Queen Mary 2 - food
As I mentioned, the food was a bit underwhelming. We ate at the buffet, the main dining room, the pub (Golden Lion), the Chef’s Galley, the mini’ buffet (open early and late), and the Carinthia lounge. We had drinks at the Commodore club, the Laurent-Perrier Champagne Lounge, and the Golden Lion.
We did not do the specialty restaurants (steak or Indian/Itialian, switched half way) or Sir Samuels.
The costs for the specialty restaurants was $35 for dinner per person for Indian/Italian and $35 for lunch and $65 for dinner per person for the steakhouse. There was a tasting menu (lunch) experience with wind pairings, but it was largely meat based. I was told that there were veg options, but when I asked for the menu, they didn’t have one…so we didn’t risk that $85 per person cost.
First night we went to the main dining room - the veg option was supposed to be a gnocchi. First issue is we were placed at the wrong table - ours was #665, which happened to be placed on the table for #666….my guess is they don’t have a marker for that table. Anyway, issues and confusion ensued. We weren’t treated very well, there were no apologies to us, even though we were made to move after our first course. This seemed to then cancel the rest of our order and we sat for over an hour while our neighbors got their food and completed it before we got our final plate. The gnocchi was mush and mixed with rigatoni noodles - pretty sure it was a weird clotted cream sauce. I really am not a super picky person, but I didn’t eat it. Husband’s fish was terrible - overall, no one at the table was impressed with anything. This kinda became a theme, unfortunately.
We did have breakfast delivered to the room the first morning - it was fine. Nothing special and was kinda a pain to wait for it. Didn’t do it again. Menu was pretty limited and there wasn’t a ton of space in the room to eat - we had one of the balcony rooms - I cannot imagine trying to eat in a room without a couch and larger coffee table.
Our next stop was the buffet - unfortunately, there were no vegan options. Or so we thought. We did track down the Indian lunch option and there was a kind of chickpea protein with it - this was pretty yummy and that person tried to be helpful. Unfortunately, I don’t think we found him ever again.
Day 2 we did the buffet for breakfast - found some eggs (there were no vegan egg options or tofu) - there were supposedly vegan english beans, but I didn’t trust them…and some veggies. I didn’t find vegan yogurts, but there were vegan milk subs in the chef’s galley. The fish was small (which was perfect) and overall pretty good. I’m not much for fried foods and I really avoid non-veg, so we only did this one day.
So essentially, every day I would go and check what was on the main dining room menu - it was all not to my taste and generally wan’t a veg protein option. Lots of pasta, a day of bbq cauliflower, that was pretty much it. So we went to the buffet for most meals and would ask about vegan proteins - most days there weren’t any or it was the same dahl. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE Indian food, but it was the exact same thing every day. Had they mixed it up or had some extra tofu available (they always said they were out), we would have been happier. We did a lot of big salads, which did have a couple beans to add for protein. Until they opened up to serve yourself, this wasn’t an option and the salads they had pre-plated literally all had meat on them…
One nice side option was the Carinthia lounge - it, like Sir Samuels, is a coffee place that you have to pay extra for the coffee. The little food buffet was open to anyone. Since the lounge was right next to the buffet, this was an easy, go grab your tea and pick up a nice platted small salad or hummus. This provided some option from the standards in the buffet.
As you can see above, one night we did head back to the main dining room and did have the tofu option - it was silken tofu, so whoever that chef was deserves a medal. Trying to serve grilled silken tofu is a skill. Maybe this was why there was never any tofu available - all they bought was silken…who knows.
We did try the pizza one night - honestly, how do you fuck up pizza. We got the cheese and it was sweet…like candy sweet. Insane.
One thing I did enjoy was the scones for tea time - they were very yummy and the little chocolate cookies were awesome. We only went to the formal afternoon tea once - but you can get all the options in the buffet at the same time.
Like I said, you aren’t going to starve, but it wasn’t the culinary experience I was expecting. They have significant work to do to cater to plant-based eaters.
Drinks - I liked the champagne bar and mostly did tea. Peter had a few beers and we just realized he didn’t try out any cocktails. The prices for drinks were very reasonable - about $7 for a pint of beer and 10-16$ for a glass of wine. The sparkling was more expensive and a significantly smaller pour - they are NOT generous pours.
They were strict with the dress code in the evenings and came around to remind people when they either had to leave or change.
The one free drinks event we went to - as we didn’t attend any of the ‘art shows/lectures’ - was the captain’s welcome for new Cunard attendees. The wine/beer/cocktails were freely available until he gave his into and they all disappeared during that. So you have about an hour to get a couple drinks - the food options were largely seafood and the pass around options, no one seemed to know what was vegan and what wasn’t. Anyway, it was free.
