When we noticed we were staying close to the Buddha Bar we decided to make a reservation and see how it was 15 years later. Back then it was the place to go for sushi in Paris, great food, great music and ultra cool atmosphere.
Today it’s still popular but experience is very different. They’ve added a lot more tables and the service was so fast it could only be to turn the table around asap.
I ordered a good red Burgundy and had to ask for a proper glass. I know I’m picky about glassware but a tiny cheap white wine glass just didn’t cut it. I was still given an industrial wine glass.
The sushi had to be already made to come to the table so quickly.
The black cod was delicious though.
It’s hard to satisfy a Vancouverite when it comes to sushi so there is that to take into account. Still I wouldn’t recommend Buddha Bar. It’s day has passed.
We’ve been going to Le Reminet for about 30 years and had at least 5 meals there, every one excellent. It’s a good location on the left bank near Notre Dame. Réservations recommended.
We’ve sat in this corner by the window several times. A perfect table.
I was intrigued by the fancy butter, good with the radishes.
Trout Gravlax with Radish & Timut Pepper Butter
Eggs seem to be show up in a lot of appetizers. You can count on David to order it.
Perfect Organic Egg with Candied Peppers
I recommend the wine pairing option, also good value . I’m better with a French wine list than 30 years ago but I’d never be able to choose these perfect pairings.
We both had the Sea Bream and it was excellent with a vegetable Tian and virgin sauce. Sounds sexy, tasted good. No idea what it was.
Grilled Sea Bream Fillet
More delicious wine
David had the tart.
Red Fruit Tart with Mascarpone Ice Cream
No surprise I ordered the cheese with more of the perfect French baguette.
Menu September 2023
We hope for a return visit. Paris was the busiest I’ve ever seen and a day trip to Reims was the perfect antidote.
We boarded the Radiance on Saturday and were set for 7 days of food from the same team. There were 15 of us on a full ship of 110.
Breakfast and lunch are served buffet style. I only eat breakfast if someone will serve me a seafood Benedict so I have no opinion on breakfast. I heard the muesli was good.
Lunch was by far, the best meals on the ship.
The Portuguese crew gets to go all out with creativity, variety and local specialties. Great salads, breads, fabulous roasted potatoes, several hot entrees and delicious local cheeses you’ll never find at home. Local made quince jelly was a big hit with the cheeses.
Chef João Marinho was rightfully especially proud of a whole salmon baked in salt.
Chef João at BBQ
The dessert table was amazing. Daily house made ice-creams along with a changing array of features that the staff were clearly proud of. It was hard to walk by them empty handed.
The BBQ lunch on deck was a highlight. Grilled ribs, chicken and sardines were all excellent. They even converted some non sardine eaters. I think it was the best meal of the cruise.
Salads at BBQ on DeckSalads at BBQ on DeckCheeses at BBQ on Deck
Dinner was hit and miss. Some trainees weren’t going to survive as restaurant stewards but others did their best to make up for that. It’s hard to serve 110 people 3 courses and get it right.
The breads and wines were always good. There were 3 choices of appetizers and entrees and desserts each night, as well as the standard salmon, steak or chicken. Sadly the cheese plate at night, my standard dessert, wasn’t as good as the lunch offerings.
For the Captain’s dinner the fish was a difficult Turbot dish and 2 out of three were very undercooked. Mine was okay but you’ll see below it was visually unappealing and those Brussels sprouts were cooked beyond repair.
Turbot at Captain’s Dinner
For the Gala dinner David said the polenta was the best he’d ever had. The eggplant on top was undercooked though.
Polenta onboard Emerald Radiance
For the most part we were happy with the food. Emerald is a value cruise line and it is definitely good value.
This restaurant surprised and delighted us. We went in cranky after a long day. The hotel hadn’t been open long, the whole team seemed ambitious and are trying to create something unique. We’d booked for 7pm but the restaurant didn’t open until 7:30, the menu was confusing and we were tired. Happily we were soon turned around with patience and good service. The restaurant is bright and fun and the food was delicious.
Ilicito The StoryAmuse-bouche Fish TacosAmuse-bouche Pork SlidersHouse made buns with spiced butter disguised as a red pepper. Marinated Salmon, Roasted Mango, Beetroot & Shrimp Giant Shrimp & Squid – Citric Caviar, Seaweed & MisoBrill, Fennel & Lemon Purée, Onion Sauce, Champagne Sauce and CaviarStreak, Pasta, Mushrooms & Coconut CurryMushroom Flan Spiced Cake & Noori Ice CreamDirt, Sweet Potato & Carrot
Nothing is what it reads like on the menu but we were delighted with how it turned out.
