Equinox MDR 11-night Menus as of 2/7/11, plus LONG MDR review

We just returned from a wonderful 11-night cruise on the Equinox, so I thought I'd take a moment to share the menus with you (attached here as a PDF, in the order we ate them), as well as my review of our MDR experience. The MDR is the one part of our cruise that didn’t quite measure up, and though I know food is highly subjective I wanted to share my opinions with my fellow Celebrity fans. I rated the dining experience as “fair” on my comment card, and received a call from Celebrity two days after disembarkation asking for further input – the representative I spoke with was very receptive to my comments and mentioned that they really appreciate detailed input, so hopefully they’ll be reading Cruise Critic when this gets posted! I’ve also reviewed the buffet and other lunch/snack venues here: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1366176 and the specialty restaurants here: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1366182

A bit about me: I am an avid cook, read food blogs/magazines religiously, make my own cheese, bread and sausage, and I’ve taken courses in pastry and sugar art. We live in NYC, so we are privileged to be surrounded by some of the world’s finest restaurants, as well as really fantastic ethnic foods. I really love to talk about and critique food, so I apologize in advance for the length of this review.

I realize that everyone’s standards for food are different, and I know mine are high. However, since Celebrity has a reputation for being a cut above in the cuisine department, and they advertise a higher-end experience, I feel that they should be held to a high standard! I did try to adjust my expectations for the MDR, so as not to judge it according to the same criteria as the specialty restaurants. They are feeding 2,000 people a night, so they simply cannot do what a regular restaurant can. That said, I think there are a number of things they could tweak that would significantly elevate the quality of the food and the overall experience.

If you've read the massive menu thread that was created in mid-2010 (http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1247134), nothing much on these menus will come as a surprise to you. There are a few small changes, which I'll note below. Desserts weren't listed on the menus I was given, but they are the same as listed in the other thread (I can relist them here if anyone would like me to). The menus were scanned in the order in which they were served to us, and for those who are cross-referencing the other thread, the "letters" were as follows:

2/7/11: C

2/8/11: B (formal)

2/9/11: A

2/10/11: D

2/11/11: E

2/12/11: G

2/13/11: L

2/14/11: K

2/15/11: F (formal)

2/16/11: J

2/17/11: I

As I said, there were a few minor changes from the mid-2010 post. When I spoke with the Maitre d' on the first day about getting the menus, she gave me a copy of everything for the cruise but told me to check what she gave me against what was actually presented in the MDR that night, because there might be small changes later on if the ship ran out of an ingredient or whatever. This did happen with one item, a Chilean Sea Bass entree that was replaced with Mahi-Mahi. The other changes are as follows:

Menu C: Wahoo Filet instead of Alaskan Halibut (same prep)

Menu B: Mahi-Mahi instead of Chilean Sea Bass (different prep); SF Lemon Tulip available for dessert

Menu G: Petit Filet instead of Pot-au-Feu

Menu L: Chicken Florentine instead of Blanc de Poulet aux Champignons

Menu K: Mahi-Mahi instead of Tilapia (same prep)

Menu J: Corvina instead of Orange Roughy (same prep I believe)

And now, the review!

Equinox Menus 2-7-11 Part 1.pdf

Equinox Menus 2-7-11 Part 2.pdf

2/7/11

Dined at Murano.

2/8/11

Our first formal night did not get off to a great start. There was a long line for Select Dining and there seemed to be quite a bit of confusion among the waitstaff. We were seated next to another two-top (tables were only about 2” apart), and our waiter tried to deal with both tables at once, which made for some awkwardness in terms of ordering and the pacing of the meal. We encountered this waiter again and weren’t thrilled with his service then either, so who knows.

Anyway, we inspected the bread basket and were not thrilled to find the same basic selection of bread we’d had in Murano the night before, just baked into different shapes. Bland, doughy and soft, all of it (except the grissini, which were bland and crispy). Such bad bread is really inexcusable – it’s an easy thing to fix, and makes such a HUGE difference in people’s impressions of the quality of the food. If I can make artisan bread and crispy, savory baguettes in my home oven, Celebrity can too.

