French Onion Soup, help please

[NutsAboutGolf]

1 hour ago, ehall said:

This actually looks like a pretty standard French Onion soup recipe.  The key will be to really cook the onions low and slow to really caramelize them.   Also, the better quality (ie rich tasting) the stock, the better the soup.  Give it a go!  They do seem to be missing out the cheese topping.  Don't forget that!

 

 

We French Onion soup often and think 9 times out of 10 times, its fantastic on X; I am also surprised it's a regular recipe.  I'll share some tips we use for anyone who's interested, we like flavor so this will be a bolder but its amazing:

- Use a crockpot, put it outside and slow cook the onions 8-10 hours, can even do this overnight

- Add Vidalia onions, ideally two or more types of onions

- Use 100% beef stock, if you don't make it home made, various websites agree that regular supermarket bought beef broth isn't very good as they don't use enough beef, it's better to buy "better than bullion" which is what we use

- Add a tablespoon of Worchester sauce

- For sugar use brown sugar or molasses

- For the bread, use toasted garlic bread (the kitchen will smell amazing)

 

[p18750]

As a big fan of the french onion soup on Celebrity I have to say the last cruise on Edge the french onion soup was very substandard. There was no cheese on top and no onions in the soup. I actually commented to the waiter that this was not french onion soup and well below the Celebrity standard. 

[AF-1]

I had it every night on my recent Apex sailing

[AquarianCruiser]

It’s my favorite starter also by far.  I had it on the Beyond in November 2022, on the Edge in February 2023 and on the Summit in April 2023 and it was always the same every night…absolutely DELICIOUS 😋!  
I’ve got to give it a try making it!  

[NutsAboutGolf]

On 3/24/2023 at 5:47 PM, p18750 said:

As a big fan of the french onion soup on Celebrity I have to say the last cruise on Edge the french onion soup was very substandard. There was no cheese on top and no onions in the soup. I actually commented to the waiter that this was not french onion soup and well below the Celebrity standard. 

 The best course of action is to politely request another mentioning what you want so in this case cheese and more onions.  If it comes out wrong again take a pic if possible and complain to the M’D

 

Beyond the waiter potentially getting dinged on the survey for bad service, they’re too busy to care

[mac_tlc]

Just off the Beyond and the French onion soup in Luminae was the best we have had on Celebrity. Better than on the same ship in the same restaurant 9 weeks ago. Chef matters. 
 

 

mac_tlc

Edited April 16, 2023 by mac_tlc

[cl.klink]

I have found it to be very reliable

 

Not to invite flaming back at me, but it's relatively hard to ruin an effortful informed attempt at French onion soup 

 

- Joel

[davekathy]

My favorite Celebrity soup. I have a hard time selecting other soups since the French Onion soup is on the menu every evening in the MDR. 

[Azllama]

Well everyone, we are on the Eclipse now. We’re doing a B&B. On our 1st leg the French onion was the worst we have ever had. We sail Celebrity many times, the whole cruise the soups have been terrible. On our second leg, the cook put onions in the soup. So much, that you can’t enjoy the soup. Our food has been hit and miss, mostly miss. Celebrity should be ashamed, maybe it is just our ship?

[davekathy]

19 minutes ago, Azllama said:

Well everyone, we are on the Eclipse now. We’re doing a B&B. On our 1st leg the French onion was the worst we have ever had. We sail Celebrity many times, the whole cruise the soups have been terrible. On our second leg, the cook put onions in the soup. So much, that you can’t enjoy the soup. Our food has been hit and miss, mostly miss. Celebrity should be ashamed, maybe it is just our ship?

Or just your opinion. 

[GeorgiaRetiredCruisers]

3 hours ago, AquarianCruiser said:

It’s my favorite starter also by far.  I had it on the Beyond in November 2022, on the Edge in February 2023 and on the Summit in April 2023 and it was always the same every night…absolutely DELICIOUS 😋!  
I’ve got to give it a try making it!  

 Probably one of the easiest soups to make. Google a recipe and you'll be thrilled with your own to have any time you want. 🙂

[Azllama]

23 minutes ago, davekathy said:

Or just your opinion. 

Nope! A lot of guests on this cruise or not happy with the food and soups. We are next to a couple from Boston. They commented on the New England clam chowder. It was brown in color, nothing in it! The haven’t been happy with the food either,not just my opinion.

 

 

[davekathy]

Just now, Azllama said:

Nope! A lot of guests on this cruise or not happy with the food and soups. We are next to a couple from Boston. They commented on the New England clam chowder. It was brown in color, nothing in it! The haven’t been happy with the food either,not just my opinion.

A lot of other opinions. 

