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I'm going to say something sacrilegious about Coastal Kitchen


wordell1

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I really liked the poached lobster with champagne sauce! I had read nothing good about it but decided to try it, with the MDR lobster as a backup. I may be the only one, but I liked it better.

We've had all our meals in CK this week on Oasis and they have all been great. 

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My hubby (Mr. RUB Cabash man) hates sauces of any kind so we went to the podium in CK after breakfast the morning of lobster night and advised the man in charge we would be dining at the MDR that evening for MDR lobster so please free up our reservations so someone else could enjoy the restaurant. The man in charge said NO! He said I will bring you MDR lobsters here, tonight feel free to keep your reservation. Hubby was brought 4 (four) yes & daughter  was given 2, seriously almost fell out of my chair. 

What a nice surprise and the waiter Jonathon (he was our favorite) was just wonderful, he actually said he would bring another. Just wow! (we stopped him)

* As an aside maybe they observed that we had cancelled Thanksgiving night and went down to MDR, our friends were there and were in balcony cabins, so we went downstairs to dine with them for Thanksgiving knowing CK was not afforded to them at that time. 

We went to Next Cruise & she booked a Grand for our summer Harmony sailing though, I'm going to ruin them!

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4 hours ago, Neesa said:

My hubby (Mr. RUB Cabash man) hates sauces of any kind so we went to the podium in CK after breakfast the morning of lobster night and advised the man in charge we would be dining at the MDR that evening for MDR lobster so please free up our reservations so someone else could enjoy the restaurant. The man in charge said NO! He said I will bring you MDR lobsters here, tonight feel free to keep your reservation. Hubby was brought 4 (four) yes & daughter  was given 2, seriously almost fell out of my chair. 

 

We were in Giovanni's on lobster night and lobsters showed up at our table without us even asking for them, lol.

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6 hours ago, Neesa said:

My hubby (Mr. RUB Cabash man) hates sauces of any kind so we went to the podium in CK after breakfast the morning of lobster night and advised the man in charge we would be dining at the MDR that evening for MDR lobster so please free up our reservations so someone else could enjoy the restaurant. The man in charge said NO! He said I will bring you MDR lobsters here, tonight feel free to keep your reservation. Hubby was brought 4 (four) yes & daughter  was given 2, seriously almost fell out of my chair. 

What a nice surprise and the waiter Jonathon (he was our favorite) was just wonderful, he actually said he would bring another. Just wow! (we stopped him)

* As an aside maybe they observed that we had cancelled Thanksgiving night and went down to MDR, our friends were there and were in balcony cabins, so we went downstairs to dine with them for Thanksgiving knowing CK was not afforded to them at that time. 

We went to Next Cruise & she booked a Grand for our summer Harmony sailing though, I'm going to ruin them!

They had both available for us as well so I had the MDR lobster as a backup.

Incidentally, they also had all of the Thanksgiving MDR options (Turkey and Ham) available on that day also, even though it wasn't on the menu.

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As the title of your post includes ‘sacrilegious’….here’s my contribution. Whenever the servers try to do me a favor and offer me lobster…I disappoint them because I don’t like lobster. They all always seem so surprised that anyone could not like lobster. I always end up explaining…No, I’m not allergic…I just never got a taste for it. But, I always thank them for their offer and then usually something else appears. Usually something of a dessert variety. That!…I won’t turn down. That would really be ‘sacrilegious’!🤣

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1 hour ago, cruisellama said:

Agree - it was my favorite cut of meat in the CK.   I thought the menu started out strong, took a dip mid-cruise, then finished strong.

I liked it overall - definitely a step up from MDR.  One underrated aspect of CK is how much quieter it is vs the MDR.

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6 hours ago, BrianB said:

As the title of your post includes ‘sacrilegious’….here’s my contribution. Whenever the servers try to do me a favor and offer me lobster…I disappoint them because I don’t like lobster. They all always seem so surprised that anyone could not like lobster. I always end up explaining…No, I’m not allergic…I just never got a taste for it. But, I always thank them for their offer and then usually something else appears. Usually something of a dessert variety. That!…I won’t turn down. That would really be ‘sacrilegious’!🤣

You’re not alone.  My daughter won’t touch seafood of any kind. 

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17 hours ago, Pooch said:

You’re not alone.  My daughter won’t touch seafood of any kind. 

You can ask for MDR items.   We wanted the Grand Marnier Soufflé from the MDR one night, and our waiter had it brought to delivered to our table in the CK for dessert.  Worked fine.  (Same galley area just, move stuff from one line to another)

 

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On 12/3/2021 at 9:13 AM, Pooch said:

Hoping on lobster night to eat in CK so hubby can have his scallops.  I will be asking for lobster lobster and more lobster! My daughter wants the harissa lemon chicken from MDR.  Gonna ask in advance.

