Food in the MDR on Aurora

[Scorpio41]

Very disappointed in the food on offer in the MDR. P&O catering for the cruising minority. 

Very repetitive, bland and tasteless. Too many vegan, vegetarian and GF options.

 

We found the choice very limited for us that enjoy fish and meat. My table companions also found themselves ordering the same dishes night after night. Cruisers we shared breakfast tables with passed comments too.
The deserts were lacking something, but I can’t quite say what. Maybe being all vegan options, gf made them more tasteless. Certainly less sugar.

 

What happened to the Stilton? Some nights the waiters managed to find some but not often. I would have Stilton every night instead of desert.

 

For those of you who love green beans, I am pleased to say the bean bushes are doing well and there is an abundance of possibly even a glut of them and they are harvested daily. 😁

 

This is my opinion and views, feel free to express your own findings. 🙃

[mercury7289]

11 minutes ago, Scorpio41 said:

Very disappointed in the food on offer in the MDR. P&O catering for the cruising minority. 

Very repetitive, bland and tasteless. Too many vegan, vegetarian and GF options.

 

We found the choice very limited for us that enjoy fish and meat. My table companions also found themselves ordering the same dishes night after night. Cruisers we shared breakfast tables with passed comments too.
The deserts were lacking something, but I can’t quite say what. Maybe being all vegan options, gf made them more tasteless. Certainly less sugar.

 

What happened to the Stilton? Some nights the waiters managed to find some but not often. I would have Stilton every night instead of desert.

 

For those of you who love green beans, I am pleased to say the bean bushes are doing well and there is an abundance of possibly even a glut of them and they are harvested daily. 😁

 

This is my opinion and views, feel free to express your own findings. 🙃

Totally agree,bland,and repetitive,night after night,very poor.have included on the questionnaire

[Eglesbrech]

Exactly the same as on Iona a few months ago. The same issues IMO.

[Britboys]

2 hours ago, Scorpio41 said:

Very disappointed in the food on offer in the MDR. P&O catering for the cruising minority. 

Very repetitive, bland and tasteless. Too many vegan, vegetarian and GF options.

 

We found the choice very limited for us that enjoy fish and meat. My table companions also found themselves ordering the same dishes night after night. Cruisers we shared breakfast tables with passed comments too.
The deserts were lacking something, but I can’t quite say what. Maybe being all vegan options, gf made them more tasteless. Certainly less sugar.

 

What happened to the Stilton? Some nights the waiters managed to find some but not often. I would have Stilton every night instead of desert.

 

For those of you who love green beans, I am pleased to say the bean bushes are doing well and there is an abundance of possibly even a glut of them and they are harvested daily. 😁

 

This is my opinion and views, feel free to express your own findings. 🙃

Exactly how I felt about it last August/September!

[Harry Peterson]

All part of the cunning plan to ‘persuade’ valued customers to upgrade to a restaurant with a supplementary charge. Paul Ludlow says that 99% of customers prefer it this way.

[Megabear2]

2 hours ago, Scorpio41 said:

For those of you who love green beans, I am pleased to say the bean bushes are doing well and there is an abundance of possibly even a glut of them and they are harvested daily. 😁

Send some our way. Arvia has an abundance of snow peas I can send in exchange.

[Britboys]

6 minutes ago, Harry Peterson said:

All part of the cunning plan to ‘persuade’ valued customers to upgrade to a restaurant with a supplementary charge. Paul Ludlow says that 99% of customers prefer it this way.

I think it is a mixture of that and cost-cutting Harry. The smaller ships have far fewer extra-charge restaurants but still have the same menu. Whereas previously there was a main menu plus a vegetarian one, everything is now on the one menu but it is the same size or smaller (in terms of choice) than the main menu was before. As I have said elsewhere, this is one of the reasons I have been reluctant to book further cruises with P&O. At least I am only on for 12 nights this year, so not too long to put up with it assuming there has been no change to the menu...

[Scorpio41]

There was sirloin steak every night , chicken breast every night,  one changing meat or fish dish every night.and three vegetarian / vegan options every night.. Not much choice for us meat / fish eaters.

 

I don’t mind a vegetarian dish every now and again but I’d expect a better choice for my canine teeth. 🙂

[jeanlyon]

Interesting to read.  We have our 19 nights in October and then Fred next April, so we are not booking anything else until we have done both those.

