I have always found the specialty restaurants to be worthwhile. It is equivalent to goingbbto a 4 or 5 star restaurant on land, where you would be charged twice as much. As far as the person who spoke about how cheap pasta is, this wasn't Barilla. When I went to La Cuchina, both on the Jade and the Escape, the pasta was fresh.
We enjoyed our meals, and I did notice they put great ingredients into the meals. Sometimes you feel like they cheap out on the ingredients but on NCL we found it to be 100% worth the charge (if you are willing to pay for it). All around it was a good purchase we thought as well.
I could never be convinced that there is a high priced pasta and can't see using a specialty dinner of about $35 or more on a pizza! Like the Le Bistro with their small portions as well! I have been to Marseille and had bouilabaise freshly made and just could not believe they had what seemed like a sampler plate, not an entrée!
I think we skipped this purchase; we are going a la carte on our cruise in November. Not to sound like bragging, but I make excellent macaroni and gravy at home, so I\we are very picky when it comes to these types of restaurants. ("macaroni & "gravy" is how Italians say it--if it has any meat in it, it's macaroni and gravy; if no meat, then it's sauce). BTW: La Cucina is pronounced La Coo chee na. Another great video!!
Fyi.... Cucina is the Italian word for "KITCHEN " and pronounced "coo-cheena". Btw...Tuscany is in northern Italy. Gnocchi is "nee-o-kee". Tiramisu "teera-me-soo".
@@BeRacks says you! My next door neighbor from firenze would slap you silly! Think the rose tattoo or the bridges of Madison County mama. Pronunciation is everything to Italians. In some cases it's all they got. Same with Spaniards.
La cu chi na (la Cucina) I have been on 4 NCL ships and got one in 2022 coming up and I always get about 4 specialty dinners, but I never felt la cucina was worth using a specialty dining night on. Even teppanyaki is borderline. The ones well worth it are Cagney's and the Brazilian churriscaria. I am going to see what Ocean Blue is like on the Getaway next year though. After my Cruise on the Getaway I can say it was wonderful to be back aboard and cruising, but with so much rough seas and it wither delaying port visits or missing visits altogether like no stop at Great Stirrup Cay or Norfolk and we even got back to NYC an hour late! Glad to see Cagney's Steakhouse has Lobster back on the menu, though when first eating there on the Breakaway it was only a $10 upcharge and now to get the Surf and Turf with a Ribeye and lobster tail adding the lobster was now an upcharge of $25! A little bit too salty, but good! Had a wonderful waitress named Jen who made our dinner extra special The food was cooked exactly as requested!! Another night we ate at Moderno's and our waiter Rick the Marine added a fun experience to all the great food they kept on coming to our table when our card showed GREEN!
Pronounced: La Coo-CHee-na. Pasta is pronounced P-AHH-Stah. Gnocchi is pronounced: Nyo-ki. Caprese is pronunced Cah-Preh-Seh. Tiramisu pronounced: Tea-Ra-Me-Sue. Pana Cotta is pronounced: Pah-Nah-Coh-Tah. Don't forget to roll your Rs too.
I don’t disagree but the food was much better than the main dining rooms from our view vs other cruise lines where the MDR is just as good we didn’t find the same on our NCL sailings.
The Baltic trip is Amazing!!! You get areas that are just hard to goto. Get quality clothes for excellent price in Tallinn plus that curry is amazing but ST. Petersburg couture is nothing like anyplace else.
Yes a lot of the menus will change around based on what available at the local ports and such so menus can very quite a bit even sailing to sailing depending on seasonality
Just got off a two week cruise on the Joy thru Panama. The ship was well laid out and the staff was great. But the food was gross. Bought the dinner package for three meals and the only meal we had that was worth it was at Cagney's and that was wonderful. The Japanese steak house was interesting. The cook asked all of us how we wanted our Filet and there were requests from rare to well done. Will this cook took eight beautiful filets and cut them into cubes and put them in a pile and cooked them. We all got well done filet that was tuff and tasteless. The regular dining rooms were the same food for two weeks NY strip steaks. The big thing that our group found was the food was also cold or luke warm It was a joke between us when we picked a restaurant we would say let's find out which restaurant has the hot plate tonight . I will not be traveling on NCL again not only the food but the experience we had getting on and off the ship.
The desserts are good, we did find the buffer desserts were lacking a bit (for variety) but the desserts everywhere else, main dining rooms, speciality restaurants, etc... were all AMAZING. So great. I mean really who doesn't want to just eat dessert on a cruise!
Very helpful in decision making, thanks Traveling Flamingo.
I have always found the specialty restaurants to be worthwhile. It is equivalent to goingbbto a 4 or 5 star restaurant on land, where you would be charged twice as much. As far as the person who spoke about how cheap pasta is, this wasn't Barilla. When I went to La Cuchina, both on the Jade and the Escape, the pasta was fresh.
We enjoyed our meals, and I did notice they put great ingredients into the meals. Sometimes you feel like they cheap out on the ingredients but on NCL we found it to be 100% worth the charge (if you are willing to pay for it). All around it was a good purchase we thought as well.
