Food sampling-Dawn Jan 2/2006

[shygirl]

First, I like to say sorry for not taking any pictures of the menu's from our 10 night/eastern cruise. Here is a sampling of what we had in the main dining rooms.

 

Good:

Lunch: Flounder fillet with scallion sauce served with coconut scented rice-most delicate fish the entire cruise.

 

Dinner: Appetizers: Sashimi and Tempura vegetables with teryakki glaze-yum! Pop corn crayfish-like small deep fried shrimp. Escargot-formal night

Main courses: Prime rib 2 nights, lobster tail on formal night, braised oxtail with mashed sweet potatoes-carribean night-tasty.

Desserts: creme brulee, banana cake, coconut sherbert, best crepe suzette ever, new york cheese cake.

 

Buffet: Walked by quite often to bring kids to camp.

Snacked on: Calamari/scallop with vegetable salad

Nacho's- all the fixings(guacamole too!)

New york deli- egg salad, pastrami,

dill pickles, chips, baked cookies

 

Bad: Soups- hot soup is your typical cream of chicken with a few bits of whatever-eg. seafood, veggie, clam -not much flavour

-cold soup-strawberry-reminds me of a chunky yogurt drink?

Salad- lettuce base/romaine-iceburg with tidbits of whatever-I had avocado and orange.

Main course - Tortellini in cream sauce-worst ever machine manufactured pasta-with mealy sort of meat.

 

We would check menu's everyday and most often we would only find one or two items we would like to try. Menu's very limited.

 

Themes were Bon voyage, Chef's Dinner, Carribbean, Italian, French, Stars spangled, Farewell Dinner. Other nights were just call Freestyle Menu. All the 3 main restaurants had identical menu's every night. This was dissappointing because I thought I would be able to have something different at each restaurant on the same night. The only exception was the buffet, it was-Mexican, Polynesian?(this could be they were serving leftovers from previous nights)

 

It could be seasonal but we had the worst fruit ever on our cruise. Pineapples were hard and whiter than my shirts, Melon's were not ripe, bruised frozen bananas, grapes that looks like they have been left in the fridge for 3 weeks. Strawberries and grapes were only seen as garnishes. I really think they have a storage problem. The only good fruit were sturdier items like whole apples, pears and oranges.

 

No ribs at the bbq and no popcorn anywhere.

 

Kid's menu: no dinosaur chicken-just strips that were very dry

 

Best tip: order double of everything because portions are tiny!

 

This is all I can remember for now.

 

P.S-for the ladies:Darren Williams new singer/main act was very yummy too!!

[Smellytoes]

Thanks for your food review. Have you been on the Dawn before?? If so, how did the food compare to previous trips??

[shygirl]

This is our first NCL experience. We found the food very spotty. Meaning if you found something you liked, it was terrific; but when you didn't if was very bad. We are not picky eaters but enjoy good food. The crew all seems to be working very hard, but there seems to be a lack of leadership or direction with the menu's. We did try Le Bistro and Teppanyaki and both were very good. There seems to be too many little things to add up to a mixed experience.

[shygirl]

One night I had the garlic roasted lamb and it was terrific too.

[CPT Trips]

I share your thoughts on the meals. Little, if any, "WOW!" factor. The quality of both the food and the service was spotty. The roast pork looked good but was not tasty at all, the lamb (usually a more difficult meat) was very good.

 

At 3 dinners I got service that merited an above average tip, at 3 or 4 the service was just average and the other dinners would have had a low tip.

 

We did fill out specific comment cards, but . . . Overall, average at best and were the tips not already included, I might not have tipped the recommended amount as 2 of the good service nights were in specialty restaurants. Specifics . . . long waits to order, missed courses for one or more diners, wrong entree, long waits between courses, not checking back to see how things were (so nothing to replace the bad pork), difficulty getting after-dinner coffee with dessert, hot water but no tea bag, several of the wait staff either disappeared mid-meal or were indifferent.