Dawn Restaurants

[hdavidson]

Tell me more....

what are they? what do they serve? which are additional costs? what be the ONE that you would choose to eat at?

[Globaliser]

what are they? what do they serve? which are additional costs?

And, most important, what cannot be revealed by a quick use of the search function?

[Planer's Edge]

And, most important, what cannot be revealed by a quick use of the search function?

 

Garycarla, did you change your screen name? :rolleyes:

 

PE

[bakerintn]

As of October, 2008:

Venetian Main Restaurant (Main Dining Room) B L D

Cuisine: Continental

Surcharge: No

Reservations Required: No

 

Aqua Main Restaurant (Main Dining Room) D

Cuisine: Continental

Surcharge: No

Reservations Required: No

 

Impressions of Italy D

Cuisine: Italian

Surcharge: Yes $10

Reservations Required: yes

 

Bamboo - A Taste of Asia D

Cuisine: Japanese, Thai, Chinese (Sushi, Sashimi, Teppanyaki)

Surcharge: Yes, $15.00 per person ~ $25 for Teppanyaki ~ Sushi has extra charge too

Reservations Required: Yes

 

Le Bistro French Restaurant D

Cuisine: French

Surcharge: Yes, $15 per person

Reservations Required: Yes

 

Cagney's Steakhouse D

Cuisine: Steak

Surcharge: Yes, $20 per person

Reservations Required: Yes

 

Salsa D

Cuisine: Mexican, Tex-Mex Tapas Bar

Surcharge: Yes $10 (Tapas Bar is "free")

Reservations Required: Yes

 

Garden Cafe/Kids' Cafe B L D

Cuisine: Assorted Buffet, Food Stations, Kid-Sized Buffet

Surcharge: No

Reservations Required: No

 

Blue Lagoon B L D

Cuisine: Food Court, Grill

Surcharge: No

Reservations Required: No

Hours 24 Hours

Topside Grill L

Hamburgers, fries, pretzels, hot dogs, etc

Surcharge: No

Lunch

Some Lunchtime poolside grill / buffets on sea days - no surcharge

Room Service 24 hours - menu in cabin - tip for server recommended

[hdavidson]

Thank you barkerintn.... was looking for that info as well as suggestion of what people thought of the restaurants!

 

When I did use the SEARCH FUNCTION as previous suggested, I got 10 pages of anything that mentioned dawn.... restaurants.... dining rooms.... etc, (including whether or not DH had to wear shoes...)BUT THANKS FOR THE SUGGESTION:D

[hdavidson]

And, most important, what cannot be revealed by a quick use of the search function?

BTW...

I guess you hit the 10,000 mark by smart responses :D

[AdoptAtty]

From my review on the Jan 31st Dawn sailing:

 

Dining

Did I say I love good food? I might be considered picky because I like good food, but I am not a food snob... love to go under the bridge to Paradise Island in the Bahamas and eat as the locals do at one of those shacks, it doesn’t have to be fancy or expensive, just good. I also eat many different things... raw oysters, escargot, foie gras, but you can keep plain ole’ liver and other organ meats, the really weird stuff like fresh still beating frog heart, oh and parsnips... other than that, I’ll probably try it. (The one thing I do know how to say in Vietnamese is "No dog meat.")

After reading and rereading the boards I was still a bit confused about reservations. I was relieved to know I could rely on our concierge, Ryan, to make all of our dinner reservations for us. That wouldn’t be worth the extra money for a suite, but it sure was nice.

Before we left we had decided to try all the specialty restaurants we could, and do the "optional formal night" in one of the Main dining rooms. Because the DH’s weren’t into sushi, we knew we would not do a "sushi only" meal. We ended up not trying Le Bistro, so I can’t comment on that from personal experience.

Venitian - seats 472 persons, Deck 6, no cover charge

We had one dinner and one breakfast here.

We sat by the back windows for our dinner which was nice. I think it might be nicer at lunch or breakfast, when it is daylight. I ordered a scallop appetizer, and the beef wellington and lobster for my main course. The scallop appetizer was not bad, but honestly I’ve never seen scallops so small in my whole life. I do not believe they were as large as an eraser tip on one of those fat pencils some children use when they are learning to write. The beef wellington was decent, the meat was tender. Unfortunately the lobster tails were highly over cooked. We did not have desert because we were in a hurry to see a show. The service was good. We had let our waiter know about our plans to go to the show and he made sure we were out in time.

Our breakfast was fine, the service was a bit disorganized. The maitre d’hotel from Impressions was working in Venitian this morning and she went out of her way to make sure we were taken care of.