We spent 4 nights in Porto before boarding the Emerald Radiance for a 7 night cruise on the Douro river. Every meal was good value and a couple were outstanding. I’ll save the best for my next post.
For our first night we wanted a restaurant within an easy walk of our hotel, the Editory Boulevard Aliados.
Quattro, an Italian restaurant had good reviews and didn’t disappoint.
Three tired but happy faces at Quattro Porto. A fine margarita for me.
A few cocktails, some breadsticks, olives and marinara before very good pasta and pizza.
The restaurant was Italian but the wine was Portuguese, from Alentejano and it was excellent. So good it called for a second bottle
Freixo at Quattro
We were winging it for our 2nd night but wanted Portuguese and I was ready for some bacalao.
Cornmeal crusted cod with spinach and potatoes. Delicious.
We found Vaccarum. Known for Francesinhas, Porto’s famous hot meat and tomato gravy sandwich. One of our group tried and loved it. The rest don’t eat much meat and I just wanted cod. They had good cod fritters but my cornmeal crusted cod with potatoes and spinach was the winner.
Reservations were in place for the next night at Elebe Centro. There are several Elebe locations, Centro was walking distance up a steep hill in a lively neighborhood.
The food was good but the wine experience was the big hit.
Mussels Elebe CentroPrawns in spicy sauce Elebe CentroTruffled arugula with eggs Elebe CentroSeabass on potatoes with seafood cream Elebe CentroCharcoal grilled bacalao with veggies and truffle purée. Oupa Reserve house wine being decanted at Elebe Centro.
We had a great start to our trip and a long day tour to Braga and Guimaraes ahead thé next day so wound our way back down to our hotel passing this lively square on the way.
We had two exceptional meals in Copenhagen, one was at Maple Casual Dining. Also an easy walk from our excellently located Radisson Royal Copenhagen.
Somehow I’ve gotten to a place where dinner out has to start with champagne or a margarita and this spicy margarita got my attention. Those are dried Chili threads. Loved it but one is the limit.
Spicy Margarita
I started with mussels in cream, white wine and chili. Mussels are my absolute favourite starter and these were among the best ever.
Danish Blue Mussels
David had the asparagus soup with goat cheese and truffle oil. He said it was the best asparagus soup ever. We had high hopes for the rest and weren’t disappointed.
For an entree I chose the Seabass. Seared and served with new potatoes and mixed salad. It was pretty well perfect.
Seared Seabass
David uncharacteristically raved about the risotto. It was delicious. I’m a bit done with truffle oil but they showed restraint at Maple and it was great.
Mushroom Risotto with Parmesan and Truffle Oil.
A great choice in Copenhagen. I’d recommend reservations.
One of the best in 2 weeks of incredible meals was at this Korean wine bar in Copenhagen. Right around the corner from the Radisson Royal Copenhagen we fully enjoyed the great wine program and the easy walk home after. Choose a bottle (or 2) from their retail wine store and have it served with the amazing food.
The menu is mostly made up of shareable snacks with a couple of larger plates to for 2, we did our best to eat through the menu.
The Ssamjang Guksu – cold noodle salad with spicy peanut sauce had us craving it for days, wishing we’d ordered it for dessert.
Cold Noodle Salad
Grilled Frigetello peppers were stuffed with shrimp and rice were great and the sauce was crazy delicious. We were spooning it up.
Grilled Frigitello Peppers
Another sauce we couldn’t get enough of was on the King Oyster Mushroom and rice cake skewers. I’d go again right now if I could.
King Oyster Mushrooms Rice Cake Pine Nuts
We went all the way and had the grilled mackerel for 2 and the Korean fried chicken for 2. Both were served with rice and side veggies. We wanted to add kimchi but they were sold out and the latest batch was a week off. Another reason to go back.
Grilled Mackerel & KFC with sides.
If you like spicy food that’s beyond extraordinary and you’re going to Copenhagen don’t miss Propaganda Kitchen.
Explora was fabulous, especially considering it’s a new brand. Oceania had the advantage of a fleet to pull experts from. Both had wonderful, enthusiastic staff that aimed to please.
Butter so good I added to croissants.
