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THE DINING:
There are a lot of discussions over which luxury cruise line has the best cuisine. Since we hadn't cruised in luxury before, we have nothing with which to compare our dining experiences, but the food on The Shadow was beautifully prepared and always was served as ordered. Beef ordered rare arrived rare, salad ordered with dressing on the side was served that way. One of the main advantages of cruising on a ship with so few "guests" and of having the flexible dining is that the food preparation is much less banquet style and more personalized. The meals were varied and interesting and the portions were certainly adequate. The wait staff is attentive and remembers your preferences, as does the wine steward who presents a different bottle of wine every evening.
"In-suite" dining was a luxury of which my daughter and I availed ourselves a couple of times on this sailing. We had a dining table in our Silver Suite, and on those occasions when we didn't feel like dressing up or just wanted to watch a movie in our jammies, we cocooned. Once we had the meal served course by course and once we had it brought all at one time. The waiter arrived with a full tray (how do they DO that on rough seas?) complete with a Frette linen table cloth and crystal glasses. Within seconds our dining table looked as though Martha Stewart had paid a visit.
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We started every morning with coffee, juice, and pastries or bread in our suite, and occasionally ordered a bagel, cream cheese and smoked salmon too, to be delivered by room service. Our usual routine, though, was to wake up with our coffee, slowly and leisurely get ready for the day, and then go have breakfast in the Terrace Café, located aft on Deck Seven.
HIGH-FIVES WERE IN ORDER
FOR ANY GUEST MANAGING TO EVADE THE
PLATE-GRABBING WAITERS...
In fact we had lunch there every day too, enjoying the fresh offerings in the buffet line, which isn't really a buffet at all, it's more of a cafeteria. I had the same thing every day: Fresh, beautifully prepared sashimi, a little ramekin of shoyu and wasabe, and a salad with the Silversea version of Italian dressing; light, herb-blended, very little oil. The sashimi is rotated every day between tuna, yellowfin and salmon, and it is always fresh and perfect. There is a platter of sushi, too, with maki rolls and other delicacies, but for me, the daily sashimi was heavenly manna. I did, of course, try the other items, all of which were wonderful. The international chefs were very adept at creating masterpieces ranging from Indonesian saté to Greek dolmas to Southern Fried chicken.
In the evenings the Terrace Café becomes a reservation-only themed dining restaurant but during the day, for breakfast and lunch, it is self-service. Waiters will bring your drinks and whisk away your dirty plates, but those activities don't utilize the full compliment of waitstaff. The rest of the waiters stand in a line just outside the door of the food station, watching for a guest to emerge with a full plate. Their job is to take the plate from your hands and escort you to your table.
It's impressive to see them standing in a line with their gold vests and brilliant smiles. It became a game to see if you could make it past the line and to the table before your plate was grabbed; high-fives were in order if this were accomplished by any guest. (We managed it once, but we were seated very close to the cafeteria exit.) The game wasn't in any way mean-spirited; these guys were so accomplished and adept at their jobs that it really was a contest of skill.TWO TRUFFLES AND
WHITE GLOVE SERVICE
On one of our sea days we went to an elaborate brunch in the main dining room. Display tables were set up in the center of The Restaurant with an astounding array of international offerings. The waiters stood by, ready to execute the "plate grab," and accompany you to your table. My daughter wandered over to the dessert displays after our meal... she wanted something sweet to enjoy with her post-prandial coffee. She settled on two small chocolate truffles, but alas, there was not a small plate nor a paper napkin in which to carry them. She had to put them on a large dinner-sized platter and sure enough, Manuel (one of our favorite waiters) grabbed the plate and accompanied her back to our table. She couldn't stop laughing; white-glove assistance for two chocolate truffles! "What class!" she exclaimed. "What service!" It remains one of our favorite moments from a voyage filled with favorite moments.
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