Olympic Restaurant
The price to experience Millennium's specialty restaurant is $12 per person–charged to your shipboard account when you enter to dine–and is well worth the cost (at least once) in our opinion. The food items are different than what you find in the Metropolitan Restaurant–whether better or worse is truly subjective–but the leisurely pampered self-indulgence is what this 2½-3 hour evening is all about. The attention to detail, elegant meal preparation and presentation, and service are all outstanding. Although one waiter will take your order, several waiters will be involved in the preparation and serving, such that the entree for every person at the table will be revealed at the exactly the same moment with a flourish. Voila!
The evening begins by perusing the dinner menu while a wine steward takes orders for any pre-dinner drinks, or wine(s) for the meal. The wine list is an impressive 24 pages, and contains bottles up to $12,400, but many reasonably priced bottles for "the real world" are also listed. Tommie and I elected to have a glass of the wine recommended for each course that we planned to order, while the friends who joined us for dinner declined. We're so glad we made this choice because it was incredible just how much each wine complimented and enhanced the flavor of the dish, and vice-versa. A waiter then arrived and we each ordered two courses. There are two sides to the menu: one with soups, salads, and appetizers and the other with entrees. You are ONLY permitted to select one from each side of the menu–the way it was done on the original Olympic–so have to choose either the soup, salad, or appetizer as one of the courses. Three of us ordered the flambee shrimp appetizer and Steak Diane, while the 4thopted for Caesar Salad and rack of lamb. The waiter then arrived with hors d'oeuvres plates of smoked oysters and mussels for each of us. Table side flambee of the large shrimp wrapped in bacon came next, followed quite a bit later by the table side flambee of the Steak Diane. After these courses we were given a variety of cheeses and crackers, and then we finished by ordering dessert (nobody had the Crepes Suzette because we were all stuffed and wanted something a bit lighter!). This is definitely an evening everyone should experience at least once.
Despite the seemingly high price, this restaurant is currently in high demand and typically gets booked up for the whole cruise within a day or two, so plan to make your reservations shortly after you board. Only one reservation per stateroom will be guaranteed per cruise, and if you wish to dine there a 2ndtime (or more) you will be wait listed only and informed if there is an opening later. The dress code is informal (jacket and tie for men, etc.) and men are requested NOT to wear a tuxedo if you choose to dine there on a formal night - we intentionally picked an informal night.
We have a tip for those who might want to dine there, and it is follows. You can make reservations over the phone, but it is advisable to go down and make them in person. This is because you can actually select the table at which you wish to dine, but can only do this in the restaurant. That way you can request to dine in the room with the wood paneling (only tables for 2 and 4), or a more secluded spot in the larger room behind it (tables for 2, 4, 6 and 8). Be advised that if you get a table towards the back of the larger room near the kitchen (the Maitre D' will tell you it is a choice spot!), there is a tremendous amount of traffic from the waiters scurrying to and fro.
Metropolitan Restaurant
On our last Celebrity cruise, every meal was outstanding and we can honestly say that it was the best food we have ever had on any cruise. Thus it is with some sadness that we cannot say the same thing about the Millennium. On this cruise we could only rate the food as okay, certainly NOT excellent.
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