New menu- what's the verdict?

[njhorseman]

We were on the Explorer a couple of weeks ago and thought the food was possibly the worst we've encountered in 25 years of cruising on many cruise lines.

 

Not only did we experience difficulty in finding choices that were to our liking, the preparation of many of the entrees was awful....the most common problem being dry and overcooked entrees. Of course the preparation problems weren't necessarily just due to the new menu. Perhaps the Explorer's executive chef just isn't very good and doesn't know how to train and supervise his staff.

 

We also wondered who decided on making "sliders" one of the always available entrees? Two little hamburgers? Were we on a cruise ship or a White Castle?

 

Personally we were happier overall with the old menus.

[gbcruise]

Please tell me the savory bites are still part of the bread basket. And the first night, do they still have the pork medillions? Is the chocolate sensation cake, mousse or a pudding?

[Clarea]

Please tell me the savory bites are still part of the bread basket. And the first night, do they still have the pork medillions? Is the chocolate sensation cake, mousse or a pudding?

Yes on the savory bites.

[cruiseguy1016]

We enjoyed the new menu on our Explorer cruise. Escargot and Shrimp cocktail were on the menu every night.

I missed scallop risotto and onion tart, but there other items to chose.

The desserts seem to offer more variety and the new Chocolate Sensation is very good and available every night.

Enjoy!

 

Did they eliminate the Vidalia Onion Tart from the new menu?:eek: That was one of my favorites.

[cruiseguy1016]

You guys are killing me..I should've NEVER asked about the new menus!! ..LOL.....

 

Yes, please tell us about the chocolate sensation...I try my best to eat NO MORE than 10,000 calories a day...one must have some discipline..I also limit adult beverages to no more than 15 a day....my wife is tiny..one drink and she's tanked..I should be so lucky!!

 

Alan

 

It sounds like you ARE lucky.:D

[Clarea]

Did they eliminate the Vidalia Onion Tart from the new menu?:eek: That was one of my favorites.

Did not see it on Liberty the past November, but that was only a 5 day cruise.

[Robinhill]

Excellent! Superb quality and variety! I was on the Enchantment in November and I found it to be the best cruise ship food I have had in probably 15 years! Enjoy!

[sjb317]

Please tell me the savory bites are still part of the bread basket. And the first night, do they still have the pork medillions? Is the chocolate sensation cake, mousse or a pudding?

 

Yes to the savory bites, no to the pork medallions. On the first night there was a mojo pork chop that was good, especially the mojo sauce. The chocolate sensation is a cake that was covered in chocolate, but I think it also had some type of filling.

 

Sherri:)

[sjb317]

Did they eliminate the Vidalia Onion Tart from the new menu?:eek: That was one of my favorites.

 

Vidalia onion tart was not on the menu. I missed it too.:D

 

Sherri:)

[fpcruiser]

I was not a huge fan of the new menu..Just off Oasis last month. I am not a seafood lover and I feel the new menu definitely has a strong influence of seafood. Of course, there are always some non-seafood items, but in my opinion the new menus are definitely more for the seafood lovers. Obviously, I did not go hungry and enjoyed all my meals in the MDR :)

 

I agree. My dh and I don't eat fish or seafood. There weren't many choices not seafood. But saying that, everything I had was good, not great. I didn't have to cook or cleanup so that made it great.

[njhorseman]

I agree. My dh and I don't eat fish or seafood. There weren't many choices not seafood. But saying that, everything I had was good, not great. I didn't have to cook or cleanup so that made it great.

 

And our problem with it came from exactly the opposite perspective. We love seafood and were looking forward to eating the various offerings from the new menus, but every piece of fish we ordered was dry and overcooked, and we didn't find the selection of other dishes that attractive, just as you didn't.

[stewpapa]

I get the impression you didn't like the food as this is the second thread you have criticized it.

