We went full out for Pirate Night on our Magic cruise and it was fun. But we wanted to try Palo dinner this time and, like so many, we really hadn't cared for the Pirate Night menu. So this was the obvious choice. I had thought ahead of time that the pirate menu sounded delicious, but everything was a little off. On the Magic, we did do Palo brunch, and would have probably done it again if we'd managed to snag a reservation on this trip.
DS had also asked repeatedly on the Magic to be allowed to eat dinner in the kids club one night, so that worked out as well. We did swing by the kids club on our way to dinner to give him his pirate accessories for dressing up. They ate macaroni and cheese and pizza.
Our reservation was for 6:00, which was when Palo first opened, so there was a bit of a wait with half a dozen other couples outside the door. We were all dressed about the same, formality-wise. I'm not sure I'd want to go with a larger group, because then you're in those booths facing away from the window and we really enjoy looking out at the water. And at the sunset.
The bread basket and the antipasto.
We both started with the cioppino:
Mussels, Shrimp, Calamari, Red Mullet and Monkfish poached in a Garlic Basil, White Wine Tomato Broth
We swapped pasta plates halfway through so we both got some of each.
Caramelle di vitello: Pasta stuffed with Milk braised Veal, Pancetta and Porcini Mushrooms
That sauce was like pure demiglace.
Pappardelle con Aragosta: Pappardelle Pasta tossed in Lobster Tarragon Sauce with Leeks, White Truffle Oil and Grilled Lobster
This was better than I was expecting. I'm meh on lobster, having been raised on the much more flavorful King crab. Tarragon is easy to overdo. And I really burnt out on truffle oil when everyone was overusing it. But this was delicious. I let DH eat the entire lobster tail and the sauce still tasted of lobster without it. Everything was really well balanced.
And then I'm afraid that's it for food photos. We completely forgot the entrees and desserts. And I'm guessing we didn't have pre-dinner cocktails like we usually do because we'd just had that bottle of prosecco.
I had the Osso bucco (
Slow-roasted, center cut Veal Shank with Gremolata and Milanese Risotto) because you can never find that any more. DH had the Grilled prime beef tenderloin (
with Pancetta [aka bacon!])
Potato, Sautéed Spinach, Barone Chianti Wine Sauce). Both looked and tasted like you'd expect. We were happy. It is too bad that although the MDRs will let you take leftovers back to your cabin, Palo will not. Despite the official online menu, DH received the gorgonzola cream sauce in addition to the red wine sauce.
I only ate about half my meat in order to save room for the souffles. We never had souffles on our last cruise. And DH had never had one at all. So we ordered one of each - chocolate and amaretto. Based on trip reports I saw here, I asked the waitress to skip the sauce pouring. I did that myself after trying it without. It was super moist inside. And generally delicious. Just like with the bread pudding the previous night, the ice cream was unnecessary and I didn't eat it. (I do love ice cream, believe it or not.) DH loves amaretto but it's always too sweet for me, so I didn't try his. He enjoyed it, however.
The menu doesn't include wine suggestions for each entree, so we asked the waitress to have the sommelier choose our glasses. Well, I said wine steward and got corrected. He came to our table and suggested we get a bottle instead because we both had red meat. That was fine. Especially since they do allow you to take the rest of that away. Based on the preferences we gave him, he suggested a Super Tuscan. For $83. I was a little suspicious of the way DH agreed to it, and confirmed after the sommelier had left that he hadn't caught the price at all. We're extravagant on vacation but not to that level. But it was done. And it was a tasty enough wine, both that night and the following dinner, but maybe not $83 tasty. It's $40 in stores so a very normal mark-up at least.
Two takeaways from our official photos. I need to be more conscious of relative sleeve length when packing. That's just from San Juan and St. Thomas. And we need a different color scheme in Palo. Ironically, our semi-formal night clothing would coordinated perfectly with the frame.
I noticed in the online dress code that Disney calls this style of mens shirt "Tommy Bahamas shirts." On our Magic cruise, DH forgot to pack a dress shirt from our Palo brunch and so bought this in the gift shop. Since he'll never wear it outside of Disney, he brought it for this meal. The shirt on the fellow sitting behind him is from the gift shop as well.