Compare food to chain/mall/fast food, land restaurants??

[sharecruises]

Hi..I also tried to post this on the 'foodies' board but maybe also here on Carnival..

 

I was thinking...how would you compare carnival dining to "land" chain etc restaurants?

 

is the steak like sizzler, like tgif, like outback....or ruth chris??

 

is the buffet like Sweet Tomatos or like Picadilly or a Vegas Buffet or ?

 

I was thinking of "well known" places....ie, fast food places, arthur treacher fish and chips....a neighborhood deli....applebees, tgif, bennigans, carrabellas, outback, golden corral, roadhouse grill, bucca de beppo, red lobster, etc...mall food court??

 

and ?? whatever....??? Also...let us know IF you like that sort of food..someone who might LOVE picadelly cafeteria would make me take their "review" with a different attitude

 

also I put a similar post on "foodie" board...but am especially interested in carnival as I am on Imagination next week ! Thanks

[LABecca]

I think the dining room food can't be compared to any chain, it is far superior. We found the dining room food to be very good and beautifully presented. The entrees spoke for themselves and were not drowning in sauce (like many chain restaurants). While the food is not as good as the food in a fine restaurant, it is still very good. If you remember that this is a cruise ship and not Le Cirque you will be very pleased.

 

The buffet food can be compared to a Las Vegas style buffet.

 

The quality of the meats in the Supper Club is on par with Ruth Chris, but the service,presentation, and pairing of entrees is far superior in the Supper Club. (There is no supper club on Fantasy Class ships)

 

Bon Appetite!

[dclark]

The quality of many food items is as good as you'll fine in a good restraunt chain. How well it is prepared is a different story. The filet mignon can be of good quality meat, but then, when you ask for medium rare and it comes well done...

I do miss president butter!

The buffet food is of lower quality than any buffet I 've been too (and I live in Nevada and often go to buffets!).

Steak sandwiches and burgers are comparable to what you get at one of those cheap pay and wiat for you food to be delivered type of steak houses (like Sizzler). Shrimp dishes are comparable to what you'd get at a Red Lobster. Regular fish dishes are always ugh! They drown them in sauce and never taste right.

Soups-They can much better or much worse than what you get a Sweet Tomatoes. They all serve mushroom soup and 75% of the time it is either cold, watery or both. The other 25% it is excellent. We joke about whether we'll win the good mushroom soup this cruise! Again, it is more a matter of preparation than the quality of ingredients.

Bottom line- you will fine things that are really good, and some that are really awful. I used to occasionally find chicken satay in the buffet, but last cruise, it was never served, nor was the sweet and sour shrimp on the skewer (d### them!).

I do hope you like shrimp because I never had a CCL where the shrimp were anything less than awesome and as good or better than Red Lobster!

The pizza is better than most take out places, the deli sandwiches are better than most delis, but a notch below the finer kosher delis I have been to.

Supper club- comparable to the finest restraunts in Las Vegas (not bad for just $30 extra).

[TRISHNBRAD]

In general I found the Dining room food to be comparable to any of the Darden chain restaraunts, I thought the quality was better, the presntation and service better, but the preparation wasnt always on par with everything else.

 

The buffet is hit and miss, early in the morning, i.e 7 am the breakfast buffet was great, later it resembled more of a Golden Corral than a Sweet Tomatoes, if it helps we refer to our local Golden Corrals Breakfast Buffet as the slop trough. Sometimes the lunch buffets were excellent, equal to the best Vegas Buffets, other times, not so much.

 

Pizza was consistently better than any pizza I have ever eaten from a major chain distributor. The same goes for the Deli sandwiches.

 

I am English so have a bit of a different take on Fish and Chips, but can honestly say the fish and chips on the Glory are better than any landbased place Ive found in 15 years of living in the US.

 

The burgers were good, hot and filling, kinda reminded me of Sizzler

 

The speciality supper club was OK, beautifully presented, larger portions and expertly prepared, but I felt the quality in what we ate was only so so (rubbery Lobster) our friends who like DH are in the restaraunt biz loved it and compared it to Ruth Chris and Smith and Wollensky.