Dinner in the Seven Seas Mariner’s Prime 7 restaurant is always an enjoyable experience and this meal was no different. For something different, I dined by myself and instead of my usual Steak had the Lobster.
The staff of Prime 7 always go out of their way to ensure that everyone who dines in Prime 7 has a meal to remember every time. For this meal I was looked after by Shah, a great guy from India who is very interested in cricket, so we had a lot to talk about.
The worst night on board a cruise is the last night, but a great way to forget that it is the last night is to spend it with friends. Even though we were docked in Lima, we decided that we should enjoy our last dinner in Compass Rose.
Compass Rose is the restaurant that we dined in the least. Not because we did not enjoy the place, quite the contrary, we just ran out of nights. To make the dinner even more memorable we were looked after by King, he made sure that all of our favourites were served, French Fries for all of us and chili for me, every type that he could find, tabasco sauce, chili flakes and sambal oelek.
To accompany the starters, we had a bottle of NV Terre dei Grifi Frascati DOC. Pale straw colour, citrus aromas, a good level of acid, with peach flavours, a great wine for a warm afternoon. Will have to keep an eye out for it in Singapore. A good choice to have with the assorted scallops that I had for a starter, they were excellent.
My main was fettuccine bolognese, with fresh chili. Just the way I like it.
Emiliano provided a mystery red wine to have with our mains, which we all enjoyed immensely. Deep ruby-red colour, with plums and pepper aromas, full-bodied, balanced tannins and medium finish. Guessing it was a Syrah, but Emiliano never found time to get back to the table and let us know what we were drinking. Enjoyed it with my bolognese.
A great dinner, a fitting end to the cruise. All I need to do now is choose my next cruise!
On my previous cruise we arranged, with the help of the Head Sommelier and the Maître D’s, what we believe was the first Progressive Dinner on-board a Regent Vessel, it was a lot of fun, so we decided to arrange another one. The problem this time was that we were not able to convince any of the crew to assist us nor that this would be a good idea, so we took matters into our own hands.
We decided to sneak our progressive dinner in on the same night as the Captain’s Farewell as most people would be having dinner in Compass Rose and we had a booking in Signatures that night.
We started our dinner in Sette Mari for our appetizers and soup courses. To start the dinner off right we went with the Val D’oca Prosecco D.O.C Brut, a refreshing and balanced sparkling, followed by a Paripaso Cabinet Sauvignon, good colour, a muted nose with some blackberry and spice aromas, it did not have the tannins or structure I prefer.
Sunset from Sette Mari’s balcony.
I was not a fan of French cuisine, probably due to my misbegotten fear of nouvelle cuisine and rich foods, until Signatures. Signatures has changed my understanding of what French food is and educated me and I like what I have learned!!! I like the style of Signatures and the natural flavours, although some chili would not go astray!!!.
On this night Don purchased a couple of bottles of 2011 La Sirena Pirate Treasured. Whilst it has a gimmick type of label, it is not a gimmicky wine, nicely crafted complicated blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Merlot, Petit Verdot, Cabernet Franc, Grenache and Petite Sirah, a new combination for me. The wine had dark berry and oaky aromas and was nicely balanced.
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Some of the best things about travelling, especially on cruise ships, is meeting people from all over the world, making great friends and sharing a meal or three with a couple of good wines. On this cruise I made more friends than usual, which was great, it also meant more dinners, wine and a lot of laughs.
The most difficult decision to make on board the Mariner is which restaurant for dinner. There are four restaurants on the Mariner, Compass Rose (the Main Dinning Room), La Veranda (Italian which becomes Sette Marie at night), Prime 7 (Steak) and Signatures (French). Prime 7 and Signatures are only open for dinner, the other two restaurants are open for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner. For dinner we tried to alternate between the four restaurants, Prime 7 and Signatures require booking but the other two have free seating, over the 16 nights on board we lucky enough to not dine in the same restaurant two nights in a row.
Our dinner group was usually 7, which made it a little more difficult to get tables, but with a little planning and dining a bit later we were usually able to get a table when and where we wanted. The food in all of the restaurants is usually very good to excellent, I had only one bad course on this cruise and that was more to do with what I chose as it was a dish that I would probably not enjoy at any time instead of how it was prepared, which, considering the limitations associated with being on a ship, is a fairly amazing feat that the culinary team on board should be commended for.
