Food on the Summit

[Squirtreena]

anyone have reviews for this...? lunch/dinner?? do they have lobster night? i think every boat does that...

[shofer]

Lobster night is the last formal night. I found the food good to excellent and we were on a 14 day cruise. There was a version of prime rib or filet, etc every noc but the other choices were always good. No one of the 8 of us ever sent anything back.

 

The dinner menus were the same as I recalled from our last 14 day cruise with some small changes. The Spring Roll now looked like a real eggroll and not a few veggies in a plain wrapper.

 

Since 2 of my cousins are very picky eaters, they kept the waiter and his assistant on his toes throughout our cruise. They were very accommodating even to offering Thousand Island dressing at every dinner since that was the only one they would eat! A few times they tried the chicken breast with baked potato and it was always presented as nicely as the other meals.

 

Karl commented that they really earned their tips with our group. Marilyn asked for corn a few days before the end of the cruise and after that we had corn on the cob each day. Thank goodness she didn’t ask for it on the second day or we would have been eating corn for the whole cruise!

[tomatopa]

we loved out food on the Summit. they had the best deserts and the best fresh berries...had them everynight at dinner. everything was outstanding and great service. if there is something you want...ask and you will probably get it if it is possible.

[Squirtreena]

thank you...i appreciate your responses.

[jaynak]

This is very long... but you did ask!! (this is taken from my review which I haven't posted yet)

 

FOOD - Room Service

Everyone asks about the food on a cruise, so I’ll get right to the point. We ordered room service every morning for our 'pre-breakfast-breakfast' (juice and coffee, - ok a Danish too). It arrived promptly every time, was hot, cold or however it was meant to be! Don’t order anything else for breakfast though! Twice we tried the eggs, bacon etc and they were absolutely terrible. My parents had the very same experience. The eggs were in a puddle of sludge and the bacon in a slick of grease. Really gross. After a workout we would rush to the buffet before 10:00 when the waffle station closed. These waffles are melt in your mouth fantastic. With cherries and yogurt, it is divine. My family loved the fresh danish, made to order omelettes, and the fresh fruit but the rest was fairly ordinary buffet fair. What more can you ask for though than fresh waffles and fresh omelettes? My only complaint is the coffee. It was hard to get it hot and those dumb little cups are useless. I suggest bringing your own ‘full size’ insulated coffee mug. The room service coffee and juice was far superior to the buffet’s.

 

LUNCH BUFFET– we intended to try the dining room for lunch, but honestly the buffet was lovely for lunch and therefore we never made it to the dining room. On Royal Carrib. we were sick of the buffet almost right away and ended up eating most of our meals in the dining room. Not so on the Summit! There was a daily theme buffet down one side of the buffet and a usual lunch buffet down the other side. Some of the themes I remember were, Mexican, American, Oriental, and Hawaiian. The Pasta Bar kept calling my name but I never made it. I did however, make it to the Home Made Pizza Station, the Sandwich Deli and the Caesar Salad Station – no complaints, except that I gained 7 lbs in 14 days... shameful I admit.

 

SPA CAFÉ – at the THALASSOTHERAPY POOL is amazing. Apparently the staff from the Normandy work there during the day (??). If only I had eaten there all the time. The food is low fat, low cal and amazing. It is presented beautifully and couldn’t be yummier. The only problem is that there aren’t very many tables to sit at so sometimes you end up wandering quite a ways with your tray. The coffee there is terrible though – don’t bother.

 

THE NORMANDY is the specialty restaurant. It costs $30 each, and you need to make reservations – DON’T miss it. Much has been said about the goat cheese soufflé which I would never have even taken a second glance at had it not been for cruise critic’s high recommendation – well it is all it is praised to be. We were surprised with a lovely smoked salmon and caviar treat to start with, then the soufflé, then my mom and I shared the Chateau Briand – perfect. My dh and pop had the lamb which they said was the best they had ever had. Then the cheese course, then the dessert. We went for the six mini desserts. I wish we could have just taken a ‘doggy’ bag but that just didn’t seem right! We were soooo stuffed. THEN, came the petit fours. We did not do the wine pairing which is 5 glasses of wine (each) to go along with your meal for another $30 and is a ‘terrific value’ they said. While I’m sure it is great value, I would not be able to find my room afterwards if I had 5 glasses of wine, value or not!

 

THE COSMOPOLITAN DINING ROOM. We were at a table for 6 and were ironically seated with Joe and Judy (The Tomatopa's themselves) the very best couple ever to sit with – we ‘knew’ them from CruiseCritic so could hardly believe that with 2300 others on the ship we were seated with them! I did love a table for 6 although we had asked for a table for 8. Conversation was intimate and service was terrific. Our meal however always seemed to be really, really slow coming and dinner took 2 ½ hours every night. That was fine being we were in good company but if you were anxious to get on with the evening you might have been become annoyed. Celebrity Secrets Thread suggests many hot tips that we enjoyed: Shrimp cocktails nightly and a plate of blue cheese to go along with salads every night (thanks a lot Judy, now we are all addicted!! ;) … fresh berries with dessert every night, Crème Brulee kindly made special just for us, and‘plain’salmon for me one night when I just didn’t feel like anything else on the menu. I didn’t feel that meals were superior to Royal C but certainly they were great. I did get a little tired of saucy things but that is the ‘problem’ with a two week cruise – such a problem to have! Desserts were fine – the outstanding menu item was the Crème Brulee. However, the Cherries Jubilee was just heated up Cherry pie filling! Not to complain though, we waddled away from the table every night and many times our waiter insisted that we ‘try’ several desserts!

Meat is on the rare side so order accordingly, pork was very tough both times I had it, salmon was delish, chicken ordinary, lamb gross (but my husband absolutely loves lamb and said it was amazing!!!). Other fish was always moist and tender. Soups were hot and tasty – however is ‘minted pea’ not a little weird? The cold soups seemed like melted ice cream or like ‘juice’ to me but each to their own. The salad dressings are great, especially ‘Celebrity’ dressing. My dh just likes a plate of lettuce which he then doctored it up with blue cheese and dressing. They brought this for him each night.

 

COVA CAFÉ is a lovely coffee ‘house’ where the string quartet plays and where you have to ‘pay’ for your coffee. A latte is $2.50 and comes with a yummy wrapped chocolate. Although it seemed rather dumb to pay for coffee when I could walk a ways and get one for free elsewhere, as I have mentioned it was hard to get a good cup of coffee on this ship, and this was good coffee. Plus there was the lovely ambiance. In the afternoon there are beautiful cookies, which are complimentary (and pasteries in the mornings). Just before dinner they pass around hor d’oerves as well (sometimes). Do not miss the quartet.

 

CASUAL DINING is more than it sounds – it is something you make ‘reservations’ for and takes place in the buffet area, however you sit at white tablecloth covered tables and have your order taken. It is a 4 course meal and 3 different menu’s rotate. This was my BEST meal. I had the salmon dinner and it was marvelous. I would have eaten here everynight but our dinner companions Joe and Judy were so lovely we hated to miss them in the main dining room and our waiter and assis waiter were wonderful too. The dress code is ‘casual’ (surprise, surprise) and therefore this venue is very popular after a day in port. Our day at Kauai was followed by a Formal Night – rather a nuisance if you ask me – so casual dining was booked right up. Call a few hours ahead and remember to let them know in the main dining room that you won’t be there.

 

That's all folks... Jayna K