Aqua - seats 344persons, Deck 6, no cover

This is the smaller of the two main dining rooms. We did not eat here

Cagney’s - Deck 13, seats 132 persons, $20 pp cover charge for dinner. Serves breakfast and lunch for suite holders.

We ate breakfast at Cagny’s twice. The service was very good. I particularly enjoyed the French Toast made with Challah (egg) bread and the Crab Cake Benedict and Eggs Benedict. We were in the room adjacent to the Star Bar, which has many widows and is full of natural light.

We ate lunch here after embarkation. The service was little bit disorganized this afternoon, but the food was good.

We ate one dinner here, and other than the deserts and the service, it was a bit disappointing. The lobster bisque was good. I ordered a filet medium and lobster tail for dinner. I was surprised to see the filet as it was only about an inch thick. It was certainly acceptable, but nothing I could cut with a fork. The lobster tail was appropriately cooked, but completely flavorless. I ate about 1/4 of each and gave the rest to my dinner companions. The deserts were another story. I thought our waiter did a fabulous job of preparing the bananas foster and the kaluah coffee creme brulee was one of my all time favorites on this ship. Our waiter did an excellent job and the maitre d’hotel was very attentive.

LeBistro - Deck 6, seats 90 persons, French, cover $15pp

We did not dine at this restaurant.

Salsa - deck 8, Tex Mex Tapas, seats 112 persons, cover $10pp

We started off dinner on a great note, good margaritas! We also enjoyed the chips and salsa. For dinner I shared the il popo, which was beef, chicken, pineapple, red pepper and onion cooked on a strange contraption, almost like kabobs, and served with tortillas, cheese, salsa, guacamole and beans. The two of us weren’t able to eat all of it. The men had a burrito and the lobster tacos. I understand they were both good, maybe the tacos being better than the average burrito.

Impressions of Italy - Deck 6, seats 198 persons, Italian, $10pp

I was surprised to find one of my favorites in this restaurants, the pizza. It was so good our butler brought one to us the following evening, along with my favorite desert from Impressions, the ricotta cheesecake. I particularly liked the Sierra Nevada pizza which had artichoke hearts, black olives, mozzarella, mushrooms, pesto, bresaola and arugula.

I had Fettuccine Alfredo for my pasta course. The pasta itself was excellent, but the sauce was a bit disappointing. It also seemed as if the pasta has sat with the sauce on it longer than it should have, and was not immediately served.

My main course was Veal Marsala and I had the polenta substituted for the potatoes. The veal was very good as was the polenta. I tried the lobster ravioli someone else ordered and was disappointed in it. It certainly was not what I was expecting as one of their featured dishes.

Another of my ship board favorites was the Torta di Ricotta, a baked ricotta cheesecake with pine nut Florentine (much like pine nut brittle).

The maitre d’hotel, Jenenia, did an excellent job and was very personable.

 

Bamboo - A Taste of Asian - Deck 7, seats 112 persons, $15pp

Bamboo was a pleasant surprise, so much so this was the only restaurant we had dinner at two different nights. In addition to Bamboo, there is also the sushi bar and teppanyaki room which we did not try. Sushi was available as either an appetizer or entree at Bamboo.

All four of us agreed that the spare ribs appetizer was outstanding! The first dinner I was the only one to order them. I shared them with our group and our waiter was kind enough to bring me a second order, which I also shared. For our second dinner, everyone ordered their own appetizer of ribs! I also particularly enjoyed the hot and sour soup. My friends enjoyed the egg drop soup, which was a bit unusual, almost like a corn chowder. I would rate the crab wantons average and the spring roll good.

Garden Cafe (Buffet) - Deck 12

We ate one lunch here and the first night when everyone was not feeling well I got a few things to bring back to the cabin. Both times I had a little pasta with sauce from the pasta station. They seemed to have a good selection of items and what I ate was good.

Blue Lagoon - Deck 7, just off the Atrium

While I’ve read a lot of complaints about service, the one meal we had there had decent service. The tomato soup and the wings were good as I had read.

Bimini Bar & Grill - pool side, Deck 14

We never ate here

 

To read my entire review: Dawn Review Jan. 31st, the Suite Life - Cruise Critic Message Boards

[Mooder]

And, most important, what cannot be revealed by a quick use of the search function?

 

Thank you barkerintn.... was looking for that info as well as suggestion of what people thought of the restaurants!

