Luminae: cooked to order?

[tom_uk]

A question for those who have experienced Luminae. Are meals (esp. dinners) cooked to order in a similar way to meals in Murano? My assumption is that they are, but I could be wrong.

[CHEZMARYLOU]

I'm not sure about cooked to order but I've never had a problem getting sauces on the side, no bacon on the trout, substituting a grain, etc so I guess they are cooked to order.

[jagoffee]

A question for those who have experienced Luminae. Are meals (esp. dinners) cooked to order in a similar way to meals in Murano? My assumption is that they are, but I could be wrong.

 

Although I have not been in the Kitchen to observe the preparation and I confident that the meals are cooked to order although there may be a few exceptions.

[happy 2 b cruising]

A question for those who have experienced Luminae. Are meals (esp. dinners) cooked to order in a similar way to meals in Murano? My assumption is that they are, but I could be wrong.

 

Many threads on Luminae, which reviews the restaurant as good and just ok. In my experiences service in Luminae ranges from excellent to good. Food ranges from ok to good, never excellent. We ordered off the MDR menu many times. Most food that is made to order other than what is on the menu is

 

because people have food allergies. Yes you can ask for dressing on the side, no bacon, medium rare on steak, I don't consider that anything special. They also have a surcharge for a prime steak and a few other items on the Luminae menu. Enjoy your cruise but don't think of Luminae of anything special other than a small dinning venue with good service. Just my opinion. Not quite sure what you are asking, do you mean making dishes for you not on the menu or just eliminating a certain ingredient?

Edited June 8, 2017 by happy 2 b cruising

[4774Papa]

Many threads on Luminae, which reviews the restaurant as good and just ok. In my experiences service in Luminae ranges from excellent to good. Food ranges from ok to good, never excellent. We ordered off the MDR menu many times. Most food that is made to order is

 

because people have food allergies. Yes you can ask for dressing on the side, no bacon, medium rare on steak, I don't consider that anything special. They also have a surcharge for a prime steak and a few other items on the Luminae menu. Enjoy your cruise but don't think of Luminae of anything special other than a small dinning venue with good service. Just my opinion.

 

We were on Millennium in 2015 and loved Luminae. I only had one dish, at lunch that I sent back because if was unacceptable. I would say that nothing we had was just average. Most was Excellent, some very good. If the food was not made to order, it appeared to be.

[jelayne]

We have had excellent food in Luminae & I believe much of it is cooked to order however some dishes ( veal/ lamb shank, short ribs) have long cooking times so not cooked to order.

[tom_uk]

Not quite sure what you are asking, do you mean making dishes for you not on the menu or just eliminating a certain ingredient?

 

Cooking what you've ordered after you've ordered it. This is in contrast to the MDR where they have an endless supply of the meals from the night's menu being cooked continually and your waiter simply gets given the most recent one out of the oven for you.

[hrhdhd]

They also have a surcharge for a prime steak and a few other items on the Luminae menu.

 

I haven't seen items with a surcharge. When was this? (Not asking to accuse, but to see when it was and if the practice may have been discontinued.)

[delondin]

Cooking what you've ordered after you've ordered it. This is in contrast to the MDR where they have an endless supply of the meals from the night's menu being cooked continually and your waiter simply gets given the most recent one out of the oven for you.

I was told by the waiter that it is cooked just for you, rather than on a conveyor belt like in mdr. We really like it there, but saying that Blu is not far behind, just a little more frenetic.

[ECCruise]

I really don't think there is such a huge difference in how the food is prepared. Ingredients they are different as well as most attention to detail.

Yes, in the MDR the meals are done in much larger quantities, but particularly in Select Dining, they are cooked on a rotating basis. It is not like your meal will be sitting there for hours. And, if you order specific preparation (e.g. Tuna barely seared) in the MDR, it is prepared a la minute.

In addition, as someone else stated, a number of the dishes (lamb loin, short ribs, pork belly, and some others) are prepared hours in advance and then finalized and plated only when ordered.

[Host Jazzbeau]

I have taken a galley tour (on Connie as part of the Chef's Table evening). All three kitchens (MDR, Blu and Luminae) are located in the same area, adjacent to each other. The kitchens for Blu and Luminae are small enough that cooking is essentially a la minute, but there really isn't any difference for the MDR kitchen: there is so much volume that they are constantly preparing every entree in most of the possible variations (e.g. meat medium rare) and plating (which is where most diner requests are handled) is done at the final station where the waiters pick up the finished plates -- from the diner's point of view, both produce the same result in terms of time from initial cooking to delivery at the table. The difference between MDR, Blu and Luminae is in the menus, the quality of the ingredients, and the extra flexibility to order things off the menu. But the issue of a la minute IMHO is merely pedantic.

[happy 2 b cruising]

I haven't seen items with a surcharge. When was this? (Not asking to accuse, but to see when it was and if the practice may have been discontinued.)

 

On the 2017 April crossing on the Reflection, I had read about it on another thread but this was the first time I saw the surcharge on the menu for certain upgraded items.

[wrk2cruise]

I had read it on CC prior to our Jan Equinox cruise and was happy to see that we didn't see up-charge items on the Luminae menu. Given that they seem to be trying to make the Suite Life all inclusive with the 4 included perks it seems strange that they would try this tack to generate revenue from these passengers which are already paying a premium.

 

I for one will not be supporting this attempt on my future suite sailings.

[ClaudiaB]

They have been very receptive and agreeable to doing custom things for me. I often just want a main dish salad, particularly at lunch. I just can't possibly eat two heavy meals in a day. So I've asked for a plate of mixed greens and a grilled chicken breast or rotisserie type chicken on it, with some balsamic vinaigrette.

I often ask for a side that's larger of a green vegetable like broccoli. So often they green veggies are merely a garnish so I get more and it's no trouble.

 

I like their chicken and waffles and I always have asked for ONE chicken and ONE waffle. The standard serving is at least two each which is ridiculously large! I hate to waste, so I quite often have them do a reduction like that, or omit something on the plate I don't like.

 

I have found this both in Blu and Luminae. It's been so long since I've eaten in the MDR that I don't know.

[CEOofVacation]

Every dinner I had at Luminae was cooked to order because of my gluten-free requirement and my dislike for sauces. Lots of substitutions in my orders. I also had 2 dinner entrees which I placed my orders the night before that were not on any of their menus on the whole cruise.

[XtaSea]

We've enjoyed Luminae twice now and while I'm not sure if the menu selections are cooked to order, I do know the staff is very accommodating for any request we've had. As far as the quality of both the food and the service, we view Luminae as an equal to, and often an improvement on, the specialty restaurants onboard. We've not had a meal in the MDR for awhile now, although we have augmented our Luminae meal with selections from the MDR menu (i.e., escargot, apple pie, etc.). We have fairly simple tastes--I would not describe us as epicurean--but I'd be hard pressed to find a better dining experience.