Normandie Restaurant on Summit

Has anyone been on Summit recently? Have they changed the menu in the Normandie to match the one on Millenium? I read on one of the posts that the food was being updated, or is this only in the main restaurant?

What is this 2-tier charge now in the specialty restaurants? We paid $25/pp in 2002 and all drinks were extra. Now I understand it is $30/pp and it can go up to $67/pp depending on what you order.

Don't know about the menu. Just got off the Constellation and the menu there was slightly different than on Summit. $30.00 p/p for standard menu, $57.00 p/p for the wine pairing menu. If you order the wine pairing every one at the table must have it.

There are two menus in the Normandie. One is the basic menu that goes for $30 per person, and the second menu that pairs wine with every course. When we were on the Summit, the charge was $57 per person, and everyone at the table had to parttake in that menu.

Although I thought the Normandie restaurant was a beautiful room and a comfortable dining experience, I really should have paid more attention to the menu prior to booking the dinner!

By NO stretch of the imagination am I a gourmet-eater....basically a meat/potatos guy....but I do enjoy a top-notch experience. The Normandie menu was too gourmet for my individual tastes and I personally did not feel that, in my case, it warranted the extra fee; I would have done just as fine at the regular dining room. Now had they had a top-notch prime rib/baked potato dinner, I wouldn't have minded the $30 extra dollars.

Beautiful? Yes! Was it worth it for me? No. Would I recommend it for people with more "exotic" tastes than mine? Absolutely!

Thanks all of you for the info. We are going with a group of 8 and the others have never sailed Summit before and were wondering if they should try the Normandie. After we had done it before, my DH & I had decided it was too rich, too French & too long.

But now, looking back he wants to try it if only for the cheese course and the port he had with it. He is definitely going to the wine tasting course on board & plans to take extensive notes on which wines he likes for future home consumption.

FYI, they have a much more extensive wine list in the speciality restaurant compared to what is offerred in the main dinning room. The champagne is also pretty good!!! ;)

Just wondering if any one did the wine dinner for the $57 p/p? Does it change nightly? If not could you please tell me the courses with each wine. Thanks

We did the Wine pairing dinner on Summit in April. It does not change nightly and is a fixed menu, 5 or 6 courses, I don't remember how many now. And I really don't remember the courses either, but the portions are smaller than the regular dinner as there are more courses, at least 5 versus 3 (at least that is what I seem to remember). We just did the regular dinner on Constellation and it's menu was slightly different than Summit's, on the steak entree , Steak Diane on Constellation versus Chateaubriand on Summit. Someone said that if I was a repeat customer in Ocean Liners on the same cruise (Constellation's speciality restaurant) I could ask for Chateaubriand, don't know if that is an urban legend or not.

If you are a repeat customer in the specialty restaurants, they will prepare something that's not on the menu. After our second visit to the Normandie in March, the head waiter said if we were to come back for a third visit, they would prepare Chateaubriand plus a special appetizer and dessert. We booked the third reservation right then and there. They made a fantastic lobster fettuchini for the appetizer and Grand Manier souffle for dessert along with the Chateaubriand.

Can you tell me what some of the entrees are?

Hi:

Very helpful thread. Is the specialty restaurant availability the same time as your chosen :confused: dinner time (early or late)?

Thanks

You can book reservations for the Normandie at any time during their open hours and are not restricted to the time you normally dine in the main restaurant. I believe it opens at 6 and the last reservation is for 9.

Just off the Summit.

Here's a link to a "sample" menu on Celebrity's web site--our's was similar although not exactly the same.

http://www.celebrity.com/whyceleb/SingleInclude.do;jsessionid=0000ZFP41HkMr-h1b7sI0szUpZ1:1051tg3ld?pagename=specialty_dining_menu

For example, our menu did not have the Steak Diane, but another steak option that was for 2 people. Can't remember if the duck was an option or not. There was a chocolate creme brullee option and a banana something option for dessert.

It was $37pp extra ($67 total) for the 5-course with wine. Otherwise you get 3 courses: soup OR salad OR appetizer, main course, dessert. Even with the 3 courses you get a cheese course and little sweets at the end.

I asked for both an appetizer and a salad and got it, probably because my wife had ordered the ceasar salad already and preparing it for 2 wasn't that much harder. I would have liked to have gotten the 5 course without the wine though.

Hmmmm...it must have changed. When we at Oceanliners we received a

cheese course as well........with a wonderful array of choices.

And it wasn't 37.00 then.......now, we didn't have the wine with every course.

But the cheese was included in our dinner.

Can't wait to eat at Normandie:)

I have just returned from the Alaska-Cruise and went to the Normandie twice on that trip. I tought the food was excellent and you had a wide variety of choices. Also it was spectacular to look at. I had some puff pastry and roasted vegetable dish which looked amazing, like a four storey terraced pyramide.

I also met the Chef of the Normandie, a very nice guy, who received his training at the most exquisite restaurants here in Germany.

My only problem with dining at the Normandie was: I missed our waiter from the Cosmopolitan. ;)

But Ivo and Fernando were fantastic, too.