I Tried ALL the Food on Norwegian Encore (Honest NCL Dining Review)

well I am just back from selling on my very first Norwegian cruise on board the Norwegian Encore and in this video I'm going to walk you through every meal I had on board the ship as I review all of the food on board the Norwegian encore hello everyone my name is Zach I Am The Traveling Man and while I was on board the Encore I ate just about everywhere that was available on board the ship of course Norwegian Cruise Line is famous for their freestyle dining and I took full advantage I ate at five specialty dining venues I ate in the main dining rooms I ate at the buffet I ate in the observation Lounge so in this video I'm going to walk you through all of those meals all of the food I had I've got video clips and pictures and I've got my honest review about how I felt about everything I had on board the ship and there's a lot of food to cover so I'm just gonna jump right into it we're going to start with day one upon boarding the ship I couldn't wait to go to the local now the local if you're not familiar is a 24-hour eatery that Norwegian has on board a lot of their ships and that's just unheard of onboard cruise ships other than pizza or room service you just normally don't find 24-hour food on board a cruise ship but they had it on Norwegian Encore and I was very excited to try the local I had seen a lot online about the local and had looked at that menu for like hour hours before the cruise just like oh I don't want to get this day what I want to get that day I knew it was open for breakfast during the breakfast hours they do have breakfast offerings but lunch dinner and overnight hours they have wings and burgers and salads and soups and fish and chips and lechon and all sorts of things it was a wide menu there so the very first day of the cruise embarkation day that was the first place I hit up I went to the local the cool thing about the local is that it is a table service restaurant so in addition to being completely complimentary you know it's just like walking up to the buffet and making yourself a plate but everything is brought to you at the table you are served by a waiter like you would be in the main dining room which I thought was very cool but I settled that first day I knew I wanted to get the wings I love chicken wings and they had really good Wings inside the local so this first day I got the smoked barbecue wings and they were good they had really good flavor and I enjoyed that and then for my main I got the Wrangler burger and this was very good for a free meal it was not anything like what I had expected because I was like this is going to be like a burger like you could get off of you know a lot of ships have like a burger place out on the Lido right by the pool and I thought that's what it was going to be they were just going to throw some toppings on it and it's like oh I could have gotten this outside and not had to wait at all but this was a fantastic Burger had really good toppings on it and I ended up getting this we'll see this again a few days later in the cruise because it was that good I had to get it again one thing I didn't like about the burger and fries was the fries and I'll give you a word of warning some of you might not like fish you might not be able to eat seafood at all I don't know why Norwegian would fry up their french fries in the same oil that they've used to fry fish but they had and it was very evident because the fries tasted a fish at least that first day I didn't have that experience any other days but I thought that was a bit odd and I did want to mention that just to be careful and make sure that you ask them that your fries not be cooked if you you know if you don't like fish or if you can't eat fish make sure you ask them that they cook your fries in a separate batch of oil because those tasted heavily of the fried fish and they do have fried fish and fish sandwich and things like that on the menu so I know it exactly what was happening that night for dinner I had my first specialty dining opportunity like I said took advantage of five there are so many specialty dining venues on board the Encore more than I've seen on any other cruise ship I think overall I counted seven or eight total specialty dining venues and I wanted to get to as many of those as I could now Norwegian does offer their free at Sea promotion uh quite a bit which means you get a specialty down in credit with your booking it's basically included in the price of the cruise uh so I had one going in later on they asked me if I wanted to upgrade to their free at C plus which gave me two additional specialty downings bringing my grand total to three I said absolutely I knew I'd want to try them and then uh like by the second day of the cruise after I'd been to Specialty dining a night or two I knew I needed more so I went and added two more specialty dining credits those cost about 99 onboard the ship so if you're wanting to know how much they cost on board the ship versus online before the cruise it was 99 plus whatever their gratuity charge 18 or 20 percent so it came out to like a hundred and twenty dollars essentially so I did get Five Nights at specialty dining and the first night of the cruise I was at Le Bistro and Le Bistro is the French inspired or French cuisine restaurant there on board the ship it's actually just under the go-kart