Favorite foods

[macaroni]

It has been a long time since I have been on a Princess ship……going on the Enchanted in November…….any favorite foods I should look for and try?

thanks…just something to look forward to…

[Rick&Jeannie]

Many excellent dishes that I'm sure others will post about; personally, I really like the creme brulee.

[CineGraphic]

The lamb in the Crown Grill.

[skynight]

Enjoy Gigi's pizzeria (named Alfredo's on other Princess ships) on deck 7 mid ship for lunch or dinner. No charge, sit down waiter served individual pizza and other items. Open 11am until mid evening. Check out the menu by searching for Alfredo's.

Enjoy the chocolate journeys desserts.

[Sea Hag]

All the dessert souffles, twice baked goat cheese souffle, chocolate journeys desserts, chilled curry pumpkin soup, most of the chilled fruit soups, french toast, lamb in the crown grill, pub lunch fish and chips.  Rhubarb crisp, although it's been a few years since I've seen that offered.

[geoherb]

I've been looking at the menus posted by the people on recent Majestic Princess cruises and already dreaming about some of the dishes. I know, for instance, I'll be ordering the ravioli and salmon at lunch on embarkation day and the flourless chocolate cake that night. On one of my cruises in 2019, they had the flourless chocolate cake available in the buffet as well. I resisted the temptation to load up my cabin refrigerator with them. On my last cruise, I discovered the key lime pie in a jar on the room service menu. 

[Kay S]

Hot dog on deck (see previous thread 😉), avocado with shrimp at lunch, garden salad from kids' menu, minestrone soup in Alfredo's, meatballs du jour at the buffet, the brussels sprouts there (trust me), spaghetti and meatballs at dinner, and as previously mentioned, the lamb chops at the Crown Grill (the best.)  I have a list of things to avoid, too, but I'll wait for a different thread. 🙂

[wcflats]

I second the hot dog!

[abqmommyof4]

french onion soup in  crown grill

.

[wcflats]

Yes the French onion soup is definitely a great choice!  One of DWs favorite.

[rbtan]

18 hours ago, macaroni said:

It has been a long time since I have been on a Princess ship……going on the Enchanted in November…….any favorite foods I should look for and try?

thanks…just something to look forward to…

I like the fact you can order items from each alternative restaurant. The Crown Grill is decent, but we're in the food industry & find that they & Sabatini's are really nothing special but the ambience. My spouse buys hundreds of thousands of $$ in beef for his company & notes that the USDA quality is no higher than "Select" in these restaurants. The MDR's serve no higher than "Standard" grade. The Chef's Table & Ultimate balcony dinner is where you might get "Prime" grade. At $100+ a meal, it's what you SHOULD be getting. When in one of these restaurants ask what USDA grade is this steak, trust me you'll get the answer "It's Premium grade". That tells me nothing! Remember that you are feeding hundreds of pax at the same time. It's pretty difficult to have 5 star dining with that many. We do cruises on Oceania & find 5 star quality dining, but the cruise may very well be $4000pp or more! We will say we like the staff on Princess more than any other line we cruised on.

Edited August 15, 2021 by rbtan
additions

[Cruzinnana47]

Hope they still offer "Princess Love Boat Dream" dessert for our next cruise!  

 

Agree with many of the dining choices mentioned above.

 

Have also enjoyed offerings in the International Cafe as a lighter lunch option than the buffet....shrimp & chicken salads were quite good...and the warm baked cookies and gelato...yummy....

 

 

[hobbyfarmer2]

15 hours ago, abqmommyof4 said:

french onion soup in  crown grill

.

Thumbs up.  Best we have ever tasted.....

[hobbyfarmer2]

15 hours ago, wcflats said:

I second the hot dog!

We make much better dogs at home wrapped in bacon with a strip of old cheddar inserted in a long slit made in the hot dog.  Princess dogs are OK but nothing special for us...

[susancruzs]

Love the shrimp salads at the IC, also toasted tomato mozzarella sandwich, Caprese salad.  I rarely go to the buffet, like everything at the IC or Alfredo's.  Hot dog, not something I would do.  I eat them now and then, but from a local meat shop.

[EDVM96]

 

I have to mention the Cubana Sandwich with Spicy Cilantro Mayonnaise from the International Cafe ☺️
 

It looks unspectacular, but it's full of flavour.

[rbtan]

49 minutes ago, hobbyfarmer2 said:

We make much better dogs at home wrapped in bacon with a strip of old cheddar inserted in a long slit made in the hot dog.  Princess dogs are OK but nothing special for us...

"Cause they're from Sysco. Pax need to understand very little is actually "made" from scratch. No matter what the brochures tell you. Nearly all pies/cakes are brought in ready to bake. Most of the desserts are the same. The Norman Love desserts have more customized features. After all, his name is associated, so he demands better quality. Coe to the docks very early & watch the Sysco/US Foods etc. trucks on the docks ready to load supplies.

[cjpj]

Everything is good when you don't have to cook it or clean up! They have a peanut butter something in International Cafe that I love. All the souffles, tapioca and rice pudding, the fries from Trident grill. Almost all of the cold soups. DH loves the sorbets available for dessert each evening. 

