Food on Avalon Artistry

[Elyilona]

I just returned from Avalon Artistry Prague to Budapest. This was my first river cruise having cruised before on many Ocean going lines Celebrity, Holland America Norwegian Cruise line and Oceania cruise line. I have eaten in many cafeterias , including college dining halls but I have never experienced what I found on this so called (price wise) luxury cruise in the way of food served. For the first five days lunches as well as breakfasts were serve your self style. The breakfasts were passable but absolutely boring compared to a Ocean liner. Absolutely the same each day with many canned fruits and cold items. Omletes were served which made breakfast bearable . Lunch was another story, overcooked vegetables cafeteria style , lowest grade cuts of meat mostly variations on pork, poor produce in general a variety of dull salads , help yourself it was plentiful.Turkey was available twice. Attempts to create German style dishes were a joke. No decent restaurant in Germany or Austria could get away with such poor quality. The biggest joke was dinner for five days' ,slopped on a plate with no presentation whatsoever and once again mainly the poorest cuts of pork and stringy beef. They once served tiny shrimps the minute size of which i have never encountered un cooked.Any one on a real cruise would laugh. No steak, prawns, fish other than salmon which you look at in a package at the supermarket and reject. (poorest cut of) On the last two nights the plates were decorated a bit as you would see in a modest restaurant and food was better. this of course was prior to tip time. Granted the galley on a river cruise is small but the last two nights showed thy could make a better effort even with the mediocre quality. I am interested in hearing from other people about there opinion food on the Artistry or any other River cruise that does better. I can't believe that this is standard River cruising fare. Sincerely, Elyilona

[tiggypooo]

On my 2 cruises with Uniworld the food was very good.

Breakfast and Lunch were both served buffet style, but the food varied each day and in most cases it was very good.

Dinner was excellent. Very well presented each and every day.

There was lots of variety and there was always a few choices.

[webfoot]

I'm sorry to hear of your bad experience with food on the Artistry. We were on the Artistry in late April/early May (Amsterdam to Budapest) and were very pleased with the food. Stefan produced great meals. The soups were outstanding.

 

When you compare river cruise cuisine with ocean cruise cuisine, you are talking two different things. I would expect an ocean cruise to have better food.

 

We did not experience any canned fruit. What we were served was fresh daily.

 

We were served a variety of fish. Salmon was available daily and we had a fish offered almost every evening. Yes, the tiny shrimp were not up to gourmet standards ...

 

We enjoyed our trip and would travel with the Artistry again without hesitation.

[MSEm]

My Artistry cruise in June 2008 was also poor food and service in the dining room. Several of us that had done river cruises with other companies all agreed that the food was not up to any expectations.

We did have fish with sauce as an entree everynight as 1 of the 3 entrees. The second was duck, lamb, chicken 1 night, and preformed "roast beef" 2 nights

After adding up the cost of all of the optional tours and the cost of the recommended tips, for about $200 more we could have traveled with Tauck.

 

My suggestion is to try another river cruise company.

 

Emily

[Coral]

I was on Amadeus Tolstoy last year and was extremely disappointed in the food - so much so, I stopped going to the lunch and dinners. Breakfasts were OK as I could always eat yogurt, fruit, toast and order eggs. Lunch and dinner had very cheap cuts of meat (ham was like spam, hamburger was a weird gray color, etc...) and I think they used some type of oil in a lot of their food that I just couldn't handle. Vegetables were overcooked and they used the same mystery sauce on a lot of their food. Whatever I ate for lunch and dinner just did not agree with me.

 

I work at a college and eat my lunches at our cafeteria. I by no means think our food at our college is great - I would describe it as "edible" and I found our college cafeteria MUCH BETTER then what we were served on Amadeus Tolstoy. I am just glad that I brought some granola bars and fruit snacks with me.

 

I have cruised on regular cruise ships and knew that food would not be the same going into this and did not expect this. But heck, I thought food would be better then our college cafeteria.

 

Except for the food and a few disappointments in time constraints/scheduling on the cruise - I did like river cruising and had hoped to do some more. I am not sure which line to try though.

[letsgo39]

I cruised on the Avalon Tranquility last year. The food was very good so maybe it just depends on the Chef and which ship you are on.. I'm wondering if it is the Artistry that has the problem just like last year some of the Amadeus ships had complaints about the food.Hopefully Avalon will pay attention to the food issues and take steps to improve the food on the Artistry.

[Coral]

I cruised on the Avalon Tranquility last year. The food was very good so maybe it just depends on the Chef and which ship you are on.. I'm wondering if it is the Artistry that has the problem just like last year some of the Amadeus ships had complaints about the food.Hopefully Avalon will pay attention to the food issues and take steps to improve the food on the Artistry.

 

I think you are right - I think a lot has to do with the Chef on the ship. When I was sailing on Amadeus, I was told that the Chef "can do better" but is unable to - sorry, don't remember the exact words (which I interpreted to as constraints from someone). Amadeus leased our ship from Vodohod so I am not sure if it was coming from Amadeus or Vodohod.

 

We were also very early in the season and I don't know if having a new team of kitchen help to work with also contributed.

 

I would love to do another river cruise as I did enjoy the ship and the experience.