Sushi on 5 Detailed Review with Photos - Reflection 2/27/16

[Rob the Cruiser]

I never saw it quite that busy, but we walked by either earlier or later, mostly. I'm sure it was packed for the one Sea Day lunch - the Porch was as well.

 

I agree that there is much more money making potential here (although of course the ingredients for sushi cost more than for crepes). If we had paid a la carte, we would have spent close to $100 for a full dinner the first night when we were really hungry and $70 the second night when we ate a little more moderately. The question is, will cruisers pay?

 

Based on your review, I would pay.

[DebbieMacG]

The Porch is for sure - we ate there on our cruise and had a great meal (we had lunch there everyday, actually!). Sushi on 5 was NOT open at embarkation on our cruise, but supposedly they are planning to open for lunch on embarkation and all other sea days going forward. They were definitely open at embarkation on March 5 - the manager told me that they were hosting senior management for lunch that day and were hoping for a good crowd!

 

Thank you, that may be the plan for our embarkation lunch instead of Bistro on 5 :)

[ccgns]

Given the amount of work that goes into opening a restaurant on a ship (menu development, staff training, redecoration or retheming of the space, etc.), there is no way a true pop-up will ever work on a ship. They can't rely on local suppliers for ingredients, nor depend on a chef to create dishes on the fly each night. Most of the cooking on ships is done by line cooks who are following recipe formulas created by someone else, according to strict standards to control costs.

 

The pop-up title here is marketing, plain and simple. If Sushi on 5 is profitable, it will stay on Reflection for a good long while, and be rolled out to other ships quickly.

 

If they are going to trial 'pop up' restaurants wouldn't it be nice to link to the itinerary....The chef buying local ingredients, cooking local delicacies, that most of us would happily pay a premium for.

 

The pop up could run for the season, Caribbean, Mediterranean, Asian, Alaskan....Not so much change it would be unmanageable for the crew but something different and special for passengers.

 

Seem to think this has been discussed before, Bistro on 5 could be the way to make it work.

 

First and foremost thank you Alsmez for your review and pictures!

 

chemmo, I've been writing that in my survey since my 1st cruise.

 

At a captain's club event I did ask the head chef if it would be feasible to create a regional meal and he basically gave the same answer as Alsmez did. He also mentioned food handling/safety issues.

 

However, I did notice that Celebrity is starting to have more culinary excursions, where local chefs actually come onboard to create a meal for you.

I've seen it for Jamaica and Mexico.

 

Alternatively, some river cruises allow you to go with the kitchen staff to local markets to source your evening meal.

 

Cheers,

GnS

[KirkNC]

Thanks for your report.

[Clarea]

Thanks for the review.

[Keith1010]

Very thorough review.

 

Keith

[capecodmercury]

 

I will say that I missed the opportunity to go to Bistro at breakfast - I understand that they stopped offering breakfast a while ago, but on my last Reflection cruise it was still open, and it was nice to have that alternative to the buffet on insanely busy days (same goes for the Porch in its previous iteration, although we definitely enjoyed it as a seafood place for lunch). I wish they could find a way to make use of the fifth floor space in the morning, especially since Cafe al Bacio has become so popular and crowded.

 

I do wonder how this will affect UDP now that some options are being removed. They have taken away some of its value by removing breakfast and on some ships a lunch option. For example, on those ships such as Equinox without a Porch, the UDP basically means dinner and maybe one lunch and High Tea. It's hard to justify the plan with these limitations. I hope they realize this by allowing usage of Sushi on 5 and Gastro Pub.

[riclop]

Thanks for the review.

[Bo1953]

.. on Silhouette during our February 2016 sailing for sure. Embarkation day, we were among the first to board, our party of four (4) and another party of six (6) graced that venue.

 

After telling me that they could prepare a meal to my liking, 25 minutes later I was told no way, still the rest of the table had not been served. It took an additional 20 minutes before their food arrived. Not sure what was going on in the kitchen that day, but it was not preparing food or so it seemed.

 

As others have indicated, during sea days Bo5 was full, not sure how service was, but thought it could not be worse than we received on embarkation day for sure... then again, I do not know.

 

Looking forward to trying So5 as many of us like sushi - vegetable for myself though being a vegan.

 

Thank you all for your input...

 

bon voyage