 

When I did use the SEARCH FUNCTION as previous suggested, I got 10 pages of anything that mentioned dawn.... restaurants.... dining rooms.... etc, (including whether or not DH had to wear shoes...)BUT THANKS FOR THE SUGGESTION:D

 

And so often the search function doesn't work at all. This is what we're here for! :cool:

[Globaliser]

I guess you hit the 10,000 mark by smart responses :D

No need to guess. Just use the search function and have a look at how many of my posts are useful, and how many express extreme frustration at yet another lazy thread.

 

One search for two words: "Dawn restaurants" in thread titles only yields the following results, all on the first page, all in the last year:-

Dawn RestaurantsDawn-specialty restaurants -$?restaurants on DawnQuestion about Dawn's restaurantsRestaurants on the DawnDawn RestaurantsRestaurants on the DawnRestaurants on the Dawn - "at-a-glance list!" UPDATED!Free restaurants on DawnDawn Specitalty RestaurantsDawn Speciality Restaurantsspecialty restaurants on DawnSpecialty Restaurants on the DawnDawn Restaurants Advice PleaseDawn - Restaurants - charges (?)what are the Dawn's charge restaurants?

[cruzcntrl]

Now that you know all of the pricing, if you were to eat in only one restaurant, I would pick Cagney's. It might be the most expensive up charge restaurant, but it was the best meal we had on board. And one of the top 10-20 restaurant meals I've had in my life.

[Don Haynes]

And if you can't remember the price or the restaurants and what type of food they serve, its listed daily in the Freestyle Daily. Their opening and closing times, whether they are surcharged or not, and what type of meals are served. All on paper daily.

[pixiedustdawn]

You may even find a 2 for 1 special in the daily. If they are offering it.

 

Cagney's is our number one choice.

 

Wasn't thrilled with Bamboo. Maybe because we have so many excellent chinese restaurants we can eat at back home.

 

We also like the ambiance of Impressions of Italy.

 

Anytime I don't have to shop for, cook, or clean up after a meal, that meal is fantastic!

 

Enjoy!

 

Dawn

[CaribQween]

We just got off the February 14-21 sailing of the Dawn. This was our very first cruise. We had picked NCL mainly because of the Freestyle 2.0 and the anytime dining along with the specialty restaurants. During the week, we ate at Le Bistro, Cagney's, Impressions and Salsa and then decided to pick the one we liked the best to eat at our last night. We loved the food at all of these restaurants and of course it was very different at each one. We also loved the ambience at each restaurant and it too was very different at each one.

 

Le Bistro had a very quiet, reserved atmosphere with an extra added touch of elegance due to the 4 original masterpieces which definitely added to the whole experience for us. The food was over-the-top. I started with the Asparagus Gratin and the French Onion Soup and my husband had the Cream of Mushroom soup in the sourdough bread bowl. As entrees, I had the beef tenderloin and he had the salmon. We finished it all off with the chocolate fondue for two which has always been highly recommended on these boards and for good reason. The entire meal was perfection and the whole evening was very romantic and thoroughly enjoyable. We finished it all off with a stroll around the ship.

 

We were staying in a suite so we had the perk of enjoying Cagney's for breakfast and lunch as well as for dinner. We ordered breakfast in our room every single morning from Cagney's and absolutely loved it. We had the French Toast every morning with bacon, sausage, and fresh fruit and it honestly seemed to be the best french toast we'd ever had. We were of course eating it staring out at the beautiful blue ocean as we pulled into new ports each morning, so I'm sure that may have added a little extra something to it too. We did go down to Cagney's one day for lunch also but we were touring the ports on most of the other days so didn't have the opportunity to eat lunch on the ship most days. I must say that the day we did have lunch at Cagney's, I had the chilled banana soup and it was really very good. I had heard so much about NCL's chilled fruit soups and this was absolutely one of those that lived up to the reputation. It was definitely the best part of the whole meal.

 

We found that when we went to Cagney's for dinner, it was a whole different experience than it had been for lunch. For one thing, the lunch section was just a small area of the restaurant and for dinner we were in the main dining area which was much nicer. The staff definitely made you feel like you were in a fine restaurant. And, we absolutely, loved, loved, loved the food. The waiter told us up front that the chef's recommendation was the Surf and Turf and we decdied to go with that since we were leaning in that direction anyway. It was the 5 oz. filet and lobster tail with drawn butter. It was delicious. And like in a fine restaurant, the waiter asked if we would like him to take the lobster out of the shell for us which we did. As sides, I had the creamed spinach and the potatoes gratin. The spinach was not overyly creamed which is a good thing in my book, and the potatoes were to die for (I secretly wished I had more but I was so full already anyway). For dessert, my husband had the NY cheesecake and I had the bananas foster flambe which were both very yummy. Another nice touch to the evening was that the staff would provide a small cake and song for any special ocassions such as birthdays or anniversaries. They sang "Let me call you Sweetheart" a couple of times and they really sounded great with harmonies and all. It certainly was never an interruption to our evening but rather a nice added touch to see the look on the different couples' faces that they were singing to.

