The Garden Cafe — The Best of It

[CruzinMel]

3 hours ago, YVRteacher said:

For people who love the cauliflower soup, it is now an appetizer selection on the rotating dinner menu in the main dining rooms.  You can ask which night it will be served and it will also be served in the buffet on that night.  

Oh, you have just raised my hopes tremendously - this is my first gluten free cruise (I got diagnosed with celiac in 2021) and I am going to cross my fingers, braid my hair, and pray to the cream soup deities that the kitchen wizards can make this gluten free!!!  I know it's a simple thing, but sometimes, it's the simplest things that are the best. 

 

If I can wrangle this soup, and those little cheese bread thingies from Moderno (they are made normally with tapioca flour and cheese, which means they are a GF goto as long as the cheese is freshly shredded - bagged pre-shredded cheese is sometimes very lightly coated with flour, which I already knew because it means it doesn't work if you make cheese straws with it. . . but I digress.)  Cream of cauli soup and cheese breads, maybe a salad?  I'll be a happy cruiser!  Thanks!

[GeroWA]

Keep an eye out for Prawns (Shrimp) - they usually have these available once a cruise - absolutely delicious. Likewise, at breakfast, look for smoked Salmon - YUM!! 

[GeroWA]

1 hour ago, New2cruise2022 said:

I don’t know if I’ll be disappointed. Just love seeing what different people come up with. 

We like seeing people pile their plates up with whatever they can fit on the plate AND the leaving half of it because they were so greedy they didn't want to miss out on anything!!  - PIGS

[eileeshb]

Seafood night is when you’ll get the grilled (broiled) prawns and they are super yummy, top tip get an extra cup of water to use as a finger bowl after all the peeling. 
I am so happy it’s back to self service, the crew just didn’t understand my wanting multiple slices of baguette and butter portions to make up sandwiches, chip butties or bacon butties. I need my carbs! 
be careful of the pasta station on Epic, I got half cooked spaghetti there one day and avoided it thereafter, Al dente does not mean it shouldn’t bend!!! 
 

for desert avoid the NAS chocolate cake, it’s terrible. 
however the sorbets at the ice-cream counter are yummy, it’s not just soft serve ice cream in the buffet, there’s also a counter to get scoops of ice cream, sherbet or sorbet.   (Note I’ve only been on Epic, escape and the aways)

[ChiefMateJRK]

2 hours ago, GeroWA said:

We like seeing people pile their plates up with whatever they can fit on the plate AND the leaving half of it because they were so greedy they didn't want to miss out on anything!!  - PIGS

This doesn't really happen.  Do you really monitor what your neighbors are and are not eating?  That doesn't sound like a lot of fun (for a normal person).

[drumming cruisers]

We liked seeing the salad guy. we were seated by him a few meals in buffet, Breakfast, lunch and dinner he only ate salad about a foot high on his plate. His daughter was with him, about 10 or so, she had plates full of stuff. One breakfast she had a plate of bacon, and plate of pancakes. She was having nothing to do with salad, Haha

[GeroWA]

1 hour ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

This doesn't really happen.  Do you really monitor what your neighbors are and are not eating?  That doesn't sound like a lot of fun (for a normal person).

We don't there and monitor per se BUT when you see people walking back to their tables with plates piled up you can't help but wonder are they going to eat all that?

[MsTabbyKats]

Ice cream.....at lunch and dinner.  Eight flavors....2 kinds of syrup and sometimes sprinkes!

[dbrown84]

18 minutes ago, MsTabbyKats said:

Ice cream.....at lunch and dinner.  Eight flavors....2 kinds of syrup and sometimes sprinkes!

[cruiserbear55]

2 hours ago, MsTabbyKats said:

Ice cream.....at lunch and dinner.  Eight flavors....2 kinds of syrup and sometimes sprinkes!

 

  Soft serve twist with chocolate sauce- late night snack at the Great Outdoors- every night!!

[weltek]

16 hours ago, New2cruise2022 said:

It seems to me that one can eat very well on NCL even if your budget doesn’t allow for specialty dining. 

I haven't had the dinner buffet on NCL in a very long time, but I'm pretty sure it would be just as satisfactory, if not more, than the meal we are going to have at Q or Los Lobos. I just prefer formal service for dinner, so that's probably the only reason I'm taking the FAS promo (on top of our Platinum meals).

[travelgip]

following for yummy tips

[New2cruise2022]

3 hours ago, weltek said:

I haven't had the dinner buffet on NCL in a very long time, but I'm pretty sure it would be just as satisfactory, if not more, than the meal we are going to have at Q or Los Lobos. I just prefer formal service for dinner, so that's probably the only reason I'm taking the FAS promo (on top of our Platinum meals).

I do agree that there is a different feel/experience when someone is serving you vs get your own food buffet.

[cruiseny4life]

On 11/13/2022 at 12:06 PM, kelib said:

Do they still do the pretzel rolls? 

The Getaway had them in September, so I'd say yes! 

[DaisyGoldberg]

On the Pearl last Spring we found that the late night snack area in the Great Outdoors often had leftovers from the specialty restaurants - had a big plate of cinnamon pineapple that must have come straight out of Moderno!  Worth a look through if you're peckish!

[New2cruise2022]

1 hour ago, DaisyGoldberg said:

On the Pearl last Spring we found that the late night snack area in the Great Outdoors often had leftovers from the specialty restaurants - had a big plate of cinnamon pineapple that must have come straight out of Moderno!  Worth a look through if you're peckish!

I doubt I will ever feel peckish. But yes, great suggestion. 

[Peachypooh]

 The buffet has little peanut butter packets at breakfast and they have saltine packets at lunch near the soup. The first couple of days I bring some of these back to my cabin to have a light breakfast each morning to try not overdoing the food. One time I ran out so I went to the Horizon lounge in the morning and found almond pastries. Took four of them. Probably a total of 1,000 calories and it was only 8 a.m. 

Never doing that again!! Going to make sure I don't run out of peanut butter and saltines. 

[LisaLisa87]

I loved the "Compound Salad" station, which had a different made-and-mixed to order salad each day (e.g., steak and blue cheese, Greek, Cobb, etc.). The salads were so fresh and tasty!

 

Edited November 15, 2022 by LisaLisa87

[Laszlo]

My favorite part of the buffet......

 

 

 

 

[New2cruise2022]

Just now, Laszlo said:

My favorite part of the buffet......

 

 

 

 

Does anyone know if they feature crepes at the buffet on Bliss?

[New2cruise2022]

I like the buffet idea because I can try more and maintain more control over portions and less risk of waste. 

[YVRteacher]

Yes, they have crepes on the Bliss.

[New2cruise2022]

12 minutes ago, YVRteacher said:

Yes, they have crepes on the Bliss.

Yes. Yes. Yes. 
 

Every. Single. Day. 

[YVRteacher]

When I was on the Bliss, the crepe station in the evening was the create-your-own udon soup station at lunch time.  Often crepes weren’t available until after dinner.

[cruiseagona]

The bread is outstanding! And go to the back of The Garden Cafe to find the crepe station. Also outstanding!