Le Cirque dinner....worth it??

[AzEileen]

I am considering this dinner on our upcoming cruise. Is it really worth an extra $49 when we find the food in the main dining room quite good??

Thanks!

[SilvertoGold]

We found Le Cirque to be a good experience, especially the first time.

 

The food is a cut above the Pinnacle, the service better, too. The 3 glass wine special is enjoyable, too.

 

Unfortunately the menu is small and does not change.

 

We find the Pinancle dinner to be much better value ($29 pp) and the Pinnacle lunch even better ($10 pp).

Edited August 20, 2014 by SilvertoGold

[QueenGlassHalfFull]

We've done the Le Cirque dinner several times and loved it. It's hard to know if you will like it or think it worth the extra cost without knowing you better. If you like really fine dining, you will enjoy your Le Cirque evening.

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

[Alberta Quilter]

You're going to get lots of different responses.

 

I tried it. It was okay to very good. I enjoyed the Chateaubriand but it was too large. Unfortunately, I still ate it all!:D I had the best creme brulee on the ship at Le Cirque. My mother didn't care for the black cod. It didn't look appetizing in the red wine sauce, as she was eating it, and was just okay according to her. Overall, I didn't think it was worth the extra money. As the other poster said, the regular PG menu is better, either lunch or dinner.

 

Try it once and then decide for yourself whether or not it is worth it to YOU.

[POA1]

If the menu appeals to you, then by all means try it. We found it to excellent.

[take us away]

We do not drink, so the specialty all inclusive-dinners are a bit too expensive for our 'tastes'. Every now and again, you can book without the wine for a discounted price - have seen $29 vs. $49 for an Indonesian-themed Pinnacle dinner. We are content in the MDR on most evenings with the Pinnacle (regular menu nights) as a treat at least a few times each cruise as you cannot beat the steaks vs. the MDR.

[Krazy Kruizers]

We have done Le Cirque quite a few times and have enjoyed it every time.

We tried the wine parings one time -- did not feel it was very good. Four ounce pours. We would rather just buy a good bottle of wine for the meal.

You won't know if you will like Le Cirque unless you try it.

[PathfinderEss]

We have done Le Cirque many times and really enjoy it. We do it without the wine parings. I think you need to try it once and make up your own minds.

[boulders]

Did it once and it was awful - on the Nieuw Amsterdam.

[lazey1]

We did it once, the food was good but the portions were way to large for either of us. Did not care for the wine pairings. Are we glad that we had the experience-yes, Would we do it again-no. Suggest you try it for yourself.

[jaspersmycat]

I have enjoyed the Le Cirque dinner on my last 4 cruises. The portions are definitely too big. The Butternut Squash Soup though may be the best tasting single dish I have ever had.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Did it once and it was awful - on the Nieuw Amsterdam.

 

 

What was wrong with it?

We sailed 14 days on the Nieuw Amsterdam in November and again for 14 days March/April. Ate all 4 times there and everything was excellent -- food and service.

[sapper1]

I have enjoyed the Le Cirque dinner on my last 4 cruises. The portions are definitely too big. The Butternut Squash Soup though may be the best tasting single dish I have ever had.

 

Agree on the butternut squash soup. It is worth the price of admission.

The food is very good but a lot is wasted as the portions are larger than we can possibly eat in one sitting. We have done Le Cirque on every ship since it was introduced and will continue to do so.

[serendipity1499]

What was wrong with it?

We sailed 14 days on the Nieuw Amsterdam in November and again for 14 days March/April. Ate all 4 times there and everything was excellent -- food and service.

 

KK did you have Le Cirque four times on the NA during the 14 days you were on her, or are you speaking about the Pinnacle in general.. We love the Pinnacle, but DH looked at the Le Cirque menu & was not impressed enough to spend that kind of $$$.. I on the other hand love Chateaubriand & would consider booking just for that..Also I'm willing to try the Butternut squash soup & DH is not..I could never drink 4 glasses of wine at one dinner, but DH could.. I more often than not will forgo wine & have a Baileys in my after dinner coffee..LOL :)

Edited August 20, 2014 by serendipity1499

[Typhoon1]

Some love it. Others have hated it.

 

If it's something you are really set on trying, go for it. Whether or not it is worth it, is something only YOU can answer.

[boulders]

What was wrong with it?

We sailed 14 days on the Nieuw Amsterdam in November and again for 14 days March/April. Ate all 4 times there and everything was excellent -- food and service.

