Favorite Specialty Restaurants On The Jewel not to be missed

[Dancinfeet]

Hi

 

What specialty restaurants did you like the best on the Jewel and also what is the cover charge?

 

What are the restaurantrs that you need a reservation for that do not require a cover charge?

 

I plan on locking in any reservations as soon as we get on board which with a little luck will be before 12:00 on March 4th.

 

Looking forward to having a little fun in the warm sun..It's been frigid in Michigan. Up until now we have a very mild winter. Hopefully this deep freeze will get out of here soon!!

[iluvcruzn]

Le Bistro is by far my favorite restaurant on the Jewel. I think the cover charge is like $15, but I could be wrong. Le Bistro serves French food, and has really amazing Escargot and the Mushroom soup served in a sourdough breadbowl is to die for.

 

Cagneys is also really good. It's a typical steakhouse, but it's really good. I think the cover charge for this one is $15 as well.

 

Tangos and Mama's Italian Kitchen do not have a cover charge, but do require reservations and are both pretty good. I prefer Mama's over Tangos, but that's my personal opinion.

 

If you have any other questions about the Jewel, please just ask. It's my favorite ship, and is absolutely gorgeous.

[Dancinfeet]

Thank you for info on the restaurants. How was the food in general on the Jewel? Maybe you could tell me something about the spa. I think I read it was $10 per day to use the facilities. Exactly what do you get to use for that price. I know the other services cost.

 

This will be our 6th cruise with NCL, but this will be the first time on the Jewel. It looks like a beautiful ship. We especially like the freestyle. This time we are going totally resort casual.

[newmexicoNita]

Thank you for info on the restaurants. How was the food in general on the Jewel? Maybe you could tell me something about the spa. I think I read it was $10 per day to use the facilities. Exactly what do you get to use for that price. I know the other services cost.

 

This will be our 6th cruise with NCL, but this will be the first time on the Jewel. It looks like a beautiful ship. We especially like the freestyle. This time we are going totally resort casual.

I beleive the spa is $15 per day or $60 for the week.

 

As for the food, overall we found it to be better than average; the buffet was vey typical; not great but certainly easy to manipulate and a good place to grab a sandwhich of whatever. Of course I love the eggs benedict in the dining room but they are not offered every day. You need to check.

 

Our favorite restaurant (specialty) has to be Le Bistro, but DH did love Cagneys. For a restaurant without a charge I would head for Blue Lagoon for lunch, a late snack or whatever. They have the best fish and chips, yummy buffalo wings and DH says the best hamburgers he has eaten on a ship. We also loved mama's kitchen (no charge as well, but you do need reservation) the only less than good food we had: 1-I had to send a steak back one night because it was not even medium and I had asked for rare: well, I guess the cook didn't appreciate me cause the next one was actually raw. I wasn't exactly thrilled that night: then the last formal optional night DH and anothe couple we were with ordered duck: as we know duck is usually quite fatty, but when he is so fat that the grease is running off the plate it is time for a diet. NMnita

[Cosmopolitan]

Our favorites are LeBistro and Cagneys on the Jewel..(surcharge)...favorite no-charge is Impressions!

 

Mama's..ok if you don't make your own sauce at home.

Good for a change on a longer cruise....otherwise I would skip it.

 

Tango's the same as Mama's though their tapas and Margaritas are good.

 

Food is subjective;)

 

Have a pleasant cruise:) .

[Coastalbreezes]

If you like the Benihana-style cooking, I would add not to miss the Teppanyaki experience. We ate there three times when we were on the Jewel last year. Definitely worth the cover charge and lots of fun as well!

 

We also loved Le Bistro and did not have a great experience at Cagneys (was with my mom and we were virtually ignored the entire time we were there).

TracyE

[newmexicoNita]

Our favorites are LeBistro and Cagneys on the Jewel..(surcharge)...favorite no-charge is Impressions!

 

Mama's..ok if you don't make your own sauce at home.

Good for a change on a longer cruise....otherwise I would skip it.

 

Tango's the same as Mama's though their tapas and Margaritas are good.

 

Food is subjective;)

 

Have a pleasant cruise:) .

