Pinnacle Grill

[Bogie Man]

Question for anyone that’s been to the Pinnacle Grill recently.

 

We were on the Noordam last spring and had the Have it All. This included a dinner in the Pinnacle Grill and we were very disappointed in our meal. In previous cruises we always paid for our dinner at the Pinnacle and loved it. This time however nothing was very good. My “15 ounce’ rib eye steak was probably no more than 8 ounces and over cooked, my sides were ridiculously small, which was 3 asparagus spears and a tablespoon of mashed potatoes.

 

So could it be that because this was part of the Have it All the portions were much smaller, or is this now what to expect at the Pinnacle whether or not if it’s part of your HIA package or pay for your meal separately?

[jhannah]

I certainly hope that's not their new standard. I'm not buying the HIA, so I will look forward to the regular portions in the Pinnacle Grille.

[Roz]

Sounds like you ordered off the kids menu.  In all seriousness, I've never been served portions that small. 

[Ready2go11]

I have had vastly different experiences at the pinnacle for both lunch and dinner on the same cruise, let alone among various ships. One would be great and the next would be meh. 
 

I think service and food quality is affected by how busy they are. Some nights they are so slammed they just can’t keep up and that has to be due to the extra HIA reservations and what seems like less staff. 
 

I have noticed that side dishes and appetizer portions are smaller, but I gave them the benefit of the doubt that they did not want to waste food. They used to serve them family style to share, and now they are just individual portions.
 

If you know you want a healthy portion of a specific dish, just ask your waiter when ordering for extra. 

Edited March 30 by Ready2go11

[Mary229]

The Pinnacle experience varies widely ship to ship as do all of the specialty restaurants.  I am just off the Koningsdam and the Pinnacle sparkled in every aspect. I particularly like lunch at the Pinnacle but did also have dinner.  On the other hand I thoroughly enjoyed my dinner on the Noordam’s Canaletto and was very disappointed on the Koningsdam.  

[roupa]

With HIA, what might be customary pertaining to tipping at the Pinnacle or Canaletto? Tip/no tip.

Yes! I do realize that tipping is individual, just wondering about customary, not specifically amount.

[Roz]

 

10 minutes ago, Ready2go11 said:

If you know you want a healthy portion of a specific dish, just ask your waiter when ordering for extra. 

 

I hear what you're saying,  but why should someone have to request more than a tablespoon of mashed potatoes,  and a 15 oz. steak shouldn't be 8oz..

[Mary229]

3 minutes ago, roupa said:

With HIA, what might be customary pertaining to tipping at the Pinnacle or Canaletto? Tip/no tip.

Yes! I do realize that tipping is individual, just wondering about customary, not specifically amount.

There is an automatic 18% gratuity applied whether you purchase outright or with HIA.  Anything above that level would only be for exceptional service

[roupa]

Ok, so to be 100% clear…the HIA DOES cover the 18% ?

that would be nice, tho I do expect to add to it.

[SUESEABE]

@roupa Yes. HIA includes the 18%

[Haljo1935]

16 minutes ago, Roz said:

 

 

I hear what you're saying,  but why should someone have to request more than a tablespoon of mashed potatoes,  and a 15 oz. steak shouldn't be 8oz..

I have not seen small sude portions, especially a tablespoon.

As recently as Oct Nov Dec on NS and Dec Jan on K'dam the side mash potatoes were served in a bowl for sharing, as they always have been, even if only 1 of us ordered them.

Edited March 30 by Haljo1935
Typo

[Bogie Man]

11 minutes ago, Haljo1935 said:

I have not seen small sude portions, especially a tablespoon.

As recently as Oct Nov Dec on NS and Dec Jan on K'dam the side mash potatoes were served in a bowl for sharing, as they always have been, even if only 1 of us ordered them.

Ok that’s good to know. We’ll be on the K Dam in 4 weeks. Hopefully our experience on the Noordam was just a freak occurrence. 

[dogo88]

Since Covid sailings beginning in 2022, we have been on the Zuiderdam (Jan 2022) , Nieuw Stantendam (Oct 2022) , Rotterdam (Mar 2023 and Oct 2023) and lastly the Eurodam (Mar 2024). All were HIA. Other than the recent Eurodam we had multiple Pinnacle meals on the ships. The first one would be the HIA meal and the rest were paid meals. No difference in what we received between HIA and paid.

 

The Zuiderdam in Jan of 2022 as probably the best meals. The Nieuw Statendam was the absolute worst of the two we ate. The second meal we walked out. I've mentioned the issues in prior threads and no need to rehash. The Rotterdam cruises were tolerable and a better than the Nieuw Statendam.  The Eurodam was acceptable though the ribeye was pretty thin and no where near steak house quality. 

 

We use to do multiple Pinnacles on every cruise. Now we do the HIA one and see if it's worth reserving later. 

 

As others have mentioned the Pinnacle is hit or miss and if crowded expect long service times. 

 

One plus is that over the past few years is that the MDR has raised it's game. The 2022 Zuiderdam cruise MDR was not good at all. Small portions, limited menu and not a lot of variety. The last two cruises the MDR has been our go to place. I found the daily strip steak in the MDR to be better than the ribeye I had in Pinnacle. Luck? Perhaps. 

[Mary229]

16 minutes ago, dogo88 said:

We use to do multiple Pinnacles on every cruise. Now we do the HIA one and see if it's worth reserving later. 

Exactly what we do or if no HIA we opt for lunch. We find lunch a much better value, less crowded, better service and excellent food.  It is also the right size for us.  

