How has the food quality been recently?

[JLMoran]

I had heard a lot of stories when cruising resumed in 2021 about how the food quality really tanked on Royal, as well as other lines. I'm curious now that cruising has been back for a few years if the quality has gone back what it was pre-pandemic. What have your recent experiences been? I'll be sailing on Odyssey in a bit under a year, so I'll be paying extra attention to folks who've been on her .

[Ryan79]

It’s gone down since the pandemic. I think almost everyone will agree with that and probably won’t be back to that level anytime soon, if ever. Menus have significantly been reduced. No more all you can eat lobster. No more apple blossom for dinner. MDR is hit or miss these days, but of course that is going to be both very subjective and vary widely for each sailing. A good meal can still be had though. I’ve still had more good ones than bad ones in the last 4 years, but overall quality has certainly gone down.

[CanHardlyWait]

It's not what it was. Don't think it ever will be again. It gets the job done, is as nice as I can put it.

My biggest complaint is the quality of the fatty low low low grade beef they are using.

For every one complaint on here will be 10 folks saying it's fine. It seems to be a compulsion. Take both sides with a grain of salt. Like Royals food. LOL

 

[KristiZ]

I’ll let you know in a month

Odyssey trans atlantic leaving April 21!
 

And also welcome back! 

[smokeybandit]

No complaints this week on adventure.

[Jamesszy94]

I got off the Ovation of the Seas yesterday after 10 nights.

Food was hit and miss. Some nights the MDR had great food - other nights, it was pretty bad. 

WJ is definitely not great - same thing every morning/lunch/ and basically dinner except they change up maybe 1 or 2 stations for their "themed" nights. PLUS DID I MENTION THEY HAVE FOUR ENTIRE STATIONS JUST FOR SALAD.

Izumi's was good though

I guess it just depends if you're a picky eater. 

[Smokey79]

Alllure-two weeks ago:

Didn’t eat at every option. So here’s our breakdown of what we did try. 

Couple trips to WJ and it was decent. Selection was good and nothing looked “stale”. Got cook out plates (burgers and dogs) and it was good. 

Chops- steak was good but also the worst of the cruise. Tender but the seasoning was “off”. Lobster was good. No complaints on sides but shrimp cocktail was rather small compared to the “before” times. 
 

Giovanni’s- not sure how to do this one because they made me chicken Alfredo so I’ll use the rest of the party’s meal. Steaks were amazing. Sides and apps were good. Eggplant parm was a disaster (pg-13 version of her comment). 
 

Izumi- just amazing. Mic drop. 
 

150 Central Park- best overall meal of the trip followed closely by Izumi. Staff were amazing. Prob the best filet I’ve had in a long time. Lobster thermador was amazing but I feel could be better….. 
 

Vintages- tapas- quality depended upon the time of the evening you ordered. The earlier the better. 
 

Dog house- only had brats. Worried about fresh bread. Bread was fine. Kraut was generic but good. Overall, good for free but I wouldn’t pay. 
 

Chefs table- I’m mixed on this as it’s nothing really original or frankly awesome food-wise. Don’t get me wrong it was good. The pairings make the meal imo was well as having an awesome sommelier. We’re about 50/50 on doing it again. 
 

room service or star class food coma enablers- we never ordered it except for breakfast. We didn’t have anything that was complaint worthy but I’m also not sure where exactly the food was coming from (mdr, speciality, etc). Overall good rating. 
 

overall, I came into this trip expecting average at best food. I’d give it an overall above average to good rating. My best example is that my FIL who is an extremely picky eater actually got out and tried some new things and was happy. 

[OCSC Mike]

Was pretty great on Wonder last week.

MDR - I've never been a big MDR fan and I even enjoyed most of my items there.

WJ - Slightly less variety but good Indian food as usual and some surprisingly good items like ribs and grilled shrimp. Picky wife thought the burgers were better than they used to be. Hand scooped ice cream at lunch and dinner.

Solarium Bistro - Mostly a repeat of WJ with a few unique items. Love their breakfast smoothies and the woman running the omelet station made very large and well made omelets.

