Worst disappointment from recent Majestic cruise? Swirls! :-(

[mtnesterz]

5 hours ago, WAvoyager said:

I’m Chinese, born in Cali, and grew up in Hawaii, and California... But Harmony’s dishes ranked pretty much as the worst I can ever remember having.  Panda Express would’ve been much better!

Thank you for taking the time to explain. Also thanks to jwattle, vibe guy and RSS from SF, a city where fantastic Chinese food is easily found. We can drive to Chinatown L.A. and know the good stuff.

Anyone can buy a Ken Hom cookbook and cook better Chinese than Panda Express.

The cooks have no idea what the food is supposed to taste like from other countries. Not a criticism, tables turned I would be the same trying to cook for another's home foods.

Edited April 29, 2022 by mtnesterz

[Dunk]

I've always hated the soft serve on Princess. I think it's typically ice milk, very low fat content. However, just off the Discovery, and it was great--kind of Dairy Queen level. It was the first time I ever enjoyed it. 

[RSS from SF]

2 hours ago, mtnesterz said:

Also thanks to jwattle, vibe guy and RSS from SF, a city where fantastic Chinese food is easily found. We can drive to Chinatown L.A. and know the good stuff.

 

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Chef Richard Chen's restaurant in San Francisco:

 

I actually remember first tasting Richard Chen's food in SF when he was at Betelnut restaurant on Union St in Cow Hollow (circa 1995).

 

If you would like to taste his food [. . . but not at Harmony 😏] he is still here in San Francisco, at China Live (644 Broadway, on the Chinatown border with North Beach).

 

-- You'll notice his Market and Tasting menus in SF are MUCH more interesting than what is currently at Harmony!

 

See menus, below (links and attached):
 

• China Live [by Richard Chen] - Market Menu
  Link:  https://chinalivesf.com/best-restaurants-in-chinatown/market-restaurant-menu/
  
  [This large 1st menu is too pixelated to read here -- see link instead.]
  
   
• Eight Tables by George Chen Tasting Menu ($250)
  Link:  https://chinalivesf.com/fine-dining-in-san-francisco/eight-tables-menu/
  
   

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Edited April 29, 2022 by RSS from SF

[WAvoyager]

3 hours ago, RSS from SF said:

 

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Chef Richard Chen's restaurant in San Francisco:

 

I actually remember first tasting Richard Chen's food in SF when he was at Betelnut restaurant on Union St in Cow Hollow (circa 1995).

 

If you would like to taste his food [. . . but not at Harmony 😏] he is still here in San Francisco, at China Live (644 Broadway, on the Chinatown border with North Beach).

 

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I think you might be confusing George Chen (Bay Area based chef) with Richard Chen (Vegas, Chicago, Philly, Princess, and now Sacramento - At the Hard Rock).

 

I think Richard may be very unhappy that Princess is still able to associate his name with the substandard food on the ships.  It does sound like some people have gotten a good meal from there, but from our (admittedly only one meal) experience, I can’t imagine how.  (But I’m glad they did!)

 

I’ve eaten at Richard Chens restaurants many, many times (we were regulars at the Wynn in the BC years (Before Child)).  I was hoping the food would have some continued flavors from his launch of the Harmony, but nothing remains.

[Lucky TGO]

On 4/28/2022 at 2:29 PM, WAvoyager said:

A lot of the negative items from our recent (April 2) cruise on the Majestic I’m going to chalk up to the current state of cruising as a whole.  We’ll, except for Harmony - that was just plain awful (food).

 

But I’m really hoping that we just hit swirls on a bad day.  The ice cream was reminiscent of really bad soft serve on land.  Kind of grainy, not very creamy.  

On our previous cruise on the Crown, we stopped for cones almost every day, and multiple times on a couple of days.  Creamy, tasty, thick.   Always wanted another one after we were done.  This trip?  Had one, didn’t really think about going for another.

 

What are everyone’s thoughts on swirls?  Have they gone with a different mix?  Or did we just catch them on an off day/time?

Try this one I bet you it’s a lot better 😳 😁😁

🍦

Tony

 

[KLM3164]

Currently on the Majestic and had the ice cream at Swirls today. As others have said it’s not good. I would not get another one. The ice cream had a funny taste and texture.

 

On another note we ate at Harmony for the first time and we really enjoyed it. We thought the food was very good and we liked having this option for specialty dining. We would definitely eat here again. Our favorite dishes were the Mongolian beef and hot and sour soup. And I loved the melon soaked in sake with passion fruit foam and coconut ice cream for dessert. I thought the dessert was heavenly!

