What are your HAL "must eat" recommendations?

[tcv cruiser]

We're cruising to Alaska on the Zuiderdam this this Saturday and I'm hoping to get some recommendations from all you seasoned HAL cruises!!

 

We've cruised on HAL once before (Princess before that) but had a young child with us and only ate in the dining room once. This time it is just DH and I and we plant to enjoy all the dining on board!

 

Are there certain dishes or snacks that you had onboard that you'd classify as "must try"? If so, please let us know. On any cruise line it seems there is a real range of food quality from excellent to "don't bother ever eating that again". We want to make sure we try HAL's best.

[sparky-elpaso]

Based on our 1 HAL cruise so far:

 

Lido

Raisin buns and chocolate croissants for breakfast.

Bread pudding

Great sandwiches at lunch

 

MDR

Parmesan crusted chicken

 

Burgers and fries from the grill by the pool

 

Pinnacle Grill

Onion soup

Steak Diane

Creme brulee for dessert - 3 flavors - vanilla, chocolate and coffee

[Krazy Kruizers]

Alaska

 

Try the various Salmon dishes -- alot more of them than on regular cruises.

 

Pinnacle -- the chocolate and vanilla souffles -- way better than the ones in the dining room.

[ANSalberg]

There is an appetizer of mushrooms & snails in a puff pastrie that is SO GOOOOOOOD! The sauce is a sour-cream-type sauce. "Escargot " something....yum!

[SwissMyst]

---Croissants at breakfast are the best I have tasted outside France.

---Onion soup is somehow wonderful as room service, but off the MDR menu too.

---And I do love their powder sugar donuts.

---Fresh baked rolls at dinner with their sweet butter - simple, great classics.

---Hot dessert souffles are very welcome too, with their custard sauces dripping in them.

---Not the best ones in the world, but I always love at least one room service club sandwich, particularly on rough sea days when I want only some comfort food.

[VegasRealtor]

Blueberry pancakes for breakfast in the main room - yummy!:p

[Berk987]

We take all our meals in the MDR. Except for the early breakfast I have myself in the Lido. The chocolate croissant in the morning is delish. The yogurt parfait is good too. Nice and light. I eat that daily. Everything else is good too can't remember really bad dishes. Except I think their fish dish aren't so great so I try to bypass that. Usually I order 2 appetizer, 2 mains (I share one with DH) and 2 desserts. Portions aren't that big but we finish it all. Hence the 5 lb gain every cruise. We hate to have food go to waste. The escrogos are great too. In the evenings after the show, we like to head to the Lido for ice cream and other snacks. Every night I eat a plate of spagetti w/meat sauce - is that where the 5 lbs cam from? Don't know why but it is soooooo good. The fries by the pool area are very good. Burgers and hot dogs are so/so. Not worth the extra calories. The ice cream is good. How can ice cream go bad? creme brulee yum.

 

afternoon tea items are so/so. Buffet at HMC is so/so. It's BBQ food and cooking is quantity over quality. When you have to BBQ for over 1,000 guest eating at the same time, they slap on the food and BBQ it and that's about it. Their brownies are the BEST during that BBQ.

 

Kid's menu food in the MDR so/so. The chicken soup is very good. We order that nightly for our kids. You can try too. Anyone can order off the kids menu. Then the kids share an entree off the main menu. Sorry for any spelling errors.

[English_in_Spain]

It shows how everyone's taste is different. I had heard everyone say how wonderful the bread pudding was. I tried it but found it so sweet I could not eat it.

I agree with others about the onion soup. In fact, on HAL, we enjoyed all the hot soups. We were not so keen on the chilled, sweet, soups.

I loved the lamb chops in Pinnacle.

Gosh, now I am feeling hungry.

[SwissMyst]

Yes, I forgot the poolside french fries - real european style that actually still taste like a potato is inside it. Delicious. They do offer half-portions for the main entree, but you have to ask. It always feels bad to leave thing behind so I at least start out small - and their small is still a way to generous normal size portion.

 

So with appetizer, breads, soup/salad and dessert all coming on top of that, plus way to many goodies already adding up during the day from morning to dinnertime, I really don't need much of a main course at all - just a few bites for taste and texture and then move on to dessert and cheese. That works for me.

