How good is the food on Fred Olsen

[simonpjd]

We are booked on Balmoral in July. This will be our 5th cruise. Two cheapo ones to start (on Van Gogh then Athena) followed by P&Os Artemis and Arcadia. As it happens each ship has been better than the last so far with regard to the food, in fact Arcadia was really rather splendid.

So how will Balmoral compare ?

Whilst we are happy at home to have a fish'n'chip supper we also do 'fine dining' most months at various Michelin starred restaurants. Now we are not expecting it to be that good but where in between will it be.

Many thanks.

[balf]

This is so much a matter of opinion that you are liable to get many varied replies. I would say the food is likely to be not as good as P&O or Cunard.

 

One of the differences is in the service. P&O sticks to silver service, i.e. the meat comes plated and the veg. is served individually, while with FO the meal comes fully plated.

 

David.

[LaComtesse75017]

Try the Avon/Spey Restaurants on Balmoral - they are smaller & a little more intimate than the main dining room.

 

I'm just back from a week on Black Watch, my 2nd Fred. cruise, and found the food to be more consistent than Cunard (I always seem to have one poor meal per cruise there & that's in Queens Grill). Portions are always generous, the menus are varied (if a little unadventurous) & the waiters do a fantastic job. Soups were particularly good & one evening I had the best steak I have ever had on a ship (the ship had just sailed from South America).

 

It's not Michelin star or Cordon Bleu, but for the mainstream ships it's one of the best. If you like curries you should try the theme evening in the buffet restaurant.

 

Bon appetit!

 

Marie-Alice

[simonpjd]

We are first sitting in the Spey. Looks good on the interweb.

On P&O if you didnt fancy the main selections you could always order a steak if you wanted. Is this possible.

Also the wife has a pretty serious seafood allergy - I hope they are very careful as the slightest cross contamination, like stirring the soup with a spoon used for stirring a seafood dish, would have her spending the next few days throwing up and we dont want that.

[zennor]

Have just come home from a great cruise to Norway on the Braemar so can only comment on that ship. Whilst we loved the cruise, we found the food pretty mediocre. We have also eaten in a few michelin star restaurants & in 5* hotels but in general we eat at a few good local places & gastro pubs (all inexpensive) - am afraid to say that the 'fine dining' was not as good as any of these. We soon learnt what to choose - the soups were good as was the Asian Buffet in Palms & the curry station one lunchtime. I missed the first formal dinner (seasick!) but this included the only steak on the cruise. My husband told me that although it was tender & cooked correcly (rare as requested), it had no taste which is down to the quality of the meat. A lot of the food was very bland with meat & fish being overcooked & dry.

 

There were also some very odd menus. On Western Night we chose the Guacamole for starter & 'Texan Prime Beef' for main. The starter was fine (not much to go wrong here) but the main consisted of: jacket potato & sour cream, corn on the cob (so far so good) then instead of refried beans we had what tasted like Heinz BBQ beans along with slices of roast beef, gravy & broccolli! - a sort of Tex Mex meets British roast dinner!

 

The wine was very reasonably priced but after trying 4 different ones which were all horrible, we gave up drinking wine at meals.

 

The breakfast & lunch buffets were not bad at all but the Fine Dining was just not Fine.

 

Re the query on having a steak if you don't like the menu - the alternative option was herbed chicken, grilled fish or pasta but no steak.

 

This was on the Braemar. I'd be interested to hear if the other ships are any different.

 

But regardless of the food, we leant to accept it & enjoyed the cruise despite the food but not because of it.

[Parsman]

I cruise very regularly with FOCL and have always enjoyed the food. But one man's food is ....It's a matter oftaste. I think it is just as good as that on P&O or Holland America. I agree that on "Balmoral" it is an advantage to dine in either the Spey or Avon restaurants rather than the much larger Ballindalloch which can be rather noisy.

[Berkshire Lass]

We have done 3 FO cruises, twice on Balmoral and once on Boudicca. We found that Balmoral was better for dining, could just have been coincidence. Boudicca's restaurants are a little crowded. On Balmoral we have been allocated firstly the Spey and on our second cruise we were allocated Ballindaloch. You can ask to be changed (if there are spaces) but we found both had 'advantages'. You can request smaller meals if required and on the one ocasion when I didn't like my meal (I only eat duck well cooked and it was done in the modern way of a little rare) I was brought a substitute meal which was OK. I cannot understand the comment about the wines because we have always found them to be excellent for the price charged. As said before the soups are wonderful. Enjoy your cruise - and the food and wine.

[simonpjd]

Many thanks for comments. I am sure it will be fine. It is probably more important to get on well with whoever is on your table. Lets hope we have a fun lot with us.

[motorcar48]

We did the transatlantic in April and my comments are similar to Zenor, not overly impressed with the food

Compared to our previous on Boudicca, if I gave Boudicca 8/10 then Braemar would get 6/10.

I and others on our table some nights found the main courses so uninspiring we ordered omelettes, these came with a few chips but no side salad

One night a lady ordered what we would call toad in the hole, it was the size of the dinner plate, but not properly cooked, there was no gravy or veg.

As for the soups I found them very poor and tastless

Not what we had grown to expect from FOCL

 

David :(

 

[Freecall]

If you want the finest cuisine afloat then don’t sail with FOC. It will be fine but you should not expect the quality of a line such as Celebrity or even P&O. Enjoy the supper friendly staff and their endearing but slightly amateur way that they run things instead.

[Hawks11]

I have only been on the Boudicca and thought the food was very good, but it depends on your taste. I am not at all fussed about steak. I thought their fish meals were excellent and as I am a fan of pickled herring which they had in all varieties and sauces every day I was very happy. I thought the wine was better and less than third the price of recent NCL cruises I have been on.

I enjoyed the formal but friendly approach which supplied service without going over the top.

[Popsey Wopsey]

I,ve always found FO food pretty good, you certainly won,t starve,fish dishes and their berried sauces are also very good, I can get better steak at home and wouldn,t just cruise with them to eat steak.

 

The staff are lovely with just the right type of friendliness that is British.