New menus.....sorry to say, we were dissapointed.

[kevinyork]

Ok, this post reflects a party of 4 on Adventure Of The Seas on our Transatlantic a couple of weeks back. Weve only done RCI once before 4 years back on Indy and loved the food. However, not this time round. Here's why:

 

We ate on Mytime dining. Our party has a cross section of eaters; a vegetarian that eats fish, a fish lover, a meat fanatic and me who eats anything.

 

First off we didnt 'get' the names for each nights menu, e.g. Basil, Oregano etc. the waiters did their best to enthuse when explaning the themes but really the theme consisted of a menu where only one dish contained the title of the theme. A bit gimmicky we thought.

 

The always available options we found were lacking. Who eats escargot so routinely that it needs to be an always available option? It smacked of showing off by RCI so people could say to their friends ' ooo you could have snails every night' when in fact no one did, or very few did. The strip steak that was always available dissapointed the two of us who tried it. It had the texture of roast beef, not steak and didnt really have much flavour. They also got the cooking wrong on two occassions, medium rare turning up well done one night and medium turning up raw. Also, we noted sliders were always available on the German language menu but not on the english language one....why not?

 

Lots of the dishes sounded great and were well presented but many lacked flavour or correct seasoning. I had the coq au vin and it was truly awful. The most grissly tiny pieces of chicken which I sent back straight away. We all tried at least one soup but all lacked flavour and seasoning so we skipped them from then on. Entrees consisting of fish fillets were small and overcooked each time. Our fish eating veggie mentioned one night that he thought salmon might be on the menu more and was offered salmon each evening as long as he ordered the night before. Great we thought and for two nights a chunky well cooked fillet appeared. However the third night brought an undercooked fillet that was raw and cold in the centre. We sent it back and ten minutes later the same piece cane back. It had been microwaved and smelled awful. It was wet and fishy and all four of us could smell it. The head waiter attended, took a sniff and screwed his face up too. We didnt order salmon again. The veggie options also sounded good but were very small portions. A chicken sweet and sour had two tiny pieces of faux chicken in it.

 

A bacon wrapped pork fillet again looked great but was totally dry. Any lamb or slow cooked beef dish was excellent. One night they had rack of lamb that was lovely however shortly after we left no one else could have it as they had not defrosted enough meat....weve never come across a menu option not being available on any cruise.

 

I have to mention the accompliments. Almost every entree had mashed potato with it. No roast potatoes, boiled potatoes, just mash. The standard veg was carrot and broccolli and these were served raw. Half way through the cruise a feedback form was in the cabin and we mentioned the raw veg. After that things improved and the veg was well cooked apart from soggy asparagus one night and a potato dauphinois that was undercooked and hard.

 

We didnt often have desserts but tried a few. The always available creme brulee had been left to stand too long before the topping was applied so had a thick skin on it-yuk. A chocolate cake came in a terrine and had a layer of rock hard chocolate over wet flavourless mouse......why was it called a cake? Another chocolate torte came served straight out of a mousse tin and again was tasteless and mushy.

 

Now all this sounds very critical. Our party of four are easy going eaters. Weve cruised seven or so times and dont eat out at luxury restaurants but it did feel like the basics were missing. Cook things properly and season them. Also dont misdescribe things...if its called a cake then serve a cake, not a sloppy mousse.

 

We were dissapointed with the food. Our waiters made our meals enjoyable, not the food. We did the lunchtime brasserie in the MDR twice and loved the salads but again when I ordered a pasta dish with chilli and ham, it arrived with no chilli or ham. They remade it and I counted one piece of ham, but still no chilli. Being English we dont like complaining so left.

 

Now I know many of you love the new menus. I had looked at some of the food porn pics on here for months before sailing and we were all really looking forward to trying the dishes but ultimately felt let down. Two of us went to windjammer on evening for our meal and it was our best meal of the cruise (apart from a night in Portofino).

 

Given the menus are fleet wide this has really made the choice for our next cruise line/ship difficult and we may head over to celebrity and give them a go. Could it have been that Adventure chefs hadnt got it right and the same menus served on other ships in the fleet turn out better? Some other reviews of our cruise have also mentioned poor food so maybe so.

