Polo Grill question

I can vote for the Iberico in Jacques .... hmmmmmmm GOOD.

Mura

Did you enjoy the "seduction"? :D

.

I did. I'm always going to be seduced by John Dory - it's a lovely fish and perfect with fennel. Polo and Jacques were pretty much faultless meals. Which is more than I could say for the other two. Food in Toscana was good but there were service issues (the only occasion when we had such an issue). Red Ginger was simply disappointing - we thought every course we ate was dumbed down in flavour - none of the vibrancy you'd expect from that part of the world. FWIW, we thought the GDR surpassed our expectations by some margin - thoroughly enjoyable experiences

I'm always amused at the different reactions to the various dining venues. It must be hard for newcomers to Oceania to decide just who to believe! Like you, we have always enjoyed the GDR and didn't care for Red Ginger. Toscana was not a favorite either although we HAVE had some good meals there.

On the "O" ships Jacques remains our favorite. We also like Terrace.

Mura

On our recent trip, my partner had the ribeye. It's fair to say that neither of us find American grain fed beef as flavoursome as European grass fed but this wasnt bad at all (no doubt due to the 28 day aging). I went with the Iberico de Bellota pork chop and reckon it was the better choice. I've only ever seen IdB as jamon in Spain, never as fresh meat, so it was something new for me - entirely successful

Your comparing a Northern Spy with a Junami or Cox's Orange Pippin (for an apple to apple comparison.:)

USA does have grass fed beef (as dies Canada which is my preference). Need to compare grass fed vs. grass fed. Actually not relevant anyway as Polo is not going to offer such choices.

I am very surprised at the very favorable lobster comments. I realize food is subjective but knowing some of the posters from there years on this board I know they might prefer this over that but know good and bad, regardless if the dush is prepared to their liking or taste. The lobster DW ordered in Polo on the first occasional was awful. Tiny portion (scampi sized) of overcooked something. So tough the knife shredded it, not cut. Was part of the steak and lobster. We actually skipped Polo the next cruise proffering the excellent dining room. Following cruise she thought she would 'forgive' and retry the same dish. Again very sad. Not quite as bad.

No we did not send it back,

posted accidentally. must ge a good time to stop. (agree the pork is marvelously)

John Dory fish a/k/a St. Peter's fish; we couldn't escape it in the late 70's and early 80's; it was at the bottom of our wish list after a few tries along with what we called "lake inferior white fish" ; I did order it a few months ago and enjoyed it; I suspect my taste buds have been compromised by the aging process.

[quote=Mura;53719854 We also like Terrace.

I didnt mention Terrace as we didnt have dinner there. But it was a favourite spot for breakfast and lunch. Just to round it off, we did have a couple of lunches in Waves - thought them fine.

Our very first meal on Oceania was in Toscana. It was lobster pasta and very tough. We didn't send it back because for all we knew that was as good as it got. We have learned not to order lobster as part of another dish, including surf and turf. If we want s & t, we order a steak and the steamed lobster. The lobster is always great, the steak a crapshoot. It can range from excellent to shoe leather. Really.

Our first cruise on Marina I ordered the pork in Jacques that everyone was raving about. It was over cooked and tough. In fact on that cruise the food in Jacques was not very good. I tried it again later with same result. The Lobster Thermidor was so so. Gave up on Jacques.

I never really cared for Toscana much but on a couple of cruises it had the best food on the ship.

Jacques also came up a winner on a longer cruise. Go figure.

My take on this is that it totally depends on the chef, which restaurants are great on any given cruise. Can range from excellent to inedible. And on 2 of our cruises the food overall was bordering on mediocre. Having said that, we choose to stick with O as there are more winners than losers.

We do enjoy the MDR for the changing menu. Don't do dinner in The Terrace unless we are in a warm climate and want to dine outside. It can be lovely, and I enjoy the ambiance in spite of the food. DH enjoys the sushi bar. I hate buffets. Except the breakfast in Terrace is my favourite, preferably outside, weather permitting.

I do agree that there is little to no spice in the O kitchens so the ethnic dishes they prepare often miss the mark. I recognize that they are serving the masses, and having grown up with a father who wasn't fond of too much seasoning I totally understand.

For us, we love the entire experience and appreciate the smoking policy which brought us to O in the beginning.

There you go. More than you ever wanted to know about our opinions of the food on O. [emoji41]

Mo

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Very nice Mo; thank you.

John Dory fish a/k/a St. Peter's fish; we couldn't escape it in the late 70's and early 80's; it was at the bottom of our wish list after a few tries along with what we called "lake inferior white fish" ; I did order it a few months ago and enjoyed it; I suspect my taste buds have been compromised by the aging process.

