HAL FOOD MDR , BUFFET and SPECIALTY RESTAURANTS

[horseymike]

Hi Everyone,

 

I realize food is a very subjective topic. 
That said will recent cruisers on HAL please comment with regard to the quality and variety of food currently being

served. Thanks in advance for your responses.

 

 

 

[CruiserBruce]

Yep, very subjective. And discussed here all the time.

[oakridger]

Hello @horseymike.  As @CruiserBrucejust posted, you will get the most up to date versions of food on board by reading some, or all, of the "Live From" threads currently on the HAL forum.  Pictures are often included!!  No need for everyone to rehash what is already posted.

 

Have fun reading and enjoying the menus and pictures!

 

~Nancy

[CruiserBruce]

Thank you @oakridger !!!

[johnmik1]

Returned from Rotterdam a week ago and the food was better than we have had in quite awhile.We spent 63 nights on Princess this year and the menus were so unappealing that we are sticking with HAL.

[horseymike]

Thanks John.

Happy to hear it . 😊

[jenp123]

On the rotterdam.  Food has been good to very good.  

 

Buffet-lots of variety.  Salad bar station(they serve you) has been fresh and well stocked, they have an Asian station, make your own pasta, sandwich and hot section as well as a decent selection of desserts and breads...(and may other things I am missing)

 

MDR-seems that the menu is slightly smaller than in the past.  No lobster on formal night but shrimp and escargot have been offered.  The servers have been very accommodating when asked for substitutions or changes to meals.  Lobster and some specialty items on menu for an up charge.

 

Specialty- tamarind....great as always, can order as many appetizers and desserts as you want.  

Pinnacle- 7$ charge for 2nd appetizer and 12$ (I think) for a 2nd entrée. So you cannot have a soup or salad course and an appy, you would have to pay for that.  Quality very good, food came out very hot.  They got rid of the "chefs choice taster" which used to come out before the appy

[horseymike]

Thanks Jenp . I appreciate you taking the time to reply to my question.

 

Happy Cruising 🚢😎

[robotpony]

Rudy's (NS and Koningsdam) is fantastic, including amuse-bouche tasters, and a pre-dessert course. They serve some of our favourite desserts (the berry soufflé is fantastic)

 

Canaletto's is somewhere between good-to-great: starters were fantastic, mains were mediocre-good, desserts were great. Example: on our last visit, I had the seafood pasta and the sauce was thin and underwhelming, but my partner's Braised Beef Short Rib Gnocchi was fantastic.

 

Pinnacle was pretty much perfect for us, at the same level as Rudy's, but more land-based choices.

 

Tamarind was great too, and Nami (sushi by the roll) was also fabulous. Nami has the best miso soup we have ever tasted. Tamarind has a huge selection of pan-asian dishes, all of which have been excellent.

 

The Lido is generally good-to-great, and the MDR is a solid notch below the speciality restaurants (but still enjoyable). Lido selection is great, MDR selection is modest. We were actually surprised by the Lido quality and selection in November, and ate there more than on our previous trip. The rotating menu was fun, and there were some really neat foods (curries, roasted beasts, pastas, sandwiches, classic comfort foods). Desserts in the Lido and MDR are hit and miss, but some of the choices are really nice, especially with ice cream!

 

Dive In can make a good burger and hot dog, but I find they rush the assembly sometimes (which affects quality). New York Pizza can make a good pizza, though quality was spotty for us. New York Pizza sandwiches are pretty great.

 

The room service menu is modest, but the service is prompt and food generally arrives very fresh. Breakfast is super easy to order, and late night snacks are nice.

 

On our last 14 day cruise we did not tire of the food in any way. There were still things we wanted to try, and we're looking forward to eating on the Koningsdam in April.

 

[dogo88]

18 hours ago, horseymike said:

Hi Everyone,

 

I realize food is a very subjective topic. 
That said will recent cruisers on HAL please comment with regard to the quality and variety of food currently being

served. Thanks in advance for your responses.

