Blu Restaurant

[MLP12]

This will be our first time in Aqua Class and dining in Blu.  I know the menu is different, but am wondering if the overall quality of the food is better than the main dining room and are there any dishes that are outstanding?

[TeaBag]

We like it better.  The short ribs are outstanding.  Also love the Lava cakes. 

[bikerunner]

Food is subjective. I enjoy blu and the overall lightness of it. I know my dad was not a fan but he is more meat n potatoes. But both main dining and blu have never been disappointed.  I find blu has a better variety but that could also be because of gone thru main dining o many times.  I like the smaller venue n breakfast was always wonderful in blu 

[lv2cruisgrl]

24 minutes ago, MLP12 said:

This will be our first time in Aqua Class and dining in Blu.  I know the menu is different, but am wondering if the overall quality of the food is better than the main dining room and are there any dishes that are outstanding?

We love Blu. For us the service was fantastic and the food was better than Main dining. 

[jelayne]

Blu has excellent service, smaller & not as noisy as the MDR.  In addition to the items on the menu and the every day chicken, steak & salmon you can get things like French fries, baked potato, French onion soup, escargot, Cesar salad, shrimp cocktail and probably other items I don’t remember.   My favorite are the short ribs  and filet.

[marieps]

AS has been stated many times before in other threads: Don't forget breakfast.  An outstanding benefit of being a Blu diner, IMO.

[Jim_Iain]

I’m currently on Millennium and posting pictures of Blu menus and pictures of the good (if I remember before taking a bit)

 

The thread is in my signature.  
 

we normally travel in suites and very impressed with the food.   We also often order off MDR menu. 

[MLP12]

On 10/6/2021 at 8:42 PM, Host Anne said:

 

Hi Papa ~ it's not me that is doing port shopping talks. It is vickie_bernie.  You can find her on Post 232!

 

9 hours ago, jelayne said:

Blu has excellent service, smaller & not as noisy as the MDR.  In addition to the items on the menu and the every day chicken, steak & salmon you can get things like French fries, baked potato, French onion soup, escargot, Cesar salad, shrimp cocktail and probably other items I don’t remember.   My favorite are the short ribs  and filet.

That's exactly what I wanted to know.  Thank you!  So looking forward to this cruise.

[D C]

It's very much personal preference.  Blu certainly is more quiet than the MDR, and service perhaps a little better, but we don't particularly care for the "spa-inspired" menu, and often favour the MDR menu overall.  Because of that, and that we don't use the Persian Garden, we don't see Aqua as worth a higher price, except possibly for room location. 

[DenGNNJ]

12 hours ago, MLP12 said:

This will be our first time in Aqua Class and dining in Blu.  I know the menu is different, but am wondering if the overall quality of the food is better than the main dining room and are there any dishes that are outstanding?

Breakfast is terrific… we like it better than Luminae (we’re usually in a suite).  The fish dishes are outstanding because they’re often not served with a heavy sauce (think grilled or pan seared in a light, flavorful broth instead).  The service is wonderful too.

[jgmorgan]

2 minutes ago, DenGNNJ said:

The service is wonderful too.

Over our 10 or so cruises in Aqua that has been our experience as well.

[Guppy99]

11 hours ago, jelayne said:

Blu has excellent service, smaller & not as noisy as the MDR.  In addition to the items on the menu and the every day chicken, steak & salmon you can get things like French fries, baked potato, French onion soup, escargot, Cesar salad, shrimp cocktail and probably other items I don’t remember.   My favorite are the short ribs  and filet.

That is not true on all class ships. Only on those where Blu and the MDR share the same galley.

[neverlaysup]

23 hours ago, MLP12 said:

This will be our first time in Aqua Class and dining in Blu.  I know the menu is different, but am wondering if the overall quality of the food is better than the main dining room and are there any dishes that are outstanding?

It was OK when we sailed the Equinox last month. The food is slightly different but the service was so so. If you don't like what they are serving, anything on the MDR is also available if you ask. 

