Enchanted Princess - Bistro Sur la Mer

[CruiseNYC]

I’m looking for anyone’s current experience/review of Bistro Sur La Mer on Enchanted Princess. Menus?  Worth the additional charge?  We’ve been to Crown Grill and Sabatini’s and enjoyed both. We were thinking we’d like to try something new. 
Thank you!
 

[wowzz]

Slightly off topic, but it has been reported elsewhere that the BsM franchise is finishing sometime next year. No news as yet as to any possible replacement. 

[skynight]

This site has a sample menu. Have read that one of the negatives is its location in the open atrium area. I have no information regarding the quality of food or service.

https://www.princess.com/ships-and-experience/food-and-dining/specialty-restaurants/

[davekent]

We booked Sur La Mer based on the menu prior to boarding the ship on the Scandinavian 7 night cruise that completed last week. When on the ship we saw the location and seriously considered cancelling the booking as the location is not ideal but decided to go ahead. The service was exemplary both friendly and efficient, not surprisingly the seafood (scallops) my wife had was excellent but also my dish the duck was the best meal I had on the ship. We ate early at 6:00 and sat by the window watching Oslo disappear and it was an excellent experience. Undoubtably if we had a table away from the window nearer the atrium walkway the experience would not have been as good but even then the quality of the food would probably have made it worthwhile for us

[WatchHill]

The Bistro menu has little appeal to me. IMO, it's but another revenue source that isn't generating the bottom line the bean counters anticipated. Personally, I would like to see Vines return to the Atrium primarily because we like the wine flights and it offers additional seating for the International Cafe. Maybe moving Salty Dog from the Atrium to the Bistro location would work. However, there's no way I'm paying $18 for a burger.

For our upcoming Enchanted cruise the only "extra' dining venue we reserved is  the Crown Grille. I liked the old, old Sabatini's menu, not the current offerings. 

 

Darcy

[jpom18]

I went back in February and it was different, which is why I went.  Like you I have been to the Crown Grill and Sabatini's a number of times so wanted to try something different.

 

That said, the food they have is not really my cup of tea so to speak, but it was okay.  I started with the Escargot, which while good had more garlic then even I would have liked and I love my garlic, I was feeling those the rest of the night.

 

The "goat cheese" olives were not what I was expecting but different.

 

I had the seabass fillet which was really good but small.

 

As stated above you're not really in a restaurant area but rather sitting in the middle of the atrium with people walking through on their way to wherever.

 

Was it worth the extra cost, tough to say.  For what I got I would be hard pressed to say it was, that said I went to try something different I wasn't really worried about if I was getting good value and it was different so there is that. 

 

Given the choice I would take CG or Sabs over BsM and I, personally, feel that that I get more "bang for buck" at those 2 then BsM.  Again, there wasn't anything really wrong with the food but it just wouldn't be my first choice in the future and I can't help but feel the other restaurants have better value.

 

I also had their Fish and Chips one night delivered to cabin, wasn't overly impressed, the fish reminded me of the the old Highliner Fish sticks my mom used to make when we needed a quick meal.

 

Off-Topic but I also went to Salty Dog for dinner and enjoyed that, obviously not in the same market as BSM but for the lower up charge and what I got I thought it was good value and I enjoyed it (just personal opinion).  $18 for Lobster Mac and Cheese, a good burger, and dessert didn't strike me as overly out of this world, but then I'm in Canada where a burger at a basic restaurant is $18 and at a burger joint can be $25-$30.

Edited September 7, 2022 by jpom18

[capriccio]

Our party of 6 went to Bistro Sur La Mer on the Enchanted Princess in March.  We all enjoyed the meal but the location is more than a little problematic.  It is an open space overlooking the atrium which means that the noise level varies with the music being played in the atrium.  We had a 6 pm reservation and the music was mostly at background level but at 8 pm another group began playing much louder and we could barely hear ourselves talk.  We noticed lots of people leaving then and very few being seated.  We left as soon as we finished our deserts.  I question the wisdom of not only the open space but also if a large restaurant only open 4 (evening) hours per day is the best use of space.

[CruiseNYC]

Thank you all very much for your thoughtful replies.  I was afraid that the open area of the restaurant would be off-putting.  Some Celebrity ships have a similar problem with the placement of their specialty dining.  I am not a fan.

[MissP22]

1 hour ago, capriccio said:

Our party of 6 went to Bistro Sur La Mer on the Enchanted Princess in March.  We all enjoyed the meal but the location is more than a little problematic.  It is an open space overlooking the atrium which means that the noise level varies with the music being played in the atrium.  We had a 6 pm reservation and the music was mostly at background level but at 8 pm another group began playing much louder and we could barely hear ourselves talk.  We noticed lots of people leaving then and very few being seated.  We left as soon as we finished our deserts.  I question the wisdom of not only the open space but also if a large restaurant only open 4 (evening) hours per day is the best use of space.

