New menus review: welcome aboard night (summary at end)

[Suzanne Elise]

Hi I posted a summary at the end if you don't want to read the whole thread!

So we were told by our waiter today was their first day of the new menus on Adventure. 
It was a mixed bag.
Apps: tomato soup good,, crab cake INEDIBLE cold mush, and I am from Maryland, shrimp cocktail fine,Caesar quite good. 
Mains: fish was mushy and odd tasting, fried chicken mushy too though the honey is a nice touch. The steak was good, the carrots with it were excellent, broccoli good. 
Our waiter was sweet but the captain was perturbed we asked for replacements on the crab and fish. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Srp431]

Please keep reporting your thoughts on the new menus in the main dining rooms. Thank you

[Last Lion]

Don’t perturb the captain! He is a busy man!

[Suzanne Elise]

Ok breakfast thoughts. 
everyone seems under a lot of pressure and like they are in fear, which is sad. Literally the head waiter stopped by to say I heard you ran out of milk. It’s breakfast, I don’t really need to debrief what went wrong. 

food was good… scrambled eggs with onions were delish. But they brought a lot of things I didn’t order. ( bacon sausage fried potato) tried not to eat them , partial fail 
fruit cup was fine 

big plus 
they let me take out a breakfast for sleeping hubby and we ate it in the balcony 

At the buffet I added a bit of Indian sauce to the veggies which took them to a new level 

May try Indian in MDR tonight 

 

 

 

[skittermagoo]

38 minutes ago, Suzanne Elise said:

May try Indian in MDR tonight 

This is one of the MDR menu changes I'm most excited about, actually! We were on Adventure a year ago, and got back too late for dinner from our Costa Maya excursion, so we ate in the Windjammer instead; it was Indian night, and we had some of the best Indian food I've had (and I live in a place with a plethora of Indian restaurants).  So having it on the menu in MDR next month is going to be great -- we're traveling with family, and it will help me avoid eating dinner with them and then going and having second dinner in the WJ, LOL.

[Suzanne Elise]

6 hours ago, skittermagoo said:

This is one of the MDR menu changes I'm most excited about, actually! We were on Adventure a year ago, and got back too late for dinner from our Costa Maya excursion, so we ate in the Windjammer instead; it was Indian night, and we had some of the best Indian food I've had (and I live in a place with a plethora of Indian restaurants).  So having it on the menu in MDR next month is going to be great -- we're traveling with family, and it will help me avoid eating dinner with them and then going and having second dinner in the WJ, LOL.

I did have Indian in the windjammer at lunch. Beef curry sauce was fine, meat tough, veggie kourma good, (especially good as condiment on egg salad sandwich, seriously! ) 

I definitely find the Indian sauces jazz up the windjammer a lot. 
tonight is French night in Windjammer 

 

[Suzanne Elise]

FRENCH NIGHT 

MUCH BETTER 

onion soup was fine —topping savory 

Indian food — lamb Rogan Josh REALLY GOOD 

my husband really liked beef tenderloin… very tender.. a little bland for me 

tender meat, great sauces, good bread, best thing so far 

Cappuccino Cake— meh bland and dry

Creampuffs  decent 

 

 

[DrMaas10]

Do you know what the menus are for each day ahead of time, like before the cruise, so you can plan on other dining options if it’s not to your liking? Or is it just a surprise when you show up for what menu it is?

[ScottD]

5 hours ago, DrMaas10 said:

Do you know what the menus are for each day ahead of time, like before the cruise, so you can plan on other dining options if it’s not to your liking? Or is it just a surprise when you show up for what menu it is?

They show up on the Royal app for your sailing a few weeks prior to your cruise. 

[Suzanne Elise]

Hey y’all 

MDR lunch 

hubby .. shrimp risotto— shrimp fine risotto bland 

seafood sandwich— “ok” 

ceasar number 3 great! They are winning the Romain game, I like this dressing too 

ordered with steak, again these mini steaks area pretty good , tender and well seasoned, easy to cut 

French fries blah. Frying just doesn’t seem to be a strong suit. 

room service breakfast 

best part was plain yogurt, with granola and fruit 

oatmeal very blah 

Pastries blah blah 

 

[DrMaas10]

15 hours ago, ScottD said:

They show up on the Royal app for your sailing a few weeks prior to your cruise. 