 

[rj59]

I've never had a good cone on Princess, it's all gritty and tasteless. The best is Carnival, where they don't monitor the machines, so you can get all your want, and it's creamy and tasty, like a McDonald's cone. You just have to look for what's good on every line and every ship. HAL and NCL have real scoop ice cream, but Princess has great desserts in the MDR and buffet, so I skip ice cream on Princess, since even in the MDR it's not impressive and usually melting. It's the reverse with pizza--HAL pizza is horrible, so I wait for Princess pizza, and Guy's burgers on Carnival or Dive-In Burgers on HAL. I also tried a different noodle dish at the noodle bar on Majestic every day, which I saw lots of ship staff did, instead of going to the mostly mediocre buffet. That's why general statements about good or bad food on a line or ship isn't really fair, because each line and each ship has dishes and restaurants that are better than others, and so you just have to find them and return to them. So even on Carnival I think their burgers, dining room breakfast, and Indian vegetarian dishes at dinner are better than any other line, along with their hot chocolate machines in the buffet. And I have to say that I've never had to endure coffee syrup swill in any place in the world, other than a Princess ship--it's bad when you have to bring packs of instant coffee on a cruise to avoid ship coffee. 

[RSS from SF]

3 hours ago, WAvoyager said:

I think you might be confusing George Chen (Bay Area based chef) with Richard Chen (Vegas, Chicago, Philly, Princess, and now Sacramento - At the Hard Rock).

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My apologies everyone 😱! -- I DID confuse George Chen (of the Bay Area) with Richard Chen (Harmony, Vegas, etc)! 

-- -- So everyone please ignore my previous incorrect post about George Chen / Richard Chen!

 

 

. . . . And I'm on the Hard Rock Sacramento mailing list too (although I haven't been there yet) -- and also had confused George Chen with Richard Chen's YOUYU casual eatery/noodle bar there. 

 

I see that Youyu does have some menu items in common with Harmony.

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3 hours ago, WAvoyager said:

I think Richard may be very unhappy that Princess is still able to associate his name with the substandard food on the ships.  It does sound like some people have gotten a good meal from there, but from our (admittedly only one meal) experience, I can’t imagine how.  (But I’m glad they did!)

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Yes, I wonder about that -- especially with Princess still mentioning Richard Chen's previous Michelin star. 

(As if Harmony's Crab Rangoon/Kung Pao Chicken/etc could conjure up visions of a Michelin 1 star dining experience. 😏)

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Edited April 30, 2022 by RSS from SF

[VibeGuy]

I couldn’t get over the garish dragon at Wynn, so I think I may have missed out in retrospect. 
 

I’d be genuinely curious to know what Chinese passengers thought of Harmony while doing the China market.   The original Harmony menu truly seems well-thought-out and suitable to be executed well onboard. 
 

I don’t mean to slam the current menu as not worthy of shipboard dining. There’s nothing wrong with slightly-north-American-inflected Cantonese *done well* - Cecelia Chiang and her kid Patrick certainly made a fortune off of it, and their restaurants weren’t exactly court cuisine of China, but were very tasty.   I just think Princess is setting themselves up for failure when they try to do something American-friendly that isn’t suited to the cooks they have available and the equipment in the kitchen when most Americans have a pretty solid idea of what *good* General Tso’s tastes like and that it can usually be procured in a quantity large enough for sharing or leftovers for under $15. 
 

If I ran the zoo, I’d do something along the lines of the cringe-aesthetics-but-tasty early days of Wolfgang Puck’s Chinois on Main.  Less “Chinese” and more Chinese-French Fusion.  Get away from anything that demands wok hai and a la minute technique.  Develop a relationship with a wicked good supplier of ready to steam products for a killer small plates/dim sum program that doesn’t need a ton of labor.    Turn the first courses into an endless parade of small bites and skewers and nibbles presented like Sabatini’s used to do.    Then segue into a more thoughtful selection of entrees that aren’t gonna show up on the steam tables at Panda *while still being approachable and tasty*.  A riff on a Peking duck, but as a skin-on breast with braised vegetables as a garnish.  A small steamed fish in ginger broth.  A legit filet mignon with an XO demi and a like a wood-ear fungus risotto.   A three-cup game hen.   The menu is too big, too stir-fry-heavy and too Panda.  

[losfp]

We have a cruise to New Zealand booked in January on Majestic, curious to see how we go. We sailed on her in 2018/19 - I believe her first season in Australia - and enjoyed Harmony.  Interesting that they've tweaked the menu since.