What about the food?

[bixy]

Hi I am travelling soon on the Pacific Star and would like to hear stories about the food, good and bad. What do people recommend? What you did for luch or breakfast? When did you find it busy? Also I would like to know about the smoking aboard, I do not smoke but have people in my party that do. I have heard that the casino allows smoking, and that they have 2 smoke free nights. Is this true or are they just trying to get me going:confused:.

[begginer_cruiser]

When we were on the Star in November they did have two smoke free nights in the casino.

 

We had breakfast in the lido buffet every morning - i loved the pancakes and danishes.

 

Lunch was either in the buffet or on the lido deck near the pool. I preferred lunch from near the pool where you could make your own hamburgers and hotdogs or choose from the pizza, chips, desserts. I think there were also some other dishes as well but cannot remember them off the top of my head. One day they had prawns and some other seafood salads etc in the buffet for lunch.

 

There was always so much food - and all so yum!

[Star-Man]

A lot of people will tell you that the food is one of the highlights of the cruise and i would certainly agree.

 

Breakfast is pretty much the same in the dining room as in the buffet, but it is probably easier to go to the buffet. You get your food faster and can go back for more.

 

The lunch menu changes every day as does the dinner one. We tried to get to the dining room for lunch whenever we could. The mexican lunch they do is absolutely wonderful. The seafood day at the buffet is also one that shouldnt be missed. When there is all you can eat fresh prawns, you dont want to be anywhere else.

 

Each night at dinner there is a different theme, Italian, French etc... The service from the waiters is amazing but it does usually take a while to get your meal.

 

Smoking is allowed up on deck i think. and yes, the casino does 2 smoke free nights which turn out to be the most popular nights.

[Tinalou]

Personally, I didn't find the food to be as great as I was expecting. However, there were some highlights that made the overall experience be pleasant. It wasnt terrible, but it wasnt five star dining...you're not paying for five star food. Lol. :p

 

From reading these forums, I was so thrilled at the aspect of ten days of fabulous food that everyone was raving about. My husband is an extremely picky eater and has described the food as mediocre. He thinks the selection could have been better, especially at dinner in the restaurant. As for myself, I am pretty easygoing, I will try anything once. I found the dinners in the restaurant to be okay, edible, but certainly not knock-out grub. :p The desserts however were fabulous (even though I am not really a sweets lover) - make sure you try the chocolate souffle, it was to DIE for! Our waiter was so good - even though my hubby was so picky, he would always bring us a bowl of chips with our meal to help fill us up and when hubby didnt want anything off the dessert menu he would go out of his way to bring him bowls of icecream and sorbet [with chocolate topping!]

 

The buffets were generally okay. The hot selection usually looked RANK by the time we got to it. I hated the queues for everything - it felt like boarding school or something and people were really rude. There was a good variety of pilafs, a chicken dish (with skin on) everyday, noodles, rices, vegies, a carvery, beef and pork dishes. Every day had a different theme - Asian, fish and chips, Italian, etc. Every day there was also curries and pasta - I loved the curries.

 

My favourite though was the salad bar. There was yummy fresh salads every day and bowls of salad fillings to make your own salads or roll and a selection of dressings. There was fruit, desserts like choc mousse as well.

 

Brekkie was okay in the buffet, although we never got up early enough to make it to the restaurant sit-down brekkie. We had the pancakes [my favourite were the pear and raisin], toast, crispy bacon, grilled tomato, hash browns, lots of fruit, fresh juices and usually an omelette of some kind.

 

Afternoon tea was YUMMO! DH loved the scones with jam and cream and fruit cake, I loved the mini sandwiches and rolls with yummy fillings like roast beef and relish, chicken and avocado.

 

The pizzeria was okay - the pizzas are like nothing I've ever tasted here before. Very cheesy. The toppings are unusual - not your standard toppings. My favourite was the Californian I think it was called, DH loved the Mexican one with red, yellow and green capsicum and pepperoni. My favourite had chicken, avocado, sour cream [i think, cant remember now].

 

Room service is disgusting. Don't bother.

 

The Steakhouse is fantastic! Not only is the service fantastic, but for $15 we both ordered a delicious filet mignon with vegies and chips, Caesar salad [for him] and the blooming onion with ancho dipping sauce [for me] and delicious berry cheesecake for dessert. Our waiter was so cute- he saw that we were unsure about trying the panna cotta, so he brought one out for us to try in addition to our cheesecakes. He was the best! :D

 

Overall, the food was good, but not great. The biggest disappointment was the room service food. Steakhouse was probably the best.

 

I found it hard to keep up with all the eating - I said to DH that it felt like were just constantly eating!

 

Not good for the diet conscious, lol.

[qld cruiser]

Hi cruiser...

difference of opinion will always be around the food on a cruise.

travel on a 5 star ship and the menus are great, you have paid the extra for the service.

travel on a 3 star , like our Pacific Star and Sun, the menus are great for the daily $ allowance per passenger.

I have always enjoyed the food on whatever ship we go on.

both DH and I are diabetic, and staff go that extra mile to help.

