DCL Food - What to expect?

[Brookem823]

We Are DCL newbies and would love some food opinions. We consider ourselves “foodies”, live in a big city with incredible restaurants that we visit often. There isn’t much we won’t try.

All of my other cruise experience is with RCI and we really dislike the food except the specialty restaurants. We always find both the breakfast and lunch buffets really unappealing and the dinners in the main dining room close to inedible.

Not expecting to feel like we are dining at a 5 star restaurant in the main dining rooms but hoping the food on DCL is better based on the higher cost alone. I do have a Remy dinner booked and crossing my fingers for a Palo brunch reservation to open up.

What are your thoughts?

 

[_auroraborealis_]

The higher cost isn't about food. That is not where you pay the premium. The premium is there is no casino and for the "Disney" factor.

I suspect you will be disappointed in the food.

 

[starvenger]

We Are DCL newbies and would love some food opinions. We consider ourselves “foodies”, live in a big city with incredible restaurants that we visit often. There isn’t much we won’t try.

All of my other cruise experience is with RCI and we really dislike the food except the specialty restaurants. We always find both the breakfast and lunch buffets really unappealing and the dinners in the main dining room close to inedible.

Not expecting to feel like we are dining at a 5 star restaurant in the main dining rooms but hoping the food on DCL is better based on the higher cost alone. I do have a Remy dinner booked and crossing my fingers for a Palo brunch reservation to open up.

What are your thoughts?

As you know food is subjective, so one person’s dislike is another’s love. With that in mind...

DCL’s main dining rooms are like RCI and other cruise lines - the food expectation should be “above average wedding banquet”. I don’t know where that stands with you as a “foodie” (“fooder?”) but MDRs are trying to feed thousands of people, hence the varied opinions about the food there.

I haven’t done DCL’s specialty restaurants (didn’t want to abandon the kids) but if you like Royal’s specialty restaurants Remy and Palo should appeal to you.

 

[eeyoreandtink]

We are adventurous eaters as well. The food in the MDR's is what I would consider average. On par with chain restaurants. If you go in expecting fine dining you will be disappointed, as would be the case in an MDR on a cruise ship. It is the reality of feeding 4000 people every night. They have to feed everyone, and are going to shape the menu to what the majority of people are comfortable eating. That means pretty standard fare with standard spice palettes. I would by no means call it inedible, but it is fairly meat and potatoes.

 

[Trera]

Palo is always on our list of things we are doing. That includes dinner and brunch. Remy we find to always be great and is comparable to Victoria and Alberts if you are familiar with that restaurant. Dining room food is good but I would never call it great. We have done 18 cruises now and I can always find something I like.

 

[cadien]

We're foodies. DCL food is fine but that's not where the price premium shows up. I've never been on Royal but I wouldn't call the MDR food significantly better than what we received on Norwegian. Like others have said, each dinner is like a banquet at a seminar or wedding in terms of what the kitchen is turning out, because everyone is seated at the same time.

 

[Spiffy MacSpiff]

You'll be happy with Remy and -- if you get it -- Palo brunch... but as big-city foodies you won't be raving over the MDR offerings. MDR food is solid but not epic; they are, after all, feeding thousands of people at the same time. The higher cost isn't about the food.

 

[darnheather]

I will say it is far better than Applebees or Olive Garden not as good as a 5 star restaurant. There are some more unusual things on the menu like escargot, ox-tail soup, and lots of nice seafood. There is also plain chicken and steak. I've dined all over the world and while I find the meals not as adventurous as I'd like (they never have much in the way of Asian choices) I've never had a bad meal.

 

[jdb in AZ]

If you don't enjoy breakfast on RCCL, don't count on enjoying breakfast at DCL. Their idea of pastry is defrosted Krispy Kreme donuts. Dinner on both cruise lines is comparable.

Remy, on the other hand, is an adventure.

 

[FigmentSpark]

I'm not a foodie, but I am discerning about the things I like. Most MDR items were really enjoyable, not chain restaurant at all. But twice, now, I've been disappointed with the lobster bisque, probably because I've had it at Fishlips just before both cruises. DCL's just wasn't that creamy full lobster flavor. That was a letdown.

 

[Marc D]

Food is one of the most, if not the most, subjective subject discussed on these forums. You’ll get opinions of all kinds in response to your question.

For us, we find the DCL MDR food a notch above RCCL food, and on par with Celebrity. Even when dining in the specialty restaurants on NCL, we miss the DCL dining room food, the only exception being the Haven restaurant. There are some options that we do not pick any more - some of them are raved about by other cruisers - but, having tasted most of the options by now, we always have a hard time choosing between them since we like so many things.

We are also foodies from a city with a diverse and plentiful restaurant scene.

 

[darnheather]

If you don't enjoy breakfast on RCCL, don't count on enjoying breakfast at DCL. Their idea of pastry is defrosted Krispy Kreme donuts. Dinner on both cruise lines is comparable.

