speciality restaurants - rank them!

[suec12]

We will be on the Riviera in May. We sailed on O before, but on Nautica. Please rank the speciality restaurants in your order of preference and name you favorite dish / dishes.

We love lamb chops - our go-to favorite.

 

Also it is my understanding I should book at 45 days out (we are in a verandah) by email? if you waited until onboard, were you shut out?

 

Thanks for your input.

[Paulchili]

You should book them online (under my cruise - not by e mail) as soon as you are able to in order to get your first choices of days/time/table sizes.

You will not be shut out if you wait until you board but you will have to "settle" for what is available at that point.

My order of preferences:

Jacques

Polo

Red Ginger

Toscana

[neepawa]

Polo

Jacques

Red Ginger

Toscana

Cheers,

Don

[ORV]

Just goes to show how different people's tastes are. A couple of months ago we spent 26 days on Riviera. We ate 6 times in Red Ginger, 3 times each in all the others. We ate twice in the MDR for dinner, once in the room from Red Ginger, and the rest of the evening meals in the Terrace, which was great. The reason we didn't eat much in the MDR was due to the time it took, especially since you could get all the same food and more in the Terrace.

 

Here is our order of preference.

 

Red Ginger

Toscana

Jacques

Polo

[Toranut97]

And to add yet another oddball viewpoint, we love the MDR. In our cruise 11/13 we ate almost every meal there except for our anniversary dinner in Polo and a delightful evening in Jacques. We don't go to Toscana since our very first O cruise in 2006 when dinner there took 3 hours ( we are booked there on the next cruise with friends). I think I would like Red Ginger but DH is not interested so we skip it. It's great to be someplace where many tastes and preferences can be accommodated!!!!

[Mura]

Okay, I'll play.

 

Jacques

Polo

Toscana

Red Ginger

 

Among my favorite dishes are the mussels in Jacques and the prime rib in Polo.

 

Mura

[JimandStan]

We also enjoy the Grand Dining Room very much, and if lamb is your "thing", do not miss the baby lamb chops which are perennially on the breakfast menu in that venue! They are superb.

 

For Us, the Specialty Restaurants would be ranked in this order:

Polo

Tuscana

Red Ginger

Jacques

 

Spontaneity may sound like a better idea from this early vantage point, but don't wait for the Cruise to book your restaurant reservations. Oceania tries to be fair, but the Restaurants don't have rubber walls and there is a great deal of jockeying to get into them.

[cruisingxpert]

I must be missing something because Polo seems to be right near the top for everyone.

 

Mine would be

 

Toscana

Jacques

Red Ginger

Polo

 

Re: Polo-Had gristly prime rib twice and nothing else was memorable. This last time everything was very salty and I like salt. What should I get in March?

 

Catherine

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[ronrick1943]

Jacques-everything

Polo-Porterhouse

Red Ginger-Watermelon/Duck Salad

Toscana-Nothing

 

That's the way I see it.

Rick

[DOJO466]

Each time we are onboard we readjust our favorites. This past cruise was:

Polo

Jacques

Red Ginger

Toscana

[wr2next]

Jacques-everything

Polo-Porterhouse

Red Ginger-Watermelon/Duck Salad

Toscana-Nothing

 

That's the way I see it.

Rick

 

Interesting. After 2 Oceania cruises I'd rate them almost exactly opposite. I've eaten in Jacques 4 times and never been overly impressed. Alot of folks love Jacques and I certainly respect that. We just made our restaurant reservation for our Marina cruise in March so we will give Jacques another shot. That said, the first time we went to Red Ginger we were not that impressed either. Last cruise we went to Red Ginger twice and loved it and now we can't wait to go back. But as of now my order would be:

 

Toscana

Red Ginger (the watermelon/duck salad is the best)

Polo

Jacques

[JimandStan]

What should I get in March?

 

The Lobster Bisque is heaven (heavy on the cognac, please!) as is the Strip Steak -if you like your meat rare-, or the Porterhouse if you don't.