[Winifred 22]

I was on Britannia a few weeks ago normally being a Cunarder  and I found the MDR choices very acceptable. I only fell back on the always available steak once. I am a fussy eater too and would not eat the vegetarian or vegan option. I always found enough choice and some nights it was difficult to choose. But hey ho different people different opinions . Can’t please everybody but I seek as I find and I was more than pleased with what I found. 

[Selbourne]

4 hours ago, Britboys said:

I think it is a mixture of that and cost-cutting Harry. The smaller ships have far fewer extra-charge restaurants but still have the same menu. Whereas previously there was a main menu plus a vegetarian one, everything is now on the one menu but it is the same size or smaller (in terms of choice) than the main menu was before. As I have said elsewhere, this is one of the reasons I have been reluctant to book further cruises with P&O. At least I am only on for 12 nights this year, so not too long to put up with it assuming there has been no change to the menu...

I agree. Cost cutting has to be a factor, as there are so few alternative dining options on Aurora. The Beach House isn’t to everyone’s taste (although we quite like it), the Glasshouse is more a lunch than dinner venue IMHO and Sindhu on Aurora is small and poorly located by the noisy atrium. Pre Covid we always found the MDR dinners on Aurora to be absolutely fine. MDR Lunches were poor, but that’s across the fleet with the odd menus they now have. I’m saddened to hear that the MDR issues have now affected Aurora, especially given the premium prices to go on that ship and the lack of alternative dining options. 

[Britboys]

32 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

I agree. Cost cutting has to be a factor, as there are so few alternative dining options on Aurora. The Beach House isn’t to everyone’s taste (although we quite like it), the Glasshouse is more a lunch than dinner venue IMHO and Sindhu on Aurora is small and poorly located by the noisy atrium. Pre Covid we always found the MDR dinners on Aurora to be absolutely fine. MDR Lunches were poor, but that’s across the fleet with the odd menus they now have. I’m saddened to hear that the MDR issues have now affected Aurora, especially given the premium prices to go on that ship and the lack of alternative dining options. 

I can't say that I've ever found the Aurora atrium noisy. I've eaten in Sindhu a couple of times and never noticed it - mind you, it's always been in a group of people so we might have been creating our own noise...😄

[mercury7289]

2 hours ago, Selbourne said:

I agree. Cost cutting has to be a factor, as there are so few alternative dining options on Aurora. The Beach House isn’t to everyone’s taste (although we quite like it), the Glasshouse is more a lunch than dinner venue IMHO and Sindhu on Aurora is small and poorly located by the noisy atrium. Pre Covid we always found the MDR dinners on Aurora to be absolutely fine. MDR Lunches were poor, but that’s across the fleet with the odd menus they now have. I’m saddened to hear that the MDR issues have now affected Aurora, especially given the premium prices to go on that ship and the lack of alternative dining options. 

I can report the Glass house is back to the way it was,wine flights and all.Medina for lunch was also acceptable.Sindu was rather over staffed to the point of being intrusive.also cost cutting was in evidence on our visit. Dinner in the MDR second sitting was very poor, on one occasion Chefs Recommendation, was Vegetarian Cottage Pie which consisted of a ramekin of vegetables with a sort of mash potato on topI.although the staff in the restaurant were brilliant.

None of this detracted from a very enjoyable first  cruise,since covid,made better by the number of guests on board, reported by the captain to be around 1400,had already booked the 16 day December Canarie cruise prior to boarding, and added 3 others whilst on board.

Agree with Andrew no special or wow factor these days,but doable for us.

 

 

[Happy afloat]

We're really surprised to read this tbh.

We were on Aurora in April for the first time and never had a bad meal in the mdr (freedom dining). Full plates of hot food every time, served on hot plates. Puddings were good in the mdr,  cold desserts a bit tasteless.

Sindhu and glasshouse both very good also, though the service in the glasshouse was a bit slow once, when they were particularly busy.  

Never had to fall back on the steak as a standby once.

Wonder what's changed?

[Interestedcruisefan]

Genuine observation/question

 

Does the overall improvement in cuisine on offer in UK over the years which is huge?

