Main Dining Room FOOD

[Daisyloo]

We were on the Regal this November and December for her TA and then her first Caribbean sailing of the season.  Over all we thought the food was good. We were in Club Class and the food is the same as the MDR.  Service was exceptional. The food in the buffet was good too.

The meal we did not enjoy was in the Crown grill.  I had the lamb that was very tough.  My husband had the porterhouse and he enjoyed it.  We both thought everything was very salty (and we like salt).  Service was slow and all the waiters seemed very rushed.  Maybe understaffed?  And it was so noisy in there - seemed more cafeteria like than a nice restaurant.  

[DallasGuy75219]

7 hours ago, dog said:

In the MDR at lunch & dinner they bring a basket of buns/ rolls to the table.

 

What happens to the ones you don’t take?

thrown out, given to crew or other passengers?

If they leave them at the table, they *should* throw away any you don't eat.  That's basic foodservice protocol.

 

If they're walking around with the basket and serving you from it, they can serve multiple tables from it.

 

That's why Carnival went from the former to the latter in the MDR, due to the amount if bread left at the table that had to be thrown out.

[dog]

8 minutes ago, DallasGuy75219 said:

If they leave them at the table, they *should* throw away any you don't eat.  That's basic foodservice protocol.

 

If they're walking around with the basket and serving you from it, they can serve multiple tables from it.

 

That's why Carnival went from the former to the latter in the MDR, due to the amount if bread left at the table that had to be thrown out.

Yes, they should, but do they?

asking about Princess.

Edited December 24, 2022 by dog

[DallasGuy75219]

41 minutes ago, dog said:

Yes, they should, but do they?

asking about Princess.

Watch them clear the tables and see. 

[dog]

1 hour ago, DallasGuy75219 said:

Watch them clear the tables and see. 

Have seen them carry basket away.  Really not after speculation, someone on here must know.

[DallasGuy75219]

2 minutes ago, dog said:

Have seen them carry basket away.  Really not after speculation, someone on here must know.

I'm not sure how you expect an absolute, always, 100% of the time answer given how notoriously inconsistent cruise lines employees are in implementing and following policies, not to mention the thousands of MDR servers across the fleet.  Name any policy or rule, and chances are on any given day some employee is breaking it.

[dog]

59 minutes ago, DallasGuy75219 said:

I'm not sure how you expect an absolute, always, 100% of the time answer given how notoriously inconsistent cruise lines employees are in implementing and following policies, not to mention the thousands of MDR servers across the fleet.  Name any policy or rule, and chances are on any given day some employee is breaking it.

Forget it.

[startedwithamouse]

We never ever touch the bread rolls and ask wait staff to remove them from the table if already there, or tell them immediately when seated. We can eat cheap bread anywhere. 

[hobbyfarmer2]

We were on Enchanted last month and found the MDR food pretty decent including tenderloin cut choices on 3 nights.  Pretty good food considering the price we paid but we are both fairly easy to please and most even find us fun to cruise with or so they say.  My own personal view is that attitude is 95% of life.

[PRINCESS Sweet Pea]

Glad to hear a good review on the Enchanted!  I am not happy to see the Alfredo disappear!.  And, now I am seeing that the Ceaser salad is gone too?    I don't know what Princess is thinking, but please bring these back!   The whole everyday menu...  bring it back!

[Murray's Pop]

On 12/25/2022 at 10:41 AM, startedwithamouse said:

We never ever touch the bread rolls and ask wait staff to remove them from the table if already there, or tell them immediately when seated. We can eat cheap bread anywhere. 

Do you eat at a table by yourselves so you can do this?  I know I would have a problem if someone did something like that at a table where we were sitting....

[dog]

1 hour ago, Murray's Pop said:

Do you eat at a table by yourselves so you can do this?  I know I would have a problem if someone did something like that at a table where we were sitting....

Table for two only after seeing every dinner roll mauled and put back in basket.

[startedwithamouse]

3 hours ago, Murray's Pop said:

Do you eat at a table by yourselves so you can do this?  I know I would have a problem if someone did something like that at a table where we were sitting....

 

Of course.

[wowzz]

4 hours ago, dog said:

Table for two only after seeing every dinner roll mauled and put back in basket.

Never seen that. I point at, or ask for a specific type of roll,  and the water serves it with tongs.

No mauling involved !

