Celebrity Menus? Recommmendations?

[tx121]

We will be sailing for the first time on Celebrity. We will be doing a 11 night Southern Caribbean itinerary on Celebrity Reflection and was wondering if anyone has any recent menus from any celebrity ship to share? Also what are your must have or favorite menu items that we should try.

We were also looking at the specialty restaurants and looking at Murano and Qsine. Is it worth the upcharge? My spouse is a picky eater and not sure if Qsine would be too adventurous. Thoughts?

If there is already a recent post on this, my apologies and could you please provide the link. Thanks so much!

[Bo1953]

Food fight is imminent with this question! Subjective... and strong opinions will result.

 

bon appetite and bon voyage

[jkgourmet]

Though We were overall very happy with the food, I only remember a couple of items that we thought were outstanding on our 11 day southern Caribbean in December.

 

In the MDR, The escargot and the lamb shank.

 

In Muano, the entree of duck and lamb were memorably great. The appetizers were memorably bad. In fact, I sent one back, which I assure you is a rare occurrence.

 

In Tuscan, DH (an ex-butcher) very much enjoyed his prime aged steak (for the extra upcharge beyond the regular cost, he darn well better like it). We remember the appetizers being good.

 

We did Q-sine several years ago when we travelled with friends. IMO the only way to do Q-sine is with a group so you get to try more items. But would we return? No. Once was cool, twice - meh.

 

Please note that we have very reasonable and sensible expectations for food prepared in the MDR for hundreds (thousands?) Of people at the same time.

 

The buffet on our Eclipse December cruise was a HUGE improvement over our prior X cruises. Still a few glitches (pizza and cold cuts were disappointing and the make your own Ceaser salad was a pain) but a VERY pleasant surprise. And something that encourages us to sail with X again (along with the prepaid gratuities and classic alcohol package).

[Queen of Oakville]

i think HAL and Celebrity are the best as far as MDR food is concerned. We have never had any complaints. On our last Oasis sailing, I even felt that Royal had upped their game compared to earlier cruises.

 

As for specialty dining, I don't find Lawn Club grill to be anything great. We know our steak, and nothing we ate at Lawn Club was worth going back for. Even the MDR everday steak was much better.

 

We enjoyed our first visit to QSINE. My kids can both be a bit picky but the tried everything and enjoyed it. The presentation was lovely but I cannot say that anything was stellar with respect to flavour or knocked our socks off. I'm glad we tried it, but would not be in a rush to go back.

 

As far as I recall, Murano does not allow kids, so we are not likely to visit them in the near future. However, on a Top Chef sailing, I had the pleasure of enjoying a Murano lunch as part of our cooking class. We cooked our appies, and the Murano team made our lunch. It was phenomenal.

[cltnccruisers]

We were recently on Silhouette. The quality of the food in the MDR was fine - quantity became a running joke. But you can always ordermore which we did. DW and I both agreed that the beef dishes in the MDR were usually the best options. For dessert we were frequently unimpressed and went to al Bacio later in the evening instead - always a good option. The only time we ate anywhere but the MDR was a lunch at The Mast Grill - nothing to write home about.

 

That said, food is so personal. What we liked you may hate.

[mom says]

If you can find some fairly recent trip reports, there may be photos of some of the daily MDR menus. We are generally very satisfied with the food in the MDR, other than the desserts, which we think are mediocre. Certainly, we rate the food higher than most of the other mass market lines. We also temper our expectations, considering that they are attempting to feed well over 2,000 people in only a few hours. I don't bother listing favorite foods, since this is so subjective. What I consider delicious may trigger someone else's gag reflex at the very thought.

 

I don't know what you mean, exactly, when you say your spouse is picky. Does this mean that they have a very discerning palate, and high expectations of both the preparation and presentation of their food? In that case, I think they might very well enjoy both Murano or Qsine. Murano is as close as you can get to fine dining on the ship. Qsine is more experimental and adventurous than the usual restaurant fare, and can be fun if you approach it with a sense of humour.

 

But if you mean they will only eat from a narrow array of plain foods that they are familiar with, then I would not waste the money at either. Tuscan or Lawn Club might suit them better.

[Wombat706]

Do the speciality venues cater for vegetarians and vegans?

