Oasis of the Seas MDR Food Porn, March 9, 2013 sailing

[ikirumata]

mmm...food pr0n! After seeing that pic of the prime rib, I need a towel...got drool all over my shirt! :p

 

Love these pics to help pass the time between cruises!

[Russ Lomas]

well I'm back on board next Saturday so will be able to let you know! fingers crossed

 

From your past and future cruises, it looks like you really must enjoy the Independence. I am looking forward to sailing her for the first time next March. I wish they would add the characters and the 3D movie showings when they do the refurb next month, like the other 2 ships in the Freedom class already have. A broadway style show like the Oasis class ships and the Liberty would be a wonderful addition as well. I am not holding my breath, but would welcome a nice surprise.

[jessicalorene]

May I ask what kind of camera you use? Your pictures look great :D

[Russ Lomas]

May I ask what kind of camera you use? Your pictures look great :D

Thanks for the compliments.

I used to do a fair bit of photography up until University, about 20 years ago. I gave up on it and just used a point and click for the past 20 year until I saw a photo review of the Oasis of the Seas on CruiseCritic. The photos were outstanding and I asked what type of camera the poster used. He used a Nikon 5100.

 

I went out and purchased one late last summer and it is now a hobby I love again. I am still figuring out how to use it, but love it. One of the keys is having a good lens to use. The lens I used on all of the food photos is a Nikon AF-S Micro Nikkor 60mm 1:2.8G. It is a fixed 60 mm lens that is especially made to permit doing macro photography. That is why the depth of field is narrow and the background is blurred out to emphasize the food dishes.

 

The food shots were done as typical portrait shots. I played with the macro feature a lot and will be featuring some of those shots in my upcoming review of the Oasis beginning next week.

 

I will post the next day's food (Monday's MDR meals) in about an hour or so...

[jessicalorene]

Thanks so much for that information! I am going to invest in a new camera for my upcoming cruise and have been looking for a good one.

[plazamom]

I believe it is on all of the ships. I sail on the Independence next year, so I hope it is offered there as well.

 

 

 

I have had them on The Allure, Explorer, Liberty and Mariner. I would assume they are fleet wide. Usually served in souvenir glasses- usually each day would be a different colored shot glass. At one point they were metal, but my last 2 cruises they were clear glasses with a colored bottom. I missed one color as we went to Giovanni's one night- so later in the week I asked the bar waiter to bring me the shot I missed in the glass I missed (that night I had 2!!). So I have 1 complete set and most of 2 more. If you have a "favorite" you can ask for that each night but I like to try what they come up with each night. And I understand with the package you don't get the glasses- but since I have the set- no big deal:D

[Russ Lomas]

Thanks so much for that information! I am going to invest in a new camera for my upcoming cruise and have been looking for a good one.

Nikon has just released the Nikon D5200, so they are likely going to have some great deals on clearing out the D5100. It is a great camera with excellent image quality and features.

[Russ Lomas]

The menu for the evening...Day 3

 

Salmon and Crabmeat Gratin...very nice start to the evening meal. No Escargot available for our entire cruise, so this would have to do.

 

Arancini...golden fried rice and portabella mushroom balls, garlic spinach and Romesco sauce. It did not look like anything special, but it tasted excellent. My table mate let me try a bit of one and I agreed. Thanks for sharing, otherwise I would have been ordering 3 appetizers tonight!

 

Can't do a meal without a cold soup! Today's soup...Chilled Strawberry Bisque. Very nice. My eldest DD gives it two thumbs up.

[Russ Lomas]

May I ask what kind of camera you use? Your pictures look great :D

 

If you like the quality of these photos, keep in mind that I have reduced the quality of the photos considerably here to post them. Most of the images are 6 or 7 MB when recorded and I have cut them down to 120kB to post them here. That means that the quality of the actual photos I took are about 60 times the resolution of the ones I post here. For example, the menus look kind of blurry in these posts, but the original shots I have can be zoomed in extremely close and it is still sharp and simple to read.

[Russ Lomas]

Time for the entrees for Day 3...

 

I ordered the Filetto Di Maiale Arrosto Con Salivia (or pork for short). Pork tenderloin wrapped in prosciutto. The meat was good, but a little over cooked for me (I still like a bit of pink in my pork). The Provolone potato bake served with it was heavenly along with nicely cooked vegetables.