 

 

 

 

We were on the NS on a B2B 7 day Caribbean cruise out of FLL. We were with or friends of many prior HAL cruises. We're all 4*. We decided to do only specialty restaurants. So we started off with Tamarind, Pinnacle and Canaletto, then added Rudi's in the middle of each 7 day cruise. 

 

In the past, Canaletto was hit or miss. Some ships it was not worth the cost. On the NS it looks like Canaletto has upped it's game. Not perfect but way better than in the past. 

 

Tamarind was simply great. Never had a bad item and service was tops. 

 

Rudi's was also a surprise, especially since it's the most expensive addon. But from presentation, selection and taste it was worth it. We did it twice and both times it was great. 

 

Pinnacle was a huge disappointment. Service was slow. Appetizers were very good. At that time they were not restricting them so you could get soup too without the surcharge. Main course was not what we had come to expect. The first night, two of us ordered Ribeye Steak. Worst steak ever. Could hardly cut it and both had a nice center of gristle running down the center. And paper thin. Ordered a loaded baked potato. Got 1/2 of a baked potato and toppings  that were in a miniscule container. Clearly not what we had in past visits. And yeah, I could have asked for more and I did. Not the point. Premium steak house? Not hardly. 

 

So later we talked about the food and service. We decided to give them another chance. Perhaps it was a bad night? Who knows. So the next time Pinnacle was up in our rotation we went there. This time we had decided we'd go for the seafood. I ordered Salmon, DW ordered chicken and our friends ordered the Halibut. In a short time our appetizers were delivered and they were fine. Then we waited. And waited. And waited. After an hour and a half the General Hotel Manager was walking through the restaurant and happened to pass our table and asked how was everything. We mentioned that we've been sitting here for 90 minutes and still no main course. He immediately went to the kitchen door and after a few minutes came out and gave the table a big thumbs up. 

 

Shortly thereafter our dinners came out. The salmon and chicken were dry and cool. The halibut was cold and had fishy smell and a terrible taste. And all extras were cold. Actually got a whole potato (had to ask for that) and the butter would not melt on it. At that point we decided to cut our loses and leave. Marched up to customer service and explained what was not a good experience. To their credit they did comp the meal and we did not ask for that. We then changed all our booked Pinnacle dates to Tamarind and Canaletto. 

 

We were on the Zuiderdam in Jan and ate in the Pinnacle. The difference was noticeable between the two ships.  We are booked on the Rotterdam for March 2023 and we do plan to try their Pinnacle. 

 

One thought that we had afterwards was that because Pinnacle and Rudi's share the same kitchen perhaps Rudi's gets preferred service? So the Rotterdam cruise will be interesting. 

 

I did document all this on or survey to HAL. Never heard anything and really didn't expect to. 

 

Sorry for the long story. 

 

 

    

[horseymike]

HI Dogo,

Thank you for your comments and observations , it helps me when making decisions about cruising.

I see you are from Old Bridge NJ , My Dad trained racehorses for many years on the NJ circuit ,

back when they still had a circuit. Garden State , Monmouth Park and Atlantic City , back to Garden State again in the fall. Great memories.

All The Best .

Happy Cruising 🐴🛳️

[Naismith]

Okay, my new favorite from recent NA was the onion bread.  Carmelized onions on top of a somewhat sweet, fine-crumb bread.  Perfect with herbal tea in the afternoon.  (My husband was a very good sport about the onion breath.)

 

[horseymike]

Thanks for the tip Naismith.

[crystalspin]

5 hours ago, dogo88 said:

Pinnacle was a huge disappointment. Service was slow. Appetizers were very good. At that time they were not restricting them so you could get soup too without the surcharge. Main course was not what we had come to expect. The first night, two of us ordered Ribeye Steak. Worst steak ever. Could hardly cut it and both had a nice center of gristle running down the center. And paper thin. Ordered a loaded baked potato. Got 1/2 of a baked potato and toppings  that were in a miniscule container. Clearly not what we had in past visits. And yeah, I could have asked for more and I did. Not the point. Premium steak house? Not hardly. 

...Sorry for the long story.    