[mom says]

Do the speciality venues cater for vegetarians and vegans?

 

If you Google the restaurants you can find their menus. No idea what they would be prepared to do off menu.

[san diego spartan]

We were on 11 night Southern Caribbean cruise the eclipse in December 2017. We bought a four or five nights specialty dining restaurant package pre-cruise with r on board credit which was a good deal. We ate three nights in murano it was fabulous. The lobster that they make table-side is delicious, the duck was very good in my husband loved the venison. Neither of us light Tuscan Grill and I would not return nor did I find it worth the money.

[rollie]

French onion soup, on the menu every night, is to die for.

 

Rollie

[helen haywood]

I often find that the desserts in the MDR aren’t that great...or we’d like a break before having dessert...so we go to Cafe al Bacio later. Some people don’t realize that the breakfast pastries and desserts at Cafe al Bacio are free of charge. The specialty coffees and teas have a charge but you don’t have to order a drink to have the food. You can eat it there or get it to go if you’d rather have it in your cabin.

 

 

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[ClaudiaB]

I haven't eaten in the main dining room in 10 years so I can't answer to that, but we like to eat in all the specialty restaurants on our cruises as we feel like it's just part of the whole cruise experience.

Our favorite by far is Tuscan Grill. The filet is tender enough to cut with a fork. The goat cheese arugula salad is my favorite salad on the ship. We usually get a fish or steak entree and split a half order of some pasta there. I always get some dessert sent to my cabin.

 

Murano is good, and I like the chateaubriand and the fish and table side lobster dishes. Their shuffle appetizer is great as is the salad with the egg on top. Mmm.

 

Qsine is fun, but more fun with a group. We've done it both ways. Go hungry and pace yourself! It's small plates of many ethnicities, presented in clever ways. Some of my favorites there are lava crab, the kobe style meatball, the tacos, the filet palette, and the Greek small bites. The tombstone dessert is wonderful, but so is the surprise (bread pudding).

[fizzy1]

Could i just jump in on this post and ask if anyone has a photo of the drinks menu in Murano xx

 

 

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[kdog3ss]

I agree with rollie. The French onion soup is terrific.

[Chanbre]

I have to put in a vote for the Oceanview Buffet on the Eclipse for evening meals. We ate there several evenings. While some sections had similar fare every evening, there was lots of variation from day to day. Often the choices featured many items from the country just visited. We had a wonderful selection of food. Additionally, there was no queueing for MDR seats and we could eat at times that fitted well with the theatre shows and other events.

[aml3679]

We have been on 3 cruise lines: Celebrity, RCI and Carnival. We both found that we love the food on Celebrity, liked the food on Carnival although it was hard to find food at night and hated the food on RCI.

 

For breakfast, while I enjoy being waited on (after all, I am on vacation), we prefer room service for early excursions or the Oceanview Cafe - nice selections.

 

We find the food in the MDR to be excellent and a variety of choices.

 

We have been on the Millenium and the Equinox and are cruising on the Silouette coming up in January.

 

On the Millenium, at the time, only had one extra dining venue and we loved it. On the Equinox, they had Sushi on Five, Murano's, Tuscan Grill and Silk Harvest. We liked Sushi on Five, loved Murano's and Tuscan Grill. Our favorite was Silk Harvest and we ate there 3 times on an 11 night cruise. My husband has a shellfish allergy, will he have a problem finding enough options at Quisine?

[Lastdance]

My DH and I love Chateaubriand. It has always been cooked to perfection! So for us, Murano is our favorite.

 

 

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[2NHcruisers]

as Bo1953 stated its a food fight; My better half and I prefer murano and tuscan. We favor tuscan, especially for the more relaxed atmosphere..but murano has some killer dishes....

[ghstudio]

Last night (we just got off today) on the infinity, they served excellent chateaubriand in the MDR. Note to food lovers....celebrity has changed their onion soup. The change is very noticeable. I’m sure there will be disagreement as to which is better...I preferred the old recipe.

 

Another foodie note....sushi on 5 really does have freshly grated daikon and it is fairly priced at $10. I tried a small piece and it is quite different than the powdered stuff we all are used to.

 

Finally, the corned beef hash was wonderfully spicy..with some chili pepper mixed in.. very different and very good, if you like spice.

 

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