Brown Eyed Gurl
April 7th, 2006, 12:26 PM
I also posted this under Cruise Foodies, under an old post titled "Vegetarian Options", but wanted to also post it here, in case anyone had any concerns (I know I did before I sailed, and no one really knew what the Vegetarian options were). So I hope this helps answer any questions, my opinions on items are just that, so take 'em with a grain of salt. :p
Just off the Zaandam 4/4/06.
HAL had great selections for Vegetarians!! Portions were generous, flavor was wonderful, presentation was ok.
I'll list as much as I can remember...
Room Service
Breakfast...OJ, apple juice, prune juice, V8, grapefruit juice, tea, coffee, milk, cereals, toast, english muffin, bagel, croissant, blueberry muffin, danish, various fruits (melon, orange slices, etc), yogurt (plain or fruit), eggs or eggbeaters (scrambled or cheese omelet -both came w/ hashbrowns)
Lunch/Dinner/24hrs...cheese platter (asst cheeses with crackers, bread, & fruit), Vegetarian omelet, Vegetarian pizza (mushroom & bell pepper listed, but you could request anything you wanted. The pizza was made to order with a homemade crust and had a super sweet sauce-we both liked it alot!), Thai Vegetarian Wrap (tomato tortilla with eggplant & sprouts and a few other veggies I don't recall). Other than desserts these were the only Vegetaran items listed, desserts were ice cream, cake, or choc chip cookies
Lido Buffet
Breakfast...there was an omelet station in which you could order any combination of eggs, eggbeaters, cheeses, and veggies, buffet had same as room service but more fruit juices (grape & others), more fruit, scrambled eggs (they looked runny, but they also had a separate pan of well-done eggs), hashbrowns, pancakes (plain & blueberry), french toast, waffles
Lunch...for lunch options I was disappointed, nothing was marked Vegetarian and the staff didn't always know what was and sometimes they didn't even understand. Be careful-we tried what appeared to be plain rice and it strongly tasted of chicken broth, so we threw it out to be safe. There was always salad & veggies, but they never looked fresh or really tasted good. There was always some type of fruit, pasta (w/ marinara or alfredo), cold pasta salad, mashed potatoes, french fries, new potatoes, there was an Asian station in which you could have them make stir-fried veggies, and the best (in my opinion ;) ) was the sandwich station in which you could have a made-to-order sandwich of fresh veggies a/o cheese (grilled if you liked), on any type of fresh bread (foccacia, Italian, wheat, white, etc).
Dinner...I would stay away from the Lido for dinner. They only had the same entrees as the dining room (which means only ONE Vegetarian entree-which was not marked & nothing from the Vegetarian menu), and they did not include any of the chilled soups or Vegetarian appetizers from the dinner menu. All rolls & garlic bread in the Lido also were hard every time we tried them-for lunch or dinner (in the Dining Room they were always soft and fresh!)
Desserts...the desserts in the Lido always seemed bland or stale. We only found something tasty and fresh maybe 2 or 3 times, even though we sampled from there nearly daily. The ice cream was ok, the vanilla I found to be good, while the chocolate was bland and didn't taste like chocolate to me. My in-laws and many people on these boards have raved about the bread pudding, we tried it twice and both times it was bland-almost to the point of being tasteless, overly wet/soggy, and a huge disappointment.
Terrace Grill
Lunch/Snack...the grill offered veggie burgers in which they kept separate and wrapped in tin foil! There was also a taco bar in which you could make veggie or bean tacos, but I am not sure if the refried beans are Vegetarian or not. There was also various Vegetarian pizzas available (we saw mushroom & cheese, black olive & tomato, zucchini & onion).
Pinnacle Grill
Dinner...The Pinnacle only offered one Vegetarian entree which was the mushroom ravioli, which was on the regular menu one night. They also offered several Vegetarian appetizers if I recall correctly (baked potato, etc).
