New menus in Britannia Queen Victoria

I'll post the dinner menus for this trip here
First day

Day 2 Gala Night

Nice to see there is actually a choice of entrees for vegetarians. And lots of veggie starters.

Including the choice of petit fours in the menu now rather than it being a nice surprise.

Appears that there are now more dessert choices too

Interesting to see far fewer meat dishes available at dinner. Must say I'm unimpressed with the mains offerings on both nights. Appetisers and desserts looking good though.

Sorry but IMO a very poor menu choice.

Day 3

Is it just me or does anyone else read those menus as encouraging you to order EITHER a starter OR soup OR a salad?

It's not that long since those were listed as separate courses, as was the fish.

Regards, Colin.

Just got back from the QM2 Eastbound TA today - similar new menu.

Whilst I tended not to order separate soup / salad courses, I'm fairly sure the waiters would probably oblige.

Overall I was pretty happy with the menu. A bit more choice and the meals I had were good. Annoyingly there were no Escargot nor Frogs Legs on the menu though for an appetiser.

Sorry but IMO a very poor menu choice.

Goodness, perhaps it is not for me to comment, as we nearly always go in the Grills, but the choices all look very enticing to me, whether meat, fish, or veggie, always assuming they deliver what is promised.

Is it just me or does anyone else read those menus as encouraging you to order EITHER a starter OR soup OR a salad?

 

It's not that long since those were listed as separate courses, as was the fish.

 

Regards, Colin.

I've got menus (admittedly for the Grills)'going back to 1997, and never recall feeling encouraged or, indeed, having the capacity, to order more than one of the choices in the categories you mention, however they may have been printed. And as for ordering both fish and meat, I would want to be able to get back to my cabin.

I am very impressed, the variety of offerings, in terms of primary protein, region, and preparation is impressive. Counting down the days until our next cruise and this really whets the appetite (literally and figuratively)!

Hope you are having a great cruise.

Is it just me or does anyone else read those menus as encouraging you to order EITHER a starter OR soup OR a salad?

 

It's not that long since those were listed as separate courses, as was the fish.

 

Regards, Colin.

Looks a lot like it. Particularly if you are the only one to order a starter and a salad on an entire shared table.

There goes my usual four course dinner...

I am very impressed, the variety of offerings, in terms of primary protein, region, and preparation is impressive. Counting down the days until our next cruise and this really whets the appetite (literally and figuratively)!

 

 

Hope you are having a great cruise.

We are, thank you.

Thank you for posting. It’s still going to be very challenging to know what to choose! So many dishes I’d like to experience :-)

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Day 4

I experienced the new menus in July/August and found one positive aspect and a couple of negative ones.

Positive: The choice is slightly better than it was recently in one way: Interesting, higher "value" items are now on the menu on more nights rather than all together on the same nights.

Negative:

The menus are now generic, repeated and reused. Do you see the signature on the lower right corner? "Gala 1", "Menu 4" and so on.

Cunard used to have individual menus each day indicating the actual date and location. "En route to ..." "In the port of ..."

In years past menus did include local dishes, too, and dishes just on because of specific availabiltiy.

Probably due to the forced upon vegetarian and vegan dishes the number of meat and fish choices is very small. You like the one "real" meat offered or bad luck on many nights.

The choice of appetisers is simpler now.

Cunard used to offer souffles for dessert very often, this cruise it was only once of maybe twice during two weeks.

Sadly missed, but already for several years, is the sorbet before the main courses.

Quality wise, it was overall acceptable but not more and certainly not what I am used to on Cunard.

Previously I praised Cunard for example for the quality of its consommes and fish dishes. This time the consommes tasted like preprepared industry products rather than self made. Fish was almost always overcooked. The lobster I had twice was the worst, most dry and ugly tasting I ever had.

Some of the meat dishes were great, though, eg. the "beef filet", unfortunately others were not eg. the "beef tenderloin".

....

As pointed out by some posters before, the menu now looks like you are supposed to have a basic three course dinner only.

Fortunately it still was no problem to order multiple appetisers and soup and salad and fish and meat if one wished.

Unfortunately not all waiters are used to serve in a formal way and want eg to serve two courses at the same time. You have to tell them one after the other. (Or, worse, maybe they are trained by Cunard nowadays to do it in a more "time saving", less effort way?)

I experienced the new menus in July/August and found one positive aspect and a couple of negative ones.

