Discovery Princess: Bistro Sur La Mer

We went to Bistro Sur La Mer last night for dinner.  Definitely consider this place if your budget allows and you are a seafood fan.  This restaurant is on Deck 7 Midship, across from Gigi's. It has an upcharge of $29/person.   That allows you one appetizer, one entree and one dessert.  Additional entrees are $10.  

Fantastic welcome amuse bouche of polenta fries and "olives".  Not exactly sure how they make the olives but that are savory nuggets of goat cheese surrounded by a thin coating.  Well fried polenta served with a spicy marinara and a pesto mayo. 

Appetizers were the escargot and pate.   Both very good but escargot the clear winner.  I was a bit nervous when the menu said they would be fried. But my fears subsided when they arrived.  They were similar to boudin balls in New Orleans. 

  

Entrees were the seabass and the scallops.  The seabass was perfectly cooked and had a thin piece of fried bread on the top for texture.  And the sauce!!  Delicate and buttery!!   

The scallops were seared a perfect medium rare and served with some carrots and peas and also had a wonderfully rich but delicate butter sauce.  Also came with a risotto which reminded me of a delicious farro risotto I had on Viking Ocean several years ago.   I think they use marscapone cheese.   

Desserts were the floating island and the beignets.  The floating island was more successful. The most delicate and succulent meringue literally floating in a pool of creamy vanilla custard with some orange and lemon rind.  It has a bruleed burnt orange sugar topper for some crunch.  

The beignets were tasty but were more like carnival, the fried cornmeal treat you find in parts of the Caribbean.  They were served with a tasty orange "jello".  If it was meant as a dipping sauce, it failed.  They went better with the vanilla custard from the floating island.  In fact, both desserts would have been better if they had been combined onto one plate.

Discovery Princess: Gigi's Pizzeria

Definitely my favorite dinner of the cruise - so far - was last night at Gigi's which is Deck 7 Midship.  This is an included restaurant open for lunch and dinner. 

 We ate here on embarkation day and decided we'd go back for two of our favorites: The rollata and the agnoletti.  Neither disappointed.  We also got the meat antipasto and a calzone with ham., Ricotta, mozzarella and ham.   

The antipasto had fresh arugula with a creamy balsamic along with thin sliced salami and mortadella.

The rollata was eggplant stuffed with perfectly cooked angel hair pasta, rolled up and baked. A twist on eggplant parmesan.

The calzone was a pocket of flavor!!   From the crispy crust, to the melding of the flavors of ham, ricotta, red sauce and just enough red onion!!

The real highlight is the agnoletti, which are essentially thin ravioli.  They tasted freshly made to me. But it was the savory veal filling and the creamy sage sauce that hits this one out of the park!!  If you only can order one thing, get these!!   We will definitely be back.

Discovery Princess: Salty Dog Gastropub

We tried the Salty Dog GastroPub last night for dinner.  This is on Deck 5 Forward, across from the International Cafe and next to the Gelato shoppe.  It was a mixed experience.  The menu is some small tapas-style plates with a few larger sandwiches.   However the menu isn't structured in a way where it is obvious what dishes as small or large.  It would have been helpful to have it organized into "Small Plates" or "Starters" and then the items that are more like entrees.  

There is a flat upcharge of $18USD/person.  You get to order two dishes and a dessert. We went with the calamari fries, spicy short ribs, charred asparagus and chicken sandwich.  

The calamari was well seasoned with a flavorful "eggy" aioli.  The big issue with these was the cornmeal breading was so gritty.  Instead of having a somewhat sweet corn flavor, you spent your time focusing on the grit. Maybe a different breading option would help. 

The short ribs were much more successful.  Very moist and tender with a orange soy glaze on top of some sauteed bok choy.  

The asparagus was well composed.  The salty haroumi really went well with the grilled asparagus.  

The chicken sandwich was the most disappointing dish. Not terrible but since we had recently been on the Mardi Gras and had the amazing sandwiches from Big Chicken that are included, this one from Salty Dog was just a pretender.  It was a thin, pounded chicken breast in a seasoned breading.  But the chicken was so thin that any amount of deepfrying would make it dry. It really needed that spicy mayo.  

Desserts were also a highlight.  The coffee can donuts had a full flavored coffe panna Cotta. Better flavor that the best coffee ice cream I have had.  The donuts should have been served hot from the fryer but instead were just room temperature. 

The bourbon pot de creme had outstanding flavor.  It is not often that a dessert with bourbon actually has enough of that flavor.  This one has some great booziness that paired well with the dark chocolate. It could have used much more whipped cream since it was a really large portion. One you ran out of whipped cream, it became harder to eat.  I considered running to the Gelato shop to get some vanilla!!

