I love food.
I love cruises.
I got the best of both at the where I lunched with my daughter last weekend!
This is what the experience reminded me of! On a cruise superliner, (I’ve been on the Royal Caribbean Liberty of the Seas and P&O’s Ventura) you can’t beat their dining selection. They literally cater for everyone at every mealtime so the choice is unparallelled. At the , we could choose from Traditional English (with a carvery), Indian, Thai, Mexican, Japanese, Chinese, Italian and Mediterranean styles of cuisine- there really is something for everyone!
Here is the outside view of the restaurant:
Upon arriving, you walk into a bar / waiting area and the actual dining experience is downstairs. The place is massive! the restaurant seats 360 guests but because of the layout, it doesn’t feel huge when you are in it. There are so many areas to sit that are branched off from the walkway, so that you don’t feel like you are in an enormous dining hall. Where we sat was quite intimate. There were about 6 other tables and we were near to the buffet so there wasn’t far to walk. However the unique part is getting to your table.
The restaurant really wants you to feel like you have taken a trip overseas, so once you are downstairs, you see the ‘flight departure board’:
This lists the styles of food you are about to try (your ‘destinations’) and then you pass through a corridor which is set out like an aeroplane cabin- it even has the overhead storage bins and moulded plastic windows so you feel like you are on a plane! Here is my daughter enjoying the ride!
It certainly made for a talking point and was a nice way of introducing your meal and getting you in the mood for what’s to come. Once seated we could order drinks and go to the buffet to help ourselves. You can go back as many times as you want, so I started with onion bhaji’s and garlic naan whilst my daughter went straight in for the carvery and yorkshire puddings! If you’ve ever fancied trying a new style of food then visiting somewhere like this is a great way to do it. It is a risk free way of seeing if you like something because if you don’t enjoy it, you can have your plate taken away and try something else without having invested in the full cost of a meal that has to be wasted!
During the meal I went back several times for more Indian starters, I also had some chinese (Hong Kong Chicken- it was lovely), some mexican food and Italian, where I approached one of their ‘live stations’ for help. At certain points within the buffet there are chefs at a live station who will freshly prepare certain dishes to your requirements. I went to the pasta station and had some penne with a bolognaise sauce and some basil. They do this in front of you while you wait and is a nice way to have pasta that hasn’t been sat around for ages- as freshly made pasta always tastes better.
I wanted to leave room for pudding as there was a massive choice. Here is the dessert area of the buffet:
Just like on a cruise, there were plenty of individual servings to take and also some larger cakes (like cheesecake) to cut a slice from. I had some strawberry mousse pots, a chocolate and pear tart, fresh melon and pineapple, a mini creme brulee and a mini baked yogurt. I’d love to know how they made that because I’ve never had baked yogurt before so I have put it on my To Do list to ‘Google’ this and see if I can re-create this at home.
My daughter liked the ice cream counter the best – there were so many flavours, you felt like you were in Italy looking at a gelato stand with the choice! She opted for the blue coloured bubblegum flavour and had three lots! It gave her ‘brain freeze’ apparently but was worth it!
We’d taken a day out last weekend to spend some time together and have a ‘mother daughter day’. It is good for her to have some one on one time with me, without her brother, so we can bond as girls and she feels she can talk to me about what is going on in her life. As she approaches these rocky teenage years, I want her to feel secure that ‘mum has her back’, and spending time together like this, treating her as a grown up, helps to do that.
We’d definitely go back here again. We made some lovely memories and ate some lovely food! The website shows the various prices for lunchtime and evening dining and also the price changes from a weekday to a weekend, but for a Saturday lunch like we had it is £9.99 for the adult and the child price is always half.
After our feast we walked back through the ‘aeroplane’, through the departure lounge, back up the stairs and out onto the street where we strolled straight into Waterstones to browse books and then on to Lush where we smelled bath bombs. It was a lovely day, my daughter is already thinking about what we’ll do on our next ‘mother/daughter day’!
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