Oceania’s Vista had a great coffee bar, Baristas opened at 6:30 and always had guests immediately. They offered a simple breakfast bar all morning and had an outstanding bakery with delicious options coming fresh from the oven. On Explora, Créma didn’t open until 7:30. Both ships had perfect croissants.
Still on breakfast both had comparable full service options, Explora in Fils Rouge and Vista in the Grand Dining Room. Explora’s Emporium Marketplace was a popular buffet style option.
Explora wins at lunch with more options. The Med Yacht Club and Fils Rouge both served lunch as well as Emporium Marketplace. We especially liked lunch at Med Yacht Club.
Dinner is of course most important and Explora is hosting Michelin starred chefs in Anthology for an added fee. It is quite an experience but with so many good options included I don’t think I’d do it again.
Explora I and Oceania Vista both take reservations in the specialty restaurants and I recommend making them asap.
On Vista, Tuscana was one of my top picks. I think focusing on Italian made it a superior choice compared to Med Yacht Club on Explora where Greek, Italian and Spanish made it harder to choose the right combination of dishes.
Vista’s has a restaurant that’s new to their fleet. Ember is American comfort food and was hugely popular with good reason. Explora’s Marble & Co is a similarly good.
Both ships have an Asian restaurant. I didn’t get to try Red Ginger on Vista and didn’t love Sakura on Explora but I asked many people’s opinion and heard nothing but rave reviews about both.
Explora is fully inclusive of alcohol and has a red and white wine option on each restaurant. If you didn’t care for what was offered you could get something else but it was a bit painful and you needed to remind them each time they topped up your glass. I’m willing to bet they will polish that up.
On Vista you pay for an inclusive option but there are several choices for red and white wines.
I like the atmosphere onboard an all inclusive ship. More people go for a cocktail before dinner and stay up later. It’s more social. I appreciate that non drinkers don’t want to subsidize drinkers though.
In conclusion I choose Oceania Vista the winner of the Culinary Cage Match at Sea by a tiny margin, because of the early morning coffee bar, Baristas and broader range of wine choices.
There are more factors to consider when making a choice of cruises, but as far as F&B goes I think both ships would make any foodie happy.
Special kudos to Franck’s mash potatoes on Explora. I’ll miss them, though it will be a relief for my waistline.
Hard to believe a steak house turned out to be my favourite restaurant on Explora I but almost everything was perfect and the tuna “au poivre” was truly memorable.
Jumbo Lump Crab Salad
Crab salad was excellent. Mixed with pomelo, avocado, roasted peanuts and miang sauce. Loved it.
At the last minute David and I decided to share the potatoes and caviar and we were really glad. It was a winner.
Lobster Bisque
The lobster bisque was very good but it was meant to be topped with whiskey and 2 of us didn’t get the whiskey. Four of us ordered the bisque but the server disappeared after pouring whiskey half way around the table. We thought he’d run out and would be right back but no such luck.
Tuna Steak “Au Poivre”
The tuna steak was my favourite dish of the trip, served with passion fruit hollandaise, red onion compote & mango salad.
Sakura is one of the most popular restaurant onboard Explora but you can make a reservation or try your luck for a seat at the sushi bar.
It was also our first real disappointment. We are lucky to live in Vancouver, Canada, one of the best cities in the world for Asian food so are maybe a bit too picky.
Shrimp Tempura Roll
The tempura shrimp roll was the best dish of the meal. Four of us had a piece and looked forward to the rest.
Crispy Langoustine Roll
The crispy langoustine roll was also a hit and the pomelo salad a perfect bright addition.
Soft Shell Crab Tempura
We all liked the soft shell crab and again the accompanying salad was excellent but it wasn’t really a tempura batter. I don’t think it was rice flour.
Sakura Sushi Master Plate
The quality of the sushi was good. We had a double order so there would be a piece for everyone. The ahuri was a bit of a disappointment. Not like anything I’ve had in Vancouver or Japan.
Lobster Pad Thai
The Pad Thai was the big disappointment though. There were few or no bean sprouts, no crispy bits of tofu and the overall flavour was sweet, missing the savoury, sour balance.
The service needs work too. First we were told it would be served family style but then we were told to order individually and other than the sushi were served individually. I was surprised that the sushi for 4 didn’t come on one platter and had we ordered and been served family style we would have had a more interesting and better meal.
One of our party had the Black Angus Steak Teriyaki. It came quite cold and didn’t benefit from being reheated. The spinach that came with it got a thumbs up though.
Cathy’s Taste @TheTravelGroup 