[zdad59]

We loved Blu on Summit.    It's not that the food is exceptionally better than the MDR, its the quality of service and attention to detail.     Some of the offerings are distinctly better than the MDR, but much of the meals themselves aren't overwhelmingly better.   What sets Blu apart for us is the level of service and the attention to detail and  the needs/wants of the customer.     They really work hard to make your experience first class.

Edited October 15, 2021 by zdad59

[foodsvcmgr]

Agree with zdad’s points, spot on.

[miched]

I  have sailed many times in AQ and therefore always dined in Blu

 

The menu is basically always the same but the food is different.   It depends on the ship, chef,  and how it was prepared.  
 

The first time I had soft shell crab it was fantastic.   The second time it was over fried and was like the dregs at the bottom of McDs French fryer.     The 3rd time it was sopping with grease, smelled bad and tasted worse.  I spit it out and left it.   Never ordered again

 

Point is I could recommend it after my first cruise and you may have had  it prepared the way it was on the others.  Therefore my recommendations wouldn’t be at the top of your list.

 

The best advice is order what you like.   Or venture out of the box and try something you never had.   If you don’t like it leave it.  Don’t follow others advice.  A person sitting next to us was ecstatic when he seen sweetbreads on the menu.  He said it was fabulous.   I ordered it, took one bite and gagged.  In reality I should be thankful that I tried it because made me drink 2 glasses of wine to recover.  🍷👍

 

Happy cruising  🌊🚢🇺🇸🌅

 

 

Edited October 15, 2021 by miched

[bigbenboys]

On 10/13/2021 at 8:22 PM, Jim_Iain said:

I’m currently on Millennium and posting pictures of Blu menus and pictures of the good (if I remember before taking a bit)

 

The thread is in my signature.  
 

we normally travel in suites and very impressed with the food.   We also often order off MDR menu. 

Our last cruise we dined in Blu on Millie. It was the 1st time our waiter offered the MDR menu in Blu. We booked last minute to cruise with friends in Aqua and to use up part of our FCC. 

[Bo1953]

16 hours ago, miched said:

I  have sailed many times in AQ and therefore always dined in Blu

 

The menu is basically always the same but the food is different.   It depends on the ship, chef,  and how it was prepared.  
 

The first time I had soft shell crab it was fantastic.   The second time it was over fried and was like the dregs at the bottom of McDs French fryer.     The 3rd time it was sopping with grease, smelled bad and tasted worse.  I spit it out and left it.   Never ordered again

 

Point is I could recommend it after my first cruise and you may have had  it prepared the way it was on the others.  Therefore my recommendations wouldn’t be at the top of your list.

 

The best advice is order what you like.   Or venture out of the box and try something you never had.   If you don’t like it leave it.  Don’t follow others advice.  A person sitting next to us was ecstatic when he seen sweetbreads on the menu.  He said it was fabulous.   I ordered it, took one bite and gagged.  In reality I should be thankful that I tried it because made me drink 2 glasses of wine to recover.  🍷👍

 

Happy cruising  🌊🚢🇺🇸🌅

 

 

Yet, you could send it back to have the food prepared to your taste...

 

bon appetit and bon voyage

[zitsky]

Can someone help me find the Blu wine list?  I'm sure I saw around here somewhere but I didn't bookmark the link.  My bad.  Search is not helping.

 

Here's a wine question.  Why would a restaurant have Zonin Rose on the menu but not Zonin Brut?

 

Edit:  I do find it in the app but it would be nice to find the printed menu also if it's recent.

Edited October 15, 2021 by zitsky

[Bo1953]

10 minutes ago, zitsky said:

Can someone help me find the Blu wine list?  I'm sure I saw around here somewhere but I didn't bookmark the link.  My bad.  Search is not helping.

 

Here's a wine question.  Why would a restaurant have Zonin Rose on the menu but not Zonin Brut?