The food: started with escargot for DH, Captain’s Fish Bisque for me. The escargot were delicious and tender, and quickly became a favorite for DH (with that much butter, how could they be bad?). The lack of good bread to eat them with was annoying, though, and kept me from ordering them myself on several occasions. The fish bisque was pretty lackluster, not much fish flavor to speak of.

Second course was lobster bisque for DH and beef cheeks (a main) for me. DH wanted to compare the bisque in the MDR with the one he’d had in Murano, and we both felt they were basically the same (i.e., ok but underwhelming), but the MDR version didn’t have ANY actual lobster in it. The much-maligned beef cheeks were quite good, very tender, although the brown sauce on the meat lacked character. The gnocchi that came with them were TERRIBLE, though – tough little nuggets of gummy potato with no discernable sage flavor.

Mains were rack of lamb for DH and quail for me. The lamb was excellent, three nice sized chops cooked perfectly medium rare. The quail, however, was one of the most disgusting things I’ve ever been served. The stuffing was wild rice suspended in what looked like overcooked egg whites, and it was inside the dried, saddest, most mistreated quail I’ve ever seen. I took one bite and set the plate aside. Jacques Van Staden, please stop doing this to perfectly good and tasty birds! I could have asked for another meal but I was fairly full from the beef anyway, so didn’t bother.

Raspberry chocolate truffle cake for me and Cherries Jubilee for DH rounded out the meal. They were acceptable, nothing special – the cake part of my dessert was dry. This would become a theme throughout the cruise, sadly.

2/9/11

Service much better tonight, but the bread basket didn’t improve. DH stuck with the escargot and I had the goat cheese tart, which was alright – a little pasty, and the tart shell was the cardboard-tasting type you get from Costco. We moved on to mushroom cappuccino for me and spaghetti alla carbonara for DH (a main). The mushroom soup, like most soups on board, just alright – no real depth, slightly watery texture. The spaghetti, however, was one of the best things we had throughout the entire cruise. Pasta seems to be a strong point on X – I never had a poorly cooked pasta dish. The carbonara, though not strictly traditional, was rich and creamy, absolutely delicious. If I had it to do over again, I would have requested this dish every night (my hips are SO happy I didn’t) and I think it would make a GREAT addition to the Always Available menu.

Mains were prime rib for DH and lamb shank for me. The prime rib was much better than I expected, tender and nicely rare with great beefy flavor. Lamb shank was also tender and moist, but FAR more than I could hope to eat and the sauce was very much like the beef sauce from the previous evening – brown and bland. The couscous helped, but not enough.

For dessert, profiterole for DH and rum-raisin ice cream for me. DH enjoyed his profiterole (I don’t see the point, myself), but for me the rum-raisin was only ok. There was little rum flavor and the raisins were very dry and chewy, plus there were some ice crystals in the ice cream (an ongoing problem).

2/10/11

Continued great service tonight. Potato soup for DH and chicken liver parfait for me – not quite sure why they called it parfait, since it was simply a slice of chicken liver paté, but it was very good indeed, rich and creamy (just slightly undersalted). The potato soup had chunks of undercooked potato in it – undercooked potatoes were a rampant problem on the ship IMO. We then moved on to seafood risotto for me and pork belly (a main) for DH. The risotto was truly an embarrassment – the rice was overcooked and gummy, not to mention flavorless. Shrimp and scallop were cooked properly but had a slightly less-than-fresh flavor. Ugh.

Now, the pork belly. I have never seen so much uproar over just about anything on Cruise Critic as over this poor innocent dish. You’d think the darn pig smoked on its balcony and wore shorts on formal night! People need to chill. Pork belly is the same cut used to make bacon, and it’s succulent and delicious when braised/roasted until tender, which is just what X did with it. I am more accustomed to it served as an appetizer because it’s so rich, and seared to crisp it up, but this preparation was a very large portion, rolled and roasted until fork tender. Really good, although again there was that ubiquitous brown sauce that just didn’t do anything for it. The cabbage compote was interesting and quite good as well. The black pudding was fine but I’ve had better. DH was surprised at the size of it as well, and sort of regretted ordering the ribeye for his third course (I ordered the pork belly as a main). However, the ribeye was pretty tasty – a thinner cut than I usually cook at home, so it wasn’t quite as rare as it should have been, nor did it have the crusty sear it should have, but it was tender and beefy. The accoutrements were a little odd though, and didn’t really go together or work with beef.