Yeah I just looked at the menus and it looks like they are there, except the days don’t match our cruise duration. Like it says “Royal Night” is on Day 7 dinner, and I’m only on a 6night cruise, so there won’t even be a dinner on day 7 since that’s disembark day. I’ve noticed a lot of this on the hours of things on the app for my cruise that there are like “day 8” hours and stuff. Not sure if it will update soon since I sail Mar 4

[Thorntor]

Currently on Symphony - Overall new menu better than expected.  Dinner service is definitely speeded up.  
Tonight was Mexican night - by far the poorest.  Poblano soup VERY spicy; corn fritter soggy; first carne asada brought to table was still mooing; flan just OK.  Dessert selections on all nights are very disappointing.

Breakfast in MDR has been very good.  Windjammer at lunch needs revision.  Most selections are VERY heavy meals - stews, rice, mashed potatoes, chicken.  One or two lunch meats, two types sliced cheese, hot dogs & burgers, very small green salads (no variety of salads).

Overall, new menu pretty decent, lunch choices on sea days poor, mexican night a good time for specialty dining or beginning your new diet.

[FionaMG]

10 hours ago, DrMaas10 said:

Yeah I just looked at the menus and it looks like they are there, except the days don’t match our cruise duration. Like it says “Royal Night” is on Day 7 dinner, and I’m only on a 6night cruise, so there won’t even be a dinner on day 7 since that’s disembark day. I’ve noticed a lot of this on the hours of things on the app for my cruise that there are like “day 8” hours and stuff. Not sure if it will update soon since I sail Mar 4

The menus showing in the app usually reflect the current sailing so it's probable that your ship is doing an 8-night sailing at the moment. To get a better idea, check again when the next 6-night sailing is underway.

[Ampurp85]

Also the menus will change in order with the exception of night one. The number of cruise nights will reflect that.

[Suzanne Elise]

On 1/25/2023 at 8:50 PM, Thorntor said:

Currently on Symphony - Overall new menu better than expected.  Dinner service is definitely speeded up.  
Tonight was Mexican night - by far the poorest.  Poblano soup VERY spicy; corn fritter soggy; first carne asada brought to table was still mooing; flan just OK.  Dessert selections on all nights are very disappointing.

Breakfast in MDR has been very good.  Windjammer at lunch needs revision.  Most selections are VERY heavy meals - stews, rice, mashed potatoes, chicken.  One or two lunch meats, two types sliced cheese, hot dogs & burgers, very small green salads (no variety of salads).

Overall, new menu pretty decent, lunch choices on sea days poor, mexican night a good time for specialty dining or beginning your new diet.

Lol. I thought the soup was too bland and ordered hot sauce. With that addition I liked it with the corn and meat at the bottom. 
We had corn cakes which were undercooked, but the sauce on them was nice. 
the coconut cake was blah , cookie was good 

why do they feed us Mexican food when we just left Mexico?

 

[Suzanne Elise]

Ok so after a strong French night and a night in port we were surprised to have Mexican night. 
I mean we all just spent the day eating in MEXICO. 
Anyway. I foul the Poblano soup bland and almost ran back to my room to grab the condiments from my late lunch. 
the corn cakes were almost good. I liked the salsa a lot and the veggies, they just needed a bit more cooking. 
my husband was very disappointed in the spaghettI. 
I had hopes that the Indian butter chicken would be good, the lamb was great two night ago. 
I was let down by it , but E ended up eating it. He never likes Indian so go figure. 
BUT— THE WARM COOKIE ROCKS. Believe the hype. 
we might have had two sweet dreams 

 

 

 

[FionaMG]

3 hours ago, Suzanne Elise said:

Ok so after a strong French night and a night in port we were surprised to have Mexican night. 
I mean we all just spent the day eating in MEXICO. 
Anyway. I foul the Poblano soup bland and almost ran back to my room to grab the condiments from my late lunch. 
the corn cakes were almost good. I liked the salsa a lot and the veggies, they just needed a bit more cooking. 
my husband was very disappointed in the spaghettI. 
I had hopes that the Indian butter chicken would be good, the lamb was great two night ago. 
I was let down by it , but E ended up eating it. He never likes Indian so go figure. 
BUT— THE WARM COOKIE ROCKS. Believe the hype. 
we might have had two sweet dreams 

 

 

 

Love that warm cookie.

[barjpoe]

9 hours ago, Suzanne Elise said:

 the veggies, they just needed a bit more cooking. 

