Prime steaks, Asian, Italian; a floor show or a quiet table for two? Whatever you’re in the mood for tonight, there’s a table waiting on Silversea Cruises’ flagship.
Silver Muse breaks with tradition in its approach to dining. Most ships until now centered on a main dining room, with alternatives that could be difficult to get a reservation for. Muse has eight dining venues, each with a different theme, and guests can score a table at most of them any evening they’d like.
On a two-week cruise on from Japan to Alaska, we had the opportunity to experience what’s destined to be the future of cruise dining. Join us as we dine around:
Atlantide raises everyone’s spirits
The stylish Atlantide is the largest restaurant on the ship, but it feels intimate because it’s divided into a number of separate small alcoves. And the fare that’s cooked to order makes every evening feel like a gala. Unlike other ships where lobster is only on the menu once a cruise and caviar might show up only on one themed dinner and only if you ask for it, these luxury items are on the menu every night. (Silversea has an exclusive arrangement to source sustainable farmed caviar from Italian producer Ars Italica). Extra blinis and chilled vodka with that? But of course.
While we were told the menu changes very few days, in fact over the course of our two-week Pacific cruise, the menu looked very familiar, with occasional daily specials. Fortunately there is wide range of choices, though the menu is somewhat skewed toward steakhouse classics like prime cuts, chops, and grilled fish. There are also multiple choices of excellently prepared and presented vegetarian appetizers and mains.
The restaurant has a very welcoming bar that by rights should be busier, but guests tend to head straight to a table. The wonderful mixologist in charge, Marilyn, wasn’t slighted by any means, though, as she’s responsible for mixing all the libations delivered to the tables.
Getting oriented at Indochine
Indochine is a pan-Asian restaurant with a menu that boasts it was inspired by the hundreds of spices and flavors Marco Polo brought from Asia to Europe. The cuisine includes modern takes on dishes from China, India, Thailand and Vietnam. A specialty on the Siam Soul page of the menu was an excellent Kamchatka crab stir fry. The Footsteps of Marco Polo selections include choices he probably never actually enjoyed, but should have, including Szechuan osso bucco.
The vegetarian choices are also excellent, so don’t miss thee India-inspired aloo palak. They realize that many guests aren’t used to too much heat in their food, but I’m happy to report that the kitchen will spice things up authentically on request.
The décor features backlit walls and white leather banquettes, black marble tables, seafoam green leather chairs. An unusual feature in the middle of the large room is a long communal table that could accommodate 20 guests, but most guests prefer much smaller groups. The restaurant is open only for dinner.
Transformations at La Terrazza
By morning and at lunch time this bright restaurant on deck seven is buffet style with several action stations and a spacious outdoor seating area. In the evening, it transforms into a spacious and very popular trattoria with tablecloths and cordless glass cubes that glow like candlelight.
An antipasto platter with a wonderful range of specialty sliced meats and cheeses and seasonal vegetables arrives immediately, along with a range of freshly baked breads. Home-made pastas predominate the menu and there 10 different choices daily. Don’t miss the pappardelle with duck breast ragu, and I especially recommend the gnocchi with fresh sage.
The presentations will please even the most picky Italophile. The only issue I had during three different evenings dining here was a risotto whose rice came a bit too chewy for my liking; but the pistachio-flavored sauce was heavenly.
The complimentary wines served in La Terrazza form part of a special Italian wine collection chosen to compliment the dishes on the menu. There’s a prosecco to start, and you can continue on with whatever you choose. While La Terrazza is open seating, making reservations for your desired arrival time at dinner is strongly advised.
An evening with La Dame
Named for the affectionate nickname for the Eiffel Tower, this room with only a dozen tables is the most intimate restaurant on Silver Muse, featuring quintessentially French cuisine. The main feature of the octagonal room is the glassed-in wine cellar in the center of the room filled with rare vintages for celebrations.
The connoisseur list is a catalog-sized book of hard-to-find vintages at prices that are better than what you’d likely pay if you could find them in a New York wine shop, so it is a good opportunity to indulge. However the complimentary house wine selections in La Dame are also excellent and the wine staff is happy to match house wines to your meal choices.
On the menu, you’ll find the haute cuisine classics such as impeccably prepared Dover sole, and French Limousin beef, along with more inventive fare. The fois gras I chose to start was excellent, followed by a lobster bisque and glazed breast of Perigord duck with caramelised tarte tatin of endive and caramelised spring onions. Definitely an evening worthy of the south of France.
The Grand Marnier soufflé is La Dame’s most popular dessert, for good reason. However, I found the volume of the sauce poured into the center when it was served turned the pastry into a soup. Next time, I’ll suggest they leave the tureen of sauce on the table and I’ll pour it to taste.
La Dame is one of two specialty restaurants on Muse that comes with a $60 extra charge. The fee is mostly to limit demand for the 40-seat room. To ensure that everyone gets a chance to dine here, there are two sittings each night, at 6 and 9 p.m.
