Specialty dining vs. Coastal Kitchen

[megs193]

What do you like more - Coastal Kitchen or Specialty dining (on Allure of the Seas if that makes a difference). This is our first time cruising on a ship with coastal kitchen in a suite so I am going back and forth on whether or not to buy a dining package. 

[renji]

I had the unlimited dining on Oasis and was glad for it.  i preferred the specialty over my one dinner in coastal kitchen.   loved the civilized breakfast though.

[BirdTravels]

Our prior experience was that Costal Kitchen was good (not as good as specialty dining), but good. 

 

We were on the Quantum of the Seas at dined in Coastal Kitchen last month and almost every meal was bad. One night, we sent back two steaks for being blue (cold in the center, moo moo moo). 

 

We were so disappointed. And the restaurant manager could care less. On the Quantum, CK is at the entrance to the Windjammer and we purposely walked past the restaurant manager into the Windjammer after dinner to get some decent food. 

 

I think that you will enjoy CK. Have a great cruise. 

 

Our CK Experience:

 

Crispy pork belly needs to be crispy otherwise it is like a dog chew. This was a dog chew and after giving it a good chewing, ended up spitting it out

 

Nothing special here, this is the exact same escargot they serve in the MDR

 

Caesar Salad - the stems on the romaine should have been trimmed and the presentation leaves a lot to be desired

 

Salmon skin not crispy and the flesh was grey and well over cooked

 

A tuna tartare you can normally see chunks of tuna, not mash

 

The presentation of this zucchini spaghetti is very unappealing

 

Really not my idea of a NY Strip Steak in a suites dining room

 

If you ask for chicken, this is what you get

 

 

 

 

 

[Big_G]

28 minutes ago, megs193 said:

What do you like more - Coastal Kitchen or Specialty dining (on Allure of the Seas if that makes a difference). This is our first time cruising on a ship with coastal kitchen in a suite so I am going back and forth on whether or not to buy a dining package. 

Just my opinion that Coastal Kitchen is  far better than the MDR but not as good as specialty dining.

[la_croisiere_s'amuse]

Full disclosure, I'm not a huge fan of Coastal Kitchen, but this is a case where the ship in question really does make a difference. Allure has some of my favorite specialty dining in the fleet. It has the Oasis-class standbys (150 Central Park is a personal favorite) plus Samba Grill, a Brazilian steakhouse, which I believe is only available on two ships fleetwide.  I don't usually get a dining package, except on the Allure. 🙂 

[poocher]

1 hour ago, BirdTravels said:

Our prior experience was that Costal Kitchen was good (not as good as specialty dining), but good. 

 

We were on the Quantum of the Seas at dined in Coastal Kitchen last month and almost every meal was bad. One night, we sent back two steaks for being blue (cold in the center, moo moo moo). 

 

We were so disappointed. And the restaurant manager could care less. On the Quantum, CK is at the entrance to the Windjammer and we purposely walked past the restaurant manager into the Windjammer after dinner to get some decent food. 

 

I think that you will enjoy CK. Have a great cruise. 

 

Our CK Experience:

 

Crispy pork belly needs to be crispy otherwise it is like a dog chew. This was a dog chew and after giving it a good chewing, ended up spitting it out

 

Nothing special here, this is the exact same escargot they serve in the MDR

 

Caesar Salad - the stems on the romaine should have been trimmed and the presentation leaves a lot to be desired

 

Salmon skin not crispy and the flesh was grey and well over cooked

 

A tuna tartare you can normally see chunks of tuna, not mash

 

The presentation of this zucchini spaghetti is very unappealing

 

Really not my idea of a NY Strip Steak in a suites dining room

 

If you ask for chicken, this is what you get

 

 

 

 

 

Not really sure I understand.  You say your CK experience was good,  have absolutely nothing good to say about your meals there (BTW that chicken looks delicious) and then tell OP you think they’ll enjoy it?  If you didn’t why are you recommending it?  We tried it on Harmony and were totally underwhelmed.  

[bonsai3s]

2 hours ago, megs193 said:

What do you like more - Coastal Kitchen or Specialty dining (on Allure of the Seas if that makes a difference). This is our first time cruising on a ship with coastal kitchen in a suite so I am going back and forth on whether or not to buy a dining package. 

