How is the MDR food these days?

[keithm]

Hello.

 

We are returning to Princess next month for a Grand Japan cruise on the Diamond. Our last Princess cruise was on the Sapphire in Indonesia in January 2015. Since then we sailed with Celebrity on the Constellation (Aqua Class) and on the HAL Prinsendam. We select cruises primarily on unique and different itineraries, so we jump around from line to line.

 

We thought the MDR food on the Sapphire was good. The Prinsendam food was mostly very good, and the Celebrity food was consistently very good, though we did dine in Aqua and not the MDR.

 

In preparation for a cruise, I always return to the line's forum here on CC to get a sense of how "things are". I have noticed a few passing references that the MDR food on Princess has declined, and some reviewers talk about eating more in the specialty restaurants.

 

We are pretty loyal to MDR dining, with maybe an occasional dinner in Sabatini's. The MDR food would have to slip quite a bit from what we last experienced on the Sapphire in order to move us to other venues.

 

Just curious what other folks are experiencing these days in the MDR?

We did 14 days on the Regal. Overall the MDR food was quite good. We found Crown Grill/Sabatini's to have somewhat better food, but much better ambience. We normally do Cunard/Celebrity(we're going back to them)The food there is better(much better) in the specialty rest. If you're "gourmet" like us, Princess doesn't measure up. If you like good "middle" of the road cuisine, then Princess is fine.

[keithm]

We recently sailed on the Royal Princess...I can tell you that I did not think the Curtis Stone menu was anything special.....also, we are Elite members of Princess Cruises and for the first time, we found the food in the buffet better than the main dining room. The food tasted OK in the main dining room but the choices were a bit odd....Like Calamari and Shrimp soup??? Also I have seen Duck on the menu twice in ten days...I think on our part..we would just like to see some more of the familiar foods listed on the menu...Service, as always, was excellent everywhere on the Royal Princess...

The "Duck al a Orange" was without a doubt he worst meal we EVER had on any ship. Racquet ball quality. Other than that the food was fine.

[Eaglecw]

I always start out dinner with Fettuccini Alfredo with grilled chicken breast cut up on top. I’m not a fancy food eater, don’t care for some of the items on the menu so I’ve been known to ask for the children’s menu if I don’t see something on the regular menu. I haven’t tried any of the Curtis Stone dishes yet. About the only one that appeals to me is the Pork Belly. We stay out of the Horizon court as much as possible. Don’t be embarrassed to ask for the children’s menu, after all we are all just big kids. With all that said I don’t think I’ve ever had a bad meal on any of the Princess ships I’ve been on.

[sananda]

We were on the Regal 4/10/16 - 4/17/16 for a western Caribbean cruise.

 

I would describe our family as "foodies". Overall, the food was fine. There were some really good dishes and some that were terrible. The good news is that the staff was amazing and they were very willing to bring you as many dishes as you wanted. We used this extensively to try everything that sounded interesting and to replace a lot of dishes that were not good at all. The one consistent trend we noticed was that the dishes tended to be very mildly seasoned and we often found them bland or "flat".

 

Some notes from our experience:

 

My wife really likes soup. She was very pleased with the variety of soup available. She thought some were very good, and overall declared Princess as her favorite line for soup.

 

We are not buffet people. We did try the buffet a couple of times because the MDR was closed, or because of excursion scheduling. While there certainly was a huge selection, and we never noticed much crowding, we were not impressed. To our taste, the dishes seemed to be the most lackluster examples we have ever tried. This was especially true of the ethnic foods.

 

The Chef's table was an awesome experience. Be forewarned that you need to pace yourself. I am ashamed that I wasn't able to finish it all, and only had room to pick at the cheese course and the desert.

 

Our meal in Sabatini's was excellent. The notable exception was the calamari. It was tough / rubbery and tasteless. The garlic aioli that accompanied the calamari was very bland, it was really just unseasoned mayonnaise. Some people at other tables complained about value and commented that most of the dishes were available on other nights in the MDR. While I agree that some dishes were available in the MDR, the Sabatini versions were much more flavorful and none of the signature dishes were ever available in the MDR. Also, the atmosphere in Sabatini's was superior to the MDR.

 

The Crown grill was superb, top to bottom.

 

Within the MDR, the Curtis Stone selections were the same every night. We never tried any of them until the last night because there were always other things that sounded more interesting. They were ok, but they seem to be trying to jazz up lesser ingredients with this celebrity chef's menu (eg. Curtis Stone offered a flank stank, but there was always a NY strip, tenderloin, filet mignon, or prime rib offered at the same time).

 

Our favorite dishes in the MDR were the lobster thermidor, prime rib and escargot.

[RiahFly]

Personally? Any meal I don't have to cook is a good meal. Sometimes they are even great or excellent.

 

I don't do "frou-frou" food and I'm not a foodie by any stretch. I'll try something outside my comfort zone so long as it isn't something too far out there for me. I'm not picky, just careful not to give myself indigestion.

 

On the other hand what I consider a very good meal could be boring to down right horrifying to some and vice versa.

