Emeril's on Mardi Gras....please go

[Homosassa]

My reaction when I first heard that Emeril Lagasse had signed an agreement with Carnival Cruise Line for a restaurant on board was that it was a poor match of the targeted market demographics for Carnival Cruise Line and that of the on shore restaurants.

 

He is known for a style of cuisine that would at one time might appear under the "Didja Ever" offerings on the MDR menu. 

 

His food just isn't a match for the food preferences of Carnival cruisers.

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

We ate there 2-3 times, in an effort to sample a few things (some yet to try), and enjoyed it. I'd like to see the seating a bit more out of the walkway -- lots of people walking by trying to get a look at what we were eating. However, I know that's not possible - it is where it is.

 

I agree, that it gets lost among so many other options. One of the reasons we're returning (in 6 days) was because we felt that there were just so many things we didn't get to try.

 

Prior to Chibang being announced, I had held out two nights of our 8/7 sailing for JiJi's. As it turned out, we didn't visit the hybrid once. I'll correct that this time (but not interested at all in the Mexican options).

 

With a little luck, we'll be able to take part in the Chef's Table which Emeril is hosting over Thanksgiving week -- that would definitely be a unique experience!

 

Tom

[BlerkOne]

Just now, Homosassa said:

My reaction when I first heard that Emeril Lagasse had signed an agreement with Carnival Cruise Line for a restaurant on board was that it was a poor match of the targeted market demographics for Carnival Cruise Line and that of the on shore restaurants.

 

He is known for a style of cuisine that would at one time might appear under the "Didja Ever" offerings on the MDR menu. 

 

His food just isn't a match for the food preferences of Carnival cruisers.

My reaction when Carnival chose Florida for Mardi Gras instead of New Orleans was they missed the boat entirely. For food, Emeril's and Shaq's are the two venues I'm most looking forward to. ChiBang does nothing for me. I don't consider Emeril's food to be real New Orleans, but have enjoyed in a variety of locations including Las Vegas.

 

Chef's Table is more out of place than Emeril's, IMO.

[Homosassa]

1 minute ago, BlerkOne said:

I don't consider Emeril's food to be real New Orleans, but have enjoyed in a variety of locations including Las Vegas.

 

 

I agree about Emeril's food being neither Creole or Cajun, but his personal background certainly matches the tradition of Creole food with his French and Portuguese heritage and growing up in an area that also had an Italian  influence and fresh seafood. 

 

If a chief is looking for a foodie town to open a restaurant in, New Orleans fits the bill.

[HxFx]

15 hours ago, Saint Greg said:

I can’t speak for roper but i think the quotes were because people say free but you pay for it with the cruise. I prefer to say included.

Agreed, it's either "included" or "additional"!

[HxFx]

Hopefully they will wait until they are sailing at full capacity before making a decision. I had the ceviche there for lunch on a sea day and it was yummy. I liked the light lunch and it also enabled me to get a small sampling of my favorite at P&A as well (I'm looking at you pork butt!) I like trying lots of different places for one meal, especially for lunch. 

 

They should definitely wait until the "free during inauguration" has ended for the soon to be pay restaurants. I had late time dining and didn't have a problem making a reservation at Cucina. It was probably harder for the early time diners since they are used to eating earlier but couldn't make reservations until 8PM.

[1025cruise]

Weird fact: Emeril is a graduate of Johnson and Wales in Providence RI. At the time, my family owned a Kosher catering business in Rhode Island. Emeril was an intern while in school.

[ninjacat123]

My mom and I enjoyed Emeril's twice, once for breakfast, Citrus Pain Perdu (soooo good!) and Bananas Foster Crepe (yum!!) then lunch we split a Muffelletta, awesome and sizable!  I agree, ChiBang is meh.  I'll be trying JiJi's for the first time this January.  Very excited!!

[vwrestler171]

I feel another issue with Emerils is that is is tucked back out of the way.  I would see it at night, and think I still needed to go there, but I kept forgetting about it as I was never on deck 6 except at night.

