Thoughts about specialty dining menu downgrades

[erdoran]

Seems to me that the complaints here about removing various items from specialty menus may be directly related to NCL "giving away" SDP, even if it is bundled into the price of the cruise.  Since they are deriving minimal revenue from specialty restaurants now (the tips are really reasonable, compared to UBP) then I would think in their minds there's a disincentive to offer premium item.  They have the space and the staff to provide the ambience, so that costs them zero, and as for the rest, downgrade, downgrade, and cost cut?  Thoughts?

[havanadaydreaming]

just got off Epic this morning... 

 

Cagneys and Teppanyaki were still fantastic.  cagneys lacked the tomahawk options we had there previously but still delicious.  

 

le bistro, meh. food at Cirque much more meh.  i hate to say that im usually not critical.  

[Sand and Seas]

Have to agree it's a good possibility they are changing the menus due to the popularity of the SDP promo.   Le Bistro's menu just doesn't seem as special anymore.   In La Cucina, you would think Lasagna wouldn't be that expensive to serve but it's gone replaced by a variety of pastas that sound good on the menu but just aren't that special when you taste them.  

Cagney's is still good but you can see the cut-back in the variety of steaks there.

[stormynow]

On the Sky last week and they have gone back to the menu of 8 yrs ago.  Very nice.

[BirdTravels]

11 hours ago, erdoran said:

Seems to me that the complaints here about removing various items from specialty menus may be directly related to NCL "giving away" SDP, even if it is bundled into the price of the cruise.  Since they are deriving minimal revenue from specialty restaurants now (the tips are really reasonable, compared to UBP) then I would think in their minds there's a disincentive to offer premium item.  They have the space and the staff to provide the ambience, so that costs them zero, and as for the rest, downgrade, downgrade, and cost cut?  Thoughts?

There is no substantiation for your assertion about dining plans. They have been around for a long time. I am sure that you remember that they all use to be 7-nights (as much as you can eat) vs 3-dinners. We use to do progressive dinners trying multiple restaurants a night. 

 

They continue to evolve their menus to meet the tastes of the contemporary diner.  Gone are the hammer sliders as appitizers at Cagneys, replaces with lovely roasted pork belly. Yes,,, there was an uproar over the departed of the hamburgers. 

[zqvol]

11 hours ago, erdoran said:

Seems to me that the complaints here about removing various items from specialty menus may be directly related to NCL "giving away" SDP, even if it is bundled into the price of the cruise.  Since they are deriving minimal revenue from specialty restaurants now (the tips are really reasonable, compared to UBP) then I would think in their minds there's a disincentive to offer premium item.  They have the space and the staff to provide the ambience, so that costs them zero, and as for the rest, downgrade, downgrade, and cost cut?  Thoughts?

 

I completely disagree that removing items from the menu has anything to do with the SDP. Any restaurant anywhere in the country is constantly changing its menus. There is no reason to think that NCL is doing anything other than keeping the menus fresh.

[Sand and Seas]

8 minutes ago, BirdTravels said:

...  Gone are the hammer sliders as appitizers at Cagneys, replaces with lovely roasted pork belly. Yes,,, there was an uproar over the departed of the hamburgers. 

My DH loved those sliders and he won't try pork belly 🙂

He was loving Food Republic and their first menu as it had great Wagu Beef sliders.  I talked him into trying some other items like the Korean Bulgogi Tacos and he loved those too.  Then FR changed their menu and both of those are gone too!   Still, he will try any restaurant I want to go to but some of the menus are a challenge for him.

[bbnjcruiser]

1 hour ago, BirdTravels said:

There is no substantiation for your assertion about dining plans. They have been around for a long time. I am sure that you remember that they all use to be 7-nights (as much as you can eat) vs 3-dinners. We use to do progressive dinners trying multiple restaurants a night. 

 

They continue to evolve their menus to meet the tastes of the contemporary diner.  Gone are the hammer sliders as appitizers at Cagneys, replaces with lovely roasted pork belly. Yes,,, there was an uproar over the departed of the hamburgers. 

 

The tastes of contemporary diners do not align with food getting less sophisticated in specialty dining restaurants.  The menus increasingly appear to represent the designs of an accountant more than a chef.

[newmexicoNita]

What one person considers a downgrade might be what someone else considers just a change in menu. When we cruised in May we did not see any downgrade anywhere, but some things we enjoyed before had been replaced with something else. I realize this was 5 months ago, don't know about now. Something I love or you might love may not be popular enough to continue carrying. I think a good example was the mention of Rib Eye not being available in Cagney's anymore, which apparently is the case. For some that means a cut back, for me that means so what? I like Porterhouse better anyway. All is a matter of opinion.

Someone mentioned Lasagna, it is strange it is not on a Menu in an Italian restaurant, but doesn't mean cut back. It is more time consuming to make and actually pretty pricey if you think about it. Maybe it just was not popular enough to continue offering. Maybe something else is more to the modern day appetites. Who knows?