If you are diabetic, vegetarian ,coeliac or whatever, let Cornelius (on the Star at present) or Favio (on the Sun) know , and they will change your meals accordingly.

I must add ........

I agree with Tinalou about the room service.......:mad: not happy Jan..

kindest regards, Lorraine:) :)

[LouLou28]

Food we good ... no certainly not 5 star dining, but certainly fresh and plenty of choice.

If we were going to the buffet for breakfast we would normally be there around 7:30am - 8:00am (we have younger kids ... thus the somewhat earlier time) - and didn't find it too busy ... but about 10am when the partygoers get up - it can get a bit hectic. (My husband would go back around 10-10:30 to have a coffee and a danish for morning tea!!).

 

Breakfast in the restaurant was much the same (buffet fruit, pastries, cereal - and order hot food of the menu). Not as crowded (except for the last day when you get into port early!!!)

 

Did enjoy the BBQ on the Lido deck at lunch (and they often had buffet curries or something there too .... good choice!)

 

Waiters are great in the restaurant at night! Will do anything to make your experience good we found!

 

Enjoy it!!!

[Tinalou]

I just wanted to add, on a more positive note, that there was always an abundance in fresh fruit at every meal. I never ate so much pineapple and bananas in my life! The fruit was so fresh and beautiful, I would eat fruit salad every day, as well as huge chunks of pineapple with my brekkie and lunch.

 

I freaked out when I saw all their lush bananas- having not bought bananas for a while, I went crazy and started stockpiling them in my cabin for later gobbling! :o :o

 

EDIT: I just realised this thread was about the STAR! Oops! My references are to the Sun, so take them with a grain of salt. In general though, it would apply to the Star too I think.

[AuzzieCruiser]

I wonder if they will bring the chefs from Princess over to P&O when the Regal becomes Dawn.

I found the Princess food to be quite good, though the room service was average.

Best dish I have ever had was a warm chicken salad that came in its own edible tortilla. I was so stuffed after that, that I didn't want to eat dinner later that night!!:p Though I did manage to find room for dessert after eating it!!;)

[Tinalou]

Though I did manage to find room for dessert after eating it!!;)

 

There is ALWAYS room for dessert, my friend! :cool:

 

Especially on holiday!

[AuzzieCruiser]

There is ALWAYS room for dessert, my friend! :cool:

 

Especially on holiday!

 

On Diamond Princess I had 3 desserts every night!!:o The choice of desserts up in the buffet was unbelievable!!:eek: I never had the same thing more than twice in the 7 nights. There was 6 desserts every night plus cakes!! I never got around to the cakes though.:(

[Skyrules]

I wonder if they will bring the chefs from Princess over to P&O when the Regal becomes Dawn.

I found the Princess food to be quite good, though the room service was average.

Best dish I have ever had was a warm chicken salad that came in its own edible tortilla. I was so stuffed after that, that I didn't want to eat dinner later that night!!:p Though I did manage to find room for dessert after eating it!!;)

 

Jarrod, like most things there's a lot of interchanging of galley/restaurant staff between the P&O Australia and Princess fleets - and in fact the hand out that accomapied the Chef's Cooking Demonstration and Galley tour on our Cruise on Pacific Star obviously come direct from Princess - it talks about the Maitre 'd working for "our sister company P&O Australia".

[aussiedisneyfan]

This is why my clothes have all shrunk in the past year. Four cruises definitely does not help the waistline.

[Skyrules]

On Diamond Princess I had 3 desserts every night!!:o The choice of desserts up in the buffet was unbelievable!!:eek: I never had the same thing more than twice in the 7 nights. There was 6 desserts every night plus cakes!! I never got around to the cakes though.:(

 

Sounds very much like the lunch buffet's on P&O Australia. It was always a competition to see who in our travel party could guess how many different desserts Riff Raff (my other half, the dessert fiend) would come back with each lunch time.

[Tropicalshowers]

O.K guys and gals,

I'm married to a chef........(so don't blame me!:D ). Whenever we talk to friends who have 'chef' connections, my husbands response to the inevitable food question, is always along the lines of; "The food was O.K. It was of good quality, it just lacked flavour".

 

Ofcourse I always add that if you dine out at upmarket restaurants regularly,(which we tend to do), you would think the same, but for what you are paying all up, it's bloody marvellous. He does agree. I must add though that he thought the desserts were just not up to scratch (...he's also a trained chef patissier.....and you think you've got weight issues!:eek: )

 

We enjoyed breakfast in the Dining room (so did the kids)...a great way to meet more people... and our best meal was definitely at The Steakhouse. It's worth paying the extra.

 

Smoking.....

We are ex-smokers and don't usually quibble about smokers, but we thought people could smoke 'everywhere', in a very confined space! I find it amazing that smoking is allowed in the cabins...disaster waiting to happen! We felt like we were a minority...the only 'smoke free' bar we could go to was the Piano Bar (never went to the Bahia after dinner times...??), & the smoke free night at the Casino was on the second formal night...they knew no-one would be there! And no-one was!

Half the outside Lido bar was non-smoking (laughable),but this area was unavailable after 5pm due to kids meals. Our cabin was on Aloha Deck (Star) and we got big wafts of smoke through the air-con from the bars up above.

