RHAPSODY OF THE SEA DINNER #2

About more then a couple of months ago we'd decided to finally go on a very over due holiday as well as collaborating it with my birthday. Two birds with one stone right! We had booked and planned for the beautiful South Pacific. Our cruise would take us to New Caledonia Isle of Pines and Noumea, Fiji Suva and Lautoka, Vanuatu Port Vila. Everything was incredibly beautiful with spectacular clear deep blue and turquoise waters. Each days on the Islands were packed with tours and activities however these next following food post for our twelve days cruise were served on the Rhapsody of the Sea ship. 

  

Last night was our first night on the cruise and it is heaven to do absolutely nothing but indulging in relaxation. We spent our first day on the ship by tanning by the pool, walks around the ship to get to know out new surroundings, visiting duty free stores and visiting the buffet. By late afternoon exhaustion kicked in and we thought a nap would help, Which did however we slept through dinner and woke up around 9 pm and completely missed our first dinner reservations. So tonight I made sure we made the effort in making dinner which happened to be formal night dining. We weren't too sure how fancy people would dress themselves and so we decided to go casual formal and to our surprise people had gone all out! With gowns and blings for the ladies and tuxedo for the gentleman's. Boy did we feel under dressed.

As we walked into the Edelweiss restaurant we we're resorted to our table which was a table for eight people, it was also laid out with formal dinner sets. The other couples that joined our table were much older then us but that definitely didn't matter. They were super friendly as well as funny. When everyone was seated we were handed the menu which had good selection of dishes to choose from.

Ritschi

Escargots Bourguignoone 

Tender snails drenched in melted garlic-herb butter

Where do I begin besides from never having tried escargots before? This was a definite first and definitely not the last. I highly enjoyed the escargots. The texture felt like it was somewhat equivalent mussels and as for the flavour I couldn't tell you due to the beautiful buttery sauce that drenched the escargots. 

Roast Duck

Black currant sauce, sweet red cabbage and golden Potatoe Corquettes




The serving of the dish looked devine from its aesthetics to the portion size. By this point dinner reservations at 8:30 pm had my stomach rumbling for food. The first thing you notice on the plate is the size of the roasted duck! Half of a duck seemed like nothing to my greedy eyes and just like I said, greedy me I was unable to finish my dish. The sides were pretty good and complemented the duck very well. The black currant sauce sweetened the duck meat while enhancing the flavor of the duck. The only negative note which absolutely let this whole dish down was that the duck was very over done. The meet felt chewy and slightly dry which the sides had to try and hide. The sweet cabbage somewhat help with the dryness of the meat. 

 Royal Cheese plate 

 daily selection of cheeses with fig and date compote, artisan dried fruit bread. 



By this point I wasn't sure if I was able to squeeze in dessert but that's just the insane me talking! Come on dessert? Even though I wasn't sure if I wanted dessert at first but by the time our wonderful waiter arrived I pursued my partner to get the Espresso chocolate cake and as for myself I picked the Cheese plate. The Cheese plate was deceivingly small which consisted of three types of cheeses partnered with dried raisins, pickled fig and walnuts. 



This was heaven, I may not be a cheese expert but this was heaven to my taste buds. The sweetness of the dried raisins enhanced the flavor of the cheese.

SERVICE: 10/10

AMBIANCE :7.5/10

PRESENTATION: 7.5/10



NOTE: SERVICE: 10/10 In all my previous post and food experiences I have not experienced exceptional service for me to rate a perfect ten in any service however that has changed thanks to our amazing table wait staff Hita and Ritschi from our cruise. For the whole twelve days they were consistent, attentive, polite and always delivered high service throughout the whole time.  













Cuisine: Modern America

Address: Rhapsody of the Sea Cruise 



EFTPOS: Prepaid with travel package