 

My DW loves seafood, so her choice was the Garlic Tiger Shrimp. She enjoyed her meal very much but refused to share with me since it only had 4 shrimp on the plate. I felt like ordering one myself...so I did! I left the rice, but the shrimp were nice.

[Russ Lomas]

I had read online about how good the Sticky Bread and Butter Pudding was in the MDR, so I had to order it. It was good, but surprisingly, I had a better version of bread and butter pudding in the Windjammer cafe at lunch earlier that day. I cannot I believe I am writing this, but it is true. I absolutely detest food in the Windjammer (all buffets really...) since they are usually lukewarm and do not taste great. This one dish in the Windjammer was an exception however. I only wish I could have had the same dish for dinner tonight. Oh well...the one at dinner looked much prettier.

I love Tiramiso, but was too full to try it tonight. Luckily my DW ordered it so I cold get a picture of it. I thought it looked like more like a dessert served in the Windjammer on a platter, rather than in the MDR. She enjoyed it, but it was not one of her favourite desserts of the week. I thought about asking for a bite of it, but after her scowl when I asked to try her shrimp entree, I thought I better not ask. Otherwise, I may find myself sleeping on a clamshell in the Solarium for the evening by myself.

 

What I think is one of the prettiest desserts of the week for presentation was the Dessert Sampler plate. I did not try it, but my table mate did. She said that they were good, but not great.

 

Sorry, no picture of the shooter of the night today. It did not look like anything special. I think it was an Italian Stallion. That being said, it was definitely my favourite shooter of the entire week. I had never had one before. Layered Frangelico, Amaretto, and Tuaca Citrus liqueur if I remember correctly. HEAVENLY. I think I will order one every night to finish my meal off when I cruise with Celebrity at New Year's.

 

See you all tomorrow for the day 4 menu review...the Shiitake menu.

[cruisingbajan]

Thanks for the help guys. I did not check the itineary:o

[TMO3CCO1]

Do you know the price of the shooters?

[Russ Lomas]

Do you know the price of the shooters?

Unfortunately, I do not. I had the premium beverage package, so I never saw or asked any prices all week long.

[CruisingSpara]

Oh no, not one of THESE threads again! ;) Making me hungry!

[Russ Lomas]

Welcome to Day 4 in the MDR. The Shiitake menu.

 

I realized that I had not provided any pictures of the freshly baked bread that is on the table every evening. So here is the one and only picture I took. NOTE: One evening there were some very small muffins in the bread basket. I do not know what type they were, but they were delicious!!! We all had 2 or 3 of them and probably should have had more. The rest of the bread was nice, but not warm (I would not have expected it to be on a ship serving 6000 passengers) like it is in a restaurant.

 

I tried an Apple Martini in stead of a chocolate one this evening (I had the beverage package, so it was not costing me any more, so why not). It was ok. A bit sour for my tastes. I downed it and then ordered a chocolate one to smooth out the taste in my mouth.

[Russ Lomas]

The kids love nacho chips, so they ordered the Spinach Dip. It did not look like anything special, but they both enjoyed it.

 

I felt adventurous, so I tried the Seafood Ceviche, filled with shrimp, scallops, lobster, red onion, cucumbers. I really enjoyed it but it has a very strong flavour of cilantro, so if you don't like cilantro, you likely will not like this dish.

 

Knowing that all of you would want to see more than just one or two photos of the appetizers, I took one for the "team" and ordered a Seared Beef Carpaccio as well. The meat was delicious and melted in my mouth. Highly recommended (as long as you don't mind mustard drizzled on it).

 

I told my waiter, Miller, that although I loved the chilled soups, I had wanted to try the other two appetizers instead of the soup tonight. Alas, Miller knew me too well and brought me a Chilled Mango and Pineapple Soup as well. I am glad he did. It was better than I was expecting. My DD gave it two thumbs up as well. Two others at our table took a sip and then ordered it for themselves as well.

[Russ Lomas]

My 4 year-old DD sometimes enjoys chicken. She decided to order the Marinated Grilled Chicken Breast, which is available every night. She enjoyed it so much, she got it almost every night after this. Not bad for saying she often puts up a fuss eating the same thing that my DW makes at home.