track on board you can actually hear uh some of the go-karts going over sometimes while you're eating uh but we had really good views out the window because you could look out we were actually selling away from Seattle the food in there was just okay and I'll walk through exactly what I had to start they brought some bread to the table and the bread was just okay this was my first indication that uh this isn't quite specialty quality of food here in La Bistro the the bread was like maybe something you would get off the buffet it wasn't even main dining room quality I didn't care for the bread at all for my starter I got the beef Tartar and again that was just okay it didn't really do anything for me I thought it could have used more flavor I've definitely had more flavorful beef tartar on other cruise ships before so I didn't really care for that for my salad round I went for the goat cheese croquette salad and that was just okay too the beets that they have in this salad were the best part but the Croquettes weren't anything special however things turned around a little bit with my main entree and I got the shank and lamb chops and those were the best part they were very flavorful a lot of spice in there and I really enjoyed that and then I finished things off with the floating island dessert and this is like some cream floating in a little bowl and that was very good so the main entree and the dessert were good however everything else it just wasn't specialty dining quality and also because I had four other specialty dining's book I was kind of like oh no are we off on a bad start like are all the other ones going to be this bad too but uh things got better I promise so on day two of the cruise I was back at the local for breakfast and very excited to try breakfast at the local and it was fantastic I was blown away at the Quality I had some french toast with hash browns and the cool thing about the French toast I had in the local that day was that it had like local breakfast diner or whatever Vibes like it tasted like I just walked down to the corner to my local breakfast place and got French toast it was very good the second second day of the cruise was a sea day so they did offer lunch in the main dining room and y'all I was blown away by the lunch I had in the main dining room that day I had heard some rumors and some talk people had sent me messages on Instagram make sure you follow me along on Instagram at Zach the travel man love to have you over there I'm always posting about cruising and especially while I'm on these trips I'm always posting pictures like if I'm sitting at the local eating breakfast I'm posting a picture right then and you're saying oh he's having breakfast at the local here's what he thought so if you want to kind of be more behind the scenes make sure you follow me on Instagram but some people were messaging me before I even went on the cruise after I'd announced I was going on Norwegian and they were like we've been on recently and the food has not been great and that worried me a little bit I believe the people I believe whatever ships they were on probably didn't have great food but I thought that was probably going to be my experience I had probably the best lunch I've ever had in the main dining room on a ship for a starter I got the bistro salad and this was a really good salad it had garlic croutons on it and then for my main because it was Memorial Day that day I went for some barbecue and they had St Louis style barbecue pork this was so so good I didn't expect much I had very low expectations because I've gotten the barbecue dishes on other Cruise Lines before and it's been very at best but this was like two thumbs way up if you're ever in the main dining room on the Norwegian Encore and you see those ribs and you're like yeah I don't know if I should do that it's barbecuing cruise ship you absolutely should do that that was a really good meal and I'm really glad that I went in there for lunch that day that night I was back in the main dining room and unlike that lunch I didn't have the best of experience this evening first of all service was very slow in the main dining room it was pretty much slammed when I got there though there were tons of people but service was so slow it took forever to get my food I started out with some bread of course they always bring you the bread and the bread was pretty good it was probably better than that bread I had in La Bistro and then for my starter I went with the clam chowder and that was very good clam chowder is very good and warm I also went with a Caesar salad and that was very good as well always love a good Caesar salad and they didn't disappoint me but then with my main things started to go downhill just a little bit because I opted for the roast beef and it just wasn't great there wasn't any flavor in the roast beef by the time it got to the table it was cold so it was like eating a cold to lukewarm at best like cut of meat and it was just a very thin very gristly piece of meat did not care for that and then the potatoes that you see there on the plate with it they were instant weren't done very well at that they're very gritty potatoes I just did not care for the main entree at all however my dessert turned things around just a little bit this was a warm apple strudel and it was very good it was a huge dessert as you can see there on the cliff