[psilverman]

Ok, this post reflects a party of 4 on Adventure Of The Seas on our Transatlantic a couple of weeks back. Weve only done RCI once before 4 years back on Indy and loved the food. However, not this time round. Here's why:

 

We ate on Mytime dining. Our party has a cross section of eaters; a vegetarian that eats fish, a fish lover, a meat fanatic and me who eats anything.

 

First off we didnt 'get' the names for each nights menu, e.g. Basil, Oregano etc. the waiters did their best to enthuse when explaning the themes but really the theme consisted of a menu where only one dish contained the title of the theme. A bit gimmicky we thought.

 

The always available options we found were lacking. Who eats escargot so routinely that it needs to be an always available option? It smacked of showing off by RCI so people could say to their friends ' ooo you could have snails every night' when in fact no one did, or very few did. The strip steak that was always available dissapointed the two of us who tried it. It had the texture of roast beef, not steak and didnt really have much flavour. They also got the cooking wrong on two occassions, medium rare turning up well done one night and medium turning up raw. Also, we noted sliders were always available on the German language menu but not on the english language one....why not?

 

Lots of the dishes sounded great and were well presented but many lacked flavour or correct seasoning. I had the coq au vin and it was truly awful. The most grissly tiny pieces of chicken which I sent back straight away. We all tried at least one soup but all lacked flavour and seasoning so we skipped them from then on. Entrees consisting of fish fillets were small and overcooked each time. Our fish eating veggie mentioned one night that he thought salmon might be on the menu more and was offered salmon each evening as long as he ordered the night before. Great we thought and for two nights a chunky well cooked fillet appeared. However the third night brought an undercooked fillet that was raw and cold in the centre. We sent it back and ten minutes later the same piece cane back. It had been microwaved and smelled awful. It was wet and fishy and all four of us could smell it. The head waiter attended, took a sniff and screwed his face up too. We didnt order salmon again. The veggie options also sounded good but were very small portions. A chicken sweet and sour had two tiny pieces of faux chicken in it.

 

A bacon wrapped pork fillet again looked great but was totally dry. Any lamb or slow cooked beef dish was excellent. One night they had rack of lamb that was lovely however shortly after we left no one else could have it as they had not defrosted enough meat....weve never come across a menu option not being available on any cruise.

 

I have to mention the accompliments. Almost every entree had mashed potato with it. No roast potatoes, boiled potatoes, just mash. The standard veg was carrot and broccolli and these were served raw. Half way through the cruise a feedback form was in the cabin and we mentioned the raw veg. After that things improved and the veg was well cooked apart from soggy asparagus one night and a potato dauphinois that was undercooked and hard.

 

We didnt often have desserts but tried a few. The always available creme brulee had been left to stand too long before the topping was applied so had a thick skin on it-yuk. A chocolate cake came in a terrine and had a layer of rock hard chocolate over wet flavourless mouse......why was it called a cake? Another chocolate torte came served straight out of a mousse tin and again was tasteless and mushy.

 

Now all this sounds very critical. Our party of four are easy going eaters. Weve cruised seven or so times and dont eat out at luxury restaurants but it did feel like the basics were missing. Cook things properly and season them. Also dont misdescribe things...if its called a cake then serve a cake, not a sloppy mousse.

 

We were dissapointed with the food. Our waiters made our meals enjoyable, not the food. We did the lunchtime brasserie in the MDR twice and loved the salads but again when I ordered a pasta dish with chilli and ham, it arrived with no chilli or ham. They remade it and I counted one piece of ham, but still no chilli. Being English we dont like complaining so left.

 

Now I know many of you love the new menus. I had looked at some of the food porn pics on here for months before sailing and we were all really looking forward to trying the dishes but ultimately felt let down. Two of us went to windjammer on evening for our meal and it was our best meal of the cruise (apart from a night in Portofino).

 

Given the menus are fleet wide this has really made the choice for our next cruise line/ship difficult and we may head over to celebrity and give them a go. Could it have been that Adventure chefs hadnt got it right and the same menus served on other ships in the fleet turn out better? Some other reviews of our cruise have also mentioned poor food so maybe so.

I agree with your comments. I missed the Indian vegetarian dishes, even.

 

However, when we asked, they would make us anything we wanted- but you had to ask.

