Food/Drink - What To Eat and Drink - What to Avoid?

[Strumdatjag]

My wife and I are first timers on SS in about a month.   Other than -“Avoid the Hamburger” and “The Champagne is Great”, I haven’t seen much guidance on where SS excels and where it doesn’t on food, wine and liquor. Any ideas?  

[dawntrdr]

If you are sailing on a ship with a Spaccanapoli (poolside pizza restaurant), the pizza is great.

[Mr Luxury]

15 minutes ago, Strumdatjag said:

My wife and I are first timers on SS in about a month.   Other than -“Avoid the Hamburger” and “The Champagne is Great”, I haven’t seen much guidance on where SS excels and where it doesn’t on food, wine and liquor. Any ideas?  

It's all good,but some of the other guests are not.

[Stickman1990]

26 minutes ago, Strumdatjag said:

My wife and I are first timers on SS in about a month

Do NOT avoid the hamburger - they’re great and you’d be missing out 

 

We found the food and wine - and service - on Silver Muse last month excellent (our comparisons are with Crystal and Regent)

 

Definitely fans of Spaccanapoli for pizza lunch and Indochine for Asian dinners 

 

What sort of food do you like - particular styles or cuisines? 
 

There’s another thread where someone asked about recent menus from the restaurants - might be worth checking that one out too 

 

Edited March 20, 2023 by Stickman1990

[ggo85]

I haven’t found any food that isn’t good.  Certainly nothing to avoid.  If something isn’t to your liking, you can always ask for something else. 
 

I didn’t think the dinner at Kaseki was either authentic Japanese or worth the up charge.  But others love it.  A man at an event last night said LaTerrazza was “awful.”  We ate there last night and thought it was very good — food and service. Plan to return. 
 

I agree the pizza is good.  Breakfast has been hit or miss.  Not in love with their eggs Benedict and soft-boiled eggs were slightly overcooked. But omelet and scrambled eggs have been above average.  
 

Most of it is personal preference.  

[jpalbny]

Food is subjective. What I like, you may not. You may like what I don't (though that list is very short).

 

I think that the hamburgers that I make at home are better than the ones they serve on board, but if you're craving a hamburger, have one. I do, on occasion, and I enjoy it, if that's what I'm craving. You might like it just fine; you don't know until you try it.

 

Have a great cruise!

[pavementends]

Oddly enough I was not happy with the regular coffee. I will try it again but if it still disappoints I may have to switch to a double shot cappuccino for breakfast.

 

I would say be aware that there are things you can ask for that are not explicitly on the menus. Of course caviar (if you are into that). I don't think I saw grappa on the drinks menu but they were happy to deliver it. This time I want to work my way through the exotic cocktails. There are enough options (both dining location and menu) that if you find something that doesn't work for you you can avoid it.

 

Another thing is to figure out what you can reasonably ask of your butler. This time I may get an afternoon fruit plate for the room. And maybe a box lunch one or two days.

 

Last morning of the cruise I wanted to get off early to be sure of making my flight. Had a breakfast (a very nice one) delivered to the room around 6 AM.

 

Hamburgers would have to be pretty wonderful for me to choose them over a multi-course dinner in one of the dining rooms. Except maybe for lunch.

Edited March 20, 2023 by pavementends

[Strumdatjag]

By the way, my wife and I are on the Whisper. 

[Gourmet Gal]

Honestly, the pizza is hit or miss.  Sometimes terrible and sometimes just good.  Never great.  Food and cuisine are so subjective.  It depends on what you’re used to and personal taste.  I live in a culinary mecca so it’s hard for me to say that any food on any ship is off-the-charts-fabulous.  But SS is mostly good to surprisingly good for me with most dishes well-prepared.  I wouldn’t say there’s anything to avoid.

[Stumblefoot]

4 hours ago, Strumdatjag said:

Any ideas?  

Get the steak.

Skip the hamburger.

[RachelG]

Stumblefoot just alerted me to the situation.  The hamburger is to be avoided at all cost.  Pizza is good to great, depending on the day.

[ronrick1943]

2 hours ago, Stumblefoot said:

Get the steak.

Skip the hamburger.

We never had a steak like that—-that does look good.

[Host Jazzbeau]

1 hour ago, ronrick1943 said:

We never had a steak like that—-that does look good.

And that was JP's dessert!!!  

[Fletcher]

5 hours ago, Stumblefoot said:

 

Skip the hamburger.

Take the cannoli. 

[jollyjones]

11 hours ago, Gourmet Gal said:

Honestly, the pizza is hit or miss.  Sometimes terrible and sometimes just good.  Never great.  Food and cuisine are so subjective. 

Definitely all very subjective. I think the pizzas ARE great, never had a bad one at Spaccanapoli. Just my opinion, of course.

 

But that is of no relevance to the OP since he's on the Whisper.

 

7 hours ago, RachelG said:

The hamburger is to be avoided at all cost.

An utterly unhelpful assertion - the hamburgers appear to please many pax.

 

The only useful advice for the OP is to give it all a try, if something is not to his personal taste, then order something else or move on.

 

[Randyk47]

We’re not foodies per se but on the whole we really enjoy the food on Silversea.  We actually use cruises to try different dishes than we fix at home or get at our favorite restaurants.  Kind of a low risk “try it, you might like it”.   Worst case is that we get a meal that we really don’t like but have the option to order something different.  That hasn’t happened often and, in fact, I can only remember one time my wife ordered something and it just wasn’t right for her and she got a replacement.  Certainly we’ve tried dishes that were probably fixed well but turned out not to be to our taste.   On the other hand we’ve tried dishes that were new to us and turned out to be great and found their way onto our at home options.   
 

