Quark question

[bohaiboy]

With limited dining options on the Quark Ultramarine, does one not get burned out or bored with food on longer cruises or back to back cruises?

[ColdCruise]

I did a 13 day Antarctic with Quark on the World Explorer and the kitchen staff never repeated anything on the daily menu. The hotel/restaurant were staffed by the ship owner, Mystic cruises out of Portugal, so not sure if Ultramarine would be the same (or if Quark actually owns this ship or leases it like WE). All meals were excellent and varied.

 

I will say (very likely) due to the wasteful gluttony of a group of 12 or so people in their 20s from a specific country, we ran out of several items on the staple menu, which featured a consistent option of Argentinian steak, chicken, salmon for those who didn’t find something they liked on the daily changing menu.  The last 3 dinners the menu removed the steak, salmon and French fries because they were out.
 

Several people in that 1 group were conspicuous in ordering, eg, 3 main dishes, barely tasting them and leaving them mostly untouched. They did not share tastes with each other but 3 people would order 9 dishes total and not touch the majority of it. Same with their entrees and desserts. I have no problem with sending something back and getting a different dish if the first didn’t taste good (I believe I did that once this trip) but repeatedly doing the described wasteful behavior- very uncouth at a minimum. 

[willoL]

I just got back from my first (hopefully not last) Quark voyage. Admittedly, I'm not the hardest diner to please, but I found plenty of variety on the menu for my tastes.

 

If I had anything negative to say about the dining situation, it is that I dislike buffets, and Quark uses a buffet format for breakfast and lunch. I enjoyed dinner much more, because we ordered off a menu.

 

The breakfast buffet had more than enough choices for me. I would say lunch felt like the least choice, but that's partly because I would rather eat a deli sandwich than some of the more international dishes offered at lunchtime. I also am not the type to go ask for one of the "always available" specialty items; that feels like too much hassle to me, so I make due with whatever is in front of me.

 

The dinner menu had at least one dish I was actively excited to try on all but one night. I got the "always available" chicken breast and baked potato on that night, but, since it happened only once, I never got sick of the basics, either.

 

The chef was very visible outside the kitchen, checking on the service, and I thought the variety was quite marvelous given we were not picking up fresh provisions in the remote fjords of Greenland where we sailed. Soups were also particularly good, and vegetarians in our party seemed to be well fed and happy as well as those of us avoiding other things (I don't eat pork or shellfish, for example, for religious reasons.)