O.K enough.....I'm sounding like an ex-smoker big time.....sorry...we did fill out the P&O survey on smoking before we disembarked, as did our kids who also found it smelled of cigarettes at the kid's clubs.

 

That's it.......P.S We truely did love our cruise!:)

 

Cheers

[kezza]

We're non smokers and I have to say that I've never noticed the smell from smoking or the actual smoke. I thought it would be terrible and in our clothes but it wasn't the case, so hopefully it'll be just as good this time round.

 

I found the same brekky every day and bit boring but hey you don't have it at home so I figure you just need to enjoy what you can.

 

The lunches were always different and very good as well as the dinners. I ordered 4 prawn cocktails last cruise and yummy as well as extra escagot (snails - yummmmmiieee). I never order more deserts tho, not big on deserts. lol

 

Kerri

[acdc]

We loved the food on the Star. We usually went in fairly early to the buffet where I had porridge and maybe an egg dish, then we'd go for a bit of exercise (hubby to gym) and go back to the buffet for fruit and pastries!

At lunchtime, I couldn't keep away from the buffet, although we kept saying we should try the dining room. I'd have a small serve of curries for entree, then salads or soup. The hot foods didn't seem to appeal.

We always had all the courses at dinner, usually starting with a soup.

We discovered afternoon tea halfway thru the cruise and loved the ambience in the dining room, and also meeting different people.

As we were on first sitting, I tended to get a bit peckish at bedtime, so I always took some fruit and a yoghurt back to the cabin from breakfast!

Tea and coffee is available on the Lido at all hours (self serve of course) so we spent a few nights on deck with a hot cuppa!

Feeling quite "homesick" remembering the great time we had!

[Skyrules]

We're non smokers and I have to say that I've never noticed the smell from smoking or the actual smoke. I thought it would be terrible and in our clothes but it wasn't the case, so hopefully it'll be just as good this time round.

 

 

 

Kerri, I notice you haven't been on Pacific Sun, which seems to have the worst smoke problems, particularly around the Casino.

[begginer_cruiser]

Was the afternoon tea in the dining room on the Star? We looked around the ship a couple of afternoons and never seemed to be able to find afternoon tea.

[AuzzieCruiser]

Just a quick question for ADF and/or past it. Is there any difference with regards to the food, in terms of selection, quality and quantity compared to Celebrity and Royal Caribbean?

What does the breakfast buffet consist of? Is it the same as Celebrity and RCI?

Many thanks Ladies.:)

[Star-Man]

Was the afternoon tea in the dining room on the Star? We looked around the ship a couple of afternoons and never seemed to be able to find afternoon tea.

 

If its the scones and jam and the like then yes it was in the dining room. I think there was a mention of it in one of the pacific dailys

[karmac]

Kerri, I notice you haven't been on Pacific Sun, which seems to have the worst smoke problems, particularly around the Casino.

 

We cruised on the Sun. I have never been a smoker & DH is an ex smoker and neither of us had a problem with the smoke.

 

Karen

[aussiedisneyfan]

AuzzieCruiser, Celebrity has a much wider choice of food and venues to eat. For example, 24 hour room service and it is free. There is a free pizza/pasta bar that is open till 1am.

 

I don't want to sound like I am particularly criticising P&O because I have been happy with their food but Celebrity is definitely better. At breakfast their was an omelette station to make to order omelettes also waffles. Their just seemed to be a lot more choices and less of the tired looking greasy stuff. Their presentation is better too. It sounds hard to believe when you see all the carved fruit etc on P&O but Celebrity's was better. At dinner instead of ordering dessert at the beginning they come back with the actual dessert dishes so you could see what you were ordering.

 

You really are comparing 3 star to 5 star food.

[bixy]

Thank you to all who responded on this topic, it has helped greatly.:)

[AuzzieCruiser]

AuzzieCruiser, Celebrity has a much wider choice of food and venues to eat. For example, 24 hour room service and it is free. There is a free pizza/pasta bar that is open till 1am.

 

I don't want to sound like I am particularly criticising P&O because I have been happy with their food but Celebrity is definitely better. At breakfast their was an omelette station to make to order omelettes also waffles. Their just seemed to be a lot more choices and less of the tired looking greasy stuff. Their presentation is better too. It sounds hard to believe when you see all the carved fruit etc on P&O but Celebrity's was better. At dinner instead of ordering dessert at the beginning they come back with the actual dessert dishes so you could see what you were ordering.

 

You really are comparing 3 star to 5 star food.

 

Thanks for your response ADF. The limited options is what really has be a bit concerned. We loved the Casual bistro dining on Infinity, as it gave us an alternative without paying extra.

With some good reviews about the steakhouse, we might try the steakhouse. Is it still $15, or is it per item? Does the $15 include dessert? Also I'm not a big steak lover, what else is on the menu?

Many thanks.

[aussiedisneyfan]

It was $15 for 3 courses, may have gone up.

 

I can't remember the full menu. We have had for entree, blooming onion, ceaser salad; main, only remember steaks; dessert, new york cheesecake, tiramasu(?)