Food quality post COVID?

[Harters]

1 hour ago, pinotlover said:

lamb and Asian don’t go together.

That'd have a different response from we Britons,  where "Asian" implies the Indian sub-continent and lamb would be very common (or, more accurately, goat). But, in "East Asian" food, I'd agree it's rare to find it.

[cruisingxpert]

4 hours ago, mauibabes said:

To be honest, I never thought of it as Asian as it is an herb crusted rack of lamb and it is delicious and far superior to any lamb served elsewhere on the ship. All I suggest is “Try it, you’ll like it”. 
Mauibabes

We did try it based on your comments.  I couldn't cut it- I have no idea what they did to it or whether they had a bad supplier but it was inedible.  The calamari was tough as shoe leather and the batter was was thicker than what you might get on fried chicken.  Mentioned the calamari to Heiko Baller and he said they hadn't got good quality calamari on this cruise.  I don't think that was the reason.  Ordered calamari app in Toscana and the batter was a light tempura batter and the calamari tasted much better.  Tempura vegetables dripped oil. Pad Thai was sweet tasting which is not how I like it.

We went to Red Ginger twice on our cruise that just ended and only the Miso Sea Bass was as good as usual.  Red Ginger is one of favorite restaurants but I think they must have a different cooking team in there right now

[basor]

16 minutes ago, cruisingxpert said:

We did try it based on your comments.  I couldn't cut it- I have no idea what they did to it or whether they had a bad supplier but it was inedible.  The calamari was tough as shoe leather and the batter was was thicker than what you might get on fried chicken.  Mentioned the calamari to Heiko Baller and he said they hadn't got good quality calamari on this cruise.  I don't think that was the reason.  Ordered calamari app in Toscana and the batter was a light tempura batter and the calamari tasted much better.  Tempura vegetables dripped oil. Pad Thai was sweet tasting which is not how I like it.

We went to Red Ginger twice on our cruise that just ended and only the Miso Sea Bass was as good as usual.  Red Ginger is one of favorite restaurants but I think they must have a different cooking team in there right now

Sorry to hear you had such an unpleasant experience in RG - I would have been very disappointed if I received the food you describe!   So far, RG is our favorite (but Jacques is right up there) and all of our meals have been superb.  Keep fingers crossed that we find the same great food at RG next time we indulge.

[jonthomas]

15 hours ago, cruisingxpert said:

We did try it based on your comments.  I couldn't cut it- I have no idea what they did to it or whether they had a bad supplier but it was inedible.  The calamari was tough as shoe leather and the batter was was thicker than what you might get on fried chicken.  Mentioned the calamari to Heiko Baller and he said they hadn't got good quality calamari on this cruise.  I don't think that was the reason.  Ordered calamari app in Toscana and the batter was a light tempura batter and the calamari tasted much better.  Tempura vegetables dripped oil. Pad Thai was sweet tasting which is not how I like it.

We went to Red Ginger twice on our cruise that just ended and only the Miso Sea Bass was as good as usual.  Red Ginger is one of favorite restaurants but I think they must have a different cooking team in there right now

 

That was our experience as well on the Riviera this March/April. 

[rbtan]

On 5/26/2022 at 10:14 PM, LB_NJ said:

I was wondering how the food quality has been post COVID?

 

I was on an Oceania cruise pre-COVID and thought the food was good however I wonder if it has gone downhill.

 

The reason I ask is that some other cruise lines (eg, Royal) seem to be having intermittent quality problems.

Well, we cruised the 14 night Jan.14 cruise. Overall, we thought the food was fine. We did notice cutbacks to the tea service & felt this was due to the ship being only half full. Some of the quality of breakfast items on Terrace were down somewhat as well. Likely a cost cutting issue. The food in the GDR was fine as usual. The ship we cruise on is the Riviera,. I can't speak for the smaller ships.

Edited June 2, 2022 by rbtan
additions

[mauibabes]

We spent 46 days beginning October 16 on Riviera and the food, service and attention to the guest was amazing. It was Riviera’s return to sailing and was 4 segments that we booked as a 20 day and a 26 day.  Any problems were caused by EU government intervention and changes or Mother Nature when we encountered volcanic activity in the Canary Islands. 
 

In March we sailed 12 days on Marina and again the food, service and attention was outstanding so we had no complaints nor did we hear any from others. 
 

We have seen comments from people on some of the R ships so we have no idea how things have been on them but it appears there are issues.  We have friends on Riviera and Regatta this month so I know we will get a full report when they return home. 
 

ciao,

Mauibabes

[IWantToLiveOverTheSea]

Lots of different opinions.  Food is subjective.  I found food on Sirena last month Istanbul to Barcelona quite good with an occasional miss.  If all you do is eat on the Terrace, you may be disappointed.  It is, after all, a glorified served buffet except for the grill part where you get made-to-order chops, chicken, steak etc. And I wanted lamb chops, but like so many places in the world right now, Sirena's shipment of lamb chops didn't come in as scheduled, so there weren't lamb chops every night at the grill.  So I ate something else.  I found Reg Ginger excellent, which surprised me, as it was my least favorite on Marina, and I'm generally not crazy about Asian, or fish for that matter (sea bass etc.)  I went for teriyaki beef at Red Ginger. Tuscan Steak was good but the pasta trio was only so-so.  I should have ordered something else, or asked to have something else brought later when it was apparent I didn't really like the pasta (too heavy). But that's the thing - if you really don't like something, you can ask for something else.  Or you can ask for two "things."  I found service, and willingness to please, excellent on Sirena, in every restaurant, bar, whatever.  And I'd say the food was up to the same standard as we what we had on Regatta in late 2019 pre-Covid.   

 

And yes, on the Istanbul to Barcelona 15 day cruise, we had to jump through a LOT of electronic and other hoops for countries - visa, boarding pass, passenger locator forms, Verifly for Malta, testing for Israel which took away a day of sightseeing and dropped as a requirement by Israel on the day we disembarked.  But we visited 7 countries, with different requirements, so I don't think Oceania can be blamed for any of the hassles many of us experienced. But I digress. 

 

But future cruisers, keep in mind that Oceania is truly flexible and willing to please.  If you don't like something you try, ask for something else, and then avoid that something in the future.  I loved the teriyaki salmon on Waves for lunch, and the Cubano sandwich.  It's not all about hamburgers there.  I only ordered room service once, but when I did, it was prompt and the food was at least warm.  Food is subjective, and there WILL be some misses, or if nothing else, some things you're not used to or don't like.  The Chesapeake crabcakes are not what we are used to getting in Maryland, but at least they were fairly flavorful, and not packed with bread crumbs!    

Edited June 9, 2022 by IWantToLiveOverTheSea