Food Questions

[richbum]

I have a few questions about the food on board.  The last time we cruised was 10 years ago.  In the deli...can you make changes to the sandwiches or are they pre-made? Example, can I ask for mayo instead of mustard on something, or ask for a sandwich without something on the menu? Do they still have the chocolate buffet? (we are going on a journey cruise) so I heard they do things like in the 80's...What abut a midnight buffet? Can someone tell me the prices for the "extra restaurants"? Italian, steakhouse, etc?  Thanks for your time.

[livingthedream1]

Steakhouse is $38 per person and the Italian restaurant is $15 per person.  You can ask for special request at the deli. Yes they still have the chocolate buffet and I have not seen a midnight buffet in years but they may still do this on a Journeys cruise.

[Garth2]

26 minutes ago, livingthedream1 said:

Steakhouse is $38 per person and the Italian restaurant is $15 per person.  You can ask for special request at the deli. Yes they still have the chocolate buffet and I have not seen a midnight buffet in years but they may still do this on a Journeys cruise.

 

They have had a midnight buffet, scaled back from what it used to be, on our last 2 Journeys cruises.  The charge for the Italian restaurant is for dinner but the restaurant is also open at lunch at no charge.  There is also a charge if there is a sushi restaurant on your ship, and the charge varies by menu item for the Seafood Shack.

[DallasGuy75219]

5 hours ago, Garth2 said:

The charge for the Italian restaurant is for dinner but the restaurant is also open at lunch at no charge.  

Lunch is not a full Italian menu but rather a pasta bar with made-to-order pasta (plus lasagna, caesar salad, and bread).

[Shaded Lady]

JIji's and Cucina del Capitano are both $15 for dinner (both are excellent, if they have them on the ship you're sailing on).

 

Someone already mentioned the steakhouse at $38... Seafood Shack and the Bonsai Sushi are both ala carte (avg $5-7 each dish). Both are great. If you're on the newer ships, Pig & Anchor has a sit down restaurant that is also ala carte.

 

Red Frog Pub has appetizers for sale, usually about $3 each.

 

The deli's sandwiches are sometimes pre-made, but my experience is you can always ask for a variation... ditto the pizza place.

[richbum]

Thank you all..I will be going on the Magic...We have never done the steakhouse, and enjoy the dining room...but might have to try it this time...Thank you all for always being there to answer my questions!

[CruisingViper]

if you check out the deli, my recs are the reuben and the buffalo chicken sandwich. 

[richbum]

2 hours ago, CruisingViper said:

if you check out the deli, my recs are the reuben and the buffalo chicken sandwich. 

Thank you...hubby loves Reubens and I love Buffalo Chicken...

[Joebucks]

The new deli is so much better than the old one. Don't let the internet scare you into believing anything because of the words "premade". There's a big difference between premade and prepackaged. Prepackaged sandwhiches are generally garbage. This is a simple efficiency play, if you can take repetitive tasks away from the busy time and prepare during your slower times, you get a better result. They will still make whatever you want.

 

The buffalo chicken and meatball sandwhiches were outstanding.

[coevan]

I liked the old way, repetitive tasks is what cooks do for a living. I love the deli, but in my opinion mustard should not be served on Turkey and the weird red sauce on the Pastrami is wrong on so many levels. The replaced the panini presses with toaster oven . Most of the cooks I talked to prefered the old way as too many people want different condiments. The hot corned beef and pastrami hot, right out of the steamer was excellent. The best new sandwich is the Cuban, which is always pressed, not on Carnival.

[scpirate]

23 minutes ago, coevan said:

I liked the old way, repetitive tasks is what cooks do for a living. I love the deli, but in my opinion mustard should not be served on Turkey and the weird red sauce on the Pastrami is wrong on so many levels. The replaced the panini presses with toaster oven . Most of the cooks I talked to prefered the old way as too many people want different condiments. The hot corned beef and pastrami hot, right out of the steamer was excellent. The best new sandwich is the Cuban, which is always pressed, not on Carnival.

I'll get my Cuban in Miami before we board..

[coevan]

definitely better and pressed

[candigirl41]

I also wish they would go back to the old deli.  The turkey is now on a pretzel bun and if I can't get it on regular wheat bread I will order whatever is on wheat and switch it around and throw out what I don't want.  I hate to waste food, but not having options isn't good.  I also don't want to be told which condiments come with it.  I wish they would put those at the end of the line so I can pick what I want. I actually wish they would have a build your own sandwich bar where you pick your bread meat cheese veggies and condiments.  I know it won't happen, but that would be my ideal sandwich station.  Like a salad bar where I can pick what I want.

 

Candi

[ray98]

You can't discuss any topic like this without a list of people complaining like it is the worst thing in the world.  I have several sandwiches from the new menu on our last cruise and was not disappointed.  Don't worry about it.

[richbum]

13 hours ago, ray98 said:

You can't discuss any topic like this without a list of people complaining like it is the worst thing in the world.  I have several sandwiches from the new menu on our last cruise and was not disappointed.  Don't worry about it.

When I asked the question, I wasn't worried...I was just trying to get information. I like the person above do not want mustard on my turkey...and if I can get it with mayo instead, I would appreciate it. If they can't do it...then I will go elsewhere for my food. It doesn't hurt to get educated and ask questions and plan ahead a little.

[coevan]

15 hours ago, ray98 said:

You can't discuss any topic like this without a list of people complaining like it is the worst thing in the world.  I have several sandwiches from the new menu on our last cruise and was not disappointed.  Don't worry about it.