I could never be convinced that there is a high priced pasta and can't see using a specialty dinner of about $35 or more on a pizza! Like the Le Bistro with their small portions as well! I have been to Marseille and had bouilabaise freshly made and just could not believe they had what seemed like a sampler plate, not an entrée!
Koocheena is more like it. Remember CI IS CH IN ITALIAN. Thanks!
Thank you. That is a helpful tip. Happy travels 🦩
I think we skipped this purchase; we are going a la carte on our cruise in November.
Not to sound like bragging, but I make excellent macaroni and gravy at home, so I\we are very picky when it comes to these types of restaurants. ("macaroni & "gravy" is how Italians say it--if it has any meat in it, it's macaroni and gravy; if no meat, then it's sauce).
BTW: La Cucina is pronounced La Coo chee na.
Another great video!!
Thanks for the pronunciation tip! So many languages out there to horribly mispronounce :)
Fyi.... Cucina is the Italian word for "KITCHEN " and pronounced "coo-cheena". Btw...Tuscany is in northern Italy. Gnocchi is "nee-o-kee". Tiramisu "teera-me-soo".
Thanks for watching!
no one cares Janice
@@BeRacks says you! My next door neighbor from firenze would slap you silly! Think the rose tattoo or the bridges of Madison County mama. Pronunciation is everything to Italians. In some cases it's all they got. Same with Spaniards.
La cu chi na (la Cucina)
I have been on 4 NCL ships and got one in 2022 coming up and I always get about 4 specialty dinners, but I never felt la cucina was worth using a specialty dining night on. Even teppanyaki is borderline. The ones well worth it are Cagney's and the Brazilian churriscaria. I am going to see what Ocean Blue is like on the Getaway next year though.
After my Cruise on the Getaway I can say it was wonderful to be back aboard and cruising, but with so much rough seas and it wither delaying port visits or missing visits altogether like no stop at Great Stirrup Cay or Norfolk and we even got back to NYC an hour late! Glad to see Cagney's Steakhouse has Lobster back on the menu, though when first eating there on the Breakaway it was only a $10 upcharge and now to get the Surf and Turf with a Ribeye and lobster tail adding the lobster was now an upcharge of $25! A little bit too salty, but good! Had a wonderful waitress named Jen who made our dinner extra special The food was cooked exactly as requested!! Another night we ate at Moderno's and our waiter Rick the Marine added a fun experience to all the great food they kept on coming to our table when our card showed GREEN!
We really enjoyed Cagney’s. Thank you for watching and commenting. Enjoy your cruise on the Getaway
Good to know. We thought of doing the Tepanaki grill next Spring.
Pronounced: La Coo-CHee-na. Pasta is pronounced P-AHH-Stah. Gnocchi is pronounced: Nyo-ki. Caprese is pronunced Cah-Preh-Seh. Tiramisu pronounced: Tea-Ra-Me-Sue. Pana Cotta is pronounced: Pah-Nah-Coh-Tah. Don't forget to roll your Rs too.
Thank you. I definitely need a lesson to learn how to roll my r’s.
such a well done video..thanks for sharing.
And thanks for watching!
We went to this Restaurant on the Epic and Service and Food was Poor, and regretted going, when Dinner that night in the Doning Room was Wonderful
Sorry to hear your experience wasn’t very good. For the most part we were also happy with the main dining room
Grossly overpriced.
Pasta is a very cheap dish.
And... You are already paying for your dining room dinner.
I don’t disagree but the food was much better than the main dining rooms from our view vs other cruise lines where the MDR is just as good we didn’t find the same on our NCL sailings.
We found this place to be a low grade Italian Restaurant, We went to this restaurant on our 17 Baltic cruise on the Getaway.
What did you think of the Baltic cruise? I imagine compared to some of the restaurants in the Baltic this wouldn’t compare.
The Baltic trip is Amazing!!! You get areas that are just hard to goto. Get quality clothes for excellent price in Tallinn plus that curry is amazing but ST. Petersburg couture is nothing like anyplace else.
W P sounds like you had an awesome trip. Thanks for sharing.
My wife has noticed that the La Cucina menu isn't the same from one ship to another
Yes a lot of the menus will change around based on what available at the local ports and such so menus can very quite a bit even sailing to sailing depending on seasonality
Just got off a two week cruise on the Joy thru Panama. The ship was well laid out and the staff was great. But the food was gross. Bought the dinner package for three meals and the only meal we had that was worth it was at Cagney's and that was wonderful. The Japanese steak house was interesting. The cook asked all of us how we wanted our Filet and there were requests from rare to well done. Will this cook took eight beautiful filets and cut them into cubes and put them in a pile and cooked them. We all got well done filet that was tuff and tasteless. The regular dining rooms were the same food for two weeks NY strip steaks. The big thing that our group found was the food was also cold or luke warm It was a joke between us when we picked a restaurant we would say let's find out which restaurant has the hot plate tonight . I will not be traveling on NCL again not only the food but the experience we had getting on and off the ship.
we had about 4 to 5 different desserts per night plus the ice cream
The desserts are good, we did find the buffer desserts were lacking a bit (for variety) but the desserts everywhere else, main dining rooms, speciality restaurants, etc... were all AMAZING. So great. I mean really who doesn't want to just eat dessert on a cruise!