Cafe Jardin MPW

[kaymar]

Enjoy your cruise, Mr & Mrs Silver Shiney. Enjoy your light lunch in Cafe Jardin but don't pay a premium to eat there in the evening - the noise from whoever is providing the entertainment in the atrium is quite intrusive and the food is no better than the MDR, and possibly not even as good (imho!)

[Emrobo]

We didn't bother in the end - I wasn't fussed on the lunch menu (from a veggie point of view) but then neither was my husband who eats meat. We much preferred MDR

[sunseeker16]

I wouldn't go out of my way to dine in Cafe Jardin again - as Kaymar says, the MDR food is now better than the selection in CJ

I still enjoy the CJ breakfast experience and wonder if it would be possible to have some variation on it on all ships. It seems to equate to what one gets in most decent hotels these days - help yourself to the buffet whilst your hot dish is being made to order and will be waiter-served, together with your beverage. I don't know how it could work on a practical basis though?

[Silver_Shiney]

We wouldn't pay to eat in CJ but the lunch menu is quite good. We did eat in Horizon last night, courtesy of Welshie, and that was very good.

[Silver_Shiney]

The menu I posted earlier is CJ's "Menu A". Here's Menu B:

Small Plates and Sharing Boards

Classic Minestrone Soup
Truffled Fried Egg Bruschetta
Tricolore Salad
Crab Salad and Carasali Bread
Marco's Italian Cheese and Deli Board
Rustic Vegetarian Board
Venetian Seafood Board

Large Plates, Pasta, Pizza and Salads

Salmon Saltimbucca
Rigatoni
Marco's Italian Meatballs
Potato Gnocchi with choice of sauce
Classic Caesar Salad
Pizza of the Day
Americano Pizza
Hawaiian Pizza
Funghi Pizza
Roasted Butternut Squash Salad

Trio of Desserts (choose 3)

Marco's Valrhona Chocolate Mousse
Tiramisu
Canilla pok Panna Cotta
Lemon Tart
Italian Trifle

Amaretti and Chocolate Salami with freshly brewed coffee



I leave it to you to decide if that's worth paying an extra £5.25pp....

[Kendhni]

From my reading of the menus they have taken everything that was good about Cafe Jardin and pretty much replaced it with a Pizza bar ... which is free on other lines ... an awful shame. If I were MPW I would also be embarrassed if all I could come up with on an Italian menu was little more than a variety of pizzas.

[Silver_Shiney]

We didn't go there once for breakfast this time, but did go nearly every day for lunch. The lunch menu wasn't bad at all, although it was the same day in, day out.

[davecttr]

The problem with Oceana is there is nowhere to put a proper select dining venue so Cafe Jardin has to occupy a unsuitable location on the top of the atrium, blocking forward/aft access to the public toilets etc in the process.

there were discussion some time ago about where to relocate it but there is nothing better available, or rather all other possible locations are already revenue earning spaces.

Maybe the new menu reflects the 'light' nature of the location.

[tractor boy]

After 3 cruises on Oceana, 2 this year, I must say that of all P&O ships, Oceanas ADVs are not very good at all, We have not been impressed, Why bother paying for something when the food in the MDR is much better. That said we have booked to go on her again,for the ports not the ship but any money spent buying meals will be done ashore. Oceana used to be my favourite ship but I think P&O dont care about her anymore.

[Silver_Shiney]

.....I think P&O dont care about her anymore.

Possibly not, if it's true that she's being transferred to the Australian fleet

[tractor boy]

I hope they dont do it before January 2015

[Valerie-W61]

As I mentioned on a forum page after our last trip on oceana in June we were told by the purser that she leaves for po australia april 2015, so no chance of her having another paint job before then, so if you thought she was looking a bit tatty now wait till then.

funny isn't it that we have most of our cruises now booked on oceana (another four at the moment) but for us the reason is we prefer the ADV better than any other ship.

Can't stand smash and grab so that's off limits, (breakfast is never an option don't eat it at home so never really care on hols but if we do we may go to the MDR. lunch is nearly always a great plate of salad from cafe jardin, unlike cafe b on aurora that dosen't have a salad bar, and love the fish and chips from the grill if back on late.

Funny how were all different the reason there are so many ships I suppose.

[tractor boy]

would that be my swimming partner valerie?

[Valerie-W61]

yes had to re log in with new password which it wouldn't let me so had to start up a brand new account!

when we went on oceana last even though we had booked it 18months in advance and on vantage no matter how many times i emailed or phoned they never ever sent me my booklet or luggage labels. booked two getaways for august and guess what the books/luggage labels have arrived!!!

[tractor boy]

makes you wonder if it really is worh booking in advance

[Libralass54]

are there no new reviews for Oceana cafe jardin except 2013 or am i in wrong place?

[Gill W]

I came back from Oceana last month - my diary is in the cruise reports section

On my cruise, we often used Cafe Jardin for breakfast and lunch, and it was very popular for these meals

We only went there once for dinner. The cover charge is still only £5.25, which, these days, seems good value. But the menus are also still pretty much like the 2013 menus from this thread, so there's been very little change.

The dinner was ok..... But it wasn't a very successful night. I had pre ordered my meal, as I have a special diet, and they got it wrong. Then, my head waiter had left the MDR menus for the following night with the head waiter in the Jardin, but they weren't passed to me.

But, in these days of cloning, I think the Cafe Jardin should be cherished as something different.

If was interesting reading this old thread - Oceana didn't go to Australia in 2015, and she's still a little down at heel!

[CaroleF]

Well we are on Oceana in just over a couple of weeks and after reading all the various reviews, especially on other sites, it will be interesting if we find ourselves on the "rust bucket" described in one review I read. It will be our 5th time on Oceana, the first time was in 2007; we were last on just over a year ago and she certainly wasn't a "rust bucket" then. We too like going to Cafe Jardin for breakfast and occasionally for lunch too. We have found that as the cruise goes on the queues for Cafe Jardin at lunchtime increase as more people find out about her.

[daib GC]

I came back from Oceana last month - my diary is in the cruise reports section

On my cruise, we often used Cafe Jardin for breakfast and lunch, and it was very popular for these meals

We only went there once for dinner. The cover charge is still only £5.25, which, these days, seems good value. But the menus are also still pretty much like the 2013 menus from this thread, so there's been very little change.

The dinner was ok..... But it wasn't a very successful night. I had pre ordered my meal, as I have a special diet, and they got it wrong. Then, my head waiter had left the MDR menus for the following night with the head waiter in the Jardin, but they weren't passed to me.

But, in these days of cloning, I think the Cafe Jardin should be cherished as something different.

If was interesting reading this old thread - Oceana didn't go to Australia in 2015, and she's still a little down at heel!

That's amazing, Oceana did not go to Australia, what a shock. You don't think the staff could have been spreading rumours.

[Manoverboard]

With a cover charge of only £5:25 it is quite amazing and well worth a punt ... we will be paying £32:50 and £35:00 on our next cruise.

[Whynd1]

When we went MPW himself was onboard. He took the time to come round and talk to everyone and was very charming, he sat right next to me and we chatted about football of all things. We went twice on that cruise and it is excellent value, the portion sizes area little on the large side.