[crewsweeper]

2 hours ago, Homosassa said:

I agree about Emeril's food being neither Creole or Cajun, but his personal background certainly matches the tradition of Creole food with his French and Portuguese heritage and growing up in an area that also had an Italian  influence and fresh seafood. 

 

If a chief is looking for a foodie town to open a restaurant in, New Orleans fits the bill.

Don't forget Emeril cut his chops at Commanders Palace, a traditional fine dining NOLA restaurant.

Traditional NOLA cooking is indeed Creole, a blend of French and Spanish and African flavors.  Want "real" Cajun? , go to Lafayette.

[BlerkOne]

On Emeril

https://www.bonappetit.com/entertaining-style/article/emeril-commanders-palace-ella-brennan

[pjhootch]

We love multiple Emeril restaurants.  Cajun?  No.  Excellent food?  Oh yeah!  I was excited to try the Bistro and was not let down.  I disagree that Emeril's is not a good fit for Carnival customers.  The Mardi Gras is different than previous Carnival dining.    There is simply no way the dining rooms can handle the crowd size of main dining rooms on other ships- let alone the potential 6400 Mardi Gras capacity.   

 

I agree ChiBang did not interest me at all.  We considered it multiple days but basically felt like we can get anything they serve as take out food in our very unimaginative home town.  So skipped it.  Cucina had excellent food and even a pared down menu had enough variety.  P&A was as expected.  Good for a quick meal.  The buffet was small and not very interesting to me with all the other food venues on board.  

 

I think you folks are right that Emeril's is a great venue that can work but needs to be promoted a little differently to get the attention it deserves.  We had jambalaya and empandas, and my husband had raw oysters that he loved. We had some other food another day and I truly cannot even remember.  All was good.  The seasons were a bit toned down from an Emeril venue on land, but still very good.

[Earthworm Jim]

5 hours ago, Homosassa said:

Those of us that haven eaten in those restaurants knew that a "small plate" was just the right size to follow an appetizer and salad and still allow room for sharing a dessert.

 

But if the menu they show on the website is the full menu, there are no appetizers or salads (except the "A Little More" Crab Louie salad) to pair with it on the ship.

 

It sounds like it might be more of a lunch-sized serving place, and at lunch people are more likely to be up on the outside decks than on deck 6. A lot of the dishes on the menu seem appealing though. But would I want to skip a multi-course dinner to get small servings there?

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

Is Emeril's still closed for lunch on embarkation day? It was for our sailing in August.

[Computer Nerd]

19 hours ago, RoperDK said:

I feel Emeril's on Mardi Gras is in trouble.  It shouldn't be. It is a great venue.  Extra charge where there are many free meal options, but so much quality.  The small plate options are inexpensive, but so tasty.  I think that because of the free options, it is being squeezed out.  Sometimes quality should trump quantity.  Negatives...it is a bit out of the way and the posted on site menu is hard to read because of the mirrored background. They need to change that for sure.  We were on the Halloween cruise and were asked at Cucina if we had gone there and what our experience was.  I have to admit that we only ate there once for dinner.  There are so many options right now.  My husband had gumbo and I had jambalaya.  What a treat.  Inexpensive, tasty, and a large portion.  We ate at Rudi's one night and Emeril's was better for us.  Disclaimer....we are not being compensated for this review.  Would just hate to see a quality option being lost because folks don't want to pay extra.  On Mardi Gras, Cucina, Chibang, and Pig and Anchor, are "free" but don't have the same menu that other ships do.  Those ships have minimal upcharges, but have better quality options.  Sometimes free is not better.   

Did you ever think maybe some folks don't like what Emeril's has to offer? 

[RoperDK]

1 hour ago, Computer Nerd said:

Did you ever think maybe some folks don't like what Emeril's has to offer? 

Of course! I am never surprised by the lack of imagination in some people's food choices.  

[RoperDK]

2 hours ago, Tom-n-Cheryl said:

Is Emeril's still closed for lunch on embarkation day? It was for our sailing in August.

