status. So this time we  are doing Cagney's, La Cuchina, Teppanyaki, and Le Bistro. Next year we will most like change a couple out and try something else. The most important thing is to keep a positive attitude, try new things, and enjoy your vacation.

As to your question about weak nights in the MDR. My belief is that NCL has something like 14 different MDR menus they rotate through, in no predictable order. I have never found a way to know which nights will feature which menus. I often book our specialty dining 3-4 months in advance, so I just have to live with my choices. If one of the more savvy cruisers, knows how to predict the menus months in advance, I would gladly listen, but I don't believe it is possible. Some people might wait until the menu is posted daily to decide of they want to go to a specialty venue, but I thing getting a last minute reservation at your preferred time, would be very iffy.

NCL has 21 menus from which the chefs can choose. There is no way to predict which menu will be offered on which day.  Sometimes provisions and the ability to procure certain foods are a determining factor.  You can also easily make changes to specialty dining reservations once on board at the moment because the ships aren’t full.

[Beer Belly]

23 hours ago, Jennsails said:

@beerbelly oh no! That’s something I would order for sure. I hope it wasn’t too severe, that’s no fun on vacation.

It took me out of commission till late afternoon the following day, could of been a fluke. I was leery of eating and drinking the rest of the cruise I will say the Scallops with Pork Bellies was great, I think it was the "Catch of the day" part of the platter that did me in.

[Beer Belly]

Oooops, double post🙄

Edited April 19, 2022 by Beer Belly

[RunBikeCruiseDC]

18 hours ago, The Traveling Man said:

It depends on whether you are using a Free at Sea dining credit or a Latitudes dining coupon.  The Latitudes coupon specifies one app, one main, and one dessert.  The waiters usually allow multiple apps when using the FaS.

Shanghai Noodle Bar is included, it was great!  

[P_Mcruisers]

Cagney's Steakhouse is at the top of my list of the best. My second choice is Le Bistro.

[Sailing12Away]

If you're vegetarians/pescatarians, don't be afraid to try out Moderno. Many folks rave about the offerings at the salad bar enough for them to justify using one of their credits, or just paying out of pocket to eat there. The grilled pineapple is worth it alone.

 

La Cucina is always one of our favorites. We tried it expecting Olive Garden and were pleasantly surprised. It's good comfort food for us, I always get the pesto gnocchi and a pizza as my main course. Tons of extra to share.

 

Le Bistro used to always be my favorite filet on the ship, but their new menu has me questioning if it's worth it. I don't eat mushrooms, or foie gras - so it just gets complicated for me to order a simple steak there now. 

 

Cagneys is slow.... so slow. We've never been able to eat there in under 2 hours. Not that dinner is a race, but I just don't get why it's always so slow.

 

We had a good meal at Q, but will be paying out of pocket going forward there - just not a good value for the credit since the meals are so cheap.

 

Our ultimate favorite of all though is O'Sheehans/The Local. We're not fancy fine dining folks, we prefer good craft beer, burgers, wings, and munchies to foie gras and lobster - so this place is more on our level. On our February sailing they added a new item which is my new favorite - shepards pie potato skins... yummmm.

[The Traveling Man]

2 hours ago, Sailing12Away said:

Le Bistro used to always be my favorite filet on the ship, but their new menu has me questioning if it's worth it. I don't eat mushrooms, or foie gras - so it just gets complicated for me to order a simple steak there now. 

 

I really miss the boeuf au cinque poivre at Le Bistro.

[Turtles06]

On our more recent cruises, we've been surprised at how much we've enjoyed La Cucina.   As for Moderno, we've given it a number of tries on different ships, and the meats have always been a disappointment.  It's a nice idea, but I don't think NCL has been able to pull off a churrascaria on a ship.   (Food is very subjective of course!)

 

On 4/18/2022 at 7:04 PM, The Traveling Man said:

With Teppanyaki, from the grill to the plate is less than arm's length and takes about 20 nanoseconds!  You just can't get any better than that.  The menu is quite limited, however, so it's not the sort of restaurant you'll want to visit often, but the food is excellent.

 

We love Teppanyaki -- excellent food and service, doesn't seem to vary from ship to ship.  But it's a once-per-cruise dinner for us, for the reasons you stated. 

[The Traveling Man]

1 hour ago, Turtles06 said:

We love Teppanyaki -- excellent food and service, doesn't seem to vary from ship to ship.  But it's a once-per-cruise dinner for us, for the reasons you stated. 

We have been there several times over our 28 NCL cruises.  For us it now is a once every three or four cruises option.  We skipped it on our last three cruises, but we have reservations there for next week on the Getaway.

[weltek]

A plea to folks who post these kinds of threads: Please list the options. I'd be happy to give my two cents, but many of us sail many ships and can't recall which ships have exactly which restaurants. 

[Turtles06]

1 hour ago, weltek said:

A plea to folks who post these kinds of threads: Please list the options. I'd be happy to give my two cents, but many of us sail many ships and can't recall which ships have exactly which restaurants. 

NCL has a handy chart:

 

https://www.ncl.com/sites/default/files/Dining_Guide.pdf

[Nursegina]

La Bistro and Ocean Blue for us.  As we tend to stay in the Haven their beef is every bit as good or better than Cagney's so we enjoy something a bit different

 

[The Traveling Man]

3 hours ago, Turtles06 said:

NCL has a handy chart:

 

https://www.ncl.com/sites/default/files/Dining_Guide.pdf

Thanks for the link.  Unfortunately, NCL hasn't updated it in several years.  It doesn't include the Bliss, Encore, Joy, or Prima.

Edited April 20, 2022 by The Traveling Man

[FLcruisergrl]

I’m 0 for 2 at Le Bistro. The first time I found it bland and the 2nd I felt sick afterwards. I like Ocean Blue (that bread!) and La Cucina. Cagney’s is a reliable solid, but I love La Cucina because they have a wonderful filet AND you can get pasta!

[coastcat]

37 minutes ago, FLcruisergrl said:

I’m 0 for 2 at Le Bistro. The first time I found it bland and the 2nd I felt sick afterwards. I like Ocean Blue (that bread!) and La Cucina. Cagney’s is a reliable solid, but I love La Cucina because they have a wonderful filet AND you can get pasta!

OMG, the bread at Ocean Blue. Unfortunately it messed up the experience for me because I ate so much of the bread that I didn’t have any appetite left for the food. That’s why I’ve avoided a return visit. 
 

Another vote for La Cucina. It’s simple and unfussy and just a nice place to relax with a glass of lightweight Pinot Grigio. Its lack of popularity makes reservations easy, too…

 

But my favorite is Food Republic. 

[weltek]

21 hours ago, Turtles06 said:

NCL has a handy chart:

 

https://www.ncl.com/sites/default/files/Dining_Guide.pdf

I don't know if you were really pointing me there, or others in general, but my point was that of course I could  go look it up every time someone asks these questions, but it seems a convenience the OPs should take on rather than each of us having to go make multiple clicks to get a list. I'm not upset about it, just trying to make the boards a better, more efficient place. 

Edited April 21, 2022 by weltek