 

The daily names made no sense, and our Chinese waitress didn't really understand what the words were or how to pronounce, but was trained to introduce each one enthusiastically.

[tomjohnsonjr]

The Liberty Transatlantic the food was BAD. I hope something is done about this.

The Shows how ever we're great

[Paulxyz2004]

It´s hard to say if you´d be happier on another ship as Food is such a subjective Topic.

 

The Food does vary from Chef to Chef even though it´s the same menu.

 

I had a lot of items on the old menus I liked and though I miss a few of those I think the new menus are an improvement.

 

As for escargot, I think you are quite wrong about how many People like those. I´m not one of them but I know quite a number of People who will eat them every night if available.

[Missus Makkem]

Sorry you had a bad time with your food, we too were on this trip and I felt the food was very good to excellent, mind the fab Indian lunch in Portofino was the best and only $10 including an excellent demonstration from 2 chefs.

We had an excellent Cruise critic lunch too were you not at that?

Lovely Fillet steak, so there you have it, I liked you didn't, that's life.

[target-panic]

We were just on Oasis in March. We're pretty easy going, and don't like to complain, but I have to agree. The food was quite bland, and very inconsistent. I'm loyal to the brand, but I hope things in the MDR improve with time & customer feedback.

[kevinyork]

It´s hard to say if you´d be happier on another ship as Food is such a subjective Topic.

 

The Food does vary from Chef to Chef even though it´s the same menu.

 

I had a lot of items on the old menus I liked and though I miss a few of those I think the new menus are an improvement.

 

As for escargot, I think you are quite wrong about how many People like those. I´m not one of them but I know quite a number of People who will eat them every night if available.

 

Paul, thanks for that. I can only speak from my party's experience and those we spoke to. Obviously others have different tastes and preferences.

 

Yes food is subjective but there is no excuse for meat not arriving cooked as ordered or veg being raw, no one likes raw veg apart from rabbits.

[Clarea]

My wife misses the Indian choices that were available almost every night on the old menu.

[kevinyork]

My wife misses the Indian choices that were available almost every night on the old menu.

 

Having sailed on P&O several times, they have great Indian options as 95% of the staff are Indian. Great for vegetarians.

[Clarea]

Having sailed on P&O several times, they have great Indian options as 95% of the staff are Indian. Great for vegetarians.

My wife liked the Indian dishes for the spicy taste. In fact, our favorite headwaiter on Monarch would have a special chicken curry (not on the menu) made up for her one night. It's surprising to me that there's no Indian entree at all on the new menus - at least the ones we have had so far.

[negc]

Seems to me that your biggest complaint lies in the execution of the items on the menu rather than the menu and that can easily be attributed to the abilities and talents of those who are preparing the meals and those supervising them. As far as certain items being "always available", there is no implication that someone wants to, or is going to, order them every night but simply indicates that certain items which are among the most requested items can be ordered on ANY evening and not just one. As to just how popular some such items may be -just see all of the complaints when escargot are replaced by small scallops because of the reported shortage of snails. Tastes vary and I suspect that as many miss the Indian foods that were previously the mainstay of the vegetarian menu, there are many who used to complain that the only vegetarian items were Indian foods which were not what they were looking for. Before blaming the new menu, I'd recommend giving a different group of cooks the opportunity to demonstrate their ability to serve you more satisfactory meals. No menu, new or old, is going to please everyone and how much you like your meal depends much more on the talents of those men and women preparing it than on the talents of those responsible for the written descriptions of the food.

[Cindy]

Our experience with the new menus last month on the Mariner was extremely positive. My husband and I enjoyed everything we ordered, and we think the food has improved tremendously in the last few years.

I do agree with everyone who has said that preparation and execution of the recipes has a great deal to do with the food quality. On both our recent Mariner cruises (2012 & 2013) the food was very good -- the chef was also the same for both cruises.

[ilionite65]

Ok, this post reflects a party of 4 on Adventure Of The Seas on our Transatlantic a couple of weeks back. Weve only done RCI once before 4 years back on Indy and loved the food. However, not this time round. Here's why:

 

We ate on Mytime dining. Our party has a cross section of eaters; a vegetarian that eats fish, a fish lover, a meat fanatic and me who eats anything.