 

I adore lamb. I never get it at home because nobody in my family enjoys its flavour. I was really excited to try RCCL's Roasted Rack of Lamb since it was not on their menu last year. Sadly, I was disappointed, and likely would not order it again. Maybe it was an off-night, but I found the meat to be rather dry and tough. I had never had a rack of lamb that was tough before either. I was disappointed that there were only 2 pieces of meat on the plate as well. Usually there are 4 on a rack of lamb plate. I know you can always order another one, but I thought 2 pieces was far too small of a portion. The Parsnip mash with it was very nice though I must say.

 

Another DD ordered the Chicken Caesar. It was gone in about one minute. So I assume she really enjoyed it.

 

My DW ordered the Broiled Fillet of Atlantic Salmon, which is also available on the menu every evening. It looked a bit dry to me, but she said it was not dry.

 

A table mate ordered the Shrimp Gyoza and raved about it. It tried one bite of it, pushed my Rack of Lamb to the side and ordered the Shrimp Gyoza as well. Outstanding!

[Russ Lomas]

The ladies love their chocolate, so they all ordered the Warm Chocolate Cake. They enjoyed it but said it falls far short of Carnival's Warm Chocolate Melting Cake.

 

Nothing looked overly special to me on tonight's dessert menu. My waiter brought me the item below (I think it was the Sugar-Free Chocolate Coconut Terrine...please correct me if I am wrong and you know what it is). Anyways, I was not a fan of it and would avoid ordering it again.

 

I also received the Low-Fat Panna Cotta. Now, I am not a low-fat type of guy when it comes to my vacation food, but I have to say that I really enjoyed this dessert and would order it again. It was VERY light and lemony. I actually thought about ordering a second one this night, but did not since my shooter of the night arrived with the Panna Cotta. Sorry, no picture of the shooter tonight.

 

See you again tomorrow for Day 5, the Basil menu.

[bren61]

Do you happen to know the size difference between the appetizer salad opposed to the entree salad? For example, they have the spinach salad (app) & the steak spinach salad (entree) or Roman Vignole Salad (app) & Grilled Salmon Vignole Salad (entree). Just wondering if you were able to get the Steak or Grilled Salmon Salads as your appetizer salad? If they are double the size, that would be too much for an appetizer.

[Russ Lomas]

Do you happen to know the size difference between the appetizer salad opposed to the entree salad? For example, they have the spinach salad (app) & the steak spinach salad (entree) or Roman Vignole Salad (app) & Grilled Salmon Vignole Salad (entree). Just wondering if you were able to get the Steak or Grilled Salmon Salads as your appetizer salad? If they are double the size, that would be too much for an appetizer.

The only appetizer salad I saw was the Caesar and it was not much smaller than the Chicken Caesar entree, just did not have the chicken on it. I know it may be a waste of food, but nowhere does it say you have to finish an entree. I often left the rice on an entree and ordered a second entree for the meat and vegetables.

[bren61]

The only appetizer salad I saw was the Caesar and it was not much smaller than the Chicken Caesar entree, just did not have the chicken on it. I know it may be a waste of food, but nowhere does it say you have to finish an entree. I often left the rice on an entree and ordered a second entree for the meat and vegetables.

 

That's kind of what I thought when I saw the Chicken Cesare you posted. It didn't appear to be much larger, so I think I will just order the entree salads as an appetizer on our upcoming cruise. Thank you so much for doing this, I was hoping someone would have a thread with just all reviews and photos of the new menu food. It all looks so good that I don't know if we will do any specialty restaurants. Our plan was to eat in the MDR on the Oasis, then do the Choice dining pkg (4 specialty restaurants) on the Allure (b2b) but there are too many things I want to try off the new menu that it will take both cruises to do them all.

[swtygrl]

Can you use the Choice Dinning for lunch?

We love traditional dinning even more after the food porn!

[Russ Lomas]

It all looks so good that I don't know if we will do any specialty restaurants. Our plan was to eat in the MDR on the Oasis, then do the Choice dining pkg (4 specialty restaurants) on the Allure (b2b) but there are too many things I want to try off the new menu that it will take both cruises to do them all.

 

I really can only now appreciate why people do b2b cruises. Not only was there so much to do on the Oasis class ships that you need 2 full weeks, but for the food. If I had known that I would have been sailing on a b2b and having the same food choices for the next week, I would not have felt it so urgent to try so many appetizers, entrees, and desserts all in a single cruise.:rolleyes:

[sunnygirl1975]

This is an excellent thread. Thank you so much for posting these great pictures. I think I will take pictures of our food to show my family when we get back.