Perhaps we have been too spoiled with the suite life priority perks or our experience was simply a case of increased demand creating limited supply. When we last sailed on Celebrity Equinox, we had a suite category that included all specialty dining. We took advantage of it all eating at least once if not twice in each restaurant. Back then, we had been contacted pre-cruise by a concierge and gave them all of our desired reservations. Got on board day one and found out that nothing had been relayed to the ship. Our butler took care of making all the same reservations we'd requested pre-cruise without any issue getting the times and dates we wanted.
So this time, while we earmarked the remainder of our OBC to be spent on specialty dining, we did not bother to make any reservations pre-cruise. Coupled with the fact that tons of passengers booked under the latest sales offering OBC and some discounts pre-cruise, that meant that we had very slim pickings when we tried to schedule three dinners after purchasing the three night dining package (using up the last of our OBC and charging the remainder to our onboard account) when propositioned by the Luminae hostess at embarkation lunch. We ended up having to tweak the reservations with our Retreat Concierge Janelle throughout the cruise. Our hopes hinged on people choosing to cancel but even Janelle using her position to call restaurants got nowhere. We were even making changes on our last full day of the cruise in order to fit in a 3rd meal reservation since the package was non refundable.
The first specialty dinner we were able to reserve was for the Italian themed restaurant on board, Tuscan Grille. I preface this review by saying that while I love Italian food (pasta, bread, and seafood are their own food groups right?), even on our first sailing Tuscan Grille was my least favorite of the three options. That's not to say that the food wasn't good or we didn't have an enjoyable experience. It just wasn't exemplaray enough that I'd choose it if it came down to only being able to book one specialty restaurant per cruise. Disclaimer: One of those three options that I would rank #2 in the list was Silk Harvest, the Asian themed restaurant, which is no longer on board.
The night we dined, having settled for a later time slot than we'd normally prefer, the Tuscan Grille was moderately busy but not full. We were seated by the host quickly at a table for two along the back wall and butted up against the corner. While this wouldn't normally be an issue, the area of our table lended itself to lighting issues. We already were dining around sunset and soon the restaurant staff were putting down everyone's window shades. Our shade that was the width of our table proceeded to get stuck in the down position. At one point, the assistant waiter stopped by our table and asked why only our shade was down as if we had chosen to have it that way. We answered that it was stuck and would rather have it open but he shrugged and walked away.
At this point, you may be asking - why don't you just use the lights in the restaurant to see by since the shade is preventing dinner by moonlight? Because, my smart and clever reader, the two to three recessed light fixtures above our table in front of the shade were all burnt out. Add to that being literally backed into a corner with our table placement, it left us feeling like we were dining in a power outage. I'm pretty sure I caught our servers jump in surprise a few times when they came around the wall and suddenly realized there was someone sitting there in this dark corner. I'm amazed that our main waitress didn't return to our table holding out her arms to feel for contact calling out Marco! Marco?
One side effect of good technology is that any picture I took in an attempt to show how hard it was to see our food in the dark, my phone's camera made all of my food pictures look much brighter and clearer than it was. It's a good thing that the menus on the Celebrity app were current because a backlit screen was the only way we could read a menu.
Dad's appetizer of House Meatballs with San Marzano Mariana. Dad considers meatballs with anything to be a food group and is at the top of his list with steak and potatoes. While a decent size for an appetizer presentation, he said they tasted like they were overcooked or dried out from sitting too long. Again mentioned to the server and got a "Well, thanks for telling me" response. It really is tough for a server to figure out how to respond other than offering to get a different dish. It isn't like a land restaurant where you pay by the dish and can get that item taken off your bill. Neither of us finished eating our starters.
My next dish came from the salad course - Classic Caesar with Romaine, Pecorino Cheese, Focaccia Crouton, and Caesar Dressing. I've never really been a fan of hard croutons and these were like someone had torn off a wad of bread, dehydrated them, and then ran over them with a steamroller before bringing them back to life only to dehydrate again. I'm pretty sure my salad came topped with hockey pucks because getting one of these near your mouth could cause you to lose some teeth too. The dressing was light and it was enjoyable to have romaine pieces that weren't all corner cuts.
Never one to choose a salad if he can help it, Dad's next course came from the Flatbread Pizzas section. I seem to recall that last time we had more choices for flatbread pizza flavors. He chose the Pizzetta Caprese - (Classic Tomato, Mozzarella, and Basil) once I assured him it would be like Margherita pizza. He is also a fan of thin crust so this was right up his alley. He enjoyed the entire thing. I do recall that on our last visit it was more of a square cut that when reassembled could fill the whole plank.
Now it should come as no surprise to my returning readers what I chose to order from the Homemade Pastas section for my main entree. In case you are a new visitor to my little corner of the interwebs, first off welcome! Secondly, if there's anything on a menu with the word Carbonara in the name, I've got to try it! I've tried it with all types of pastas and all ways they make bacon. Some choose to mix it all together before presentation while others leave the poached egg sitting on top so you can break it and mix together for yourself. I've seen some choose cream while others use the more traditional egg to coat the noodles.
Strozzapreti Carbonara described as Pancetta, Peas, and Parmesan was a bit of a let down. The sauce (mixed in prior) was good and the pasta was tender but the pancetta seemed a bit too tough. After several bites, I began to find little hard pieces that I thought maybe were overcooked peas but when I ran my fork through the dish, I wasn't seeing any peas. Granted I wasn't seeing much of anything given our dining in the dark experience but I no longer desired to try and eat the rest. At this point, I was actively taking extra pictures to try and have my phone's camera show me what I was eating. Only now that I look back at the below picture do I see there were peas mixed in. Probably the first ever time I've walked away from carbonara.
Dad also went the pasta route for an entree and chose his go to at any Italian restaurant - Spaghetti and Meatballs (San Marzano Tomato Sauce, Basil, and Parmigiano Reggiano). Same preparation of meatballs and same sauce as the starter. Only difference was that this was the same two meatballs placed on top of spaghetti. This time though, he said the meatballs tasted much better like they were freshly made.
The uncomfortable surroundings and the more misses than hits from the menu combined with the slow service that seemed to transition to a one magician vanishing act as our meal went on, we chose to leave without dessert. Our server of course took notice only when we stood up to leave rushing over to encourage us to have dessert. We declined her offer to have dessert sent to the cabin.
A disappointing experience dining in a restaurant themed with my favorite foods. I know comparing pre-pandemic Tuscan Grille with tonight's experience isn't truly a fair comparison but I certainly wouldn't choose to dine here again if this was my first experience.
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