One more word about the evening: we happened to run into a French gentleman named Dominique (the last name escapes me) outside the dining room while perusing the menu, who overheard us talking about the pork belly and mentioned that it’s popular with Europeans but not so much with Americans. I later found out he is one of the higher-ups in the hotel/restaurant management department at Celebrity. In any case, he stopped by our table later to find out whether we’d enjoyed it, and chatted with us at some length about the food on board. We ran into him several more times throughout the cruise and he was always ready to listen. Thoroughly delightful man. I hope he reads this review!

DH was stuffed but managed a scoop of ice cream for dessert. I couldn’t decide between the coconut crème caramel and the chocolate marquise, so I ordered both. The crème caramel was ok, though not particularly coconutty. The chocolate marquise was quite nice, though – sort of a semi-frozen chocolate mousse, very smooth and rich.

2/11/11

Tonight started with shellfish broth for me, spring rolls for DH. I don’t think I ate more than two spoonfuls of mine (bland), but the spring rolls were delicious and a good intro to Silk Harvest. We split the meatball main for our 2nd course – it was excellent like all of their pastas, and the meatballs were tasty if slightly tough. We both chose the short ribs for our entrée. The polenta was a nice change of pace, and the short ribs were fork tender, but the “pan gravy” was simply the same brown sauce we’d already had on ALL of our other meats. Please, PLEASE get a new sauce recipe. Or four. Please. Dessert was the Always Available apple pie for DH and the chilled black cherry soup for me. The soup was…weird. It wasn’t really cold, more like room temp, and it sort of tasted like melted black cherry Jello, with extra viscosity. I think if you like fruit soup, you’d have enjoyed it, but I wanted it thrown into the ice cream maker and turned into sherbet. DH loved his pie (despite the unexpected inclusion of raisins), although I felt the apples were too mushy.

2/12/11

DH surprised me tonight and ordered the goat cheese croustillant! He hates goat cheese, but was won over by the waiter’s description of a “spring roll-type thing” and the fact that there was pesto involved. It was basically a goat cheese spring roll, and it wasn’t bad, although it suffered from the same pastyness as the goat cheese tart I had a few days before. I had the spinach turnover, which was decent – about what you’d expect from Costco. The black olives were totally random and unnecessary, too. I went with the four cheese penne next, which was delicious and rich as expected. DH tried the potato soup, hoping for a better experience than last time, but it was really more or less the same.

For our entrées, he had the veal and I went with the petit filet. Now, in general, the entrée sizes were fairly generous on board, at least in my opinion, but in this case, as soon as DH ordered the veal, our waiter said he should probably bring him two. And no, it wasn’t a fat joke. The veal entrée came with just two small pieces of veal roulade, so DH was happy for the second portion. IMO, the veal was fine but nothing special. My filet was quite good (as I found all of the beef to be), but the whiskey sauce was simply that damned brown gravy AGAIN! Carrot-maple mash was a nice change of pace, green pea flan was gummy and overstabilized (a recurring problem).

Amaretto cake for DH and peanut butter ice cream for me rounded things out. I enjoyed the PB ice cream – it was smooth, and one of the more interesting flavors on board. Amaretto cake was a bit sweet but didn’t suffer as much from the dryness issue as other cakes we tried.

2/13/11

Tonight, DH went back to escargot and I tried a pear and gorgonzola puff, which was a tiny tasty treat. Then broccoli soup for him (really bland) and pappardelle con funghi with me (really good, although it could have used more goat cheese). DH then surprised me by ordering the grouper (he’s not a fish person), while I had the rack of lamb. The grouper was a good idea that didn’t pan out – the fish was WAY overcooked. I enjoyed the vegetables underneath, though – lots of artichokes (which DH hates, so I got them all). My lamb was tender and perfectly cooked but a VERY small portion – just two small chops – so big eaters may want to order two. For dessert, DH went with bananas foster (it was fine – hard to screw up bananas foster) and I had the ginger ice cream, which was by far my most favorite flavor on the ship. So gingery and spicy! We also asked our waiter about the chocolate meringue but he said it was far too sweet, so we skipped it.