The ribeye in Pinnacle (on the Zaandam) in 2019 was also not up to par. Very fatty as I recall. I decided then to only get or recommend the lamb or crablegs (for those that eat shellfish). 

 

Thanks for the long story! We are booked with our "complimentary" HIA special meal in January so we will give them one chance. Then vote with our wallet if not special enough!

[FlaMariner]

Just off two weeks on the Nieuw Statendam and the food was fantastic.....We ate everywhere except speciality and enjoyed our meal times.

 

Food and crew are the top two reasons we keep sailing HAL.

 

In particular some standouts I recall:  the pizza, the bread pudding at Lido, escargot, MDR dinner rolls, pea soup at Dutch Cafe, fish dishes in MDR, fishnchips in Lido, salad bar in Lido, key lime pie, fries w/dive in sauce, club sandwich MDR lunch....oh my. 

Edited December 9, 2022 by FlaMariner

[horseymike]

Glad to hear it FlaMariner.

Thanks for your reply.

[momcesa]

We were on Zuiderdam in Sept. Both my husband and I thought the food was the best we ever had on a cruise. Service was amazing too. We enjoyed our waiter the first night and they let us have that same table for every night of thet trip. We are going on a 35 day S Pacific cruise in February and can't wait. 

[horseymike]

That is great to hear , thanks for reply.

[mcrcruiser]

On 12/8/2022 at 9:51 AM, robotpony said:

Rudy's (NS and Koningsdam) is fantastic, including amuse-bouche tasters, and a pre-dessert course. They serve some of our favourite desserts (the berry soufflé is fantastic)

 

Canaletto's is somewhere between good-to-great: starters were fantastic, mains were mediocre-good, desserts were great. Example: on our last visit, I had the seafood pasta and the sauce was thin and underwhelming, but my partner's Braised Beef Short Rib Gnocchi was fantastic.

 

Pinnacle was pretty much perfect for us, at the same level as Rudy's, but more land-based choices.

 

Tamarind was great too, and Nami (sushi by the roll) was also fabulous. Nami has the best miso soup we have ever tasted. Tamarind has a huge selection of pan-asian dishes, all of which have been excellent.

 

The Lido is generally good-to-great, and the MDR is a solid notch below the speciality restaurants (but still enjoyable). Lido selection is great, MDR selection is modest. We were actually surprised by the Lido quality and selection in November, and ate there more than on our previous trip. The rotating menu was fun, and there were some really neat foods (curries, roasted beasts, pastas, sandwiches, classic comfort foods). Desserts in the Lido and MDR are hit and miss, but some of the choices are really nice, especially with ice cream!

 

Dive In can make a good burger and hot dog, but I find they rush the assembly sometimes (which affects quality). New York Pizza can make a good pizza, though quality was spotty for us. New York Pizza sandwiches are pretty great.

 

The room service menu is modest, but the service is prompt and food generally arrives very fresh. Breakfast is super easy to order, and late night snacks are nice.

 

On our last 14 day cruise we did not tire of the food in any way. There were still things we wanted to try, and we're looking forward to eating on the Koningsdam in April.

 

Thanks for your   report😄  .We are sailing Dec 10th  to 22nd  on koningsdam  & looking forward to all what you posted . got to get to the gym every morning work out  to enjoy the restaurants  . We will be busy not in the ports ;as  we have been there many times before  but on Koningsdam we will be busy

[horseymike]

thanks again everyone who responded, this is a big part of cruising for many folks , including myself. The personal descriptions are priceless.

Happy cruising to all.🚢😎

[RClark6369@aol.com]

Thanks to everyone who posted to the original question "appropriately".    Yep, this question is asked many times as is should be on these boards.  This is CRUISECRITIC.   Requesting and offering critiques of food and service should be a redundant question as it varies from ship to ship and definitely between cruising regions.  Thank you again to those who contributed to the CRITIQUE question.   I leave on Rotterdam in a couple of weeks and I loved reading the feedback to Horseymike's request for food critiques.     I will post a food critique when I return from my trip, just so I can rehash....  

Critique HAL, please do not critique postings on this forum.

[horseymike]

Thanks