El Loco Fresh - Ate there almost everyday. I can always go for tacos and the quesadillas were fine too.

Park Cafe - Still enjoy their breakfast sandwiches, didn't have a kummelweck (too many afternoon trips to ELF), enjoyed the pre-packaged to-go wraps to keep in our cabin fridge as a snack.

Mason Jar brunch - My new favorite specialty restaurant.

Playmakers - Big fan of their burgers and garlic parm fries.

Sorrento's - Still mostly just a place to grab pizza when everything else is closed but I find it to be improved over the past 9 months. Much crispier and less soggy.

I gained my usual 10+ pounds on a 7N cruise and enjoyed doing so.

[MaryCS62]

Was on Vision mid March - some portions were tiny ( 2 small pieces fried chicken, maybe 1/4 - 1/3 cup mashed potatoes, small vegetable servings, shrimp cocktail - 4 watery shrimp), and others quite large - Caribbean chicken was 1/2 a chicken, plus large side dishes. but unfortunately I didn't care for the spices, so didn't eat much. I actually can't eat large quantities anymore, & I never felt I needed more food than I got, although I know I could have. 

Weirdly, 1 thing I noticed was that certain things needed salt - anything without a specific spice profile (ie, the above mentioned Caribbean chicken)- & I rarely salt anything except potatoes and macaroni.  Lobster night, I tasted the rice & veg sides - ending up spooning a little of the melted butter on it and salting it as well. 

[jbrinkm]

The MDR food was pretty good on Symphony last week. I had some issues the year before, just when they started the new menus, on Allure. I felt like the quality increased on almost everything I had both times. I'll clarify - for dinner. I had two lunches in the MDR and did not care for either. We are pescatarian so I can't comment on bad cuts of meat, but due to the limited options, we did end up having a lot of the same fish & vegetarian items both cruises. 

[jbrinkm]

On 3/21/2024 at 9:06 PM, Ryan79 said:

No more apple blossom for dinner

This is what was served to me as the "blossom" for lunch. Yes, it was called the Apple Blossom (NOT crumble) on the menu. I was extremely disappointed.

[Al Miller]

On 3/22/2024 at 6:35 PM, Jamesszy94 said:

 PLUS DID I MENTION THEY HAVE FOUR ENTIRE STATIONS JUST FOR SALAD.

In 2022 there were four "Hot Food" Islands on Anthem for Dinner. The last several cruises its only two with very noticeable reduction in selection and quality. And they just spread the salad and bread/sandwich selections over a couple extra stations. I've never been a MDR fan so I'll defer to others if that's better or worse. I do know Jamie's Italian has had their menu revamped and IMO a noticeable drop in all around quality and selection. For our family it went from a must do to a never again. And like the MDR, Chops has never impressed me. I've had decent meals there but it just seems very uninspired anymore. Unless I catch some super duper sale price, I don't see me ever going back to Chops either. It saves me money in the short term I suppose but I do miss specialty dining. Maybe with Odyssey and Symphony coming to NJ, I'll give them a shot again in the future. But the way things have been trending in this regard, I have a feeling it wont be much different.

[WAYNO]

I try to be less grumbly than many of the folks here, so I'm naturally more appreciative....  I may not even know when I'm eating a bad meal.  And in fairness, yes, if you say you hated your food, you must've believed it was really bad.

But, I've gotta say, my meals on Wonder, last week, were as good as the best food I've ever eaten, anywhere. 

The MDR, although all I ate there were the steaks, were quite good.

And on the ethnic nights where I skipped the MDR, the Windjammer was the best it's ever been, both in variety, preparation, and quality.  And the service was terrific.

On lobster night, our lobsters were great.  Really great.  But as we left the restaurant, I overheard somebody complaining how awful the lobster was.  I guess if you're convinced your food was  awful, then to you, it was awful.  Because my opinion was different, doesn't mean I was right or you were wrong.

 

 

 

[Ryan79]

@jbrinkm That is NOT the apple blossom that I know and long for either! I’d be close to tears if I was expecting the old apple blossom and got served….that!