Vegetarian Menus on Celebrity???

[oneidealvacation]

There is definitely a separate vegetarian menu every night (available on request), with different choices from the one on the main menu. Unfortunately, I found that none of it was very good or appealing on my latest cruise (Reflection 12/22/17). I've always enjoyed Celebrity's MDR in the past, so this was a huge disappointment. They were also pretty unwilling to accommodate anything off menu, which was a huge departure from past cruises. One night the choices were all so bad, I asked for them to just bring any Indian food they had that was vegetarian. This has never been a problem on any other cruise, with Celebrity or any other line. This time, they pretended not to understand what I meant, then asked me to be very specific, made a huge issue of how it might not be able to happen, etc. Eventually they brought a plate of the exact same Indian food from the buffet (which was actually good). Why not just do that without the "drama"? After that episode, I gave up and just ate at the buffet every night while my traveling companions ate at the MDR. Great for the holidays :(

[GUT2407]

Mrs Gut never has a problem, if there’s nothing that suits, ask.

[Bo1953]

This is awesome... except... as in most places many people dont understand that not all cheese is vegitarian. Parmesean is almost never especially if imported. Niether is Blue Cheese. Others are hit and miss. Goat is almost always not unless from a small cheese farm that chooses microbial rennent vs animal rennent.

 

Looks like we will have to modify the Vegetarian Menu to make it vegetarian...lol But at least it is a start.

 

Yes, it can be modified. One does not need cheese, even though it can be a nice accompaniment to a meal. I recommend foregoing the cheese and enjoy everything else you will get.

 

Try the veggie burger at Mast Grill, it is great, to be sure... sans cheese.

 

bon voyage

[kevinyork]

Just found this thread and it prompted me to review where Celebrity were with their vegetarian menu. Our emails to the UK Managing Director in advance of our June 17 cruise led to the vegetarian menus on that cruise being changed in that all cheese was removed from the dishes as they couldn't guarantee if the rennet used was vegetarian or not. We were told this was going fleetwide. Having done a quick search celebrity's site now has a revised vegetarian menu and indeed there is no cheese:

 

http://media.celebritycruises.com/celebrity/content/en_US/pdf/faq/celebrity_vegetarian_menu.pdf

 

Still not sure how the main dining room main menus are with regards to non vegetarian cheese being used in the dishes marked as being vegetarian but any recent menus I've seen posted still seem to have cheese in many vegetarian dishes.

[hvbaskey]

We have always had a vegetarian menu. We inform the Maitre’D the first evening and from that point on, always delivered without asking.

 

We have had the MDR Vegetarian menu accompany our Luminae regular menu and also while dining in BLU.

 

Also, we have had menu items modified. For example, sometimes the soup which indicates a meat component, is a rather small meat add-on item that can be eliminated. We also request platters of the daily vegetables that are being used as part of the other meals. For example, if we see beans, carrots, parsnips as sides on meat dishes - we request a platter of those vegetables on their own for us. It is amazing how flexible the dining staff can be.

 

ONLY caution about soups, make sure it is veggie based, not a chicken or beef stock. The waiter can find out for you and advise.

 

ENJOY!!!

 

Heather

[Bo1953]

I appreciate the feedback. Real issue for us is cheese. Most people naturally assume all cheese is vegetarian and it is not based on the rennent. It is always a challenge asking if they know the "brand" or if the enzyme is animal or microbial.

We will make due.. just wish it was easier.

Mark

 

If dairy is the issue, NEVER order anything with cheese. X cannot reasonably accommodate on this.

 

bon voyage

[cmhdoogalsatsea]

Just off the Reflection last week. YES there is a separate MDR vegetarian menu, and it's quite good! We were dining in Luminae and looked over the MDR Vegetarian menu each night, often ordering one or two things from it. Our waiter suggested the menu on the second night when I figured one or both of us as being vegetarian. ( As this was my 5th trip this year I was a tiny bit disappointed to only learn of the Veg menu now, but I've always happily "made do" with luminae's offerings. )

As far as Lacto goes, avoiding cheese wasn't much of a challenge, but with one or two exceptions, soups were mostly cream based.

[phoenix_dream]

Just off the Reflection last week. YES there is a separate MDR vegetarian menu, and it's quite good! We were dining in Luminae and looked over the MDR Vegetarian menu each night, often ordering one or two things from it. Our waiter suggested the menu on the second night when I figured one or both of us as being vegetarian. ( As this was my 5th trip this year I was a tiny bit disappointed to only learn of the Veg menu now, but I've always happily "made do" with luminae's offerings. )

As far as Lacto goes, avoiding cheese wasn't much of a challenge, but with one or two exceptions, soups were mostly cream based.

Agree about Lacto. I am lactose intolerant and find the amount of dairy used in their menu items very frustrating. A good percentage of their soups are cream based. Almost all of their desserts have some dairy. Many of their salads come with cheese on them (although you can request one without in most cases). A lot of their main courses include cheese in some fashion. Even most of their pasta items have some kind of cheese. I can certainly find things to eat, and with a couple Lactaid pills can tolerate a little bit of dairy, but their options can be pretty minimal. They do usually have soy or almond milk, although on occasion on my last cruise Café al Bacio ran out of almond milk more than once.