[Azllama]

Just now, Azllama said:

Nope! A lot of guests on this cruise or not happy with the food and soups. We are next to a couple from Boston. They commented on the New England clam chowder. It was brown in color, nothing in it! The haven’t been happy with the food either,not just my opinion.

 

 

The first leg, the French onion soup was just a broth, no onions, a half chunk of toast, with grated cheese sprinkled on top the toast!!! Also they are not serving butter anywhere but in the specialty restaurants. Maybe a supply issues. 
 

[NMTraveller]

5 minutes ago, davekathy said:

A lot of other opinions. 

And other ships and chefs.  It would be nice if Celebrity could produce a consistent product?

 

In January the food reviews were abysmal.

[davekathy]

4 minutes ago, NMTraveller said:

And other ships and chefs.  It would be nice if Celebrity could produce a consistent product?

 

In January the food reviews were abysmal.

Consistently inconsistent?   

 

Food, is way to subjective. 

 

I must of missed those select few reviews. Others positive or negative experiences or opinions, are just that.

[davekathy]

18 minutes ago, Azllama said:

The first leg, the French onion soup was just a broth, no onions, a half chunk of toast, with grated cheese sprinkled on top the toast!!! Also they are not serving butter anywhere but in the specialty restaurants. Maybe a supply issues. 
 

Butter is always the center selection of the three selections for you rolls. Did you ask for extra butter? 

[NMTraveller]

8 minutes ago, davekathy said:

Consistently inconsistent?   

 

Food, is way to subjective. 

 

I must of missed those select few reviews. Others positive or negative experiences or opinions, are just that.

Yet pre-pandemic the reviews were overwhelmingly positive.  Sure you always had the occasional negative review.

 

I think that the Celebrity consistency has changed and not the cruisers perceptions.

 

Edited April 17, 2023 by NMTraveller

[kathynorth]

42 minutes ago, Azllama said:

The first leg, the French onion soup was just a broth, no onions, a half chunk of toast, with grated cheese sprinkled on top the toast!!! Also they are not serving butter anywhere but in the specialty restaurants. Maybe a supply issues. 
 

Butter? We haven’t had any issue getting butter on any of our cruises over the past year. 

[davekathy]

27 minutes ago, NMTraveller said:

Yet pre-pandemic the reviews were overwhelmingly positive.  Sure you always had the occasional negative review.

 

I think that the Celebrity consistency has changed and not the cruisers perceptions.

 

I'll agree Celebrity has changed. Not all for the bad. My biggest complaint about a Celebrity CC change post covid is no more CC HH in the Sky Lounge like it was pre covid. Others like the new CC HH change. We don't. No I'm not a Celebrity cheerleader. Just saying opinions and perceptions are just that and especially when it comes to food. My wife doesn't like Celebrity's French Onion soup. In her opinion it's too salty. I like the soup and add salt. 

Edited April 17, 2023 by davekathy

[AquarianCruiser]

I have no complaints with Celebrity whatsoever.  Maybe the ones complaining should try Carnival if they are unhappy with the “consistency” of the soup and find it “substandard” on Celebrity.  
I’m batting 1000, 3 for 3 during my 3 Celebrity cruises in the last 6 months on 3 different Celebrity ships.  

[NMTraveller]

1 hour ago, AquarianCruiser said:

I have no complaints with Celebrity whatsoever.  Maybe the ones complaining should try Carnival if they are unhappy with the “consistency” of the soup and find it “substandard” on Celebrity.  
I’m batting 1000, 3 for 3 during my 3 Celebrity cruises in the last 6 months on 3 different Celebrity ships.  

Ah yes,  perhaps you could post some picture of the OVC in the evenings in January or prime rib night in the MDR in January or perhaps lobster night in the MDR in January?

 

My eyes cannot unsee what they have already seen.

Edited April 17, 2023 by NMTraveller

[Azllama]

2 hours ago, AquarianCruiser said:

I have no complaints with Celebrity whatsoever.  Maybe the ones complaining should try Carnival if they are unhappy with the “consistency” of the soup and find it “substandard” on Celebrity.  
I’m batting 1000, 3 for 3 during my 3 Celebrity cruises in the last 6 months on 3 different Celebrity ships.  

Well your very lucky, just don’t go out of Sydney at the end of the season 

[SoCalTraveler]

We love the French onion soup.  The secret to good French onion soup is the wine; I've had it made as described above and with various red wines.

 

Some years back, a buddy and I went to Montreal and made dinner reservations at the five top restaurants for French onion soup.  Each of the first four was different and each was great.  Then we went to the 5th restaurant and the chef was not making the onion soup that night.  The only choice was tomato soup.  So we grudgingly ordered that.  It was the best soup of the trip.

[MarkusToe]

We found the soup at speciality restaurant much better than MDR....