Food Glorious Food!

Following on from my brief review of the MSC Preziosa I wanted to give you a little more info on the culinary aspect of the cruise.

First course….Breakfast!

For breakfast you could either opt for room service, eat in the buffet or in one of the main dining restaurants. I only ate brekky in the buffet restaurant. I found there to be a good variety of both hot & cold food. Some of the food could have been hotter for me. We Brits do love our food piping hot. I always found a table and although some of my fellow guests didn’t quite grasp the concept of queueing or waiting their turn I didn’t let that bother me (in fairness it’s a small price to pay to not be surrounded by Union Jack shorts and people drunk from morning til night).

Some of my travelling companions ate in the a la carte restaurants and were very pleased. There were English breakfasts plus an egg bar where you can order your choice of eggs, omelettes etc. You could also choose waffles, pancakes, French toast plus cereals and fruits. This a la carte dining does take longer than the buffet restaurant, but is a lot more relaxed.

Moving on to lunch….

At lunchtime I only used the buffet restaurant, mainly because of the amazing pizza and excellent salad bar. The pizzas (as you would expect on an Italian ship) were gorgeous! Lots of different toppings and ultra thin crusts made it delicious! There were other snacky items such as burgers and hot dogs as well as other hot dishes such as pastas, carved meats etc. One of the main dining rooms, serving an a la carte menu plus Eataly, the speciality Italian restaurant as well as La Locanda restaurant were also open at lunch time. The a la carte options were slightly lighter than the evening menu with more choices of salads, sandwiches and a choice of soups.

I also have to mention the great little ice cream  bar on the pool deck which was open during the day. There were 16 delicious flavours of delicious Italian ice cream. It looked super pretty and the ice cream was yummy! And if you have the Allegrissimo drinks package it’s included.

For dinner we mainly ate in the Golden Lobster restaurant. The food in here was good, as was the service. If you wanted you could have a 7 course extravaganza every night. There was a starter, then soup, then salad, then a pasta or risotto course, then main course, then dessert, then cheese & polished off with coffee! I found the choices excellent with a good mix of meats, fish, pastas and risottos on offer. My favourite was the beef fillet which was cooked to perfection and melted in the mouth. The snail en croute was surprisingly delicious as well. The house wines (white, sparkling and red) which were included in the Allegrissimo drinks package were better than I have had in most other cruise lines drinks packages. Very quoffable!

Snail pasties…wait til Greggs here about this!

Duck with raspberries and cheese???

My one disappointment was the Galaxy Mediterranean Fusion restaurant. It was in a beautiful setting right at the top of the ship overlooking the sea and I have to say that the dishes were presented very nicely. Unfortunately the taste of the food didn’t really match up with its good looks. We were in a large group, so I know that the poor service we received was not helped by that, although that doesn’t excuse the odd food combinations and cold food.

Cold Cod

The other half of our party ate in Eataly and unfortunately their experience was no more of a success than ours.

The next time I am on an MSC ship I would think twice about paying for a speciality restaurant when from my experience the food in the main dining room is far superior and included in the price.

Overall I enjoyed the food on board Preziosa and food is a huge part of cruising for me. I know that in general Europeans don’t eat their food quite as hot as the Brits & I guess that’s something worth noting, but nothing that would put me off an MSC cruise.

In 10 days time I will be on the brand new Harmony of the Seas, so it will be interesting to compare the differences between the 2 ships.

For any further info on either the Preziosa or Harmony, feel free to e-mail me at [email protected]