I guess we really liked Mama's cause we didn't order a pasta with sause dish. I had Salmon and antipasto (spelling?) I don't remember what DH had. Of course he loves to eat so much he would have thought it was great if it was Ragu. LOL

[rio123]

Just got back from my Jan. 28th Jewel cruise to –15 below zero Wisconsin weather.

This is my mini review.

My wife ,son ,daughter in law, daughter, son in law celebrated m our 37th anniversary by me reaching deep and booking one of the Garden Villa’s. The cabin and the experience is everything that you would imagine and well worth the one time charge! Because we were in the GV I will limit my comments to the other areas of the ship.

Dinning:

We only ate in the main restaurants for lunch one day. We went to every alternate dinning room and thus have opinions on all of them.

Cagney’s: We ate here twice. Stick with the steaks and not the fish. All the steaks were great and between us we tried just about all of them from the small filet to the 24 oz Porterhouse. The crab cakes were good the oyster’s Rockefeller bad. The Caesar Salad was excellent. The Banana’s Foster is also wonderful! Service and atmosphere was top shelf. The clam chowder was excellent the lobster bisque was not good!

Chin Chin: Ate here the first night and we all had good meals along with sushi that was good. If you like sushi you have to try their GODZILLA roll. A little disappointed that they allowed men in shorts, another guy in a muscle shirt, and a guy wearing a baseball cap the whole time for dinner. Since it was our first night and not some big night out for us we just brushed it aside and enjoyed the dinner.

Teppenyaki: This is the tableside cooking for a group of eight. We had a great time with the cook and the food was excellent. This is a lot of fun if you have a group but don’t know what it would be like with 6 people that you do not know. We had a great time and my daughter in law thought it was the best meal she had on the cruise.

Bistro: We went here for our anniversary dinner. The staff sang, “let me call you sweetheart” and helped make the night! All of the couples in our group choose Chateau Briand (sp) for two and all of us thought that it was absolutely excellent, Daughter and son in law went back later in week to get the same meal again. Escargot was excellent as was the Caesar salad. Desserts were wonderful.

Mama’s Kitchen: We did not go here until the last night and we all wished we had gone earlier because we would have gone back. The antipasto was great and the Gorgonzola sauce on the penne pasta was phenomenal if you are a cheese lover. We tried some inventive pizza combos and loved them all. This should be a must go to dinning experience and besides that the price is right NO ADDITIONAL COVER,

Tappas: DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME Food and service were terrible we went to the buffet after we left the place.

Blue Lagoon: Went here for lunch one day. Service was bad but potato skins and wings were good. If you skip this place you will not miss a lot.

Garden Café: We ate lunch here almost everyday and always found something that we all liked at the buffet stations or we grabbed a burger or hot dog from the Grill.

BREAKFAST: We had breakfast served everyday by the butler in the GV and loved every minute of the indulgence.

Entertainment: We only made it to two shows The crew show and the Cirque de Sol show. Both were excellent with the Cirque show the best I have ever seen on a cruise ship. We listened to a few good karaoke people and enjoyed the piano players and entertainers at various bars throughout the cruise. We tend to spend way to much time in the casino!

FORMAL NIGHT: Since I started a thread before we left on my disappointment at not being able to rent a tux I have the following comments: Many people were “dressed” on both optional formal nights and I also noticed that several people chose to “freestyle” dress on other nights. It was obvious that the staff is relaxing the jeans and shorts not allowed at dinner rule because we saw people every night that were in jeans or shorts in the optional dinning rooms.

Hopes this helps others and I will be glad to try and answer any questions.

[NoVaCruiser60]

Cagneys is very good, as is Le Bistro, but my family preferred Chin Chin. We ate at specialty restaurants every nite on our recent cruise, and Chin Chin is the one we ate at twice. Why?

We live in a major metro area, so its not hard to find a great Steakhouse or French restaurant, but if you go to a "pan-Asian" restaurant, they generally dont do any of the many and varied Asian cuisines well. But at Chin Chin, they seem to have mastered everything from Korean BBQ to Thai lemon grass to Beijing Duck to Japanese Miso soup. And, there's always the sushi option!

The cover was 12.50 each, half price before 1830.

As to the spa, I recall it was $63 for the week. You get access to the separate mens/womens areas with sauna, hot tub, lockers, showers, hot/cold plunge, and a unisex area with the heated stone recliners and a hydrotherapy pool (think a jacuzzi with a built in recliner).