Vegan menu review (long) - Adventure

[toras]

Just returned from a 10 day AdOTS cruise, and was delighted to find a full vegan menu every day. (I prefer vegetarian meals but find the regular veg fare too heavy in carbs and dairy.)

I had it 5 days out of 10. There are seven menus which cycle back to the first if more than 7 days. The menu pictures are from the Royal app. The menus were not provided in the dining room unless you ask for them.

 

The first day I ordered it, all courses at our table took a long time to come. The head waiter brought the dessert and I asked was it slow because of the vegan menu. He said yes, it's because they had to use separate oil and pans to cook the food, now that they know I would be ordering they will be prepared the next day, and they were. So you should definitely notify them beforehand to ensure a quick service.

 

Overall most the items were good and quite creative, but things still need tweaking.

 

Here are my reviews and pictures:

Menu 1
Warm fennel and guinea salad - The fennel were yellow and I thought they must have been pickled, but they were quite bland. The quinoa salad was good.
Spring onion 'Falafel' - Probably made with lentils, they were rather gummy, didn't finish them
Butternut squash soup, apple fritters - Soup was good. The "apple fritter" was a sliver of apple that was deep fried
Pan-roasted green asparagus, white bean hummus, and hazelnut pesto - The pesto was too tart but otherwise good, however the hummus tasted and looked a bit similar to it and I didn't feel I needed both of them
Tahini banana soft serve - It was like chocolate banana pudding, no tahini taste

Menu 4 (no pictures for this one)
Corn fritters with mint sauce - Good
Caramelized parsnip and coconut soup - Good
Grilled eggplant with couscous, spring onions, and soy yogurt - DELICIOUS but only two paper thin slices of eggplant
No-bake lemon tart - A nut paste based filling, the lemon was like an afterthought

Menu 5
Green bean croquette with rocket salad and peanuts - Croquettes were OK but salad was missing
Vegetable tempura and soy sauce - This was not tempura but a regular flour batter. Soy dip was yummy
Creamed broccoli soup - good
Butternut squash curry with steamed rice - Excellent but a little spicy - had to stop and take sips of water
Vegan crème brulee - Rather flavourless and the sugar was literally burnt and bitter

Menu 6
Grilled avocado with chili and cucumber salad - The avocados were barely touched with flame; would have been more interesting if well grilled
Polenta fries with spicy spinach-artichoke salsa - A few hard sticks of polenta
Vegan carbonara with chickpeas and eggplant bacon - Got a spaghetti in curry creme sauce instead, with just a bit of parsley and nothing else, no good
Peanut butter caramel rice crisps with berry compote - Tasted just like those ingredients thrown together, rather boring

Menu 7 
Raw vegetable salad with sesame-lime dressing - dressing was good, a big plate of julienned veggies 
Rice paper rolls with mango and mint - Some julienned mango and carrot in a paper wrapper, a hot sauce based dressing which overpowered the mango
Tomato soup with basil - Good
Vegetable pakoras with cilantro - Fried potato slices
Wild berry bar - Got a mango ice with fresh fruit instead

 

Regarding this menu 7, the two appetizers were too similar, but one was a big plate and the other was a tiny portion. Then I was so disappointed with the pakora. Have been looking forward to them since I love the veggie fritters. These were just slices of potato (coated in chickpea flour and fried). While they tasted good. they would be fine as a side, but just a plate of them was no good as an entree. Our waiter asked if things were OK and I said I was disappointed, but he is from Bali and I don't think he knows pakora from angora; luckily the head waiter is from Mumbai and he understood my complaint, and he said he will make it up to me the next night (I had enough to eat that night). The next evening he presented a plate of onion bhaji, which was great and appreciated, but it still won't work too well as a main dish.

 

Hope they can continue to improve the menu and recipes!

 

[Anita Latte]

Thank you for posting. I'm not normally a vegan or vegetarian...but often eat such meals to mix it up. We are currently doing a vegan reset eating plan. Only 28 days...but it's been really good. Thinking about a lifestyle that leans more vegan as we move forward...but not sure what we're going to do on our cruise in Feb 2020. I appreciate your assessment...most helpful for future decisions.

[gumbocc1009]

Thanks!  I'm not a vegan but was excited about the vegan menu (because I enjoy eating vegan meals). 

 

Thanks for the heads up about the meals taking longer.  My hope is that the soups would not face the same issue (since those must be prepared in advance). 

 

And I'll be sure to ask for the vegan menu a night ahead (so I can place an order and not keep my family waiting too long - my child is going to be bored as it is!) 

[parsec0298]

Thanks for posting this, as my wife is vegan.  I had missed that Royal added the vegan menu.  They were great with working with my wife back in January, but she'll be glad that she won't have to much such a fuss each night.

[tomservo]

Thanks for this. Really appreciated!

[toras]

21 hours ago, parsec0298 said:

 I had missed that Royal added the vegan menu.  

 

From what I've read on here it may not be the same experience on all ships yet.

[matandbri]

Thank you for taking the time to do this.  I ordered off the vegan menu for the first 10 days of a longer cruise and the menu items were very inconsistent.  It sounds like you had a few of the same issues.  I am happy they are trying, but it gets frustrating to order food that is described differently than what you actually get.  That brown banana ice cream 🤢 and I make banana ice cream at home all the time.  

[VeggieCruiser23]

In September 2019, I cruised on the Symphony of the Seas where they had a vegan menu in the MDR. There were a few choices for each course and it was quite good. The food arrived together with everyone's order, without extra wait time. Also, you did not have to order a day in advance. On my past cruises (Freedom, Adventure, Mariner, Independence of the Seas), they would give you the menu the day before and you had to pre-order. This was a big improvement from previous cruises! Maybe the other ships are now doing this too?

I wish the Windjammer would label/list ingredients for their food. It is inconvenient to always ask the servers for the ingredients.  Although, in the Solarium on Symphony, upon asking about vegan food, the chef came out and took me around the whole buffet pointing out all the dishes that were vegan. That was great! He was very knowledgeable and took the guess work out of deciding what to eat.