 

What would you expect them to do, say they liked it on one thread and hated it on another? Are we limited to responding to a question about our opinion only once on a particular topic now?

[stewpapa]

And our problem with it came from exactly the opposite perspective. We love seafood and were looking forward to eating the various offerings from the new menus, but every piece of fish we ordered was dry and overcooked, and we didn't find the selection of other dishes that attractive, just as you didn't.

 

I love fish and have always found the fish dishes on RCI not so good as well. (Carnival does much better on fish dishes in my experience, although the overall MDR experience is better on RCI.) I'm hoping for better fish on our upcoming Mariner cruise in 11 days.

[big al]

Thanks for all your replies...I guess I wil find out in 9 days on the Allure..I worry about the other couple we're going with..he is a carnivore all the way..no seafood..we're going to Chops the 2nd night, so he'll be fine there..I still don't really know what the Chocolate Sensation is....anybody?

 

Big Al

[bonniboo1]

Just got off the AOS. Food was fine, some dishes better than others. Both lamb dishes that I had were excellent as was the shrimp cocktail. The minestrone soup that I had one night at dinner was very good. I had some shrimp grilled with garlic one night and it was excellent. Also, I had the short rib ragout and it was excellent, stupid me, I didn't order the lobster tail. Afterword I was told that it was very good. Unfortunately I had the prime rib which I just didn't care for. My friend ordered the "always available" strip steak and said that it was tough. Next time I will just avoid Prime rib and steak and I will be fine. There was plenty of good to very good food available. :). Escargot was available nightly.

The main dining room was closed for lunch on port days. The last day was a day @ sea. We had the very good Tutti Salad. I begged them for just a little bit. This fell on deaf ears and I had enough to feed several people. It was delicious. No need to have an entree with it.

[Cheryl H]

 

Chocolate Sensation

[Cheryl H]

 

Chicken Caesar (Planko crusted Chicken with Caesar Salad). Hands down my favorite new addition to the menu....with the exception of the Chocolate Sensation that I ate about 4 nights.

[Cheryl H]

 

Lowfat Warm Apple Dome

[BND]

We had the new menu on EX in Nov. Meh, not impressed. Too much seafood. I'm allergic to shrimp so I avoid all shellfish/crustaceans just in case. Not worth finding out the hard way. I eat some fish, but didn't find anything on the new menu that appealed to me that much. Food was way, way too salty and that's the feedback I gave our waiter. The menu had only been rolled out a couple of cruises before ours so they were asking for feedback. I miss the vidalia onion tart. We had the 11 night menu so a lot more offered than on shorter cruises and honestly, our table of 8 weren't wowed at all The only thing that a couple of people liked was being able to get escargot or shrimp cocktail every night.

[Cheryl H]

 

Carrot Cake

[Cheryl H]

 

Sticky Bread & Butter Pudding

[Cheryl H]

 

This is the Spinach Dip. This was the only thing that didn't really wow us. It was a bit on the bland side. But maybe that was just on the Jewel.

[Cheryl H]

 

Warm Chocolate Cake!!! A winner!

[Cheryl H]

Hope the photos helped. I loved the chocolate sensation. We enjoyed the new desserts. Loved the new Chicken Caesar entree.

 

I got the prime rib one night, and the turkey one night, but most of the other nights I ordered the Chops steak upgrade.

 

Enjoy your cruise!!

[MisterBill99]

There were souffles at least three nights on our 14 day cruise.

We were on Explorer last month. I thought the souffles were terrible (I had 2 of them). We were on Celebrity Silhouette last year and they were excellent, light and airy. Explorer's were sunken and just terrible. And the assistant waiter didn't know how to serve them, she asked me to open the middle with a spoon to put the sauce in.

 

I was not very impressed with the new menus. The mushroom in puff pastry appetizer was not as good as it used to be, perhaps because they're just using white mushrooms now instead of a mix. The fruit soups were good (they always are). The sliced duck breast appetizer was the best thing I had all week.