Asian cruise dining

[sciencewonk]

We are going on a Japan/Korea cruise on Noordam.  We haven't been on an Asian cruise on HAL before.  Will there be any local dishes served in the MDR or Lido (excluding the usual Sushi/Asian buffet) or will the food be the usual HAL choices you get on North American and Australian cruises?

[CruiserBruce]

There will be a few local dishes, but primarily standard menus.

[cruisemom42]

I don't recall any local cuisine beyond what they might usually offer (e.g., "sushi" in the buffet area and the like) last April on Westerdam cruising around Japan for 28 days.

 

 

Edited January 28 by cruisemom42

[OlsSalt]

Be sure to look at the expanded vegetarian, and Indian menu items by request- to increase the variety of your choices.

 

We even had "What the crew eats" special items highlighted on the printed menu on our last Noordam cruise,  since they are a very international group.

[syesmar]

38 minutes ago, OlsSalt said:

Be sure to look at the expanded vegetarian, and Indian menu items by request- to increase the variety of your choices.…

Do you just ask the server about the Indian items, or can a list be found somewhere? Thanks!

[a1211]

58 minutes ago, syesmar said:

Do you just ask the server about the Indian items, or can a list be found somewhere? Thanks!

The Indian items have to be pre-ordered (in our experience 1 night before you would like the Indian meal), but you can just ask your server or the maitre d for the next nights Indian menu & place your order with them.

[Ferry_Watcher]

We did the TP and Circle Japan 26 night cruise on the Westerdam last October’23.  Japanese Beer, Sake and Whiskey didn’t appear on our menu until a couple of days after leaving Yokohama, and it took more days for all the restaurants and bars to have it available.

[FlaMariner]

On 1/27/2024 at 7:40 PM, sciencewonk said:

We haven't been on an Asian cruise on HAL before.  Will there be any local dishes served in the MDR or Lido (excluding the usual Sushi/Asian buffet) or will the food be the usual HAL choices you get on North American and Australian cruises?

 

On our trans-pacific cruise in October (2023), I did not notice any difference in food choices from any other HAL cruise......(but we were on the Westerdam leaving Seattle and traveling to Asia so perhaps things might be different once the cruise originates in Asia).

 

Enjoy the cruise....we loved our first time traveling to Japan.....