 

Positive: The choice is slightly better than it was recently in one way: Interesting, higher "value" items are now on the menu on more nights rather than all together on the same nights.

 

Negative:

 

The menus are now generic, repeated and reused. Do you see the signature on the lower right corner? "Gala 1", "Menu 4" and so on.

Cunard used to have individual menus each day indicating the actual date and location. "En route to ..." "In the port of ..."

In years past menus did include local dishes, too, and dishes just on because of specific availabiltiy.

 

Probably due to the forced upon vegetarian and vegan dishes the number of meat and fish choices is very small. You like the one "real" meat offered or bad luck on many nights.

 

The choice of appetisers is simpler now.

 

Cunard used to offer souffles for dessert very often, this cruise it was only once of maybe twice during two weeks.

 

Sadly missed, but already for several years, is the sorbet before the main courses.

 

Quality wise, it was overall acceptable but not more and certainly not what I am used to on Cunard.

Previously I praised Cunard for example for the quality of its consommes and fish dishes. This time the consommes tasted like preprepared industry products rather than self made. Fish was almost always overcooked. The lobster I had twice was the worst, most dry and ugly tasting I ever had.

Some of the meat dishes were great, though, eg. the "beef filet", unfortunately others were not eg. the "beef tenderloin".

 

....

 

As pointed out by some posters before, the menu now looks like you are supposed to have a basic three course dinner only.

Fortunately it still was no problem to order multiple appetisers and soup and salad and fish and meat if one wished.

Unfortunately not all waiters are used to serve in a formal way and want eg to serve two courses at the same time. You have to tell them one after the other. (Or, worse, maybe they are trained by Cunard nowadays to do it in a more "time saving", less effort way?)

I think the menus have been generic and repeated for a very long time. I have just looked at our QG menus for Med. cruises on QE2 in 2004 and 2007. They are other much more elegantly presented than now, and headed up with the day's date. Similarly salad, soup, and appetisers are under different headings, though it never occurred to me to have more than one, nor felt, particularly, that I was being invited to do so. However, the actual menu content was almost identical between the two, with the major exception that caviar was no longer a menu item, but served as part of a thing with smoked salmon, no doubt to the great relief of the sturgeon. So, I don't think there is a recent change.

These menus are enticing to me. I remember enjoying our dinners on the World Cruise, but these menus look even better. Oh well, only a few more months to go. I better begin my diet now.

Day 5, take 2

Your attachments are working now. Thanks for fixing them in your previous post.

Your attachments are working now. Thanks for fixing them in your previous post.

So, I don't think there is a recent change.

This set me thinking, so I dug through some of our old menus.

The most recent 'dated' menus I have are from 2013. Much further back than I would have thought.

The last ones with a separate fish course were from 1995, also a surprise (is this a sign of advancing years? And where's the emoji of a stooped old man with a long white beard and a walking stick when you need one?). Nine courses plus coffee. No wonder things had to change, it was tabloid sized 11"x17".

I remember sitting down at the table on one of our earlier cruises and counting fourteen pieces of cutlery in front of each of us.

Here's another thought. When did the Dining Room become a Restaurant?

Regards, Colin.

This set me thinking, so I dug through some of our old menus.

 

The most recent 'dated' menus I have are from 2013. Much further back than I would have thought.

 

The last ones with a separate fish course were from 1995, also a surprise (is this a sign of advancing years? And where's the emoji of a stooped old man with a long white beard and a walking stick when you need one?). Nine courses plus coffee. No wonder things had to change, it was tabloid sized 11"x17".

 

I remember sitting down at the table on one of our earlier cruises and counting fourteen pieces of cutlery in front of each of us.

 

Here's another thought. When did the Dining Room become a Restaurant?

 

Regards, Colin.

In 1997, on our first TA, in the QG, we had, as you say, a tabloid-sized thing, which runs to about eight pages, and seems to have 14 or 15 sections, all in French, with hot and cold hors d'oeuvres listed separately, etc. This ran through the entire voyage, with a couple of rather boring extra dishes each day. It had gone by 1999, and when I asked the restaurant manager what had happened, he tried to deny there had ever been such a thing, and then said it hadn't really worked. Many of the dishes, like the duck, and rack of lamb, and steaks, survive.

But that really was a long time ago. And, partly because it included Concorde, was one of the most expensive voyages we've ever had.

Host Hattie,

I would like to ask, are you able to obtain a wine list whilst on you current voyage. I would most appreciate it if you could post.

Many thanks