Breakaway - what is your favorite Specialty Dining restaurant?

Hi all,

First time NCL cruiser this summer in the Baltics on the Breakaway. I have 3 nights of Specialty Dining included in the myriad of promotions and would value your opinions on the BEST, yummiest restaurants to make reservations at. We're staying in the Haven so we plan to frequent the dining room there too. May be my first cruise ever in which I don't step foot in a MDR?! Not sure how I feel about it?!

We're foodies who love to cook and eat out in all types of restaurants, especially ethnic cuisine. And we love good wine to pair with great food. My DH and I will be traveling with our 18 yr old son who may/may not join us for our Specialty Dining dinners, but he has a sophisticated palate for a teenage boy.

Anyway...all comments welcome! Which restaurant is a "can't miss" in your opinion?

Thanks much!

Lynne

my top two favorite is Teppanyaki and Cagney

Unquestionably, Ocean Blue.

Based on the little research I've done, most CC posters place Teppanyaki and Cagney's in their Top 2 for the BA. I'm not sure you could call these two "ethnic," however.

We always like Teppanyaki. Our Teppanyaki on BA the guy must have been new though as he tried the ole throw the egg into the hat trick and missed 3 times. The meal was just as good as any of the other ships though.

Cagneys on BA, unlike all other NCL ships we've been on, was a mess.

That was awhile ago so YMMV.

We are also considering the same cruise, also in the Haven. We like Cagney and the French restaurant. Teppenyaki was good but too much food! The Haven dining room is also very good!

my top two favorite is Teppanyaki and Cagney

I gotta go with this, in that order.

We love Cagney's and LaCucina!

Ocean Blue and Cagney's in that order.

Our link provides menus and some food pics (specialty and Haven) from the Breakaway. https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2504449

Cagney, LA Cucina, Teppanyaki

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Our first cruise on Escape is May 6 2018. Based on several cruises on Breakaway I have to say Le Bistro - try the signature drink - French Manhattan - so good.

Hi all,

 

First time NCL cruiser this summer in the Baltics on the Breakaway. I have 3 nights of Specialty 2018. Dining included in the myriad of promotions and would value your opinions on the BEST, yummiest restaurants to make reservations at. We're staying in the Haven so we plan to frequent the dining room there too. May be my first cruise ever in which I don't step foot in a MDR?! Not sure how I feel about it?!

 

We're foodies who love to cook and eat out in all types of restaurants, especially ethnic cuisine. And we love good wine to pair with great food. My DH and I will be traveling with our 18 yr old son who may/may not join us for our Specialty Dining dinners, but he has a sophisticated palate for a teenage boy.

 

Anyway...all comments welcome! Which restaurant is a "can't miss" in your opinion?

 

Thanks much!

 

Lynne

my top two favorite is Teppanyaki and Cagney

These were definitely my two favorites on the Breakaway as well. Unfortunately Cagney's on the Pearl most recently was not great (different menu), but Teppanyaki was still wonderful.

teppanyaki

wife thinks lasagna from Italian place is among best she's ever had. so there's that...

I liked cagneys and the Brazilian steak place.

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Teppanyaki was the best on the BA.

Just got off the BA, in the Haven.

For wine - be aware the Haven restaurant has a much better wine list than anywhere else, and they can bring you food from other restaurants (as long as it isn't sushi). I didn't learn about the wine list until the last night.

For specialty restaurants, we dined at Cagney's, La Cucina, Teppanyaki, and Wasabi; plus the Cirque Dinner Show. The service at Cagney's was poor - getting a glass of wine was difficult - and the food was not very different from what is found in the Haven restaurant. La Cucina was excellent, as were Teppanyaki and Wasabi. We paid Wasabi out of pocket and for three people it was under $30 - so that's a good lunch option. I'm the only sushi eater in the family but my DH and DD loved the other options on that menu.

You don't go to the Cirque show for the food, but the show was great.

Just got off the BA, in the Haven.

 

For wine - be aware the Haven restaurant has a much better wine list than anywhere else, and they can bring you food from other restaurants (as long as it isn't sushi). I didn't learn about the wine list until the last night.

 

For specialty restaurants, we dined at Cagney's, La Cucina, Teppanyaki, and Wasabi; plus the Cirque Dinner Show. The service at Cagney's was poor - getting a glass of wine was difficult - and the food was not very different from what is found in the Haven restaurant. La Cucina was excellent, as were Teppanyaki and Wasabi. We paid Wasabi out of pocket and for three people it was under $30 - so that's a good lunch option. I'm the only sushi eater in the family but my DH and DD loved the other options on that menu.

 

You don't go to the Cirque show for the food, but the show was great.

Will they even bring you food from the specialty restaurants a la carte? Paid of course.

Also, can anyone tell me if any of the specialty restaurants are open for lunch?

Ocean Blue and Cagney's in that order.

 

Our link provides menus and some food pics (specialty and Haven) from the Breakaway. https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2504449

Oh hell yes! Thank you!!!

My choices, in order, would be Ocean Blue and Cagney’s. If you like seafood OB is amazing. My favs are the stone Crab Claws and Dover Sole. The lobster tails were much better than the whole lobster.[emoji848] The lobster roll and calamari were great too. A couple of my favorites from the Haven restaurant were the filet & eggs for breakfast and the prime rib for dinner.

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Cagney's first, Tepp. second. La Cucina sucks. It's "olive garden" quality at best. If you are used to GOOD Italian food, don't bother with La Cucina.

We did Moderno on Breakaway in October of 2017, and really enjoyed it, the salad bar could easily be a meal, but you need to save room for the endless parade of meat. I have never tried Ocean Blue, but intend to in the future. The Hibachi place is loud and we do those on shore, so will skip that next time, although the food was very good. Cagneys was good, I thought the Olive Garden comment, someone else made was accurate, so skipping the Italian place next cruise as well.

my favorites are Cagney's, Teppanyaki and Le Bistro.

From the Haven, I love, love, love the Tahitian Vanilla French Toast ... great breakfast side buffet too

Best dinner appetizer pork belly and dessert pear crumble

All the food was delicious!!!

Ocean Blue was a disappointment (almost everything was served at room temp); service was very slow and inattentive. We loved Wasabi, Cagney's and La Cucina (the lamb chops were excellent, the veal only so-so). The wait staff at Le Bistro messed up our order several times (wrong drinks, wrong appetizer- all plopped down in front of us without any concern that we didn't order that item). Teppanyaki is fun if you have a group (or manage to be seated with interesting passengers).

Cagney's wait staff are very slow getting drinks- bring a glass of wine with you from the bar next door!

We avoid Moderno, but others love it.

Cagney's first, Tepp. second. La Cucina sucks. It's "olive garden" quality at best. If you are used to GOOD Italian food, don't bother with La Cucina.

Thanks! Married to an Italian and live outside of Boston...I usually don't eat Italian food on cruises...we're too fussy ;p

Ocean Blue, hands down. The others are great, but OB just seems like a class above the rest and even after we exhausted our dining package we booked an extra night there after enjoying it so much.

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Thanks! Married to an Italian and live outside of Boston...I usually don't eat Italian food on cruises...we're too fussy ;p

Have dined in the North End many times, and we don't like Olive Garden, yet still found La Cucina a better fit for us than what others have stated. But we aren't super picky, just mildly so! I should mention our party has one vegetarian and one pescetarian, so that impacts our opinions as well.

The service was so bad at Cagney's (yes, bring a drink in from somewhere else if you want wine with your dinner and forget about a dessert wine option), that definitely impacted our opinion.