 

Personally, I find an undressed Steak and Onion Salad to be a wonderful accompaniment to the meal in lieu of a potato, particularly if Salt is a concern.

 

Whatever you do, PLEASE leave room for the delectable trilogy of homemade Marshmallows ;)

Light as air and DELECTABLE.

[cruisingxpert]

The Lobster Bisque is heaven (heavy on the cognac, please!) as is the Strip Steak -if you like your meat rare-, or the Porterhouse if you don't.

 

Personally, I find an undressed Steak and Onion Salad to be a wonderful accompaniment to the meal in lieu of a potato, particularly if Salt is a concern.

 

Whatever you do, PLEASE leave room for the delectable trilogy of homemade Marshmallows ;)

Light as air and DELECTABLE.

 

Can I have the strip steak medium rare?:) I'll take your advice and let you know how it turns out.

 

Catherine

[Mura]

Interesting. After 2 Oceania cruises I'd rate them almost exactly opposite. I've eaten in Jacques 4 times and never been overly impressed.

 

And we've not been impressed with Red Ginger, although we expected to love it given the reviews we read before our first Marina cruise.

 

We've also never been that impressed with Toscana, but still I rated it above Red Ginger.

 

As we often say, different strokes for different folks. That's why this kind of thread is particularly difficult, I think.

 

I'll echo Jim in that we also like the GDR (although we disagreed on all the other restaurants, I think!). (And those breakfast lamb chops ... to digh for!)

 

We've rarely had a bad meal there on ANY of the ships, and we like the increased variety. On rare occasions we've had poor (or disinterested) service, but that has been very rare.

 

Mura

[Mura]

Can I have the strip steak medium rare?:) I'll take your advice and let you know how it turns out./QUOTE]

 

Catherine, you didn't ask me but whenever I'm in Polo I ask for rare meat and I've always gotten it that way. DH asks for his steaks medium or medium rare and has never been unhappy.

 

I've never had your gristly prime rib ... although I am foolish enough to ask for the 32 oz version which I cannot possibly finish. I expect there to be fat and gristle on such a huge piece of meat and just eat around it. I've never tried the "ladies' version" ... so that might be different. (That really SHOULD not have fat or gristle. At least not enough to mention ...) I just happen to prefer prime rib on the bone.

 

I've had very good prime rib in the GDR ... but not as good as in Polo.

 

Mura

[Floridiana]

Red Ginger

Jacques

Toscana

Polo

 

I love the main dining room and the Terrace, do not care for the Waves.

[cruisingxpert]

Can I have the strip steak medium rare?:) I'll take your advice and let you know how it turns out./QUOTE]

 

Catherine, you didn't ask me but whenever I'm in Polo I ask for rare meat and I've always gotten it that way. DH asks for his steaks medium or medium rare and has never been unhappy.

 

I've never had your gristly prime rib ... although I am foolish enough to ask for the 32 oz version which I cannot possibly finish. I expect there to be fat and gristle on such a huge piece of meat and just eat around it. I've never tried the "ladies' version" ... so that might be different. (That really SHOULD not have fat or gristle. At least not enough to mention ...) I just happen to prefer prime rib on the bone.

 

I've had very good prime rib in the GDR ... but not as good as in Polo.

 

Mura

 

The best prime rib so far has been in the Terrace Buffet - twice now. I would have said that I would never eat in a buffet for dinner but some others on our first cruise dragged us there for dinner one night and we were hooked.

 

Maybe the question should have been "What is your favourite place to eat dinner?"

My answer to that would have been 1 La Reserve 2 Terrace Buffet and 3 Any specialty Restaurant.

 

Catherine

[S O B]

Red Ginger - Miso Glazed Chilean Sea Bass and the Japanese ice cream with the chili salt!

Jacques - Dover Sole, Lobster Thermidor & the cheese trolley later

Toscana - Osso Buco, Cioppino plus the wonderful breads and olive oils

Polo - the veal chop is my favorite but I'll eat damn near everything in this fabulous place!

