Haven Restaurant Menu

[roddy good boy]

Can you order more than one entree at a time, from the Haven menu? 
 

Questioning for my husband who only likes large portions of meat and potatoes. 

Edited April 17 by roddy good boy

[DaisyGoldberg]

2 hours ago, goldmom said:

 I've heard of others making special requests for the next night but it didn't work for me even though I asked in advance.

It's  dependent on the policy at a particular Haven, apparently. My sister had one cruise where she asked if it was possible to get a lava cake and they had one for her every night without her having asked. 

 

Next cruise (different ship) they wouldn't pre-arrange it even once, and told her to go to the dining room for it.  Really soured us on making a special request. 

[beastlet]

8 minutes ago, DaisyGoldberg said:

It's  dependent on the policy at a particular Haven, apparently. My sister had one cruise where she asked if it was possible to get a lava cake and they had one for her every night without her having asked. 

 

Next cruise (different ship) they wouldn't pre-arrange it even once, and told her to go to the dining room for it.  Really soured us on making a special request. 

My experience was similar. First Haven cruise on the Breakaway they did any special request. They gave me pretzel bread at dinner every night because they saw I loved it the one time I went to lunch and had it, and they did it without me even asking. Same for creme brulee for dessert, I said how much I liked them in a conversation without asking for it and every night after that one appeared at dinner.

On the Joy, I asked for pretzel bread at dinner every night and it was like I had asked for something totally unreasonable. I asked for creme brulee and again was treated like I was being an unreasonable PITA.

It depends on the management of the restaurant, whether they are good and about service or if they suck. In the Haven, for how much extra you are paying these requests should be fulfilled without a qualm.

[david_sobe]

Special requests seem to not be common in the Haven anymore.  Remember the days when people would get specialty dining appetizers for free with their Haven meal.  

They dont like bringing any outside food into the Haven restaurant for a few reasons.  Once someone sees something that someone else got then its a slippery slope with waiters running back and forth between restaurants.  The Haven staff want to feel they are exclusive and bringing any outside food in cheapens the experience in their minds. 

Many years ago they would actually offer you something from the MDR and deliver it to the Haven restaurant.  Back in the day when NCL had lobster night in the MDR, the Haven staff would inform you it was ok to order it and it would be delivered.  They dont like to do any such things anymore.  I asked once on Encore and got this painful look and I told them its ok and forget about it.

Edited April 17 by david_sobe

[beastlet]

Just now, david_sobe said:

The Haven staff want to feel they are exclusive and bringing any outside food in cheapens the experience in their minds. 

Funny, I think the experience is cheapened because I can't get what I like to eat. The current Haven menu doesn't have a single appetizer I like, and the only dessert I like is plain ice cream or sorbet. 

I shouldn't have to go to the main dining room to get things I enjoy, they should be willing to bring them to me.

[goldmom]

Thanks everyone for sharing your experiences.  At least it isn't just me.  Guess I'll just continue to ask nicely if I have a special request, but not really expect anything.

[RocketMan275]

why not ask  your butler to fetch your special requests to be delivered in the Haven restaurants?

[david_sobe]

50 minutes ago, RocketMan275 said:

why not ask  your butler to fetch your special requests to be delivered in the Haven restaurants?

That is what I asked.  I was told it has to be cleared with the Haven restaurant manager.  The facial expressions that I got were of someone in pain so I never bothered to take it further.

The butler is supposed to bring things to your cabin, not the restaurant (which I was sort of told). 

Edited April 17 by david_sobe

[RocketMan275]

45 minutes ago, david_sobe said:

That is what I asked.  I was told it has to be cleared with the Haven restaurant manager.  The facial expressions that I got were of someone in pain so I never bothered to take it further.

The butler is supposed to bring things to your cabin, not the restaurant (which I was sort of told). 

At that point, I would have asked the concierge to intervene.

[david_sobe]

18 minutes ago, RocketMan275 said:

At that point, I would have asked the concierge to intervene.

There was no dispute to intervene.  I actually started with the concierge and he was not really an advocate for it.  He was the one that told me it would have to be up to the Haven restaurant manager.  I mentioned it to my butler and he also did not accelerate the request either.  It seemed like it was going to be a big deal so I just dropped it.  A better reservation came up at Onda that night and we decided on that instead.

Maybe it could have happened if I pressed the issue.  But I could tell right away it was going to make people uncomfortable and no way I wanted the rules bent for me or given special treatment.  I could take a hint this was not a great idea.  No biggie.  I seriously could care less.  I used to read all the special requests in the Haven all the time.  Its just something I pondered but the subtle resistance made me change my plans.