 

The night we went to Impressions, we weren't honestly expecting too much because we hadn't really heard too much about that restuarant. We were pleasantly surprised however at how nice it was. The restaurant itself was quite a bit bigger than both Le Bistro and Cagney's. The atmostphere wasn't quite as intimate and seemed like a nice place for both couples and larger groups. The decor was very nice with some unexpectedly nice artwork. The quality of the food was a very nice surprise. My husband had the lobster ravioli which he had never had before but he wanted to try something new and he was extremely impressed. Once again, I went with the chef's recommendation which was the Osso Bucco (veal shanks). I was originally going to have the cheese tortellini so they gave me a side of that also. I can honestly say I've never had meat that tender anywhere in my life. My only regret about getting both the osso bucco and the side of pasta was that it was just way too much for me and I didn't want to waste any food. I was however able to get a little help from my husband so it worked out well. It's always nice when you get different things and then can share to taste more items from the menu. I had the cheesecake and my husband had the cannoli for dessert which were both very good but would have been better had we not already been so stuffed.

 

The night we went to Salsa, we went to dinner a little earlier than we had previous nights so it was still light out. We asked for a table for two against the window and we were literally right up against the window and could look straight down at the ocean. It was really nice eating dinner while looking out across the ocean and we loved it. And you have to admit, it's not something you get to do every night. It was a little added touch that really added a lot. We loved the sort of open-air atmosphere there as well since it is part of the atrium, not to mention the stained/painted glass ceilings. The food was very good there also and we had so much I had to ask for them to wrap part of mine up to go. They first brought out chips with 4 sauces: salsa, guacamole, mango chutney and a crab dip. We had both ordered the tortilla soup which was great. Then we ordered a couple of other appetizers to share once again because we wanted to try a few new things. When my shredded beef and bean burrito with rice came, I was already full. But of course, since I could have the waitress pack up half of it, I still was able to have the flan for dessert on top of all of that. It was another great meal that was just a completely different experience from each of the other specialty restaurants we had tried.

 

So, our last night, we had decided to pick our favorite to go to again. However, there was only one problem, we couldn't pick a favorite. We had loved them all for different reasons. We ended up going back to Le Bistro mainly because of the quiet intimate feel of the restaurant and we felt like dressing up and having a romantic dinner for two on our last evening of the cruise. It was almost 10:00 when we got to the restaurant and they were still seating people so we went in. There were two other couples in the restaurant so it was extremely quiet and very relaxed. They never once made us feel like they were waiting for us to finish so they could finish up and close for the evening. We both ended up having the same thing we had the first night we were there which is a testament to how good we thought it was. The Maitre de came over and asked how everything was and said he remembered us being there the first night. We told him we loved it so much that we decided to finish off the cruise there. Since everyone else had left by the time we finished, we were able to walk around and take a closer look at the masterpieces which normally you just get to see from afar. Afterwards, we went for a quiet walk around the ship before bringing to a close what was an absolutely fabulous cruise vacation.

 

There is no question that the fee we paid at each of the specialty restaurants was well worth every penny and we wouldn't think twice about fully recommending all four. On our next visit to the Dawn, we will definitely hit all of them again and we hope to have time to make it to Bamboo and/or the Teppanyaki grill also. The specialty restaurants turned out to be one of the highlights of our cruise. When we were at Cagney's, the photographer took a picture of us which turned out to be very nice and so we were able to purchase it as a little token reminder of a part of the cruise that we truly loved and we're very grateful for that opportunity also.

[mrsdilly54]

Tell me more....

what are they? what do they serve? which are additional costs? what be the ONE that you would choose to eat at?

 

I just got off the Dawn on Saturday. My husband and I ate at Impressions, Aqua, Blue Lagoon, and Le Bistro. Of course we also ate at the Garden Cafe a lot.

In regards to the specialty restaurants, I would recommend Le Bistro. The food was excellent, especially the crepes.

I was not impressed with Impressions. I got the vegetarian meal and it looked as though it had just been heated in the microwave -- it was rubbery, if that makes sense.

I definitely have to say, though, the restaurants with the cover charge definitely give you more than you pay for. Aqua and Venetian were usually very busy because there was no cover charge.

The BBQ at Great Stirrup Cay was good, too.

Have fun on the Dawn! John Ibrahim, the CD, is the BEST!