 

Edit:  I do find it in the app but it would be nice to find the printed menu also if it's recent.

You can always ask Jim_Iain to post it as he is dining in Blu on The Millennium currently.

 

Cheers and bon voyage

[zitsky]

Just now, Bo1953 said:

You can always ask Jim_Iain to post it as he is dining in Blu on The Millennium currently.

 

Cheers and bon voyage

 

Yes I know about his thread, but I am too particular to search through 1,000 pages of a very popular thread!!!  Maybe I will take another look.  It reminds me why the app is so useful.

[Bo1953]

Just now, zitsky said:

 

Yes I know about his thread, but I am too particular to search through 1,000 pages of a very popular thread!!!  Maybe I will take another look.  It reminds me why the app is so useful.

z - My recommendation is to ask him to (re)-post the menu, not to search through all the postings.

 

I would phrase the question as follows: I Am not sure if you have already or not, yet will you post the current wine menu for Blu or point me to the message number, please? Thank you...

 

Two (2) outcomes: 1) someone will point you to the post # OR 2) Jim will post a photo tomorrow with his daily downloads....

 

Cheers and bon voyage

[oskidunker]

The food was ok in blu last month. Lobster was terrible. Filet mignon and rack of lamb were both excellent. Rib eye steak not great. They made some halibut one night which was good. My wife liked the Salmon. The Baked Alaska was not very good. The apple pie was excellent. Not many pastas or salads or soups. I found the menu very limiting, although we were able to get some food from the main dining room such as Beef Wellington and Shrimp Cocktail.

 

booked Blu for next Sept  Spain and France. Will further evaluate it then. Son is in a suite and says we can eat with him in Lumaire  so we will see how that is. 

[Mike45LC]

This is so subjective.  I am not a fan of Blu. 

 

We were last in Blu on the Edge two years ago, pre-Covid.   I liked the size of Blu, but not the furnishings.  Too darn many pillows on the chairs, uncomfortable arm chairs that would have been better for lounging than dining.  I want to sit up at the table and be close to the table.  In restaurants, I normally decline booths, because I want to be able to pull my chair up to the table. 

 

The menu at Blu was too foo-foo for me.  And too "healthy" -- asparagus and broccoli and eggplant and other unattractive stuff.  If the veggies were just side dishes, the staff would have ben happy to just not put them on my plate,  but far too often they were ingredients integral to and already in the main dish.

 

I keep hearing people rave about the breakfasts.  I prefer the buffet to spending 90 minutes dawdling over a meal, waiting impatiently for my food to be brought to me.  This was especially true on port days -- who wants to sit in the dining room when I could be exploring a port? 

 

[LGW59]

2 minutes ago, Mike45LC said:

This is so subjective.  I am not a fan of Blu. 

 

We were last in Blu on the Edge two years ago, pre-Covid.   I liked the size of Blu, but not the furnishings.  Too darn many pillows on the chairs, uncomfortable arm chairs that would have been better for lounging than dining.  I want to sit up at the table and be close to the table.  In restaurants, I normally decline booths, because I want to be able to pull my chair up to the table. 

 

The menu at Blu was too foo-foo for me.  And too "healthy" -- asparagus and broccoli and eggplant and other unattractive stuff.  If the veggies were just side dishes, the staff would have ben happy to just not put them on my plate,  but far too often they were ingredients integral to and already in the main dish.

 

I keep hearing people rave about the breakfasts.  I prefer the buffet to spending 90 minutes dawdling over a meal, waiting impatiently for my food to be brought to me.  This was especially true on port days -- who wants to sit in the dining room when I could be exploring a port? 

 

Subjective indeed, I've not stayed in Aqua or eaten in Blu, but the too healthy menu as you describe, to me yum yum.  Buffets disgust me and I have NEVER spent 90 minutes dawdling over a meal or waiting excessively for my cooked to order dinner.  Though if by dawdling you mean the time spent at a table from order to dessert, oh yes sign me up and keep he wine flowing.