Is silk harvest on solstice worth a visit??.

Organising some restaurants for our trip on the solstice. Definitely doing murano and Tuscan grill. We both love Asian food, is silk harvest worth doing or is it only say so.

Cheers bob:)

I thought it was pretty good. We avoided it the first time we sailed on Solstice but really enjoyed it in September with friends.

DH won a dinner for us at Silk Harvest- even at no charge we didn't like it. In fact we didn't finish our dinner. Ended up grabbing some pizza in the OVC.

We enjoyed it. A nice change.

No one can tell you if it will be "worth " it to you. :rolleyes: Food is subjective.

Just read the reviews of Tuscan Grill to see how tastes differ.

Have been several,times and never disappointed

Since the introduction of Luminae, it is the only specialty restaurant my husband and I think worth a visit. Not everyone shares our tastes but the OP should at least try Silk Harvest.

We love Asian food, but were disappointed. The fried rice was dry and flavorless, the pad thai was overcooked, almost mush. I felt like these two dishes were maybe pre-cooked, and sat around for awhile.

The ‘small plates’, to us seemed more tasty than the ‘large’ ones. First time we visited we ordered a starter smaller plate and then a larger main....Since then when we dine there we order lots of small plates to share and really enjoy. They do a nice coconut ice cream with banana desert too!

Drinks wise, they do have a good range of beers too, made a nice mid cruise change.

portcbob: I am curious as to where you are from -- are you from the Hollywell located

in Queensland?

I am curious as it has seemed to me that through the years posters from either the UK or Australia have tended to be more favorable in their opinions toward Silk Harvest. There is a chain restaurant in North America called P.F. Chang's, and several years ago someone compared Silk Harvest to P.F. Chang's. I thought it was a fair comparison. I have never found P.F. Chang's very interesting. We have eaten in Silk Harvest on both the Solstice and the Equinox. Both times we found the food, while well plated, very bland. For instance, one time one of our entrees should have been much more spicy than another -- but both tasted essentially the same.

The ‘small plates’, to us seemed more tasty than the ‘large’ ones. First time we visited we ordered a starter smaller plate and then a larger main....Since then when we dine there we order lots of small plates to share and really enjoy. They do a nice coconut ice cream with banana desert too!

 

Drinks wise, they do have a good range of beers too, made a nice mid cruise change.

This is probably what we should have done. We visited Silk Harvest on recent cruises (Sept-Oct) and were very disappointed. The pad thai was fairly tasteless and the green curry was ... green but that was all one could say. The shrimps we had to start were very nice.

If you are expecting real Asian food after eating the real thing then this will be a disappointment, especially as you say you love Asian food.

The Sushi restaurant on 5 is Californian sushi rather than Japanese but we found the food exciting and tasty - again you need to pick and choose but loved the shrimps in a bowl with spicy sauce, the eel and the slider (we had it cooked rare) which were all wonderful and we enjoyed the other dishes we selected.

We chose to drink sake which made an interesting change from wine and was included in our package.

It is very popular with officers too.

We would certainly chose here over Silk Harvest.

I think its gone backwards, loved it first cruise was no where near as good last time (Oct 17).

Might get better after current head chef's contract id up ...

We love Asian food, but were disappointed. The fried rice was dry and flavorless, the pad thai was overcooked, almost mush. I felt like these two dishes were maybe pre-cooked, and sat around for awhile.

+1 on this...we enjoy authentic (not Americanized) and well prepared Asian food...Silk Harvest is neither. It's the only specialty restaurant on Celebrity ships that we won't go back to.

I like Silk Harvest.

And, I do know that it is one of the favorite restaurants for crew members. :)

The ‘small plates’, to us seemed more tasty than the ‘large’ ones. First time we visited we ordered a starter smaller plate and then a larger main....Since then when we dine there we order lots of small plates to share and really enjoy. They do a nice coconut ice cream with banana desert too!

 

Drinks wise, they do have a good range of beers too, made a nice mid cruise change.

This is what we did. Small plates to share.

