Time for a short trip to Le Voyage

If you said to us, "Hey, let's check out this French restaurant for dinner tonight!" you aren't likely to get an enthusiastic response. Coupled with the fact that our suite had the regular menu included plus how much we ended up liking Bistro Sur La Mer on the Enchanted Princess, we vowed to at least visit once. After all, a cruise ship is certainly a place where you won't go hungry if you decide you didn't like the first place you chose to eat. 

We were seated at a super small table near the entrance so we had quite a lot of traffic passing by throughout the meal. The server made a big deal out of the wine list and seemed really put off by our polite refusal. We also were visited a couple times by the restaurant sommelier and manager to question our lack of drinks. Visiting once could be seen as checking up to make sure we weren't overlooked or needing refills but with each repeated visit it seemed like the attitude went from pleasant to pissed off. Once they gave up on serving us alcohol, our table service also dropped off. While we tried several dishes, we felt limited by the choices and didn't find anything that made us want to return again. 

Beet based amuse bouche. Mr. Picky Eater heard the word "beet" and refused to try it.

Alaskan King Crab Salad Appetizer - Avocado, Radish, Mango, and a Ginger-Lime Vinaigrette. The crab was cold like a ceviche. The radish, mango, and whatever other tiny circular cut ingredients (cucumber?) on top were colorful but hard and barely edible. The top was covered in some sort of spicy seasoning that the cold crab did nothing to offset. Maybe that's why they expect to serve so much alcohol in this restaurant so you can drown the spiciness off your taste buds. Or drink so much you forget the food was spicy?

Prime Black Angus Filet Mignon Entree - Black Truffle Sauce, Salsify, Hazelnuts, Saint-Nectare Potatoes Mille-Feuille. I asked about the hazelnuts when ordering and was assured that they were only on the side and easily avoided. I had to look up the ingredient salsify and it turns out to be a plant whose roots can be prepared like a potato but tastes like an artichoke heart. The salsify pieces were what was placed under each hazelnut forming a border around the beef with small spinach leaves. I guess they were trying for a deconstructed spinach artichoke dip? The tiny square of potatoes was good and the beef was mostly cooked to my liking but was surprisingly more chewy than tender. 

None of the dessert choices really interested us so I picked the one we thought sounded the least of the worst and that was the Cafe-Cardamom. Ethiopian Coffee Ice Cream, Chocolate Financier, and Chocolate Foam. If you're a regular reader here, and if you are, have I mentioned you're my favorite?.. If you are a regular reader here, you're probably reading this and saying why would she pick a dessert that is coffee flavored when she doesn't like the taste of coffee? The answer: everything else had some sort of fruit or nut concoction and I was hoping the chocolate would balance out the coffee flavor. 

This dessert does come with an added presentation factor as the scoop of ice cream arrives at your table propped up by cut chocolate shards. The server then pours the chocolate sauce all over your dish in front of you. I tried each aspect of the dish giving it the old college try of taste tests but I'm sorry to say that unless you love the strong robust taste of dark roast coffee, this dessert will flunk out of school.

We ended the night on a more positive note with this view of wonderful guest entertainers - rock trio, Rebel from our floor seats followed by the late night adult comedy of Sam Fedele. 

And a little bit of laughter as we discovered on our way into the theater that even hand sanitizer stations are not immune to losing their balance when the seas are rough! Disclaimer - that's the pattern in the carpet, not shattered glass in the door.