[jeromep]

On 12/22/2022 at 4:30 AM, daka said:

We are just off a REGAL PRINCESS 8 day cruise...

Love the SHIP

Love the STAFF

Love the MEDALLION 

Embark and Debark were EXCELLENT

However, we found the food in the MDR was generally terrible.

Food in the Buffet was just OK

I think the food has been much better on our last cruises...Pre Covid..

We have cancelled our next Princess cruise and are switching back to CELEBRITY,

****** Finished with Princess*****

 

I respect your opinion, but food is subjective.  On every cruise I've been on, food, or rather its appearance and taste, has varied from day to day and venue to venue.  I've been on cruises where the buffet was atrocious at almost every meal, but the MDR was almost always stellar.  I've been on cruises where the MDR was good some nights and terrible on others, and the buffet was the same, good some nights, terrible on others.  I've even been on cruises where the only really great food on board was from the pizzeria and grill on the Lido, and everything else was just edible matter.  It has never caused me to write off a cruise line entirely.  I chalk up these experiences to travel in general.  I've been on non-cruise vacations where I couldn't find decent food anyplace, not the airport (usually never the airport), not high end restaurants at the destination, not low end places at the destination.  And then the opposite is true of other vacations.  One of the best pasta dishes I've ever had was in coach on an Alaska Airlines flight.  It was piping hot, the pasta was cooked just right and the sauce was savory and excellent.  It only cost $6.  And it was served in a black plastic bowl with a foil lid.  I've not been able to replicate it in my own kitchen.

 

Frankly, the things you said that you loved, are probably the biggest reasons that we cruise and mostly with Princess.  The ships are great, the staff is great, the medallion is great, and their embarkation and disembarkation process is stellar and quite sane.  Any one of those items not being up to par would make me more likely to not cruise a line than the food, or a couple not so wonderful meals on a cruise.

 

I've always seen cruise food as being the worlds largest catering event.  I've had lots of catered food in my life; weddings, a few parties, a number of business conferences and trade shows, and the common thread is that the food is ok, but never stellar.  I see the food on board a cruise much the same way as food at a conference or trade show.  You have kitchens that are feeding 3000-6000 people every day, so the menu has to be somewhat limited, and you have to put up a lot of the same thing over and over that day.  When you are doing steak for 3000, there are going to be a lot of gaps in its preparation, quality issues related to hot hold and cold hold of prepared items which can't be easily resolved, that a regular restaurant doesn't necessarily deal with when you are preparing steak one at a time for each order.  I've done the kitchen tour on Princess and the on board kitchens are both spotless, but also totally different from the kitchen at your local Applebee's.  The quantity of food they are slinging each day, combined with the scale in which they have to prepare it does impact what comes out of the kitchen.

 

We shouldn't pay mid-high market prices for bad food on a premium cruise, but there are limitations in how cruise food is prepared which some executive chefs can get past, and some do not.

 

Just my errant thoughts.  Happy cruising.

[dog]

2 hours ago, wowzz said:

Never seen that. I point at, or ask for a specific type of roll,  and the water serves it with tongs.

No mauling involved !

Never been served by the WATER!

[suekel]

2 hours ago, jeromep said:

I respect your opinion, but food is subjective.  On every cruise I've been on, food, or rather its appearance and taste, has varied from day to day and venue to venue.  I've been on cruises where the buffet was atrocious at almost every meal, but the MDR was almost always stellar.  I've been on cruises where the MDR was good some nights and terrible on others, and the buffet was the same, good some nights, terrible on others.  I've even been on cruises where the only really great food on board was from the pizzeria and grill on the Lido, and everything else was just edible matter.  It has never caused me to write off a cruise line entirely.  I chalk up these experiences to travel in general.  I've been on non-cruise vacations where I couldn't find decent food anyplace, not the airport (usually never the airport), not high end restaurants at the destination, not low end places at the destination.  And then the opposite is true of other vacations.  One of the best pasta dishes I've ever had was in coach on an Alaska Airlines flight.  It was piping hot, the pasta was cooked just right and the sauce was savory and excellent.  It only cost $6.  And it was served in a black plastic bowl with a foil lid.  I've not been able to replicate it in my own kitchen.

 

Frankly, the things you said that you loved, are probably the biggest reasons that we cruise and mostly with Princess.  The ships are great, the staff is great, the medallion is great, and their embarkation and disembarkation process is stellar and quite sane.  Any one of those items not being up to par would make me more likely to not cruise a line than the food, or a couple not so wonderful meals on a cruise.

