Alaska

Le Cirque at Holland America Vollendam

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Once per cruise, the Pinnacle Grill is transformed into the legendary Le Cirque of New York City. Ranked among the best restaurants in the world by food experts, and famous for its celebrity clientele, Le Cirque brings its French Continental Cuisine to Holland America Line. It’s a way to taste Sirio Maccioniis world famous dishes at a much cheaper price of $49 per person. It is the most expensive meal enhancement of the boat, but it is something you should consider trying if you’re tired of Lido Market or The Dining Room.

We made a reservation at 6:30pm for 10 people and it wasn’t busy at all. Which isn’t a bad thing since their staff aren’t stressed getting everything done. They were attentive and had lots of time to chat with us.

Amuse Bouche

The chef brought us an amuse bouche to get our taste buds ready. This was whipped foie gras with a rhubarb chutney.

Beer and Drinks

We ordered some beers that were extra, but having a beer during dinner with grandpa with mandatory.

Appetizers

Lobster Salad Le Cirque has poached lobster with haricots vert and citrus. The half lobster tail was beautiful and was cooked perfectly. There was a bit of bounce and freshness to it.

Wild Burgundy Escargot with gruyere gnocchi, pickled enoki and bottarga. A big difference in quality compared to the escargot that we got in the Dining Room. It had a better balance of flavours. The escargot itself is chewy and flavourless, but they were able to enchance it a bit more.

Soups

Garden Pea soup is served warm with cheese dumplings and idiazabal crisp. It was really good and definitely the winner out of the 2 different soup options.

Chilled yogurt and melon soup with shrimp. This was an interesting dish as it is served cold. It was refreshing but didn’t hit the spot compared to the garden pea soup.

Mains

Seabass with peaches, capers, bourbon vanilla and chicken oysters.

Rack of Colorado Lamb with goat cheese panisse, artichokes and arugula. Everyone got this medium rare but it seemed crazy tender but it had a bit of tough connective tissue inside. A bit hard to cut through.

Chateaubrian is a beef dish and everyone at the table didn’t realize this. It comes with horseradish flan and sweet and sour baby beets. It is wheeled out in a cart and they carve it infront of you before they serve you. A little nice bit of show before you dig in. This was definitely the winning dish of the night.

Spaghetti Primavera with cream, garlic and parmesan is the meatless dish.

Dessert

They brought us a tower of sweets before all the regular dessert arrived. We had so much food already but it kept coming.

Chocolate soufflé with traditional chocolate soufflé with vanilla gelato. This was good and I really enjoyed it. One thing I didn’t like was how the vanilla gelato was pre-scooped and then went back in the freezer. I’m sure this wasn’t up to their standards.

Crème Brulee Le Crique looked similar to the crème brulee served in the Dining Room. This wasn’t as exquisite since there wasn’t much difference to it.

 

Strawberry Pavlova with earl grey Chantilly, strawberry consume, and basil.

Pineapple with Malibu rum, coconut and bourbon vanilla. A delicious sweet

Final Thought

Overall, the food quality is much better than The Dining Room. When we compared the lobster tail to the one we had at Gala Night, this was exceptionally better quality. There was a few hit and misses compared to our lunch at Pinnacle Grill. Is it worth the $49 extra? I would say yes.

When we got back to the room, a box of truffles were waiting for us. A nice touch.

We Rate Le Cirque

Location:
Holland America Cruise

Website: https://www.hollandamerica.com/

 

Diana started Foodology in 2010 because she just eats out everyday! She started a food blog to share her love of food with the world! She lives in Vancouver, BC and adores the diversity of food around her. She will go crazy for churros and lattes.

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