Remy, on the other hand, is an adventure.

I completely disagree. Breakfast is delicious. Cabanas buffet has a lovely assortment of English, European, and American breakfast items. You can also go to one of the MDR's for a sit-down order off the menu breakfast.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

If you skip the pastries, which are mostly pre-fab, and go for hot breakfast, breakfast is fine.

 

[Lisa F]

I would say that on my last cruise the MDR food was much better than I expected based on memories from 2005. It is not 5 star city dining, but if you start at "upper end banquet food" as your expectation, you will be pleased. It is tasty and it is actually nicely cooked and plated, which is surprising given how much of it they are producing at once. In particular I found beef done the way I wanted - on a more consistent basis than even in the WDW parks. I was surprised by how tasty and well composed most of the dishes were. It is definitely more enjoyable than applebees or olive garden. But it's not made to order just for you fine dining and it's not really fair to compare it to that. I think it is as good as the average WDW TS restaurant, which again is a feat given the quantities in which they are producing it. Some things I've read about are misses like in particular some of the soups and they can keep all of those romaine wedge salads but I was really pleased with the things like the tuna tartare. Honestly I feel like most of the entrees and most of the starters are pretty solid with the soups and salads being more iffy and desserts also being "just okay" and not great, with some notable exceptions like the grand marnier souffle. You can't go wrong with ice cream sundaes either which falls into the "tasty if not 5 star" category.

The buffets (breakfast and lunch) are both hit and miss, as all buffets tend to be. I mean, deep fried hashbrown patties are not exactly high cuisine but they are kind of a naughty pleasure that I enjoy. The waffles are hit and miss depending on how long they have been steaming on the table. But the charcuterie choices are ok and I found that I loved smearing cream cheese on cucumber slices topped with smoked salmon, capers and chopped red onions (i am avoiding the carbs, nevermind what I said about the hashbrown patties). the smoked salmon is pretty high quality and not fishy/oily and if I remember correctly they also have the lighter smoked salmon filets in the MDR "brunches" where there is partially buffet and you can order off the menu that was absolutely delicious in addition to the more standard "lox" style smoked salmon. I believe you can get made to order eggs/omelets, which will be better than the egg dishes sitting out on the buffet. It's not going to compare with brunch at the 4 seasons but it's not going to be as bad as "free hot breakfast" at a best western. I think it's about the quality of the Disney family style breakfasts (like Ohana and Garden Grill) as a reference.

For lunch there are some good choices and some soso choices - I would say go for anything that looks a bit more on the ethnic side as it is probably influenced greatly by someone who knows what they are doing on the ship - I have found the curries on the buffet and the samosas in the MDR on pirate night to be surprisingly good and can only assume that some east asian chef is behind them. The seafood is good and fresh.

The quick service stuff is typical quick service, about on par with similar food in the parks. I have always found disney chicken fingers to be delightfully addictive and can eat my weight in soft serve if I had no shame to keep it in check.

i'm a little bit of a foodie and looking forward to brunch at Remy (I feel it will be a little more key for me as a solo and I won't miss out on MDR with my son - single mom) and might book Palo brunch as well... but honestly I also like just plain tasty food even if not fancy and I'm not sure I'd want to eat Remy level all week. Sometimes you just want some chicken fingers. I found the food on my Dream cruise last year to be a highlight and enjoyed most of what I tried... and if I didn't like something the staff was happy to replace it. I am not a huge fan of applebees and olive garden and always end up being disappointed when I go there and I would say it is definitely better than that stuff.

 

[cadien]

DCL food is definitely not as oversalted as Applebees and Olive Garden.

 

[jdb in AZ]

If you skip the pastries, which are mostly pre-fab, and go for hot breakfast, breakfast is fine.

Except for the limp greasy bacon and the watery scrambled eggs.

 

[darnheather]

Except for the limp greasy bacon and the watery scrambled eggs.

Have never had limp bacon. Scrambled eggs are something to stay away from as those are probably powdered but the poached eggs and omelettes are amazing. If you hate the food so much why do you sail DCL? Just curious.

 

[DCLPrincess]

I agree that food is subjective, because people like different things. I really like the food and for me it's fancy. But I've never been to a 5 star restaurant and I don't eat multiple courses at home. I like a variety of foods but don't like many things that people consider fancy (seafood, mushrooms, souffle).

 

[dclpluto]

DCL food is definitely not as oversalted as Applebees and Olive Garden.

Yes but your not eating there 5 times a day for a week.

 

[dclpluto]

Have never had limp bacon. Scrambled eggs are something to stay away from as those are probably powdered but the poached eggs and omelettes are amazing. If you hate the food so much why do you sail DCL? Just curious.

There’s a lot more to DCL than the food. I like the food for the most part but even if I didn’t I will still be going on DCL.