The ULTIMATE Luminae Review - 5/19/19 Summit to Bermuda

[groryjm]

5 minutes ago, Fogfog said:

@groryjm

this is clever. The view I get only has 56 lines...

Is there a page for mains? 

TYIA

the first tab marked APPETIZERS at the bottom of the page shows the 56 starters and the one marked ENTRÉES shows the 70 mains

Edited May 31, 2019 by groryjm

[Alsmez]

1 minute ago, Fogfog said:

 

Re your comment ". I suspect it was cooked sous vide"   I did have a chance to visit with the Exec Chef onboard and asked about SV on the ship. I have a SV at home and it is an outstanding tool for the right purposes. He claims that they do not use a SV onboard at all...which surprises me

 

We were having a problem with overcooked fish in BLU... once we started ordering it "rare" as the exec chef suggested..that solve one problem.

 

One night we had a disaster of a lamb dinner..the frenched chops were perfect--BUT underseasoned overcooked shredded lamb rolled into phyllo dough was presented with it--and was inedible. We saw lam appear again not long after that..and I joked that the leftovers would be in the OVC as "biryani" for lunch.

Sure enough.. it was....

 

I would be fascinated to learn how they manage the menus-- as We'd read the Blu, Luminae and MDR menus daily and there were themes...

 

I'm glad you enjoyed it! I am also surprised to hear they don't use sous vide onboard, as it is an ideal way of keeping large quantities of food at serving temperature for a virtually unlimited period of time. I have a circulator too and I enjoy cooking with it, although certain foods (like lean meat) can be a bit more finicky than others.

 

Your lamb dinner reminds me of the "duck confit" dumplings - we had had duck the previous night, and they obviously took the leftover portions, shredded the lean, overcooked breast meat and tried to pass it off. Ridiculous! I fully understand that they need to reduce waste as much as possible, but come on. I agree that it would be really cool to sit down with the kitchen management and see how everything fits together from purchasing to plate among all the different restaurants and menus. Lots of moving parts for sure!

[Alsmez]

7 minutes ago, groryjm said:

I've been thinking of doing it for a while and to be honest it really only took about 15 mins.

 

The real reason I knocked it together was curiosity. So many people say there is very little choice in Luminae and I was quite surprised how little repetition there is. 

 

By sorting column a into alpha order  it is very revealing. Yes some things are repeated over the 14 day cycle. For example the  Salmon Sashimi appears twice as a starter,   once on day 7 with Passion Fruit, Radish and Chili and again on day 14 with Avocado, Tangerine, Toasted Sesame Seeds and Yuzu. But I am really surprised how few semi repeats like this there are.

 

Looking closely at the menus I realise there are a couple in our many cruises with Luminae I have never seen so with our next two cruises booked at 14 days I hope to complete the set....

 

Luminae Menu spread sheet

 

luminaemenus.pdf 942.65 kB · 1 download

 

 

For me it wasn't so much about repetition as about sameness and nightly limitation - and I love seafood. If I didn't, it would have been really tough. Most nights there was a truly uninspired vegetarian option that I dismissed completely, a pasta (which I almost never order as a main course because I don't care to eat a big plate of starch), one red meat and two seafoods (or a seafood and a chicken). For non-seafood eaters, that really only leaves two choices, three at most. 

 

By the way, in looking through your spreadsheet I actually don't see a couple of the menus we had - the one from Monday, our first formal night (which included lobster salad and squab appetizers and ribeye and lamb chop mains), and the one from Saturday, our final night (with ginger crab cake and lamb loin). Perhaps they have made some changes since you obtained the 14-day menus, although they are all still 4 appetizers and 5 mains as far as I can tell.

[Gonzo70]

1 hour ago, Alsmez said:

 

 My brother is an executive chef at a restaurant in Chicago

 

Which resto does your brother work at?

[Alsmez]

9 minutes ago, Gonzo70 said:

 

Which resto does your brother work at?

 

He recently took over Pops for Champagne, after many years in the catering business. Two of his friends from culinary school bought the place and brought him on to head up the kitchen!

[Gracie115]

Luminae DOES have 14 different menus so if you were on for a week there are 7 more menus you haven't tried yet!!!

 

We love Luminae, have virtually stopped bothering with any of the Specialty restaurants because the service and food is so good and because they try to accommodate you as much as possible.  It's just a great venue!!

