Remy Brunch Review

I experienced Remy brunch for the first time on our recent Eastern Caribbean cruise on the Fantasy (trip report here).  I LOVE Palo brunch (review here), but this is a very different experience.  I knew that going in, and was eager to try something new.  For those of you that are not familiar with Remy, it is a fine dining, adult-only restaurant on both the Dream and Fantasy.  They serve brunch, dinner, and an afternoon dessert experience (review here).  I now regret not trying dinner as well, but I do have a guest review of Remy dinner on the Dream which you can read here.

Let me preface this review by letting you know that I am in no way a foodie and not a particularly adventurous eater.  I will try pretty much anything once, but I don’t seek out these types of experiences.  I don’t think I would seek out an experience like this on land.  My husband, on the other hand, is pretty much the opposite.  He loves fine dining, multi-course meals, and I think this was the highlight of his cruise.

Now for some of the details.  Remy brunch is an upcharge of $60 per person, plus gratuity, plus the option to add on a champagne pairing (consisting of 3 glasses) for another $30 per person.  You can reserve it online once your booking window opens (more details on that here).  There is a dress code, which they absolutely enforce (we saw a CM walk by with a pair of men’s suit pants on a hanger, presumably for a guest to borrow for his meal), and you can read about here.

Our reservation was for 11:30 am, and we arrived a few minutes early.  The hostess showed us to the Meridian Lounge (which sits between Palo & Remy) to wait.

There was a menu on the wall which showed both the brunch and dinner menus:

You will notice that unlike Palo, both brunch and dinner are a set, multi-course meal.  There are 2 menu options at dinner, and I have heard that they will let you mix and match the 2 if you like.  For brunch, however, there is just one 6 course meal and everyone eats the same thing (they do change the menu from time to time, but not for every sailing).  This is a really big difference from Palo (both brunch and dinner), where you order from a typical restaurant menu (plus the buffet at brunch).  I also noticed that this dinner menu is different than the most recent dinner menu I have seen from the Dream, which you can see here.

This is the bar in Meridian:

There were about 10 people in there with us who also had an 11:30 reservation.  When it was time, they took us back together as a group and we all started off in this room.  We were greeted with a glass of champagne and a plate of prosciutto (on the menu it was called Jamon Iberico Pata Negra), and given a short explanation of the meal by the maitre’d, chef, and sommelier.  The prosciutto was from pigs that are raised in a specific part of Spain and fed a strict diet of olives and acorns.

The sommelier explained the champagne pairing in detail, and the chef talked about each course of the menu.  He gave some really interesting details about how some of them are prepared.

After this we met our server, Manon, and were shown to our table.  The lighting was not great for pictures, so I apologize in advance.

They had a special little stool for purses so that you didn’t have to put them on the floor.

Manon was from France, as are almost all of the servers in Remy.  She was lovely although we barely spoke to her other than exchanging pleasantries.  In Palo, we always chat a lot with our servers and by the end of the meal know a lot about them.  At Remy brunch, however, there is no chatting.

We started with bread service, complete with butter topped with a gold R.

We were at a 4 top table next to the window, but this is what the booths look like:

The first course was listed on the menu as Apsaragus/Egg.  It was good.

One thing worth mentioning is that when each table is served a course, each person at the table is served at the exact same time.  The server will recruit other servers so that all of the plates are set down at the exact same time, over the same shoulder.  It was a nice touch.

The next course was listed as Saumon/Creme Citron.  It was salmon that had been cooked at a very low temperature (around 100 degrees) for a long time.  It looked and felt raw, but the chef assured us it was cooked.  Since I don’t care for raw fish, this dish didn’t appeal to me and I only ate a few bites.  In hindsight, I should have asked for an alternate dish for this course.  My husband really enjoyed it though.

The next course was called Lard/Petit Pois.  It was pork belly with a sauce.  I also don’t care for fatty meats, so I thought this was just okay.  Once again, my husband loved it.

The next course was called Poulet Rouge/Corn.  It was chicken stuffed with a corn mixture and was my favorite dish, probably because it was the least unique dish. It reminded me of Thanksgiving.

The final course, dessert, was called Baba/Rhum/Vanille.  It was a vanilla creme on a rum-soaked bread.  It was really good.

After the meal Manon brought us these little pastries.  They were okay.  They had sort of a caramelized/toasted taste to them which I’m sure was intentional, but I thought they tasted slightly burned.  She wrapped up the ones we didn’t eat so that we could take them with us.

Overall thoughts:

I thought it was just okay (and I think I am in the minority), but my husband loved it.  He would do this every cruise if he could, but I don’t feel the need to do it again although I am glad I experienced it once.  I think I am just not a person who loves French food.  I would like to try dinner the next time I get a chance to see if I like it better – I have a feeling I would.  If you are on the fence, I suggest trying it as $60 per person is a great price to try something like this that would cost much more on land.

For more dining posts, click here.