Question about Seabourn menus and repetition.

I've only sailed on Seabourn once, for fourteen days on the Quest. The menus in both the Colonnade and MDR changed every evening. Restaurant 2 had one repeating five day menu if I remember correctly.

I am considering a six week B2B cruise aboard the Quest in the spring, and another month in the fall aboard the Odyssey.

I'm wondering how repetitive the menus will become.

Are they always set? Does the Chef have leeway and culinary control, or are the menus predetermined and repeated every fourteen days.

Do the menus fluctuate according to the local area and itinerary?

Does the culinary staff have the ability to ever source fresh ingredients locally, or are the meats and seafood frozen and stored.

Is there a different policy in this regard depending on the venue, ie..the MDR is fixed, but restaurant two always changes determined by the chef and his culinary team...

I got the impression that the Colonnade menus were fixed, but the blackboard special fluctuated according to the region the ship was in and what was available locally...am I wrong?

Thanks in advance for any insight and info from the more frequent seasoned Seabourn travelers ...

The menus repeat in the Collanade, the MDR, and in R2. We were told by one maitre'd that the menus are set by the Holland America management in Seattle and the cooks on board are given recipe cards that they must follow with no deviation. Therefore the cooks are not allowed to use their own ethnic expertise to spice up any special menus. The result is dull ethnic cuisine. For short cruises (I guess up to 14 days) there is no repetition and customers seem rather pleased. For longer cruises (we were on the Sojourn for 68 days) there is a lot of repetition, and one hears frequent comments that the food is pretty much the same from day-to-day. If you are a foodie and from a major metro area you will probably be less than pleased by the food on Seabourn. It's not bad, it's just not of an exceptional variety and quality. Just my experience.

The menus will repeat. You can ask the chef to pick something special up for you when they go ashore (better yet go shopping with them). You can also request special dishes with advance notice. I've found that even with a special request it was nigh impossible to get either a lot of garlic or spice into a dish for my taste. I'm not sure if you can bring something on board yourself and ask the chef prepare it (wouldn't surprise me if they were fine with this).

On the smaller ships the gourmet table event was probably the time you saw the most local items (usually cheeses, breads and charcuterie).

Well, I am a foodie, and from LA so that's a little disappointing. It is a ship, so I understand the limitations. The food is still exponentially better than that of lager ships like Celebrity, or even similar sized ships like Regent.

I did do a food shopping excursion with a chef from Seabourn in Gdansk Poland and he indicated that they would prepare the items purchased for the lunch buffet and the appetizer area at the top for bar/ lounge during happy hour.

I imagine that food quality and safety is an issue when buying from unfamiliar vendors if foreign ports, and corporate quality control dictates adhesion to set menus.

There was a food writer from Saveur magazine onboard interviewing the chefs, her comments indicated that they did have some culinary control day to day, especially with specials in the Colonnade and Restaurant 2.

Any and all other insights regarding food on the new larger Seabourn ships would be appreciated. I'm trying the Oceania Riviera next month, am curious about that too....

I realize I and the people I dined with probably had a 1 in a million experience on Oceania but IMO -

• Food cooked one night would be re-cooked and served the following night (found this on night 1 with Jacques special chicken in the GDR - chicken was leftover from the previous cruise)
  
• The kitchen staff had a very hard time poaching eggs (about a 95% failure rate) table staff would routinely stand next to the table after service to watch you cut into the egg to make sure the kitchen hadn't once again messed up
  
• Dishes that should have had garlic or spice generally were very lacking in this department (across all restaurants - but to be fair - I haven't found a line yet that use garlic or spice freely)
  
• Their main buffet would be in Seabourntraveler resemble a 'zoo under attack'. People would frequently cut in line, grab items with their bare hands, relocate silverware/food/drinks from one table to another without verifying the people they relocated were actually finished
  
• The hot food in the buffet was at best lukewarm
  
• Burgers ordered from Waves grill were never cooked as ordered
  
• Food items ordered from Waves grill would be missing half or more of their listed ingredients and staff would argue with you and tell you to add them yourself if you suggested they make the item as listed on the menu
  
• Both visits to Jacques the service was slow and food came out room temperature or below and swimming in grease
  
• Red Ginger had some interesting dishes but to me was overly Americanized in flavor profile
  
• The Parmesan served in the Italian restaurant from the wheel was nice
  
• The oils served in the Italian restaurant were a joke (ditto the 'balsamic' vinegars
  
