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The TK Experience on Seabourn


freddie
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17 minutes ago, mamapirk said:

 

I will give you a wave. I might have to be where I can watch the sail-in. 🙂

One more question...who will be our Captain? Color me curious. Thanks!

 

The current Captain of Quest is Joost Eldering.  He's on until Lima, 19 November, after which Captain Alexander Gobulev takes over for the first 3 Antarctica cruises of the season - including yours.  Captain Joost Eldering then returns for the final 2 Antarctica cruises as well as the Amazon sailings. 

 

Cheers,

Floris 

 

Edited by florisdekort
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We just missed Earth and Ocean on our recent cruise, but will experience when next on in December. Looking forward to it as a long overdue evolution of the Patio Grill. Good to hear from Floris that it was enjoyable.

 

Yes, we all have a few first world problems from time to time. In our case we are thankful we have our health and are able to  experience as much as we do.  However, echoing Henry's recent post about Seabourn pricing... we are fundamentally consumers of goods. Sometimes you query the product - what you have paid vs what you are receiving OR weigh up your product knowledge vs what you are prepared to ante up for the next trip. No one likes being taken for granted as a customer. As with any business, decisions are made and in our opinion some of the more recent Seabourn decisions have not concurred with the direction we saw for the brand. Ultimately for us, if the cons start to outnumber the pros, we will vote with our feet. As we have with TK.

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6 hours ago, BasandSyb said:

We just missed Earth and Ocean on our recent cruise, but will experience when next on in December. Looking forward to it as a long overdue evolution of the Patio Grill. Good to hear from Floris that it was enjoyable.

 

Yes, we all have a few first world problems from time to time. In our case we are thankful we have our health and are able to  experience as much as we do.  However, echoing Henry's recent post about Seabourn pricing... we are fundamentally consumers of goods. Sometimes you query the product - what you have paid vs what you are receiving OR weigh up your product knowledge vs what you are prepared to ante up for the next trip. No one likes being taken for granted as a customer. As with any business, decisions are made and in our opinion some of the more recent Seabourn decisions have not concurred with the direction we saw for the brand. Ultimately for us, if the cons start to outnumber the pros, we will vote with our feet. As we have with TK.

 

I agree with your comments 100%. This ridiculous "first World problems" statement, which has become the excuse for everything recently, annoys the hell out of me. We are paying a premium price for a supposedly  "6 star experience". If product and quality continue to fall, what price are you willing to pay for a 3 or 4 star experience? Making statements like "first World problems" for everything, that is not up to standard, only allows the Company to provide less and less, and you are giving them the ok to do it!

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We are joining the Quest next month and I'm pleased to hear that Earth & Ocean has been launched on this ship.  

 

Does anyone know if or when Sojourn will have this rolled out?  (asking for our next cruise on Sojourn!)

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3 hours ago, Mauzac said:

We are joining the Quest next month and I'm pleased to hear that Earth & Ocean has been launched on this ship.  

 

Does anyone know if or when Sojourn will have this rolled out?  (asking for our next cruise on Sojourn!)

 

I have been told that it is due to be rolled out on Sojourn on 19 November. I am hoping this will be the case as this means it will be up and running when we board in Sydney in December.

 

Julie

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I hadn't heard about Earth and Ocean till just now, so I googled it,  and what a pleasant surprise. We enjoy having a few evening meals out on the Patio grill most cruises, and this re-imagining sounds great. We have also had a couple of cruises with Chef Anton on board - a very pleasant man. So, fingers crossed he will be on board to oversee things when we set sail on the 19th. 

Don't worry Julie, we will play-test and troubleshoot E&O, so it will ship-shape and running smoothly by the time you board :classic_smile:

Edited by Flamin_June
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8 hours ago, Flamin_June said:

I hadn't heard about Earth and Ocean till just now, so I googled it,  and what a pleasant surprise. We enjoy having a few evening meals out on the Patio grill most cruises, and this re-imagining sounds great. We have also had a couple of cruises with Chef Anton on board - a very pleasant man. So, fingers crossed he will be on board to oversee things when we set sail on the 19th. 

Don't worry Julie, we will play-test and troubleshoot E&O, so it will ship-shape and running smoothly by the time you board :classic_smile:

 

Enjoy your cruise Flamin_June and thanks for being willing to do the hard yards and get E&O sorted for us.:classic_biggrin:

 

Only six weeks today before we fly out to Sydney to join Sojourn the next day....but who's counting.

 

Julie

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We were also underwhelmed by the rather pretentious TK “experience” which, if you set aside all the marketing hype and hyperbole, is just another restaurant. The legendary Dover sole was over cooked and over seasoned - a good piece of fish ruined.  Overall it was OK, but nothing special. As for Mr Keller, pssst, the emperor isn’t wearing any clothes.

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We had a somewhat disappointing experience at TKgrill on our Sojourn Alaska cruise in Sept. They were training a new bartender and our drinks took a VERY long time to arrive (they weren't up to snuff and had to be remade) OK, fine, we can accept that and are happy to wait, BUT the servers tried to take away our uneaten crudite while we were waiting for our drinks. They wanted to serve us our appetizers....Before we ever received a drink. No, thank you, please SLOW DOWN the service to meet OUR needs and not yours. Once we had that....misunderstanding....cleared up, the rest of the meal went well. But it left a sour taste in my mouth, certainly.

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3 hours ago, RustyRollock said:

We were also underwhelmed by the rather pretentious TK “experience” which, if you set aside all the marketing hype and hyperbole, is just another restaurant. The legendary Dover sole was over cooked and over seasoned - a good piece of fish ruined.  Overall it was OK, but nothing special. As for Mr Keller, pssst, the emperor isn’t wearing any clothes.

