Front Burner: Researching restaurants before traveling pays off
For today’s Front Burner column, I wrote about the websites I usually visit in order to find great restaurant recommendations before I travel. The column was inspired by our recent vacation, which was a cruise out of Ft. Lauderdale with stops in the Bahamas, St. Maarten, St. Thomas and Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos.
The very day we returned, the Carnival cruise ship Triumph suffered the engine room fire that stranded it in the Gulf of Mexico. The miserable conditions on board were all over the news, but that won’t stop me from taking another cruise. In fact, this was my second cruise and I can’t wait to take another.
I understand that cruises are not for everybody. I fell in love with this travel method because it’s a very affordable way to visit several different countries in one vacation. I don’t know that I could ever book travel to and between all those places, along with accommodations every night and food every day, for less money than a cruise. Even if I could, it would be a lot more work.
I still love traveling directly to one location and spending as much time as I want there, and I have stopped at ports where I wished I had several more days to explore (Dublin!). But getting a short peek at a destination helps me to determine whether I’d like to spend more time there in the future (Dublin!).
Before we get to the food, which is, after all, what this blog is all about, I want to address the comments I’ve heard from folks who say they’d never cruise now after what they saw happen to the Carnival Triumph and the Costa Concordia. My response is that there is risk inherent in any type of travel, whether it be in a car, a plane, on a train or on a ship. If you don’t want to take the risk, you don’t travel. I’d rather be on a cruise trip that’s in trouble than on an airplane that’s going down, but that’s just me.
A very good reason some folks don’t like to cruise is the food. The two cruises I’ve taken have been on Princess, so I can’t speak to the quality of food on other cruise lines. But I’ve been very happy with the food on board both Princess ships. I love being able to have something different for breakfast at the buffet every day, because I love it all — yogurt, granola, oatmeal, fruit, eggs, bacon, potatoes, bread, waffles, French toast, pancakes… oh, yum!
We had hits and misses in the sit-down dining rooms, but most dishes were great. Some that stand out in my mind are a delicious veal saltimbocca, sauteed scallops with citrus, cream of mushroom soup with sundried tomatoes, crab and roasted red pepper quiche, chicken and sweetbreads in puff pastry, and garlic shrimp. I will warn you that you should probably never order pad Thai on a cruise ship. I should have known better.
Of course, nothing on board compared with the two restaurants we visited on shore: Tropicana in Marigot, the capital of French St. Martin, and the Local Village Bar and Restaurant in Grand Turk. I wrote more about both of those restaurants in today’s column, so check it out.
If you will allow me to bore you with a few vacation pictures, check out the slideshow above. To experience this slideshow properly, click play and then immediately click the bottom right button with the four arrows to expand it to fill your screen, then click “Show info” at the top right of your screen to see the captions describing the photos.
I’d love to have a conversation with you guys on a variety of topics: How do you like to research restaurants before you travel? What are you looking for?
Also, have you taken any cruises and if so, what cruise line did you use and how was the food on that particular ship?
February 20, 2013 - 10:52 AM
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My dad loves to stop and ask random locals for the best hole-in-the-wall spots. Once while we were travelling through Florida he actually pulled in someone’s driveway and asked a man who was taking out the trash. At the time I was an angsty teenager and sooo embarrassed about the whole thing. The man’s advice was spot on though, we ended up at a tasty local seafood restaurant on the beach at sunset.
I tend to use Trip Advisor when reviewing or researching hotels, restaurants, excursions etc. Its never steered me wrong and the people who use it tend to be global instead of regional, like Yelp and Chowhound seem to be-maybe a more complete prospective that way.
When my husband and I were trying to determine which all inclusive resort to try for the first time, and were hesitant to go to Mexico, Trip Advisor steered us to the perfect hotel in Cozumel and we had a fantastic time. While there we were able to experience a fantastic food tour, a chocolate factory and we even went spear fishing…all things we would have never known about, if not for Trip Advisor. A long road trip in California last year was also made much more enjoyable by TripAdvisor, from the best Thai food EVER to several out of the way but gorgeous vineyards and a few last minute hotel deals too.
You’re gonna laugh…I have never thought to use online resources for any type of info before travel! I have “joined” Yelp and Urban Spoon so that I can leave some reviews about local places, but don’t really consult them for myself. Go figure! But cruising I can talk about! We’ve taken (I think) 18 Carnival cruises and we LOVE it! My fav. vacation EVER! Started in 1998 and have been on probably 14 or so different Carnival ships, including the Carnival Triumph! The two incidents you spoke of won’t deter me from taking another cruise; think of how many cruises there are worldwide on a monthly or annual basis and you so rarely hear of problems. I know it can happen, but… We are actually booked on another cruise later this year. I love the food on the ships! SO much variety, and I think it’s ALL good! We don’t ever go to the formal dining room, just eat at the buffets where they have a ton of options, or at the sushi bar, or the deli, or…you get the picture. We don’t usually buy any “tours” from the ship, just go onshore and explore on our own. We’ve been to most of the popular Caribbean Islands several times and have favorite spots to return to. I love the shows and other entertainment on board and I love being able to do what I want to do while the family each does what they want to do…and there is NO DRIVING! I’ll shut up now as I could talk cruising all day long!
