No steaks (?) and other Royal Princess food issues

[BridgeMates]

Two weeks on the Star to Hawaii and back in January. Son and dau-in-law were with us. We too were disappointed to see the alternate menu that didn't include the steak option any night. Of course we had plenty to eat but some nights we chose the Crown Grille as the DR menu was very uninspiring. The Grille never fails us! Food overall was good, not great, but better than we eat at home every night, that's for sure. The lack of things to do during so many sea days was more disappointing than the alternate menu however. Too many "foot seminars, jewelry demos", etc. etc. After 22 Princess cruises, perhaps we're becoming jaded but have decided to try another cruiseline for the next voyage.

Please don't jump on me, I'm just saying how we felt on this cruise compared to previous ones.:D

[Outatown]

We finished B2B2B on the Regal last month, in the CB also. The first night on each segment in the MDR there was prime rib, and it was a nice lean, thick cut of at least half an inch, all 3 times. It was delicious, and arrived cooked to order. During the week there was beef spareribs, New York strip, filet mignon, and beef Wellington available on different nights. But no, there was not a 'steak' on the always available menu, but it has been that way for at least a year. Some folks have quick triggers, did these friends even check the evening menus, or did they just huff off because after 2 nights there wasn't a porterhouse steak on the menu? Maybe there really were not any streaks on that B2B cruise, but somehow I don't feel that is accurate. But if these friends were disappointed that there wasn't a traditional steak on the menu every night, that would indeed be the case, and if that was their expectation then yes, their disappointment is valid. One has to read the menu entirely, and something interesting may not be the first item listed. Case in point, although we are not Curtis Stone fans, the Regal menu included 1 dish designed by his staff every night, it appeared at the very bottom of the right page of the menu. 2 pork dishes were exceptionally flavorful, one being pork belly which we had never tried before.

[Colo Cruiser]

We have always enjoyed the prime rib and the NY.

[KruzeKrazy!]

Perhaps reducing some frequency of steak offerings is on select sailings at this time and its purpose is (at least) three-fold: (1) test the waters (pun intended!) for pax reaction to offering it less, (2) be "cost appropriate" for margin control, and (3) drive more covers to Crown Grill/Sterling to grow revenues...

[bamelin]

If you think Princess food is sub par, then avoid Carnival at all costs. Just my opinion and experience.

 

Haha so true.

[bamelin]

Steak in MDR wasn't worth ordering. Princess doesn't seem to understand beef very well. Of course preparing steak for a bazillion diners isn't going to be a winning proposition anyway. Steak should be cooked individually to order and served immediately. If you want steak go to Crown Grill.

 

I've heard the same. My personal experience is that Princess does seafood really well which I love.

[KiwiFunCruiser]

Steak in MDR wasn't worth ordering. Princess doesn't seem to understand beef very well. Of course preparing steak for a bazillion diners isn't going to be a winning proposition anyway. Steak should be cooked individually to order and served immediately. If you want steak go to Crown Grill.

 

Absolutely correct, At least you get a good one and sometimes I have been given a Lobster on the side.

Edited March 13, 2017 by KiwiFunCruiser
Spelling, I'm hopeless on a Monday.

[JF - retired RRT]

Just a thought...is it possible your friends only looked at the left side of the menu?

"No steak!! Terrible! Oh, look! This menu has a left and right side. There's the steak.":'):o

[caribill]

Steak in MDR wasn't worth ordering. Princess doesn't seem to understand beef very well. Of course preparing steak for a bazillion diners isn't going to be a winning proposition anyway. Steak should be cooked individually to order and served immediately. If you want steak go to Crown Grill.

 

I think Princess understands beef very well.

 

Serve poor quality beef in the dining room so that passengers will pay extra in the Crown Grill to get a good meal.

[KruzeKrazy!]

Perhaps reducing some frequency of steak offerings is on select sailings at this time and its purpose is (at least) three-fold: (1) test the waters (pun intended!) for pax reaction to offering it less, (2) be "cost appropriate" for margin control, and (3) drive more covers to Crown Grill/Sterling to grow revenues...

Agree with you Caribill. See my (3) above.