 

First off we didnt 'get' the names for each nights menu, e.g. Basil, Oregano etc. the waiters did their best to enthuse when explaning the themes but really the theme consisted of a menu where only one dish contained the title of the theme. A bit gimmicky we thought.

 

The always available options we found were lacking. Who eats escargot so routinely that it needs to be an always available option? It smacked of showing off by RCI so people could say to their friends ' ooo you could have snails every night' when in fact no one did, or very few did. The strip steak that was always available dissapointed the two of us who tried it. It had the texture of roast beef, not steak and didnt really have much flavour. They also got the cooking wrong on two occassions, medium rare turning up well done one night and medium turning up raw. Also, we noted sliders were always available on the German language menu but not on the english language one....why not?

 

Lots of the dishes sounded great and were well presented but many lacked flavour or correct seasoning. I had the coq au vin and it was truly awful. The most grissly tiny pieces of chicken which I sent back straight away. We all tried at least one soup but all lacked flavour and seasoning so we skipped them from then on. Entrees consisting of fish fillets were small and overcooked each time. Our fish eating veggie mentioned one night that he thought salmon might be on the menu more and was offered salmon each evening as long as he ordered the night before. Great we thought and for two nights a chunky well cooked fillet appeared. However the third night brought an undercooked fillet that was raw and cold in the centre. We sent it back and ten minutes later the same piece cane back. It had been microwaved and smelled awful. It was wet and fishy and all four of us could smell it. The head waiter attended, took a sniff and screwed his face up too. We didnt order salmon again. The veggie options also sounded good but were very small portions. A chicken sweet and sour had two tiny pieces of faux chicken in it.

 

A bacon wrapped pork fillet again looked great but was totally dry. Any lamb or slow cooked beef dish was excellent. One night they had rack of lamb that was lovely however shortly after we left no one else could have it as they had not defrosted enough meat....weve never come across a menu option not being available on any cruise.

 

I have to mention the accompliments. Almost every entree had mashed potato with it. No roast potatoes, boiled potatoes, just mash. The standard veg was carrot and broccolli and these were served raw. Half way through the cruise a feedback form was in the cabin and we mentioned the raw veg. After that things improved and the veg was well cooked apart from soggy asparagus one night and a potato dauphinois that was undercooked and hard.

 

We didnt often have desserts but tried a few. The always available creme brulee had been left to stand too long before the topping was applied so had a thick skin on it-yuk. A chocolate cake came in a terrine and had a layer of rock hard chocolate over wet flavourless mouse......why was it called a cake? Another chocolate torte came served straight out of a mousse tin and again was tasteless and mushy.

 

Now all this sounds very critical. Our party of four are easy going eaters. Weve cruised seven or so times and dont eat out at luxury restaurants but it did feel like the basics were missing. Cook things properly and season them. Also dont misdescribe things...if its called a cake then serve a cake, not a sloppy mousse.

 

We were dissapointed with the food. Our waiters made our meals enjoyable, not the food. We did the lunchtime brasserie in the MDR twice and loved the salads but again when I ordered a pasta dish with chilli and ham, it arrived with no chilli or ham. They remade it and I counted one piece of ham, but still no chilli. Being English we dont like complaining so left.

 

Now I know many of you love the new menus. I had looked at some of the food porn pics on here for months before sailing and we were all really looking forward to trying the dishes but ultimately felt let down. Two of us went to windjammer on evening for our meal and it was our best meal of the cruise (apart from a night in Portofino).

 

Given the menus are fleet wide this has really made the choice for our next cruise line/ship difficult and we may head over to celebrity and give them a go. Could it have been that Adventure chefs hadnt got it right and the same menus served on other ships in the fleet turn out better? Some other reviews of our cruise have also mentioned poor food so maybe so.

 

Since you are English, I can understand your opinion of the food. I have the opinion that the English know little about GOOD food. My time in London was marred only by the lack of decent food, and surly you know that the English are not known for good food.

[Familygoboston]

The always available options we found were lacking. Who eats escargot so routinely that it needs to be an always available option? It smacked of showing off by RCI so people could say to their friends ' ooo you could have snails every night' when in fact no one did, or very few did. The strip steak that was always available dissapointed the two of us who tried it. It had the texture of roast beef, not steak and didnt really have much flavour. They also got the cooking wrong on two occassions, medium rare turning up well done one night and medium turning up raw. Also, we noted sliders were always available on the German language menu but not on the english language one....why not?

