Filet mignon quality in MDR

[nanamobo]

15 hours ago, gizmodog said:

This is celebrity’s thought process to charge for good food. It’s wrong but seems like it will again work for them again

Like everything else if we all pay the up charge for better food why would they offer it in the MDR??? 
 

If you use your credit card in restaurants to pay for your food they add the 3%. This used to be part of doing business. Not since COVID, pass the cost to the consumer. 
The pandemic is over, but the 3% is still here.

 

 

[Mark_K]

On 10/2/2023 at 11:06 AM, Tyler414 said:

I choose "Select" when booking, so not sure what the Plus is, maybe new fancy wording??

On edge class ships, you can choose select without choosing a dining room, they call that Select Dining Plus - or did at one time.

[SusieAV8R]

23 hours ago, Salt Lifer said:

Two years ago I had it on Apex and it was truly one of the best meals I ever had.  Ordered it again last year on Beyond and it was inedible.  The meat quality was terrible and the taste was not even describable.

 

Bear in mind, I enjoy good food but I am not overly picky... I will almost always eat what I am given without complaint and usually eat it all.  I left over half this dish untouched it was so bad.  I am not sure what quality of meat they used, but I question if it was even beef.  I heard similar complaints about this dish and other beef dishes from other passengers, so I suspect in their attempts at beefing up profit they sourced very cheap cuts of meat.

I do find on ships not based in the U.S. or generally sailing elsewhere, and thus getting beef from locales where sailing, that the meat, especially beef (steaks) tastes different from what I enjoy at home (texture and flavor).  This may be because of what different countries feed their livestock?  

[tocruiseguy]

21 hours ago, fstuff1 said:

They don't.

Used to be served on lobster night.

No longer on the menu (solstice, last week).

And 2nd lobster tail is same upcharge as other nights. 😞

 

Was just on the Apex, had the filet and two lobster tails on "lobster" night, there was no uncharge.  Food was excellent on the cruise as was the service.  

[markeb]

2 hours ago, SusieAV8R said:

I do find on ships not based in the U.S. or generally sailing elsewhere, and thus getting beef from locales where sailing, that the meat, especially beef (steaks) tastes different from what I enjoy at home (texture and flavor).  This may be because of what different countries feed their livestock?  

 

Probably. Most of the world doesn't devote grain production that could be used for human food to produce (mostly) corn to finish cattle. Grain fed cattle will have more intramuscular fat (marbling), a different texture to the beef, and a different flavor.  A lot of the world largely grass feeds cattle. There are also age differences at slaughter around the world. Too much information for a cruising board, but your observation is probably correct. I grew up on beef, but don't eat that much of it anymore for a variety of reasons, so I'm better at the theory here than observing the actual state of beef.

 

It's not surprising that people would see a difference in a steak this year from two years ago. The droughts of the last couple of years led to major sell offs of beef cattle and a decreased supply in general. It takes a lot of food and water to get a calf to choice, much less prime, and prices have gone up accordingly. I don't really know if that problem is hitting cruises (Celebrity in particular) disproportionately. Or if some business have done a better job of hedging.

[Salt Lifer]

11 hours ago, SusieAV8R said:

I do find on ships not based in the U.S. or generally sailing elsewhere, and thus getting beef from locales where sailing, that the meat, especially beef (steaks) tastes different from what I enjoy at home (texture and flavor).  This may be because of what different countries feed their livestock?  

 

This makes sense.  Lots of food tastes different overseas (like bread, for example).  But in my experience on the Beyond, we sailed out of Ft. Lauderdale so I expected U.S. fed beef!

[jbcallender]

All depends on the grade of meat.  Is it "Select", "Choice" or "Prime"?  I'm not sure even  Luminae would be "prime" any more.  With a Filet, "Choice" grade cut is still very ternder.  But with a ribeye or strip, you'll notice the difference.  As for the comment about flank steak - in my grocery store, flank steak is running $10.99US a pound!  Unheard of five years ago.   A nicely grilled flank steak, sliced on the bias, a little bearnaise,  is quite good - secret is don't go more than rare as it will toughen quickly.

[SusieAV8R]

12 hours ago, Salt Lifer said:

 

This makes sense.  Lots of food tastes different overseas (like bread, for example).  But in my experience on the Beyond, we sailed out of Ft. Lauderdale so I expected U.S. fed beef!

I would also expect U.S. fed beef in your case.

12 hours ago, Salt Lifer said:

 

This makes sense.  Lots of food tastes different overseas (like bread, for example).  But in my experience on the Beyond, we sailed out of Ft. Lauderdale so I expected U.S. fed beef!

 

12 hours ago, Salt Lifer said:

 

This makes sense.  Lots of food tastes different overseas (like bread, for example).  But in my experience on the Beyond, we sailed out of Ft. Lauderdale so I expected U.S. fed beef!