Chicken, chicken every where but not an ounce of Beef!

[Cruisegoer]

Okay yes I’m being a bit facetious but has anyone else felt the slide in food quality at the Oceanview Cafe?  just off the Summit 7 day Bermuda and chicken legs were the main meat!  Having sailed the Apex in February perhaps I am a bit spoiled but no steaks on the grill, no leg of lamb at the carving station, it was a bit disappointing.  My best guess is that inflationary pressures are causing meat selection to be somewhat limited. Still love the overall product however.

[calicakes]

I for one, never though the food quality in OV was amazing.  After all, it is a buffet serving thousands.  I tend to stick to the vegetarian Indian options or salad.  Someone mentioned they never had any berries on their Baltic cruise and yet berries are so prevalent in the summer months. 

[miched]

The cattle no longer want to work.  They feel they are worth more than $15.00/lb.  🤗

 

Happy cruising 🌊🚢🇺🇸🌅

[zitsky]

Leg of lamb at the buffet?  Are we cruising Cunard?

[Covepointcruiser]

I remember Turkey, Fresh Ham and Ham on the carving stations.   Chicken Legs?, how are they served?    Any steak or prime rib I have had is always in a sit down restaurant on Celebrity.

[bigbenboys]

For years now Celebrity has been grilling minute steaks, chicken and I think pork chops. Our last 2 cruises the Indian food has had fish in it and not chicken out the OVC.

[keesar]

27 minutes ago, zitsky said:

Leg of lamb at the buffet?  Are we cruising Cunard?

We had leg of lamb at the Oceanview on our cruise.  They even had the mint jelly.  I thought the carved turkey was exceptional along with the stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy.  

[patty1955]

We had fresh mussels in the Oceanview on one cruise. We went back to seconds.

[wrk2cruise]

I did laugh a bit before the shutdown when the carving station had meatloaf.   Turkey on the buffet is almost always wonderful.  Way better than the turkey on the MDR menu.

 

[Denny01]

I find the OV options to be quite diverse and more than satisfying for a buffet cafe. Many more choices than on other mainline cruise lines. 
 

den

[rlbeck]

7 minutes ago, Denny01 said:

I find the OV options to be quite diverse and more than satisfying for a buffet cafe. Many more choices than on other mainline cruise lines. 
 

den

Hi Denny! We are going to check this out for ourselves in a couple of weeks on the Summit. 🙂 Always have liked the Celebrity buffets.

[spiritkat090909]

As a primarily chicken (4million lbs per year) farmer... this caught my attention. We also have a handful of cattle. In Arkansas/Texas borderland we are currently in an extreme drought and had to sell half of our small herd, 29 head. We are not alone. Prices were half of what they should be and nowhere near what the stores are getting per pound. ($1.00-1.66 per pound, a normal good year is $1.66 per pound for calves, with store prices of $2.00 lb ground. A fully grown cow should sell for about $800-1K, this sale average cow was $350.)

 

What this means is NEXT YEAR...beef prices will be out of this world. Our neck of the woods can't feed/hay overwinter and there won't be supply of new calves to sell. 

[the_dylaness]

On our Reflection cruise in June we saw leg of lamb at the carving station at least once (10 night cruise) and it was excellent. The best dish we had in the OVC was at lunch; a sort of rice dish similar to paella or biryani (I know those aren't the same but I am not sure what this would be called) with middle eastern spices and stewed, fall off the bone lamb shanks.  It was really delicious. 

 

I usually prefer sit down dining but we were traveling with our elementary school aged children- a 75 minute sit down lunch is not really on order most days.  We like Celebrity with our kids for many reasons but one of them being the variety of foods in the OVC- generally we aren't buffet folks but we will eat in the buffet many days on a Celebrity cruise as the food is reasonably good and something for everyone in our family.

[NMTraveller]

I prefer seafood myself ...

[zitsky]

Which champagne do they serve at the buffet?  Krug or Dom?

[lv2cruisgrl]

Assuming it's a cost Issue?  Beef is so expensive now.

[jelayne]

29 minutes ago, zitsky said:

Which champagne do they serve at the buffet?  Krug or Dom?

What ever you want to pay for.

[Buckeye94]

I usually eat dinner in the MDR or Specialty restaurants, but I have to say that dinner in Oceanview can be delightful. Quiet. Fewer guests so staff are very attentive. Never had to wait long for wine to be topped off. Yes, steaks, lamb, lots of tasty options. Maybe not the flair of the dining room, but I also felt comfortable dressed very casually and plenty of window seats!  (You know, night 9 or so in a 12-night, and you just don't want to get dressed up again...until you realize it's almost over night 10 or 11! 😂)

 

 All that said, and to the OP, I do hope they offer more than chicken. Although I must say, I had the most tasty, moist, herb and lemon roasted chicken in the Oceanview cafe.

[zitsky]

I had a cruise on NCL.  Went to the buffet once or twice.  Didn’t enjoy it.

[calicakes]

2 minutes ago, zitsky said:

I had a cruise on NCL.  Went to the buffet once or twice.  Didn’t enjoy it.

Yes. Awful.

[zitsky]

2 minutes ago, calicakes said:

Yes. Awful.

I had to do a year of therapy with a very expensive therapist.

[Whinenowine]

1 hour ago, zitsky said:

Which champagne do they serve at the buffet?  Krug or Dom?

 

Don't be foolish, zitsky, you know they only serve Salon at the OV, preferably the '96 vintage.

[zitsky]

31 minutes ago, Whinenowine said:

 

Don't be foolish, zitsky, you know they only serve Salon at the OV, preferably the '96 vintage.

This is why I never go to the buffet.  Everyone knows the 92 was better.

[CHEZMARYLOU]

4 hours ago, zitsky said:

Leg of lamb at the buffet?  Are we cruising Cunard?

 

4 hours ago, Covepointcruiser said:

I remember Turkey, Fresh Ham and Ham on the carving stations.   Chicken Legs?, how are they served?    Any steak or prime rib I have had is always in a sit down restaurant on Celebrity.

Never saw leg of lamb but have seen rib roast at the buffet. Don't know how prime it was but they do have it.

[davekathy]

4 hours ago, Cruisegoer said:

Okay yes I’m being a bit facetious but has anyone else felt the slide in food quality at the Oceanview Cafe?  just off the Summit 7 day Bermuda and chicken legs were the main meat!  Having sailed the Apex in February perhaps I am a bit spoiled but no steaks on the grill, no leg of lamb at the carving station, it was a bit disappointing.  My best guess is that inflationary pressures are causing meat selection to be somewhat limited. Still love the overall product however.

Clara Peller is that you. 😁