Carnival Food - What's good and what's bad?

[crusinpsychRN]

If available, Guys Burger Joint is a definite winner! I went cheeseburger withdrawals after I sailed on the Liberty. Others in my group raved about Blue Iguana Cantina. I only had it for breakfast on my last morning and immediately wished I had tried it earlier. I am sailing on the Fantasy next and my only disappointment is that I can't get my Guy's Burger fix!

 

I was up early and decided to check out Blue Iguana for breakfast things. There was something they had made up already that looked disgusting. Looked like someone lost it on a burrito. I almost lost it looking at it. Guy said it's good so I got one and it was really yummy!

 

Don't forget the hot chocolate!

Edited December 18, 2015 by crusinpsychRN

[crusinpsychRN]

Is the bacon still bad? I think that's the only food on board that I think needs improving.

 

Floppy w/o any crisp to it. Once ordered a BLT from room service and it came on white bread, not toast!

[crusinpsychRN]

I found Carnival food quite good, not as good as HAL but then you get what you pay for. Deserts were a bit of a disappointment but there is always the scrumptious chocolate melting cake:) Exceptional was the warm bread basket, some good sea food too.

 

Can't agree about HAL. Got foie gras and it was like a piece of half cooked rubber. From the internet: foie gras: It has a silky, melt-in-your-mouth texture and a very subtle taste.

 

I could go on. I survived on chicken salad and hamburgers on HAL.

[Single_dreamer]

Burrito was good. Drink not so much.

[Single_dreamer]

Nona's meatballs. Excellent and worth ever penny.

[bigcraig]

Oysters Rockefeller hopefully still served in the MDR, 2 orders for me that's enough for the night.

[sweetsixteencruisers]

To me, asking someone what they liked or didn't like really doesn't matter. Are you really not going to try something because I didn't like it. Everyone has different tastes. There would be no way, I would eat escargot but you may enjoy it. I don't go by other people's taste. I try it for myself. Just saying...

[kingoftheicedragons]

Most of the food on Carnival is pretty good. We sailed Norwegian once, and for the most part, I think Carnival's food is so much better than what Norwegian offers.

 

One thing that I would tell you to avoid at all costs (if they even still have it) is the diet pumpkin pie. My wife ordered it on one cruise--the waitress even advised against it and offered to bring two desserts if my wife was insistent on ordering the diet pumpkin pie. It wasn't really pumpkin pie at all, but some sort of gelatinous glob of what I assume might have had a pumpkin flavor of some sort.

[crusinpsychRN]

Most of the food on Carnival is pretty good. We sailed Norwegian once, and for the most part, I think Carnival's food is so much better than what Norwegian offers.

 

One thing that I would tell you to avoid at all costs (if they even still have it) is the diet pumpkin pie. My wife ordered it on one cruise--the waitress even advised against it and offered to bring two desserts if my wife was insistent on ordering the diet pumpkin pie. It wasn't really pumpkin pie at all, but some sort of gelatinous glob of what I assume might have had a pumpkin flavor of some sort.

 

That fake pumpkin pie wins an award for the worst!

[Jana60]

We had a different menu but the shift cable was great when I get it on a cruise.

Edited December 19, 2015 by Jana60

[Jana60]

We had a different menu but the shift cable was great when I get it on a cruise.

 

That was meant to say chef's table! Here are some pictures from the dinner I had:[ATTACH]

Edited December 19, 2015 by Jana60

[SuiteTraveler]

aflyingbuttress, that's too bad to hear. :( We always eat eggs and mushrooms as we're vegetarians and these are sometimes our only options. I hope we won't be starved on our upcoming cruise on Breeze in January!

 

I think the issue with the scrambled eggs is that Carnival purchases bags of pre-scrambled eggs and freezes them, then they are watery when you reheat them. However, I have the Eggs Benedict and they do a great job on that dish. Since you are vegetarian, just tell them to leave off the Canadian Bacon and have it with an English muffin, poached egg and Hollandaise sauce - it will still be delicious! Omelets are also more successful. The hash browns are good. The fruit plate in the MDR is awesome with or without cottage cheese. They do a sort of fruit sashimi design. I don't think you will be starved on your cruise at all. There are plenty of great vegetarian options in the buffet as well - the Tandoor area always has a vegetarian curry as well as vegetable pakoras and naan, sometimes samosa's. The salad bar always has vegetable salads that are very interesting and not the usual thing. The fruit soups are wonderful as is the gazpacho. There is always a vegetarian pizza and many other options. Don't forget to go to the Italian restaurant (upstairs from the buffet) for lunch - it's free and they have lots of pasta dishes up there.

[SuiteTraveler]

We did the Chef's table on the Magic in July and the Breeze in October. It was excellent in both cases, with the same menu. In terms of wait staff for the Chef's table, I give the edge to the Magic - their service was amazing. On the Breeze our waiter seemed rather scattered and wine and water glasses went unfilled for too long. Perhaps he was just having an off night, as he seemed to go off somewhere often rather than attending to the Chef's table. The people at the Chef's table were unpretentious. On the Magic, it was a bunch of Texans who loved good food and many were young professionals who live in the DFW area including two nice young women in their 20's who were cruising together and having a wonderful time. On Breeze, we met a large family/friends from a small town in North Carolina and they were all very nice. There were 3 middle aged sisters and their adult children and their spouses. One of their party was late to the Chef's Table, (not feeling well due to too much sun) but he showed up after the first two courses and they just quickly got him caught up skipping the appetizers and he was able to enjoy the entire meal. The way he found us, since we were already in the kitchen was he went to the dining room and explained where he was supposed to be to the seating hostess who brought him back into the kitchen. One of the ladies in this group was freaked out by the mango orb and couldn't eat it because it looked to her too much like a raw egg yolk. If you get the mango orb appetizer - put the WHOLE THING in your mouth and be sure your lips are firmly closed before you bite down. Many tried to bite it in half with disastrous results (getting splashed) on our Magic cruise in July. On our Breeze cruise in October, knowing what had happened, I warned people so that wouldn't happen to them. Anyway, the food was equally awesome in both cases. I liked the Chef on the Breeze best. He is very personable and even recognized me several days later when I was in the buffet and came over to chat. BTW, come to Chef's Table HUNGRY and go easy on the crab salad. It is so good, but also so very rich and filling that you may not be able to enjoy the several courses that follow it if you eat it all and there are a lot of courses after that. I think my favorite was actually the beet blanket with the grape tea appetizer. Unexpected and very delicious and also absolutely beautiful. I'm not much of a dessert person and I was full from the multi-course dinner, so I sent my dessert to young children of the nice family from North Carolina and the chef kindly packaged it up for them.

 

The chef presents each course and tells you what it is. I have eaten at a lot of Chef's tables on various cruise lines and they are always extra special good, but this is one of the best I've experienced hands down. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

 

There are great photos here of the entire current Chef's table meal - scroll about 1/2 way down:

http://www.loveandoliveoil.com/2014/10/fine-dining-on-the-high-seas-carnival-foodie-cruise-wrapup.html

 

Carnival does change the Chef's tasting menu so it may or may not be the same in 2016.

Edited December 19, 2015 by SuiteTraveler