norwegian cruise line Main Dining Room Menus For Dinner, Lunch & Breakfast!
Norwegian Cruise Line announced changes to its main dining room menus (usually called “The Manhattan Room, Taste, Savor, or Hudsons”).
NCL has introduced a more streamlined menu with a few rotating selections. The new menu program, implemented in 2023-2024, features “Classic Entrees” and “Featured Entrees” sections. Despite initial concerns from seasoned cruisers, feedback about the new menus has been mostly positive, with guests appreciating the variety and quality of food options.
On my most recent cruise on the Norwegian Joy in March 2024, the menus for breakfast and dinner included a “Featured Entree” section which is comprised of a few unique items that rotate throughout the week. The balance of the menu is the same every day.
- The new menus include “Classic Entrees” and rotating “Featured Entrees” sections.
- Initial concerns from cruisers were addressed as feedback about the new menus has been positive overall.
- The changes aim to enhance the dining experience across NCL ships, offering a wider variety of culinary delights.
- Additional dining changes on Norwegian ships for 2024 include room service upgrades with new pricing structures.
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See the Norwegian Cruise Line main dining room menus (2024)
Last Updated on July 22, 2024
When you actually see the new menu options on NCL, it’s hard to complain. There is something for everyone, and it’s possible to have something different on every night of a standard-length cruise. No one is going hungry! 🙂
Some things that stand out are the wider variety of culinary delights from around the world such as Paella and Salmon prepared in a more traditional Mediterranean method as opposed to what was more ‘meat and potatoes’ and the build-your-own pasta option.
In my opinion, the changes seem to be an improvement and will hopefully lead to a better experience in the main dining rooms across the entire Norwegian fleet of cruise ships.
NCL Main Dining Room Dinner Menus
The main dining room menus on Norwegian Cruise Line feature “classic” items that are available every day with a few rotating chef specials. On longer cruises, these daily chef selections repeat about every 4 days.
Also new is the ability to order a steak from Cagney’s! A much better option than paying for a random cut of meat out of the main dining kitchen.
See All Norwegian Dinner Menus for a 7+ Day Cruise
On a recent 12 day cruise, we took as many main dining room menu scans as possible (or as we could remember to!) Here’s an example of what you can expect from the MDR on all Norwegian cruise ships:
Main Dining Room Breakfast Menus
Breakfast items are basic and consistent with a couple of daily features that are generally pretty good and unique. It will keep breakfast service from getting boring!
Main Dining Room Lunch Menus
Lunch in the main dining room on Norwegian Cruises is one of the bigger surprises. The featured selections are generally always quite good and unique. Unlike breakfast and dinner where there are always staple items available, the lunch menu is different every day.
Unfortunately, lunch is only served in the main dining room on sea days.
Norwegian Haven Restaurant Menu
There’s no word on whether or not NCL will make any substantial changes to the Haven Restaurant menus. For reference, we’re publishing a 2023 Haven Restaurant Menu from a recent NCL Cruise.
See More NCL Menus 2024 (updated)
Cagney’s Steakhouse
Le Bistro
Moderno
Los Lobos
La Cucina
Sushi
Teppanyaki
Q Texas Smokehouse
What passengers are saying about the menu changes
Now that the new menu program has been released and there is real feedback out there, it’s difficult to come by many complaints. Here are a few comments from people we spoke with:
It was nice knowing what was being served every night so we knew how to plan our specialty dining. In the past we felt like we missed some of the better options when the menu was being changed nightly.
Janie H.
I feel like the food was of a higher caliber in the main dining rooms with this menu change. Every meal, each item was cooked perfectly and very good, which is better than I can say for previous main dining room experiences
Melvin K.
I’m not sure how anyone can complain about this menu, it’s amazing! The food choices are elevated and preparations are gorgeous. No one is going to go hungry with this new menu!
Alice B.
Do you have a thought on the new menu?
Let us know! Do you want to add an idea? Submit a comment below!
We just got off of NCL Encore on a 15 night cruise. Pre covid we sailed NCL many times and always enjoyed the food. This time we were very disappointed. We have been sailing Princess post covid and haven’t had a bad meal yet. They need to take the curry shaker away from the chef on Encore. Also, never did they offer salmon in the dining room. If you LOVE potatoes, you will love this ship. Food was very repetitive and boring. Never offered escargot. If you wanted lobster, there was a surcharge. However, on Princess, they still offer it for free on one of the formal nights.
Has anyone heard of “codwalleye” fish??? Yes, this was offered on the menu one night. It is 2 different kinds of fish. I didn’t order it cause, I didn’t know if I was going to get cod or walleye and I don’t like cod. We did eat in Cagneys and Le Bistro and everything was amazing. We did enjoy all the desserts every night. With this being said we will continue sailing with Princess.
Hi Phil, we will be on the Pearl in July-do you know if the new menu will be implemented by then? Trying to figure out which nights to do specialty restaurants. Thank you!