 

But I always end up finishing my plate even when I really don't want more than just a few bites. I need to deal with this better - but some how the waiters mournful "didn't you like it" always gets to me. What a pushover I have become. Nope, this time I will take charge ahead of time and make sure I only get the smallest of main course selections and firmly push my plate away with no guilty conscience because often the main courses are the least interesting.

 

Some posted their cruise dining rules that evaluated how they would limit their own portions after the first bites:

 

Zero if it was not very good at all - avoid it

1/4 if it was not so good

1/2 if it was only okay

100% only if it was must have terrific

Seconds only if it was "to die for"

[sail7seas]

I like the stir fries in Lido at lunch. Grilled salmon in Pinnacle.

I used to love HAL's pea soup but the last few times I had it, I think the recipe was changed. :( Same for gazpacho. Used to be wonderful but they now put mango in it. :(

[Travalerie]

Blueberry pancakes for breakfast in the main room - yummy!:p

We got them in room service on our cruise a couple of weeks ago!! Very nice surprise...we just wrote in pancakes! I also really likes these plain sugar cookies they had in the Lido. They were not too sweet, soft and such a simple nice treat.

[Copper10-8]

Sate Ayam with peanut sauce and fried rice - Enak sekali (delicious)

It used to be available at the "Indonesian lunch" but haven't seen that lunch for a while. More recently, Sate Ayam was being served at the "pool party"

[cruisinjudy]

I am getting hungry just reading this. However I don't think the raisin buns are all that great. Kind of dry I thought. I much prefer the breakfast pastries with the fruit or the cheese filling.

[Kween Karen]

My problem with this question is..........I eat everything!! Good thing I only take stairs and avoid the elevators!!

[Jade13]

Bread pudding. Pinnacle crab cake appetizer (They do a good job with the canned crab meat).

 

Stay away from the Onion Soup. Unless there has been a change in the past two years it has been horrible on every cruise and has become a joke with us. My DH would like to go into the kitchen and show then how it is made.

[CaliforniaAC]

Somewhere between our cruise in November and the one in April on the Noordam, they re-thought the portion size. I have no complaints about this, because I hate to waste food too. Before, I would just ask for a second plate, then re-portion my food, putting the extra on the other plate. Then my husband would eat what was on the second plate, along with his dinner. That wasn't exactly the plan, but he hates to waste more than I do:).

 

Some of my favorites are:

 

Lido at lunch- The italian station makes pasta dishes for you in a wok. Very tasty, but watch the fresh garlic. I loved all the garlic, but DH didn't love me smelling like garlic for about a day:o.

 

In the afternoon at the dessert bar in the lido- The day they serve apple pie, have a scoop or two of cinnamon ice cream with it. Very simple, but wow!

 

MDR:

 

The goat cheeze tart with berry sauce appetizer. Order 2 because they're small.

 

Onion Soup (and most of their soups)

 

All of the lamb dishes have been to my liking.

 

I think they changed the recipie on the braised short ribs, I liked them better before, but they're still good.

 

Opera Cake (yum)

 

Pinnacle Grill: I'll just have one of each thank you... always a hard decision. The shrimp cocktail is very festive, and the creamed spinich is very good too.

 

I know you won't be going to Half Moon Cay (just can't see HAL adding HMC to their Alaska Itineraries;)) But since the BBQ was mentioned, last April was actually very good. Better than all the times we've been there. I think they made some changes there too.

 

And HAL- if you're reading this- I miss the Indonesian Lunch in the Lido too. On the Collector's cruise in November they had an Indonesian buffet luncheon on the second leg, but the dishes were really toned down (kind'a like calling Taco Bell authentic mexican food).

[Rowena]

Chocolate Chip Croissant

French Onion Soup

 

Nummers! I wouldn't have them at the same meal, tho.

[CowPrincess]

Escargot. Baked brie. If available, the Thai Basil Chicken in the Lido at lunch. Club house sandwich from room service. The chocolate cake only available from room service. The Eggs Benedict in the Lido made with smoked salmon. The Eggs Benny in the Lido made with crab IF it is real crab.

