Picking the 3 Best Restaurants on Dawn

[kahunabd]

We are going on the Dawn February 2nd and would like to know what are your 3 favorites when dining in Specialty Restaurants. So far, I am am leaning to Cagneys and Teppenyaki and unsure of #3. Any thoughts, would be appreciated!!!!!

[valleyvillage]

Le Bistro!

[NJLVW]

Cagney's, LeBistro and a toss up for the Italian & Moderno. I say go to all 4...

[che5904]

Cagneys so far is the only one we have been to and plan on doing that again on our upcoming cruise.

 

We also have read a lot of good things about Modernos, so we intend to try that this time.

[pamera]

Le Bistro! All time fav!

[hamrag]

Our top 3, in no particular order of preference, are:

Le Bistro

Le Bistro and

Le Bistro!!!

[Arubamoose]

Loved, loved, loved Le Bistro on the Dawn. Not so much on the Epic. On the Dawn the space is nice and cozy and elegant. On the Epic it was open and sterile and I swear that they located it below the bowling alley because it was noisy!

 

Loved Bamboo. We sat overlooking the atrium below and it was lovely. Food was awesome and we've eaten very authentic Oriental cuisine all over. They used to have a Chilean Sea Bass dish that was to die for.

 

And we also enjoyed the Sushi bar. Go figure.

[weltek]

If you don't have a Brazilian Churrascaria restaurant near you, and have never tried one, I suggest you do Moderno (particularly if you are meat lovers). It's a cool experience and the food is very good. The salad bar and sides alone are worth it, IMHO.

 

If you've done one before, then it's probably a toss up between Le Bistro and Moderno, based on your personal tastes. Very different food and atmosphere.

[kahunabd]

So far it sounds like Le Bistro and then Moderno. What is at Le Bistro that makes it the best so far. A certain favorite dish or ambiance?

[rjm11]

Another vote for Bamboo- I'd pick Cagneys, LeBistro, and Bamboo. Bamboo was the only one we went to twice- the food was great, service very good, and it was a nice setting.

 

LeBistro is french- the menus (or samples of them) are on NCL's website. We thought the food at LeBistro was excellent. Actually out of those three, my least favorite is Cagneys although I still like it better than LaCucina, which I thought was only OK. We are pescetarian, so no Moderno for us.

[CarlsDad]

So far it sounds like Le Bistro and then Moderno. What is at Le Bistro that makes it the best so far. A certain favorite dish or ambiance?

We've eaten at Le Bistro 8 times thus far...worked our way through the menu :) Appetizers are wonderful (Mussels, escargot, mushroom soup are my personal favorites while my wife loves the Asparagus). Rack of lamb is wonderful (so good in fact that I've taken to making it a "double rack"). The Fruits De Mer is Great (usually order that WITH the Butter Roasted Lobster Tail). Lisa loves the Salmon and Coq Au Vin. Creme Brulee is wicked good. So...in summation. Le Bistro is our personal favorite for ambiance, service (attention to detail) and food (presentation and taste). We hope you enjoy it as much as we have (and will). :)

[LegallyBlonder]

I also vote for trying them all. We only eat dinners in specialty restaurants and I really think they are all well worth the small upcharge. If I had to pick a least favorite, I would say that La Cucina is somewhat mediocre. I really enjoy all the others.

 

 

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[Planmaam]

Our top 3, in no particular order of preference, are:

Le Bistro

Le Bistro and

Le Bistro!!!

 

I resemble that remark!

 

My favorites are escargot, French Onion Soup, Mushroom Soup, and the Tenderloin. All the desserts are good, and this is the only restaurant with the option of chocolate fondue for two as a dessert.

 

The chef almost always sends out some salmon mousse for us as we are perusing the menu.

[sportsduck]

Bit of an odd question but which are the most kid friendly (5 and 3) sans Teppanyaki?

[VideoTech]

Cagney's, Cagney's and Cagney's. They have now upgraded the meat they use and even though they took crab cakes off the menu, on our recent cruise we found the steaks incredibly good.

 

Have tried Teppanyaki on several ships and been mostly disappointed each time. The Italian restaurant is good, but not sure it's worth the price of the cover. Le Bistro is good, but we just don't find that much to like on the menu. The Asian restaurant is good, but the menu is limited.

 

Maybe we're just "meat and potatoes" people, but we tend to eat several times in Cagney's on most of our cruises.