Hi Kristin – I just got off the Joy with all new menus which I’ll be posting here this week! So come back and have a look towards the end of the week. But the way they are doing it is pretty old school now. One page of the menu is consistent through the entire cruise, then the other page has some daily changes that repeat every few days. It seems like they’ve pulled back the concept of a fixed menu every night for now (on the whole fleet)
Thank you for the quick reply! I will check back to see your menus-I appreciate it!
Hi there, my family and I are headed to board the NCL Encore in 2 weeks, would you happen to know if this new one menu has been implemented on this particular ship yet? I don’t mind the one standard menu as I always find myself at the Local or garden buffet to top myself up lol. Any insight is greatly appreciated. If it is one menu it makes booking out one specialty dining night a lot easier! Thanks for time 🙂
Hey there! I was on the Epic earlier in the year and they still had rotating menus. It’s my understanding that they are evolving with the idea of a single menu. So while I’m not 100% sure, I would expect it’s still rotating. Definitely do a specialty! They’re not as good as they used to be, but I think the Epic has some good food with the speciality restaurants. (better than a lot of the other ships these days)
Thanks so much for the reply! We’re going to book Onda, we did that last year and the food was excellent. This is a cruise for our ten year anniversary so we are very excited. Thanks again! Take care 🙂
does the dining room serve escargo
As recently as this summer, they did in fact have escargo on some nights! I know the menus are still changing a bit, but my experience was they were available.
I sailed on the Prima and absolutely hate the one menu. I’m staying away from NCL because of it. Seriously looking at an Antarctic cruise. NCL is tempting, but I just can’t swallow the same food over and over and over again. Especially when they cut back the number of specialty dining nights they give you.
I can’t decide if the one menu concept is good or not. Especially for a longer cruise. I’m doing the Joy transatlantic in February – and I’ll either cope with it or live off of chicken wings 😉
I have always said NCL had the best food of any ship I’d been on… but I must say that this new Main Dining room menu is disappointing… The seafood choices especially are not appealing at all.
Hi Wendy, I do agree. However, depending on what ship you sail on right now, they may still have the more traditional menu. They did on the Sun recently.
Hi there, I’m departing on November 2 on the 12th night spirit, and have purchased the specialty dining package. I would like to browse the standard main dining room dinner selections prior to making my reservations, so I don’t miss out on something special! Is there anywhere posted? I can find out what the dining choices are in the main dining room before I depart on my cruise?
Hi Linda – They rotate a lot of the items in the main dining room and post the menus daily so you can see in the mornings what they’ll have for dinner. I’ll post a few sample menus, but they don’t have a set day that they serve certain items. NCL Was going to a fixed menu (posted here as an example) — but it’s not been implemented fleet-wide yet as far as I know (It wasn’t a month ago when we were on the SUN)
Sorry Phil, you’re wrong. It’s the same menu every night. Except where cruises are longer that 7 days. NCL is driving you to specialty restaurants. We’ve been very disappointed in NCL’s specialty restaurants because the “prized” dishes are an additional upcharge.
Food is so subjective for sure. On the Sun this year, they had not yet gone to the one menu concept. I do think that when the cruise lines try to do too much variety – they don’t get any of it too right – so I’m hoping this will at least make everything consistent and better. Only time will tell!
Hi Linda. On 7 day and shorter cruises, the menu is the same for the whole cruise. With 12 days, you might get a second menu. But you’ll only get 2 at the most. The same offerings every night in the main dining room.
Is there a limit to the choices you can order off the menu in The Haven?
In our experience, there is no limit to any food in The Haven!
Thank you very much for this information. We are going on our next NCL cruise this fall and look forward to the changes.
Thanks for taking the time to read the article! Enjoy your cruise! Looks like things are finally returning to ‘normal’ with dining and food quality after the ships started sailing again. (We’ve done 4 NCL since the restart, each getting better and better menus) Enjoy!
Why don’t we ever see lunch menus?
Hi Kate – If you flip through the above menu, there is a lunch menu section.
You only have the lunch for the perma-menu, nothing showing what is on offer if they have not gone to the new menus yet. In fact I have heard rumors they are not going to the new menus everywhere. I am also disappointed that if you are vegetarian you have three, just three, options for a seven day cruise.
I agree about the Vegetarian. I traveled with a friend who ate almost no meat, but was left with pretty unremarkable options when it was all said and done.
On the NCL Star, is O’Sheehans changing up their menus?
Hi Jenny – I haven’t seen anything or experienced changes at any of the O’sheehans! The biggest changes are coming to the main dining menus. For what it’s worth though, the food quality at O’sheehans isn’t what it once was 🙁 — at least over the past 4 cruises on NCL in the past 6 months we’ve done. I hope it’s temporary!
Yeah- that is what I recall from last year as well. Thanks for the detailed update on the main dining.
The changes in menu might be good for someone who eats everything – but not so much for vegetarian cruisers. Hope my upcoming cruise still has old rotating menu where diff options were available each day so we don’t end up eating almost same thing everyday!
Agreed! I do like the rotating menu, but hoping the static menu will up the quality of the food. For what it’s worth, a friend of ours just got off the Prima with a fixed menu and was able to ask for some menu items to be prepared without meat! Enjoy your cruise!