Favorite Vegetarian Options?

[torybruno]

This will be my husbands first cruise as a vegetarian.  (About 5 months now!)  What are his best options?  What are your favorites?  Is it worth it to eat in one of the specialty dining rooms?

[SilvertoGold]

Vegetarian Cutlet (broccoli or carrot based) with bok choy and garbanzo beans in a really good tomato sauce.

 

Any Dal, Tex-Mex or Asian noodle dish.

 

There is a vegetarian menu, too. Ask the Assistant DR Manager in your area.

 

Pinnacle's veg options are OK, but heavy and not that great. 

Edited May 19, 2019 by SilvertoGold

[torybruno]

Thanks!  I will have him ask for the special menu.  

[*Miss G*]

Others can verify but I found the late night buffet in the Lido was geared toward vegetarians.  It seemed to be mostly crew at that time, so that would make sense.

[*Miss G*]

Here is the Vegetarian Menu from @Crew News‘ site.  Your alternate dining options will depend on which ship you’re on.

[slidergirl]

Entree-size salads at the buffet is my favorite.  Sometimes there is an entree salad on the MDR menu.  I seem to find mostly carb-heavy vegetarian entrees, though (various pastas, risottos, breaded eggplant parm, etc.)  I didn't see anything worth going to Pinnacle for the price.  Usually the buffet will have some other vegetarian offerings - it's good when they bring out some Indonesian goodies.

[Crew News]

5 hours ago, torybruno said:

This will be my husbands first cruise as a vegetarian.  (About 5 months now!)  What are his best options?  What are your favorites?  Is it worth it to eat in one of the specialty dining rooms?

 

In addition to the Vegetarian Menu mentioned above, there are vegetarian items on the daily MDR menus for the Alaska Oosterdam 2019 (provided by my friend Gordon who was just on board):

 

http://www.rogerjett-photography.com/specialty-2/specifc-cruise-lido-and-mdr-menus/hal-7-day-alaska-2019-menus

 

I enjoy the Specialty Restaurants and both the Pinnacle Grill and Canaletto have vegetarian offerings but value of food is in the palate of the diner;

 

http://www.rogerjett-photography.com/specialty-2/hal-regular-and-specialty-restaurants/hal-specialty-restaurant-menus/pg-dinner-menu

 

http://www.rogerjett-photography.com/here/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Canaletto.pdf

 

[ArtsyCraftsy]

I love Canaletto -- they have a several good vegetarian options.  My absolute favorite is Melanzane Ripiene -- eggplant roulade filled with ricotta, spinach, and parmesan in a chunky slightly spicy tomato sauce.  I order that in a ”dinner” portion at least once per cruise (it’s one of the ”small plate” choices).  I’m not a vegetarian, but it’s one of my favorite dishes on HAL.

 

Lana in Bellingham, WA

[txstephie]

I love the Freestyle Burger in the Dive In. A grilled portobello mushroom burger with cheese, avocado, lettuce and tomato. So good!

[cruisingnewtoit]

I'm a vegan I had the most amazing veggie loaf. I ordered it off their special diet menu. It was fantastic. I've had some awful lentil loafs this was nothing like that. My Omni family all thought it was good.

 

95% of my meals were really good. Enjoy the cruise. 

[shudie]

Thanks for posting about this, I have been veggie for 30 years. 

 

Does anyone know know if there are vegetarian Indian food options on HAL? Eg. On Carnival & P&O there was Indian on the menu almost every night and the night they didn’t have on the menu, I asked and they made me dahl, roti, rice etc.

 

 

[RoyalVisit]

Asparagus Red Rice Cakes - we had these at the Mariner lunch so I'm not sure if they are on the main dining room menu occasionally or not...I really enjoyed this dish.  I took photos of most of the vegetarian dishes we had (we're both vegetarians) so I'll post a few more photos.

[RoyalVisit]

We just returned from a HAL cruise to Alaska on the Nieuw Amsterdam on Sunday.  Here are a few more photos of the vegetarian dishes we had...note we both consume dairy but no meat or seafood.

 

The first three pasta dishes were at Canaletto....

 

Melazane Ripiene - eggplant roulade filled with ricotta, basil, Parmesan, wilted spinach, chunky arrabiata sauce

Maccheroni Al Ferretto Pesto Alla Trapanese Con Basilico - roasted almond, semi-dried cherry tomato, basil pesto

Sformato di Ricotta, Zucchine E Basilico - baby zucchini, ricotta and basil flan, red bell pepper sauce, roasted vegetables, portabello mushrooms

 

 

 

 

Edited May 24, 2019 by RoyalVisit

[RoyalVisit]

A stuffed pasta appetizer - ricotta/spinach 

Tempura

Vegetable Jambalaya which was more in the style of a rice cake

 

We felt we had lots of options and they do have a separate vegetarian menu which you can pre-order from but we were more than satisfied with the main menus

[RoyalVisit]

Some more pics and some desserts

 

 

 

Edited May 24, 2019 by RoyalVisit

[RoyalVisit]

5 hours ago, shudie said:

Thanks for posting about this, I have been veggie for 30 years. 