[easyboy]

Some friends have just returned from a 20 night cruise on the Royal Princess (back to back 10 nighters) in the Caribbean and were fairly scathing about the food. It was their first Princess cruise although they have done several on other lines.

They said there were no steaks available, even on the “Always Available” menu, and were also critical of the prawn cocktail (4 prawns) and the Caesar salad (3 croutons).They said they gave up on the main dining room and ate in the buffet where “the food was much better and had a greater choice”.

Other opinions, though, would be most welcome.

Many thanks in advance and best wishes to all.

Peter

It's usual for a first timer to compare it with their previous cruises on other lines.

If it was only the steak, prawn cocktail and Caesar salad in the MDR that they were critical about, then I believe they enjoyed their experience on the Royal Princess having no other complaints.

[Lucky TGO]

Steak in MDR wasn't worth ordering. Princess doesn't seem to understand beef very well. Of course preparing steak for a bazillion diners isn't going to be a winning proposition anyway. Steak should be cooked individually to order and served immediately. If you want steak go to Crown Grill.

 

Thrak, Your right. One thing I like to say about the steak in the Crown Grill. It's ok but it's not the best grade of steak.

Now that's just my opinion and I'm sticking to it. Sorry to all you Crown Grill lovers. I think the food over all is good on the Royal Princess.

In the last three years I have noticed there are a lot less choices on the menu.

Tony

[Flatbush Flyer]

Two weeks on the Star to Hawaii and back in January. Son and dau-in-law were with us. We too were disappointed to see the alternate menu that didn't include the steak option any night. Of course we had plenty to eat but some nights we chose the Crown Grille as the DR menu was very uninspiring. The Grille never fails us! Food overall was good, not great, but better than we eat at home every night, that's for sure. The lack of things to do during so many sea days was more disappointing than the alternate menu however. Too many "foot seminars, jewelry demos", etc. etc. After 22 Princess cruises, perhaps we're becoming jaded but have decided to try another cruiseline for the next voyage.

Please don't jump on me, I'm just saying how we felt on this cruise compared to previous ones.:D

 

 

Sounds like it's time to move up to the premium segment. Try Azamara or Oceania (whose $30 million upgrade of the former Ocean Princess - now Sirena - says it all about the difference in quality).

 

 

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[Poulsbo Cruisers]

Only three croutons? The horror; the horror!

[shepp]

Steak in MDR wasn't worth ordering. Princess doesn't seem to understand beef very well. Of course preparing steak for a bazillion diners isn't going to be a winning proposition anyway. Steak should be cooked individually to order and served immediately. If you want steak go to Crown Grill.

 

Odd, because in the MDR I always order steaks rare and that's almost always how they arrive, which is something of a small miracle, considering. And though they may not be amazing, our cruise costs less per day than a steak dinner at Ruth's Chris, even without the creamed spinach.

 

But yeah, Princess seems to do seafood and pasta best, and somehow I can live with shellfish every night. Of course, I do refuse to eat a Caesar salad with fewer than 5 croutons.

Edited March 13, 2017 by shepp

[KruzeKrazy!]

Look at the bright side: One Caesar salad with three croutons is better than three Caesar salads with one crouton! [emoji1]

[jeromep]

Look at the bright side: One Caesar salad with three croutons is better than three Caesar salads with one crouton! [emoji1]

Oh, you're killing me.

 

Maybe the croutons in question were really big? I mean, I doubt that Princess brings on a gross of grocery store produce section croutons so that they can sprinkle them on in quantity to every salad that goes out the door.

 

Or maybe the croutons are old hardtack cut up and recycled?:')

[keithm]

We were on the Royal in November. This was our 10th Princess cruise. I was surprised that steak wasn't on the alternate choice menu. It was offered once out of 10 days. When I asked about escargot our waiter said it will be offered toward the end of the cruise. It was offered once also. I found that the food was good not great. Of course, there is the specialty restaurants where we ate at the Crown Grill one evening. The dinner was fine nothing to brag about. The turnoff of the Crown Grill was the music coming from the Wheelhouse bar!! Definitely not dining music. After 22 cruises I feel when we started cruising in '94 dining was a lot better than the present time. I know others will disagree with me and that's fine, just my opinion.

