I’ll start by saying this: I’ve never “gotten” French cuisine. We make the French restaurant one of our specialty experiences on most sailings, but I have yet to be truly impressed by the experience.
That said, I have no complaints about the Le Bistro experience. I forgot to photo the menu, so I don’t know what the actual names of the dishes we had are…I’ll call them what we called them 😁
Appetizers
Main Course
Dessert
We chose the same dessert, and it was, for me, the best part of the meal
Wait Staff
Danny, our waiter, and others on the staff, made the meal a pleasant experience. I think it was better for our neighboring table, who had enjoyed Le Bistro many years previous and were treated for it by the staff. The best moment was when their entree arrived, huge silver platter covers lifted simultaneously to show the…empty plates!
Each person was then served by a waiter, dishing up their preferred part of the entree from the actual cooking/serving pan. But the surprise of the reveal made it a cool evening for all of us!
Overall Rating
4.6 out of 5.0 starsIt’s hard to come up with what I believe is a completely fair rating, given my “lack of culture” — one way some might express my inability to “get” French cuisine. It also seems to me I’m taking a more negative tone on NCL specialty restaurants on this trip.
That said, I perceive a general quality decline in the food experience overall, in comparison to previous sailings. I don’t think it’s ship-specific. The biggest fall-off I noticed was between Encore 2022 and Escape 2023. So far, there is a difference between Encore 2023 and Jade 2025, but it’s relatively minor.
Focusing on this experience in isolation, there was nothing wrong, but also no WOW other than the serving surprise for our neighboring table.