Seabourn Food Reviews

Hello everyone. We are thinking about trying Seabourn for a Mediterranean cruise this spring and we are concerned about all the negative reviews about the food on the Seabourn Sojourn.

We usually sail with Regent and love the dining.

Can anyone share their experience?? Is it as bad as the review make it sound or are they exaggerating?

We only started cruising in July 2012 so we have not been on the Sojourn yet but have been on the Seabourn Odyssey a few times and will be sailing on the Seabourn Quest in April. We have also sailed with Oceania Mariner twice and once with the Azmara Quest. In my opinion, Seabourn definitely had the best food out of the 3. I am surprised there were bad reviews on the food on Seabourn as we never heard anybody complain about the food whilst we were on board. We always thought the food on Seabourn is very good.

Just got off the Quest and the food was great. There were some fresh fruit challenges being at sea and in the Amazon but only because they try serve strawberries and they don't really last 5 days.

We sailed on Regent Mariner on a TA in 2010 and my husband thought the food was the weakest part of the trip. He was just not impressed. I didn't think it was bad. We don't cruise nearly as often as some people, but we're pretty sold on Seabourn and the food has been consistently good and both of us agree that it's much better than our lone Regent trip.

Have been on all the Seabourn ships and the food is consistently good. There is always something that you might personally prefer to be different. Some like Restaurant 2 others don't. Also been on Silversea and Cunard and definitely ahead of them on a consistency basis.

My only criticism is that they tend to play safe so you don't get the really spicy meals that might be more typically Indian, for example. Portion sizes are good ie not too big and you can have more if you want.

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ChicagoJohn,

We only cruise on Seabourn and Regent and were on Sojourn 21 days Jul-Aug. The food was very good as it is on Regent. I do not think you will be disappointed. We are not Restaurant 2 fans but enjoyed all other venues.

Remember, you can always ask for what you want, just like on Regent. Some of our cruises Seabourn we feel is better and sometimes Regent. It is all good. Enjoy!

We have been onboard the Sojourn World Cruise since LA--January 4. In answer to your question--SOME GUESTS ARE DELUSIONAL ABOUT THE FOOD. Absolutely no one on this cruise has lost weight. We are loving it all. Always the same comments about too much salt and overcooked fish but they have improved that. As mentioned by others, remember that you can order anything you wish with prior notice. Nothing can compare to Seabourn, so come on and enjoy!

Two points - there are occasional slipups in the cooking or service, though usually not many, and you should not ask for just anything you want , especially without prior notice. Things for which they have the ingredients on board should be fine, but always give 24 hours notice for 'specials', particularly for dishes which never appear on the regular menus.

I don't think that is unreasonable. Someone recently asked for a lamb hotpot and were not told it was not possible. (It is a northern UK speciality). They were understandably very disappointed. They obviously had not got the right cut of lamb on board, and did not know how to cook it either.

We have always found the food to be of a very good standard. It is not Michel Roux fine dining but considering that it is still mass catering the huge majority of guests do enjoy it. Some guests do feel it is below standard however these are probably foodie people who are really into food. I do understand where they are coming from when they say the menus lack imagination but I do not think any cruise line would be able to provide that standard consistently no matter what the cost is. You will find that there is a good choice, generally well cooked and presented and that your waiter will try to accommodate anything that you ask for, as an example, sauce separate, plain grilled or different vegetables. You can request almost anything with 24 hours notice.

There are 4 different style dining options so most tastes and a variation can be catered for. On our last Sojourn cruise a few months ago we found everything to be the usual Seabourn standard and I am sure you will enjoy your trip.

We have recently returned from Seabourn Spirit where the head chef was John Pugh. The food was excellent, high quality ingredients expertly prepared and served. There were opportunities to request special dishes, eg steak Diane and crepes Suzette which were flambed at the table ( 24 hrs notice required), different sauces, fresh berries, preferred bacon, plus the classics menu to choose from. We enjoy fresh, well prepared and well presented food, and we were very happy with Seabourn dining.

The guests who were not happy are not 'delusional' I am sure. One who posted has many Seabourn cruises under their belt, and I am afraid that it is true that sometimes (not often) the food quality or heat, or the service, or both, are not as good as they should be, or as good as they nearly always were when there were only the three small ships. We have over 200 days on Seabourn ourselves, and only once did we feel that there was more than an occasional forgiveable slipup, on a larger ship a couple of years ago. We had fantastic service from a station manned by Irish girls, but they really struggled at times at dinner to get the dishes to us. One said she would not go near the galley, saying 'it is a war zone'.