 

The improvement in quality full stop of restaurants in the UK

 

The huge range of food choices in UK

 

Make eating MDR in a standard restaurant on a cruise ship start to feel a bit bland anyway in comparison

 

If a large MDR tries to do an Italian dish in bulk or a spicy Indian dish for example. Or a roast. 

 

How can it really compare with a good standard Italian restaurant dish or Indian dish or even higher quality carvery or Sunday roast restaurant catering for far fewer guests and specialising in what they do

 

What I am basically saying is we have all had so many great meals in our lives by now it's very hard for a MDR to compete with these day in day out for 14 nights plus

 

And seem bland in comparison. Perfectly edible but bland or boring compared to speciality restaurants. In terms of the food if nothing else.

 

Surely that's inevitable. Jack of all trades master of none comes to mind a little bit.

 

Does that make sense?

 

I think that's why MDRs don't tempt us compared to the specialist restaurants to be honest?

 

It takes a really great meal to blow us away nowadays. We've all had so many?

Edited May 20, 2023 by Interestedcruisefan

[Selbourne]

8 hours ago, mercury7289 said:

I can report the Glass house is back to the way it was,wine flights and all.Medina for lunch was also acceptable.Sindu was rather over staffed to the point of being intrusive.also cost cutting was in evidence on our visit. Dinner in the MDR second sitting was very poor, on one occasion Chefs Recommendation, was Vegetarian Cottage Pie which consisted of a ramekin of vegetables with a sort of mash potato on topI.although the staff in the restaurant were brilliant.

None of this detracted from a very enjoyable first  cruise,since covid,made better by the number of guests on board, reported by the captain to be around 1400,had already booked the 16 day December Canarie cruise prior to boarding, and added 3 others whilst on board.

Agree with Andrew no special or wow factor these days,but doable for us.

 

 

Delighted to hear that you enjoyed your cruise, in spite of the changes. We also did our first post Covid cruise at the same time as you, but with Cunard. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Our first post Covid P&O cruise is in July on Britannia. We are anticipating some changes that might not be to our liking, but we have paid a price that reflects that.

[Selbourne]

46 minutes ago, Interestedcruisefan said:

Genuine observation/question

 

Does the overall improvement in cuisine on offer in UK over the years which is huge?

 

The improvement in quality full stop of restaurants in the UK

 

The huge range of food choices in UK

 

Make eating MDR in a standard restaurant on a cruise ship start to feel a bit bland anyway in comparison

 

If a large MDR tries to do an Italian dish in bulk or a spicy Indian dish for example. Or a roast. 

 

How can it really compare with a good standard Italian restaurant dish or Indian dish or even higher quality carvery or Sunday roast restaurant catering for far fewer guests and specialising in what they do

 

What I am basically saying is we have all had so many great meals in our lives by now it's very hard for a MDR to compete with these day in day out for 14 nights plus

 

And seem bland in comparison. Perfectly edible but bland or boring compared to speciality restaurants. In terms of the food if nothing else.

 

Surely that's inevitable. Jack of all trades master of none comes to mind a little bit.

 

Does that make sense?

 

I think that's why MDRs don't tempt us compared to the specialist restaurants to be honest?

 

It takes a really great meal to blow us away nowadays. We've all had so many?

Personally, I wouldn’t agree with that assessment. One of the things that I have always marvelled at with P&O in the past is how they can consistently churn out thousands of MDR meals that are hot, well presented and of good quality. Whilst it is mass catering, it hasn’t felt like that. Maybe we’ve been lucky, but I can honestly say that out of the many hundreds of meals that we’ve had in various P&O MDRs over they years I’ve never had a cold meal and I don’t think I’ve had to send back more than 1 or 2 meals in over 25 years. That’s a better record than most land based restaurants and certainly far better than many functions that I have been to where there is mass catering for a fraction of the numbers in a cruise ship MDR. 

[Dinglebert]

Our experience from April on Azura were that the choices available in MDR are much reduced from pre-covid.  We did have to send back 3 meals to be reheated.   The cheese plate was frankly pathetic.  Oddly there was more choice of cheese in the buffet than in the mdr.

 

It was the shortages we found odd.  No orange juice for breakfast one morning.  Couple of cereals have also disappeared.   The most constant shortage was butter.   They were very reluctant to give guests any.   If ther were say eight of us at a table then there were seven bits of butter.  Once you notice the great butter shortage it becomes almost funny.  It was definately being rationed for some reason.