The show at Kaiseki
The Japanese word for haute cuisine is the name of this small room with a teppanyaki-style seating around a set of grills—one for fish and the other for meats. There are also some standard tables for two or four along its edges.
For starters, there’s a bowl of edamame while chef grills snow crab delights served with Topiko roe or succulent seared tuna. For the main courses, a medley of specialties is prepared as you watch. From one grill comes lobster artfully chopped and grilled with wasabi and served in its shell, and then a tasty filet of miso black cod with fresh ginger. From the other comes perfectly tender wagyu beef teriyaki.
You can have wine or Japanese beer with your meal in Kaiseki, but I recommend the house saki that can be served hot. Try it cold and you’ll find it livens up your taste buds for the treats to come.
Kaiseki is so small that reservations are required and so intriguing you’ll happily pay the $60 cover charge to have an evening here. It’s also open for lunch, with a menu of sushi and sashimi. However, there’s also an extensive sushi selection at lunch in La Terrazza, where you can get many of the same items along with a view.
Striking a Silver Note
No surprise, there’s musical entertainment in this small supper club near La Terrazza that features a dance floor. On Silver Muse it features a menu with four categories.
Raw, includes such things as tuna with green quinoa or thinly sliced marinated sea bass. Oceans includes understandable choices like buttered lobster tail as well as choices that need translation, like Crazy Water (a dish whose main ingredient is red snapper). Earth, understandably enough, features braised vegetables, but it also includes venison and seared lamb loin. And the Cooked options include a beef crudo—er, doesn’t that mean raw?
I wish they would have given a bit more explanation about what was in an appetizer simply called a Beehive that arrived at the table. On a platter that I suspect was designed for escargot, there were a whole lot of different dabs of very colourful minced and moussed veggies, arranged around an egg shell that had been carefully emptied out and filled with spicy scrambled egg. I would have enjoyed it more if I knew what I was sampling.
Confusing and experimental as they may be, the dishes at Silver Note were all very tasty. The restaurant doesn’t even open until 8 p.m. and you can be seated until 11:00 p.m. There are shows by a pianist and singer throughout the evening. Because the room is small, reservations are essential.
Hot Rocks, aka The Grill
A poolside patio on deck 10 serves as the casual grill for burgers and sandwiches and grilled fish and steaks by day. In the evening–when the weather co-operates–the deck becomes Hot Rocks, where you become the cook. You can pick your steak, chop, chicken, fish, prawns or vegetables and watch it all sizzle on the stone. Everything is top quality and delicious and as you dig in, you know that it’s straight from the heat.
It’s interesting al-fresco fun, but it also takes some caution not to touch the hot rocks and guests wear bibs to protect against the occasional oil splatter. It also helps to have a watch to time the cooking because fish and prawns take less time than veal or steak. Fortunately, waiters are standing by to make sure you don’t over or under cook the meats.
The area near the grill can be breezy on a day at sea and there’s an area along the pool that’s enclosed by a clear vinyl wall and warmed by overhead heaters with optional cashmere blankets to keep things comfortable. You do need to make dinner reservations, but there is no additional charge. Unlike most of the other Silver Muse restaurants, the Grill dress code is always casual.
Spaccanapoli from scratch
One deck above Hot Rocks in the pool zone is the ship’s Neapolitan-style patio that has its own pizza oven. Most importantly, it’s manned by an Italian pizza chef who makes everything from scratch for lunch or dinner, adding the fresh toppings after baking.
The extensive pizza menu includes classics as well as inventive combinations of ingredients, but of course you can customize. On my visits (yes, there was more than one), the results were all spectacularly tasty and the crust worth every bite. You can order either small or large sizes and I found the small size was perfect for lunch.
Gelateria al Mare—too tempting
A place I found a little too tempting is the bar alongside Spaccanapoli that serves fresh-made gelato made from traditional recipes inspired by Italy’s Artisti del Gelato Association. The creamy treats are so rich and flavorful that I ordered cups of the pistachio, hazelnut or chocolate gelato instead of dessert in restaurants on several evenings on the cruise. Of course, the shop is open all day for walk-by scoops….
Silversea’s Silver Muse is so inspiring, the line has launched a program to add innovative features introduced here onto the other ships in the fleet. Project Invictus has already seen new features added to Silver Whisper, with Silver Shadow due for upgrades in November, 2019 and Silver Wind in 2020. Muse will be joined by two nearly identical sister ships, Silver Moon in 2020 and Silver Dawn in 2021
You might also like:
You Only Live Twice: Twin Sea Days on Silver Muse Create Fascinating Déjà vu
5 Innovations that Make Silver Muse a Game Changer in Luxury Cruising
6 Cool Things Keep Hong Kong’s Grande Dame Ahead of Her Time
Decoding the New Dress Codes as Cruise Lines Continue to Go Casual
3 Fascinating Ports in Japan’s North that Deserve to be Better Known