I am a huge Seabourn fan myself, and almost always everything is super, but things can go wrong. If they do, one should speak to the Maitre'd if necessary. The powers that be need to know about problems - I assume somebody at Head Office reads these posts?

If you board the ship expecting the food not to be good, it won't be!

We have been onboard the Sojourn World Cruise since LA--January 4. In answer to your question--SOME GUESTS ARE DELUSIONAL ABOUT THE FOOD. Absolutely no one on this cruise has lost weight. We are loving it all. Always the same comments about too much salt and overcooked fish but they have improved that. As mentioned by others, remember that you can order anything you wish with prior notice. Nothing can compare to Seabourn, so come on and enjoy!

Everyones tastes are different. Every plate served at a table can be different. Unless you're eating off the plates of others you have no way to know if what they were served was excellent or inedible.

Overall I found the food that came from chef Jes' kitchen to be superior. Where chef John excelled was special orders.

Our friend who is on Seabourn right now in Bali says that his problem with the food is it makes your clothes shrink and get tight.

We just returned from an 18 day cruise on the Legend (previous three Seabourn cruises on the Legend, Spirit and Quest, respectively). The food simply did not meet our expectations, based on the previous Seabourn cruises. We ate primarily in the Dining Room, although we had one Restaurant 2 Tasting menu (very good) and one Room Service dinner (excellent EXCEPT) all the courses came at once so that by the time we finished the first courses the mains were cold. The quality of ingredients was generally first-rate. Red meats were always cooked as ordered and poultry was generally well-prepared. However, we found the menus unimaginative (over reliance on beef and lamb as the major protein) and fish was invariably way over cooked (we stopped ordering it which necessarily limited the menu variety). Although seasoning was timid (the chef made it clear that he did not want spicy food coming out of his kitchen. Although my wife likes her food saltier than I do, she found dishes frequently over-salted and one main vegetarian dish was truly inedible (she took two bites, I took one) it was so over-salted. The kitchen also had a total inability to cook an egg over easy. It was something like 0 for 5 in this endeavor. I really believe that this was a ship specific problem, which I hope Seabourn will look into.

PS I f all you ate were breads, pastries and deserts you would have been in heaven. They were uniformly outstanding.

Did you specifically ask for your room service dinner to be served course by course? You have to request that or it will al be delivered at the same time.

We did not. Our bad.

Hello everyone. We are thinking about trying Seabourn for a Mediterranean cruise this spring and we are concerned about all the negative reviews about the food on the Seabourn Sojourn.

We usually sail with Regent and love the dining.

Can anyone share their experience?? Is it as bad as the review make it sound or are they exaggerating?

We are home from 83 days on the Sojourn (LA to Singapore) The food was wonderful. Chef Graeme was fabulous! I have celiac and am gluten free and everything was done to make my food delicious. There was even a point when our favorite Colonnade waitress (Juanita) told me that the french fries are coated in parmesan bread crumbs--that is why they are so good. I was watching my weight and hadn't tried them yet.

Restaurant 2 was not a favorite but all the other venues could not be faulted. Many times the chef bought local produce and fish and prepared according to his own likes. Very successful!

Went shopping with him twice and was so impressed with his knowledge of food!:D

As the old saying goes, you are what you eat. Too much salt in your food will cause you to retain water and you will swell and you think you have gained weight but not really. Actually cruising Crystal I have either maintained my weight or lost a few pounds.

When I first started crusing I thought it was the salt air that made me bloated and could not put my ring on. I later found out that so much of the food is loaded with sodium. From then on I requested low sodium or no salt. I love hot peppers and hot sauce. You can regulate your dietary needs and you will not starve.

On Crystal like Seabourn they have yummy salt sticks and I gave them up. Protien and fish is the way I went and love Sushi. Love pasta with EVO and garlic and most lines are carrying the whole wheat pasta.

All you need to do is advise the HW and tell him/her of your dietary needs. Your TA can advise Seabourn as well.

We have not sailed on Seabourn, but we are considering this line as an option just to change things up. We have 21 cruises on Crystal and love them, but we need to think outside of the box.

Many happy healthy cruises to all of you.

