Monday, August 1, 2011

Blogger Dinner on the Odyssey

On Friday night, I was fortunate enough to attend a Boston Blogger dinner on the Odyssey Cruise ship (out of Rowes Wharf) with 10 other food bloggers. The event was put on by Rachel, and we enjoyed three courses and one beverage while enjoying the views of Boston (tax and additional drinks were not included).

To start, I enjoyed a glass of 2005 Westport Brut "RJR," which was a crisp, refreshing glass of bubbly. It actually reminded me a lot of sparkling cider, but with just a hint of apple flavor.


For my three dishes, I went with all of the vegetarian options, starting with the Mixed Greens with Apples and Strawberries. The salad was described as including candied pecans, grape tomatoes and crumbled blue cheese in a raspberry vinaigrette, but the pecans and cheese were almost nonexistent. 


For my entree, I had the Roasted Vegetable Napoleon, which consisted of a ragout of tomato, zucchini, eggplant and summer squash, layered with a white bean puree between crispy Lavash and served with basil marinara sauce. Despite the fact that the sauce tasted fresh from a jar, this dish was not half bad - and I really enjoyed the garnish of crispy asparagus spears. 


For dessert, I had the Raspberry Mousse Cup, which was served in a dark chocolate cup and "finished with homemade whipped cream." The whipped cream was clearly lacking, and the mousse was obviously made with artificial raspberry flavoring. I actually commented that it tasted like a Smart Ones dessert. 


The crowd aboard the Odyssey on this particular night varied from large parties to groups of friends to couples on date nights, and there was live music complete with a dance floor for the brave souls aboard the ship. The ambiance is a nice change from the stationary restaurants in the city (and the views on the top deck of the ship didn't hurt, either) but the food was seriously lacking. The menu descriptions make the dishes sound out-of-this-world, but, unfortunately, they weren't entirely impressive overall. Our waiter, who has been working on the ship for seven years, also served us the wrong plates several times throughout the evening. However, the views of those brave souls on the dance floor did provide some fun, live entertainment - and if you aren't prone to motion sickness, the Odyssey does provide a nice escape from land for a few hours.

Side note: Congrats to Daisy - she won my Tommy Doyle's giveaway! Daisy, please email me to claim your Save!

Odyssey Cruises on Urbanspoon

Disclaimer: The generous folks at the Odyssey let us bloggers enjoy their dinner cruise plus one alcoholic beverage free of charge (tip and additional drinks were not included, and the typical cost of this dinner costs around $90). Despite their generosity, the opinions expressed in this post are honest and 100% my own.

4 comments:

  1. I like the honesty in your review. great to see you friday and I'm excited to have won your giveaway!

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  2. The food looks really good! I love pretty much anything on a boat.

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  3. It was nice seeing you Friday night... even if the food wasn't fabulous. I could make a much better raspberry mousse. :)

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  4. I like your honest review and despite your criticisms, I'm bummed I couldn't make it!

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