While John Dory might be called St. Peter's fish, nor all St. Peter's fish are John Dory. And regional naming or a fishmonger might confuse things by calling it whatever name will get the best price.

If it was from a lake as in "lake inferior white fish" the St Peters fish could have been Tilapia. And Tilapia can survive quite well in some questionable water (Lake Inferior is a great description). Not a species I would eat unless knowing it's true source.

Not saying your wrong, just expanding on the St. Peter's fish and a possible reason for the very different comments on it.

In the UK, John Dory is a sea, not lake, fish and is generally regarded as a highish end product. Not as good as, say, turbot, but on the way there. My experience on Marina suggested the flavour was as I've eaten the fish in the UK, not an inferior product.

Our very first meal on Oceania was in Toscana. It was lobster pasta and very tough. We didn't send it back because for all we knew that was as good as it got. We have learned not to order lobster as part of another dish, including surf and turf. If we want s & t, we order a steak and the steamed lobster. The lobster is always great, the steak a crapshoot. It can range from excellent to shoe leather. Really.

 

Our first cruise on Marina I ordered the pork in Jacques that everyone was raving about. It was over cooked and tough. In fact on that cruise the food in Jacques was not very good. I tried it again later with same result. The Lobster Thermidor was so so. Gave up on Jacques.

 

I never really cared for Toscana much but on a couple of cruises it had the best food on the ship.

 

Jacques also came up a winner on a longer cruise. Go figure.

 

My take on this is that it totally depends on the chef, which restaurants are great on any given cruise. Can range from excellent to inedible. And on 2 of our cruises the food overall was bordering on mediocre. Having said that, we choose to stick with O as there are more winners than losers.

 

We do enjoy the MDR for the changing menu. Don't do dinner in The Terrace unless we are in a warm climate and want to dine outside. It can be lovely, and I enjoy the ambiance in spite of the food. DH enjoys the sushi bar. I hate buffets. Except the breakfast in Terrace is my favourite, preferably outside, weather permitting.

 

I do agree that there is little to no spice in the O kitchens so the ethnic dishes they prepare often miss the mark. I recognize that they are serving the masses, and having grown up with a father who wasn't fond of too much seasoning I totally understand.

 

For us, we love the entire experience and appreciate the smoking policy which brought us to O in the beginning.

 

There you go. More than you ever wanted to know about our opinions of the food on O. [emoji41]

 

Mo

 

 

 

 

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Good overview of the dining, Mo, and our recent experience on Nautica in June saw us give up one of our specialty restaurant dinners in favour of the Terrace which hosted an excellent "India Tastes" which proved to be a great choice. It seems to be hit and miss in Polo more often than in the past, but posters have convinced me to try the pork on our Sirena trip next month. The GDR is the best bet for us even if service is sometimes iffy. Compared to other cruises, O is still tops, and even many great restaurants cannot be on top of their game every night! So, it is with thanks that I commend O chefs and staff for doing a tough job exceptionally well!:D

Ate at Polo last night. It was excellent. I ordered the queen cut prime rib. It was more medium than medium rare. It was good. I like medium rare. Portion was huge. I was told that you can ask for a small portion called the princess cut which is not on the menu.

In the UK, John Dory is a sea, not lake, fish and is generally regarded as a highish end product. Not as good as, say, turbot, but on the way there. My experience on Marina suggested the flavour was as I've eaten the fish in the UK, not an inferior product.

John Dory was an item on many high end restaurants in Chicago back in the day; it was flown in daily; we also had a restaurant Nick's Fishmarket that had a Hawaii branch and flew in Hawaiian fish (Onaga for example) daily. But our experience with John Dory was like that with whitefish and for that matter Turbot: banal. Turbot was a very economical fish then which fit our budget; unfortunately the simple cooking method we used was part of the reason for our disappointment. Don't look for it these days.

St. Peter's fish we had recommended to us in Europe and Israel; I was suspicious of the basic taste and questioned the staff and informed each time it was John Dory.

The fish I craved was Dover Sole which I had in various ways including with Strawberries at Ambria (fabulous). Given economics we did not order that often. True Sea Bass was also good and Red Snapper especially Greek, Mexican and Oriental preps; later Arctic Char. We get pretty good wild salmon too.

In places like Sicily you almost cannot get a bad fish; Chicago may be fishy but has never been known for its fish.

Harters I suspect you have had a much happier history in eating fish than I have. Hoping for the best on Riviera.

Harters I suspect you have had a much happier history in eating fish than I have.

Or maybe not. Even though none of us Britons live more than 75 miles from the coast, seafood is not a prized food amongst many of us. I've eaten a much wider range and of much better quality in New England, than in Old England.

You mention Dover Sole. It's a fish you will hardly see in British restaurants and, indeed, you'll struggle to find seafood restaurants in Dover or the surrounding coastal areas. A big contrast with 21 miles away in France, where seafood is on every menu in the coastal restaurants. And, over there, they call it Calais Sole.