Difficult question...here's my humble opinion...

 

- If this will be your first time eating at CK, please by all means try it. Being in a suite...it is a perk...come back and let us know how you liked or not liked it.

 

- Dining package? If you get the UDP, you'll be doing what we do...skip CK and make sure we try all the specialty restaurants.

 

- What do we like more? It will always be the specialty restaurants...but,

 

- We love Coastal Kitchen...we always look forward to our favorite dishes...e.g. the first night, CK will have the filet mignon...outstanding...IMHO, even better than Chops.

 

- Bottom line: All the answers here will differ...food, and even the venue can be very subjective. Opinions and experiences will be different...all correct.

 

* Tip: Just like anywhere else you eat on the ship, just let your server know if there's something wrong with your food.. e.g. when pork belly is on the menu, we politely ask our waiter for "extra crispy" pork belly...the staff at CK will do their absolute best to accomodate you. Happy sailing.

[twangster]

They don't really belong in an apples-to-apples comparison (specialty vs. CK).  There are two, maybe three CK dinner menus that stand out for my food preferences.  Since food is personal that will vary for each guest.  CK service has always been better than MDR in my opinion so even when CK food isn't much different than MDR, service has always been better and so is the ambiance. 

 

Yet I wouldn't ever say that CK was designed to eliminate the need or desire for specialty dining.  That's probably the intention.  Why discourage suite guests from spending more for specialty dining?

 

CK was presumably intended to be a prefered suite venue compared to the MDR but not a suitable replacement for specialty dining.  

 

YMMV.

 

 

 

Edited August 12, 2022 by twangster

[George C]

We did our first oasis cruise in suite had breakfast, lunch and dinner in CK , but after two dinners we just went to specialty restaurants for dinner rest of the week. On recent allure we were in suite again but bought the UDP. CK huge disappointment after eating in celebrity suite restaurant Luminae.

[M&JfromSDL]

3 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

Our prior experience was that Costal Kitchen was good (not as good as specialty dining), but good. 

 

We were on the Quantum of the Seas at dined in Coastal Kitchen last month and almost every meal was bad. One night, we sent back two steaks for being blue (cold in the center, moo moo moo). 

 

We were so disappointed. And the restaurant manager could care less. On the Quantum, CK is at the entrance to the Windjammer and we purposely walked past the restaurant manager into the Windjammer after dinner to get some decent food. 

...

 

 

That's really disappointing.  

[Norwich Cruiser]

We’ve found Coastal Kitchen on occasions to be disappointing.

 

 

[Ozark_Kid]

We enjoy eating breakfast and lunch in CK.  Dinner was not that special.   We enjoyed the specialty restaurants much more.

[ONECRUISER]

6 hours ago, la_croisiere_s'amuse said:

Full disclosure, I'm not a huge fan of Coastal Kitchen, but this is a case where the ship in question really does make a difference. Allure has some of my favorite specialty dining in the fleet. It has the Oasis-class standbys (150 Central Park is a personal favorite) plus Samba Grill, a Brazilian steakhouse, which I believe is only available on two ships fleetwide.  I don't usually get a dining package, except on the Allure. 🙂 

My Daughter and SIL are also not Fans of CK, enjoy Specialties every time. They are Oasis and Quantum Class converts, me, even without the Restaurant choices I'll enjoy smaller Ships while they are still around. But to Original Poster, try Both/All and decide yourself!

Edited August 12, 2022 by ONECRUISER

[vjmatty]

I found that CK on the Oasis was decent but the menu got repetitive, even on just a 7 day sailing. I'd see the same menu for lunch that they had for dinner the night before last, and on more than one occasion. Granted this was October of last year so maybe ingredients were limited so soon after the restart, but I don't think this happened in the MDR's. That being said, specially dining has the same menu every night so there's less variety, but if you're on a ship with a lot of restaurants the UDP is worthwhile even if you have access to CK. In fact next time I sail Oasis class, even in a suite I'd probably spring for the UDP. 

[Starry Eyes]

Real foodies will probably be happier in the specialty restaurants than in CK.