 

Does anyone know know if there are vegetarian Indian food options on HAL? Eg. On Carnival & P&O there was Indian on the menu almost every night and the night they didn’t have on the menu, I asked and they made me dahl, roti, rice etc.

 

 

Yes they did in the Lido but I don't recall seeing an Indian options in the Main Dining Room except the tempura but I'm sure they do rotate Indian vegetarian options into the Main Dining Room menus

[EZ2CY]

On 5/19/2019 at 10:15 PM, *Miss G* said:

Here is the Vegetarian Menu from @Crew News‘ site.  Your alternate dining options will depend on which ship you’re on.

Oh my goodness, I had NO idea HAL offered a vegetarian menu.  Thank you Miss G for posting this. Do you, or anyone else, know if this is offered on all HAL ships? It looks wonderful to me

[cruisingnewtoit]

33 minutes ago, EZ2CY said:

Oh my goodness, I had NO idea HAL offered a vegetarian menu.  Thank you Miss G for posting this. Do you, or anyone else, know if this is offered on all HAL ships? It looks wonderful to me

Every HAL ship should have it. I order my vegan meals from it. Try the veggie loaf it is so yummy.

[MisterBill99]

On 5/19/2019 at 5:25 PM, SilvertoGold said:

Pinnacle's veg options are OK, but heavy and not that great. 

 

They're better than they used to be! I don't eat meat or shellfish (do eat regular fish) and there was almost no appetizer I could eat when we were on Kdam last year. They ended up giving me an appetizer portion of mushroom ravioli (I had asked if they could get me tuna tartar from the Sel de Mer and they said they would have to charge me for it). The new menu has many more options that I could eat, including tuna tartar.

[MisterBill99]

4 hours ago, EZ2CY said:

Oh my goodness, I had NO idea HAL offered a vegetarian menu.  Thank you Miss G for posting this. Do you, or anyone else, know if this is offered on all HAL ships? It looks wonderful to me

 

I think all lines have then. And you can generally see the menus for the following night to see if there is something that you will want.

 

On Celebrity last year, I looked at the vegetarian menu every night. One night they had tofu poached in olive oil as an appetizer and I knew I had to try it because it sounded so strange. I split it with the other people at my table (we were sitting with CC friends) and everyone thought it was much better than they expected. One guy even ate it and he had refused to eat tofu  at home for his vegetarian daughter!

[EZ2CY]

This is such great news to me. It never occurred to me there might be a vegetarian menu. I've had pretty good luck in Tamarind and in the Lido checking out the "Distant Lands" Asian counter on the Kdam and Statendam, but next time I'm in the main dining room I'll ask for the vegetarian options. Sometimes there would be one on the regular menu which I often chose. Nice to know there are likely many more. Thanks everyone for all this wonderful information!

[Homosassa]

The chile rellenos (contains cheese) on the dinner menu in the MDR is very good.

 

I am not a vegetarian but I order them when they appear. 

[SeaCBear]

On 5/24/2019 at 2:44 PM, RoyalVisit said:

Yes they did in the Lido but I don't recall seeing an Indian options in the Main Dining Room except the tempura but I'm sure they do rotate Indian vegetarian options into the Main Dining Room menus

 

Thank you SO much for posting these great photos. My husband and I are also vegetarians, but it looks like we'll have no trouble finding delicious food on our first Holland America cruise. 

[RoyalVisit]

6 hours ago, SeaCBear said:

 

Thank you SO much for posting these great photos. My husband and I are also vegetarians, but it looks like we'll have no trouble finding delicious food on our first Holland America cruise. 

You're welcome!

[torybruno]

We are just back, and I thought I would follow up.  We ate in the main dining room every night, except the Pinnacle one night.  There was always at least one choice on the regular main dining menu that was vegetarian.

 

There IS a separate vegetarian menu, but my husband would have to preorder it the night before for the following night.  When Sanjay, the director was walking around one night, he approached our table and asked how everything was.  It was then, on the third night, my husband found out there is a whole other Indian vegetarian menu!  He was in heaven for the rest of the cruise!

 

Breakfast he almost always had steel cut oats, souped up with nuts, nutella, berries, etc.  Lunch options he did have the mushroom burger from Dive In, but mostly salads.  They also had almond milk for his coffee, and were bringing him olive oil for his bread by the third night.

 

Pinnacle was his least favorite night, he ordered two entrees, (mac and cheese and an eggplant dish), those, as well as my halibut were cold.  Sides were piping hot, but all three entrees cold.  Would not recommend the halibut in Pinnacle, but it was great in MDR.