Even before the new menu the veggies especially the carrots needed to be cooked an extra 5 minutes.

BUT— THE WARM COOKIE ROCKS.

Sounds like the cookie is the BEST part of the menu.

[Suzanne Elise]

1 hour ago, barjpoe said:

Even before the new menu the veggies especially the carrots needed to be cooked an extra 5 minutes.

BUT— THE WARM COOKIE ROCKS.

Sounds like the cookie is the BEST part of the menu.

The cookie was the best

actually I have been eating steamed veggies for the first time ever… I like them crisp

[Suzanne Elise]

A little WIndjammer breakfast note

they do serve special Indian breakfast food

they have a curried semolina that was delicious..a wow

also some special pancakes with veggies that I didn’t like as well 

room service coffee was AWFUL… coffee is a big treat for me…especially on a balcony but ugh. 
the cup I had in MDR was aok 

 

[Suzanne Elise]

Last dinner—- crazy mixed bag…. Bon Voyage 
The hummus was very nice but the med tapas plate was random. 
I really liked the Indian chicken dish, The lamb was disgusting . 
Catalan crème too sweet. 
I will do a wrap up post. 
cheers! 

 

[Suzanne Elise]

Here is my summary post!This was the first week of the NEW Menus on Adventure of the Seas.

In the MDR three things were consistently good.

Caesar salad was better than most restaurants on land. Really great lettuce and dressing.

The little steaks are quite tender and tasty.

The standout dinners I had were both Indian food. Lamb on french night and chicken on bon voyage night. I think the Indian entrees were the way to go and would have done it all 4 nights.

The warm cookie with ice cream and the cheesecake were also delicious.

Everything else was a very mixed bag. My husband had a few weak entrees. Spaghetti, fish on the first night, lamb on bon voyage all a big letdown.

Tomato soup was good. Crab cake was AWFUL. A few things had tasty and bad elements in the same dish. Greek tapas plate (good humus bad pita) and corn cakes (savory salsa) come to mind.

In the Windjammer the indian curried porridge at breakfast was great, and the coconut cookies. Key lime in a cup was nice. Breadsticks GREAT!  Mac and cheese good.

All other pastry desserts in both venues were basically flavorless. I was surprised. They looked pretty and tasted like bland wedding cake.

Big suggestion: INDIAN NIGHT in MDR. Across the board, overall the indian food was a strong suit, and a pleasant suprise and others felt the same way.

Breakfast: my one MDR breakfast was great. Normal American stuff.  Room service continental breakfast was pretty good one day and really a letdown on the other.

We enjoyed our 1 MDR lunch and wish we had done that more but we liked eating at 2pm with dinner at 8.

I hope this is helpful to someone--- we were asked over and over how we liked our food but to be honest it was a formality.

We had a great time, but marveled at how amazingly inconsistent the food was!

Happy sailing. Thanks for reading. Back to work

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[AshleyDillo]

Thanks for your review! I always look forward to the Indian food on cruises. It is consistently great. A cruise is a great venue for someone who has never tried Indian food before to give it a taste.

[69RoadRunner]

Mass produced crabcakes always seem to be a mushy mess. There's a local group of restaurants near me that only uses fresh big pieces of crab to make their crabcakes and I've yet to find anything even close, so I don't even order them elsewhere anymore.

I'm a big fan of butter chicken and I believe I saw that's on the new menu. I hope that's done well.

[Suzanne Elise]

14 hours ago, 69RoadRunner said:

Mass produced crabcakes always seem to be a mushy mess. There's a local group of restaurants near me that only uses fresh big pieces of crab to make their crabcakes and I've yet to find anything even close, so I don't even order them elsewhere anymore.

I'm a big fan of butter chicken and I believe I saw that's on the new menu. I hope that's done well.

It didnt ever look like a crab cake. It was horrifying. First night first dish. It looked like an uncooked veggie burger.

Overall frying was not a strong suit across all the venues and menus.

I had never had butter chicken before. Of my three MDR indian dinners that was my least favorite, BUT my husband ate the rest of it and he does not usually like indian food.

So the flavor worked for him. I did really like the French night indian lamb, and the bon voyage night indian chicken a lot.

Oh the bread the serve with it is nice too, the raita condiment is nice and for lamb they made a mint "chutney" which was good.

Regions of india also proved a good topic with our somewhat awkward dining captain. Our waiter and his assistant were lovely and attentive.