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Tauck is 6 stars -- perfection -- but never again

bitob

By bitob,
in River Cruising

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scluvsrain

scluvsrain

Posted
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The made to order food is well prepared at breakfast. It's the buffet eggs and bacon that are not great.

 

They also come by and whisk your plate away when you're done without even asking. Today at lunch I had just laid my fork on the plate after my last bite and before I knew what happened one of the servers grabbed it away. I wasn't done with the fork. I started to say "hey come back here please" but he was gone and I didn't want to yell.

 

 

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Gourmet Gal

Gourmet Gal

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What a shame. Once something is off at a restaurant then every little faux pas becomes magnified. I find it annoying too when everything is cleared away too quickly but it becomes less of an issue if the food is super good. I'm beginning to dread this cruise and I hope Tauck reads CC!

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Gourmet Gal

Gourmet Gal

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Just wondering scluvsrain, are other passengers also not happy with the food? Reviews have been so good all around for Tauck, I am just so surprised and disappointed that food doesn't seem as good as usual. This is a very expensive and long cruise to have to settle for mediocrity in any area. They don't call me Gourmet Gal for nothing...the dining experience is all part of a nice vacation for me.

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scluvsrain

scluvsrain

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There are others who don't like the buffet food. And someone had the Wiener schnitzel at my table last night that said it was just so-so. Tonight I sat at a table with 6 others. They all had the roasted chicken and said it was good. I had salmon over penne pasta. I again thought it just mediocre. It was bland and had very little salmon on top. It was crumbled, not a whole piece, not big chunks, but more like a shredded salmon. Portion size was fine. The starter soup I had was quite good. It was a leek broth.

 

My only experience with which to compare is with that of my many sailings on Holland America cruise line. I find their food to be very very good. Seasoned well, hot when served, cooked properly.

 

Our chef's name is Mathias.

 

I will ask others tomorrow how they feel about the food and report back.

 

 

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Floridiana

Floridiana

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My only experience with which to compare is with that of my many sailings on Holland America cruise line. I find their food to be very very good. Seasoned well, hot when served, cooked properly.

 

 

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Do you mean to say that the food on your ship is even more bland than the one HAL ships tend to serve? I don't like HAL's food at all. Good ingredients in mostly mediocre preparation.

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caviargal

caviargal

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Do you mean to say that the food on your ship is even more bland than the one HAL ships tend to serve? I don't like HAL's food at all. Good ingredients in mostly mediocre preparation.

 

It has been years since we cruised with HAL but, on our last three cruises with them, we dined in the Pinnacle every day for breakfast (suite perk) and also on 5 of 7 evenings. The food in the MDR was disappointing.

 

The only ocean cruise line we have found with very good to excellent food is Oceania.

 

I am very surprised to read that the food on Tauck is not good and do realize that food is subjective. Many rave about Uniworld's food but we found it only average to good, with only a few meals hitting the "very good" bar. The head chef makes all the difference IMO.

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scluvsrain

scluvsrain

Posted
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Do you mean to say that the food on your ship is even more bland than the one HAL ships tend to serve? I don't like HAL's food at all. Good ingredients in mostly mediocre preparation.

 

 

 

I do mean to say that. Except I don't think the food on HAL is bland at all! Their food the past few years is much better than it used to be in terms of variety of dishes offered and the overall preparation. And of course the Pinnacle is excellent.

 

 

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scluvsrain

scluvsrain

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I will take photos of today's menus and post. At breakfast there is a buffet. Items offered are muesli, sliced melons, scrambled eggs, bacon, baked beans, white sausages, dry cereals, whole fruits, I think some deli meats and cheeses. Several juices from which to select. Then you can order pancakes, waffles and omelettes from the kitchen. There is fresh coffee and hot tea.

 

For lunch there is also a buffet. There is usually a hot meat, hot fish, and some sort of pasta being offered. There's also a salad bar with a small but decent choice of additions to the lettuce. Then there is usually a half sandwich on wheat bread selection of the day. One day it looked to be s turkey LT, yesterday it was a BLT. The bread was not toasted. There is fresh fruit and cheeses. You can order anything you want to drink from sodas to wine and beer. The hot dishes rare usually lukewarm and come with some sort of potato or a rice and then there is a vegetable or two to choose. One day it was cooked cabbage, another it was brussel sprouts. Yesterday's lunch was boiled beef with a brown gravy and whole fingerling steamed potatoes. The day before was pork neck. The boiled beef was bland but very tender. The pork neck was very tough. The pasta yesterday was rigatoni in red sauce with meatballs. Didn't care for the rigatoni but the meatballs were good.

 

 

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Paulchili

Paulchili

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scluvsrain,

Thank you for all your food info.

It only confirms my prior experience on river cruises (not Tauck) that one definitely does not do river cruises for food. In fact, I would do a river cruise despite the food for other reasons (itinerary, etc) . It simply does not compare with the variety (and probably the quality) of the food on an ocean liner, especially like Oceania.

Also, the food even with a different Chef on a line like Tauck should be more consistent and not a Russian roulette - too much money for that type of experience.

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Roz Great Review Rare

Roz

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I had pork neck stuffed with prunes for lunch one day on Uniworld, and it was delicious. It was, in fact, pork neck, which is commonly eaten in Germany and Eastern Europe. It's the flesh surrounding the neck, and has no bones.

 

Roz

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