2/14/11

Dined at Silk Harvest.

2/15/11

Second formal night found us seated in the “naughty” section of the Select Dining area, all the way in the back in a corner. It would have been private but for the other two two-tops shoved up next to ours. But I digress. We started with DH’s escargot and steak tartare for me. The tartare was fine, although the mustard overwhelmed the beef IMO. Next I had the lasagna (a main) and DH had the pork chop (also a main) – in general, we found the mains more interesting than the soups and salads, so subbed a main and just tried not to eat TOO much. Anyway, the lasagna was good but extremely rich and a HUGE portion. There was too much spinach (lots of wilted spinach used as a garnish/side on this ship) and it really didn’t go with the rest of the flavors. The Barolo sauce was ok but didn’t taste like Barolo, for sure. DH’s pork chop was tender and juicy, and he liked the sweet potato accoutrements (which is weird since he generally hates sweet potatoes).

For mains, DH ordered the lasagna and I chose the tournedos, plus the Lobster Melange to share. The lobster was a joke. Another disastrous risotto – if I didn’t know what good risotto was I would probably be turned off permanently. The lobster tail itself was rather bland but mercifully only slightly overcooked. I realize they’re trying to distract people from the fact that they’re only getting half a lobster tail but if you can’t get risotto right, do it with pasta or something else instead. Just terrible.

The tournedos were similarly insulting. The beef itself was good (as usual), but the rest of the preparation was awful. First of all, there is a difference between white mushrooms and morels (and truffles). If you are not going to put any ACTUAL morels (or truffles) in your dish, please do not list them in the menu description. Secondly, if you are going to go to the trouble and expense of using foie gras, please do not turn it into rubber. An innocent goose died so you could cook his liver, please respect him and do it well. Quite honestly, I didn’t know it was POSSIBLE to cook foie gras to that texture – like a pencil eraser. ACK.

After all of that (very little of it actually got eaten), DH ordered the baked Alaska and I the white chocolate macadamia cake, both of which were overly sweet, generally flavorless, and pushed aside after one bite. Very disappointing meal overall.

2/16/11

Dined at Tuscan Grille. Read the review here:

2/17/11

We really wanted to enjoy our last night on the ship, so DH stuck with his tried and true escargot to start. I ordered both the country pate and the Montrachet potato gratin, figuring at least one would be worth eating. The gratin won – the only properly cooked potatoes I had the entire cruise, with a creamy texture and rich goat cheese topping. Terrific. The pate was not awful, but it wasn’t great either, and not worth the calories, so I stopped after a bite. The little cubes of currant jelly, though a good idea, were the texture of finger Jello and therefore didn’t work as an accent.

I also wanted to sample more of the Always Available menu before departing, so I went with the onion soup next, while DH had the pasta Bolognese. The onion soup was really quite good – more traditional than the one I had at Tuscan the previous evening, but great rich onion flavor and plenty of cheese and caramelized onions. DH’s pasta was good for what it was, better than the meat sauce in the buffet, but it most certainly was NOT authentic Bolognese (and calling a red sauce with meat “Bolognese” is one of my pet peeves). Anyway, for our final entrees we went with pecan chicken for him and lamb shank for me. The chicken was a little soggy and the accompanying apple fritters inedibly greasy. Cream sauce was nice, though, and a distinct flavor from the other sauces we’d had. Lamb shank was tender, but again with bland brown sauce, and the cabbage tasted of neither cinnamon nor shiraz.

Our final desserts were apple crumble for DH and the everyday cheesecake for me. The apple crumble was acceptable – a bit dry, but nothing a scoop of ice cream couldn’t fix. The cheesecake, however, was a travesty. Chewy and gummy texture, as though both gelatin and copious amounts of flour had been added to thicken it. *****? It is NOT HARD to make a decent cheesecake. I’m not asking for NYC’s finest here, but if I can do better at home, there is something wrong. It’s also not the type of thing that should suffer from being served in a banquet hall, so that’s no excuse. Get it together on dessert, Celebrity!