 

So what I do is take all I hear on these forums with a grain of salt and then make my own decisions. So far, I haven't really had all that much trouble having a really good meal while on a cruise.

 

I'm exactly the same! I don't like having to ask what every item on the menu is. I just want something simple and easily recognizable :D I'm also allergic to onions, so my food experience is a bit boring anyway.

 

My last Princess cruise was on the Grand in December. I found the pheasant to be extremely dry, but mostly everything else was good. The service was painfully slow at certain points, but that might be because we were in anytime dining.

[Viesczy]

We just wrapped up 21 days on the Caribbean Princess.

 

Food was great!

 

We didn't always eat in the MDR due to timing of wanting to do X, Y & Z, but out of all our cruises I would say that food quality and consistency has been the best we've experienced.

 

Were there dishes I thought I could make better? YES!

 

Were there dishes I wished I could make half as great? YES!

 

Were there dishes I didn't even try (MDR or Lido)? Yes.

[Mom33]

We ate in just about every venue on our 14 day Regal cruise in December and we were able to find something to eat that pleased us at each meal. There are so many choices no one should go hungry.

 

That said, the chef can make a difference in whether or not a dish will delight.

If we receive an unsatisfactory dish, we return it for a better alternative. :)

[wishfulone]

OK now I know to stay away from these three items.

But just a question when you refer to Featured Items just how does one know what are Featured vs Regular. We haven't cruised in 3 years for health reasons and are looking forward to our upcoming Hawaii Cruise on the Star!

 

Just Mike

 

On the left hand side of the menu there's always been a list of 'Always Available' meals. That's been reduced to half the page and at the bottom of that page there's the 'Curtis Stone Menu' with its 3 items.

[Aus Traveller]

On the left hand side of the menu there's always been a list of 'Always Available' meals. That's been reduced to half the page and at the bottom of that page there's the 'Curtis Stone Menu' with its 3 items.

On the Sea Princess, the 'Always Available' was on the left as usual, but had fewer items than it used to. One Curtis Stone item was shown in a 'box' at the bottom of the right-hand page. Fish Soup appeared probably 5 days out of 7 with Chicken and Leek Pie one night and Pork Belly the other night.

[MTJSR]

I have found the MDR food very hit and miss. Good on the Island Panama Canal cruise, consistently mediocre on Star to Hawaii, just ok on another Star to Hawaii, great on the Sapphire to Mexico, consistently low quality and off taste on the Grand to Mexico and pretty darn good on the Golden to Hawaii. The Horizon Court is a whole nother story :mad:.

Edited April 21, 2016 by MTJSR

[easyboy]

We ate in just about every venue on our 14 day Regal cruise in December and we were able to find something to eat that pleased us at each meal. There are so many choices no one should go hungry.

In the afternoon, or before entering the MDR on port days, we look first on the evening's menu posted on the wall,

If there is none to our liking, we go to the other venues as well.

[MGnut]

I always start out dinner with Fettuccini Alfredo with grilled chicken breast cut up on top. I’m not a fancy food eater, don’t care for some of the items on the menu so I’ve been known to ask for the children’s menu if I don’t see something on the regular menu. I haven’t tried any of the Curtis Stone dishes yet. About the only one that appeals to me is the Pork Belly. We stay out of the Horizon court as much as possible. Don’t be embarrassed to ask for the children’s menu, after all we are all just big kids. With all that said I don’t think I’ve ever had a bad meal on any of the Princess ships I’ve been on.

 

Yes, we are all just big, old kids :)

 

Does anybody have a link to the children's menus? I might want to try it on my next cruise - this Saturday :)

[jawhoffman]

Last month the MDR food on the Island was wonderful! I often had trouble deciding from all the interesting menu choices! Superior service in the Provence MDR added to our enjoyment, thanks to waiter & assistant, Ian & Roel, we had a delightful 15 nights dining there. We so enjoyed our table-mates & the service, we didn't eat elsewhere for a change!

 

We even went there for breakfast & lunch on most days! At breakfast there are suggested items, but asking for something else, like their special French Toast, when it wasn't on the menu was NO PROBLEM. Same at lunch, DH loved the huge ground sirloin burger (cooked to order) but wanted onion rings instead of fries. The waiter had to ask to be sure, but he had some yummy rings with his burger that day! On the 3rd might, I asked when I would see salmon on the menu, Ian said, "any night you'd like, just let me know, you can have it tomorrow". Baked potato? Say the word, its yours tomorrow night!

 

LOVE being spoiled like that! Can't wait to have those "hard decisions" to make again in January! :D

 

Not surprised you loved it!

This is posted in the sticky section at the top of the board.

 

Cruise Critic Cruisers' Choice Awards 2016>

Best Cruise Ships for Dining

Island Princess

2016 Cruisers’ Choice

8 of 10

Best for Dining

Large Ship

[WupperAV]

Some of it is like hospital food the fest like good quality cardboard.

[vino100]

Just off the Coral and the food was fabulous!!!! We cruised with three other couples and everyone of us agreed that the food was the best we have had on any cruise. We also had awesome waiters , Gabriel and Angel were over the top with their service.