but a very good dessert nonetheless so uh yeah unfortunately the good lunch experience didn't carry over to dinner that day in the main dining room so on the third day of the cruise of course started it off right at the local once again and on this day I started off with the fruit plate that they offered and of course it's fruit I don't know what else I can say it was a good fruit but then I opted for the breakfast sandwich and the breakfast sandwich that they have in there is pretty good but the bread to filling ratio was off there was like one little piece of ham a little thin like Deli slice piece of ham and then this big like brioche bun the brioche bun was fantastic it all tasted very good but I was like maybe they could have put like two or maybe three pieces of ham on there to that big old bun that would have been a little bit better but the breakfast sandwich was good nonetheless and then for lunch I was back at the local because this happened to be a day where we were going to be in Juneau and we didn't arrive at Juno to like 2 30 in the afternoon and I had a Long Afternoon Of Excursion so I was like I'll eat some lunch before I get off the ship and it seemed like everyone else probably had that same thought as I did because the service that day was extremely slow I had to wait to even get a seat and get a table I had to wait to be called for that and then once I did get seated and placed my order it took over 30 minutes to get my orders just know that sometimes the local can be pretty rushed with people especially the third day of the cruise everyone like me had experienced the local at least once realized how good it was and they were all coming back for more but I started off my meal that day with more chicken wings these were the sweet chili things they were very good I really enjoyed the flavor of those sweet chili wings I definitely enjoyed those more than the barbecue wings but both of them were good and then I wanted to get a burger and I knew the regular burger was good but I was like you know what I'm gonna try a different Burger today so I opted for the blue cheese burger and this was not great it was that you you see the clip there it's a dry Patty and this did taste like something that maybe you'd get up on the buffet or out on the Lido deck it was a very tough Patty uh very little flavor in any of it I just did not enjoy the burger that day and then I finished things off with a carrot cake this was just okay this is like something you would get off the buffet which was kind of disappointing because that was one of the items I had seen on the menu before I went on the cruise I was really excited to try that carrot cake but it just didn't live up to the expectations that I had and I never tried it again the entire cruise but it was a very cold and a very rainy day important I was tired by the time I got back on the ship but I had my second specialty dining restaurant waiting for me that night and this night I was at Cagney's and Cagney's it's the steakhouse on board the ship and it's popular if there there was a reservation to be had on board the Encore it was for cagneys everyone was trying to get a reservation for there and I was glad that I was able to snag one before the cruise and I will say I wasn't that busy in there that night I think because we were in Juneau however despite that the service was quite slow I don't know if they just didn't have enough servers on that night or what for my starter I went with the crab cake and the crab cake was so good and in my notes for the food I wrote that this was the best crab cake yet and by that I mean it's the best crab cake I've ever had on a cruise ship and I get a crab cake just about every Cruise so I really enjoyed that crab kick there in Cagney's and because it had been such a cold and a rainy day in Juneau that day I went with the lobster bisque if you've watched my videos my food review videos before from other ships you know that I love a lobster bisque and the one I had at Cagney's was no exception I loved it it was very good had a lot of flavor to it and several lumps of Lobster in there and then for my main of course how to go with a rib eye however this rib eye was just okay because the rib eye itself was dry and a little bit tough despite it being medium rare I don't know if I got like a tough piece of meat or what but it just wasn't that great and I just really didn't enjoy the ribeye that I had for dessert I opted for the caramel butterscotch cheesecake and you look at the picture there it looks good it looks really good however uh when you're eating it the flavor itself there just wasn't much to it I didn't really think it was that great it was no Cheesecake Factory I'll say that so if you've had cheesecake at the Cheesecake Factory uh and you compare it to that this is going to come in the loser because it just wasn't that great and moving on to the next day day four of course have to start my day because it was a trend at this point to start my day off at the local however this was when uh you know the shine and the glamor of the local was starting to wear off a little bit and I was starting to see it a little bit more for what it was because this was the most main dining room tasting breakfast that I had had yet and I get it like essentially the local is just an extension of the main dining room it's another main dining room they're pushing