 

We are easy to please but seek variety.  We cruise fairly often, so having different experiences on different cruises is nice for us.  We eat mostly in MDR on one cruise when sailing in a balcony, use CK a lot on the next cruise when sailing in a suite, back to a balcony cabin using mostly specialties with UDP on next the cruise, then back to MDR again.  

[psac]

On Anthem pre-covid we had a lot of great dinners in CK, better than Wonderland to us (I think we caught it in a bad off night). But we really didn’t like the breakfasts, especially when compared to the NCL Haven breakfasts back then. On our upcoming Oasis, we’re curious to see if that was an anomaly of sorts, since everyone always says CK breakfasts are great!   We have 4 specialties booked and 3 CK nights (night 1 for the filet, 2, and 6 for the lobster), so we’re hoping that’s a good balance!  It’s great that they have every night’s menu in the app, really helps for planning.  

[Lionesss]

We find the dining on ALLURE in CK to meet our needs except for one of the dinner menus. 
on our sailing it was the one with veal Canaloni( sp). The first time it was served I ordered it and it was not what it used to be.  It was all mixed together. 
 

The second time I ordered off that menu I got the cod.  After one bite. I could not eat any more.  Did not taste very good. 
 

Other than that day of selections other days were very enjoyable. 

 

 

[Cigar King]

I usually look at the menus for all the dining options and use CK as the default if nothing elsewhere interests us.  It's nice to have options.

[jetta8300]

I hate to be Debbie Downer, but we were not impressed with the food at Coastal Kitchen.  We sailed on the harmony mid July, and while the food at CK was a bit better than the MDR, it wasn't that much better.  In my opinion, the food at Specialty Restaurants is MUCH better than the food at CK.  

 

 A lot of The food at Coastal Kitchen for the most part had good flavor, and noodles were actually cooked correctly etc..  But the ingredients were no better than the food in the MDR.  We ordered a steak that was supposed to be a NY Strip or something, and it still tasted like pot roast.  It still tasted like "banquet food" or wedding food, while food at specialty restaurants tastes like something you'd have at an upscale experience on land.

 

We had a super mushy canneloni or something, and after 3 nights of coastal kitchen we went to the MDR for the last 4, which very much pleasantly surprised us. It was also a bit more boring atmosphere in the CK and the food wasn't worth going.  We have had the specialty dining package before and while we don't do it every trip, it's excellent food.

Edited August 14, 2022 by jetta8300

[poocher]

Much the same as our thoughts on CK on Harmony.  I was looking forward to being wowed and was not.  I ate up there twice, my kids did that plus a night without us.  Food wise no better than MDR and I didn’t really like our waiter, kinda snooty.  JMHO

Edited August 14, 2022 by poocher

[cruisegus]

Just like my advice to a new cruiser who asks should I eat in the MDR or buy an UDP for specialty restaurants.  For someone in a full suite who has never had access to CK, I say eat your meals in CK this cruise, that way you now have a baseline that you can use to make an informed decision the next time you stay in a suite with CK access.

Definatly agree with @twangster "food is personal that will vary for each guest." and both food quality and preparation can and will vary ship to ship.  I personally will not spend money on a UDP when I have CK access, I'll save that for when I'm not sailing in a suite.  JMHO

[AlohaLivin]

We typically really enjoy coastal kitchen. To be honest when we pay for a full suite we feel that we have already paid for specialty dining (at the coastal kitchen) and we don’t really love paying twice. On back to backs it can be repetitive, but there is usually enough variety that it isn’t a huge problem. Now if when we retire and try a B2B2B2B we may rethink it 😬

[chill6x6]

On 8/11/2022 at 6:22 PM, megs193 said:

What do you like more - Coastal Kitchen or Specialty dining (on Allure of the Seas if that makes a difference). This is our first time cruising on a ship with coastal kitchen in a suite so I am going back and forth on whether or not to buy a dining package. 

So first time in a suite? I personally wouldn't bother with speciality dining for your first suite cruise.  CK is good! It's one of the very things you are paying for while cruising in a suite.  Maybe book one night at Izumi Hibachi which is something not available at CK and other nights do CK.  Breakfast at CK is excellent!