Hello and welcome to Byte Size Cruises! If this is your first time here, we are so glad you are joining us. If you are a long time subscriber, welcome back! We are a small travel agency in Philadelphia, PA and we specialize in all things cruises. If you enjoy cruise vacations or are interested in learning more about cruising, you're in the right place! To check out our YouTube channel, click here. The Byte Size Team was recently on the NCL Encore and we had a great time! This blog post will be part one of two posts reviewing all the different specialty dining options on this ship. Let's get started!
Specialty dining on cruises is defined as food options that are not included in your cruise fare. Each restaurant we talk about here will involve some kind of extra charge on top of what you've already paid for your vacation. Norwegian Cruise Line has a program called "Free at Sea" and if you opt into this program you'll get some dining credits as well as other benefits. These benefits vary depending on the cabin you are staying in, but the all include at least one lunch or dinner at a specialty dining restaurant. Of course, you can purchase specialty dining a la carte as well. To see our review of all the food options included in your cruise fare, check out the post we did last week!
1. Teppanyaki. This is our sail away tradition on NCL and we go to this hibachi restaurant regularly on the first night of our cruise. This time around, it was clear that the restaurant was overcrowded and a bit understaffed, which made the experience not quite as enjoyable as it has been for our team in the past. At this restaurant you start with ordering drinks and then they bring out edamame and miso soup and then they are supposed to bring seaweed salad before the main meal. This time around, the salad was missed, and it was clear there was not enough staff to handle guests at this point, which has never been our experience at this restaurant before. We didn't see our wait staff for a while and then they eventually brought out the vegetables, fried rice, and the main course. The food was delicious, it just took a while with the restaurant being over crowded. We love going to Teppanyaki on sail away night because the atmosphere is fun and it really sets the tone for the entire cruise. Even though this experience was a bit different for us, it definitely won't stop us from returning to this restaurant on our next NCL cruise.
2. Onda. On some of the older NCL ships this restaurant is named La Cucina, and this is the Italian speciality dining restaurant. Now, if you've watched some of our older videos you know that La Cucina was never our favorite out of the specialty dining options because it didn't feel very upscale and the food was more basic (pizza, pasta, etc.) At Onda however, it definitely had a more upscale vibe and the food was reflective of this. The food was really excellent and up a notch from the traditional Italian-style basics. Overall, we were very impressed and it was one of our favorite meals on this ship.
3. Le Bistro is up next! In our opinion, Le Bistro is one of our favorite restaurants on any cruise ship. Anytime someone tells us they are looking for a restaurant to celebrate a special occasion, we recommend they go to Le Bistro. The vibe in this restaurant is up scale and more fine dining. The people here will be more dressed up and the food is amazing. Even with Cagney's on board, we believe the filet minion at Le Bistro is the best on board. Our only complaint about Le Bistro on NCL Encore is that it is located directly under the race track, which seems like a strange choice because during the day you can hear the cars going above you. But other than that, we have loved this restaurant and the food every time we have gone here. Whether you're celebrating something special or looking for an amazing night with a special someone, definitely check this place out.
Those are the first specialty dining restaurants we will cover for Part 1! Have you been on the NCL Encore? What was your favorite restaurant? We would love to hear from you! And definitely check out Part 2 of this post where we cover the rest of the specialty dining restaurants on the NCL Encore.