people there for crowd control there's like over 4 000 people on the ship so of course they need as many main dining rooms as they can get that's essentially what the local is but I guess in my mind because the first couple of days were so good in the local for breakfast particularly when I by the time I got to the fourth day it was like oh this isn't as great today and that day I ended up getting the American breakfast this was a buffet like eggs you could definitely tell these eggs were sort of the same quality as what you could get up on the buffet and it also came with some sausage and hash browns and those were all just okay again it felt like I just made my plate myself up on the buffet that was sort of the quality it wasn't bad it was just lesser of a quality than I'd experienced the first two days eating breakfast in the local and that's sort of what surprised me a bit I also opted for the buttermilk pancakes and these were cold when they came out and you could definitely tell that they were from Frozen these weren't freshly made at all they were just heated up in a microwave or something which I get it that happens a lot when you're Mass producing food but uh it was kind of disappointing for me and it's not something that I would ever get at the local again because of that and that night I was in specialty dining once again and this time I was at Ocean Blue and ocean blue is a specialty seafood restaurant on board the ship in this particular day we happen to be ported in Skagway beautiful place probably my favorite Port of the entire cruise and I requested to be Sat by the window and just look at the view I had while we were selling away from Skagway we were actually turning around you can see all the way down the Fjord and I was really happy to be dining at Ocean Blue and be able to enjoy such a beautiful sellaway well I enjoyed some tremendous food I started the food off with the bread that they give you and they bring this very buttery bread to the table it just fell apart it was just so well seasoned it was almost like a very buttery King's Hawaiian Roll if you've ever had one of those it's a very sweet bread and just dipping that in the butter all that was so good that was the best bread by far that I had all trip for my starters I went with the scallops and these were amazing these are actually served on pork belly and they had a sweet glaze poured over the top of them so it was sort of like getting scallops and pork belly and what a treat this was this was definitely the best starter I had all trips so things are off to a great start there in Ocean Blue I also enjoyed some clam chowder and this was excellent again it was another very cold day in Port I had taken the White Pass rail all the way up to White Pass Summit and then back down so a good bowl of clam chowder was just what I needed and this was really good however things started to fall apart a little bit at the main entree I was off to such a good start and I was like what do I want to get they had so many good options for the entree and I think I just chose the wrong thing because I went with the Fisherman's Platter and with the Fisherman's Platter you can get that either grilled or fried and it had been a long time since I had like good fried fish and fried shrimp thinking about like Red Lobster I used to love to eat at Red Lobster they had like a Fisherman's Platter so I was thinking about sort of that quality of like fried seafood right but that is not what I got they brought this plate and sat it down and you could tell they had just taken their regular like grilled fish put it in like pancake batter or like funnel cake batter or something like that and that batter had just like ballooned over the seafood and it was just a mess it was greasy and kind of wet and I just did not enjoy that I actually just sat my plate aside sort of took some of the breading off some of the pieces of seafood and just ate that my server actually came by and remarked he was like oh you must not have liked it and I was like it's not great you know so that was kind of disappointing but I probably should have picked something different it was really more akin to something you would get like Long John Silver's or somewhere like that and those fries that came with it you know you're in a specialty dining restaurant you think oh there'll be a different cut of fries they're coming from a more premium Frozen bag than the ones you're gonna get like in the local or the main dining room or somewhere not true those fries are the very same fries that they had at the local I know for certain so not the best entree that I've had and I definitely would never get that again but I would go back to Ocean Blue that's for sure for desserted ocean blue I went with the apple tart and that was just okay it was nothing spectacular again it was something like you would get in the main dining room so now we're on day five of the cruise and this was actually the day we were selling in Glacier Bay in the morning so I actually didn't really eat anything for breakfast by lunchtime you know where I was headed I was back to the low local because I knew I had to get more of those wings and another burger and this time I got the sweet chili Wings again and then I got the Wrangler Burger because I knew those were trusty go-to's and I really enjoyed both of those that day so if you're going to the local get the