Rotterdam Dining Room
*I saved the best for last!!*
We never ate in the dining room for breakfast or lunch so I'm not sure what they offered. We heard some people complaining about how long it took to receive their food though.
We ate off both the Regular & Vegetarian menus, so I will list things I remember or we ate, and then mark from which menu they were from, R or V. There was only 1 soup & 1 entree I didn't care for, and it wasn't that they weren't good, they just didn't appeal to me. Our service was amazing. We always received our food promptly with a smile, and never had a complaint about anything! We ate in the dining room every night except one (we had to get up super early for a shore excursion the next day, we had the main dinner, upper @ 8pm, and we usually didn't finish until 10pm or later). All chilled soups were Vegetarian. We only tried one salad, but I know the Vegetarian menu had at least 2 others available. We had the spinach salad with artichoke hearts and tofu dressing, which was just ok. I'd say 80% of items on Vegetarian menu were marked Vegan.
Bread
Rolls (White)
Black Forrest
Zucchini Bread
Rye
Pumperknickel
French
Soups
Chilled Blueberry (blueberries & champagne) R
Apple Vichyssoise (apple brandy w/ diced granny smith apples) R
Mango Gazpacho (mangoes, onion, & cilantro) R
Strawberry Bisque R
French Onion V
Vichyssoise (chilled potato & leek, very frothy & buttery) V
3 Berry Minestrone (strawberry, blueberry, & raspberry-I think) R
Gazpacho (chilled tomato & cucumber) V
Vegetable V
Appetizers
Tropical Fruit Dish (watermelon, pineapple, canteloupe, guava) R
Melon Plate (watermelon, honeydew melon, canteloupe, grapes) Alt to R
Watermelon Cocktail (watermelon, honeydew, mint, orange rind) R
Tomato Pesto Toasties (sun-dried tomato pesto sauce on toast with grilled onions) V
Guacamole w/ Nachos V
Asparagus Rolls (asparagus wrapped in filo dough w/ an herbed cream sauce) V
Fruit Cocktail w/ Curacao R (there was another fruit cocktail w/ a different liqueur another night, but I don't recall which)
Entrees
Parmesan Eggplant Orzo R
Cheese Tortellini in an Herbed Nutty Sauce V
Baked Veggie Lasagna w/ Garlic Bread (I had this 3 times-very good, first 2 times was in a white cream sauce, 3rd time in a marinara) V
Picatta of Vegetable (eggplant & zucchini breaded in parmesan w/ whole wheat cous cous) R
Southwest Cheese Manicotti R
Vegetarian Chili w/ Corn Muffin (chili was chickpeas, onions, tomatoes - muffin was very sweet) V
Mushroom Ravioli R
Eggplant Picatta R
Tofu Kebabs V
Indian Red Lentil Dahl (we both love & often eat Indian food, this did not compare, was just ok) R
Sweet & Sour Tofu R
Vegetable Cutlet w/ chickpea & tomato salad (one of my faves-had both an Indian & Italian flavor) R
Spicy Stir-Fried Tofu (stir-fried veggies & tofu on glass noodles-very spicy, but was DH's fave meal!) V
Corn Fritters, Grilled Tomato, & Black Bean Salsa V
Desserts (in case you're curious ;) )
*Also offered were various sugar-free desserts, fruit, or ice cream.
Cappucino (complimentary only in dining room with/for dessert)
Cheese Platter (asst cheeses, fruits, crackers, & bread)
Vienesse Apple Struedel (sp?) w/ vanilla sauce
Tiramisu w/ raspberry sauce
Peach Flambe
Strawberry Cheesecake
Chocolate Souffle w/ rum sauce
Crepes Suzette
Caribbean Rum Cake w/ vanilla sauce
Chocolate Hazelnut Cake
Baked Alaska
Kahlua Creme Brulee
Cheesecake Sampler (included plain, choc chip, & raspberry)
Again, I am sure I am forgetting plenty-there were more soups, appetizers, entrees, and more desserts. No need to fret, plenty of (very tasty) variety for us veggies on HAL. :D I was very impressed!