 

 

 

 

.

No one does since escargot is often unavailable due to worldwide shortage; they've been substituting it for scallops for a while now:p

 

Sorry you had bad experiences. In general we liked the new menus better than the old ones. I agree that the everyday options were the weak link- often not well prepared and very bland. And the " spice" titles had little to do with what was actually going on on your plate.

[kevinyork]

Since you are English, I can understand your opinion of the food. I have the opinion that the English know little about GOOD food. My time in London was marred only by the lack of decent food, and surly you know that the English are not known for good food.

 

 

Ouch. Strange that London has the largest concentration of Michelin starred restaurants outside of Paris then. If English people were used to a lack of 'decent food' then surely we would not be complaining about the food on our recent RCI trip? Ive seen 'The Middle' and know how American people eat ;-)

[kevinyork]

By the way, I didnt intend my post to be about bashing RCIi. Just representing four peoples' views who want RCI to listen so we can enjoy a future cruise on Royal Caribbean.

[Missus Makkem]

Since you are English, I can understand your opinion of the food. I have the opinion that the English know little about GOOD food. My time in London was marred only by the lack of decent food, and surly you know that the English are not known for good food.

 

What a cheek, as someone who has qualifications in the food industry and many ears of experience including lecturing and demonstrating food you obviously no nothing of our culture and love of good food.

If you think London is England how sad is that.

[charmay]

Since you are English, I can understand your opinion of the food. I have the opinion that the English know little about GOOD food. My time in London was marred only by the lack of decent food, and surly you know that the English are not known for good food.

We do have this reputation.

We hosted students from around the world they were actually warned about our food.

When they stayed with us they couldnt understand why.

They loved my food.

I think they thought we ate fish fingers and chips every night lol.

It depends where you ate in London?

We do have Michelin star restaurants.

And also over the past 10 years especially I believe we have improved alot.

[yogimax]

Subjective for the most part. Taste in food, that is.

 

I loved the new menu. You didn't. o.k.

 

Again, comments about seasoning ar subjective. In general, I loved the soups.

 

Finally, I'm bewildered about the comment that mashed potatoes came with almost every entree. Huh? I had to request mashed potatoes because I prefer them to a baked potato.

[north29]

Since you are English, I can understand your opinion of the food. I have the opinion that the English know little about GOOD food. My time in London was marred only by the lack of decent food, and surly you know that the English are not known for good food.

 

That is strange, I'm American, and I have never had a bad meal in the UK, sometimes different but not bad TO MY TASTE.

[gingerpeaches]

Since you are English, I can understand your opinion of the food. I have the opinion that the English know little about GOOD food. My time in London was marred only by the lack of decent food, and surly you know that the English are not known for good food.

 

Well, that's just rude. :mad:

[ilionite65]

ouch. Strange that london has the largest concentration of michelin starred restaurants outside of paris then. If english people were used to a lack of 'decent food' then surely we would not be complaining about the food on our recent rci trip? Ive seen 'the middle' and know how american people eat ;-)

 

lol

[ilionite65]

By the way, I didnt intend my post to be about bashing RCIi. Just representing four peoples' views who want RCI to listen so we can enjoy a future cruise on Royal Caribbean.

 

DXo you really think that Royal should change things because of the opinion of 1, since we didn't really hear from the 4?

[ilionite65]

What a cheek, as someone who has qualifications in the food industry and many ears of experience including lecturing and demonstrating food you obviously no nothing of our culture and love of good food.

If you think London is England how sad is that.

 

well, my mom and sister, both born in England, have given me reason to visit there DREQUENTLY, so I do know something about English food! You can lecture and demonstrate all you please, THAT won't make English food taste good, nothing will.

[ilionite65]

We do have this reputation.

We hosted students from around the world they were actually warned about our food.

When they stayed with us they couldnt understand why.

They loved my food.

I think they thought we ate fish fingers and chips every night lol.

It depends where you ate in London?

We do have Michelin star restaurants.

And also over the past 10 years especially I believe we have improved alot.

 

Do you actually think that people should have to pay the prices for Michelin star restaurants in order to get a decent meal?