 

I've always seen cruise food as being the worlds largest catering event.  I've had lots of catered food in my life; weddings, a few parties, a number of business conferences and trade shows, and the common thread is that the food is ok, but never stellar.  I see the food on board a cruise much the same way as food at a conference or trade show.  You have kitchens that are feeding 3000-6000 people every day, so the menu has to be somewhat limited, and you have to put up a lot of the same thing over and over that day.  When you are doing steak for 3000, there are going to be a lot of gaps in its preparation, quality issues related to hot hold and cold hold of prepared items which can't be easily resolved, that a regular restaurant doesn't necessarily deal with when you are preparing steak one at a time for each order.  I've done the kitchen tour on Princess and the on board kitchens are both spotless, but also totally different from the kitchen at your local Applebee's.  The quantity of food they are slinging each day, combined with the scale in which they have to prepare it does impact what comes out of the kitchen.

 

We shouldn't pay mid-high market prices for bad food on a premium cruise, but there are limitations in how cruise food is prepared which some executive chefs can get past, and some do not.

 

Just my errant thoughts.  Happy cruising.

I totally agree.  The best fish that I have ever had was in a shack on the beach in Boca De Tomatlan (south of PV).  It was about $3.00

[wowzz]

8 hours ago, dog said:

Never been served by the WATER!

That's the treble with productive ticks.

Edited December 30, 2022 by wowzz

[dog]

48 minutes ago, wowzz said:

That's the treble with productive ticks.

Sorry, cannot understand any of your posts.

[MissP22]

21 hours ago, PRINCESS Sweet Pea said:

Glad to hear a good review on the Enchanted!  I am not happy to see the Alfredo disappear!.  And, now I am seeing that the Ceaser salad is gone too?    I don't know what Princess is thinking, but please bring these back!   The whole everyday menu...  bring it back!

We had Ceaser salad in the DR just the other night.

btw- Princess is renaming Gigi's on all their ships to Alfredo's.

[dog]

14 hours ago, wowzz said:

Never seen that. I point at, or ask for a specific type of roll,  and the water serves it with tongs.

No mauling involved !

 

3 hours ago, wowzz said:

That's the treble with productive ticks.

Oh okay,

I get it!

 

spelling errors- did you mean waiter. And trouble?

 

still confused about “ ticks”. Please explain.

[Wishing on a star]

Thank You MissP!

Can you remind me which ship you are on?

I wonder if they have fully changed over to the new menus, where I don't think I am seeing it listed as 'every day'.

Was it maybe Italian Night?

 

Anyhow, The Alfredo and Ceaser were always my go-to when not seeing plenty of other things I wanted to choose from on the menu.

[MissP22]

19 minutes ago, Wishing on a star said:

Thank You MissP!

Can you remind me which ship you are on?

I wonder if they have fully changed over to the new menus, where I don't think I am seeing it listed as 'every day'.

Was it maybe Italian Night?

 

Anyhow, The Alfredo and Ceaser were always my go-to when not seeing plenty of other things I wanted to choose from on the menu.

Enchanted P.

Sorry, I didn't notice which night we had it but it's on tonight's menu again. 

 

[Wishing on a star]

Maybe Enchanted hasn't fully changed over to the new menus?

Last ones I see here posted were over Thanksgiving.  And the menus still had all the Princess Favorites.   Now, Nona's Lasagna is on the menu, on the top, under Pastas, along with one other pasta dish.

 

ENJOY!!!

Edited December 30, 2022 by Wishing on a star

[Fleur25]

We just got off the Sky 12/27 after a 10 day cruise. The food in the MDR was delicious, the IC was amazing as always, Alfredos continues to serve the best pizza at sea, and the buffet was fine. I've never left the buffet feeling like I ate the best meal I've ever had so my expectations are low for that venue. I also think that these issues are ship specific. Some are reporting wonderful experiences and other ships' offerings seem to be less stellar.

 

If you're in the US like me, you may have noticed that the variety and brands of food in the grocery store is not as readily available as it was 2 years ago and the costs have risen. I think the chef is doing a great job with the reduced ingredients available and trying to contain costs. I think those of us who love cruising are going to have to moderate our expectations for a while until the industry is fully back. It's like loving your team through the lean years. They will come back champions soon.