Edited April 17 by david_sobe

[RocketMan275]

5 minutes ago, david_sobe said:

There was no dispute to intervene.  I actually started with the concierge and he was not really an advocate for it.  He was the one that told me it would have to be up to the Haven restaurant manager.  I mentioned it to my butler and he also did not accelerate the request either.  It seemed like it was going to be a big deal so I just dropped it.  A better reservation came up at Onda that night and we decided on that instead.

Maybe it could have happened if I pressed the issue.  But I could tell right away it was going to make people uncomfortable and no way I wanted the rules bent for me or given special treatment.  I could take a hint this was not a great idea.  No biggie.  I seriously could care less.  I used to read all the special requests in the Haven all the time.  Its just something I pondered but the subtle resistance made me change my plans.

Understand.  Although I might make an issue in post cruise survey. 

[cruiseny4life]

20 hours ago, roddy good boy said:

Can you order more than one entree at a time, from the Haven menu? 
 

Questioning for my husband who only likes large portions of meat and potatoes. 

Order whatever you'd like. Or your husband, I suppose. If he wants five potatoes, a slab of prime rib, a filet mignon, and another slab of prime rib, he can have it. He should throw a lobster tail on the plate too! 

 

Well, at least that's how it's supposed to work. Given today's NCL, who knows if it still is working that way. 

[roddy good boy]

3 minutes ago, cruiseny4life said:

Order whatever you'd like. Or your husband, I suppose. If he wants five potatoes, a slab of prime rib, a filet mignon, and another slab of prime rib, he can have it. He should throw a lobster tail on the plate too! 

 

Well, at least that's how it's supposed to work. Given today's NCL, who knows if it still is working that way. 

Thanks. I recalled that it used to work that way. I was just curious because of the new limits on lobster, etc. He’s an average sized man who works out, but only eats one meal a day (and likes to make it a good one). I’m trying to expand his palate, but after 38 years, it’s lost a cause! 

[Sailing12Away]

On 4/17/2024 at 2:20 PM, beastlet said:

You can order only the turf. Or double turf. Or the turf with mac & cheese.

My mom orders a lobster tail (or two) with every dinner, no matter what entree she gets. The one thing that makes that static menu work is that you can do anything you want with what's on it.

Double turf is too much food for me, and hubby enjoys the lobster. The one they give you is so small anyway he'll gladly take mine. I'm fine with the baked potato that comes with it, so that's why I would do the mac & cheese as the starter. The less revisions to the order the better it seems at not being labeled the PITA guest at each meal. 

 

On 4/17/2024 at 2:27 PM, DaisyGoldberg said:

It's  dependent on the policy at a particular Haven, apparently. My sister had one cruise where she asked if it was possible to get a lava cake and they had one for her every night without her having asked. 

 

Next cruise (different ship) they wouldn't pre-arrange it even once, and told her to go to the dining room for it.  Really soured us on making a special request. 

Sadly it's not just cruise/ship dependent, it's time of day and day of the week on the same cruise dependent as well. Our last trip I asked what flavors of ice cream they had at lunch and was told 'vanilla, vanilla, or vanilla'. So I opted for vanilla and asked for some hot fudge to swirled on there so I could make it into chocolate. At dinner I asked again and when they saw I was disappointed to hear only vanilla, the waiter asked what I would want. When I said chocolate, he said 'no problem, I'll get you some'. So exact same trip and 2 completely different attitudes from the wait staff. It's those inconsistencies with NCL that drive me nutty and lessen the experience.

 

On 4/17/2024 at 2:51 PM, beastlet said:

Funny, I think the experience is cheapened because I can't get what I like to eat. The current Haven menu doesn't have a single appetizer I like, and the only dessert I like is plain ice cream or sorbet. 

I shouldn't have to go to the main dining room to get things I enjoy, they should be willing to bring them to me.

Same, I tend to stick with simple ice cream or sorbet for dessert, or skip it all together and get my dessert in liquid form from the bar as a frozen cocktail. As for getting anything you want whenever you want... definitely a slippery slope on that. I've always heard that with advanced notice and planning the staff was more willing to be open to that - but in reality when we've tried it, not so much. Had a conversation with a F&B manager that was in the Haven areas a lot and she said it would be no problem for us to request indian food one night, but we could never get it to happen. Anytime we asked about it we were told to walk to the buffet as it is served there. So they implied if we requested it ahead of time they would just send someone to the buffet for us and make a plate of random indian stuff, rather than plan a special indian themed dish for us.

 

Honestly I think the more we travel in the Haven the more we end up using the butler. Not a huge fan of eating in our cabin as the tables in there are good for snacks, not for full meals. But I think asking the butler ahead of time to bring something special to the room for an early dinner would be executed more willingly than trying to get it in the restaurant where others can see it as special treatment or something.