Rolling DINING review from aboard the Breakaway

I'm on the Breakaway. Splurged for unlimited Internet, so, lucky for you, I'm going to write about what I ate.

Embarkation Day:

Lunch - Ate at SavorTaste. I've noticed a clear increase in MDR lunch quality on NCL over the last year or so. Not the fastest service, but after the hustle and bustle of the jammed cruise terminal, who is in a rush? I got the spinach caesar salad with salmon, the crab stuffed potato skins (skin, but that's ok), and the shrimp arrabiata.

Caeser was delicious, with parmaseano regiano used liberally. Salmon was nicely seasoned and cooked. In the past MDR lunch salmon came out like cat food, but this was lovely. Same for the crab stuffed potato skins (skin) - one of the best items on the NCL menu. Tasty lump crab meat. Far better than the Cagney's crap cake (no, not a typo) I'll write about in a second.

Dinner - Cagney's. The service was fantastic and the lamb chops were perfectly cooked and seasoned, but everything else was profoundly disappointing. The "lump crab cake" was nothing of the sort. It was a mealy puck of possibly canned crab meat that just disintegrated when you stuck a fork in it. I've had better crab cakes in strip club buffets.

The chops also came with a "lamb jus" that was disgustingly salty, and I love salty food! Beef jerky, salt and vinegar potato chips, salami, etc. I like salt. This was not edible. I took just a tiny taste and almost gagged. Thank god it came on the side. Would have absolutely ruined the meat if not.

The lobster bisque tasted nothing of lobster. If you were blindfolded it would just taste like a hot, viscous liquid that somehow managed to be bland and too rich at the same time. I assume the flecks of unidentifiable matter at the bottom of the bowl were the promised "morsels" of lobster, but I'll have to take their word for it.

The side of asparagus was cold, and the "truffle" mash potatoes, while possibly a notch above Hungryman quality, tasted no different than what you get at the buffet.

Finally, minor programming note, they were playing the same cheesy pop music you hear coming out of the speakers on the sun deck. Not a make or break thing, but didn't add to the "steakhouse ambiance" I think most diners are expecting.

All in all, not impressed at all by Cagney's. Don't plan to go back.

Day 2:

Skipped breakfast.

Lunch - Moderno Buffet. Asian theme. Everything pretty good. Same food you get at the Asian station in the Garden Cafe, but in a much more civilized, less crowded setting.

Dinner - SavorTaste. Had the fried brie, always tasty. So bad for you, but tasty. Got the broiled salmon, which was fine. Nicely cooked piece of fish. However the linguini with clams was just gross. A tangle of pasta sitting in a tasteless, watery broth ringed by a few small clams

hurray for unlimited wifi!! you are already cracking me up with your review :D

bon appetite!

I assume with this thread we will finally get a (semi-) definitive answer about apps and sides at Ocean Blue, right?

Day 3

Skipped breakfast again

Lunch: Garden Cafe. Food was fine, but I can't think of a clearer validation of the Hobbesian view on humanity's nature than the Garden Cafe. I forget what I ate besides some meatballs (which are usually quite good in the GC), but it did the trick.

Dinner: SavorTaste. Got two entrees, the roast beef and the tilapia. Roast beef was cooked nicely, but seemed totally unseasoned. I actually added a little bit of salt, which is saying something since most of the MDR food has been overwhelmingly salty. The potatoes were crispy and "fresh out of the fryer" hot, which was a nice surprise. These hadn't been sitting under a heat lamp. The tilapia was nicely cooked and seasoned, but the leek/cream sauce it came with was just overpoweringly salty.

Late night drunk meal: Hit O'Sheehan's at 2am after drinking too much at Howl at the Moon (which is excellent this cruise). Place was packed. Had to take a buzzer and wait. Got bbq wings and chicken fajitas. Seemed like the best meal of the cruise so far. Don't know if that's objectively true, but it seemed that way at the time. Also noticed they had a little buffet set up inside with mostly cakes and breads and some sandwiches, I assume mostly leftovers from the late night snacks in the GC.

Day 4

Breakfast: Uptown Bar and Grill (I refuse to to acknowledge the Margaritaville change). Finally ate breakfast. The selection at Uptown is slightly more limited than in the GC, but you get to retain your dignity as a civilized human being so it seemed like a fair trade off. Standard fare, with the exception that THE HASH BROWNS HAVE CHANGED.

This may deserve a separate thread, but I'm sure you all are familiar with the crispy poker-chip sized hash browns that are usually standard on NCL cruises. They're a staple. Well, they're gone! The new hash browns are much larger and thicker, and seem more like the ones you get at McDonalds. More of a light golden instead of that satisfying crispy crunchy dark brown.

This is not acceptable. Frank Del Rio, so help me god, if you switched to new hash brown supplier to save an additional 30 dollars per cruise or something, I will hunt you down. This alone is literally almost enough of a reason for me to switch to Royal Caribbean. No I'm not kidding.

Lunch: Garden Cafe, but a delightfully empty one. Most people were on Great Stirrup Cay, making the GC almost feel...pleasant? Had some delicious taco salad and quesadillas.

