Dining on the Noordam's January 6, 2007 cruise..........

[sail7seas]

Chef Bernie Rius is currently the Executive Chef on Noordam. He and his sous chefs did an amazing job in the galley, we thought.

 

The meals we were served were consistently well prepared, presented beautifully and we looked forward to our dinner each night.

 

Our dining team complimented Chef wonderfully as they assured our courses all arrived hot or cold as appropriate and timed perfectly for a pleasant interval between courses.

 

Widodo was our dining steward, Yudi his assistant, the very excellent Presti was Supervisor for our section and Tom Grindlay Maitre d'. What a team they are!!! We could not possibly have asked for anything more than these fine gentlemen provided. Always so professional but friendly and so very pleasant. They are tops at what they do.

 

WE MISS THEM badly now that we are home.

 

We think the menus on HAL ships are more interesting than they had been in the past. There is plenty offered IMO for everyone to find something to suit them. Noordam's menu rotated having an alternative choice nightly among steak, salmon or chicken breast. Each night one of those three was offered.

 

I do not eat high fat foods and very rarely have white bread, white pasta, potatoes, white rice and the like. I eat very little red meat but enjoy piles of salad and vegetables. Between Lido and the dining room every day, I found wonderful choices to enjoy. Our dining team always made sure to point out choices they thought I would enjoy and they were always correct.

 

High praise to all of them.

Just about everyone we spoke with aboard ship about the food agreed that Noordam has a very, very good dining room/Lido.

[dakrewser]

Sounds lovely. <sigh> but reminds me what I'll be missing on the Dawn Princess in March. :(

 

Oh well, maybe HAL will jump in and fill the void in San Francisco when Princess pulls out next year...

[NYreadytogo]

I too was on this wonderful cruise, but my dining experience was more mixed. The main issue is that I'm pregnant, so my experience doesn't apply to all. Pregnancy means I don't eat any sort of shellfish, many types of fish (the mercury problem), nothing with alcohol in it, nothing uncooked or undercooked (including things like mousse and cesar salad which contain raw eggs or egg whites), and many types of cheese. So, obviously, it is not fair for me to complain about the lack of options. Yet, I'm a cranky pregnant person, so I will complain nontheless. I often had trouble finding a full meal to eat, although the staff was very nice in attempting to alter things like fruit cocktails, sauces, and dressings to eliminate alcohol or uncooked ingredients. Still, there were a lot of things that were "pre-mixed" or "pre-cooked" so that the offending ingredient could not be removed. I enjoyed most of the stuff I was able to eat, although I found the steaks to be perpetually too dry (an I've been craving red meat). We ate one night at the Pinnacle Grill, and everything was perfection there, so I know that there can be a well done steak that isn't dry. Anyway, I will definitely give HAL another chance to impress me with food at a time when my personal options aren't as limited. I do think that the Noordam food was an improvement over our Oosterdam cruise two years ago, and there were apparently some very very good dishes that my husband ate that I wasn't allowed to taste.

 

But really, this was a fabulous cruise in many other respects, and had all the food been up to the standards of the Pinnacle Grill, I'd have probably not hesitated to dub this my top cruise ever.

[hammybee]

 

 

I admire your eating habits which are probably the opposite of my own. I do however, like piles of salads and veggies with my red and white stuff.

[bepsf]

While I'll agree that dinners in the VDR were mostly excellent (except for some tin-y tasting canned "spinach gratin") we had AWFUL luncheon menus in the VDR, particularly on the sea day after San Juan - there simply was nothing to choose from that appealed in the least!

I finally ordered the "Blah-Blah Ling Cod Blah-Blah" - which was really Fish and Chips with too many adjectives and much too heavy breading (I try to avoid eating Wheat due to my developing Celiac...) During an earlier luncheon in the VDR, I ordered a Cheeseburger "on the plate" (no bun): What was described on the menu as Cheddar Cheese was in reality a Kraft Single. Blech. At least the chips/french fries were good - and of course our waiter, Reza, was always there to take care of us as well as he could.

Our dinner servers, Reza (yep, same ever-smiling Reza) & Rizal, were great guys, knowing our names from the get-go and participating in our group's playfulness while maintaining their professionalism at all times. RuthC and I would order an entree, but ask for the mashed potatoes from this other dish and vegetables from a third selection: "No Problem" and always correct! Our Head Steward, Sekon, was splendid - diving right in there clearing dishes and helping move the service along - no task was beneath him!

I even noticed one formal evening that the music playing in the VDR was somewhat inappropriate for the occassion (it almost sounded like KC and the Sunshine Band playing "I'm your Boogie Man"!) When I discretely mentioned it to Sekon, he took off out of the dining room and immediately silenced the music. Shortly afterward, some music came back on - a very nice classical guitar.:)

 

Tom Grindlay should be very pleased with these three men - they truly extended every effort to make our dinners splendid occassions.

[Margie201]

Brian, you are so right lunch that day in the Vista was really really strange.

Did you get that new job?

[helenp2]

We enjoyed our meals in both the VDR and the Lido. However, we felt that the overall dining on the inaugural cruise was just a step above in both variety and quality. My DH is a lover of lamb and we didn't see it on any of the dinner menus in VDR (we ate 2x in the Pinnacle, so maybe we missed it). However, on the inaugural they served both lamb chops and loin of lamb. BUT......I will take HAL's food quality and overall presentation anyday over both RCCL & Regent. Looks like we will we boarding the Noordam again in late March for a reunion with friends. Just love this ship.