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We just got the same email for Nov,1st Oasis.

Down to the actual food. Overall it was very good, some of it excellent. In my own view I felt there were a couple of over-seasoning issues, not drastic but noticeable. Neither dish was spoiled by these errors, just diminished. Nevertheless not really the sort of basic errors you would expect of a competent chef tasting everything before it leaves the kitchen. As for the wines, a couple were excellent and all accompanied the food very well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My overall verdict of the Chef's Table experience was that for anyone who loves good food accompanied by appropriate wine, at $85 it was an absolute bargain, because the wine value was at least equivalent to that of the food alone. I dread to think what you would pay for a similar experience in a good restaurant with such personal attention. Over three hours of pleasure were derived from the combination of food, wine, company and interesting background information relating to what we consumed. I would certainly do it again as long as the menu changes. Being a little overly critical, I think there is a hint of pretentiousness and over-hype in the presentation of the whole experience that subliminally conditions you to expect a level of perfection that is not in reality quite fulfilled.

We did OASIS Chef's Table in January. I would agree with you that wine and service were excellent. The foods itself was just OK for us. I was hoping we just got unlucky with our food, but after talking to many other cruisers I would say that if you did other Chef's Tables (on land or at sea on the different line) you may be disappointed. Our food was too salty and a little overcook.

A little background. This was our 15 or so cruise (sorry I do not keep count). We are barely 40th. Most of the time we travel with kids, but this was an adult only cruise. We are, what I would call food adventures people. We are willing to try different foods, we do not have any allergy or other restrictions and as anyone else we have our personal likes and dislikes. Last time we did Chef Table about 4-5 years ago on Princess. This would be my personal non professional view on food and service.

This time we dined in Chops, Giovanni, 150 Central Park and Chef Table.

The overall best experience was in Chops. We had a diner on the first night with the best waiter ever. We actually put him on WOW card. Food was 4+, service 5+.

On the second night we had a diner at Chef’s table. The service was excellent 5++, the food was 3+. Our issue with the food was too much salt to the point that duck meat was inedible, lobster tail to salty, but still edible, and we did not like a dessert at all. Good think that they also served chocolate covered strawberries and mini chocolate cookies. As for wine pairing – we did really enjoy 3 wines, 2 was OK and 1 was not for us. Also our we felt that chef’s food talk was a little too long.

Next we had a lunch at Giovanni on the sea day. The food was excellent 5+, service was 4-. Issue with the service: all was going very well until a member of the stuff (a manager) with his friends or family came in. We were finishing our entries and were forgotten about for good 15 min. 3 or 4 people were serving a stuff member table including our waitress. Advenchually someone alse took out plates and brought our dessert, but we did get that ‘you are not important feeling’.

On our last night we eat dinner in 150 Central Park. This was my biggest expectations and end up being the worth experience. We did know ahead of time that dinner would tasting menu and we were perfectly fine with it. This is not the first time for us to eat tasting menu and usually we enjoy chef’s creations. So the food was 4- and the service was 2. We did not liked pasta dish as it was too thick and lack seasoning and dessert was just not what we like. I do have to say that salad and soup were very good and meat was season well. Now – the service. I believe we just got very unlucky with the worst waiter ever. Here are the issues with the waiter: as soon as we decline wine pairing he lost any interest in us. I had to listen to the waiter serving table next to us to get more description of the dish. Our gay would just declare what on the plate. He did not ask us how we would like our meat cooked and brought us medium well (I like medium rare). I should have send it back, but decide not to (my choice). With the dessert he did not offer us coffee or tea. Also during our meal I have to ask him to refill my water twice. I chose not to complain as I didn’t feel like it worth my time on our last evening. I was not looking for any type of compensation and just noted on my online review our experience.

We did eat 3 dinners in the main dunning room and were satisfied with our meals. For the dunning room service was 5 and food 4.5.

In conclusion, I would defiantly go to Chops and Giovanni again. I may consider 150 to try different menu. I would not do a chef’s table as in my mind it’s just does not worth the price tag. Again I was probably comparing my chef’s table experience to the one we had on Princess. Princess wins that by the huge margin.