SUMMARY

There were certainly good meals to be had in the MDR, especially when it came to beef and pasta. These were always cooked well, which is a real credit to the MDR staff, because they’re not always the easiest things to get right. However, overall I felt the MDR experience fell short of what a line like Celebrity should be able to accomplish. There are plenty of small things that should be easy to improve that would really elevate the experience, without costing much (if anything). Here are my suggestions:

- Improve the breads. They need to have flavor and at least one variety needs to have a real crust.

- Rework the sauces. Many of them tasted exactly the same, and the general brown gloopy blandness gave the menu an overall heavy and stodgy feel. Celebrity wants people to think their cuisine is cutting edge, so come on into the 21st century and stop putting brown gravy on EVERYTHING. Gastriques, wine reductions, fruit purees - anything with brighter flavors, especially with such rich meats. Mix it up!

- Get rid of flan if you have to turn it into Jello to make it work in the MDR. There are plenty of other interesting things to do with carrots and peas.

- Stop putting sautéed spinach (or flan) in everything and get more creative with vegetables. I rarely mentioned vegetables in my review because I was rarely served any. Salads don’t count. Three green beans decorating the plate don’t either. Brussels sprouts are trendy right now, start there and keep brainstorming.

- Learn to cook risotto or take it off the menu. For real.

- Overcooked fish is bad. Just say no.

- Do something, ANYTHING, about the desserts. Do people taste test these recipes before they’re put into service? Sweet doesn’t equal good, and texture is REALLY important. At least learn to make a decent cheesecake.

If you made it to the end - thanks for reading!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for the excellent critique! It's nice to hear from a true foodie.

Is there a separate link for your Tuscan Grille review?

P.S. My opinion of the MDR food on the Equinox is more forgiving, but much less informed. We recently enjoyed some of the same menus on a shorter cruise on the Century, and I felt the food was a tiny bit better except for the meatball main in which the meatballs were overcooked.

Sorry, found your other reviews in another thread!

Thanks for the excellent critique! It's nice to hear from a true foodie.

 

Is there a separate link for your Tuscan Grille review?

 

P.S. My opinion of the MDR food on the Equinox is more forgiving, but much less informed. We recently enjoyed some of the same menus on a shorter cruise on the Century, and I felt the food was a tiny bit better except for the meatball main in which the meatballs were overcooked.

Here's the link to the specialty restaurant reviews: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1366182

Thanks for reading!

Thanks so much for your delightful and thorough reviews. Not only are you a very knowledgeable 'foodie', but you have a real flair for writing as well. I especially enjoyed your comments about the pork belly:

2/7/11

I have never seen so much uproar over just about anything on Cruise Critic as over this poor innocent dish. You’d think the darn pig smoked on its balcony and wore shorts on formal night! People need to chill.

and howled as I read them! I appreciate your straightforward 'tell it like it is' style and find it very refreshing.

Although I don't have anything close to your expertise in the kitchen, I DO love to eat. As I look forward to our upcoming Equinox cruise, one of my favorite pastimes right now is anticipating the meals onboard. Thanks to your detailed descriptions, I now have additional fuel to fire my blissful contemplation!

Alsmez, thanks for taking the time and effort to produce this very informative post.

As a cruise virgin researching our first cruise on Equinox I really appreciate being able to get a clear understanding of what to expect in the MDR (see I am learning the lingo already ;)).

My mouth was watering just reading through the menus, can't wait to start our cruise :D

Your experience with the Equinox dining room food matches mine in many respects, and, like you, I know how to cook quite well. Had you eaten on Celebrity ships back in the late 90's, you would have been far more pleased with the food. The problems today are largely dictated by cost cutting and what appears to be very simple preparations, so the food lacks flavor. For example, making good sauces is often not difficult, but it takes time, which means increased labor costs.

We solve the problems we encounter in the main dining rooms by dining in the alternative restaurants, favoring Murano on Equinox. Perhaps that is just what Celebrity intends as it increases revenues.

