"The Porch" - A Specialty Restaurant on Celebrity Silhouette

The Porch is one of the speciality restaurants on Celebrity Silhouette.  It is primarily a seafood restaurant, although does have a few items for carnivores and vegetarians.

It is a small intimate restaurant, situated up on Deck 15 aft and had a great view of the ocean when you are sailing.  Perfect for a sunset. 

It is setup as a four course menu.  For $30 USD they ask you to pick one from each section.  There is also a seafood tower you can order which is an additional $15 USD. They also add 18 % gratuity to these up charges.  

For wine, they had a very good Sauvignon Blanc from Villa Maria.  

We started with chicken wings with sesame glaze.  These had some great flavor!!  These were not quite as meaty as wings I have had at other places which may be a sourcing issue here in Europe.  

Also tried the blacked mahi mahi tacos.  These were very tasty although had a bit too much sauce for my taste. Once the crispy corn tortilla broke, it was pretty messy.  But I still managed to eat them.

For the "raw" course we tried the Hamachi Crudo. My favorite dish of the night.  This is very similar to a dish served at Raw On Five which is a specialty restaurant on Celebrity Edge and Apex.  Delicious thin slices of fish with a yuzo sauce which just brightened up the whole dish.  

Also had the tuna tartare.  Finely diced nuggets of tuna in a mild citrus marinade.  Just enough to highlight the fish.  

Next course was the corn soup, my second favorite dish of the night. 

 I had low expectations for this soup since so many corn soups are thick and goopy, given all the starch that comes from the kernels.  Not here.  This was a thinz delicate broth full of fresh corn flavor.  I believe they must have used both corn kernels and the cobs to extract the most flavor. And then strained it before adding some chorizo.  One of the best soups I have ever had. 

Did we dare try to "Tackle The Tower*?   We did!!

It had a cold water lobster tail split in half, marinated scallops, mussels, shrimp and a seafood salad which has salad shrimp and mussels.  There was a cocktail sauce, tartar sauce and a vinegrette which tasted of tarragon.  

The scallops were my favorite, especially with a drizzle of the vinegrette. They had been quickly marinated so they weren't rubbery.  The lobster was also very good. It was moist and flavorful.  The shrimp were pretty standard, helped by the cocktail sauce.  The mussels didn't have much flavor.  I love steamed mussels.  But cold mussels just never seem to have any flavor.  The seafood salad seemed like a throwaway dish. Almost like they felt there wasn't enough on the tower to justify the price.   Not terrible, but nothing to rave about.  Adding some of the delicious vinegrette helped. 

For our mains, we had lobster rolls.  

These were nice pieces of chopped cold water lobster in a spicy mayo on a brioche finger roll. And freshly made potato chips as a side.   That is a classic side item if you order a lobster roll in Maine. 

We had so much seafood that we didn't even ask to see the dessert menu. Overall a very good meal.  I would go back and probably just order three portions of crudo and that wonderful corn soup!!