[Two Happy Cruisers]

Can't wait to point this thread out to my DH - we're both foodies but he's the bigger one for sure!

 

We're on our first O cruise in April and since we're in a PH we got to make our reservations already a week ago.

 

Decided on Red Ginger the first night, Jacques the third, Toscana the fifth, and Polo the seventh night. Will do either the MDR, Terrace, or room service every other night. Of course we also hope to eat in the specialty restaurants more than once - once we know which one(s) we'd like to go back to.

 

Thanks for all your thoughts and advice - we'll definitely keep them in mind!

 

~Benita

[Wendy The Wanderer]

We will be on the Riviera in May. We sailed on O before, but on Nautica. Please rank the speciality restaurants in your order of preference and name you favorite dish / dishes.

We love lamb chops - our go-to favorite.

 

Also it is my understanding I should book at 45 days out (we are in a verandah) by email? if you waited until onboard, were you shut out?

 

Thanks for your input.

 

Jacques

Red Ginger

Toscana

Polo

 

(but this is based on just one visit to three, went to Red Ginger twice. La Reserve was way above all of them. But MDR was not bad at all.

[Mura]

This probably has been addressed but I didn't see anything skimming through ...

 

You are NOT shut out if you don't book prior to boarding. They do save room. But there are fewer choices.

 

Besides, everyone is guaranteed at least one slot in each restaurant, if not two.

 

The problem is in getting (a) the exact times you want and (b) the number of seats you want. If you wait to book a table for 6 until after you board, you can have a problem.

 

And again, as others have often said, it depends on what your other passengers want. There are cruises where getting extra reservations is no problem, and there are cruises where it is impossible.

 

Mura

[MightyQuinn]

1. Jacques

2. Red Ginger - almost tied for #1 but stinky cheese wins

3. Polo

4. Toscana - distant #4 but saved by spicy olive oil

[newbie60]

We've only been on the larger ships once but here goes

 

Toscano -- seems to be the largest, most diverse menu so lots of options regardless of how often one goes. The beef carpacio/arugula salad fabulous.

 

Red Ginger -- even DH who claims to not like Asian-fusion loved it. Miso glazed sea bass divine!

 

Polo -- always excellent but we don't eat that much red meat.

 

Jacques -- sent back my only entree there. Advertised as "crispy duck breast" it was neither crispy nor rare which is the way duck breast is usually served. The server (and later the restaurant manager) apologized and admitted the menu was deceiving as the duck was braised and so therefore was always well done. The replacement dish, which I cannot remember :confused: was extremely good.

 

We'll try Jacques with an open mind on our next Marina cruise but that's a ways off!

[JimandStan]

We'll try Jacques with an open mind on our next Marina cruise but that's a ways off!

 

Funny you should say that, because Jacques is the one Restaurant which we always think that we "should" enjoy more than we actually do. At home, 90% of our destination restaurants are French.

 

For us, the conflict is that Chef Pépin conceived the restaurant as a casual, country french bistro, whereas we were anticipating (and are still hoping for) something rather more elegant.

 

Terrines, Cassolettes and Salads, even the occasional Gratiné are just not special enough to draw us away from the Grand Dining Room.

[tvmovielover]

On our just finished cruise, Jacques was my least favorite restaurant and the one I do not care about returning to on our next cruise. I think you have hit the nail on the head Jim and Stan as to why. It was just not special in the way I thought it would be. I have followed chef Pepin's cooking for many years and long ago taken a class he gave. His cooking has become more casual over time but the food we had at our meal there was just not very good as either elegant (the terrine) or casual bistro (my pork chop with apple). I also felt the room was leaning toward elegant but the crowd at 7:30 and the food offered was leaning toward casual.

 

On the other hand I liked Toscana best which I see that most people here do not. One of our main courses-fish was excellent while the meat was not but the pasta on two visits was terrific. I liked Toscana, then Red Ginger, then with some distance Polo and Jacques so it must depend on where you get your best meals. We also had good food in the MDR.