Riviera Specialty Restaurants

We've found the specialty restaurants vary from ship to ship...Which is not really surprising I suppose. Although the dishes on the menu may be the same, the chef on each ship would be different.

We have enjoyed all the specialties - though like Mura we didn't care for Red Ginger at all on Riviera and Marina. But on Sirena, Red Ginger was our absolute favorite. I think it's due in part to the ambience - on Rivera and Marina, Red Ginger is windowless and very dark...on Sirena, there are windows and it's brighter and beautifully decorated. And I finally tried the sea bass, which is a super dish.

We eat often in the Terrace, in part because we enjoy dining outdoors. We dine in the GDR very infrequently. While the food is usually good, the service can be very slow.

Since there are so many experienced Oceania cruisers here, I have a dining-related question:

We enjoy sharing a table to meet new people. However, we have a number of times been joined by diners who want to have every course and/or send dishes back and just generally make the meal a really long experience - particularly at tables for 6 or 8. How do you deal with this? I have tried speaking privately with the maitre d' prior to the reservation time to ask that we share a table for 4 only, which helps...but not always.

Any tips or advice?:confused:

No tips or advice because we've never encountered this experience! We have enjoyed our experiences at larger tables, but I agree that you probably can avoid the difficulties you describe if you limit yourself to a table for 4. It does seem, though, that it can be difficult to say "yes, we want to share a table but only with another couple"!

DH does tend to order more courses than many in the GDR but we're talking about 4 versus 3, and it's never really held people up. And now that he is slowing down (at 81!) it's not really a problem.

As to slow service in the GDR, I do agree that it slows down dramatically with larger tables (6-8). I've never been sure as to why that is. I had a birthday dinner in the GDR on Sirena in Oct '16 and we were a table of 8 (a group we set up, not an ad hoc group). The dinner DID take a long time, but since we were all friends it was fine. Had we been strangers ... maybe not so wonderful!

Then again we had a birthday dinner (not ours) with two other couples a few years ago. It turned out that we were all musicians and had much to talk about. So if the dinner took a long time we didn't notice. And the birthday girl's cake was absolutely delicious.

Mura

It is interesting because on Riviera,Red Ginger was our favourite yet on Marina it was Toscana.

We enjoyed MDR at lunchtime but evenings were slow.We also noted in MDR that people who came in after us got their orders taken and their dinner before us.

Paul said he would have extra bookings at Jacques,if it were him,yet on Marina we found that the worst specialist restaurant recently..Not just the greasy food,but also the Maitre de telling us he hated his job,it wasn’t for him and it wasn’t what he had signed up for!! I think that had a big impact on the rest of the staff as it was a very miserable,chaotic restaurant! So for us it wasn’t all about the the food,but the ambience and service too.

It is interesting because on Riviera,Red Ginger was our favourite yet on Marina it was Toscana.

We enjoyed MDR at lunchtime but evenings were slow.We also noted in MDR that people who came in after us got their orders taken and their dinner before us.

Paul said he would have extra bookings at Jacques,if it were him,yet on Marina we found that the worst specialist restaurant recently..Not just the greasy food,but also the Maitre de telling us he hated his job,it wasn’t for him and it wasn’t what he had signed up for!! I think that had a big impact on the rest of the staff as it was a very miserable,chaotic restaurant! So for us it wasn’t all about the the food,but the ambience and service too.

I would never invalidate your experiences, Jane, but describing them without revealing that yours was a cruise which was seriously impacted by illness is hardly fair.

I would never invalidate your experiences, Jane, but describing them without revealing that yours was a cruise which was seriously impacted by illness is hardly fair.

Fair cop.

But we had 2 Jacques bookings before the ‘illness’ and the ‘illness’ affected all the restaurants equally.It was just that Jacques on Marina was not so good.

My only question is: does anyone EVER send these dry chops and other less than perfect dishes BACK or just suck it up and complain later?

Yes, people do send dishes back. The worst dinner ever on any Oceania ship was when we shared a table in Toscana. Turned out to be a table for 8 - 4 couples. There was a Russian couple at the table who ordered every course, and one or the other of that couple sent back a dish for 3 of the courses AND ordered a replacement for the one sent back. To add spice to the evening, they complained incessantly and loudly about the food. Intercession from the maitre d' only resulted in more complaints.

The servers were graceful as always. The other 3 couples (including us) became less graceful as the evening grew longer and longer...and longer. Actually, one of the couples had a bit too much wine and just got up and left. Obviously more clever than we were.

We have chosen to share tables only once since that evening....

So to answer your question - some people send courses back AND complain!

There was a Russian couple at the table who ordered every course, and one or the other of that couple sent back a dish for 3 of the courses AND ordered a replacement for the one sent back. To add spice to the evening, they complained incessantly and loudly about the food. Intercession from the maitre d' only resulted in more complaints.

Undoubtedly because they were accustomed to far superior food back home in Russia :D

They sound like everyone’s worst nightmare for dinner companions.

One of the reasons we generally dine alone or with friends - unless we are invited to dine with staff.

This is our first Oceania cruise doing the Riviera 3/28/2018. I have looked at the specialty restaurants, but not made any reservations yet. How do they compare to the Main Dining Room? Thanks, Phil

Realized this was an old thread! My review is #3. on the first page.

My only question is: does anyone EVER send these dry chops and other less than perfect dishes BACK or just suck it up and complain later?

We'll send back food if it's not up to standard, but that has been extremely rare!

Well, I agree with Keith about a few things but not all! Not that I disagree tremendously about anything he said.

We love La Reserve and if it won't break your budget, go for it. It's a very pleasant evening. We've tried all of them so far except for La Bourgeosie which we will have in a week or two. (Boarding Riviera on May 10th.)

We've always preferred the GDR (and even Terrace on the big ships) to the specialties. That's because of the variety that is offered in those two places. The specialty menus have been pretty much frozen in stone for years. And while we will do one dinner, maybe two on a longer cruise, in the various specialties (like Keith we aren't that fond of RG but we HAVE had some good meals there) we aren't as manic as others are about concentrating on the specialty restaurants.

We are boarding on May 10th for two 7-day cruises B2B. We've booked the specialties (except for RG) once each on the first leg and not at all on the second. We're in a suite so if we're tired after a day of touring (both of these legs are port intensive with no sea days) we may order dinner into the suite from one of the specialties. Or we'll go to the GDR or Terrace, depending.

We rank the specialties on Marina/Riviera in this order: Jacques, Polo, Toscana, Red Ginger. There are PLENTY of regular passengers who will disagree!

We once toured with a couple who absolutely refused to do anything but the specialties. If they couldn't get a specialty reservation, they'd go to Terrace. Not that there is anything wrong with that. They based there dislike on the GDR, however, on one meal that did indeed sound disastrous. But just because one meal is dreadful doesn't mean that all are ... And since we've had many lovely dinners in the GDR going back to Renaissance days (which weren't as high in quality as Oceania's restaurants but we found on average to be very good) we'd never abandon the the GDR because of one problem dinner. But that was their choice and it worked for them.

You will find what you prefer. Do any two couples agree on all aspects? Probably not!

We've rarely had a fail on an Oceania ship but I won't say we NEVER had one. But on average, excellent.

(I'm told by my guests that I'm a good cook ... actually they usually say gourmet cook, but I would never categorize myself that way!)

Have a great cruise. I know WE will!

Mura

I have a question about booking in specialty reservations. Can I book another couple at the same time I am booking? They just joined us on the cruise?

I have a question about booking in specialty reservations. Can I book another couple at the same time I am booking? They just joined us on the cruise?

Yes, but you will need their booking number in order to make the reservation.