Wrangler Burger because that is really good stay away from that blue cheese mess because that that wasn't very good but the regular burger is where it's at and I promise you'll be very happy if you get those wings that night I was back at specialty dining and this night was at Los Lobos and Los Lobos is the Mexican restaurant on board the Encore and I was very excited when I was planning my cruise to see that they even had a Mexican restaurant a specialty Mexican restaurant because you don't normally see that on cruise ships but I'm really glad that they had it on this ship and I was really excited to try it and I will say this ended up being probably my favorite specialty dining experience of the entire cruise I really enjoyed Los Lobos I started things off with the seafood ceviche and this was a very small appetizer this was probably the most disappointing appetizer not because of the taste or anything it was just small and there wasn't a lot to it and uh I kind of had a little bit of like buyer's remorse so to speak because I happened to see a table near me they got the quesadillas for their appetizer and those things were huge they looked really good and I was like I wish I got in the quesadillas instead of the ceviche ceviche was good there was nothing wrong with it it just wasn't a lot to it for my main I went with the carne asada and y'all that was tremendous it was so tender it was so flavorful there was so much of it I really enjoyed that for my sides I opted for the plantains those are very good and then I also got the street corn and the street corn was fantastic it was corn on the cob but the way that they had seasoned it with the street corn seasonings it was fantastic I would have I could have eaten there three or four more times just to get that corn because it was one of the best things I ate all cruise and then for dessert I had one of my favorite desserts the Tres Leches and I always have to be careful when I order a Tres Leches even at home when I order it like local Mexican restaurants it's not always great but it was fantastic in Los Lobos it was so creamy and delicious I loved it day six we had a very early day in Ketchikan and we left at like one in the afternoon so when I got back on board the ship anyway I wanted to go to the main dining room and get me a good sit-down lunch and it didn't disappoint they have really good lunches in the main dining room now the first thing I noticed when I sat down and they gave me the menu was that the menu was identical to the menu that I had on the second day of the cruise the very first time I went for lunch in the main dining room so just know that they do seem to use the same menus probably for lunch in the main dining room no matter what day of the cruise you go they might change a thing or two probably a dish or two here or there but for the most part it's largely the same and I started this lunch off with the bay scallop scrotton and this was so amazingly good I couldn't believe how good this was I also went with the bistro salad again because I had enjoyed it so much the first lunch I had in the main dining room and again it did not disappoint for my main entree for lunch that day in the main dining room I had the Monte Cristo sandwich and this was very very good I love a good Monte Cristo sandwich I don't have them too often but when I do I always expect them to be a tree and boy this was a treat I really enjoyed it couldn't believe that I was having it in the main dining room on board a Norwegian cruise ship when so many people had told me that the food wasn't that great on a cruise ship it was tremendous and then for my dessert I was even more impressed it was like things just kept getting better that lunch and I had the molten lava cake this was a tremendous dessert it could have been a specialty dining restaurant dessert and actually it should have been because some of the desserts I had in specialty down there weren't as good as this molten lava cake but not for dinner I was back for my final specialty dinner of the entire cruise and this time I was going to go to the Q Smoke House and as the name suggests the Q Smoke House is the barbecue restaurant the specialty barbecue restaurant Barbecue on a cruise ship sometimes gives me pause because I know a lot of cruise lines try it some other Cruise Lines even have specialty barbecue restaurants but the barbecue I've had in those hasn't been that great however the barbecue and Q Smoke House was tremendous I couldn't believe it the whole meal everything I ate in there I was like I can't believe this is happening right now the vibe in the atmosphere and cute Smokehouse is very fun it's not as like high class as some of the other specialty dining venues are so you can dress down a little bit in there they actually had the house van was on stage they were singing like country western songs and then about 10 minutes after I got in there they took a little break and then for the rest of the time I was in there it was actually albinite so they were playing Abba hits and they did really good it was a really good vibe a really good atmosphere for my dinner the service I had at Q Smokehouse that night was some of the best I had the entire cruise I really enjoyed my server I started off everything with the Texan crab cake and these were good crab cakes but I'm not sure what made them Texan other than they were served with