Thank you for the interesting review.

we recently sailed on the 10 night Equinox itin & dined in BLU--loved it..including the desserts.. (no salt bloat!) Service was excellent & personalized. I have some pics but have to downsize them before they can be posted!

we relied on a previously posted menu order to schedule our specialty restaurant & found they switched some of the nights around--so not always a guarantee..just a heads up for those who like to plan ahead....

thanks for the detailed review.....

we recently sailed on the 10 night Equinox itin & dined in BLU--loved it..including the desserts.. (no salt bloat!) Service was excellent & personalized. I have some pics but have to downsize them before they can be posted!

 

we relied on a previously posted menu order to schedule our specialty restaurant & found they switched some of the nights around--so not always a guarantee..just a heads up for those who like to plan ahead....

 

thanks for the detailed review.....

They do serve the menus in different order depending on the length of your sailing and the placement of the formal nights, I think. However, menus B and F are always the formal night menus, as far as I can tell - they're printed in a special font, etc. - so if you know when your formal nights are you'll be able to tell at least that much.

It seems that normally menu A is the "First Night" menu, Maybe there were some supply issues in Fort Lauderdale that caused the change to menu C and the absence of the BBQ Sea bass which is normally served .

It seems that normally menu A is the "First Night" menu, Maybe there were some supply issues in Fort Lauderdale that caused the change to menu C and the absence of the BBQ Sea bass which is normally served .

Hm, interesting. I thought menu A was one of the stronger menus, so it would make sense that they'd want to put their best foot forward on the first night.

I am looking forward to having the lamb, foie gras, escargot, filet of beef and anything goat cheese, along with a good salad as a starter. :) You mentioned "salads" in passing when talking about vegetables, but did you ever have a salad at dinner in the MDR? If not, do you remember any of the types of salad?

I never ordered salad in the MDR but the salads are on the menus I posted. They never really interested me - very pedestrian choices, a lot of iceberg lettuce. The salad dressings in the buffet were good, though, so I assume they were also good in the MDR. However, when I wanted salad I made my own at lunch, from the buffet - they had big bowls of arugula, butter lettuce, romaine and mixed greens with radicchio, plus probably 25 different mix-n-match toppings. They also had a station with antipasti (sundried tomatoes, marinated olives, peppers, mushrooms and artichokes), but it was near the pizza, so if you wanted those things on your salad (which I did) you'd have to make two stops. No big deal, but moving that station would probably improve traffic flow.

Thank you, most days I have a salad at lunch, along with pasta (love a little oil with fresh Parmesan and Capers) or a slice of pizza.

I am the queen of fine risotto. It takes time and patience to get it perfectly right. Somehow, I just don't think the kitchen staff has the time to make perfect risotto. I'll take my chances with everything else on the menu, but I'm sad to hear about the risotto.

I am the queen of fine risotto. It takes time and patience to get it perfectly right. Somehow, I just don't think the kitchen staff has the time to make perfect risotto. I'll take my chances with everything else on the menu, but I'm sad to hear about the risotto.

I've had lots of great risotto in restaurants - I believe what they usually do is cook a large batch until almost ready, then set it aside and finish individual portions separately as needed with a last addition of stock, butter and cheese so that it only takes about 5 minutes. Unfortunately, I'm sure that in the MDR they couldn't possibly take that much time on every single order, and it shows.

OP, Do you think that Celebrity may be using pre packaged items such as the brown gravy/sauce? I've read that RCCL tends to use alot of pre packaged items, maybe it is spreading?

Thanks for all the details.

Well, they SAY they make everything from scratch, but that really depends on your definition of "scratch." For instance, they claim to bake all of their breads fresh daily, but I have a feeling they use pre-made, frozen dough and just bake it off. As for the brown sauce, I don't think it was necessarily pre-made, nor was it really bad, it was just involved in WAY too many dishes. I assume they used it as a base and added other things to it to try to create different flavors, but that's not going to give you a good result, as anyone who makes sauces at home knows. I've tried to take shortcuts like that before and it never works, much to my dismay! ;)

2/7/11

One more word about the evening: we happened to run into a French gentleman named Dominique (the last name escapes me) outside the dining room while perusing the menu, who overheard us talking about the pork belly and mentioned that it’s popular with Europeans but not so much with Americans. I later found out he is one of the higher-ups in the hotel/restaurant management department at Celebrity. In any case, he stopped by our table later to find out whether we’d enjoyed it, and chatted with us at some length about the food on board. We ran into him several more times throughout the cruise and he was always ready to listen. Thoroughly delightful man. I hope he reads this review!