 

Both the food and the service were quite poor. I had the fish, I forget which kind, but probably bass, and it was swimming in a watery soup that tasted awful. The fish was tough. The rest of the meal was no better. One of the worst meals I've had on a ship. A table close to ours complained about the food loudly and sufficiently for both of our tables. This was in July, 2012.

[Lotsasmiles]

Tried it once - DH and I didn't like it at all - won't bother again. We thought the food was not 'that' much better than the MD. Service was 'over the top' for us in the food waiter department and seriously 'under par' for the wine waiter (as we were only doing the set wines he couldn't have cared less!!) - both of which may have had some bearing on our experience.

But in saying that, we are glad we tried it and formed our own opinion.

 

Anne-Marie

[Krazy Kruizers]

KK did you have Le Cirque four times on the NA during the 14 days you were on her, or are you speaking about the Pinnacle in general.. We love the Pinnacle, but DH looked at the Le Cirque menu & was not impressed enough to spend that kind of $$$.. I on the other hand love Chateaubriand & would consider booking just for that..Also I'm willing to try the Butternut squash soup & DH is not..I could never drink 4 glasses of wine at one dinner, but DH could.. I more often than not will forgo wine & have a Baileys in my after dinner coffee..LOL :)

 

Since each cruise was a Collectors cruise -- that meant we went to Le Cirque each week -- 4 weeks equals 4 times doing the dinner.

We have done Le Cirque on every cruise since it was introduced on the Nieuw Amsterdam in 2010. On some of our longer cruises it has been offered 2 times and we signed up for both.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Both the food and the service were quite poor. I had the fish, I forget which kind, but probably bass, and it was swimming in a watery soup that tasted awful. The fish was tough. The rest of the meal was no better. One of the worst meals I've had on a ship. A table close to ours complained about the food loudly and sufficiently for both of our tables. This was in July, 2012.

 

Thank you for explaining.

[kakalina]

We did not care for it at all. The lobster salad sounds wonderful but they use grapefruit juice and some on heart medication can't have any grapefruit and they offer no alternative. My DH's fish was awful, it came with a wine sauce he doesn't touch alcohol so asked for an alternative sauce. They brought plain whitefish in a bowl with no sauce at all. It was dry and horrid. The lamb was fatty and too tough to eat. The soup with woodears was floury and tasteless. We would not waste our money on it again.

 

OTOH, we absolutely love the PG regular menu and eat there every night they don't have a special dinner.

[SilvertoGold]

Have to agree that the fish is really not very good. Swimming in a pool of grey liquid does not make it appetizing. The cabbage was super and the fish OK, but the whole dish could have been much better.

 

One surprise we had with the lobster salad, which was otherwise excellent, was the seriously under-ripe avacado and tomato. Both hard as a rock! Unbelievable that they could not save some ripe ones for Le Cirque. Bad planning for their showcase meal.

[jaguarstyper]

If you've never done it, you should try it. Is it worth another $49 per person? Only you can decide that. And you can only really decide once you've done it. It is good, we did enjoy it and we feel its worth the money. But, having been to the actual Le Cirque a few times for dinner, it was a little underwhelming.

 

Give it a try for yourself. YOLO, right?

[Mr. Boston]

Unfortunately we made the mistake of attending the cooking show where the chef prepared the lobster salad the same day that we went to the Le Cirque dinner. The lobster salad that we were served at the dinner very vaguely resembled what the chef had prepared earlier in the day. There were just two smallish pieces of lobster tail meat served on the plate, not the beautiful fanned tail that we had observed in the class. As we were on a Canada/New England cruise and living in Boston we were not impressed with the sad treatment of those poor crustaceans who deserved better. We won't be rushing to the land based restaurant.

[jaguarstyper]

We won't be rushing to the land based restaurant.

Aside from the table settings, there really is no comparison.

[visagrunt]

I have done it twice (Zuiderdam and Amsterdam) and I will be doing it again on the Eurodam as well as Die Librije.

 

While the menu is unchanging, it has many items that I am quite happy to indulge in again and again. The butternut squash soup is not to be missed.

 

As for portion size, there is absolutely no rule that says you have to eat everything. On our last cruise, they PG were happy to deliver our desserts to our cabin, so that we could indulge in them later, after the show.

 

My only complaint about the dinner is that the service can be very slow.