Pinnacle Grill

We will be traveling on the Noordam 8/15. Although we have been on HAL cruises before, we have never eaten in the Pinnacle Grill. Just curious if people feel the extra charge is worth it. If you have eaten there, is it very fancy? Would it be something to do on formal night? Also, I'm trying to figure out when formal night is on this cruise. We are doing Y6C and getting off in Skagway. I'm thinking that it may be day 2. Thanks for the input. Shelly

I think dinner in the Pinnacle Grill is worth it ($29 per person); others may disagree. I like to eat there about once a week on a cruise.

It's a quieter atmosphere than the dining room, and food is cooked to order. The Pinnacle serves a better quality meat, and presentation is serene. It's much more fine dining than the dining room (good as that is).

The dining room tends to serve better meals on the formal nights than the others, so people tend to go there then. But certainly dinner in the Pinnacle would be lovely.

If you're on the 3-day cruise out of Vancouver, your formal night will be the 2nd night on the ship.

Yes, I think the extra charge is very much worth it. We have enjoyed some lovely evenings in various Pinnacle restaurants around the fleet.

For the most part I would say yes. That said, I reaaly think steak is the thing to order. I had fish the last time I was in there and I think it was overcooked for my taste. The steak are very good.

it is my understanding that there is an upgraded menu in the MDR on formal nights, So here is my thinking.... We don't mind dressing up for dinner, so Maybe we should NOT go to the Pinnacle on formal night, save it for a smart casual night. To me it seems MDR formal menu may be like a 'free' Pinnacle dinner experience. ?

Am I silly in thinking this?

it is my understanding that there is an upgraded menu in the MDR on formal nights, So here is my thinking.... We don't mind dressing up for dinner, so Maybe we should NOT go to the Pinnacle on formal night, save it for a smart casual night. To me it seems MDR formal menu may be like a 'free' Pinnacle dinner experience. ?

Am I silly in thinking this?

I think it may be better to save the pinnacle for a non formal night. That said, I think the pinnacle is always better than formal nights. I found the formal night menus to be disappointing on the Veendam in May.

We will be traveling on the Noordam 8/15. Although we have been on HAL cruises before, we have never eaten in the Pinnacle Grill. Just curious if people feel the extra charge is worth it. If you have eaten there, is it very fancy? Would it be something to do on formal night? Also, I'm trying to figure out when formal night is on this cruise. We are doing Y6C and getting off in Skagway. I'm thinking that it may be day 2. Thanks for the input. Shelly

We love the Pinnacle Grill and especially the perfectly cooked steaks. Although not required, most males wear a jacket with tie.

I scanned all of the Noordam On Locations as well as all of the menus (Lido, MDR, and Specialty Restaurants) just last month. I can confirm that the first Formal Night is on the first sea day (Day 2).

Enjoy your cruise.

We are huge PG fans- we eat breakfast and dinner there every day. We haven't eaten in a MDR since the alternate restaurants appeared- we just don't like crowds and noisy restaurants.

I agree with Crew News on dress -we wear jackets and ties every night. Seems most people "dress up" in the PG.

We have met some wonderful folks at adjoining tables and on occasion have invited people we meet on board to join us for dinner.

I love the Pinnacle Grill and agree with others here, it's definitely worth the extra charge....

Let me put it this way: my family and I agree that on future cruises we'll have dinner exclusively in Pinnacle.

We love the Pinnacle Grill and think it is well worth the money.

For a few years we balked at having to pay extra for dinner but then we were invited to a birthday dinner in the Pinnacle. We were impressed! The steaks are wonderful, the veggies are awesome and the service is amazing. Silly me - what was missed. Do eat at least 1 dinner a week (just like Ruth) in the PG but never on a formal night.

I'm going to be the voice of dissent here. I'll eat in the Pinnacle Grill if it's a travel agent perk or some promotion, but I would not pay the extra to go there on my own. I don't find it anything special or anything worth paying extra for.

Also, other than the Le Cirque nights, in my experience, the menu never changes over the course of a cruise. Expect for the Le Cirque special nights, it was the same menu every day on my last 15-, 14-, and 18-day cruises. Frankly, there isn't enough on the menu that interests me to go more than once. And the Le Cirque menu does not interest me enough to pay the premium extra charge for it.

I prefer to skip the extra-charge restaurants and stick to the dining room and/or Lido for my meals. I have not been impressed with the Pinnacle Grill or Tamarind (only on the Eurodam & Nieuw Amsterdam), or the Caneletto since they changed the menu to the "sharing" plates concept. The lack of vegetarian options in the extra-charge restaurants means my husband would not be comfortable dining there, so on the whole it's not worth it for me.

I put my savings towards more drinks in the bars. I love to indulge in a few (virgin) Fresh Grapefruit Not-a-Cosmos each cruise.

