Embarkation Day Continued Pt.2 - Hibachi and Variety

The hibachi style restaurant on board NCL ships is called Teppanyaki. On the Pride of America, it is tucked away in a small room you reach by walking through the East Meets West Asian restaurant. Each hibachi table seats 8 so we arriving first took the four seats across the front. The seats on the side were taken by another couple and a guy traveling with his mom. I think he mentioned they were traveling with extended family but only they'd chosen to have dinner here tonight. We had a main waiter who bustled around serving the side dishes and refilling drinks. He was so tall we joked with him about having to avoid bumping his head on the vent hoods over each table. When he ran everyone's cards for payment he realized that the guy with his mother had the same exact name as one of the East Meets West waiters. He rushed out to get the waiter to meet the guy and through chatting they found out they were also both from the same town. The EMW waiter had our waiter take a picture of the two of them together. The actual cooking at the table took a long time to start but we were the only ones dining in here until we left.

Our waiter and then chef did confirm that no one at the table had allergies or dietary restrictions. The way the menu here works is that aside from the $10.95 specialty cocktails, for the cover charge of $29.95 per person, you get both the Miso Soup and the Seaweed Salad to enjoy while the cooking presentation is going on. Then you choose one of what they call Teppanyaki Classics or a Combination choice as your main protein. You also get grilled vegetables and fried rice to supplement your choice of meat or non meat in the case of the vegetarian option.

One of the neat extras I found adorable was that not only did we have this menu laid out on our place settings when we sat down, but it included a tear off sheet of instructions for turning your menu paper into a couple different animals via origami. Most of us had the whale and the rest had a snake. I couldn't resist making the joke that I'd found a "whale tail" without having to be on a Carnival ship!

 First up was the routine edamame (never been a fan) and the seaweed salad. To me it seemed more like a cup of coleslaw with a little sprinkle of seaweed on top. Still tasty and I polished off the bowl.

Next was Miso Soup. A dish I often see on Chinese take out menus. I don't think I ever tried tofu before so this was mostly all new to me. I gave it a few spoonful taking care to make sure I tried each part but it wasn't for me.

Our chef had the fastest spatulas in the west:

His love for fried rice really showed as he made it all in front of us:

Any kid will eat their vegetables if you present them in a rainbow right? How about that for multitasking?

Our next thing to munch on while waiting for the proteins to be cooked was a neatly stacked tower of grilled onions, squash, zucchini, and carrots to dip into the various sauces. The chef suggested we use the first sauce for vegetables and the other sauce for our meat. I liked the vegetable sauce better but found that the vegetables were still a little tough to chew.

Only a couple of us chose the shrimp option so it was a little disheartening to see that out of all the shrimp he prepared, we only got 3 pieces. Of those 3 pieces though was some of the biggest meatiest shrimp I'd ever seen in a restaurant.

Once the seafood was cleared as it cooks faster than meat, our chef went to work preparing the different meat choices to each diner's cooking preference.

I had chosen the Yamato combination so with my jumbo shrimp that I'd wolfed down as soon as they were dished out, I also got chicken. I tried dipping a couple pieces of the chicken in the other sauce but didn't like it much. Instead I went with the tried and true method of dumping my tasty chicken on top of a bed of the fried rice on my plate. 

A very delicious dinner all in all. There was tons of fried rice left so seconds were offered but nobody took the chef up on it. Unfortunately, you can't get extra protein. For dessert the only option was to get both the Green Tea Cake and Cashew Nut Brittle so we passed on dessert. This was my third "cook at your table" style Chinese food experience on a cruise (1 was cooking on your own hot rock because the ship was too small to have hibachi tables) and none has disappointed both in food and experience. I highly recommend this specialty restaurant.

After dinner we once again split ways with Adam and Amy and headed to the Welcome Aboard Variety Show. We enjoy attending the first night's show for the sampler aspect as it can be like attending 4 shows in one. Usually the shows focus more on the cruise staff and then show off one performing act but this one included both a comedy set and a magician's illusion act. A very entertaining show.

Back at the cabin, we walked in on our steward Bonifacio making up the sofa bed for me. It was nice to see that being done for the first time without having to ask ourselves. Most cruises they just assume we'd be sleeping in the same bed, especially since we have the same family name. This was the first time we had gotten the chance to meet Boni and it was funny watching my Dad try to make sense of a guy asking to be called "Bonnie."

By tomorrow morning we'd be in our first port of Maui and had scheduled an NCL ship excursion with Adam and Amy so we soon settled in and headed to bed.