Dinner: Ocean Blue. Used the SDP, and yes I was allowed to order multiple appetizers. Then again, I didn't mention I was using the SDP until the waiter asked for the card, so maybe if you mention it up front they try to warn you off. That said, nobody said a word when I ordered two appetizers. Got the king crab legs and stone crab claws. Not terrible, but honestly if I go back I'd not get either again. The king crab legs didn't taste particularly fresh, and the stone crab claws were rather bland. I mean, both were delicious when doused in drawn butter, but what isn't?

Got the seafood medley (shrimp, snapper, lobster tail) and it was delicious. Everything was perfectly cooked, especially the lobster tail which was not overcooked at all. More drawn butter. Snapper was piping hot and fresh out of the skillet.

Got sides of asparagus and charred broccoli, and surprisingly, the star of the night ended up being the charred broccoli. Delicious. If I go back I could enjoy a double portion of that as an appetizer or an entre. More people need to be charring their broccoli, it takes on a deliciously deep, nutty slightly bitter-in-the-best way flavor, and the chili oil complimented it perfectly. Asparagus was fine. Came with a nice hollandaise sauce that actually went well with some of the seafood.

Coconut sorbet for dessert. Lovely.

Service was top notch. Left a nice tip. Dining out on the Waterfront was just perfect. Completely worth the $15 upcharge.

Day 5

Skipped breakfast again

Lunch: Nothing in the GC looked very appealing aside from the plumb bread pudding, so figured I'd try O'Sheehan's for lunch around 2:30. Packed. Needed to take a buzzer and wait.

Thai chili wings were very good. Nicely fried. You know fried chicken wings are done right when the fat has been rendered/crisped out to the point it tastes slightly of bacon. They've clearly got a nice, hot fryer in the O'sheehan's kitchen.

Cheeseburger was pretty meh. Asked for it medium and not well done, and it came out like a hockey puck, totally unseasoned. Also make sure you order extra cheese. There was one small square of American cheese that had been mostly absorbed into the bun. Ate about half of it.

Loving your review!!! I am sailing in a few weeks and your review is very helpful. You mentioned Moderno buffet for lunch ......is that something new? I never knew they offered lunch, if you could just let me know the details of whne they serve lunch i would appreciate it.

Loving your review!!! I am sailing in a few weeks and your review is very helpful. You mentioned Moderno buffet for lunch ......is that something new? I never knew they offered lunch, if you could just let me know the details of whne they serve lunch i would appreciate it.

They do internationally themed buffet lunches open to all passengers on sea days. I think tomorrow is Mexican and Friday is German.

I love McD hashbrowns....maybe it's a reason to sail NCL more :P

Thanks for sharing.

Day 5 continued....

Dinner: Planned to just hit up SavorTaste, but made the mistake of deciding to pass through the Garden Cafe "just to check it out." Of course I ended up eating. It was Caribbean night, and they had oxtail cooked in guiness. AWESOME. Fall off the bone delicious, with lots of nice carrots and onions and celery. Reminded me of my grandmother's pot roast. They ran out of it by around 8:30 or so.

Treated that as a "first course" and hit up SavorTaste later. Prosciutto and melon appetizer (pretty standard, hard to mess that one up) and the grilled salmon. Again, way, way too salty (and I like salty food) but the fish was perfectly cooked. Nice medium rare/medium.

Food is very subjective topic. I too love the crispy poker chip sized hash browns for breakfast but for me food can never be too salty for me. I’m very easy to please so I always enjoy the food served on cruise ships. My only complaint is it’s almost impossible to get a steak cooked medium-rare.

Day 6 continued....

Dinner: Le Bistro. First time there. Used by last SDP meal. No reservation, so sat outside on the "patio." Thankfully the smoke from the casino wasn't noticeable at the time.

Started off with the mushroom soup. This is the same soup I see people raving about on these boards over and over? With the exception of being dramatically poured into a bowl with a few small mushrooms on the bottom, it was the identical mushroom soup they serve in the Garden Cafe and the MDR. It was tasty, but given how much I've seen people kvell about it on here, I was expecting something spectacular, not buffet fare.

Also got the crab salad. Again, tasty, but I'm pretty sure it was the same crab salad served in a potato skin on the MDR lunch buffet, just wrapped up in a piece of lettuce. As I've mentioned above, I happen to like that MDR appetizer very much, so I happily gobbled this up, but again a little disappointing to see MDR food repurposed in what is supposed to be an "upscale specialty restaurant."

Had the dover sole for the main course. Not a huge portion, but that's not what bistros are about. Fish was delicious, then again it was swimming in butter, and that would make a maxi pad taste good. That said, the fish was very nicely seasoned and perfectly cooked. Moist, flaky. The croutons added some nice texture, and while I'm not much of a capers guy, they were easily pushed to the side.

Creme brule for dessert. Could only handle a few spoonfuls, just so sweet. That's the way it's supposed to be, and I enjoyed the spoonfuls I had, just too rich for me to finish the whole thing.