NCL GEM-Orchid Garden

[GrammieCruising]

Is the ORCHID GARDEN open for lunch daily? Dinner daily? Open every day or just occasionally. THANK YOU.

[roxette]

Dinner daily, not open for lunch. 

[njhorseman]

11 minutes ago, GrammieCruising said:

Is the ORCHID GARDEN open for lunch daily? Dinner daily? Open every day or just occasionally. THANK YOU.

It's open daily for dinner. I've never seen it open for lunch.

[sailingships]

1 hour ago, GrammieCruising said:

Is the ORCHID GARDEN open for lunch daily? Dinner daily? Open every day or just occasionally. THANK YOU.

It was open for lunch for the Med and the TA cruises in Nov/Dec but usually its not open for cruises in the US.

Edited January 31 by sailingships

[SoloAlaska]

Dinner only. I was on a TA from Rome to NY in December and it wasn’t open at lunch for any of the days. It’s a great spot though to play games and was set up with coffee and I think pastries sometimes as well during the day and a stack of board games.

[sailingships]

5 hours ago, SoloAlaska said:

Dinner only. I was on a TA from Rome to NY in December and it wasn’t open at lunch for any of the days. It’s a great spot though to play games and was set up with coffee and I think pastries sometimes as well during the day and a stack of board games.

Actually it was

[GrammieCruising]

8 hours ago, njhorseman said:

It's open daily for dinner. I've never seen it open for lunch.

Where you able to make reservations once on board?

[njhorseman]

29 minutes ago, GrammieCruising said:

Where you able to make reservations once on board?

I've eaten there exactly once in all my years of cruising on NCL and as far as i recall I didn't make a reservation.

[Turtles06]

9 hours ago, GrammieCruising said:

Where you able to make reservations once on board?

We’ve eaten there several times over many years.  Walk up or with a reservation. Frankly, and with the caveat that food is very subjective, it’s not that good a place. We go there for apps, mainly; haven’t found the entrees very good. On long cruises (which is what we tend to take now), it’s an alternative when we’re looking for a break from the other dining venues. 

[DCGuy64]

9 hours ago, GrammieCruising said:

Where you able to make reservations once on board?

If it's busy, you may have to put your name on a waiting list and get a pager. So while not a reservation, per se, it may be that you'd have to come back later. We LOVED Orchid Garden while on the Gem and ate dinner there twice. Our favorite part was sitting at the bar and watching the chefs prepare our food right before our very eyes.

[UKstages]

1 hour ago, Turtles06 said:

it’s not that good a place

 

completely agree.

 

i ate there twice on the gem. everything was barely edible and borderline bad.

 

i remember dry noodles and under sauced stir fry, as well as egg rolls with virtually nothing in them. 

 

i'm not a fan of shanghai, either (on other ships).

 

i do believe it has a lot to do with how good the chinese food is in your hometown. if you live in a major city like new york or san francisco and have access to great chinese food, orchid garden will seem like a pale imitation and a wannabe. if most of your chinese food comes from the frozen food section of your supermarket, you will likely think orchid garden and shanghai is exotic and tasty.

 

no reservations. walkup only. and a line often forms twenty minutes or so before opening.

Edited February 1 by UKstages

[njhorseman]

42 minutes ago, DCGuy64 said:

Our favorite part was sitting at the bar and watching the chefs prepare our food right before our very eyes.

Yes, but that's the sushi bar, which is an extra cost a la carte part of the Asian restaurant area and I believe it isn't what most are thinking of when referring to Orchid Garden, which is an included, and IMO not particularly good mostly "Chinese" "Asian Fusion" restaurant.

[schmoopie17]

4 minutes ago, UKstages said:

 

i do believe it has a lot to do with how good the chinese food is in your hometown.

The Chinese food in our town primarily comes from our freezer in the form of egg rolls.

I'm assuming that this would be a step up.

[dexddd]

1 hour ago, schmoopie17 said:

The Chinese food in our town primarily comes from our freezer in the form of egg rolls.

I'm assuming that this would be a step up.

Compared to freezer, yes.  One odd thing is they put corn in the egg drop soup.

[DCGuy64]

1 hour ago, njhorseman said:

Yes, but that's the sushi bar, which is an extra cost a la carte part of the Asian restaurant area and I believe it isn't what most are thinking of when referring to Orchid Garden, which is an included, and IMO not particularly good mostly "Chinese" "Asian Fusion" restaurant.

No, that's not correct. The sushi bar is a different restaurant. Orchid Garden is a complimentary sit-down restaurant, but it does have chairs at a bar that's right in front of where the food is cooked. We did the same thing at Shanghai on the Breakaway last November. Of course taste is subjective, which we all know, but we thought the food at those two places was great.

[njhorseman]

16 minutes ago, DCGuy64 said:

No, that's not correct. The sushi bar is a different restaurant. Orchid Garden is a complimentary sit-down restaurant, but it does have chairs at a bar that's right in front of where the food is cooked. We did the same thing at Shanghai on the Breakaway last November. Of course taste is subjective, which we all know, but we thought the food at those two places was great.

Orchid Garden on the Gem is not set up as you describe. You're thinking of the Asian restaurants on newer, larger ships.

[havoc315]

2 hours ago, njhorseman said:

Yes, but that's the sushi bar, which is an extra cost a la carte part of the Asian restaurant area and I believe it isn't what most are thinking of when referring to Orchid Garden, which is an included, and IMO not particularly good mostly "Chinese" "Asian Fusion" restaurant.

Which begs the question, how’s the sushi? Worth using a dining credit on?

[njhorseman]

2 hours ago, havoc315 said:

Which begs the question, how’s the sushi? Worth using a dining credit on?

I can't help you . We don't eat sushi.

[JGmf]

5 hours ago, UKstages said:

i ate there twice on the gem. everything was barely edible and borderline bad.

 

i remember dry noodles and under sauced stir fry, as well as egg rolls with virtually nothing in them. 

 

i'm not a fan of shanghai, either (on other ships).

 

i do believe it has a lot to do with how good the chinese food is in your hometown. if you live in a major city like new york or san francisco and have access to great chinese food, orchid garden will seem like a pale imitation and a wannabe. if most of your chinese food comes from the frozen food section of your supermarket, you will likely think orchid garden and shanghai is exotic and tasty.

 

Agree, agree, agree.