What's delicious in the MDR?

[meglet]

I know food is so subjective, but I though it wouldn't hurt to ask.  Last cruise I tried the chicken from the always available side, chicken or eggplant parm, and the flounder.  The only one I enjoyed was the chicken.  The flounder was hard and seemed frozen.  Same thing with the chicken or eggplant.  What should I branch out and try next cruise.  Thank you for your opinions!

[hallux]

I'm surprised at your experience with the flounder.  I've had that several times and always enjoyed it.

 

The shrimp fettuccini alfredo is pretty good, I had it on my last cruise.

[zqvol]

There is no reason that you can’t try multiple mains each night, don’t limit yourself to one if you don’t like it. 

[DCGuy64]

We don't eat fish, as a rule (not my favorite thing, TBH). I've had delicious pasta dishes in the MDR and also excellent steak (NY strip, to be precise). Lobster bisque has been good. I do like shrimp cocktail and they do a nice job of it. (NB: lobster and shrimp aren't fish) 😉 They do a delicious caesar salad, and are great with egg rolls, too.

[cruiseny4life]

I enjoy the miniscule tostada appetizer with 3 nacho chips, a tsp of beef and 1 jalapeno per chip. It's honestly one of the best appetizers I've ever had. It's just microscopic in size. I jest, barely. 

 

The chicken cordon bleu is different, but good. And, the chicken parmesan is very good. Crunchy fried chicken with a nice tasting (not sweet/not acidic) tomato sauce. The pasta is ho-hum as the water isn't salted.

[tomk3212]

I miss the salmon choice they had as one of the 'always available' alternates to the nightly specials on the menu.  Haven't seen it on the 3 cruises we've been on since the return from COVID.  Guess the price of salmon is too high or they can't get the quality they want.

 

The NY strip is good.  The flounder is hit and miss; sometimes it's good, sometimes not so much.  The shrimp Alfredo is VERY good IMHO.

 

I miss the lamb shank; on the 15 day TA we just got off the MDR had the lamb shank ONCE in those 15 days.  Pre-COVID even on a 7 day cruise you'd see a lamb dish at least twice.

[trivimp]

We often get the smoked mozzarella ravioli app, yum.  I also like the flounder a lot, guess I've been lucky on the hit-or-miss part.  

[vacation44]

I am also a fan of the shrimp alfredo dish but I get it without the shrimp.  

[Burrata]

Pacific Hake! yum!

[tony s]

NY Strip with peppercorn sauce and fries!

[sherrihall128]

I'm a little bit of a harsh critic, as most of the food was good/ok, but nothing spectacular. 2 of my favorite MDR dishes were spicy bacon-wrapped shrimp with grits, and Hawaiian soy-glazed pork belly. I'd say the pork belly was my favorite.

 

Something that was also memorable, but not in a good way, was a fruit (?cherry, maybe) trifle. I heard someone say it was really good, so I ordered it. I was quite surprised when a cherry Jell-O type dessert with whipped cream showed up. If you like Jell-O, cool.. if not, you'll be really disappointed with the "trifle".

Edited May 10, 2023 by sherrihall128

[ggTexasGal]

20 minutes ago, sherrihall128 said:

Something that was also memorable, but not in a good way, was a fruit (?cherry, maybe) trifle. I heard someone say it was really good, so I ordered it. I was quite surprised when a cherry Jell-O type dessert with whipped cream showed up. If you like Jell-O, cool.. if not, you'll be really disappointed with the "trifle".

I can only imagine your reaction when your "Trifle" arrived! 

 

THAT could give a whole new meaning to "Don't Trifle with me!"

[depplep]

Do they have escargot in the MDR?

[ggTexasGal]

17 minutes ago, depplep said:

Do they have escargot in the MDR?

DH & I took a long break from cruising while our sons were tweens to 20's.  In the "old days" we could get escargot in the MDR.  That doesn't seem to be the case since we came back in the 2010's.

[meglet]

A lot of food sounded good in the description but was hugely underwhelming. 

[ChiefMateJRK]

I would say that MDR dinners are my least favorite meals on NCL ships.  We've made it a habit to check the menu earlier in the day (Taste/Savor/? can provide a sample dinner menu at lunch time) and make our plans accordingly.  They used to post the dinner menu at the MDR earlier in the day, but that wasn't the case on the Bliss a couple of weeks ago.  We normally eat Breakfast and Lunch, so by dinner time aren't really too concerned about more food.  If we have a specialty dinner planned, we may just eat a light lunch (soup/salad) or four items in Food Republic between two of us on a sea day.

[depplep]

9 minutes ago, ggTexasGal said:

DH & I took a long break from cruising while our sons were tweens to 20's.  In the "old days" we could get escargot in the MDR.  That doesn't seem to be the case since we came back in the 2010's.

That's too bad. Royal still has it every night and it's my go to.

[sherrihall128]

16 minutes ago, meglet said:

A lot of food sounded good in the description but was hugely underwhelming. 

The food sounded better than it tasted, but as long as I wasn't expecting amazing, I was happy. 

 

TBH, I thought the desserts were underwhelming--both buffet and MDR. The only ones that were good were in specialty restaurants, and I'm not booking one just for dessert!

[SpacemanSpiff]

3 hours ago, vacation44 said:

I am also a fan of the shrimp alfredo dish but I get it without the shrimp.  

 

That sounds like when my father ordered a drink.  "Whiskey on the rocks, hold the ice!"

[depplep]

I always order shrimp scampi without the shrimp. I like shrimp, but find it unnecessary. Just give me more pasta!

[carohs]

3 hours ago, cruiseny4life said:

I enjoy the miniscule tostada appetizer with 3 nacho chips, a tsp of beef and 1 jalapeno per chip. It's honestly one of the best appetizers I've ever had. It's just microscopic in size. I jest, barely. 

DD had 3 of these as her dinner (minus the jalapeño). The size was shocking because I had never seen anything served on a tortilla chip labeled as a tostada. However, since DD ordered 2 more servings I knew they must have been delicious. 

[Peachypooh]

Nothing.....

[zzdoug]

I liked almost everything I ordered, except the fried chicken.  

[hallux]

1 hour ago, sherrihall128 said:

spicy bacon-wrapped shrimp with grits

Yes, that was very good too!  I travel solo, one of the other solos got it as well, he thought it was very good (including the grits, and he's from Georgia so they know their grits!)

[Dorhead1230]

Someone else also mentioned this dish, but I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the pork belly entree. It was a really nice mix of flavors and textures. The pork was crisped nicely and the sauce had a nice sweetness but wasn’t overboard. The slaw had some type of crispy noodles or something mixed in that gave it a nice crunch and texture and it wasn’t overdressed. And the sweet potato mash was a nice complement to the pork, as well. Incidentally, that same night, I also tried the MDR carrot cake and was pleasantly surprised by that, too. Most of the NCL desserts fall on a scale somewhere from ick to meh for me (except a few of my tried-and-true favorites), but that carrot cake was good (and not the same as the O’Sheehan’s/Local one or any of the weird cakes they have in the buffet).