Hope this helps!
Just off the Zaandam 4/4/06.
HAL had great selections for Vegetarians!! Portions were generous, flavor was wonderful, presentation was ok.
I'll list as much as I can remember...
Room Service
Breakfast...OJ, apple juice, prune juice, V8, grapefruit juice, tea, coffee, milk, cereals, toast, english muffin, bagel, croissant, blueberry muffin, danish, various fruits (melon, orange slices, etc), yogurt (plain or fruit), eggs or eggbeaters (scrambled or cheese omelet -both came w/ hashbrowns)
Lunch/Dinner/24hrs...cheese platter (asst cheeses with crackers, bread, & fruit), Vegetarian omelet, Vegetarian pizza (mushroom & bell pepper listed, but you could request anything you wanted. The pizza was made to order with a homemade crust and had a super sweet sauce-we both liked it alot!), Thai Vegetarian Wrap (tomato tortilla with eggplant & sprouts and a few other veggies I don't recall). Other than desserts these were the only Vegetaran items listed, desserts were ice cream, cake, or choc chip cookies
Lido Buffet
Breakfast...there was an omelet station in which you could order any combination of eggs, eggbeaters, cheeses, and veggies, buffet had same as room service but more fruit juices (grape & others), more fruit, scrambled eggs (they looked runny, but they also had a separate pan of well-done eggs), hashbrowns, pancakes (plain & blueberry), french toast, waffles
Lunch...for lunch options I was disappointed, nothing was marked Vegetarian and the staff didn't always know what was and sometimes they didn't even understand. Be careful-we tried what appeared to be plain rice and it strongly tasted of chicken broth, so we threw it out to be safe. There was always salad & veggies, but they never looked fresh or really tasted good. There was always some type of fruit, pasta (w/ marinara or alfredo), cold pasta salad, mashed potatoes, french fries, new potatoes, there was an Asian station in which you could have them make stir-fried veggies, and the best (in my opinion ;) ) was the sandwich station in which you could have a made-to-order sandwich of fresh veggies a/o cheese (grilled if you liked), on any type of fresh bread (foccacia, Italian, wheat, white, etc).
Dinner...I would stay away from the Lido for dinner. They only had the same entrees as the dining room (which means only ONE Vegetarian entree-which was not marked & nothing from the Vegetarian menu), and they did not include any of the chilled soups or Vegetarian appetizers from the dinner menu. All rolls & garlic bread in the Lido also were hard every time we tried them-for lunch or dinner (in the Dining Room they were always soft and fresh!)
Desserts...the desserts in the Lido always seemed bland or stale. We only found something tasty and fresh maybe 2 or 3 times, even though we sampled from there nearly daily. The ice cream was ok, the vanilla I found to be good, while the chocolate was bland and didn't taste like chocolate to me. My in-laws and many people on these boards have raved about the bread pudding, we tried it twice and both times it was bland-almost to the point of being tasteless, overly wet/soggy, and a huge disappointment.
Terrace Grill
Lunch/Snack...the grill offered veggie burgers in which they kept separate and wrapped in tin foil! There was also a taco bar in which you could make veggie or bean tacos, but I am not sure if the refried beans are Vegetarian or not. There was also various Vegetarian pizzas available (we saw mushroom & cheese, black olive & tomato, zucchini & onion).
Pinnacle Grill
Dinner...The Pinnacle only offered one Vegetarian entree which was the mushroom ravioli, which was on the regular menu one night. They also offered several Vegetarian appetizers if I recall correctly (baked potato, etc).
Rotterdam Dining Room
*I saved the best for last!!*
We never ate in the dining room for breakfast or lunch so I'm not sure what they offered. We heard some people complaining about how long it took to receive their food though.
