Dinner options in the Oceanview Cafe and Bistro on Five?

[Mlascheid]

Can someone tell me what food items are available, during the dinner hours, in the Oceanview Cafe? Also, is Bistro on Five open during dinner hours as a casual alternative to going to MDR?

[techwatcher]

Bistro on 5's opening hours are something like 6:00am until 2:00am the following day so it is open during MDR dining times.

[Knolmom]

After we arrived back late and tired following an all day tour, we decided to eat at the Oceanviewbefore changing our clothes and going to bed. What was I thinking? RCL maybe???

The dinner offerings in the Oceanview on the Silhouette were, IMHO, disgraceful. Arrived to find the placesmellinglike the Fulton Street Fish Market( and I love fish) from the Sushi Bar. Extensive offering if you eat it. There was pasta and pizza, which I can't eat, and there was Stir Fry Asian, some curry dishes, and some Mexican offerings. Also a salad bar with some cheese. This is dinner????? All of the offerings except the pizza, looked old and to my mind, disgusting. Oh, there was ice cream too. Not good at all.

[dkjretired]

After we arrived back late and tired following an all day tour, we decided to eat at the Oceanviewbefore changing our clothes and going to bed. What was I thinking? RCL maybe???

The dinner offerings in the Oceanview on the Silhouette were, IMHO, disgraceful. Arrived to find the placesmellinglike the Fulton Street Fish Market( and I love fish) from the Sushi Bar. Extensive offering if you eat it. There was pasta and pizza, which I can't eat, and there was Stir Fry Asian, some curry dishes, and some Mexican offerings. Also a salad bar with some cheese. This is dinner????? All of the offerings except the pizza, looked old and to my mind, disgusting. Oh, there was ice cream too. Not good at all.

 

They also have some grilled items, was able to get a steak at the buffet. Celebrity has never had a full buffet for dinner as you would get for breakfast or lunch, just one of those corporate decisions. This has been reported numerous times on this board. All the items are excellent as well as the ice cream...

[swigso]

The dinner selections on the Solstice Class IMHO

do not appear to be as good as the M Class.

I also liked the area on the M Class where they had

dishes from different countries, one day Spain, Italy,England

They also seemed to close some of the stations and there just didn't

seem to be as much choice.

I like spicy food but it seemed that the Curries and Mexican selection

were out all day and the Lunchtime and Evening buffet seemed the same

Day in day out

[Lois R]

Bistro 5 has crepes, panninis and salads.....if you do a search

you can find a menu. It is 5.00 per person and you can order as much

as you like...a hearty crepe...a salad and dessert crepe too:D

 

It is opened from early morning to late at night and in my opinion

is well worth the 5.00.

[d4m]

Can someone tell me what food items are available, during the dinner hours, in the Oceanview Cafe? Also, is Bistro on Five open during dinner hours as a casual alternative to going to MDR?

 

Bistro on Five has their regular menu of paninis, crepes and salads. Nice place for a lighter dinner.

 

Never found anthing disgusting at the Oceanview at night, but if you are loking for something similar to the MDR it isn't there.

 

Remember that room service is available 24/7 and others have reported they have been able to order choices of what is available on the MRD menu through RS. (We never tried that). We never found the MDR to require fancy dress other than formal nights but sometimes there's a limit to how much you want to eat at the end of a day and lighter choices sometimes are just right.

[pete_coach]

I have been to Oceanview Buffet for dinner and found it adequate. Not great but certainly not disgusting.

Bistro on 5 is for crepes. That has never been my idea of a meal but, thats just me LOL.

We have had room service dinners a few times and they have been very good (hot and fairly quick). So, that would be my choice if I was skipping the MDR.

[u2cruiser]

We like the select MDR atmosphere very much, but on longer cruises it becomes too routine for us and we don't like routine. We use the speciality restaurants more for a change than for the experience, but if the buffet was a little more atmospheric in the evening we would use that more. Guess they want you to use the specialities so it wouldn't be good business practice to make the buffet welcoming :rolleyes:

 

On Equinox, we found the limited buffet offerings fine, but the lighting was too harsh and it felt empty and unwelcoming for an evening meal. It would be great if they could dim the lights a little. There was limited staff too (all busy in the MDR of course) and it was hard to get drinks.

 

Really liked the system on P&O, when part of the buffet becomes an Italian, with waiter service and table linens. Some items carry a fee, but mostly free. It was nice for a change of scenery, without feeling too much like a canteen. All cruiselines have something that others don't have I suppose. :)

[CarolinaMamma]

Bistro on 5 is good and well worth th $5.