[Waju]

We got back from the Aurora Baltic cruise on Thursday and I have to say we thoroughly enjoyed our meals in the MDR.  I would agree the choice isn't as great as it used to be but I only struggled to choose something I fancied on the last night, but by that time I was so full I probably just wasn't hungry 😁

 

I wouldn't rate any of the meals (lunch or dinner) lower than 8/10 indeed most were 10/10 and I'm back on the diet already 😲

 

 

[Waju]

10 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

Personally, I wouldn’t agree with that assessment. One of the things that I have always marvelled at with P&O in the past is how they can consistently churn out thousands of MDR meals that are hot, well presented and of good quality. Whilst it is mass catering, it hasn’t felt like that. Maybe we’ve been lucky, but I can honestly say that out of the many hundreds of meals that we’ve had in various P&O MDRs over they years I’ve never had a cold meal and I don’t think I’ve had to send back more than 1 or 2 meals in over 25 years. That’s a better record than most land based restaurants and certainly far better than many functions that I have been to where there is mass catering for a fraction of the numbers in a cruise ship MDR. 

We commented that the food in the MDR was always hot and well presented and wondered how they managed to serve it so hot when at the local Wetherspoons it has to travel 6 foot from kitchen to table and arrives cold!!

[AndyMichelle]

2 minutes ago, Dinglebert said:

 The cheese plate was frankly pathetic.  Oddly there was more choice of cheese in the buffet than in the mdr.

 

 

See, the fact you say 'cheese plate' excites me. 

We have seen images on YT of individual plates of a selection of cheese and biscuits being served. 

Better than the tiny little slithers the waiter used to cut off for you and make you feel embarrassed to ask for any more pre lock down... 

Andy 

[Interestedcruisefan]

7 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

Personally, I wouldn’t agree with that assessment. One of the things that I have always marvelled at with P&O in the past is how they can consistently churn out thousands of MDR meals that are hot, well presented and of good quality. Whilst it is mass catering, it hasn’t felt like that. Maybe we’ve been lucky, but I can honestly say that out of the many hundreds of meals that we’ve had in various P&O MDRs over they years I’ve never had a cold meal and I don’t think I’ve had to send back more than 1 or 2 meals in over 25 years. That’s a better record than most land based restaurants and certainly far better than many functions that I have been to where there is mass catering for a fraction of the numbers in a cruise ship MDR. 

But I agree. I'm saying perfectly edible but can't have same taste and be as exciting as other meals you would have in smaller or more specialist restaurants

 

At one time food in MDRs would be as good as you can get anywhere else full stop

 

But the  world and cuisine has moved on

 

I have no doubt we could have numerous perfectly decent meals in MDR but nothing truly memorabile

 

Last one I can remember was a beef rib dish or something like that on RCL over 10 years ago

 

Best meals always speciality

 

Hence why people starting to call MDR bland and/or repetitive 

 

Ie it's all in comparison?

[Waju]

2 minutes ago, AndyMichelle said:

See, the fact you say 'cheese plate' excites me. 

We have seen images on YT of individual plates of a selection of cheese and biscuits being served. 

Better than the tiny little slithers the waiter used to cut off for you and make you feel embarrassed to ask for any more pre lock down... 

Andy 

I have to say Andy the pieces of cheese aren't huge - you get three 'slithers', two crackers and a digestive, a carrot stick, a celery stick, two dates and a dried apricot - you can always ask for two plates though!  I love the cheese plate.

[Waju]

While we're talking food, my friend and I had a little thing going and at either lunch or dinner chose something we would normally disregard - I have to say we were ALWAYS pleasantly surprised and enjoyed some foods that were new to us - I have discovered that I really like lentils 🙂

[AndyMichelle]

5 minutes ago, Waju said:

I have to say Andy the pieces of cheese aren't huge - you get three 'slithers', two crackers and a digestive, a carrot stick, a celery stick, two dates and a dried apricot - you can always ask for two plates though!  I love the cheese plate.

Still sounds more than my memory of what used to be served, but I suppose that would have depended on the generosity of the waiter.. 

I will just have to fill my pockets at the buffet😂

Andy