Star enroute to Hawaii some issues.

[CCWineLover]

Our menu from Manfred’s on Neptune TA last night.  We all 4 had the short ribs.  They were sensational!!!

[CCWineLover]

Manfredis menu on Neptune last night.  The Short Ribs were the big hit - sensational!

[CCWineLover]

[CCWineLover]

23 hours ago, SM77 said:

In general, Viking food has been very good but this time, my experiences have been less than stellar @ the specialty restaurants.  The chefs working the Chef’s Table may not be as experienced with the Asian Panorama menu as the ones on Neptune.  I am also Chinese so I’m very experienced with how certain items should taste.  I’ve had a lot of dim sum & Peking duck over my lifetime and in many parts of the world.  

You are absolutely right.  We were on the Mars last September and Asian Panorama was nowhere near as good as Neptune.  In fact, it was quite poor.  As I said, we must be lucky with a great chef here!  Perhaps because he'll be on the World Cruise that starts in a couple days on Neptune - so they put the best on that one.

[Baron Barracuda]

14 hours ago, PGI GUY said:

As I posted earlier the menu #5 will take several months to implement fleet wide. On this and previous cruises the next days dinner menu is dropped off at your cabin. The gluten free items are listed and you can request some items to be prepared gluten free. 

You must rate.  During our 33 days on Star next days menu was available on app and tv but never delivered to our cabin.  While app listed next 7 days menus for Dining Room and World Cafe they often changed unexpectedly.  Made it trickier to plan when to visit specialties.

[PGI GUY]

The special diet menu delivered to the cabin lists what menu items contain gluten or dairy and other possible food problems. I contacted a restaurant supervisor right after boarding and there is a section on your profile to list diet restrictions. 

 

[vnb2003]

On 12/18/2023 at 9:45 PM, SantaFe1 said:

Oh my, Manfredis is so reduced.  I don’t eat much meat, but a,ways had several risotto offerings.  We are on the Star in Feb. to Hawaii, and on Neptune in May on BIE.  I have Manfredis booked for my birthday.  I might choose to change it! 

SantaFe,
 

I also planned my bday in Manfredis but had to cancel. We decided to check it first and it was great. We had seafood dinner. Next time we tried meat. That was disastrous. The “Prime” ribeye wasn’t even ribeye at all. I know the cut! Yes, very thin and extremely chewy. Then came a manager and tried to fix this, so he brought a bit thicker piece but you have to put you strength through cutting. Then Chef came in but we had a language problem looking at the 3rd steak. We left. 
 

There was veal on board at both Restaurant and WC. The veal in Restaurant was to die for and their Ribeye was perfect cooked to my liking rare to medium rare (my DH had medium and also great)

 

Our observation: the food on this cruise was MUCH better than our previous 5 cruises with Viking…, except of Manfredis. 
 

note: we were on Star Nov. 10- Dec. 12

[SantaFe1]

1 hour ago, vnb2003 said:

SantaFe,
 

I also planned my bday in Manfredis but had to cancel. We decided to check it first and it was great. We had seafood dinner. Next time we tried meat. That was disastrous. The “Prime” ribeye wasn’t even ribeye at all. I know the cut! Yes, very thin and extremely chewy. Then came a manager and tried to fix this, so he brought a bit thicker piece but you have to put you strength through cutting. Then Chef came in but we had a language problem looking at the 3rd steak. We left. 
 

There was veal on board at both Restaurant and WC. The veal in Restaurant was to die for and their Ribeye was perfect cooked to my liking rare to medium rare (my DH had medium and also great)

 

Our observation: the food on this cruise was MUCH better than our previous 5 cruises with Viking…, except of Manfredis. 
 

note: we were on Star Nov. 10- Dec. 12

Well, I am sad to hear this!  May change my birthday to Chefs Table, which we love.  Thanks for the input!

[vnb2003]

6 minutes ago, SantaFe1 said:

Well, I am sad to hear this!  May change my birthday to Chefs Table, which we love.  Thanks for the input!

• 🍹😁 
• enjoy your cruise. I’m already sorry that mine past

[Baron Barracuda]

22 hours ago, vnb2003 said:

SantaFe,
 

I also planned my bday in Manfredis but had to cancel. We decided to check it first and it was great. We had seafood dinner. Next time we tried meat. That was disastrous. The “Prime” ribeye wasn’t even ribeye at all. I know the cut! Yes, very thin and extremely chewy. Then came a manager and tried to fix this, so he brought a bit thicker piece but you have to put you strength through cutting. Then Chef came in but we had a language problem looking at the 3rd steak. We left. 
 

