Norwegian Cruise Line Norwegian Dawn

Venue Overview (4.75)

To get a bit into the Latino style, Norwegian decorated this part (as the Blue Lagoon) with some little extras, like wooden barrels, rattan chairs, and decoration made of the same material, as well as pink and green columns.

Churrascarias (grills) are all over Brazil and gaining popularity in the U.S. Norwegian is the first to bring this type of restaurant to sea. It works very easy: you get a card with a red and a green side. If you turn your card green side-up, waiters with skewers of meat will serve you in perpetuity until you flip the card over to the red side (green means go, red means stop, go it?). One reason why churrascarias are getting more popular is Picanha, a special cut of sirloin with a rich flavor. Moderno offers nine different meats in total, including garlic beef, filet mignon, ribs, Portuguese sausages (linguica), lamb and chicken.

Rice, black beans, fried sweet bananas, and garlic mashed potatoes are served on the side. The selection at the salad bar is plentiful, and includes red beets, tuna, hearts of palm, as well as asparagus and other vegetables.

Of course there are also some desserts, like papaya creme and coconut flan, and typical Brazilian drinks like caipirinha and batida.

The whole experience would have been a lot better if the waiters would have been a little faster. There were plenty of breaks in the flow when we didn’t know what to do – our plates were full of salad, but without any meat.

Lunch / Dinner

All-you-can-eat is the motto of all Brazilian grills, and this one is no exception. The eateries’ salads are tasty, especially the red beet salad. As for the meats, alas, they were a disappointment. We were excited to see traditional Brazilian Picanha on the menu, but it did not taste as good as we are used to at Brazilian eateries on land. The same can be said for the garlic beef, which was too fatty and didn’t offer enough of a garlic taste to quality for its label. The piece of chicken we were given, meanwhile, was not at all properly cooked (it still was pink in the middle), and the lamb was overcooked.

Overall this was one of the worst dinners we had on the Dawn. Were the chefs just having a bad day? There’s no way to know as we didn’t have the time to give it a second try.

Dessert

The papaya cream tastes just as you’d expect – like papayas – but it’s nothing very special.