[johhnnyt]

I’m a vegetarian and have sailed on a number of cruise lines including all of the Celebrity ships. Celebrity ALWAYS has a vegetarian menu available in the main dinning rooms, Luminae, and Blu.

 

But, sometimes the vegetarian menu has “token veggie” items that are not very pleasant. I always ask our butler (or cabin steward) for a copy of all the Luminae, Main Dinning Room, and vegetarian menus the first night after boarding. That way we can preview the menus and decide which nights we eat in Luminae, OceanView vs specialty restaurants. Sometimes we have asked the Onshore Concierge to have the butler pull the menus together and have them ready for us when we board.

 

And ... if you are in a higher level suite, the head chef will also accommodate special requests. On one cruise, we made up our own menu each night for a party of eight (four suites) and had them serve it in our suite (Penthouse). It was outstanding. We had custom made selections of Indian food, soups, appetizers, pizza, stir fry, etc, etc. Always plenty of vegetarian options. The head chef really had fun with us.

 

Special requests really depend on the chef. Some will be excited about cooking something different, and some will just be too busy to accommodate. I asked for a “veggie burger” one time for lunch in Luminae... the waiter said they didn’t have any, but went and asked the chef. His response was amazing !!! He was soooo excited to be able to make something different. The chef asked us what we liked and didn’t like and made us by far the BEST veggie burgers we have ever had ... all from scratch. While on a cruise in New Zealand one time, the head chef heard that we liked authentic vegetarian Indian food and made us a selection of special dishes every night in addition to our regular orders. The crew was great and kept coming by the see what he had made for us. I was curious and asked one of the waiters ... he said that they LOVE it when the chef does special requests ... because he always makes a very big batch and they get to eat the extras later. It was a lot of fun for us vegetarians AND the crew !!

 

We have also asked for special olive bread and cheese breads. Sometimes they really get into it and love the special requests ... sometimes not so much.

 

It never hurts to ask the head chef !! They get tired of the same old menus and look forward to cook something different for appreciative and pleasant guests.

 

Don —-

 

 

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This might help, it was part of an interview I did with the Reflection Restaurant Operation Manager in April 2018, he's overall responsible for all 12 dining venues on board

Like an airline you must find it challenging, to provide specialty meals (for instance vegan, gluten free, low salt), how is that handled? Is it kind of playit by ear on the individual chefs part, or is there a grand cookbook or done by the chefs internally? We do have a special order kitchen, a small isolated space where cross contamination is prevented, and all these special things are considered. It may be religious,it may be allergy, diet, it might be a preference or lifestyle. First option is the main menu, it’s good for vegetarians but might not be good for vegans, but if we are notified 24 hours in advance it can be modified. Then we have guests that prefer vegan food, but don’t really want to think about it in advance. In that case the chef that does special orders can step out of the kitchen, and they ask the questions what they like. It can be difficult sometimes because sometimes the guests aren’t sure what they want, so then we try and narrow it down Do you prefer Indian, Do You prefer Asian, Do you prefer Mediterranean? Do you like it spicy, mild? This helps us narrow it down. Then since we have a variety of chefs we can have them create something nice and tasty that meets the guests taste

2200-2300 guests, most of the request are simple ones like low sodium, no dairy, no nuts, or salt

So how often does that happen say in the Main Dining Room(MDR)? . Most just preorder, we show them the menu for the next day,they preorder and it’s ready the next day when they arrive.

What percentage come in with request/needs that require the complete special orders then? At the moment I think we have a very small number. Only two vegan in te MDR, two in Luminae. and they’ll be taken care of well. Usually though it is a very small number on these special special orders.

What about gluten free? Lately that has been more popular so in that case we took other steps that helped us much. We started offering items on the menu labeled as gluten free, or no dairy, etc and that’s helped us greatly. They don’t have to preorder, and make sit easier for us and them. Dressings we make gluten free, soups we make gluten free, sauces for the dishes we make them all gluten free.

How many chefs in main MDR kitchen during dinner?52 in the execution of themeals

[Bo1953]

This is awesome... except... as in most places many people dont understand that not all cheese is vegitarian. Parmesean is almost never especially if imported. Niether is Blue Cheese. Others are hit and miss. Goat is almost always not unless from a small cheese farm that chooses microbial rennent vs animal rennent.

 

Looks like we will have to modify the Vegetarian Menu to make it vegetarian...lol But at least it is a start.

 

Yes, you are correct and this holds true for most ships.

 

There are dishes like ravioli which you may wish to pass on, but most certainly many of the other items can be ordered vegan, so not to worry.

 

Also, the waiter can show you the next evenings menu, then you are able to order in advance to your liking...

 

Enjoy and bon voyage

[kevinyork]

Strange how on our Royal Cruise last month, our waiter asked each evening if we had any allergies. Don’t remember every being asked on Celebrity. The only way we knew about the existence of a vegetarian menu on Celebrity was through these boards.

 

 

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