 

 

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Escargots are one of the "Celebrity Favorites" Available nightly. Food this time on the Eclipse was a disappointment. Not terrible, but certainly not near as good as 2 years ago. I attribute it to a poor ex.chef. I just feel the cutbacks can't be that bad(I hope)We're booked again on the Eclipse next Jan. (we really like their 14 day cruises)Should the food be of the same quality, we'll probably go back to Princess. As to the quality in food overall declining(yes, it has!)That's why the explosion of "specialty" rest. How has the cruise price changed in the time since '94? Not much. That's why there are cutbacks, to keep cruise prices reasonable.

[keithm]

I've heard the same. My personal experience is that Princess does seafood really well which I love.

Yes. The steaks were of "Longhorn Steakhouse" quality(even in Crown Grill) the seafood, however on the Regal was excellent and better than what's been offered of late on the Celebrity Eclipse MDR.

[TJMK]

Were they garlic croutons or herb flavored croutons? If they were garlic 3 is not enough but 3 herb ones are the perfect amount.

[riclop]

Everyone is cutting back and the prices are going higher.

[Colo Cruiser]

Sounds like it's time to move up to the premium segment. Try Azamara or Oceania (whose $30 million upgrade of the former Ocean Princess - now Sirena - says it all about the difference in quality).

 

 

Not according to some reviews. :( Have sailed Oceania quite a few times. Not as good as it used to be just like everything else.

[StrawberryTx]

You can request anything in MDR. It may take then a couple of days, but they have done their best to fill my every request . If I want a good steak, I stay home and cook my own. Never been to a restaurant who can out shine MY steaks!

 

 

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[jeromep]

Every time one of these food critiques comes up I have to ask the question, how much of people's experience with cruise food is based on factors or changes that I see in dining out on land?

 

1. I think most folks are not comfortable asking for customization with dining because so many mass market restaurants don't have that flexibility. When was the last time you went into an Applebee's (just a random example of a wide spread chain restaurant) and made major change request to a menu item? I haven't because about half the time when I do make such a request it doesn't happen or is ignored, or the poor server has to check with the kitchen and usually comes back with a negative on the request.

 

Contrast this to cruising and many requests are happily accommodated, or at least a good college try is made to satisfy a request. The issue is not will the dining room on Princess trying to accommodate you, but do they have the ingredients on hand to comply with the accommodation? However, on my very first cruise, would I have made custom request... not likely, because I wasn't aware that they could accommodate me in many situations. It wasn't until later cruises where a headwaiter made some off-menu suggestions that I found out that requests are always entertained.

 

So, the original poster's friends didn't seem aware that if they wanted more croutons they could have asked for them and my guess is that a whole soup bowl of croutons would have arrived at their table.

 

2. Is restaurant food on land so much better than cruise food? Let's be honest, the vast majority of sit-down restaurant food these days isn't too many notches above fast food, especially in terms of the initial state of the ingredients that goes into making a plated dish. Going back to the Applebee's example, if you look at a chain restaurant kitchen, food prep requires only minimal skill. There are charts all over the prep area which detail how a dish is to be assembled, the quantity and volume of various ingredients that go into a dish and the order they are assembled. A significant number of ingredients are at the wait and ready to be assembled at various stations around the kitchen. About the only thing that requires any skill is going to be the cooking of raw ingredients, and this is usually limited to raw proteins. The modern chain restaurant kitchen is less of a kitchen and much more like a final assembly line. And this is where the kitchen at Applebee's or Outback is not all that different from McDonalds.

 

There are many chain restaurants that put up a good plate of food, but to achieve consistency from store to store much of the content of a meal is pre-prepared and shipped in for reheating or final cooking. I can't speak for other lines, but the last time I was on an Ultimate Ship Tour I saw food prep areas on board and was impressed at how much prep from raw ingredients was done on board. Everything from peeling and prepping potatos straight out of the shipping bag, to meat being cut from cryovac beef quarters. None of these activities goes on in a modern chain restaurant kitchen. So, in spite of varying tastes in food, Princess, and for sure many other lines, are still doing more work with the food they serve than places we visit on land. Whether or not that translates into something that satisfies a passenger is subjective, but I think there is still more effort put in on food served on a cruise than food we buy on land.