La Terrazza Restaurant on Silversea Silver Muse
/La Terrazza is Silver Muse's buffet restaurant for breakfast and lunch. Each evening, La Terrazza is transformed into a proper sit-down, full-menu-service Italian bistro.
Breakfast and Lunch Service
Unfortunately, we did not have an opportunity to visit La Terrazza for breakfast on this sailing. There are three choices for breakfast on Silver Muse: Atlantide (a la carté menu service), room service and La Terrazza (buffet). La Terrazza offers the benefit of choice and, for breakfast, is an easy and quick option for those with morning shore excursions.
We did visit La Terrazza on two occasions for lunch. The first thing we noticed is that the restaurant is much larger than La Terrazza on other Silversea vessels, including Silver Spirit. The L-shaped buffet serving line is augmented with several individual islands featuring different cold food items. This greatly reduces traffic jams during peak periods.
One of the things we have always loved about Silversea lunch buffet service is the variety of excellent salads. We are pleased to see that this has not changed on Silver Muse.
One island is dedicated to cold seafood. Boiled cocktail shrimp was a daily staple as were large trays filled with fresh sushi rolls and sashimi. The sushi rolls are much more substantial than what we have experienced on previous Silversea cruises. Good job!
There is also an antipasti station (my name, not theirs) with freshly-sliced Parma ham, proscuitto, salami and cheese. Opposite the antipasti station is a stir-fry station where there is a different Asian stir-fry dish offered each day.
Of course, there is a carving station with a featured roasted meat of the day (beef, veal, lamb, turkey, chicken, etc.) and a variety of hot entreès and vegetable dishes.
With so many different venues open for lunch aboard Silver Muse (we counted seven), only La Terrazza allows you to build your own lunch with a variety of items.
At lunch, you can choose to dine inside, or al fresco on the large aft terrace. Tables at lunch are set with place mats on marble tables, but still have the fine linen napkins and other quality flatware and dishes you would expect on Silversea. There are plenty of two-top tables, and many larger tables to accommodate groups of up to eight guests (or more). Each table is equipped with a salt and pepper grinder and bottles of extra virgin olive oil and aged balsamic vinegar.
If you choose to dine al fresco, there is ample seating as well. And, just in case it happens to be a little cool outside, space heaters help to keep you warm. No matter where you choose to dine, wait staff are always on hand to offer you a glass of complimentary white or red wine with your meal (or any other beverage you desire).
The choice of quality items makes La Terrazza one of the best buffets at sea and is no doubt the main reason this is the most popular lunch spot on Silver Muse.
Dinner at La Terrazza
Each evening, La Terrazza is transformed from a fast-paced, buffet-style venue, into a proper sit-down, full menu service, à la carte Italian bistro. The placemats from lunch are removed and fine linen tablecloths cover the marble table tops for a more elegant appearance.
Reservations are recommended at La Terrazza, but not required. However, this is a popular venue, so if you arrive sans reservations, you may find yourself waiting a bit to be seated. We made reservations for 8:00pm and when we arrived, the restaurant was near capacity. The only table for two was in the middle of a heavy traffic area, near the antipasti station. For this reason, I would recommend reservations for 7:00pm when the restaurant opens to give you a better choice of seating.
Italian breads and roasted garlic served at La Terrazza
On Silver Muse, La Terrazza is a much larger venue than on the other Silversea ships. Because of the layout of the restaurant, and the hard flooring surfaces, the busier La Terrazza gets, the noisier it gets. The table we occupied was in the center of the restaurant, so it may have been a noisier location than a table next to a wall.
In the past, the evening menu at La Terrazza would change every few days on a rotation basis. However, La Terrazza on Silver Muse has one evening menu and one menu only. That said, the menu is quite extensive. In fact, it is one of the most comprehensive menus we found on Silver Muse. You could easily dine at La Terrazza several times and never order the same thing twice.
As soon as we were seated, our waiter arrived with a bottle of Prosecco and poured each of us a glass. The bottle was different from the Prosecco served in the bars and was very good.
When we were presented the menu, Rickee mentioned to the waiter that her menu was in German. The waiter dismissed her claim and said that some of the words were in Italian. I noticed my menu had Italian titles for the dishes, but that the descriptions underneath were in English. Rickee insisted that her menu was in German, but the waiter never looked at her menu to verify. He left to do something and she handed me her menu. Sure enough, her descriptions were in German! A different waiter came by and asked if there was a problem. When we showed her the menu, she immediately replaced it with the proper one.
We each ordered the same antipasti course, Tris di Bruschette (a trio of bruschetta). Our table was located directly in front of the antipasti prep station, so we could watch the orders being made.
The bruschetta was delicious, but not very filling. For our second course, I had ordered a small portion of Risotto al Teleggio e Pistacchio (risotto with Teleggio cheese, pine nuts and butter), and Rickee ordered Carpaccio di Manzo (thinly-sliced Italian beef tenderloin with olive oil). My risotto was perfectly cooked, creamy and well-seasoned. Rickee's carpaccio was also nice.
Small portion of risotto served at La Terrazza
There was quite a long wait between our starter course and second course; however, our main courses arrived soon after our second course plates were cleared. I ordered the Cotoletta alla Milanese di Fassone Piemontese (breaded and fried veal chop with potato puree). It seemed almost sacrilegious to bread and deep fry a beautiful veal chop, and the pile of Arugula on top did little to improve the presentation. However, it was delicious! Rickee ordered spaghetti for her main course and it was also good, albeit only lukewarm.
Cotoletta alla Milanese di Fassone Piemontese
There were more hits than misses during our dinner at La Terrazza and we wish we had had the opportunity to visit a second time to try some different menu items. If you plan on dining there, make sure to allow at least two hours for dinner (not uncommon in Europe). Our 8:00pm seating had us skipping the dessert course just so we could make the 10:00pm show in the Venetian Theater.
The Verdict
This is one of the most popular dining venues on Silver Muse, so we recommend making reservations and make them for an early dining time if you want the best choice of tables. If you book a table for a later time, plan on at least two hours for dinner.
La Terrazza remains an excellent choice for buffet breakfast and lunch, and is a formidable Italian restaurant for dinner.