[Alsmez]

1 minute ago, Gracie115 said:

Luminae DOES have 14 different menus so if you were on for a week there are 7 more menus you haven't tried yet!!!

 

Right, but you only see some or all of the other seven if you're on a cruise longer than 7 days. All 7 day or shorter cruises use the menus we enjoyed on our cruise, as far as I know. Makes it a little tough for B2B or those of us who rarely cruise longer than 7 days due to work constraints.

[Fogfog]

1 hour ago, Alsmez said:

 

I'm glad you enjoyed it! I am also surprised to hear they don't use sous vide onboard, as it is an ideal way of keeping large quantities of food at serving temperature for a virtually unlimited period of time. I have a circulator too and I enjoy cooking with it, although certain foods (like lean meat) can be a bit more finicky than others.

 

Your lamb dinner reminds me of the "duck confit" dumplings - we had had duck the previous night, and they obviously took the leftover portions, shredded the lean, overcooked breast meat and tried to pass it off. Ridiculous! I fully understand that they need to reduce waste as much as possible, but come on. I agree that it would be really cool to sit down with the kitchen management and see how everything fits together from purchasing to plate among all the different restaurants and menus. Lots of moving parts for sure!

I was equally surprised.

Honestly to handle 100s of NY strips (for example) in a night--to put them in SV @ 130 and then pull them to grill to preferred doneness would seem to be easier than grilling from start to finish. as you said --whoever is managing those grills has it down perfectly

We had an excellent beef filet while at Blu... really exceptional. And no weird aftertaste/chemically altered flavor as you mentioned.

We also had outstanding prime rib (asked for a double /thick cut) and au jus on the side. It was exceptional as well

The biggest misses were that lamb dish I mentioned ...

and

after getting something too done one night--I ordered the veal chop rare. It came blue... which I could have sent back. The waiter (awesome service ) had suggested medium.. I insisted on rare. Hated to send it back since I didn't take his suggestion... so sadly it went uneaten.

We had exceptional service with everyone except a "sommelier" which in reality was likely an untrained "wine steward"

 

 

 

[Gracie115]

23 minutes ago, Alsmez said:

 

Right, but you only see some or all of the other seven if you're on a cruise longer than 7 days. All 7 day or shorter cruises use the menus we enjoyed on our cruise, as far as I know. Makes it a little tough for B2B or those of us who rarely cruise longer than 7 days due to work constraints.

 

True....I understand the "work constraints"  still working very much full time myself...but have found it possible the last few years to take longer cruises.....thankfully!!!

[bermadu22]

56 minutes ago, Alsmez said:

 

By the way, in looking through your spreadsheet I actually don't see a couple of the menus we had - the one from Monday, our first formal night (which included lobster salad and squab appetizers and ribeye and lamb chop mains), and the one from Saturday, our final night (with ginger crab cake and lamb loin). Perhaps they have made some changes since you obtained the 14-day menus, although they are all still 4 appetizers and 5 mains as far as I can tell.

I have downloaded the app for our September 1st cruise on the Summit. I compared your menu with the one showing on my app. It is pretty much the same except there are a few nights on nights 5,6, and 7 that are different. I think your night 6 menu is shown as being served on night 7. Nights 5 and 6 are just different. The interesting thing is the Luminae menu I'm shown has a Daniel Boulud signature dishes offered nightly - a chilled carrot and ginger soup with prawns, lime and cilantro. There is an entrée of Moroccan chicken tangine with turnip, cauliflower, lemon and olives. And Daniel Bouluds nightly dessert choice is a raspberry pistachio vacherin with vanilla ice cream. They are probably planning on starting that Daniel Boulud menu on an upcoming cruise. Then again we all know the menu could be totally different when DH and I embark. 

[Alsmez]

8 minutes ago, bermadu22 said:

I have downloaded the app for our September 1st cruise on the Summit. I compared your menu with the one showing on my app. It is pretty much the same except there are a few nights on nights 5,6, and 7 that are different. I think your night 6 menu is shown as being served on night 7. Nights 5 and 6 are just different. The interesting thing is the Luminae menu I'm shown has a Daniel Boulud signature dishes offered nightly - a chilled carrot and ginger soup with prawns, lime and cilantro. There is an entrée of Moroccan chicken tangine with turnip, cauliflower, lemon and olives. And Daniel Bouluds nightly dessert choice is a raspberry pistachio vacherin with vanilla ice cream. They are probably planning on starting that Daniel Boulud menu on an upcoming cruise. Then again we all know the menu could be totally different when DH and I embark. 