What night do they typically have scallops?  Thanks

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Just curious, was this just our bad luck, or is this what other's are seeing -- the CK is missing on a few cylinders currently. At least in our experience on Harmony last week (28 Nov - 5 Dec). First night was a zoo. No room for seating in the lounge before dinner and I couldn't get a drink after standing at the bar for 15 minutes and gave up. Having kids with me I'm sure did not help and we felt very unwelcome that evening.  And literally at every meal (we ate at CK 5 times: 3 x breakfasts, 1 x lunch and 1 x dinner) the kitchen riffed on my requests, delivering something not asked for nor appreciated. A side of broccoli = became mixed veggies with no broccoli?, mashed potatoes as stated on the menu = became fries?!, a "simple salad with just greens and ranch" for a 5 year old = became topped with crumbled blue cheese?, a bowl of granola = became some kind of parfait with just some granola on top!? Yes, I kindly talked to both the server and on the 2nd time with management and our Genie with no improvement. We requested and tried a different server with same results.  Miscommunication, or more likely the kitchen just ignored special requests and the server simply delivered what they put out. When I asked for the salad to be taken back the server just left - and so did we.  Are they afraid of the kitchen staff?  The servers need to be empowered to turn back incorrect orders on the guest's behalf and they should never reach the guest. All the specialty restaurants really knocked it out of the park (we tried them all), but the CK had issues in our experience last week.  Was this just our bad luck?

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13 hours ago, VolantTraveler said:

Just curious, was this just our bad luck, or is this what other's are seeing -- the CK is missing on a few cylinders currently. At least in our experience on Harmony last week (28 Nov - 5 Dec). First night was a zoo. No room for seating in the lounge before dinner and I couldn't get a drink after standing at the bar for 15 minutes and gave up. Having kids with me I'm sure did not help and we felt very unwelcome that evening.  And literally at every meal (we ate at CK 5 times: 3 x breakfasts, 1 x lunch and 1 x dinner) the kitchen riffed on my requests, delivering something not asked for nor appreciated. A side of broccoli = became mixed veggies with no broccoli?, mashed potatoes as stated on the menu = became fries?!, a "simple salad with just greens and ranch" for a 5 year old = became topped with crumbled blue cheese?, a bowl of granola = became some kind of parfait with just some granola on top!? Yes, I kindly talked to both the server and on the 2nd time with management and our Genie with no improvement. We requested and tried a different server with same results.  Miscommunication, or more likely the kitchen just ignored special requests and the server simply delivered what they put out. When I asked for the salad to be taken back the server just left - and so did we.  Are they afraid of the kitchen staff?  The servers need to be empowered to turn back incorrect orders on the guest's behalf and they should never reach the guest. All the specialty restaurants really knocked it out of the park (we tried them all), but the CK had issues in our experience last week.  Was this just our bad luck?

I had some similar observations on Oasis 21-28 Nov.  I didn't think the galley was working on all cylinders either.  Missed key ingredients (like the proteins) on some of the salads, wrong or missing side dishes just as you observed.  My wife was not impressed with the champaign lobster, sent back for a replacement without the sauce (wasn't an issue).  Wait staff was very responsive and apologetic.   Was told  ship was understaffed, guessing may not have the A-team in place yet.  

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15 hours ago, VolantTraveler said:

Just curious, was this just our bad luck, or is this what other's are seeing -- the CK is missing on a few cylinders currently. At least in our experience on Harmony last week (28 Nov - 5 Dec). First night was a zoo. No room for seating in the lounge before dinner and I couldn't get a drink after standing at the bar for 15 minutes and gave up. Having kids with me I'm sure did not help and we felt very unwelcome that evening.  And literally at every meal (we ate at CK 5 times: 3 x breakfasts, 1 x lunch and 1 x dinner) the kitchen riffed on my requests, delivering something not asked for nor appreciated. A side of broccoli = became mixed veggies with no broccoli?, mashed potatoes as stated on the menu = became fries?!, a "simple salad with just greens and ranch" for a 5 year old = became topped with crumbled blue cheese?, a bowl of granola = became some kind of parfait with just some granola on top!? Yes, I kindly talked to both the server and on the 2nd time with management and our Genie with no improvement. We requested and tried a different server with same results.  Miscommunication, or more likely the kitchen just ignored special requests and the server simply delivered what they put out. When I asked for the salad to be taken back the server just left - and so did we.  Are they afraid of the kitchen staff?  The servers need to be empowered to turn back incorrect orders on the guest's behalf and they should never reach the guest. All the specialty restaurants really knocked it out of the park (we tried them all), but the CK had issues in our experience last week.  Was this just our bad luck?

Coastal Kitchen on Oasis was great. The restaurant manager was very involved. We ate there the whole week. We had requested to have the same waiter the whole week and she was great- always sent my son away with a full plate of cookies to go.

We also had really good service in the lounge. We typically showed up 30 minutes early for a pre dinner drink and we were always served very quickly.

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19 hours ago, VolantTraveler said:

Was this just our bad luck?

