An Evening at Le Cirque - Maasdam June 1 2011

[KirkNC]

Thanks for posting the new menu! We can't wait to try it. With the additional entree's I am not sure what I will eat.

 

Kirk

[m steve]

but not much different than the standard Pinnacle offerings. I wish I had a menu from the restaurant to see what offerings they have. This seems like standard ship preparations in a private dining room. Not blow me away food from a fine restaurant. I guess we will try it on the next cruise.

[califgary]

I think the Cirque menu is too limited for the price they are charging - we are just going to the regular PG meal one time during our next cruise

[HALFans]

That's disappointing but I must say I enjoyed your review. It was like something I would read in the Sunday paper. Are you a food writer by any chance?

 

Thanks Aruba! No, I'm not a food writer, but at xxx (an embarassingly large number) lbs I'm quite the accomplished food consumer. ;)

 

I worked for several years in some very fine restaurants in my younger days, and the 'other half' is an excellent chef so I'm spoiled having high quality meals regularly.

[HALFans]

Hey HALfans! It was great to meet you two. Sorry the meal was so disappointing. I so understand the not resting rack of lamb. I am sure it was dry as a bone. That was very unfortunate and a mistake that should simply not happen in a professional kitchen.

 

Like you, we found the regular night PG quality to be great. We, minus kiddo, went on the Halifax night. Our issue, and what caused us to cancel our last night reservation, was the insanely long time the meal took. 1 hour and 45 mins just to get to our main entree. :eek: We had to skip dessert to get to the show in the piano bar. As it was we were late. That was disappointing.

 

We both had the Caesar salad. I had the crab cakes. Husband had lobster bisque. He had the veal chop med and I the rib eye med rare. All good and cooked correctly but none of which should have taken as long as it did.

 

It was great meeting your family too!

 

Our Pinnacle Grill evening was a little drawn out, but since our food arrived beautifully prepared and nice and hot it was worth the wait for us... but then again, we didn't have to wait 1 3/4 hours for our entrees like you did. :eek: Luckily we didn't have anything planned that evening so we weren't under the time pressure you experienced.

 

I had the Caesar also, and thought it was very good, but after reading some of the rave reviews here on CC I expected a real 'knock your socks off - send your taste buds to the dance floor' dressing. No complaints there though.

[HALFans]

To see a .pdf file of the revised menu, click here. To see what some of the dishes looked like aboard the Veendam recently, click here.

 

(Thanks to CC member FoxyTerrier for posting the info. to her blog)

 

Wow! Looks like if we'd have eaten at Le Cirque on the Veendam this thread wouldn't exist.

 

The lamb I had didn't look ANYTHING like that in the photograph.

 

...The menu looks fantastic. I see the Lobster Salad turned into a Lobster Cocktail :D Cutting back on the Lobster ;) <SNIP>

 

That actually looks like more lobster than the amount that came on our Lobster Salads... and better prepared too.

 

...I've just never been wealthy enough to enjoy anything that tastes as bad as that corn soup. <SNIP>

 

Oh, I forgot to mention the corn soup! OK, here's my review of that... ;)

 

The corn soup started with some small fritters, flavorless/textureless wood ear mushrooms (I didn't know THAT was possible) and corn kernals in a soup bowl. The server then makes a pretentious show pouring the soup concoction over it all. The corn kernals were tough... considering how far out of season fresh corn is they were probably thawed from frozen (or strained out of a can). The soup tasted pretty good in my opinion, just kind of a 'much ado about nothing' gimmick with the pouring job.

[CDRMark]

You might want to look up the differences between a "Custard" and a "Creme". Larousse Gastronomique would be a very good place to start. Unfortunately too many people do not know the difference, and present a custard with burned sugar as a creme brulee.

Creme Brulee IS a custard, just made with cream instead of milk. More a variation than an entirely different species.

Cheers

Mark

[sail7seas]

If

I think the Cirque menu is too limited for the price they are charging - we are just going to the regular PG meal one time during our next cruise

 

If you think the new menu is limited, good thing you didn't dine from the original menu. No choices at all except for entree. I really didn't care for the corn soup and one spoon was more than enough for me and I don't eat creme brulee. Lucky I really liked the halibut. :)

 

I think the new menu is much better.

(We dined in Le Cirque in Las Vegas and truthfully, it was good but not anything approaching great IMO. We've had far better elsewhere.)

[RHefley228]

I wish I had a menu from the restaurant to see what offerings they have.

 

Click here: http://www.lecirque.com/menu-menu

[m steve]

Based on the prices listed , the dinner on board is a steal. I just hope it tastes as good. Almost every dish is more than the $39 charge on board.

[taxmantoo]

Based on the prices listed , the dinner on board is a steal. I just hope it tastes as good. Almost every dish is more than the $39 charge on board.

 

...and what a steal it is :eek: For $20, you can have a very nice Pinnacle Grill Filet any night of your cruise. For ONLY $19 MORE :rolleyes: you can get a Le Cirque Ravioli or Chicken under a Brick. That is definitely a steal :eek:

 

You cannot compare the cruise ship price version of Le Cirque with the land version. The land version may be more expensive but it certainly does not have a $1000 to $2000 cover charge just to get in ;)

[sail7seas]

We dined at Le Cirque in Las Vegas and most definitely did not pay a $1,000 'to get in'. While dinner was in the costly category, it wasn't off the chart breathtakingly horrid in comparison to other restaurants in its category.

[taxmantoo]

We dined at Le Cirque in Las Vegas and most definitely did not pay a $1,000 'to get in'. While dinner was in the costly category, it wasn't off the chart breathtakingly horrid in comparison to other restaurants in its category.

 

I was talking about the cruise fare. Dinner on the ship costs a lot more than the $39.00 !

[sail7seas]

Huh?

 

That cruise fare certainly is meant for a whole lot more than 'entry into Le Cirque'. Do you not get a cabin, transportation, all the food you can possibly eat daily, shows etc etc etc?

 

The dinner at Le Cirque only costs you $39. If you do not have that dinner, you pay nothing more than your fare. The cost of Le Cirque dinner only costs more than $39 if you choose to tip your servers. ;)

 

I don't think you can call your cruise fare an 'entry fee'.

JMO......

[costalb2000]

Me too I had an unforgettable dining experience on Noordam last february. I dined in the past at Le Cirque New York and I must admit that (being on A SHIP with some limits of course toward a land based restaurant) that everything worked very well : table setting,service, presentation,taste,freshness of the ingredients.The cote of boeuf was simply outstanting as was the creme brulee. This was the most refined dining exerience I ever had on a cruise ship .And in my opinion Pinnacle restaurants are the best specialty restaurants . I experienced others on Cunard,Princess,Celebrity, and no one was at that level. Even dinners on Silversea weren't up to this level last year.I have booked it again for my next cruise in Noordam next august, hoping to see the new more extensive menu .

[HALFans]

[quote name='costalb2000']<SNIP>And in my opinion Pinnacle restaurants are the best specialty restaurants . I experienced others on Cunard,Princess,Celebrity, and no one was at that level. Even dinners on Silversea weren't up to this level last year.I have booked it again for my next cruise in Noordam next august, hoping to see the new more extensive menu .[/quote]

On this same cruise we dined in the Pinnacle Grill 2 nights later and it was phenomenal. Perfect steaks, service, etc. I couldn't have asked for a better dining experience.