Specialty Dining Question

[govols1]

I will be taking my first cruise on NCL soon. We are on an 11 day cruise from New Orleans on the Breakaway. We were able to upgrade our balcony to include UBP and 4 specialty dining dinners. My question of the day is if you were going to eat in 4 specialty dining venues, which would you recommend and why? Thanks in advance for your assistance.

 

 

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[ray98]

Cagney's and Le Bistro are always fabulous, so much many times we will hit one twice. Moderno and Teppanyaki also won't disappoint if you are into that cuisine.

[Paul Bogle]

We are sailing the 10 day Breakaway that likely follows your. We have the same four day package. Our plan is to do Cagney's twice, Moderno and Teppanyaki once. I wanted to do Le Bistro but was outvoted by our cruise mates.

 

With six ports we won't be doing excursions at every stop. On busy port days we will likely eat at our leisure in the buffet or at O'Sheans. We will enjoy the specialty dining on sea days or light port days, preferably evenings without production shows.

We like to relax and enjoy meals so this works best for us. We can work in a comedy show or other evening entertainments with a nice dinner. On production show nights we like to get to the theater early, find good seats, relax and enjoy the show.

[DuckTollerFans]

We loved LeBistro, LaCucino,and Cagneys - with LeBistro the favorite.

 

 

 

We opted out of Teppanyanki because that hibachi style is fun, but once you've done it (in "land" restaurants) it's not so much about the food. Many reviews of Moderno implied too much meat and too salty; not enough variety/veggies for our taste.

 

 

 

I was surprised about some of the reviews for O'Sheehans - we were not that thrilled with the food, service was meh and in fact thought the Garden buffet's food was better. Every meal in the main dining room was very good. Oh, and 2x we stopped in at the little sushi bar for a cocktail and a roll before heading to a show (and then late dinner) - and wow, was it good!

[BirdTravels]

I will be taking my first cruise on NCL soon. We are on an 11 day cruise from New Orleans on the Breakaway. We were able to upgrade our balcony to include UBP and 4 specialty dining dinners. My question of the day is if you were going to eat in 4 specialty dining venues, which would you recommend and why? Thanks in advance for your assistance.

The Cirque show - Fun dinner show with Cirque du Soleil performances

 

Cagney's - Great steak house

 

Teppanyaki - Japanese steakhouse with the food presented by an entertaining chef

 

Ocean Blue - The ship's fine dining restaurant.

[lantzalot]

We did the Q, Los Lobos and La Cucina on our cruise. We didn't want to pay the upcharge for any of the others. We were happy with our choices. La Cucina was the best of those three. The MDRs were the most disappointing for us. Just really tired and stuffy menus mostly. We liked the Local (which I think is O'Sheehan's? on other boats) better than the MDR. Nothing special really at the Local, but that's what I'm saying about the MDR menu. Your opinion may be different. Just look at the menus. They do change. Menu examples: https://eatsleepcruise.com/2018/06/norwegian-bliss-restaurant-menus-and-guide/

[havanadaydreaming]

on 11 day Epic in Nov.

 

I booked Cucina, Cagneys, teppanyaki and the cirque dinner show.

 

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[SAILSKAT]

We did 3 Specialty on our Breakaway cruise last year and I could have done all 3 at Le Bistro! Don't let French scare you away, it's not pretentious, it's delicious! Our 2nd favorite was Teppanyaki (the best hibachi we've ever had) and of course we love Cagney's (at the level of Flemmings, and close to Ruth's Chris or Capital Grill). We didn't try the Italian, since we frequent Italy and have the North End of Boston at our doorstep, so we wanted to do something different. The specialty dining was worth every $, on our upcoming 4 night cruise we are doing 3 nights of specialty dining (and plan to be off ship for one night). Totally worth it. You are getting at $200-$300 dinner for a fraction of the cost.

[xbatt8]

We are also doing an 11 day Breakaway. Ours is January 27th, 2019. Same one for you???

 

We had the package on the Epic in April. To be honest, we weren’t wowed with Cagney’s or Le Bistro. They were very good, but they weren’t great. If I were spending my money, rather than going as a free package... it would be a coin flip whether or not I’d do it. As a guy who doesn’t eat steak, I was very disappointed that to get lobster, I would have had to pay an additional $12. If they are going to offer you a Filet Mignon, they should also be able to offer a lobster tail.

 

We did like La Cucina, and Shanghai. Both were quite good.

 

This time we plan to try Moderno and Ocean Blue. Both look very good.

 

One other thing. I asked about using one of our specialty dining nights on the Cirque dinner show and was told that we could not. The ability to do so or not may be ship by ship (or more likely Maitre d’ by Maitre d’).

 

Bob

[wdsted]

All of the above suggestions are good, but a few additional thoughts. La Cucina is solid with classic Italian dishes but don’t expect menu items you can’t get at any typical Italian restaurant outside of Italy. And for Teppanyaki, avoid it if you dislike loud boisterous dining which is common. We’ve observed many occasions where a couple sat there with mortified looks on their faces.

 

 

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[vacation44]

on 11 day Epic in Nov.

 

I booked Cucina, Cagneys, teppanyaki and the cirque dinner show.

 

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These would be my four choices also.

[lantzalot]

I think that’s true at any of the restaurants. Cagneys is steaks. You can get those at any steak restaurant. Los Lobos is going to have Mexican food typical to Mexican restaurants. None of the menus is unique new food you’ve never heard of before.

 

 

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[govols1]

Thank you very much for the suggestions and input. Greatly appreciated. We are on the Nov 25-Dec 6th cruise. When I login to MYNCL it shows Ocean Blue as $12.00. I am assuming that would be the upcharge based on using one of our "credits"? My wife has significant food allergies (gluton-celiac-no sugar-no grains-etc-etc) so always have to be extra careful when dining out. So far we have reservations at Cagneys, Moderno, La Cucina and Teppanyaki. Sounds like Le Bistro and Ocean Blue may need to be adjusted/added.

 

Although I have never cruised on NCL, my DW has been on NCL as a friend of hers had booked a cruise last year and her husband passed away prior to the cruise and she asked my wife to join her and she said NCL took great care of her food issues.

[lantzalot]

Thank you very much for the suggestions and input. Greatly appreciated. We are on the Nov 25-Dec 6th cruise. When I login to MYNCL it shows Ocean Blue as $12.00. I am assuming that would be the upcharge based on using one of our "credits"? My wife has significant food allergies (gluton-celiac-no sugar-no grains-etc-etc) so always have to be extra careful when dining out. So far we have reservations at Cagneys, Moderno, La Cucina and Teppanyaki. Sounds like Le Bistro and Ocean Blue may need to be adjusted/added.

 

Although I have never cruised on NCL, my DW has been on NCL as a friend of hers had booked a cruise last year and her husband passed away prior to the cruise and she asked my wife to join her and she said NCL took great care of her food issues.

 

 

 

They asked at the beginning of each meal before taking orders if we had any dietary restrictions or allergies.

 

 

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