There was veal on board at both Restaurant and WC. The veal in Restaurant was to die for and their Ribeye was perfect cooked to my liking rare to medium rare (my DH had medium and also great)

 

Our observation: the food on this cruise was MUCH better than our previous 5 cruises with Viking…, except of Manfredis. 
 

note: we were on Star Nov. 10- Dec. 12

We were on the same sailing and concur.  While the ribeye in Manfredi's was disappointing we enjoyed the strip steak in the Dining Room several times.  Good cut of meat, always cooked right to our specifications.  

[fudgbug]

On 12/22/2023 at 6:17 PM, SantaFe1 said:

Well, I am sad to hear this!  May change my birthday to Chefs Table, which we love.  Thanks for the input!

Love, love Chef's Table!

[HUNKY]

VNB2003 - was the rib eye listed on the menu as being "Prime"?

 

As in the US grade known as Prime.

[-Lew-]

6 hours ago, HUNKY said:

VNB2003 - was the rib eye listed on the menu as being "Prime"?

 

As in the US grade known as Prime.

 

No, the word prime is not used to describe the rib eye on the menu.  See  previously posted menu.

[KiwiClaire]

On 12/15/2023 at 6:31 PM, PGI GUY said:

We are on the Star enroute to Hawaii.We have had some issues, this our 9th VO cruiseand things are not going well.Im writing this on my phone in hvy seas, so please excuse  my errors. We had dinner in Manfredies and experienced the "new" menu and not in a good way. There is no veal itms of any kind, no lasagna, no osso bucolic, how can they call it an upscale italian restaurant with out any veal items. I ordered the mushroom powder rubbed rib eye. What I was served was a very thin ribeye that was ordered med rare, it was a grey sad looking piece of meat. My wife ordered chicken parm, it came out looking like it came from the supermarket freezer section. I requested to speak with the wine steward,he appeared with two bottles of house wine, Isaid we had the beverage package and would like a recommendation for a wine. We'll he walked away and returned with the wine list and walked away not saying one word.

The next day I went to guest services and spoke to a supervisor who said the head chef would contact me very soon, that was 3 days ago, nothing yet from him. The head of the beverage dept did contact me and wine problem has been resolved.

Last night I did speak with a manage at Manfredies who said that the current menu has not been well received and anew menu will be introduced in 1 or 2 months.

Remember the thick burgers at the pool grill? They have been replaced with a very thin frozen Patty and are not chargrilled. They are cooked on a flat opener grill and they load up the grill with frozen meat and as it defrost on the grill and starts to cook in excess water the boil on the grill resulting in a grey thin disc which was then served on a cold untrusted bun. The menu has been downsized and the hot isn't much better.

 

Yesterday the sewer backed up in our shower and we had to change cabins. We usually book another Viking Cruise while on board,  I think we will not be doing that on this trip and await to see how things play out.

 

I have to agree about the burgers on Star. I don’t often eat burgers but I loved the thick juicy pool grill burgers on the 5 previous ocean cruises we’ve done, so the day after we set sail on the 14 Feb cruise we went to the Pool Grill in high anticipation. The thin burger was like cardboard, I didn’t bother eating it. So disappointing. The cheesesteak sandwich however, was delicious! The tuna was good. It was a shame the pulled pork sandwich wasn’t on the menu. 

[harbourside]

On 3/5/2024 at 10:46 PM, KiwiClaire said:

I have to agree about the burgers on Star. I don’t often eat burgers but I loved the thick juicy pool grill burgers on the 5 previous ocean cruises we’ve done, so the day after we set sail on the 14 Feb cruise we went to the Pool Grill in high anticipation. The thin burger was like cardboard, I didn’t bother eating it. So disappointing. The cheesesteak sandwich however, was delicious! The tuna was good. It was a shame the pulled pork sandwich wasn’t on the menu. 

Is this the new normal for burgers.  No more thick juicy burgers.  Looked forward to having a burger.  Why dumb down the burgers.  With the new price increases, food should be improving, not getting worse.

[cruisinchrissy]

3 hours ago, harbourside said:

Is this the new normal for burgers.  No more thick juicy burgers.  Looked forward to having a burger.  Why dumb down the burgers.  With the new price increases, food should be improving, not getting worse.

 The burgers were thin and chewy on the Jupiter recently. Awful.

[hutch1994]

On the Star  right now and the food is marginal at best.  Lamb chops were so tuff that I couldn't cut them with a knife and the famous ribeye was probably between 1/8 and 1/4 quarter of an inch at most and vastly overcooked.  Was expecting better.