We don't think any of the "ethnic" foods served on board taste like they do at locally owned ethnic restaurants at home. Mexican, Indian,German,Italian...none of them are true representations.

And considering the kitchen is cooking for thousands, our expectations take that into consideration.

However, we don't starve.

Our favorites, in order, are Murano, Sushi on Five and Silk Harvest.

We love Asian food, but were disappointed. The fried rice was dry and flavorless, the pad thai was overcooked, almost mush. I felt like these two dishes were maybe pre-cooked, and sat around for awhile.

Those would not be dishes that I would choose. I think Pad Thai is mushy to begin with it. Yet, it's my brothers favorite Asian dish.:confused:

DH and I love to eat at Red Ginger on Oceania Cruises. For anyone that has been on an Oceania cruise and dined there, could you compare to Silk Harvest? RG has great tempura shrimp and a wonderful sea bass dish, among other dishes that we enjoy. :)

So what are the "not to be missed" dishes at Silk Harvest?

We really enjoyed Silk Harvest and were sorry we waited until our last night on Solstice to eat there.

 

If you are expecting real Asian food after eating the real thing then this will be a disappointment, especially as you say you love Asian food.

 

The Sushi restaurant on 5 is Californian sushi rather than Japanese

We went to Silk Harvest on the Equinox in June. I thought it was ok, but I would only go again if I got a good deal. We paid $25 a head and there was 7 of us, so we ordered quite a lot of different items and shared them. Some items were quite good, some were Ok and we thought a couple were pretty weak (the noodles were pretty bad). Nothing was spectacular but overall the meal was good. One thing that did bother me was the way they served the food. Stuff just came out random times. The fried rice came out well after most of the other entrees. Entrees started showing up before some of the appetizers.

I really like Sushi but I'm not a huge fan of Sushi on 5. I like most of the stuff except their sushi and sashimi. Tried the sashimi twice now and both of those are among the worst sashimi I've ever had. Even the rolls are pretty weak. I like both authentic Japanese style and "California style" but I find So5 to be more of "fast food/gas station" style as far as the actual sushi goes. I do like the apps, and the noodles, those are quite good.

I think the different views of Silk Harvest are because folks come from different food backgrounds/experiences. If one lives in NYC or LA/SFO, Vancouver or some other cities with excellent asian food, they have a very different view than those who come from an area where there is more Americanized/Westernized asian food. There are many who have never had sushi made with vinegared rice or with wasabi between the rice and the fish or toasted Nori on their Maki (rolls). There are many who have never tried cold sake or dim sum from a cart...and so on. Reviews are based on one's expectations and comparable experiences.....so you get some "we love Silk Harvest" reviews and "the food is poor to average Asian" reviews. Which do you trust....I suggest you try Silk Harvest and see for yourself.

Nothing wrong with that...different strokes for different folks.

I like Silk Harvest. I prefer it to QSine which has been added to the newer ships. I agree that a good selection of the starters is better than the main dishes.

Phil

The OP asked if Silk Harvest was worth visiting not how 'authentically Asian' is the food.

Quite honestly, I have had some truly terrible 'authentically Asian' food in Asia, especially China, over a period of nearly 30 years.

It difficult to define 'authentic' food anymore in a world where, for example, new forms of Indian food have been invented in the UK and exported back to India.

Silk Harvest does not claim to be authentically anything. It serves a number of different styles of food that just happens to be enjoyable and tasty. As someone else mentioned, it is particularly popular with crew members.

The OP asked if Silk Harvest was worth visiting not how 'authentically Asian' is the food. Quite honestly, I have had some truly terrible 'authentically Asian' food in Asia, especially China, over a period of nearly 30 years.

Silk Harvest does not claim to be authentically anything..

Great post. :)

On our cruise, Silk Harvest was generally slow. We would walk by heading to Blu and would be approached to dine there. Great deals to be had. Service was outstanding and I thought the food was pretty good-- would not pay "suggested retail".

We will be dining in Blu. ;) Do you feel that the "deals" for Silk Harvest would be better further into the cruise, or is the 50% off deal, for Blu passengers on the first night, a better deal?

I wasn’t taken with the menu so didn’t go.