 

Yes, the app started showing the Daniel Boulud dishes on my cruise as well. According to Summit's Executive Chef, they were supposed to start serving those dishes on the cruise after ours, aka the one currently in progress. Once those folks disembark, perhaps we will get some further info!

[Alsmez]

32 minutes ago, Fogfog said:

 

We had exceptional service with everyone except a "sommelier" which in reality was likely an untrained "wine steward"

 

This has been our experience on Celebrity in almost every venue with the exception of Murano. Jennifer, the sommelier in Luminae for our cruise, seemed to fall somewhere in the middle. She definitely knew the Luminae wines by the glass list well, but her pairing ideas weren't especially inspired (although to be fair, she didn't always have a lot to work with since the wines by the glass list is neither huge nor varied). 

 

Another note regarding both Luminae's wine list and the bar menus all over the ship - this was our first time encountering the new menus that split up wines and cocktails by price (Classic vs. Premium). I am certain this is helpful for those on the Classic Package who don't want to spend over their limit, but I found it a bit cumbersome on the Premium package. The price of a wine is not always directly proportional to its quality; I found myself preferring a wine on the Classic list to a more expensive one on the Premium list several times (there's also no accounting for taste, LOL!). The bartenders/servers all over the ship also tended to pour the default wine for your package level unless you asked for something specific (and they happened to have it in stock, which is another topic entirely).  

[happy cruzer]

Question about the beef:

 

I thought the menu say New York steak or sometimes sirloin.  I have not seen it recently say New York Strip Steak which it used to.  I always thought the sirloin was different cut.  What do the experts say?

 

Thanks.

[FlorenceItaly]

2 hours ago, Alsmez said:

 

 I found myself preferring a wine on the Classic list to a more expensive one on the Premium list several times (there's also no accounting for taste, LOL!). The bartenders/servers all over the ship also tended to pour the default wine for your package level unless you asked for something specific (and they happened to have it in stock, which is another topic entirely).  

Which wine from the Classic List?  We are sailing June 16.  Thank you!

[Alsmez]

16 minutes ago, FlorenceItaly said:

Which wine from the Classic List?  We are sailing June 16.  Thank you!

 

I can't remember the names, unfortunately,  but there was definitely a Sauvignon Blanc from the Classic list that I liked better than the most-available one on Premium (Villa Maria). The rosé on Luminae's classic list was also more to my taste than the one on the premium list (the premium one was very light bodied; the one from the classic list had a lot more heft). Outside of Luminae you never really knew what you were getting anyway; even in Cellar Masters, they didn't go out of their way to show you the labels and freely made substitutions without telling you if they didn't have what you ordered. I'm sure they figure with the package it doesn't matter since you're not paying by the drink, but it did annoy me at times to order Grüner or Sauv Blanc and receive a glass of Chardonnay. I'm not a wine expert but I know oak when I taste it!

Edited May 31, 2019 by Alsmez

[Alsmez]

47 minutes ago, happy cruzer said:

Question about the beef:

 

I thought the menu say New York steak or sometimes sirloin.  I have not seen it recently say New York Strip Steak which it used to.  I always thought the sirloin was different cut.  What do the experts say?

 

Thanks.

 

A NY strip steak IS sirloin, or at least it should be. It's supposed to be a cut from the strip loin part of the sirloin subprimal.

[FlorenceItaly]

1 minute ago, Alsmez said:

 

I can't remember the names, unfortunately,  but there was definitely a Sauvignon Blanc from the Classic list that I liked better than the most-available one on Premium (Villa Maria). The rosé on Luminae's classic list was also more to my taste than the one on the premium list (the premium one was very light bodied; the one from the classic list had a lot more heft). Outside of Luminae you never really knew what you were getting anyway; even in Cellar Masters, they didn't go out of their way to show you the labels and freely made substitutions without telling you if they didn't have what you ordered. I'm sure they figure with the package it doesn't matter since you're not paying by the drink, but it did annoy me at times to order Grüner or Sauv Blanc and receive a glass of Chardonnay. I'm not a wine expert but I know oak when I taste it!