 

 

Our sentiments exactly RR. Once was more than enough.

Edited by koalapanda
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People shouldn't confuse the Thomas Keller restaurants in the US with the food outlets which bear his name aboard the Seabourn fleet.   Everything on the ship is frozen, pre-prepared in some way and is a form of mass catering.  That is not the case with the restaurants ashore, of course, where supplies are delivered daily etc etc and where dishes are totally different.  The fact that the menu hasn't changed in three years says it all.  I'm amazed some people think they are having a 'fine dining' experience and pay extra to drink decent wine with such terrible food.

 

I've endured two seriously awful dinners in the laughably pretentious TK Grill and also everything 'inspired' by TK in the Colonnade has been dire.  

 

Of course, food is a subjective thing and one person's three-star Michelin dinner is another's gastro-disaster.  All I can say to back up my opinion is more than 40 years of eating in scores of high-end restaurants in London, Paris and France for instance. 

Edited by Fletcher
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We've been going to TK Grill since it was introduced on SB and have yet to be wowed.  We don't consider an American Steakhouse to be a "specialty" restaurant and we find the menu rather predictable and boring.  What's unique about crudites with green goddess dressing?  Or roast chicken?  Or an ice cream sundae?  Maybe it will be better on Encore, but if not, we're done with giving it another try.  We no longer go to the Colonnade on TK nights and I expect we'll soon with finished with TK Grill.  But we love the Napa Burger and the Yountville Dog at the Patio Grill and treat ourselves at least once per cruise.

 

 

 

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On our last sailing (Odyssey), our best meals were in TK and on the TK nights in the Colonnade.  I am normally a big fan of The Restaurant but we found it fairly lackluster and bland the last time around.

 

We are very much looking forward to the Ovation later this week.  We think we’ll end up dining at Sushi a lot!  (We typically eat sushi at least twice a week at home so this helps us stay on routine!)

 

I don’t find the TK offerings to be spectacular, but they are comfortable.  I am looking forward to trying them on the larger ship, but don’t ever expect them to compare with his land offerings of which we are fans.

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We’re on Encore right now and went to TK two nights ago.  The food was okay but nothing better than the Restaurant.  There were four of us; one had the Caesar salad (prepared table side, big deal) and Dover sole, another had crab cake and Dover sole, the third had shrimp cocktail and NY strip, and I had the globe artichoke and lamb chops.  The food was good not great.  What seems to fuel the interest in dining here is that you are limited to the number of times you can eat in TK, which creates a sort of exclusivity about it.

 

Desserts were here chocolate cake and coconut cake.  The icing on both was not buttercream or whipped cream - not really sure what it was.  Certainly not as good as the wonderful soufflé that are offered in the Restaurant.

 

The service was fine.

 

We have our second reservation in two days.  We’ll give it another shot.  Stay tuned...

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I enjoy the TK Grill, and I'm looking forward to my booking for the next time in less than a month.  Perhaps I just look at the whole experience,  the ambience, the enoyable food, the cocktail beforehand and we both have no complaints.     :classic_biggrin:

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We find TK quite ordinary but LOVE Earth and Ocean. Having tried it on Ovation it is now our favourite place to eat - not sure what we will do when the weather is on the cool side.

I tried the Napa Burger but found it to be very salty. Coming from Australia a hamburger has to have meat plus bacon, beetroot, fried egg, caramelised onion, cheese, tomato and lettuce. Then you add tomato sauce (ketchup) and mayo. Now that’s a hamburger.:)

i have never been able to post photos but with the new format I will try to include our photos of E&O.

 

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07715FED-C815-4F1E-A8F0-8C0B319ECB73.jpeg

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Thank you JOC123 for your photos, well done. E&O looks exciting to us and our tastes in Multi Cultural cuisine that we invcorporate into our lives in our society. Maybe this completes and satifies all tastes . Thankfully Seabourn has listened to it's guests.

Edited by koalapanda
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On 10/29/2018 at 5:10 AM, Fletcher said:

People shouldn't confuse the Thomas Keller restaurants in the US with the food outlets which bear his name aboard the Seabourn fleet.   Everything on the ship is frozen, pre-prepared in some way and is a form of mass catering.  That is not the case with the restaurants ashore, of course, where supplies are delivered daily etc etc and where dishes are totally different.  The fact that the menu hasn't changed in three years says it all.  I'm amazed some people think they are having a 'fine dining' experience and pay extra to drink decent wine with such terrible food.

 

The whole thing seems like an exercise in frustration for everyone concerned.  Yes, Keller has to be profiting, but isn't he also damaging his image by indulging in aptly named "mass catering"?

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I think we all  need to get a grip.  We are talking about a dining room on a high end cruise ship.  As that, the TK Grill usually does a credible job ( in my humble opinion) .  Yes, there are lapses in both food and service. But, after dining at a TK Grill at least five times, I find it OK.  That does not mean that I didn't find the roast chicken incredibly salty or the Eggplant Parmigiana not to my laste.  Instead, I found the TK Grill to be a credible effort to provide an American Steak House experience on an international cruise ship.  The dishes served were very basic American dishes and not to the taste of all of our European and international friends.  In fact, not all Americans would like what is served.  But, it is what it is, and as presented, it does represent a genre of American dining.  Like it or leave it--it is what it is.  If you don't like it at all, don't dine there and lobby Seabourn to take another path. 

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