What has changed since Michel Rouix left

[excitedofharpenden]

Thanks Lois. I think there was a Ruth Chris next to where we stayed in San Diego, but we went to Anthony's Fish Grotto and had and excellent meal there, in spite of me not liking fish. Hey, perhaps I am just easily pleased;)

 

I also wanted to mention how great Celebrity are at catering for special dietary requirements. I have been on cruises where that has been required and they have been on the ball, showing the menu for the following evening and booking ahead. Very impressive.

 

Phil

[Lois R]

Phil, you ate at Anthony's?;) :eek:

I am guessing they offered chicken and beef? I know

you didn't eat any seafood!

[emcee207]

I thought the poster, dalejr, pretty much right on with his assessment of the food and his comparisons.

There is no way you can serve 2,000 people in a night the same way you serve 100-200 in a "fine dining" establishment. Trust me I know, Margo has been in that business for over 20 years.

Celebrity does pretty well, IMHO.

The specialty restaurants are an unbeleivable bargain at $30/pp. 5 star dining at a very cheap price. I will say though at times the 2-3 hour experience is a little tiring for us.

Overall, we have nothing but good things to say about the food. Lots and lots of options also, which is good.

[Dale Jr]

I have to make comment here with the caveat that food is subjective topic, but I have always found the Celebrity food really good.

 

No offense intended here as you are right food is a very subjective topic.

 

My parents are both from London and my mother definitely received her training for cooking from the British which to me is basically bland, spiceless, and all well done meat and overcooked vegtables. Once on my own I learned the value of taste in a rare steak. Hopefully you were raised with better culinary experience than I but in my mind Celebrity main dining room food reminded me of my mothers cooking. Sure the presentation was much, much nicer but I think I would have a hard time telling the difference if I had a blindfold on.

 

My main complaint is that it is almost impossible to get a rare steak without first having to send back at least one if not two attempts. It gets rather tiresome night after night sending back your dinner and having to endure the looks of some of your tablemates who think you are crazy.

[Moeve]

Dale I am not sure if you are aware of this but none of the cruiselines are really allowed to bring you a rare steak. There are certain USPH regulations preventing this and requiring all foods to be cooked to a certain temp. This is done to prevent illness from breaking out. As you surely are aware of when something gets on the loose at sea it tends to spend like wildfire.

 

So it isn't because they cannot - they simply are trying to bend the rules while trying to accomadate your request.

[Dale Jr]

Dale I am not sure if you are aware of this but none of the cruiselines are really allowed to bring you a rare steak. There are certain USPH regulations preventing this and requiring all foods to be cooked to a certain temp. This is done to prevent illness from breaking out. As you surely are aware of when something gets on the loose at sea it tends to spend like wildfire.

 

So it isn't because they cannot - they simply are trying to bend the rules while trying to accomadate your request.

 

I had heard of that as well and was sort of ok with it until our Regent cruise where if you ordered rare it came rare. Same thing happened on Oceania.

 

So either the regulations are different for different ships or Celebrity has self imposed a regulation in order to limit illness. Maybe I don't want to order a rare steak on Celebrity anymore. LOL

[GORDONCHICK]

I had heard of that as well and was sort of ok with it until our Regent cruise where if you ordered rare it came rare. Same thing happened on Oceania.

 

So either the regulations are different for different ships or Celebrity has self imposed a regulation in order to limit illness. Maybe I don't want to order a rare steak on Celebrity anymore. LOL

 

I think comparing X to Regent & Oceania is like comparing apples to grapes. X is mass market, while the other two are not. The lines are not serving the same number of guests, nor are they dealing with the same per diem when it comes to the preparing food.

 

Considering the number of guests the mass-marketed lines serve, most do pretty well (better than most banquet food I've experienced). Of the three lines I've experienced, X has done it best, hands down. I would love to experience Regent and Oceania some day, but that won't be anytime soon, so in the meantime, X will certainly do for me!

 

And I've had no problems getting a rare steak on X, but I also know that if I'm on a ship with a noro outbreak, there's no chance of that happening and I'll probably order a non-beef dish!

[greeneg]

Just to add my own personal experience from the Mercury last January/February, I ordered a rare steak several times during the cruise and it was always properly prepared. There have been instances in the past where rare steak or prime rib would not be available, but not on our last 3 cruises.

[usha]

On Celebrity, I've only once gotten a steak that was overcooked (on Zenith). Now, I always ask for "really rare". The waiter says: "really rare?" And I say: "Almost mooing". They seem to understand that.:D

[Lois R]

Hello Ed:) so nice to see you again!

So, how was your Quest cruise??? Are you planning

to sail on her again?

[cechase]

Hi Lois, thought that I would add my two cents to this commentary.

 

The best food that Nedra and I have had on Celebrity was on our two cruises on Century. And that was on Century before her face lift! :D On our cruises on Galaxy, Mercury and Infinity, it seemed to have maybe slipped just a little, but still the cuisine and offerings were still very good considering that they were serving 1,800 to 1,900 pax. The cold soups in particular on all of our Celebrity cruises were a real treat.

 

Last December, we finally had an opportunity to compare Celebrity with another cruise line, Silver Seas. The cuisine and offerings as well as the service was absolutely superb. [The service was very comparable to that on Celebrity, except for one little exception on our cruise on Mercury in early 2006]. However, if you go over to the Silver Seas forums you will find their passengers claiming that the quality of cuisine has fallen! :o

 

We paid for early embarkation on Silver Shadow, and after being escorted to our Silver Suite and dropping off our carry-ons, we explored and ended up at the pool bar for several "cool ones", and had their hamburgers and they were out of this world. I would compare our food in The Restaurant on Silver Shadow to the wonderful meal that we had in the US United States on Infinity.

 

But, in our opinion, Celebrity does a really great job. Remember that on Silver Shadow they were serving only 382 pax at a maximum.

[greeneg]

Hi Lois. Our Quest trip is January, 2008. Apparently my signature count down is dead for some reason.........Looking forward to it though. Am VERY glad we booked it on-board the Mercury seeing what the price has done since we did book it......I could sell the Cabin on e-Bay and make a significant profit..:)

[tcocktail]

I went on galley tour while on Summit in Janaury. I did ask the exec chief about the impact of Michel Roux's departure. He didn't expect any impact. I inferred from his expression and tone that he didn't really think Roux has been all that important Celebrity's food product.

 

If you can be sure to take the Galley tour.

 

 

I asked if Michel Roux was leaving on the galley tour a year and they said no. Either the executive chefs are not in the loop until it happens or this is their standard answers. Celebrity may just not want to pay him such high dollars when they could do it themselves.

[Kapricorn]

I was on the Infinity last week with my pal, David, whose last cruise was on the Summit two years ago. I asked him if he noticed any difference in the dining room cuisine, and he said no. I didn't, either. The quality of the food is still excellent.

 

Donald.