WE travel on many different cruise lines and consider Pinnacle grill one of the best specialty restaurants on any line, very elegant , perfect for formal, will have dinner there several times on any cruise. Also nice for lunch and if you stay in Neptune suite you can have breakfast there also. ( we prefer Pinnacle menu over Le Circe)

Judging the "value" is very subjective. IMO, at $29 it is worth it for a special occasion meal.

If you are a 3-4-5 Star Mariner, the nice discounts you get (25% off to Free) make it a much better deal IMO.

I'm going to be the voice of dissent here. I'll eat in the Pinnacle Grill if it's a travel agent perk or some promotion, but I would not pay the extra to go there on my own. I don't find it anything special or anything worth paying extra for.

 

Also, other than the Le Cirque nights, in my experience, the menu never changes over the course of a cruise. Expect for the Le Cirque special nights, it was the same menu every day on my last 15-, 14-, and 18-day cruises. Frankly, there isn't enough on the menu that interests me to go more than once. And the Le Cirque menu does not interest me enough to pay the premium extra charge for it.

 

I prefer to skip the extra-charge restaurants and stick to the dining room and/or Lido for my meals. I have not been impressed with the Pinnacle Grill or Tamarind (only on the Eurodam & Nieuw Amsterdam), or the Caneletto since they changed the menu to the "sharing" plates concept. The lack of vegetarian options in the extra-charge restaurants means my husband would not be comfortable dining there, so on the whole it's not worth it for me.

 

I put my savings towards more drinks in the bars. I love to indulge in a few (virgin) Fresh Grapefruit Not-a-Cosmos each cruise.

Yes, they do not change the menu. I think that's pretty typical of any specialty restaraunts on any mainstream line.

I too will be the voice of dissent here. There is nothing wrong with the Pinnacle Grill, but we don't believe the modest surchage is worth the price.

My wife is not a beef eater and has never enjoyed her fish or vegetable meals there. And frankly I'm a picky beef eater and don't believe there's is all that special.

That said, it's a nice break from the MDR on longer cruises.

I can eat at Tamarind every other meal and be happy so ymmv.

For what it's worth, on our recent 12 day Baltic cruise on the Eurodam, the meals in the MDR on the two formal nights (called "Gala" now) were our two least favorite.

I wouldn't hesitate to book the Pinnacle Grill on a formal night, but do prepare yourself by eating a lighter lunch than normal.

We just got off the Noordam on Saturday 6/27. In a word, Yes, the Pinnacle is worth the extra. We ate there all but 1 night on our 7 day Alaska trip. We find the main dining room not to our taste.

We love the service, the menu is large enough to have something different each night, and the quiet elegance each night is much better for us.

You can't go wrong any night you choose to dine there.

I too will be the voice of dissent here. There is nothing wrong with the Pinnacle Grill, but we don't believe the modest surchage is worth the price.

 

My wife is not a beef eater and has never enjoyed her fish or vegetable meals there. And frankly I'm a picky beef eater and don't believe there's is all that special.

 

That said, it's a nice break from the MDR on longer cruises.

 

I can eat at Tamarind every other meal and be happy so ymmv.

I tend to agree with you sppunk. I like the ambience and the service in the Pinnacle Grill, but the food is somewhat hit or miss. That said, I still prefer it to the MDR.

I wouldn't say the Pinnacle Grill is very fancy or anything, more like a regular restaurant. I have eaten there probably 15 times now. What I do like is that the food is prepared to order (only once had a dud steak), quiet, and usually better trained staff (again a about three real duds).

I personally think it is dirt cheap compared to a regular restaurant. The food was pretty awful in the MDR on my last cruise. We joined friends for dinner. That was a never again moment. Give me the freshly prepared food any day of the week.

Hi Shel,

It's worth it at least once.

On our last HAL cruise we ate there 4 times.

Ira

I too will be the voice of dissent here. There is nothing wrong with the Pinnacle Grill, but we don't believe the modest surchage is worth the price.

 

My wife is not a beef eater and has never enjoyed her fish or vegetable meals there. And frankly I'm a picky beef eater and don't believe there's is all that special.

 

That said, it's a nice break from the MDR on longer cruises.

 

I can eat at Tamarind every other meal and be happy so ymmv.

Sppunk,

Agree with your assessment of the PG. Tamarind, on the other hand is much more enjoyable. On our last NA cruise we did eat there every other night.

Dan

We got sick of the very slow service in the main dining room.

So for the last couple of years we have had all dinners in the Pinnacle and for ships that have the Tamarind, we alternated between the 2 restaurants.

We do not care for the Canaletto.

Do take advantage of an evening or two in the PG. It's comparable to any land based fine dining establishment. $29.00 for an elegant evening of fine dining is money well spent.

Lunch can't be beat for ten dollars, also.