Epic Dining Venues - Lunch? Port or Sea Days?

[nyc2pdx]

Just starting to plan out my TA cruise, and wondering which venues on the Epic are open for lunch, on sea and port days.  Here is a list of all the food venues I have available to me (I'm in the Haven):

 

Haven Restaurant: Port B/L/D, Sea B/L/D

Moderno Churrascaria

Wasabi

La Cucina

O'Sheehans Bar and Grill

Cagney's 

Garden Cafe: Port B/L/D, Sea B/L/D

Le Bistro

Shanghai's Chinese Restaurant

Shanghai's Noodle Bar (are these the same?)

Taste

Teppanyaki

Manhattan Room

 

Just trying to get an idea of what will be open as my last cruise I found that many places were closed on port days, but open on Sea days.  I never got it down.

 

Thank you!

 

 

[Sailing12Away]

Haven restaurant is open for all 3 meals whether its a sea day or port day - that's the beauty of Haven. Just a pro tip, you can order meals from any of the restaurants and eat them at the Haven restaurant if you prefer food from Cagneys but the atmosphere of Haven. Just give them a little bit of notice. (your specialty dining credits would be used)

 

I can look for my dailies from when I sailed on her last time, but I'm pretty sure the specialty restaurants are never open for breakfast on that ship. This may help: http://www.cruiseastute.com/ship.php?ship=Norwegian Epic&feature=dining (just looked through this deeper and it's definitely out of date, but may help for a ballpark guide for you. Anyone know what happened to that chefs table and murder mystery lunch? They sounded pretty neat.)

 

Just an FYI - the 2 main dining rooms have an identical menu each night. Just the atmosphere and dress code differ (Manhattan room is more 'fancy' requiring gents to wear pants).

Edited June 4, 2021 by Sailing12Away

[kochleffel]

I have Dailies from the Epic in 2019, but who knows whether future cruises will be the same?

 

Anyway, on sea days, lunch was served in the Garden Café, Great Outdoors (pizza starting at 1:00 p.m. and snacks after 2:00), O'Sheehans (open 24/7, but no bar service after 3:00 a.m.), Spice (light lunch), and Taste. On port days, only the Garden Café and O'Sheehans. The Great Outdoors had pizza and snacks after 2:00 p.m.  No specialty restaurants were ever open for lunch.

[nyc2pdx]

48 minutes ago, Sailing12Away said:

Haven restaurant is open for all 3 meals whether its a sea day or port day - that's the beauty of Haven. Just a pro tip, you can order meals from any of the restaurants and eat them at the Haven restaurant if you prefer food from Cagneys but the atmosphere of Haven. Just give them a little bit of notice. (your specialty dining credits would be used)

 

I can look for my dailies from when I sailed on her last time, but I'm pretty sure the specialty restaurants are never open for breakfast on that ship. This may help: http://www.cruiseastute.com/ship.php?ship=Norwegian Epic&feature=dining (just looked through this deeper and it's definitely out of date, but may help for a ballpark guide for you. Anyone know what happened to that chefs table and murder mystery lunch? They sounded pretty neat.)

 

Just an FYI - the 2 main dining rooms have an identical menu each night. Just the atmosphere and dress code differ (Manhattan room is more 'fancy' requiring gents to wear pants).

I didn't know that about the Haven!  I knew you could order from the main dining room, but didn't know about specialty restaurants too.  

 

Not much is open for Lunch, it seems, other than the Haven Restaurant, Taste, O'Sheehans and the Buffet.  

 

Its too bad they don't do the Chef's table or the Murder Mystery Lunch.  I am doing a TA and have 5 sea days...would be perfect for a Murder Mystery Lunch!  And I can never let a Chef's table go by...oh well.

[nyc2pdx]

2 minutes ago, kochleffel said:

I have Dailies from the Epic in 2019, but who knows whether future cruises will be the same?

 

Anyway, on sea days, lunch was served in the Garden Café, Great Outdoors (pizza starting at 1:00 p.m. and snacks after 2:00), O'Sheehans (open 24/7, but no bar service after 3:00 a.m.), Spice (light lunch), and Taste. On port days, only the Garden Café and O'Sheehans. The Great Outdoors had pizza and snacks after 2:00 p.m.  No specialty restaurants were ever open for lunch.

Thats what I thought.  I remember on my cruise on the Joy, on a port day I went to Taste for lunch, and it was closed up.  I went to the Buffet instead.  

[kochleffel]

2 minutes ago, nyc2pdx said:

Not much is open for Lunch, it seems, other than the Haven Restaurant, Taste, O'Sheehans and the Buffet.  

 

Its too bad they don't do the Chef's table or the Murder Mystery Lunch.  I am doing a TA and have 5 sea days...would be perfect for a Murder Mystery Lunch!  And I can never let a Chef's table go by...oh well.

 

Holland America opens the Pinnacle Grill for lunch on sea days, at (relatively) bargain prices. I would be happy to see a specialty restaurant open for lunch on each sea day, but the Pinnacle Grill was less than 20% full the two times I went there for lunch, so maybe there isn't really that much interest. A Murder Mystery Lunch would be perfect in a longer cruise.

[Ztras]

Shanghai's Chinese Restaurant and Shanghai's Noodle Bar are in the same space, sort of.  The noodle bar is a bar (think sushi restaurant style) in the corner of the restaurant.  Different menus, wait lists, etc.  I went to the noodle bar a couple times for an off-peak heavy snack / light meal.  I was pleasantly surprised - the quality was very good and it felt less rushed than the rest of the ship.

[nyc2pdx]

9 hours ago, Ztras said:

Shanghai's Chinese Restaurant and Shanghai's Noodle Bar are in the same space, sort of.  The noodle bar is a bar (think sushi restaurant style) in the corner of the restaurant.  Different menus, wait lists, etc.  I went to the noodle bar a couple times for an off-peak heavy snack / light meal.  I was pleasantly surprised - the quality was very good and it felt less rushed than the rest of the ship.

Good to know!  thanks.

[Trimone]

Worth remembering with reduced capacity, venues might not bother, most med cruises are multiple port weeks not many sea days!

[Yinster]

In the haven restaurant, the matre'd will decide whether you can have non haven items in their restaurant. Yes they can allowed it to happen but I have been on cruises before when the matre'd said no. I do think it's a good idea to give them plenty of notice. However if it's not going to happen, then that's fine. Remember they will only have so many waiting staff so for you to ask for something else, you are taking a member of staff away for a period of time. 

 

O'Sheeran or the local opens for almost 24 hours. There's one hour during the twilight hours when it's closed so they can clean it.

 

All restaurants and bars will close during muster.