Ernest Jones

Norwegian Sky
Dining Experience (1/00)

We were late sitting on a table for 12, in the Four Seasons, all GGCer's (Great Group Cruise) and I think they will all agree we were a delightful, diverse and compatible group who all enjoyed each others company. Firstly let me say we found the food to be superior in general to RCCL, HAL, Celebrity, Carnival and QE2. We haven’t been on Princess as yet and from what I hear that may be the exception. The meat, fish, duck, and even lobster were all just fine in our case. As far as wines were concerned we had a bottle every night and while I have seen more complete lists there was nothing we were looking for they didn’t have. One night we even had a nice bottle of reasonably priced Meursault, quite a find on a cruise ship! The service from our waiter Ruben from Colombia was very good, and he took particularly good care of my wife Gloria who is Colombian. Harry the busboy from the Bahamas made sure I got my Espresso nightly. Incidentally there was no charge for Espresso, many lines now charge.

For lunch we generally ate in the Seven Seas, once again good food and service. I particularly recall an excellent lamb shank! We also had Greek pizza one late lunch in Ciao-Chow’s! Different! Now for the really good news! We had dinner at both Le Bistro and Ciao-Chow’s!

Le Bistro has its own kitchen and the food compares well with a first class onshore restaurant. We had escargot, all piping hot and bubbly, the way they should be and much better than in the main restaurant. This was followed by wild mushroom soup served in a round loaf of bread which had had it’s center scooped out! Decorative and delicious! The entree was Filet Mignon with Bernaise Sauce. Now I like my filet done "bleu"! That’s charred on the outside, rare inside. Not well known, or easy to cook. Both the waiter and the chef new what I wanted and it was cooked to perfection. Without doubt the best filet I have ever had on a cruise ship and I include upmarket Radisson and Windstar in that opinion. We gave the chocolate fondue a miss and instead had the Swiss apple tart a la mode. Exquisite!

The service was outstanding almost too quick between courses. We were 2 only which may have helped in this case. The reservation was for 8 pm and was made the day before. This was an outstanding meal by any standard. We also had dinner at Ciao-Chow’s together with Ellen and Diane, the Polish girls. An unusual menu, spicy won-ton soup, a tomato/ Italian mozzarella/olive oil salad and a crispy duck/risotto entree. All very different from normal cruise fare. As an encore we spoke nicely to our maitre d’ Jean Louis from Haiti who arranged for a table for the 4 of us in the Horizon on the second formal night. The menu was the same as normal but the surroundings are so different.

As far as the Garden Cafe is concerned we found it typical of cafeteria buffets poor to bad, but better decorated and located than most. We keep away as much as possible.

To summarize: to be able to eat in three different assigned restaurants, and two alternates is unique in the whole cruise industry and I recommend all who go on Sky to give it a try. It requires only a modicum of planning. MAKE YOUR BOOKINGS EARLY ENJOY!

Ernest Jones; Retired Music & Cruise Crazy Brit.