[VideoTech]

Bit of an odd question but which are the most kid friendly (5 and 3) sans Teppanyaki?

 

After Teppanyaki, probably the Italian place, IMO. Pasta and Pizza are always good for child tastes and appetites.

 

Be aware that in Cagney's (and maybe in the other specialty restaurants too?) if your child orders off the adult menu you will pay a full adult cover. Normally younger children are free, but only if they order off the children's menu. Also younger teens (sorry, I don't remember the age limits in each case) are only half cover, unless, again, they order from the adult menu.

 

Don't order the "Angus Beef Burger" on the Cagney's adult menu for a child. It is definitely NOT a child-sized serving...that thing is bigger than even a reasonable adult would want to eat.

[legion3]

On our December cruise on the Dawn we ate at all of them except Moderno which frankly offered to much meat.

 

We never ate in the MDR or buffet for a meal.

 

La Cucina we ate twice it was by far the best. Only warm bread and not frozen butter on entire ship. Way better ambiance than le bistro. And kids like the pizza but really is the more romantic feeling resturant.

 

Le Bistro was hit and miss. We ate twice again and the first time was just OK. Food was OK, service was weak and spotty. But the resturant is loud and the tables close together. Also if you eat in the wine celler section the noise from the singer, not singing french tunes and only 6 feet away, is loud as is the hub bub of gatsbys bar.

 

The second trip saved le bistro, made sure not to be seated in the wine celler and towards the back of the.resturant. still noisy and close tables but less noisy. Service and food excellent. Rack of lamb wonderful.

 

Teppenyaki was excellent food and a cool show. Kids loved it but beware it can be lots of food. Could have made a meal of just the soup, salad, rice and vegtables. But you still have a full steak or chickenbreast or lobster tail coming. We took two full plates back to our room. A must for kids.

 

It was after this first night out meal that moderno or the meat coma as I have heard it called was scratched off. Way to much food and way to much meat for us.

 

Bamboo was a fair Asian eatery. The kids liked the sweet and sour pork and our meals were good, it was nothing special but was a pretty good family meal and was a kid friendly place, they make kids chopsticks and its not a closed in resturant, so the kids can be kids, within reason. A middle of the road Asian eatery.

 

Here is a tip to know, we ordered from the sushi bar while at both teppenyaki and bamboo, the sushi was ok, nothing special but not bad. Many think you must actually be.at the sushi bar but you can order it at the other two resturants in the complex.

 

Cagny's is a steak house. It was good but I have to say not super special. Food was very good service good. I would say that the steakhouse on the Carnival Legend was better in ambiance and presentation. For example white tablecloths on legend not at cagnys. Tray of steaks brought around to see different cuts and choices, simple menu presentation at cagny's. Cagny's felt more like a nice longhorn and not a fancy steakhouse.

 

Now a word about Blue Lagoon, nice for breakfast and lunch, adequate, the chicken wings were good. But a 24 hour place it is not. Sure its open at 2am but at that time all food comes from room service, with the same wait as if you had ordered it from your room. After dinner and before breakfast it simply becomes a place to sit and enjoy room service.

 

So there you go. If I had only 3 it would be LaCucina, Le bistro with fingers crossed and Teppenyaki.

 

We had planned on the MDR for two nights buy a quick glance at the menu choices, we found nothing that made us want to go to dinner or wait in what seemed inevitable lines to get into both MDR's.

[legion3]

For kids it would be

 

Teppenyaki, Bamboo and La Cucina. At LaCucina kids can get a personal pizza or the full sized pizza pie (which they liked better)

 

The kids really liked the Kids Cafe area of the buffet. We would often feed them there and then drop them off at the kids club and go do an adult meal. So my kids did the buffet.

 

Also to corrct one thing mentioned above, kids ordering off the adult menu do not pay full fare. Kids are 1/2 price on all adult menu's at specialty resturants that we saw. They are free if they order off the kids menu. We were not offered a kids menu at teppenyaki. I am pretty sure Cagny's was the same, the others definately were.

 

We did not take the kids to Cagny's or LeBistro as we felt these venues were not the place we wanted to take our kids. LaCucina we did but we might not next time as this had the best fine dining feel to it. Low lights, big room with tables not on top of each other. However it did work out as the kids were able to finish and be wisked to tge kids zone before we got our entree's thus we had most of our meal sans kids.

Edited January 11, 2014 by legion3