Like all the areas surrounding the Piazza on the Royal class ships, its always noisy with the music playing.

I wish they would have partitioned the restaurant off somewhat.

[mvaldes140]

We tried it out on the first night on Enchanted back in July, and in our opinion it was really bad. The service was great as always, but the food was just bland to us. Between the three of us, I think the only thing that one of us liked was the salad at the beginning

[FritzG]

We were on Enchanted for 20 days in March, and Sur La Mer was usually pretty empty.  We decided not to try it mostly because of its location.  I don't know if they could make it more appealing with paneled screens or something like that.

[Sn0cruiser]

We tried it in Nov 2021 because we had OBC to use.  The service as mentioned above was great.  The food was meh.  I wouldn’t go back even with « free » OBC.   
 

I found that, with this restaurant, Gigi’s, the huge photo location (why if everything is digital now?), and the Salty dog replacing Vines, the various levels of the piazza are no longer a great space to hang out.  Too much of the space is given over to restaurants ( and the weirdly large photo area ).

[MissP22]

2 hours ago, FritzG said:

We were on Enchanted for 20 days in March, and Sur La Mer was usually pretty empty.  We decided not to try it mostly because of its location.  I don't know if they could make it more appealing with paneled screens or something like that.

It always appeared to be either closed or underutilized most of the time. 

[cruzsnooze]

I ate there on the Majestic. I ordered the scallops and they were served almost raw. I sent my dish back 3 times. Portions were small and the food not to my liking. The location was awful. I wouldn't go back even for free. 

[villauk]

On 9/7/2022 at 2:00 PM, davekent said:

We booked Sur La Mer based on the menu prior to boarding the ship on the Scandinavian 7 night cruise that completed last week. When on the ship we saw the location and seriously considered cancelling the booking as the location is not ideal but decided to go ahead. The service was exemplary both friendly and efficient, not surprisingly the seafood (scallops) my wife had was excellent but also my dish the duck was the best meal I had on the ship. We ate early at 6:00 and sat by the window watching Oslo disappear and it was an excellent experience. Undoubtably if we had a table away from the window nearer the atrium walkway the experience would not have been as good but even then the quality of the food would probably have made it worthwhile for us

 

I was on the same sailing and Bistro Sur la Mer was completely empty most days, unlike Gigi’s. I presume because of the location. It’s one thing to sit having a pizza in an informal location, but not a more upscale dinner. As you said, sitting by the window looking out at the Scandinavian views provided a different experience than to others that would have the busy atrium right beside them. By contrast, our sailing friends were unable to dine in the Crown Grill as it was totally sold out.

[davekent]

14 minutes ago, villauk said:

 

I was on the same sailing and Bistro Sur la Mer was completely empty most days, unlike Gigi’s. I presume because of the location. It’s one thing to sit having a pizza in an informal location, but not a more upscale dinner. As you said, sitting by the window looking out at the Scandinavian views provided a different experience than to others that would have the busy atrium right beside them. By contrast, our sailing friends were unable to dine in the Crown Grill as it was totally sold out.

We are not fans of the buffets on ships so rather than having 7 nights in the same MDR always intended having 2 speciality dining meals. The decision on which ones to visit was made easy however by the lack of available reservations in the Crown Grill (think when we looked there was just availability on one day and one or two slots neither of which were suitable for us). In saying that on our previous Princess cruise we did prefer Sabatini's to the Crown Grill so were not too disappointed. As stated we did enjoy Sur La Mer (possibly I was also in an exuberant mood as West Ham had finally managed a league win against a Midlands team that will remain nameless!), our main gripe will always be against whoever thought of replacing Vines with the Salty Dog Gastropub! 

[c-boy]

1 hour ago, davekent said:

We are not fans of the buffets on ships so rather than having 7 nights in the same MDR always intended having 2 speciality dining meals. The decision on which ones to visit was made easy however by the lack of available reservations in the Crown Grill (think when we looked there was just availability on one day and one or two slots neither of which were suitable for us). In saying that on our previous Princess cruise we did prefer Sabatini's to the Crown Grill so were not too disappointed. As stated we did enjoy Sur La Mer (possibly I was also in an exuberant mood as West Ham had finally managed a league win against a Midlands team that will remain nameless!), our main gripe will always be against whoever thought of replacing Vines with the Salty Dog Gastropub! 

at some point in the future you and I will have to enjoy a pint (or two) while we discuss our choice of clubs 😉

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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GOOOO MAN U ! 

 

 

 

[Shelly97060]

We have eaten there twice and enjoyed it.  Here are some pictures for you 😄
 

 

 

 

Edited September 11, 2022 by Shelly97060