Best Overall Cruise Cuisine

[Hlitner]

We just completed a cruise on a brand-new cruise ship (and line) called Explora 1 (Explora Journeys).  Having been blessed to have cruised on 17 different lines (probably over 80 different ships), both DW and I came to the similar conclusion that EJ1 has the best overall cuisine (by far) of any ship or line!  While the line is far from perfect, the cuisine reached new heights we have never experienced.  There were a few specific products (such as grilled dover sole and the pizza) that are done better on at least one other line, but overall no other line (that we have cruised) comes close to what we experienced during 18 days on Explora 1.

 

Hank

[lenquixote66]

For my better half and I the answer would be Cunard.

[Hlitner]

2 hours ago, lenquixote66 said:

For my better half and I the answer would be Cunard.

We have also cruised on Cunard :).  Since we have never dined in the "grills" so I do not have a basis of comparison to those venues.  But when it comes to the normal MDR and Lido, Cunard is not even in the ball park.  Just consider that simple items like lobster, oysters on the half shell, Sushi (made to order), crab claws, etc. are available every day on Explora Journeys.  And this does not even consider that they have 6 separate dining venues (each with different menus) including caviar items, more lobster dishes, various steaks, etc.

 

Hank

[lenquixote66]

3 hours ago, Hlitner said:

We have also cruised on Cunard :).  Since we have never dined in the "grills" so I do not have a basis of comparison to those venues.  But when it comes to the normal MDR and Lido, Cunard is not even in the ball park.  Just consider that simple items like lobster, oysters on the half shell, Sushi (made to order), crab claws, etc. are available every day on Explora Journeys.  And this does not even consider that they have 6 separate dining venues (each with different menus) including caviar items, more lobster dishes, various steaks, etc.

 

Hank

We were on a Cunard ship in 1973 .There was only one dining room and the food was absolutely delicious.

[Hlitner]

40 minutes ago, lenquixote66 said:

We were on a Cunard ship in 1973 .There was only one dining room and the food was absolutely delicious.

ROFL.  Even though I am also a senior, even I would not do any kind of comparison to a cruise that happened 50 years ago!  Perhaps if you went further back to the White Star Line you would have found even better cuisine :).  And you might consider that since 1998, Cunard has been part of the CCL empire and is a completely different product than what it was in the ole days.  

 

Hank

[lenquixote66]

31 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

ROFL.  Even though I am also a senior, even I would not do any kind of comparison to a cruise that happened 50 years ago!  Perhaps if you went further back to the White Star Line you would have found even better cuisine :).  And you might consider that since 1998, Cunard has been part of the CCL empire and is a completely different product than what it was in the ole days.  

 

Hank

My father came to the US in 1913 from Liverpool.It was not a cruise ship but it was an elite ship.The menu that he ordered from could easily have been a 2023 menu.Obviously I cannot know how the food tasted.

[Hlitner]

While we having fun with this topic, here is the First Class Menu from the Titanic on that fateful April evening:  I remember it well :).

 

• Oysters, consomme Olga, cream of barley
• Salmon, mousseline sauce, cucumber

Main Courses and Vegetables

• Filet mignons Lili
• Saute of chicken, Lyonnaise
• Vegetable marrow Farcie (Farsi)
• Lamb, mint sauce
• Roast duckling, applesauce
• Sirloin of beef, chateau potatoes
• Green peas, creamed carrots, boiled rice, Parmentier or boiled new potatoes
• Punch romaine
• Roast squab and cress
• Cold asparagus vinaigrette
• Pate de foie gras
• Celery

Dessert

• Waldorf pudding
• Peaches in chartreuse jelly
• Chocolate vanilla eclairs
• French ice cream

[Harters]

The Titanic menu is interesting. In real life, I'm an amateur military historian and author. One of my books is about food during the Great War. I've often noted, as with this menu, that there is a heavy French influence on the food of middle/upper class Britons. It lasted into the late 1960s & early 1970s, when we started to recapture and modernise our own more traditional dishes. 

[lenquixote66]

7 hours ago, Harters said:

The Titanic menu is interesting. In real life, I'm an amateur military historian and author. One of my books is about food during the Great War. I've often noted, as with this menu, that there is a heavy French influence on the food of middle/upper class Britons. It lasted into the late 1960s & early 1970s, when we started to recapture and modernise our own more traditional dishes. 

Do you write books or read books ?

[Harters]

A day without reading a book is a day lost. And I've written four of them. 

[lenquixote66]

1 hour ago, Harters said:

A day without reading a book is a day lost. And I've written four of them. 

I agree with you .I have written one.

Last week I saw an interview with an American author.He was asked how many books he read in the last decade.He replied 50.That shocked me .