 

 

You were very fortunate to have Dominic Abbaye on your cruise. We first met him on the Constellation in OceanLiners in 2004 (Russia & Scandinavia cruise). He is very hard working and is a perfectionist. His staff on the ship respect him immensley. He was promoted several years ago and now works in the Miami office but takes onsite visits on the various ships. He is usually on the launch of any new ship as well.

 

You are very knowledgable about food and I am sure he appreciated speaking with you on board.

 

I enjoyed reading your detailed meal descriptions. We usually don't eat in the main dining room. Mostly favor the Specialty restaurants and next cruise also Blu. I wish you had cruised in AquaClass. Would have loved your comments on the food there!

You were very fortunate to have Dominic Abbaye on your cruise. We first met him on the Constellation in OceanLiners in 2004 (Russia & Scandinavia cruise). He is very hard working and is a perfectionist. His staff on the ship respect him immensley. He was promoted several years ago and now works in the Miami office but takes onsite visits on the various ships. He is usually on the launch of any new ship as well.

 

You are very knowledgable about food and I am sure he appreciated speaking with you on board.

 

I enjoyed reading your detailed meal descriptions. We usually don't eat in the main dining room. Mostly favor the Specialty restaurants and next cruise also Blu. I wish you had cruised in AquaClass. Would have loved your comments on the food there!

Steph, thank you for identifying Mr. Abbaye to me - I was so annoyed with myself for having forgotten his last name! We ran into him several times later in the cruise and he made to sure to not only ask about our experience, but really listen to our answers. Do you happen to know his exact title? I can't find him on Google or the X website.

As for Blu, I'm disappointed we didn't get to try it as well - I really want to sail AQ next time, even if it means waiting a little longer to cruise. Now that Silhouette is sailing out of Bayonne we can save ourselves the cost of a flight to FL, so perhaps we'll spend that on an upgrade!

OP, Do you think that Celebrity may be using pre packaged items such as the brown gravy/sauce? I've read that RCCL tends to use alot of pre packaged items, maybe it is spreading?

 

Thanks for all the details.

Having a food-allergic child in our party, I have a bit of insight into this. We would walk the buffet and stations him almost every breakfast. The chef would tell us which items had nuts and which didn't and which weren't supposed to but for which he wouldn't vouch as they hadn't been made on board. There were very few. The only one I remember specifically was the steamed buns at the Asian station. (We rarely at lunch on board and when we did he used the outdoor grill so I don't know much about lunch.). At dinner he'd order the night before and they'd make him the dish he wanted in the special needs kitchen, adapting recipes as needed. This is in contrast to RC where we heard several times that, while his food would be prepped in the special needs kitchen, it would be substantially altered because the sauce was pre made and not safe for him.

Having a food-allergic child in our party, I have a bit of insight into this. We would walk the buffet and stations him almost every breakfast. The chef would tell us which items had nuts and which didn't and which weren't supposed to but for which he wouldn't vouch as they hadn't been made on board. There were very few. The only one I remember specifically was the steamed buns at the Asian station. (We rarely at lunch on board and when we did he used the outdoor grill so I don't know much about lunch.). At dinner he'd order the night before and they'd make him the dish he wanted in the special needs kitchen, adapting recipes as needed. This is in contrast to RC where we heard several times that, while his food would be prepped in the special needs kitchen, it would be substantially altered because the sauce was pre made and not safe for him.

Let's hope pre made does not spread. We can all buy premade food at home and microwave it:eek:

Thanks for sharing.

Thank you for the wonderful and informative information. Although I hate you. (Just Kidding) I am not getting on the ship until October and you drove me crazy with your colorful descriptions. I almost smelled the food as you described it. Thank you for taking the time to write this.

You're quite welcome. And I hate you too, because I won't be able to get on another cruise until 2012 at the earliest! In all seriousness, though, I am glad you enjoyed the review - I always love to read people's descriptions of dishes. I think it tells you much more than the menu ever could!