I would say likely this and it was highly dependent on your server. We were on Harmony the week prior (November 21) had an adequate experience with Coastal Kitchen. The server should have properly addressed all of your issues and I would say they are definitely at fault for not following through with your special requests.

We had a phenomenal experience with the CK on Allure back in September and even my adequate experience on Harmony was worlds away from the service level on Allure.

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I felt similar in #CK until we finally had Jonathan as a server on Lobster night. The staff seemed harried. I was wanting the experience @wordell1had but sadly that wasn't the case. We had reservations every evening 1745hrs. The first night a very large family with I counted 4 children came in at 1800hrs, we were essentially forgotten about. Our server was their server and the poor man could not handle all of the requests from the family who should have been assigned a server to themselves. Not the family fault mind you, just way to many people for the server to wait on, and the adorable kids had many special requests, again kudos to them teaching the kids how to properly dine. 

We sat for at least 20 minutes with dirty dishes in front of us night one, and other servers looked and walked right by, it was not the experience we were used to, we usually ask for the same server all week also, but we were not asking for George again. The next evening we showed up 15 minutes earlier but so did the family, they were an amazing extended family having a great time, but once again we were an after thought. 

Our perception was also that they were understaffed and over worked, even some of their appearances were "rumpled" we did dine at the MDR with friends one night and JR's one night because our #CK experience this time was not the best, again we think we just had bad timing and the staff was hard pressed because the lounge as well as the restaurant was always super crowded, there was a struggle to get a seat in the lounge even before 1700hrs, this was an early and frequent Suite Lounge Crowd. 

@VolantTravelerour experience on the Oasis Thanksgiving week also presented challenges but we agreed we just think it was a culmination of what I stated above, we will force ourselves to go back and try again on our next sailing LOL!!

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9 minutes ago, Neesa said:

I felt similar in #CK until we finally had Jonathan as a server on Lobster night. The staff seemed harried. I was wanting the experience @wordell1had but sadly that wasn't the case. We had reservations every evening 1745hrs. The first night a very large family with I counted 4 children came in at 1800hrs, we were essentially forgotten about. Our server was their server and the poor man could not handle all of the requests from the family who should have been assigned a server to themselves. We sat for at least 20 minutes with dirty dishes in front of us night one, and other servers looked and walked right by, it was not the experience we were used to, we usually ask for the same server all week also, but we were not asking for George again. The nest evening we showed up 15 minutes earlier but so did the family, they were an amazing extended family having a great time, but once again we were an after thought. 

Our perception was also that they were understaffed and over worked, even some of their appearances were "rumpled" we did dine at the MDR with friends one night and JR's one night because our #CK experience this time was not the best, again we think we just had bad timing and the staff was hard pressed because the lounge as well as the restaurant was always super crowded, there was a struggle to get a seat in the lounge even before 1700hrs, this was an early and frequent Suite Lounge Crowd. 

@VolantTravelerour experience on the Oasis Thanksgiving week also presented challenges but we agreed we just think it was a culmination of what I stated above, will will force ourselves to go back on our next sailing LOL!!

Wow, too bad!  We were a little later (6:30) and I think it may have been a little less hectic at that time.  We had Alma all week and had no issues at all.

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Our Coastal Kitchen experience on the 11/28 Anthem sailing was awesome!  Better than our October sailings on the Oasis.  The staff was more attentive and the food was better, even though the menus were pretty much identical.  Only wished the set up was like the Oasis with the bar and lounge connected.  

 

 

 

 

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19 hours ago, Dicey said:

Our Coastal Kitchen experience on the 11/28 Anthem sailing was awesome!  Better than our October sailings on the Oasis.  The staff was more attentive and the food was better, even though the menus were pretty much identical.  Only wished the set up was like the Oasis with the bar and lounge connected.  

 

 

 

 

I was on that sailing also and enjoyed the CK. I agree the setup could be better, I mean what’s with the two level tables? At least they didn’t seat anyone above me or I would have felt like I was sitting at the kiddie table during Thanksgiving dinner. Too bad they couldn’t combine the lounge with the restaurant like on the Oasis…it’s a bit of a hike to get to the lounge all the way aft on deck 12. The view from the lounge is great, but the location is inconvenient and out of the way. The ambiance and the view in the CK are both very nice…the food and service were excellent. I asked for a dessert that wasn’t on the menu and they sent someone down to the MDR to get it. When I asked why they didn’t just step into the Windjammer next door, they said because it’s made fresh in the MDR kitchen. Nice touch! I’m looking forward to the rigatoni with sausage tomorrow night!😋

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  • 2 weeks later...
3 hours ago, Chuck586 said:

I have not been keeping up with all of the covid restrictions and changes but I had heard that they were restricting access to the lounge and CK at one time.  Has that been lifted now?  Sounds like, from some of the posts, that it is getting quite busy.

 

It was always busy at HH and when first dinner started on Allure. I believe the restrictions were for Pinnacles, they now have their own lounge. 

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