Day 8 (Later) Panama & Carribean Cruise

Day 8 (Later)

Following drinks in The Commodore Club martini bar we headed to dinner at the Lotus Restaurant on Deck 7. What you say, another restaurant? Well kind of…

The buffet area on the QM2 is quite different to other cruise ships; rather than have one large seating area and a couple of serving points the QM2 has seating scattered throughout the center of deck 7 in all kinds of nooks and crannies. Also, there are 4 severing points and each has a different food focus.

The Lotus serves Asian food, The Carvery serves roasted meats etc. The Piazza serves Italian food and The Chef’s Galley is a small nook that allows the diners to see the food being prepared. At breakfast and lunchtime all 4 serving areas are open for walk-up customers in traditional buffet style. However, at dinner time, a clever wall system allows any 3 of the serving areas to be converted into sit down a la carte restaurant – requiring reservations. The 4th serving area is left open for walk-up customers and each night the open serving area is a different one of the four. I should mention that there is no additional charge for going to one of the reservation-based deck 7 restaurants.

So we made reservations and went to the Lotus Restaurant for an Asian “Tasting Menu”; this is one of those deals where you get to tray a whole bunch (I lost count) of different items served in 5 courses. The food ranged from Sushi to Crab Soup to Braised Ribs to Wasabi Crème Brule (yes it had Wasabi in it). There were many other items and the whole thing was washed down with a bottle of sake! I kept expecting Iron Chef Morimoto to jump out at any moment. All agreed it was excellent, and we immediately resolved to make reservations for the other 3 restaurants.