Miles

I've had problems with eggs over easy on more than one Seabourn ship. I don't know what the problem is, but every order comes with the yolks totally solid. I've quit ordering them.

The key word is, you want them runny. It really is not too difficult to prepare them your way. This is basic cooking for us.

Let me into the galley and I will prepare them perfectly for you. It takes no time at all. I hate rubber eggs either poached,scrambled or fried. I would just send it back.

We've just completed 26 days on Sojourn (HK to Mumbai) and, consistent with the 150 odd days we have previously sailed with Seabourn, the food was, overall, pretty good ie up to expectations.

Catering on this scale is difficult in terms of maintaining consistency and delivering creative menus. They do a pretty good job. Having said that, my one gripe is that the offerings are generally a lot "blander" than I would prefer. This is, I think, a function of trying to cater to many palates. Bear in mind that generally over 60% of the passengers are from the US, this might give a clue to what is driving the menu choices.

When given a chance, eg Indian night, the effort was great. Anticipating a bland offering of one selection I asked for chili flakes and the chef suggested I try it first. Good suggestion as they had really upped the horsepower. And the presentation and variety of what was offered was also first class.

One thing we did notice on this cruise was that the quality of the lamb seemed to be less than previously and it was suggested that this is because they are no longer using NZ lamb.

I continue to think a lot about our mediocre food experience on the World Cruise. And I want to evaluate the concern about how hard it is to cater to or serve a large group of diners. But think about it and compare to a good restaurant in a major city. There were about 420 passengers on the Sojourn with 4 dining choices each night, plus room service. So the Restaurant (MDR) served about 200 diners on an average night. Not a huge number when compared to good restaurants in big cities. Indeed my neighborhood bistro here in Oakland serves about 120 on an average night. So why is the quality so uneven? Not because of huge numbers...Just some thoughts.

I think bland or under seasoned, under sauced might be the answer.

The pax population was not just US but Brits and Australians as well as others.

I don't imagine that anyone expected to love every item any more than you do in a land restaurant.....but I do hope that SB gives some thoughts to these comments which are coming from alum who like To travel SB.

Just returned from the Seabourn Quest yesterday. Whilst the European cuisines (especially French) and the steaks generally are still very good and only on the rare occassions it is not, i.e. the rice in the Paella was undercooked, the Asian cusines are not. We had a Thai evening in the Colonnade, it was a bad imitation and we had to send the food back. The Chinese dishes they prepared for lunch were also as bad. I wonder whether this is because these were American style/recipies for Chinese/Thai food, therefore they tasted nothing like the ones you get in the UK? They were also nothing like the authentic item either.

We also find the fish (despite mostly are still good) but it is not as excellent as it used to be.

We generally feel the food standard has slipped a bit.

Just returned from the Seabourn Quest yesterday. Whilst the European cuisines (especially French) and the steaks generally are still very good and only on the rare occassions it is not, i.e. the rice in the Paella was undercooked, the Asian cusines are not. We had a Thai evening in the Colonnade, it was a bad imitation and we had to send the food back. The Chinese dishes they prepared for lunch were also as bad. I wonder whether this is because these were American style/recipies for Chinese/Thai food, therefore they tasted nothing like the ones you get in the UK? They were also nothing like the authentic item either.

 

We also find the fish (despite mostly are still good) but it is not as excellent as it used to be.

 

We generally feel the food standard has slipped a bit.

In my opinion...

The ethnic recipes aren't American. I think the problem is a few fold. One is you have a large number of passengers who love bland. The other is IIRC the corporate chefs are Indian trained in Euro cuisine. So while European recipes might come out right (and Indian Spice Market is still one of the most popular in R2), American, Thai, Chinese, or say Mexican come out and have people looking like:eek: or :confused:.

Look at the club sandwich - its the European version. The Monte Christo - well umm Im not sure who's version that is. What was served was a cheese-less mess of bread that looked like there was a bit of SOS meat and diced onion tossed on along with Thousand Island dressing. The Mexican food is so horrific I have to wonder if the corporate chefs have ever set foot in a Mexican restaurant. It makes Taco Bell come across as tasty and Mexican.

It's a pity Seabourn doesn't bring in chefs that are specialists in certain cuisines to teach/train their in house chefs and develop the dishes with them. Perhaps in the future Seabourn could just hire more rounded chefs - or chefs who go the extra mile to learn how to properly prepare new dishes.