 

We have skipped the mdr one nit on each of ournpast two cruises to watch the sail away at sunset, which is one of our favorite thigns to do. We found the buffet at night to b a big let down. Similar to lunch, but fewer options. The sushi was worse than grocery store sushi. Better to order MDR items from room service if you don't want to eat in the MDR. We did this the second time, and they seemed to have a little trouble understanding us and messed up our order a bit (we were ordering for 5 people, so it was a lot of information) but the food was far superior to the buffet. I really appreciate that you can order MDR items from room service, for free.

[Mlascheid]

Thanks, everyone, for your input. Great to get varied input and suggestions.

[Chicago Boy]

After we arrived back late and tired following an all day tour, we decided to eat at the Oceanviewbefore changing our clothes and going to bed. What was I thinking? RCL maybe???

The dinner offerings in the Oceanview on the Silhouette were, IMHO, disgraceful. Arrived to find the placesmellinglike the Fulton Street Fish Market( and I love fish) from the Sushi Bar. Extensive offering if you eat it. There was pasta and pizza, which I can't eat, and there was Stir Fry Asian, some curry dishes, and some Mexican offerings. Also a salad bar with some cheese. This is dinner????? All of the offerings except the pizza, looked old and to my mind, disgusting. Oh, there was ice cream too. Not good at all.

 

 

Were we on the same ship? We have sailed on the Silhouette several times and have always found the Oceanview Cafe to have a very large variety of foods from which to select. If you could not find something that appealed to you then I would say you are extremely fussy individual. Keep in mind your are not in the MDR and cannot expect the same foods. We think Celebrity does a wonderful job providing high quality food and a huge selection. Often times those who do the most complaining do not live nearly as well at home. Just sayin

[gold1953]

We enjoy the stir fry in the evenings when we can't get to the MDR. You select your veggies, they add the meat of your choice, then cook it fresh for you, adding sauce of your choice . then at the end pasta ( wheat or rice ) rice or none if you choose. they even went to the kitchen for fresh ginger when I asked. We found this in both M and S class

[Despegue]

The evening buffet options are certainly sufficient for the low amount of passengers making use of it. It is simply false to claim that the options are disgraceful. even more, it is a disgraceful claim.

Sushi has always been acceptable, and even truly excellent on Connie this year, they always have grill items, salad bar, ethnic choices, more choice than in some 4 star all inclusive resorts. Remember that this is an alternative option to dine.

 

Wasting food is a crime against humanity. Remember that.

[jveevers]

The evening buffet options are certainly sufficient for the low amount of passengers making use of it. It is simply false to claim that the options are disgraceful. even more, it is a disgraceful claim.

Sushi has always been acceptable, and even truly excellent on Connie this year, they always have grill items, salad bar, ethnic choices, more choice than in some 4 star all inclusive resorts. Remember that this is an alternative option to dine.

 

 

Wasting food is a crime against humanity. Remember that.

 

 

Fully agree. The MDR can be used until quite late so if you want a more substantial buffet, go there. The Oceanview Cafe is not really a Dinner option, more a quick bite if you dont want too much or if still hungry after dinner...

[CarolinaMamma]

The evening buffet options are certainly sufficient for the low amount of passengers making use of it. It is simply false to claim that the options are disgraceful. even more, it is a disgraceful claim.

Sushi has always been acceptable, and even truly excellent on Connie this year, they always have grill items, salad bar, ethnic choices, more choice than in some 4 star all inclusive resorts. Remember that this is an alternative option to dine.

 

Wasting food is a crime against humanity. Remember that.

 

I certainly did not mean to slam the buffet. It is fine for lunch and certainly not bad, just quite a contrast to the MDR. Not that we expected MDR service and quiality of food at the buffet, we knew what we were in for. Somehow it just didn't seem worth skipping the MDR dinner. There seemed to be fewer options than at lunch, which makes sense, because fewer people use it, but if the OP was thinking there would be special items added for dinner in the buffet, it might be helpful to know that is not the case, and that it is a scaled down version of lunch.

 

I'm sure there is variability from ship to ship, but on our particular sailing, the sushi really was not good and the rice was undercooked and crunchy - could have just been a fluke that day though, because the sushi we had at one of the "tastings" was good. If we want to watch the sail away during dinner again, or need to miss our assigned seating time because of a shore excursion, I just think room service from the MDR is a much better option, if you have a balcony.