• IMO there are too many mid level or lower Italian restaurants in the SF/Bay area for me to think positively of the Italian experience on the ship
  
• The waves bar bartenders as well as those in interior bars seemed to be the best trained/most professional staff on the ship
  
• The steakhouse beef was sinewy the first time (ribeye)
  
• The steakhouse the second time featured freezer burned prime rib
  
• Their whole liquor ordering system in the restaurants was slower than molasses running uphill during a freezing February day
  
• For the regular restaurants after three weeks I think we found about half a dozen dishes that were actually very good, the rest blah to terribad
  
• La Reserve by Wine Spectator on the other hand was everything I'd expected from the other restaurants. Excellent service, high quality ingredients that give some land based restaurants a run for their money. The food showed some imagination and creativity. It was a pity you couldn't dine here every night.
  

If you're interested, pics from my cruise on Oceania

Well, I am a foodie, and from LA so that's a little disappointing. It is a ship, so I understand the limitations. The food is still exponentially better than that of lager ships like Celebrity, or even similar sized ships like Regent.

I did do a food shopping excursion with a chef from Seabourn in Gdansk Poland and he indicated that they would prepare the items purchased for the lunch buffet and the appetizer area at the top for bar/ lounge during happy hour.

I imagine that food quality and safety is an issue when buying from unfamiliar vendors if foreign ports, and corporate quality control dictates adhesion to set menus.

There was a food writer from Saveur magazine onboard interviewing the chefs, her comments indicated that they did have some culinary control day to day, especially with specials in the Colonnade and Restaurant 2.

Any and all other insights regarding food on the new larger Seabourn ships would be appreciated. I'm trying the Oceania Riviera next month, am curious about that too....

I think we might have been on the same 'shopping with the chef' in Gdansk (I was the one that ended up carrying the Asparagus).

I am not a 'foodie' but I do like to eat well. But if I have steak au poivre and fries (chips) a couple of times a week then that is fine by me.

However, to talk about 'culinary control', you may recall that Chef Raj did a 'one off' Indian dinner in the Colonnade on that cruise that was simply fantastic. And I know my Indian food.

Kevin, we recently spent 20+ days on Solstice. Generally, I found the food in their MDR to be very good. Fine in Blu. A step up in Murano and five steps down in Tuscan.

I seldom dine in SB's MDR. R2 has about six menus that rotate every two days. Colonnade is our favorite, but they might have six or seven menus that rotate daily for lunch and dinner. Maybe five menus that rotate daily at Patio Grill dinner. You cannot bring you own food on board to be prepared. This is a fairly recent ruling. Contamination is the reason given and obviously dictated from elsewhere. I like the guys in the kitchen and know a few well enough to know what to believe, and what not.

Personally, I believe a tug of war since HAL has taken control. It goes back and forth in the food department with SB currently close to capitulation.

Edit to say that they have gone out to buy fish and local produce. What you read on the blackboard at lunch is theme of the day and seldom has anything to do with location of ship. "Mexican something" while off the coast of Norway would be an example. Every once in a while, they buy at the port and do it up right in Colonnade.

Try going to the same restaurant on land for two or three months at a time and you'll find a lot more repetition than on a ship. It's not reasonable to expect different menus for that length of time. I know on land you don't go to the same restaurant every day but a ship has its limitations and one should not take a long cruise thinking they will have a different menu each night for the entire duration. Even is the menus are the same though there are several options each night and on e can shoos different things.

Or choose again an excellent dish you enjoyed .....

Or choose again an excellent dish you enjoyed .....

Or not eat and try to loose some weight for a day or two.

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Kevin, we recently spent 20+ days on Solstice. Generally, I found the food in their MDR to be very good. Fine in Blu. A step up in Murano and five steps down in Tuscan.

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I just finished a month on the Celebrity Silhouette , I luv the ship, but I'm not a big fan of their food.

We were on Celebrity Reflection in the spring, and exited to board the Quest the following day. The contrast in food quality was especially evident given the close proximity of the two cruises. Both were two weeks.

The difference between the Oceanview cafe and the Colonnade is especially stark..

I agree that it is a ship and it's not realistic to expect there to be no repetition, and the influence of HAL may be limiting their options. Big corporations, whether it be NCL which just bought Oceania and Regent, or RCL which owns Celebrity, are always looking for ways to increase profitability by reducing costs...

There's enough options that we can find different food choices between the three main venues...I just hope that restaurant two changes the menu between ships, and hopefully between sailings...