[mearsfansinboise]

When I told my boss we were going on a cruise he said "in case you haven't heard, it's all about the food". Wow - it most certainly is. What a great thread. Looking forward to trying EVERYTHING!

[SwissMyst]

 

Stay away from the Onion Soup. Unless there has been a change in the past two years it has been horrible on every cruise and has become a joke with us. My DH would like to go into the kitchen and show then how it is made.

 

Took a french cooking class once and was surprised to learn it was just made with onions and water and a good handful of thyme. The secret was long and slow caramelization of the onions first and then a long slow simmer until all the flavors blended. No sugar to help the caramalization. No beef broth to bring up the flavor. No additive colorings out of a bottle. Just those few simple basic ingredients and careful cooking technique. The HAL soup comes pretty darn close.

[CtheW0rld]

It shows how everyone's taste is different. I had heard everyone say how wonderful the bread pudding was. I tried it but found it so sweet I could not eat it...

 

 

i agree. it was gloppy and waaaay too sweet.

 

When I told my boss we were going on a cruise he said "in case you haven't heard, it's all about the food". Wow - it most certainly is. What a great thread. Looking forward to trying EVERYTHING!

 

not for me. it is all about the ports and being at sea. some people view it as a floating buffet.

[cruz chic]

The chocolate cake only available from room service. .

They had chocolate cake on my last cruise in the dining room and I was thinking I would be getting a treat. Hal desserts have not been great the last few years. The cake tasted like plastic. I don't know how they managed to mess up chocolate cake but they did!

 

The used to have a flourless choc. cake that was to die for a few years ago. The one they have now tastes like a nasty muffin.

 

Their breads are excellent....I just wish they would go back to making good desserts.

[CowPrincess]

They had chocolate cake on my last cruise in the dining room and I was thinking I would be getting a treat. Hal desserts have not been great the last few years. The cake tasted like plastic. I don't know how they managed to mess up chocolate cake but they did!

 

The used to have a flourless choc. cake that was to die for a few years ago. The one they have now tastes like a nasty muffin.

 

Their breads are excellent....I just wish they would go back to making good desserts.

 

Seriously you HAVE to try the choc cake from room service -- I've never seen it offered anywhere BUT room service. Moist, well-made, with a ganache-type icing. Two or three layers, with a raspberry coulis on the plate under it. Well worth the extra 4 trips around the Promenade Deck!

 

Yeah, I agree with you -- most of the desserts HAL now has are not worth the calories.

[cruz chic]

Seriously you HAVE to try the choc cake from room service -- I've never seen it offered anywhere BUT room service. Moist, well-made, with a ganache-type icing. Two or three layers, with a raspberry coulis on the plate under it. Well worth the extra 4 trips around the Promenade Deck!

 

Yeah, I agree with you -- most of the desserts HAL now has are not worth the calories.

I'd have to do 1004 trips around the Promenade for that one:D. I think my all time favorite is Snickers Pie. Sometimes I can still convince them to make me one but I only seem to get one piece out of it and can never get it any other night. The chef is probably eating it him/herself:D.

[3rdGenCunarder]

Just back from Veendam and I was very happy with the food. Special favorites were rack of lamb, veal cordon bleu, four mushroom soup, apple strudel. :) :) :) :)

 

I tried a chocolate croissant the first morning at the Lido and it had a strange taste. After that, I didn't try any more croissants. I don't remember raisin buns at breakfast, but there was delicious fresh raisin bread. I took it to the toast station and had it toasted. That became my standard breakfast carb.

 

I am envious of the poster who mentioned opera cake. I love it, and we didn't have it on this cruise.

 

I agree that cakes were disappointing. Pretty, but no taste. All that touting of the Cupcake Tea raised expectations. But most of the cupcakes were white cake that had little or no vanilla (or other flavoring) in it. The frostings were just sugar frostings. No flavor. And the one I had was gritty--they used granulated sugar. Horrors!

 

The only bad things were hash at Lido breakfast the first day and the crepe at breakfast. The hash was WAY too salty, and had a peculiar taste into the bargain. Not corned beef hash. Mystery hash. :confused:

 

The first day, the toast cook couldn't get the crepe to come out right, it was much too thick. I tried again a few days later, and it still wasn't thin enough. I think the recipe comes from Goodyear. :eek: