Windstar Food

[HaveDogWillTravel]

On 3/13/2024 at 2:01 PM, tnm6217 said:

Shame on me for not remembering the chef’s name, but I believe our sailing was his first. It certainly bodes well for Star Legend to have two chefs in a row who knocked it out of the park! I have five more Star Legend sailings booked so I’ll have plenty of opportunities for further culinary study 😉

I take pictures.  It’s the only way I can keep it straight. 

[RBCal]

Amphora is good usually. I've found the vegetarian mains consistently good. The green beans and carrots are often undercooked. Asparagus is great.  Butter is a bit over the top in some sauces and sugar is also in the desserts.

 

[Strenz]

2 hours ago, RBCal said:

Amphora is good usually. I've found the vegetarian mains consistently good. The green beans and carrots are often undercooked. Asparagus is great.  Butter is a bit over the top in some sauces and sugar is also in the desserts.

 

We also like Amphora. We like the on the smaller side portions, we like " undercooked vegetables" vegetables  should have a crunch in the mouth.  Not big dessert eaters but would rather have real sugar than fake sugar which we would never eat. If you do not want sugar eat a lovely piece of fruit. My husband loves the soups, I love the lamb, which is from New Zealand.  I applaud WS the menus have something delicious for everyone. The Stella Bistro is real " French ", which we adore. They make a real Frisée Salad, real Soup d' Oignon, we used to live in Europe, yummy memories. Of course Candles lamb again! Great memories of our past with WS, have to wait until 2025 to go again. Happy Sailing.

[gsutiger2]

Food is definitely subjective.

With that said, we are vegans. The food was a negative experience for us. It was so bad that I had to contact corporate to describe what we were served and lack of protein. We never expect to have the same options as meat eaters. However,  you could tell the vegan/plant based options were a last minute after thought and probably push back from the kitchen to corporate regarding the new plant based offerings. 

 

What Windstar advertised for plant based /vegans options was never offered. They claim they have rolled out a full menu and asked for us to give them another try.

[buhbyenow]

Recently spent 14 nights on Wind Surf, our first time on that ship. I’ve cruised with 8 different cruise lines, although only 149 nights on Wind Star, having previously sailed on Breeze, Spirit and Legend.
 

It occurred to me on this Caribbean sailing that availability of local produce and proteins (especially fish/seafood) wasn’t great in the ports of call and was reflected in the menus.  Without a doubt the most memorable food was on the Legend last year ( 47 nights,Portugal, Spain, France primarily) where there were fresh items fairly consistently and locally inspired dishes and menus. Quadro 44 was our favorite dinner spot, with the best lamb chops I’ve ever eaten outside of my own kitchen.   Repetitions are to be expected (I think the menus in Amphora are on a 14 day rotation) but with so many items on offer I have never been bored.  Someone else is procuring, preparing, serving and cleaning up and that someone isn’t ME, so maybe I’m less critical and more appreciative than some 😉. 

 

I personally do not miss the lobster at the Deck BBQ or the Beach BBQ. Frozen “rock lobster” tails doused in butter isn’t anything special. But that suckling pig and the paella are perennial favorites of ours. 
 

Desserts tend to be better at lunch, and the fruit tarts at Yacht Club are positively addictive, as are the fresh scones every afternoon. 

 

Not certain why, but the brewed coffee at Verandah was better on Spirit than on the other ships we’ve been on. I’m such a coffee snob that I brought my own French Press and ground coffee with me on Legend. I wouldn’t bother on a two week cruise, but 47 days…I had to have it 😆 Macchiato on all ships 👍👍

 

 The biggest disappointments IMO are the plant based offerings, which, with the notable exception of the black pepper tofu and vegetables in Candles, are uniformly under/unseasoned and uninteresting.  I say this as someone who prepares and eats a 50% plant based diet at home. It’s not impossible to make appealing and tasty plant based dishes, but it seems that on WS they are doing double duty as no salt/fat/sugar for those who have dietary restrictions. Herbs/spices and extracts go a long way towards adding flavors but apparently WS recipes are lacking these well known techniques. Siracha or Sambal should be available in all venues but sadly are not. Midway thru our cruise I bought sambal at a local supermarket and brought it with me to Verandah and Candles.  
 

Finally, I would put Windstar’s staff up against any of the ultra-luxury, super expensive cruise lines and feel comfortable that they’d score highly.  Windstar corporate management? Well, let’s just say the product excels in spite of them. 

[AmateurGO]

For quick background, we have done 7 WS cruises (all but the most recent on Wind* ships) and several non-WS cruises.  In late April - Early May 2023 we did  2 week Greek islands cruise on Seabourn.  (I liked their itinerary better than the WS cruises) and we were not impressed by the food.  It was not really bad, just lacking in significant flavor and non-memorable.  In September (2023) we did a WS cruise around Iceland (well, it was supposed to be "around" Iceland, but the cruise itinerary underwent multiple major modifications).  The first evening (in Amphora) I had an appetizer that was more flavorful and interesting than anything I had in two weeks on Seabourn. The rest of the cruise was just as good.

In 2022 we did a cruise in Celebrity's Retreat section and I felt the Luminae and Amphora were very close in selection and quality.

[Host Jazzbeau]

We are going on our first Windstar cruise in January 2025, and are really looking forward to the food.  We recently completed our first Silversea cruise, and were very disappointed in the food – as @AmateurGO said about Seabourn, it wasn't really bad but it wasn't flavorful or memorable.  We have been very happy with the food on Oceania (latest 2022), Scenic river (latest 2023), and Azamara (latest 2024) – those are our standards for cruise ship food.  I hope and expect that Windstar will equal or exceed them [and of course I will report back]

[AmateurGO]

Funny you should mention Oceania, Jazzbeau....  We have a cruise on their Sirenia in about 2 weeks, based largely on some friend's experience back in January.  

[Host Jazzbeau]

23 minutes ago, AmateurGO said:

Funny you should mention Oceania, Jazzbeau....  We have a cruise on their Sirenia in about 2 weeks, based largely on some friend's experience back in January.  

They claim to have the best food at sea, and in my experience the claim is true.  But of course in this post-Covid economic climate, nobody's reviews from last year are still reliable now...

 

BTW, that's the hardest ship name to spell correctly.  It's Sirena.  [I always want to say Serena...]

[AmateurGO]

Would you believe I even looked up how to properly spell the name of the ship on my cruise confirmation paperwork, and then still typed it in wrong!?  🙂

[gsutiger2]

Azamara for vegans is absolutely wonderful and highly recommended.  Generally the same offerings as the meat eaters, with a slight modification. 

[ynottravel?]

I'm guessing it depends who's cooking  when you are on the ship.  Our first Windstar cruise was on the Star Legend in December 2021 and the food was very good to excellent.  Next was Star Pride in December 2022 and the food was good to very good, but we had few, if any, dishes that we thought were excellent.  We sailed again on Star Pride this past December and to our surprise and delight the food was much improved!  Back to very good to excellent!  

 

We are also going to give Oceania a try this summer.  They had an itinerary that I loved!   

 

[WayneLaR]

On 4/6/2024 at 10:39 PM, Host Jazzbeau said:

We are going on our first Windstar cruise in January 2025, and are really looking forward to the food.  We recently completed our first Silversea cruise, and were very disappointed in the food – as @AmateurGO said about Seabourn, it wasn't really bad but it wasn't flavorful or memorable.  We have been very happy with the food on Oceania (latest 2022), Scenic river (latest 2023), and Azamara (latest 2024) – those are our standards for cruise ship food.  I hope and expect that Windstar will equal or exceed them [and of course I will report back]

Jan 2025 will be our first WS experience as well.  14 days on Wind Surf, St Martin to St Martin.  Our last three cruises have all been Oceania.  We have 34 days on board in the last 6 months so have a very good take on the culinary offerings which, with very few exceptions, are fantastic.  Looking forward to see how WS stacks up against the "Finest Cuisine at Sea" (minor correction Jazzbeau, it's finest, not best)

[Redtravel]

Everything changed with the pandemic.  Sadly, on many cruise lines there are cutbacks.  Often supply problems dictate what foods cruise lines can get. It may just be a cutback to maintain food costs.  Old deck bbq had more offerings including lobster tails, lamp chops, and jumbo shrimp.  You don’t see all of those on the bbq now. On most recent cruise, the bbq didn’t have lamb chops or lobster tails. There are still lots of excellent choices.  Lobster tails did appear on another night.   
Thoughts about food on other lines post pandemic.  I have also sailed on Viking, Oceania, and Celebrity.  Food quality has declined.  It’s still good. It’s not great.  While Oceania claims the best food at sea, Windstar quality is better. 
 