Thank you!  Yes, this would annoy me too. The times we've had the Premium package, I have learned you have to specify hard liquor brands or you will get the classic list brand even though you have a premium package.

[groryjm]

3 hours ago, Alsmez said:

the Daniel Boulud dishes

As I understand the Daniel Boulud signature dishes are being added as part of the Revolution process

 

[Alsmez]

3 hours ago, groryjm said:

As I understand the Daniel Boulud signature dishes are being added as part of the Revolution process

 

 

Yes, they are supposed to be on Summit this week - we'll see when those cruisers get home on Sunday and start posting!

[raudacruise]

Thank you so much for your review. So detailed and informative!

 

Was amused by the concept of “too much crab” in a crab cake. Too funny. I’m originally from Maryland and won’t even try a Celebrity crab cake. I know I won’t like it.🦀🦀🦀

[Alsmez]

2 minutes ago, raudacruise said:

Thank you so much for your review. So detailed and informative!

 

Was amused by the concept of “too much crab” in a crab cake. Too funny. I’m originally from Maryland and won’t even try a Celebrity crab cake. I know I won’t like it.🦀🦀🦀

 

I'm glad you enjoyed it! As for the crab cake - you're right, you won't like it if you are expecting ANYTHING like a MD crab cake. They are fine if you think of them as a crab-flavored deep fried thing! My DH is the same way with shrimp - he likes fried shrimp, but only if they are the popcorn kind, because that way they're more breading than shrimp. Weirdo!

[TeeRick]

On the spreadsheet under entrees, Item number 1 is Alaskan Halibut.  It has been one of my favorite dishes in Luminae.  It was always cooked perfectly (for me anyway).

[dkjretired]

I am a meat and potatoes man and I have to admit that much of your review went way over my head.  I will say however that the review was one of the most  enjoyable I have read in quite a long time on this board.   Had to go to the dictionary a few times to check some words and phrases but that is part of the learning process.   Wife and I have avoided the MDR for several years because we have been sailing Celebrity since the early 90s and know what the dining room was under Michel Roux.  We have exclusively been in Blu and Luminae for our recent cruises and will be in Luminae again in August. Occasionally we pop up to the buffet for dinner which has proved enjoyable since in the evening it is relaxing and we enjoyed the grill in the back.  Sadly, I am reading they eliminated the grill in the makeover.   Thanks again for an excellent review, confirms the old adage of you can always learn something new. 

Edited June 1, 2019 by dkjretired

[Alsmez]

37 minutes ago, dkjretired said:

I am a meat and potatoes man and I have to admit that much of your review went way over my head.  I will say however that the review was one of the most  enjoyable I have read in quite a long time on this board.   Had to go to the dictionary a few times to check some words and phrases but that is part of the learning process.   Wife and I have avoided the MDR for several years because we have been sailing Celebrity since the early 90s and know what the dining room was under Michel Roux.  We have exclusively been in Blu and Luminae for our recent cruises and will be in Luminae again in August. Occasionally we pop up to the buffet for dinner which has proved enjoyable since in the evening it is relaxing and we enjoyed the grill in the back.  Sadly, I am reading they eliminated the grill in the makeover.   Thanks again for an excellent review, confirms the old adage of you can always learn something new. 

 

You are welcome and I'm glad you enjoyed it! Get ready to impress your waitstaff in Luminae with your new vocabulary! 😁🍷

[niborHS]

Thank you for your very comprehensive review. We are also from NY, are foodies, wine people, cooks, and have been on about 20 cruises. I always tell people that if they really want to have good food, pick a city like Charleston and go eat. Obviously I am not going to say NY because I can have that at any time, and although there are restaurants in NY that are not good, it's pretty hard to get bad food in NY. So, I guess I am not expecting this to be dbBistro quality, but I will hope to have it more than edible. Good to know we can pick from the MDR menu as well. We will be in Alaska, so hopefully we will have more fresh fish, and that the steaks, which my DH will probably order more often than not, will be edible. As far as sous vide goes, I didn't not read everyone's post, so wasn't sure where it was mentioned, but we always sous vide our steaks, have even done it with burgers, we like them rare and just sear them at a high heat after cooking them to 124. I would not be surprised at all if they sous vide various dishes.