Whether you call it a buffet or a smorgasbord or even (gasp) a pig’s trough, the Plantation Restaurant is the all-you-can-eat, self-serve eatery on the Pacific Pearl.
For those familiar with my high sea adventures, you’d know that I have pigged-out at the Pantry on the Eden (you can refresh your memory here and here) and also the buffet on the Carnival Spirit - I promise to upload this soon. While each was different, the premise is the same; walk around carrying your plate, stop at each station, sniff, pile, shuffle with the queue, balance your plate back to a table. Eat. Repeat. (and repeat, and repeat, ad nauseam).
After dumping our hand luggage, booking Salt grill and meeting Captain Lorenzo, my stomach gently reminded me by growling loudly “Feed Me” (yes, my tummy talks). So, after securing a table for the four Bad Mums, two of us trotted off, while the other two minded the table.
N.B I ate at Plantation TWICE. Both time for lunch. It is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner and located on Deck 12. For my review of the Waterfront restaurant, click here and here.
First Impressions
To be honest, it was a lot smaller than both the buffet on the Carnival Spirit and the Pantry on the Eden. I was a little worried about the number of choices on offer, but soon discovered that there was plenty of variety.
Hot Food Selection
Soups - Over the three days I saw a few different flavours, but I really cannot comment on any of them as it was WAY too hot to eat soup, well for me anyway. However, they looked hearty and there were fresh, crusty rolls to accompany the slurping.
Stir fries - Noodles with mixed veggies and a different meat each day. The chicken stir fry on Day One was great! Not too oily, pretty authentic.
Roasts - Pretty good, nothing to complain about, BUT the Yorkshire puddings were an awesome treat. I hadn't seen these before on any of my cruises.
Mexican - THE BEST TORTILLA CHIPS EVER. I am not embarrassed to admit that the two times I ate lunch at Plantation, I reloaded on tortilla chips, TWICE. That’s four servings in total! The Mexican station was my favourite. Along with a big bowl of chips, there was bean and meat chili, the most delicious guacamole (seriously), sour cream and lovely fresh salsa. I would have been more than happy to eat this, and only this, for three days.
This is by no means a comprehensive description of all that was on offer, there were also fish dishes, other meats and pasta dishes.
Cold food selection
Sandwiches - I found Pearl had similar sandwiches, if not identical, to what we had on the Eden: roast vegetable, Cesar and roast beef. Very big, very filling and very flavoursome. Maybe a suggestion is to cut these in half as I found it hard to get through the big bread roll.
Salads - Pretty ordinary to be honest. Not bad, but rather lackluster. There were garden salads served in individual portions, which was a good idea, but to me were unappetising, I suppose I preferred the brilliant salad station on the Eden.
I'd like to make a special mention here about the cornbread. Please, please someone get me the recipe! It is freaking delicious. Maybe if you're reading this, and going on the Pearl sometime soon, you MIGHT be able to smuggle some off for me? I can supply zip-lock bags.
Desserts
I was a bit sad when I saw the dessert station was quite small – I mean have you seen the desserts on offer on Carnival Spirit? We have established I have a major sugar addiction, so dessert is my weakness, but once I got a little closer, I was happy with the offerings. Food makes me happy. There aren’t any big fancy cakes or huge tarts, but there are about four or five different treats to choose, all in individual servings. Standouts for me included the vanilla slice and the tapioca pudding (which I had two of and admitted to the head of Food and Beverage. He said it was fine and I shouldn’t feel guilty, so there).
There’s also lots of freshly cut up fruit and a small selection of cheese. And let’s not forget, the perennial favourite, tri-colour cubes of jelly. Everyone loves jelly, right? I wonder how much was left over though, as there weren't many kids aboard...
Decor
As
the Pearl is retiring in a few months from P&O, I expected to see a
tired, daggy dining room, so I was pleasantly surprised with the
seating and colour scheme. Bright and airy, it was a lovely and
comfortable - and the perfect place to have a chit-chat.
Drinks
There
are big glass urns that have juice (apple, orange) next to the dessert
station as well as iced water flavoured with citrus. I thought this was a
lovely, chic touch, as not only was it free and looked great, but you could serve yourself and to
have to wait at the bar to get a non-alcoholic drink with your lunch.
The bars were very busy, especially at lunch, so I found it convenient
to just run up and grab a tumbler of juice. There’s also a few of those
standard hot drink dispensers (coffee, tea, hot chocolate) and water/ice machines.
Cleanliness
The staff were extremely efficient in clearing tables quickly. Seriously, these guys and girls are angels.
In a nutshell, the Plantation restaurant has many choices. It might not be very fancy and it might not have a plethora of options, but it has enough and the food was tasty, fresh, clean and plentiful.
There is ONE thing however that I grapple with, and I fear I do not practise proper buffet-etiquette very well. Which way do you enter/join a buffet line? I can be rather oblivious sometimes, so find myself accidentally stepping in front of someone or waiting at the wrong end. What are the rules? Agh, the conundrums that keep me up at night!