[avalong]

On the Wind Surf now. The food is very good. The deck BBQ is still fantastic, despite the omissions you mentioned. 

Edited May 1 by avalong

[AmateurGO]

10 days into an 11 day cruise on Oceania Sirena.  The food is good... slightly better than on Seabourn, but to my taste, still not as good as Windstar.  If all food on Oceania was as good as in Red Ginger and Tuscan Steak restaurants, it would be a very close match with WIndstar, but I think WIndstar main restaurant (Amphora) consistently beats the Oceania main restaurant.  Now, I like somewhat spicy or strongly flavored food, so someone with a more mild taste preference might well feel the other way: I just think the Windstar food has more taste. 

[avalong]

Just back from the 2nd deck barbecue of our back-to-back cruises. There were lamb chops on offer, but still no lobster. It was fabulous, nonetheless.

[Host Jazzbeau]

1 hour ago, avalong said:

Just back from the 2nd deck barbecue of our back-to-back cruises. There were lamb chops on offer, but still no lobster. It was fabulous, nonetheless.

I'll take that trade any day!

[CulverCityCruisers]

We were on Breeze to FP for 11 days and found the food to be very good overall.  Breakfast is uninspired, but there really isn't much you can do with breakfast foods.  I will say the ordered pancakes were terrible and I would never order again, but the omelettes were outstanding.  Lunch could range from average to very good and using the menu to order a hamburger or chicken breast sandwich was a real surprise as everything was fresh.  Dinner overall was a 9 out of 10 and no major complaints.

 

Biggest disappointment was the BBQ on the beach where food was average at best, burgers, hotdogs and nothing really special.  But having potato salad and other mayo salads in that heat was beyond crazy.

 

The dinner show on the Motu was definitely better, but they were giving people 6 to 8 lobster tails at a time and ran out before about 255 of the people didn't get any!!!  People were NOT happy.

[oakridger]

11 hours ago, CulverCityCruisers said:

The dinner show on the Motu was definitely better, but they were giving people 6 to 8 lobster tails at a time and ran out before about 255 of the people didn't get any!!!  People were NOT happy.

 

I hope that management was informed about the disorganized serving of the lobster!  It makes so much sense to serve everyone one portion first then if there are any left let folks come back for a second serving.  Buffet service 101

 

~Nancy

[CulverCityCruisers]

23 hours ago, CulverCityCruisers said:

We were on Breeze to FP for 11 days and found the food to be very good overall.  Breakfast is uninspired, but there really isn't much you can do with breakfast foods.  I will say the ordered pancakes were terrible and I would never order again, but the omelettes were outstanding.  Lunch could range from average to very good and using the menu to order a hamburger or chicken breast sandwich was a real surprise as everything was fresh.  Dinner overall was a 9 out of 10 and no major complaints.

 

Biggest disappointment was the BBQ on the beach where food was average at best, burgers, hotdogs and nothing really special.  But having potato salad and other mayo salads in that heat was beyond crazy.

 

The dinner show on the Motu was definitely better, but they were giving people 6 to 8 lobster tails at a time and ran out before about 255 of the people didn't get any!!!  People were NOT happy.

Wouldn't let me edit.  That should have said about 20% of the people didn't get lobster tails.  Still was really bad though.  Very poor on Windstar's part

[6rugrats]

And a bit greedy on the part of your fellow passengers.

[CulverCityCruisers]

On 5/4/2024 at 10:42 AM, 6rugrats said:

And a bit greedy on the part of your fellow passengers.

True, but they should net give "plates full" to one individual.  Everyone should be entitled to at least one.  But by them giving them out like water they created the problem. IMO

[6rugrats]

13 hours ago, CulverCityCruisers said:

True, but they should net give "plates full" to one individual.  Everyone should be entitled to at least one.  But by them giving them out like water they created the problem. IMO

Yes, I don't disagree with this.

[HaveDogWillTravel]

On 5/4/2024 at 10:42 AM, 6rugrats said:

And a bit greedy on the part of your fellow passengers.

I imagine that passengers being given more than one rightfully thought the crew would only do this if there were plenty to go around. 
 

This seems like a crew error.