I can't say 100%, but I don't think it was open until closer to sail away.  My Hub App was being temperamental because I didn't go into airplane mode until we left the dock.   

[ray98]

We are planning to try it next month when we are on board.  I am a fan of Emeril and NOLA cuisine. 

 

From watching and reading reviews it seems to be getting lost in the shuffle with the multitude of other venues, most of which are no extra charge right now.  If those move to pay venues at a later date I expect it will move up the list of options for many.  MG has so many eateries most will go through a cruise and not try everything as it is.  

[Colorado Beach Bum]

41 minutes ago, RoperDK said:

Of course! I am never surprised by the lack of imagination in some people's food choices.  

Maybe has nothing to do with lack of imagination.  In my case I’m allergic to fish/seafood so that eliminates most items there for me. 

[RoperDK]

13 minutes ago, ray98 said:

We are planning to try it next month when we are on board.  I am a fan of Emeril and NOLA cuisine. 

 

From watching and reading reviews it seems to be getting lost in the shuffle with the multitude of other venues, most of which are no extra charge right now.  If those move to pay venues at a later date I expect it will move up the list of options for many.  MG has so many eateries most will go through a cruise and not try everything as it is.  

We just got off the Mardi Gras and couldn't try all of the venues.  We are not your normal cruisers and hardly every go the the MDR anymore.  We are back onboard in January and I will have a better game plan for the venues we were interested in and missed.  Doubt we will try Chibang.  Nothing stood out to us.  We are also not going back to Rudi's.  We might try the steakhouse, but I had a casino credit and got the steakhouse filet at Cucina and it was excellent.  We also just can't eat three full meals everyday anymore.  We like to go smaller for at least one meal.  Nice that the Mardi Gras doesn't upcharge everything, so you don't feel you have to get your moneys worth.  Although Emeril's says "small plates" the serving size is still quite large.  The two of us could share the Gumbo as an appetizer and order peel and eat shrimp and oysters as a main and split the jambalaya as a side.  When we went we ended up too full to try desert.  That's just us.  Everyone is different.    

[RoperDK]

19 minutes ago, Colorado Beach Bum said:

Maybe has nothing to do with lack of imagination.  In my case I’m allergic to fish/seafood so that eliminates most items there for me. 

I certainly understand that.  I have diet restrictions, too.  Oh what I would do to eat a simple salad again.  Raw veggies (that I LOVE) are a no go for me.  I wasn't saying that Emeril's was a perfect fit for everyone, I was just trying to point out that the venue has wonderful, inexpensive options that many people aren't aware of.  They also have market price fresh seafood that would jack up the price quite a bit. I would put the quality on a par with a pay restaurant and outshone our lackluster Rudi's experience.  

[Computer Nerd]

2 hours ago, RoperDK said:

Of course! I am never surprised by the lack of imagination in some people's food choices.  

Let ne know when you've eaten rattlesnake, bugs, and pig stomach and then we can talk about lack of imagination in food choices. 

Why does everyone here think they know better than everyone else and act so conceited about it?

[BlerkOne]

21 minutes ago, Computer Nerd said:

Let ne know when you've eaten rattlesnake, bugs, and pig stomach and then we can talk about lack of imagination in food choices.

I have, but will take a pass on sushi. Something about eating fish bait just doesn't appeal to me.

[Pyxie]

I hope it does well and is still there when I finally cruise the Mardi Gras in 2 years. It is actually the food venue I am most looking forward to on the ship, being a huge fan of cajun/creole food and Emeril.

[TrqoisWtrs]

23 hours ago, Earthworm Jim said:

Why are those surcharge restaurants quote/unquote "free" on Mardi Gras? The Mardi Gras page at Carnival lists them as "Additional $".  Am I to assume the quotes around "free" imply it really isn't free?

When Mardi Gras first started sailing, John Heald kept saying they were offering the 'free' restaurants  as something special for the inaugural season, and so far they are still free.

 

I enjoy eating at Emeril's, had the blue crab claws and shrimp scampi.  Very tasty.