Have to add we really enjoyed the pizzas on the Dawn a month ago.  Reminded us more of the pizzas we have eaten in Italy than the American style ones we get at home.  Even our best friends and cruise partners, who rarely eat pizza at home, liked the Dawn pizzas and ordered pizza several for lunch on our 14-day cruise.   Hamburgers?  Yup, we can and do fix great hamburgers at home and have to say in the past the Silversea hamburgers haven’t been all that great.  That changed on the Dawn and the burgers were actually pretty good.   

[Rothko1]

I'm a huge fan of the fresh made daily pasta dishes at lunch.  They are almost always delicious.

 

[mwhm]

Also not a fan of the hamburgers.  I'm usually not a cheese pizza person, but the all cheese pizza (forget the name of it) at Spacconapoli might be the best pizza I have ever had.

[drkitkat123]

for me, I would have any hamburger any day (for lunch). I would never waste calories on a pizza no matter how good on a cruise! :-)))

[Lois R]

Someone mentioned the coffee earlier in this thread.  Well, normally I drink coffee at breakfast here at home but it seems whenever I cruise (no matter what the cruise line) I cannot find a cup of coffee that is pleasing to my pallet. So, in the mornings, I drink hot tea.  I do enjoy a latte and or/cappuccino and those are always good but as for a "regular cup of joe"? It seems, for me, it it too strong and/or bitter.

Of course that may be just me because I know other folks drink it without any issues. 

[labrasett]

On 3/20/2023 at 11:09 PM, Gourmet Gal said:

Honestly, the pizza is hit or miss.  Sometimes terrible and sometimes just good.  Never great.  Food and cuisine are so subjective.  It depends on what you’re used to and personal taste.  I live in a culinary mecca so it’s hard for me to say that any food on any ship is off-the-charts-fabulous.  But SS is mostly good to surprisingly good for me with most dishes well-prepared.  I wouldn’t say there’s anything to avoid.

Are you serious?   It may be that pizza isnt so good on other ships but where there is Spaccanapoli (Dawn and Moon and maybe others) it is world beating IMHO. 

[FauxNom]

For me, the food has gotten better the more I've cruised Silversea. That's because I know it's okay to have high expectations and send back what isn't making me happy. E.g. I was served a virtually raw hamburger my first day on the Shadow this winter; once I sent it back, a good one magically appeared. If the kitchen isn't getting your omelette order right several days in a row, the restaurant supervisor will want to know, so don't be shy. The only unavoidably bad food on my recent cruise was on Mexican theme night. Worst food I've ever had onboard, served family style so you couldn't change you mind and order something new. Live and learn!

[Stumblefoot]

59 minutes ago, FauxNom said:

For me, the food has gotten better the more I've cruised Silversea. That's because I know it's okay to have high expectations and send back what isn't making me happy. E.g. I was served a virtually raw hamburger my first day on the Shadow this winter; once I sent it back, a good one magically appeared. If the kitchen isn't getting your omelette order right several days in a row, the restaurant supervisor will want to know, so don't be shy. The only unavoidably bad food on my recent cruise was on Mexican theme night. Worst food I've ever had onboard, served family style so you couldn't change you mind and order something new. Live and learn!

Yikes!  How in the world could they mess up such easy cuisine?  Even I, a lowly Stumble, can make good Mexican food.  

Now you’ve got me hungry here on Cinco de Mayo.  @QueSeraSera, mix up a pitcher of margaritas!

[Pies4u]

Apart from the awful lasagne my wife had in La Terazza, we found the food to be generally excellent on our recent Dawn cruise. That was our first SS cruise so it was an interesting comparison with Oceania & Regent.

 

Tried room service hamburger, which was very good tbh but found the pizzas at Spacca….to be a tad uninteresting and fairly ordinary tbh. All other evening meals at La T were excellent, the prawns and steak there were superb. Only dined in Atlantide twice in 22 nights, food was lukewarm and indifferent - the steak there made me ill! The surf and turf in Kaiseki was beyond words, best lobster I’d tasted in a ship other than Jacques on Oceania. The lobster bisque in La Dame was also exceptional. The meals in SALT were all very pleasant - we had 5 from memory.

 

Personally, I don’t think there was an individual restaurant that was superior to Jacques or Toscana on Oceania Marina or Prime 7 on any Regent ship (in respect of quality of food, presentation and menu variety) but, overall, it was interesting to try new dishes and sample the SS culinary experience. Other than the 1 dodgy lasagne and the steak ant Atlantide all the other meals were enjoyable and service was first class throughout.

 

I’d say S Dawn offered a better choice of restaurants than even Oceania - to have the pizza and  The Grill options in addition to 6 other restaurants is very impressive on a smaller ship. I’d certainly be happy to experience SS cuisine again!

[Techno123]

2 hours ago, labrasett said:

Are you serious?   It may be that pizza isnt so good on other ships but where there is Spaccanapoli (Dawn and Moon and maybe others) it is world beating IMHO. 

Not that I plan on having pizza that often but I only like them with a really thin base - are they reflective of the Neapolitan name of the restaurant? 😁

Edited May 5, 2023 by Techno123