Brittania restuarant, Queen Elizabeth, Cunard

When I started  to write a blog about the restaurants that I visit , I consciously decided, only to comment on the places that i thought people would care about, the important places. The places with stars, bells and whistles. The places that we've all read about in the paper, the places that we've swooned over. I never really thought that people really ' cared '  about where and what I ate, but I thought that the more interesting the ' place'  the more interested the reader would be, in my opinion of it. And so far,  I have (tentatively) managed to  stick to this idea. 

But, 
this one's gonna be different.

This is a review of a restuarant on a cruse ship that has a very captive audience. Only a few people cruise, and normally these people are regular customers, and are quite discerning. The thing is , your first cruise is not your only cruise. Often once bitten by the boating bug a person usually comes back time and time again. My family and I have now cruised twice and have two more booked and for us it is perfect. I shan't go into the reasons, as this is supposed to be about the food. So..........

The Britannia  restaurant on the cruse ship Queen Elizabeth is proficient above and beyond any land based eatery. It is HUGE.  They have 2 sittings a night and on each sitting, the kitchen (galley) must first churn out 850 starters. Then they serve 850 salad's. Then 850 main courses and then 850 deserts. Then they serve 850 'trays' of petit fours, often people will order an extra starter or main , because they '  have never tried frogs legs ',  or they  ' really love lobster'. They do this TWICE a night. It's an immense amount of food. 
It works out to over 6800 plates a night, at least. 
If  McDonald's had this sort of custom,  it could buy Greece . Daily. 

Huge turnover, huge expectations.  Does it deliver? can it deliver? can it ever be good enough?

Let's see.......

Bread is cold and nominal . White roll, Granary bun, brown roll and  sliced french stick. Although not bad quality it lacks in seosoning and heat. Butter is un salted and plentiful. The (self)  addition of salt raises this course to acceptable.  But still only 
5/10

Starters. 

The best was good. Beef carpaccio was fine and a well dressed salad added the required acidity.
7/10
Soups were always good, with the lack of salt supremely evident(more of this later) . They were however made properly, which should never be undervalued at this level.
7/10
Thinly sliced duck breast was as rare as required with a nice tart cranberry sauce cutting through the fat well.
6/10
Also fishy things like ceviche of salmon was properly raw and cured at the same time
6/10 
Often derided things like pâté and shrimp cocktail were handled well. 
6/10
Frogs legs were cooked well but served very un-attractively 
6/10
Snails alas were terribly overcooked. But were seasoned well (thank you)
5/10
However... Tuna Carpaccio was below acceptable, fresh but dull tuna is inappropriate for any raw dish.
3/10
Overall, starters were nice. Small portions at times but that's not as big a problem as you might imagine. Anything sent back was dealt with promptly and you can order a couple, if more than one thing catches your eye.  
Overall 6/10

A salad course follows and is pretty nondescript. A good Caesar was well made and surprisingly springy, the addition of anchovies welcomed. 
6/10
The others all fall into the 4/10 range. Mainly because I can't remember them being good or bad. 

Main course next then. 

All steaks were of good quality and cooked well. I had a fine sirloin a couple of nights and the meat was well aged with a good amount of fat 
7/10
Lobster was overcooked, but a decent Thermidor sauce raises it to 
5/10
Pasta dishes were a stand out. Tomato based sauces were always good. All pasta was very well made including a spaghetti dish with clams 
8/10  
and a sweet potato ravioli with roasted tomato sauce hitting a wonderful 
9/10
Vegetarian dishes were always good and a very nice eggs florentine stood out
8/10
Anything remotely related to a Sunday roast was also well made. Chicken was never over cooked and properly made gravy stood out. Pork belly was good and rare roast beef served correctly
7/10
Vegetables were always perfectly cooked, but equally consistent was the lack of salt and imagination. 
6/10
Spud sides faired well, with a proper dauphinoise and remarkably good chips as stand outs. 
7/10
Cheese came as 3 pre plated options and rotated thruout the week. All of supermarket quality. Crackers of the same quality. 
4/10
All accompanying sauces were good. A pepper sauce finished with brandy gets
8/10
And a perfect Bernais gets the holy grail. 
10/10

Desserts. 

Creme brûlée was accomplished and red fruit a nice tart addition
7/10
Anything using gelatine was too springy by far (obviously required for the faster setting time) and all were terrible
3/10
Anything involving pastry was normally a winner. The vanilla shortbread tart being the best 
6/10

Lots of people moan about food. I do it on a very regular basis, because let's face it - it's fun. The low points were low, but the high pionts were higher. You mustn't forget that if you dont like what you order 
A) you can send it back and order something else.
B) you can order almost as much as you like, and 
C) cooking for this many people, it is impossible to get everything right every time. 
If you keep these things in mind you cannot fail to enjoy your meal. Another thing many people don't realise is that you can also order things that aren't on the menu. Fancy a big fat steak? Just ask and they will bring you one as big as my mums handbag.
As mentioned before everything is under seasoned. However, unusually for me I didn't worry about this. Although an English ship* ,the Queen Elizabeth carries a huge number of American and Australian guests and salt is used a lot less in their food. That's why their better looking than us Brits and could easily out live noah. There was salt on the table so it all worked out well in the end. 

The service is much much better than many ' land based 'restaurants and in many ways comparable to your average 1 Michelin star place . In most circumstances it betters a lot of places that I've been to. You have the same table each night and chairs are pulled and glasses topped up well. The worst service I received here was better than the best at Louis XV.  

In summation. It's so much better than it should be. The staff are amazing, and the menu punches so far above its weight, that when you think of the price you pay, you must realise that a lot of the food has to be either prepared from scratch, or stolen to order. 

Overall    7.5/10

A resounding success. 
Well done Cunard. 

QG review to come. 

* it is not an English ship