We ate off both the Regular & Vegetarian menus, so I will list things I remember or we ate, and then mark from which menu they were from, R or V. There was only 1 soup & 1 entree I didn't care for, and it wasn't that they weren't good, they just didn't appeal to me. Our service was amazing. We always received our food promptly with a smile, and never had a complaint about anything! We ate in the dining room every night except one (we had to get up super early for a shore excursion the next day, we had the main dinner, upper @ 8pm, and we usually didn't finish until 10pm or later). All chilled soups were Vegetarian. We only tried one salad, but I know the Vegetarian menu had at least 2 others available. We had the spinach salad with artichoke hearts and tofu dressing, which was just ok. I'd say 80% of items on Vegetarian menu were marked Vegan.
Bread
Rolls (White)
Black Forrest
Zucchini Bread
Rye
Pumperknickel
French
Soups
Chilled Blueberry (blueberries & champagne) R
Apple Vichyssoise (apple brandy w/ diced granny smith apples) R
Mango Gazpacho (mangoes, onion, & cilantro) R
Strawberry Bisque R
French Onion V
Vichyssoise (chilled potato & leek, very frothy & buttery) V
3 Berry Minestrone (strawberry, blueberry, & raspberry-I think) R
Gazpacho (chilled tomato & cucumber) V
Vegetable V
Appetizers
Tropical Fruit Dish (watermelon, pineapple, canteloupe, guava) R
Melon Plate (watermelon, honeydew melon, canteloupe, grapes) Alt to R
Watermelon Cocktail (watermelon, honeydew, mint, orange rind) R
Tomato Pesto Toasties (sun-dried tomato pesto sauce on toast with grilled onions) V
Guacamole w/ Nachos V
Asparagus Rolls (asparagus wrapped in filo dough w/ an herbed cream sauce) V
Fruit Cocktail w/ Curacao R (there was another fruit cocktail w/ a different liqueur another night, but I don't recall which)
Entrees
Parmesan Eggplant Orzo R
Cheese Tortellini in an Herbed Nutty Sauce V
Baked Veggie Lasagna w/ Garlic Bread (I had this 3 times-very good, first 2 times was in a white cream sauce, 3rd time in a marinara) V
Picatta of Vegetable (eggplant & zucchini breaded in parmesan w/ whole wheat cous cous) R
Southwest Cheese Manicotti R
Vegetarian Chili w/ Corn Muffin (chili was chickpeas, onions, tomatoes - muffin was very sweet) V
Mushroom Ravioli R
Eggplant Picatta R
Tofu Kebabs V
Indian Red Lentil Dahl (we both love & often eat Indian food, this did not compare, was just ok) R
Sweet & Sour Tofu R
Vegetable Cutlet w/ chickpea & tomato salad (one of my faves-had both an Indian & Italian flavor) R
Spicy Stir-Fried Tofu (stir-fried veggies & tofu on glass noodles-very spicy, but was DH's fave meal!) V
Corn Fritters, Grilled Tomato, & Black Bean Salsa V
Desserts (in case you're curious ;) )
*Also offered were various sugar-free desserts, fruit, or ice cream.
Cappucino (complimentary only in dining room with/for dessert)
Cheese Platter (asst cheeses, fruits, crackers, & bread)
Vienesse Apple Struedel (sp?) w/ vanilla sauce
Tiramisu w/ raspberry sauce
Peach Flambe
Strawberry Cheesecake
Chocolate Souffle w/ rum sauce
Crepes Suzette
Caribbean Rum Cake w/ vanilla sauce
Chocolate Hazelnut Cake
Baked Alaska
Kahlua Creme Brulee
Cheesecake Sampler (included plain, choc chip, & raspberry)
Again, I am sure I am forgetting plenty-there were more soups, appetizers, entrees, and more desserts. No need to fret, plenty of (very tasty) variety for us veggies on HAL. :D I was very impressed!
Hope this helps!