The Quest - our water taxi to Barbados

[adoctor]

Good reporting.

Very surprised about your reaction to The Grill.

I was on the Quest in September and our visit to the Grill was the culinary highlight of the trip.

As many of the other senior folk have changed since then perhaps the Chef in the Grill has also moved to Encore?

[SKP946]

Thank you Fletcher for taking the time to write this travelogue, we really enjoy your style.

We recently spent 32 days on Quest cruising from Dover to Boston via Iceland, Greenland and Canada. We tried the Thomas Keller Grill three times, (as guests of others) each time hoping that our previous experience was a "one off" Unfortunately it was just as unimpressive each time.

[lincslady]

Up to now I had believed that the actual TK grill had some good dishes on it, with some positive reports coming through, and a reasonable amount of choice on each course. Certainly some people seemed satisfied a few months ago. It would be good to hear from any of them again, as everything concerning TK recently has been negative.

 

From what I read about his style from the start I felt that it probably would not work - a bit like Brits asking Heston Blumenthal to translate his style to ships, I thought. It does seem that this may be the case, and I wonder what if anything SB management might do to change and improve things.

[Fletcher]

Here's a shot I took of the Quest from Fort Napoleon in Haut-de-Terre, Guadeloupe.

 

[Suite Travels]

What a beautiful photo.

[Isklaar]

Thank you for your interesting review of your water taxi to Barbados, Fletcher. I've enjoyed reading.

 

I was on the cruise before this one, and dined at the Grill on four evenings during the cruise.

The Caesar salad was my favorite starter, it's made table side.

The crab cake seemed to contain very little crab and far too much potato or whatever filler was used.

For main course, I too was very disappointed in the Lobster Thermidor, particularly the odd execution.

The best dish is the roast chicken, in my opinion. Now I know that sounds odd, and I would never normally try roast chicken in a restaurant. I chose it because it came highly recommended by a trusted felllow cruiser.

The meat is very good, similar to a UK top quality free range chicken and it's cooked very well indeed. With sides of mashed potato, 'sweet buttered carrots' and the creamed spinach it was excellent. But still, more local pub Sunday lunch than the fine dining some may expect.

I found the desserts disappointing too, although many guests appeared to adore the 7 layer coconut cake and the ice cream sundae which is prepared table side.

 

I did like the Grill's wine list and purchased a bottle on two of the four evenings, the other two evenings I just asked for my preferred wines from the included list.

 

I can confirm that many of the experienced Grill crew and cooking brigade left the ship the same day I disembarked. They've gone over to the Encore to make preparations there.

 

Edited to add: overall I found the food to be very good on this cruise, but The Grill didn't quite live up to my expectations. Except the roast chicken! Can't believe I'm raving about roast chicken. ;)

Edited November 13, 2016 by Isklaar

[Sunprince]

Wow, great photo...Seabourn should be using that one in their advertising!

 

 

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[Fletcher]

I've now put a few more pics up from our short cruise on the Quest -

 

[Able Seaman H]

I see you visited Barnsley House.

 

We stayed there last year and had a lovely time. Afternoon tea on arrival, a lovely dinner and the best black pudding in the world at breakfast !!

 

Henry :)

[Fletcher]

Hi ABS H - Yes, Barnsley House. Lovely hotel but we thought the food at dinner was even better at their pub across the road. They have a new hotel, The Painswick, which we plan to try very soon.