[ottahand7]

Agree with @dogo88 the MDR has stepped it up.    Early in our Eurodam B2Bs we had a Pinnacle dinner and there were probably 4 sticks of pencil asparagus in our side dish.  Plus the service was so slow we had burned through the bottle of wine we had bought from the package before we got our entrees.  We asked for a complimentary glass of wine each.  They obliged but sent two each.  Didn't need that much wine, just a timely dinner.   That was the end of dining at our preferred hour and changed all bookings to 5:00.  Still wasn't 100% but much better.  

[cbr663]

I will echo the same comments as others - the experience varies from ship to ship and even from sailing to sailing.  

 

We sailed twice on the Koningsdam last year.  On the first cruise we went to the PG for dinner and we didn't have any complaint regarding portion size (however, a couple more asparagus spears wouldn't sink the ship 🤣), but the waiter did forget my dessert order.

 

One the second cruise we decided we would venture back for lunch.  A very different crew.  We had originally booked 2 lunches in the PG and the first experience was so poor that we cancelled the second reservation.  Portions were small, food items were poorly prepared and the service wasn't great at all.

 

Our experience has been you roll the dice with speciality dining on HAL.  I will state though that in the past we have always had exceptional service in the Tamarind Restaurant.  We do find the current Tamarind is a shadow of what it was and overall not very appealing anymore.  If you can find a meal that you think you would enjoy I feel pretty confident that you will have a wonderful experience at Tamarind.

[CruiserBruce]

If it wasn't something resembling 15 ounces, did you say anything at the time?

[Navybikermom]

I usually order something other than beef at the Pinnacle. The lamb is good and so is the vegetarian option (can’t recall what it is called). I can get decent steak at home so I don’t usually order it at a restaurant. I had some of the Pinnacle steaks when I first started cruising in 2013 but the quality went downhill after the first time. 

[Bogie Man]

37 minutes ago, CruiserBruce said:

If it wasn't something resembling 15 ounces, did you say anything at the time?

No I didn’t say anything, we were 3 couples dining together and didn’t want to dampen the experience for everyone. However we were on a 27 day cruise and had planned on dining at the PG a few times. Needless to say we never went back.

[Roz]

I've never been to a restaurant on land or at sea where I had to ask for extra mashed potatoes 🥔.  Ridiculous.  One of the cheapest things on the menu. 

[Bogie Man]

47 minutes ago, Roz said:

I've never been to a restaurant on land or at sea where I had to ask for extra mashed potatoes 🥔.  Ridiculous.  One of the cheapest things on the menu. 

My thought at the time was it must be because this was part of our Have it All specialty dining credit, and therefore “free” as far as the PG staff was concerned.

[Toofarfromthesea]

6 hours ago, Mary229 said:

The Pinnacle experience varies widely ship to ship as do all of the specialty restaurants.  I am just off the Koningsdam and the Pinnacle sparkled in every aspect. I particularly like lunch at the Pinnacle but did also have dinner.  On the other hand I thoroughly enjoyed my dinner on the Noordam’s Canaletto and was very disappointed on the Koningsdam.  

 

On a recent cruise I had 2 dinners and one lunch at the Pinnacle Grill.  I didn't notice any difference between the HIA dinner and the full pay dinner.  Interestingly while I was content with all three meals, in each case my best bite was the starter.  I got the hanging bacon and while the presentation was kind of hokey the bacon was delicious.  My other 2 starters were the steak tartare and the beef carpaccio, both favorite dishes of mine and both of which were thoroughly enjoyable.

 

That pattern continued.  I was early for my Tamarind reservation so as I sat in the bar area waiting I ordered tuna sashimi and panko asparagus from Namu and they were both excellent.  Then for my starter at Tamarind I got the Thai beef salad and while I am neither a big Thai food eater nor salad eater I ate every bit of it.  The thinly sliced medium rare beef was very tender and the salad part was fresh, crisp, and very nicely dressed.

[Bogie Man]

4 minutes ago, Toofarfromthesea said:

 

On a recent cruise I had 2 dinners and one lunch at the Pinnacle Grill.  I didn't notice any difference between the HIA dinner and the full pay dinner.  Interestingly while I was content with all three meals, in each case my best bite was the starter.  I got the hanging bacon and while the presentation was kind of hokey the bacon was delicious.  My other 2 starters were the steak tartare and the beef carpaccio, both favorite dishes of mine and both of which were thoroughly enjoyable.

 

That pattern continued.  I was early for my Tamarind reservation so as I sat in the bar area waiting I ordered tuna sashimi and panko asparagus from Namu and they were both excellent.  Then for my starter at Tamarind I got the Thai beef salad and while I am neither a big Thai food eater nor salad eater I ate every bit of it.  The thinly sliced medium rare beef was very tender and the salad part was fresh, crisp, and very nicely dressed.

Given the choice for a “free” dinner, would you choose the Tamarid or Pinnacle?

[Toofarfromthesea]

31 minutes ago, Bogie Man said:

Given the choice for a “free” dinner, would you choose the Tamarid or Pinnacle?

 

I'd say Pinnacle.  The steak tartare was my favorite starter and the Pinnacle menu had more items I could see myself ordering, as I am not that much of an adventurous eater.

[crystalspin]

1 hour ago, Bogie Man said:

Given the choice for a “free” dinner, would you choose the Tamarid or Pinnacle?

Do they give you the choice? Tamarind for me. Much better service and atmosphere. Pinnacle Grill on the newer ships just makes me think of Denny's with tablecloths and cloth napkins. Now, on the Zaandam/Volendam PG was like dining in the library of a mansion...