[HleeCruiser]

6 hours ago, rbtan said:

I like the fact you can order items from each alternative restaurant. The Crown Grill is decent, but we're in the food industry & find that they & Sabatini's are really nothing special but the ambience. My spouse buys hundreds of thousands of $$ in beef for his company & notes that the USDA quality is no higher than "Select" in these restaurants. The MDR's serve no higher than "Standard" grade. The Chef's Table & Ultimate balcony dinner is where you might get "Prime" grade. At $100+ a meal, it's what you SHOULD be getting. When in one of these restaurants ask what USDA grade is this steak, trust me you'll get the answer "It's Premium grade". That tells me nothing! Remember that you are feeding hundreds of pax at the same time. It's pretty difficult to have 5 star dining with that many. We do cruises on Oceania & find 5 star quality dining, but the cruise may very well be $4000pp or more! We will say we like the staff on Princess more than any other line we cruised on.

Thanks for your explanation.   My experience is the same as yours on the beef served on Princess.  

[MsSoCalCruiser]

21 hours ago, wcflats said:

I second the hot dog!

But… Are they better than Costco???  😂😂😂

I will have to give the hotdog a try my next cruise.

[Roberto256]

8 hours ago, rbtan said:

I like the fact you can order items from each alternative restaurant. The Crown Grill is decent, but we're in the food industry & find that they & Sabatini's are really nothing special but the ambience. My spouse buys hundreds of thousands of $$ in beef for his company & notes that the USDA quality is no higher than "Select" in these restaurants. The MDR's serve no higher than "Standard" grade. The Chef's Table & Ultimate balcony dinner is where you might get "Prime" grade. At $100+ a meal, it's what you SHOULD be getting. When in one of these restaurants ask what USDA grade is this steak, trust me you'll get the answer "It's Premium grade". That tells me nothing! Remember that you are feeding hundreds of pax at the same time. It's pretty difficult to have 5 star dining with that many. We do cruises on Oceania & find 5 star quality dining, but the cruise may very well be $4000pp or more! We will say we like the staff on Princess more than any other line we cruised on.

In Crown Grill, Princess claims they server "Sterling Silver(r) Premium Meats".

 

To me, this is wildly clever marketing by cargill.

 

https://www.cargill.com/foodservice/sterling-silver

 

Credit to caribill for originally pointing this out, several years ago.

 

 

 

 

[geoherb]

6 hours ago, rbtan said:

"Cause they're from Sysco. Pax need to understand very little is actually "made" from scratch. No matter what the brochures tell you. Nearly all pies/cakes are brought in ready to bake. Most of the desserts are the same. The Norman Love desserts have more customized features. After all, his name is associated, so he demands better quality. Coe to the docks very early & watch the Sysco/US Foods etc. trucks on the docks ready to load supplies.

 

Most things are made from scratch. The pies and cakes are not brought in ready to bake. Sysco and US Foods also deliver 50-pound sacks of flour and sugar. I've toured the galley and watched the pastry chefs at work. They're not just baking already prepared items. They're mixing huge quantities of cake batter, rolling out pastry dough, and making bread from scratch. 

 

The same for the soups--made in huge vats that do the stirring for the cooks. We watched cooks break down whole chickens on our Ultimate Ship's Tour while others were trimming and cutting up whole beef tenderloins. All of the scraps from both were being saved to turn into broths. In the cold storage areas, we saw the crates of fresh vegetables and fruits. They did have cans of tomato sauce and paste, but I did not see any other canned vegetables. 

[skynight]

7 hours ago, rbtan said:

"Cause they're from Sysco. Pax need to understand very little is actually "made" from scratch. No matter what the brochures tell you. Nearly all pies/cakes are brought in ready to bake. Most of the desserts are the same. The Norman Love desserts have more customized features. After all, his name is associated, so he demands better quality. Coe to the docks very early & watch the Sysco/US Foods etc. trucks on the docks ready to load supplies.

Believe this statement is only partially correct. Rolls are all prepared daily as are doughnuts, danish, cakes and other pastry items. All those special cakes and desserts colored red for Valentines day, green for St. Patrick's, special for Christmas and so on are prepared on board. The chocolate buffets are also prepared on board. Princess will purchase the ingredients to prepare these items. Some of the dry ingredients are probably pre-mixes, a common practice in the pastry industry.

[tillys mom]

Don’t forget the scones at tea or usually available at the buffet in the afternoons.

[rdsqrl]

8 hours ago, rbtan said:

Seriously? Just to let you know it is not made from scratch on board! Quite likely from Blount soups. They actually are excellent, but not from scratch.

May I point out that the original question was not what is the best food made from scratch onboard.  It was what's your favourite.   I don't care if the Twice-Baked Goat Cheese Souffle comes frozen from the convenience store at the local Exxon station -- if it tastes good, then I'm happy, because I look forward to it prior to every cruise.    Posts like yours just suck all the oxygen out of the room and take away people's pleasure.