some pimento sauce other than that they tasted pretty much like every other crab cake I've ever had but it was good nonetheless and then for my main I had probably the best main entree I had the entire cruise because I had the Pit Master platter and you all well you better come ready to eat don't eat anything else on board the ship that entire day if you were going to order the Pit Master platter at Q Smokehouse because it is a lot of food there was like three or four different types of meat there was like smoked chicken there was brisket there was sausage there was pulled pork I had a loaded baked potato as a side that had pulled pork in it I had potato salad and pickles and cornbread and mac and cheese that was a feast y'all didn't even finish everything I mean I don't know how three people could eat that and and finish everything but it was a really good meal I just took my time enjoyed the music enjoyed the atmosphere and in fact it was so good in my notes here that I took and I take my notes from the food right as I'm eating it or shortly after I put this was on a cruise ship and all caps and like 15 question marks because I just couldn't believe that that quality of barbecue was on a cruise ship so make sure you eat at Q Smokehouse for dinner if you're on Norwegian Encore and for dessert I went with a peach cobbler another favorite of mine that I haven't had in a long time and this was good it was more of a cake consistency a little bit different than the peach cobblers that I'm used to having but it was still good and what better way to end a barbecue dinner than with some peach cobbler it was fantastic milky Smokehouse can't recommend that enough and now we come to the seventh day of the cruise which is the final day of the Cruise it was a sea day and so I went to the main dining room for more lunch because the lunches had been tremendous and it started off with the shrimp fritters these were very good there just wasn't a lot to them as you can see in the cliff there was just a few of them however it was very good came with some little sauce to dip in and I enjoyed that and then for my main I went with the fish tacos and those were pretty good as well so again the lunch is in the main dining room on board Norwegian Encore are very good that night I was back in the main dining room for my second main dining room dinner of the cruise and this time I was in the Manhattan room and I started off with the scallops which were good and then for a salad I got the Caesar salad because if you know me I love a Caesar salad I always order Caesar salads on cruises and it was good nothing impressive but it was a decent Caesar salad and then for my main I went with the sirloin and this was just okay it was similar to the roast beef that I had had that second night in the main dining room but a little bit better but again I will remark and say are all the fries on board the Norwegian Encore the same because I swear whether I was in the local or the main dining room or the specialty restaurants all the fries were the same can y'all not mix it up a little bit and get some variety in the french fries that you have onboard the ship to just like step it up class it up just a little bit because everywhere I went it was the same little shoestring fries and it was like I had those in the local I saw those up in the buffet I had those here I had those there so let's get some different fries so those are all the meals that I had on board the Norwegian Encore it was a lot of food but they had very good food on board the ship like I said I was surprised because I heard so many negative comments about food on Norwegian and I just didn't know what to expect because it was my first Norwegian cruise but I enjoyed everything I also ate several times up in the observation Lounge up in the observation Lounge they have lighter fare you know they have more snack things I would go up there some mornings they had the little boxes of like Frosted Flakes and some milk I would go up there and get cereal some mornings I would go up there some days and check out what cakes they might have because they often had desserts in the afternoon I had a tremendous piece of in there one day and that was very good they're pretty much any food you want you're gonna find it in some form or another onboard the Norwegian Encore I highly recommend you take a trip on the Norwegian Encore just for the food alone because that's how good it was thank you so much for watching this video I hope you found it informative if you did please go down below give me a thumbs up also consider subscribing to the channel if you're not already as I do have lots more cruising content on the way thank you again for watching and I'll see you on the next adventure foreign [Music]

Channel: Zach the Traveling Man

Views: 66,954

Keywords: norwegian cruise line, ncl encore, norwegian encore, norwegian encore food, norwegian encore cruise vlog, cruise vlogs, travel vlog, norwegian encore vlog, alaska cruise, norwegian bliss, norwegian encore 2023, ncl encore tour, zach the traveling man, norwegian encore cruise ship, solo cruise, solo travel, norwegian cruise line alaska, travel tips, ncl encore alaska 2023, ncl encore 2023, ncl food, ncl food reviews, ncl cruise food, norwegian cruise food, ncl cruise

Id: ViqcpHk-9gk

Length: 26min 21sec (1581 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 25 2023