 

 

No one one this post called it the worst thing in the world. Like any restaurant, I want my sandwiches with the condiments I like. 

[sanmarcosman]

Some of the new menu items are a welcome change. We miss the hot pastrami and corned beef very much. The last time I ate from the old deli menu was on the Inspiration. I saw a cook remove the wrapper from a pastrami and was pleasantly surprised to see the brand used was Hebrew National. They are famous for their kosher meats and come with a premium price worth paying. 

 

We don't order the pastrami or corned beef now because they put a weird sauce on that has no business being there! The meats are not hot as before which is the other reason we no longer order them.

 

Edited August 7, 2019 by sanmarcosman

[coevan]

4 hours ago, sanmarcosman said:

We don't order the pastrami or corned beef now because they put a weird sauce on that has no business being there!

 

 

 

absolutely, I love the CB and Pastrami, they will make you a fresh hot one with mustard if you ask, the sauce is definitely weird.

[tattoos]

I sailed on the Magic in May and my favorite item from the Deli was the hot dogs.  They had chili, sauerkraut, etc., available in a hot tray next to the deli station.  They warm the rolls and the hot dog was not too spicy, they were delicious.  

 

The best new item if you like desserts are the layer cakes offered only at lunch in the Lido buffet.  We tried most of them and they were delicious and beautifully decorated.  They had red velvet, raspberry champagne, different versions of chocolate cake, hummingbird cake (my favorite), carrot cake, etc.  If you like cake, you're going to love these.

 

We had dinner one night at the Steakhouse and were very disappointed, bad service, small portions, noisy atmosphere because the tables are so close together, our waitress had to walk sideways between tables to get to ours.  I ordered the surf and turf and the tiny piece of filet was 4 bites and the lobster tail was the same size as the ones available in the main dining room for free.  So, next time we sail, we are eating dinner at Cucina del Capitano.

 

They still had the chocolate buffet but the offerings were same old, same old.  Those cakes on the Lido buffet were 100% better, in my opinion.

 

Carnival did away with the midnight buffet many years ago.  The do offer late night snacks which were available on the Lido deck aft from 11:30 p.m.-1:00 a.m.  We were never hungry so never made it back there but if it is the same food available on our last cruise on the Conquest, there were hot dogs and chili, grilled chicken sandwiches, french fries.

[Butterbean1000]

12 minutes ago, tattoos said:

 

 

We had dinner one night at the Steakhouse and were very disappointed, bad service, small portions, noisy atmosphere because the tables are so close together, our waitress had to walk sideways between tables to get to ours.  I ordered the surf and turf and the tiny piece of filet was 4 bites and the lobster tail was the same size as the ones available in the main dining room for free.  So, next time we sail, we are eating dinner at Cucina del Capitano.

 

 

I totally agree about the steak house.  We had extremely slow and surly service on our one and only trip there.   Though I'm not a big Italian food lover, our experience at Cucina del Capitano was much better.

[tattoos]

Butterbean1000:  You hit the nail on the head with "surly" to describe our waitress.  The warm rolls were very good and when I asked her if we could have another roll, she looked at me like I had three heads and let out a loud, audible sigh.  She brought more rolls, plopped them on our plates without looking at us or saying a word.  She served the food without saying a word and never came back to check on us.  My entree consisted of a tiny filet, small lobster tail, a broiled small tomato (haven't seen this since my honeymoon in Miami in the 60's), and a side of whipped potatos served with wasabi, yuck.  The shrimp cocktail had an avocado oil drizzled on them, huh?

 

After dinner, we didn't see our waitress for quite a while and had to flag her down to ask for the check which she plopped on the table without a thank you.  I don't know what her problem was, she only had 4 tables to wait on with two people at each table and our group of 4.  Our waitress was not happy to be there and that very audible sigh when we asked for another roll was rude and uncalled for. 

[crusinpsychRN]

I hope you reported this rudeness. I couldn't get waited on in the steakhouse, no one came to my table and I had to ask.

[Florings]

We have never had a bad meal or service in any of the Steakhouses on Carnival.  The food portions are quite large.  I've never ordered the surf & turf so can't address that.  But the full sized filet, the cowboy steak, rib eye steak are all quite large and filling.  There is so much food, we rarely have room for dessert and I am a big eater!

 

In my opinion, it is worth every penny of the $38.

[Shaded Lady]

I too have never had bad service in the steakhouse, but contrary to others' reference here, I did have lousy service in the Cucina on our last cruise on Vista. They were slow, inattentive, and acted like they were paying for it when I asked for more bread for my grandson. I found the food cooler than I would like, and my chicken parm was hard and dry.

 

It was really not busy when we were there and they were standing around chatting with each other, never checked on us until the manager who was making his way around the room stopped at our table and asked how things were going. We didn't complain but we kind of shrugged, instead of replying... all of a sudden there's 2 waitstaff with water refills, asking if we would like anything else, how was our dinner, they'll take our order for dessert in just a moment...

 

The manager looked very puzzled and walked away. So it just reinforced my opinion when they never came back to our table to take our dessert order! My hubby had to flag the same manager down to ask if we could get dessert!

 

[Shaded Lady]

Unable to edit the post above and realized my last comment was lost somehow...

 

I just wanted to say that I was a bit surprised with this experience in the Cucina del Capitano because every other experience in the specialty restaurants on every Carnival ship has been amazing!