I wouldn't really recommend eating here - at least not while it remains a flat surcharge. I would come back for that asparagus dish and be willing to pay $5 or $6.   But there aren't enough amazing dishes in the small menu to justify paying $18.   I think this would be much better if it was an a la carte restaurant.  It fact, I think it used to be when I first saw it on a Princess ship several years ago.

Discovery Princess Main Dining Room Dinner

Went to the MDR (Skagway) for dinner last night.  We had a 7:40 reservation that we made in the Medallion app weeks ago.  We were sat promptly at that time.  There was a long line of people without reservations.  The protocol appears to be that groups with reservations form a line on the left and others form a line on the right. I am not sure that was being followed but it definitely seemed to help that we had a reservation.  

We had water, bread and menus quickly. We had already looked at the menu earlier in the app so knew what we would be ordering.  Once we ordered we got our salads about 8:10 followed by French onion soup at 8:20.  Then our fish and pasta arrived at 8:45.  Certainly not the fastest service but our waiters were great.  All the food was at the correct temperature.  

The goat cheese salad was excellent. Crispy lettuce with a creamy balsamic along with a lightly fried piece of goat cheese and walnuts.

The French onion soup was good but not as good as what I had on the Ruby Princess in February.  This was definitely more onion-focused, thinner and without a lot of cheese.   On Ruby there was a much richer beefy broth and saltier gruyere cheese.  

The red snapper was a well cooked and flavorful piece of fish, although may have suffered a bit from carry-over cooking.  It was served on a bed of couscous that had raisins. There was a creamy sauce on the bottom and pieces of sweet potato.  The oddest part of the dish was the thin sweet potato "crisps". Great idea but they were more like pieces of sweet potato jerky.  

The pasta was supposed to be taggiatelle but was fettuccine instead.  It has a flavorful pesto with hints of rosemary and pieces of chicken.  It reminded me of the rosemary grilled chicken they have at Salty Dog Grill.  

We finished dinner at 9:10. We didn't want dessert.   

Today we dock in Cabo San Lucas at Noon. We are exploring on our own.  May check out Sammy Hagars Cabo Wabo or another place called The Office.  Supposed to be 75° today.

QUICK BITE: Sushi in Aruba

We had our dinner tonight off the ship.  Some sushi from Aruba!!  This is a place called Hanasaki and is about a ten minute walk from where the cruise ships dock. 

Once you order, they bring out the sauces.  

This was spicy mayo, a thickened soy sauce with a hint of molasses and regular soy sauce.  

We order the sushi pizza.  Sounds strange but my favorite dish.  

Seasoned sushi rice which has been crisped on the bottom.  Topped with spicy salmon, eel sauce and sesame seeds.  So tasty.  

This was the spicy tuna bowl over brown rice.  

It was served on warm brown rice along with hearts of palm, pineapple, corn, carrots cashews, seaweed salad and cucumber. The tuna was chopped wup with some spicy Japanese mayo. The corn was odd. Neither added or detracted. All tasted great when mixed together.

Next was the Kazan roll

It was deep fried and had crab and asparagus. I could have done without the creamy seafood gratin which overwhelmed the sushi. Just scraped it off. Otherwise, very tasty.

Next was tuna sashimi. 

Four pieces of the best tuna sashimi I have had. And only $3.33 USD. And what a presentation!!

QUICK BITE: Blue Iguana on Carnival Freedom

My favorite quick service breakfast on any cruise line!!  The Blue Iguana delivers the goods!!   Huevos Rancheros!!  Make sure you ask for eggs.  Sometimes they want to only hand you the "rancheros" and you don't want that to happen.  So many great salsas also. My favorite is the roasted tomato.  The watermelon jicama is also great.  And don't forget the crema!!

Crown Grill on Ruby Princess

A pretty good meal at Crown Grill last night. The surprising highlight was definitely the Black and Blue Onion Soup.  Rich, beefy broth with a melted combination of gruyere and Roquefort.   The porterhouse was also flavorful and cooked to order (medium in my case). 

They serve everything with family-style sides of sauteed mushrooms, "grilled" asparagus and creamed spinach plus your choice of potato.  Those were all okay (especially the mushrooms) except for the asparagus.  I have yet to see a preparation of asparagus on this ship that doesn't remind me of how my mother cooked it by boiling it until it was nearly disintegrated.  Am I the only one that likes grilled asparagus that is still al dente?    

The steak tartare was decent but I have had better. 

 The scallops had a great sweet flavor, cooked a perfect medium but the accompaniments of tart Granny Smith apples and some sour tasting pickled leeks didn't pair well at all.  

The rhubarb cobbler could best be called disappointing.  Soggy and muddled with just a "sweet" flavor.  No detection of any fruit or the tartness that you expect with rhubarb.  

We did buy a couple bottles of one of our favorite wines.  A great red blend "The Prisoner" from California.   Had to use up some OBC!!