Specialty Restaurants

[Cruisingirl2012]

Honest opinion here, are they worth booking? In all our cruises we have never booked them for the reason of all the food venues included. We have some OBC this time and might consider to try one. Which is best on the Eclipse?

[chemmo]

50 minutes ago, Cruisingirl2012 said:

Honest opinion here, are they worth booking? In all our cruises we have never booked them for the reason of all the food venues included. We have some OBC this time and might consider to try one. Which is best on the Eclipse?

You have a few great choices on Eclipse…

 

Murano. French style, feels really special, great for a special occasion, service classic but not stuffy, never had a bad meal here. Choose an option that is prepared tableside.

 

Tuscan Grill. Think Italian steak and pasta. More relaxed but still lovely. Enhanced by the floor to ceiling wake views…We tend to book early to watch the coastline disappear and slowly watch day turn to night…Quite magical.

 

Le Petit Chef is fun rather than fine dining in my opinion although the food is OK. Think of a show where everyone is served at the same time. If you have never done this before you will love the experience. First time we giggled, second time the novelty had gone…

 

Sushi on Five. Lots more than Sushi. Great for a relaxing lunch. Ideal on boarding day if you want to simply unwind and not use the buffet. To me it doesn’t feel as ‘special’ as the other restaurants but I don’t mean that as a criticism…Sometimes one just wants a relaxing meal and to me it meets that brief. I don’t know if it is just us but we tend to find service here quite slow…Again not a criticism…nice not to rush.

 

In addition to the MDR and the speciality restaurants don’t forget the buffet in the evening. They have a wide selection, the seating area tends to have lots of spaces…after a busy port day nothing nicer than having a browse around, putting a lot of mismatched items on your plate and simply indulging.

 

Sincere best wishes for a wonderful cruise!

[leaveitallbehind]

We have been cruising for 32 years when originally there were no specialty restaurants and IMO the MDR menu offerings were quite good.  Over they years the specialty restaurants evolved as an upscale alternative to the MDR.  Eventually, resulting primarily from cost controls IMO the overall variety and quality of the MDR declined and the offerings of the SR's gained in popularity.  Also over time our preferences changed as well from originally only dining in the MDR, to occasionally adding a SR or two to the experience to now dining primarily in the SR's.  So to us, the included venues provide a more basic offering of meals, which is not a criticism, but for our preferences the SR's are far mor attractive and are now just included as part of our cruising budget.

 

That being said, on Eclipse Murano tops the list, le Petite Chef is good as well and fun for the occasion, but not one we repeat frequently.  Tuscan is also good and we include Sushi on Five usually for a lunch as well as a dinner.  JMO.

[39august]

I love Sushi on 5, as there is a lot more there than sushi and we find the two of us can eat there for about $60. The other venues are more expensive. 

[PTC DAWG]

I enjoy them all..

[TeeRick]

1 hour ago, Cruisingirl2012 said:

Honest opinion here, are they worth booking? In all our cruises we have never booked them for the reason of all the food venues included. We have some OBC this time and might consider to try one. Which is best on the Eclipse?

I agree with others here- try Murano.

[jelayne]

Murano is our choice.  Over the years we have had more disappointing meals at Tuscan than good meals so we stopped going about 2 years ago. 

[mrgabriel]

My husband would pick Murano every time but honestly, I don't really care for it and prefer Tuscan. I’m allergic to shellfish and prefer steak over fish so the menu is really limited for me. I would eat at Tuscan more than once on a cruise and he would eat at Murano every night. We did eat at Le Petit Chef once and really enjoyed it. It was a surprisingly good meal. We had expected that it would be geared towards kids but nope, good adult dinner. 
 

That said, if we had OBC we would use it for specialty dining over anything else. Check the menus to see what looks tasty to you and pick one. 

[gfkcruiser]

Finally did Le Petite Chef on the Beyond.  Was the worst of all my specialty dinners.  The other three choices are good.  Tuscan is my favorite.