Norwegian Cruise Line Norwegian Epic

Page 12

Dining

The dining on the Norwegian Cruise Line’s Epic and earlier ships such as the Norwegian Dawn (also reviewed by us) have a lot in common. Not only do the ships offer a number of the same restaurants (with some slight name variations), but also the same menus, right down to the daily menu changes of the main dining rooms.

Unfortunately the similarities don’t end at names and menus. As on earlier Norwegian ships, many of the restaurants on the Norwegian Epic levy an extra cover charge that, in our opinion, would be justified only if the eateries lived up to the expectations created by the line’s marketing. Unfortunately, we found quite a few of the restaurants on Epic to be a disappointment, at least in relationship to the high prices the line is charging for them. If you pay a cover charge of $25 per person plus an automatic gratuity on top of your upfront cruise fare for a cruise ship restaurant, you should expect excellent food. In some cases, however, what we found at Epic’s on-board eateries was mediocre.

The Norwegian Epic has two no-extra-charge main restaurants: Manhattan and Taste. Extra-charge specialty restaurants include Teppanyaki (Japanese), Le Bistro (French), Cagney’s Steakhouse (steaks), Moderno Churrascaria (Brazilian Grill) and La Cucina (Italian). The cover charges range from $10 for La Cucina to $25 for Teppanyaki and Le Bistro. It’s all typical of what you’d find back home in a “theme” restaurant: Japanese food prepared in a showy style in front of you, French food in a romantic restaurant, family-style Italian, etc.

Shanghai is the Epic’s Chinese restaurant. It offers more pan-Asian cuisine than just Chinese, but we found it to be the only restaurant well worth the $15 cover charge. Wasabi, the sushi bar, had the same problem we found recently at the sushi bar on the Norwegian Dawn during the season: The rolls were too thick and the rice didn’t taste good. For at least $3 for a roll on a cruise ship, you should expect a little more.

The ship’s main buffet is called Garden Cafe (as on other Norwegian ships) and offers a variety of salads, soups, hot and cold dishes, desserts, ice cream, etc. In general, we find Norwegian offers one of the best buffets of any mass-market cruise line.

The Great Outdoors serves up comfort food, like hot dogs, burgers, and mac & cheese. The same dishes are offered in the Garden Cafe as in the two main restaurants, but the environment is even more casual.