The Taste Trekker

On board P&O Iona, there are a handful of Speciality Dining restaurants. We have already reviewed The Keel & Cow, but now we will review 3 more that can be found on board. These are Sindhu, The Beach House & The Glass House. It is essential to note that these aren’t the only speciality restaurants on board, as you can also visit The Epicurean & The Limelight Club. Arvia, the sister ship, features all of these restaurants, plus Green & Co, a vegetarian restaurant that also boasts a sushi bar called Mizuhana.

Sindhu:
This is the Indian restaurant on board the ship, and the menu changes depending on how long the cruise is. If you are on a 1-week-long cruise, it changes after 3 or 4 days, and if you’re on a 2-week cruise, then it will change after the first week has gone by. If you prebook your dining at Sindhu before the cruise, you pay a £10 deposit each, which will come off the final bill. The pricing is clever, as they offer a 3-course meal for around £21, but if you were to order just a main and a starter or dessert, that costs just under £20, so you are more enticed to go for the extra course, just to get a better deal.

It’s safe to say that the food in Sindhu is very good; I haven’t had a meal there that I haven’t enjoyed. Our favourite one so far has been the trio of curries, which featured a chicken curry, salmon curry and a beef curry. This comes with all the accompaniments that you would expect, naans, dhaals, Bombay potato, etc. The restaurant itself is very nice, with dim lighting and turquoise colours lavishing the seating and walls. The waiters are very attentive, making sure that you are catered for at all times.

Gourmet Gauge:
Sindhu offers great Indian dishes in an inviting atmosphere, and great service is provided. The presentation is top notch. If you paid £21 for 3 courses of Indian food at home, you’d be saying it’s a bargain!
Taste: 8/10 🥄
Presentation: 8/10 🍽️
Ambience: 8/10 🕯️
Service: 9/10 🧑‍🍳
Value for Money: 8/10💰
Total: 41/50 Highly Recommend!

The Beach House:
Inspired by Caribbean, South American and Stateside cuisine, The Beach House menu offers a range of dishes, from comfort food to hearty dishes. This venue is similar to The Olive Grove on board Iona, where the majority of the menu is complimentary. Still, there are a few select premium items with a small additional fee. You can find dishes such as Honey & Garlic Glazed Chicken, Caribbean Seafood Basket & Slow Cooked Curried Goat Pot. We have visited this restaurant twice during our 4 visits on board Iona, and I remember having the Pork Chicharrones for starter, for mains I went for the Taco Trio, followed by the Golden Dolce De Leche Tart.

The food was amazing! The food that was free on the menu tasted almost as good as some of the food from The Keel & Cow and Sindhu, both Speciality Dining Restaurants. The service was reasonably quick, too, and some of the prices weren’t too bad to add on top. The only downside is the location of the restaurant on both of the ships. It is literally sectioned off from the Horizon Buffet, so sometimes the noise from there can ruin the ambience of this restaurant. Apart from that, we would recommend giving it a try, you won’t find food similar to this on the ships elsewhere.

Gourmet Gauge:
The Beach House offers tasty, well-presented food from across the Americas. The service provided is very good, and the fee for some of the premium dishes isn’t too bad. The major downside is the location, and I feel having a separate venue, rather than sharing it with the buffet, would make The Beach House an even better venue!
Taste: 8/10 🥄
Presentation: 8/10 🍽️
Ambience: 5/10 🕯️
Service: 8/10 🧑‍🍳
Value for Money: 7/10💰
Total: 36/50 Worth A Visit!

The Glass House:
Our final review from this trio of Speciality Dining Restaurants comes in the form of The Glass House. We had avoided this place until our most recent cruise, where we were pleasantly surprised. In all honesty, we thought that it was purely a bar, and it wasn’t until we checked a menu on our 4th cruise on the ship that we realised just how good the menu in this restaurant sounds! They offer big servings such as Fish & Chips, but they also offer a range of tapas and a selection of flights, such as the beef trio. This example includes braised veal cheek, roasted shallot & coffee beef short rib and pulled oxtail bonbon.

The food is exquisite here, and we enjoyed it as much as we enjoyed The Keel & Cow and Sindhu. Glass House’s menu is curated by Jose Pizarro and wine expert Olly Smith, so you know you’re going to get quality food and drink at this venue. Each item on the menu has pairings for what drinks would go best with it, and I ended up getting myself a cheeky little coffee-based cocktail, which I loved!

Price-wise, this is a restaurant where everything on the menu is an additional charge, ranging from £3ish for tapas to around £9 for a flight of food. The location is within the atrium, and it is cut off so guests can’t just wander through whilst you’re dining. So if you’re on a cruise, I’d highly recommend visiting The Glass House. (In all honesty, there are too many restaurants on board these ships to be able to try them all out at least twice!).

Gourmet Gauge:
The Glass House is exceptional. They have great food choices, presented beautifully, served by friendly, attentive servers. The ambience is lovely, away from the busyness of the main atrium. The whole menu incurs additional charges, but in our opinion, the food is worth it.
Taste: 9/10 🥄
Presentation: 8/10 🍽️
Ambience: 8/10 🕯️
Service: 8/10 🧑‍🍳
Value for Money: 7/10💰
Total: 40/50 Highly Recommend!

🌍 Over to You, Fellow Taste Trekkers!

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