I once made the mistake of ordering cockles and mussels at a Pub in England ; the waiter was pretty impassive but I suspect he was laughing inside. They must have gone out and run a sieve through the sandy waters because they were the grittiest seafood I've ever eaten.

The Dover Sole on the menu of one of our local restaurants last week was purportedly from Denmark.

You struck unlucky. Mussels in the UK are usually farmed these days and it's rare for them to be gritty. Cockles can be a different matter as they are dredged up from the sand.

OK, so we have been told that in a certain venue a certain entre is "always overcooked." Am I expected to actually believe this? Am i to believe also that nobody EVER sends any entre back? This is a "luxury" cruise line that serves overcooked food? get real.

OK, so we have been told that in a certain venue a certain entre is "always overcooked." Am I expected to actually believe this? Am i to believe also that nobody EVER sends any entre back? This is a "luxury" cruise line that serves overcooked food? get real.

I seem to being hearing the same thing. Remember that you are in a restaurant that you are paying for. If the entrée is NOT cooked to your liking, send it back!

Don't let the waiter tell you anything different.

No matter how many times it takes the kitchen to get it right, keep sending it back!

On our last cruise I did, stupidly order the lobster at Polo Grill. I didn't feel like red meat that evening and decided to give them another chance with the lobster. It came out over cooked and tough. Sent it back, waited, and out came the next one. Even worse.

At that point I accepted the responsibility. I knew better than to order lobster there, and I persisted in doing so anyway. It's a steak and prime rib restaurant. I should have stayed with what they do very well. Never order Chinese in an Italian restaurant and expect good results.

On our last cruise I did, stupidly order the lobster at Polo Grill. I didn't feel like red meat that evening and decided to give them another chance with the lobster. It came out over cooked and tough. Sent it back, waited, and out came the next one. Even worse.

 

At that point I accepted the responsibility. I knew better than to order lobster there, and I persisted in doing so anyway. It's a steak and prime rib restaurant. I should have stayed with what they do very well. Never order Chinese in an Italian restaurant and expect good results.

A ridiculous argument.

I am not saying that your lobster wasn't over cooked, but... Do you really believe that when Oceania hires cooks for the Polo they only hire people who know how to cook steaks and nothing else? A cook that can cook a "perfect" steak surely can steam/broil a lobster tail as well. Not to mention that Polo & Toscana share the same kitchen. Thus you are ordering a steak from an Italian kitchen and Italian food from a steak house. Do you really think that the lobster Diavolo in Toscana is cooked by "lobster specialists" that only do it for Toscana? How come they can cook a perfect lobster and Osso Bucco as well (in addition to everything else on the Toscana menu) but the Polo cooks cannot cook steaks and lobsters?

PS While I do not know the cooks at Polo/Toscana, I am betting that most of them are not American but rather they are ethnic - maybe mostly from Asian countries. Before they joined Oceania they probably cooked more seafood/lobsters than steaks and prime ribs in their lives - just guessing here :)

I tried the lobster risotto in Toscana and the lobster had been over cooked there also. Rubber lobster. Another at our sharing table there had the same experience and complaint. I fully realized the two share kitchens and would suggest not ordering lobster dishes in either. Maybe you'll have good luck , maybe not. Plenty of other good stuff on the menu to fight the issue.

Just off Regatta this week. Good food, but not as good as on prior O cruises. They didn't do very well with lobster in any of the venues: Waves, Terrace, or MDR. Agree, it was overcooked and tough. We didn't push it in Toscana/Polo -- the lamb chops and prime rib were very good!

I always order the prime rib rare and usually that is what I receive. I've heard explanations of why prime rib is cooked to one level rather than lots of choices more from other venues than from Oceania. But on occasion it's been cooked more than I like (I'm with Jim and Stan on this). It's never been more than medium, however.

 

If you really want meat cooked to your preference, you're better off requesting a steak.

Greetings from South Beach, Prime ribs are similar to chateaubriand. The whole thing is cooked at the same time, so doneness depends on where your slice is from When we lived in NYC and entertained lager groups, I went the chateau route. I fancied it up by stuffing the pocket on the side with various mixtures. The piece provided multiple doneness options.

Mary

We have a May 2018 cruise that also begins in Barcelona. We are arriving 3 days early. Any hotel suggestions? TIA!

 

 

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Polo roast beef is good. Jacques is even better. It is also listed as medium rare. It is excellent.

I just had the same experience as Sandbag 7 on the Marina last week. I ordered the Queen's cut,

medium rare, and got a pink slab of meat, no marbling, no flavor, absolutely the worst piece of prime

rib I've had in my life...such a disappointment!!