Wow, you must be one of Carnival’s premium passengers, Dennis! Do you get any special treatment because of that?
Lindsey, your trip looks like so much fun. I’m in a state of seriously jonesing to get out of town right now.
I’ve adopted a sort of weird method of picking restaurants lately. We travel to DC and Richmond a lot. I’ve started scanning Groupon ahead of time, picking one or two that look likely,and using them. We’ve found several great places in both spots that way. Odd, I know. I do consult Yelp and and Urbanspoon before I buy.
I’ve taken 13 cruises with Carnival now and the food has always been excellent. None of the recent cruise incidents will deter me from cruising. It’s still safer than driving my car down the highway. A cruise isn’t for everyone, but for me it’s a no worries vacation. Don’t have to worry about driving in strange city, how much money you’re spending on eating out, who’s going to drive home if one of us wants a cocktail with dinner, or what to do for entertainment as there’s more going on than we could possibly do at one time.
I definitely check out local restaurants and places to go online ahead of time and have found some great spots that way.
I’m like Dennis – don’t get me started talking cruising or I might not stop!
I always use Trip Advisor when researching restaurants and cities before traveling. I also like to write reviews of restaurants.
Kristen, we hadn’t had a real vacation for several years and figured it was about time. My husband hates the winter and always wants to go somewhere warm in the dead of winter, so that’s why we chose the vacation we did. It was the perfect temperature down there – upper 70s and sunny. The only thing bad about traveling this time of year is that I was SO paranoid one of us was going to get sick just before the vacation. I guess it’s a good thing we both had the flu at Christmas and got that over with!
J, you describe perfectly some of the other reasons I like to go on cruises – the worry-free, (almost) all-inclusive atmosphere. We went to an all-inclusive resort in Mexico for our honeymoon and that was also relaxing for the same reasons.
Are you guys having trouble submitting comments on this blog? I’m noticing it’s very slow and a couple of times I’ve had to refresh the page, then the comment shows up. Please let me know so I can pass it on to our online folks. If you are getting annoyed trying to comment, feel free to email me instead at lindsey.nair@roanoke.com.
I’ve not had any trouble submitting comments for a while now…(knock on wood!)
Yes, from the 10th cruise on you are in Carnival’s “Concierge Club.” You get “VIP” treatment which includes Priority Embarkation! This one is really cool, you have a dedicated spot to check in, usually no wait, 5 minute check in and you’re on the ship! As opposed to waiting in the lines w/ hundreds of others. They bring special gifts to your stateroom most every day throughout the cruise, and you have a dedicated line at the pursers desk. AND, you get free entry into a blackjack or slot tournament, usually $20. I think they’ve changed the name of it now, but you’re still a VIP!
We have been on several different kinds of cruises and LOVE them all! Disney cruise (Wonder) in the Bahamas was awesome. You really don’t see all that many kids except at dinner in the dinning rooms, otherwise, you act like a kid again and it’s all fun! Best food on a cruise, ever. My husband and I still compare all cruise dinners to Disney. After all, Disney is the best in the business
We also did a 2 week Mediterranean cruise with Holland America (ms Westerdam) for our honeymoon. It was a cruise geared towards the “older” crowd, but we really enjoyed it as well. Food was really good, but obviously. not Disney. Being able to see a different country everyday and eating local foods and the shopping…all very fun! Our last cruise was Royal Caribbean (Monarch of the Seas). It was okay, food wasn’t anything memorable, and everything looked outdated. Considering that it was their oldest boat in their fleet…
My only advice is to pick one that has high reviews and the most importantly is the age of the ship. The newer, the better the amenities will be. I can tell you that we can not wait to do another Disney cruise and try out Remy, their new high end restaurant. It is suppose to be like Victoria and Alberts at Grand Floridian, a AAA 5 diamond restaurant. We ate there at the chef’s table last trip to Disney and was the best meal ever!
It’s interesting to hear opinions of different cruise lines. When we were leaving our ship, I talked to a woman who cruises all the time — she was getting off our ship and immediately getting on a Royal Caribbean cruise — and she said Royal Caribbean is the best. Whatever floats your boat, I guess (that was bad).
I think you’re correct, Amy, in that newer ships are a much better bet than the older ones. My sister went on a cruise 10 years ago and the boat they were on? Carnival Triumph!
I used Chowhound last year when I was going to Philly for a business trip. There was a large group of us that would be dining out for 3 nights so I went to Chowhound to get some ideas of good places to eat. Once I got a few names of places that were recommended I went to their websites to check out the menus. I think we went to two of the three places I found and they were great which was a relief to me because some in our group were pretty picky eaters. On my next business trip I’m definitely going to do the same thing.