Your 2018 Ultimate Guide to Dining Onboard P&O’s Britannia Cruise Ship

I’m finally back from my 14 day cruise around the Baltics and all I can say is – wow what a trip! The ballet in Russia, ticking off one of my bucket list destinations and spending beautiful days in the sun onboard Britannia whilst eating my way around the ship. The biggest and most daunting part of the trip wasn’t actually the size of the ship (to my surprise), but working out how I was going to show you around Britannia with my photography and I’ve started the first in a series – with its very delicious food offering.

We tried to eat almost everywhere we could during our trip on this ship, but with a lot to choose from and having returned home the size of a small house, we still missed out on so many experiences. A reason to return perhaps? Fine dining, burgers by the pool, snacks on the terrace or live music paired with delicious plates of food. There is something for every occasion and tastes onboard Britannia, offering both the fussiest and adventurous of eaters something they will love and that’s why The Epicurean is my opening for your ultimate guide to food onboard P&O’s Britannia. The food is just so good!

The Epicurean

The Epicurean is P&O’s flagship fine-dining restaurant and it is full of surprises. Celebrating fine dining traditions of the past and combining them with contemporary presentation, twists and the very best ingredients. It’s an excuse to dress up, show off your best attire little and celebrate. This is a specialty restaurant so a cover charge will apply and at time of writing it was £28pp and you’ll receive everything you see below – and more.

We started our Epicurean journey with a glass of bubbles, bread selection and an amuse bouche of watermelon gazpacho if my memory serves me well. A very refreshing start to our meal whilst we watched the ocean pass us by from our window table.

Our favourite of the starters had to be the impressive hand-carved Jamón Pata Negra Ibérico de Bellota. It’s served with aged manchego cheese, fine Spanish olives, country bread and freshly pressed almond oil. I also loved my 24 hour slow cooked ox cheek served in a in a bone with parsley sponge and beef flavoured mayonnaise. A very impressive start.

If you know me well, then steak as a choice is always an easy one. I can’t get enough of a good sirloin and so I snapped up the opportunity to see if P&O really could deliver in quality sourcing and cooking. 28 day aged grain finished Australian black Angus sirloin steak with chunky chips, onion rings, plum tomato ragout and Bordelaise sauce. The steak was absolutely stunning, cutting through like butter and full of flavour. The onion rings needed some improvement as they were rather crunchy, but the chips made up for that – nice and fully on the inside and oh-so crunchy on the out.

I love things being served to me table-side and I adore a bit of theatre so couldn’t resist the crêpes suzette which is prepared at your table and served with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream. Lots of citrus, lots of fire and LOTS of alcohol make this a dessert you won’t want to miss out on.

A fruity iced lollipop later (we wasn’t its biggest fan), was accompanied by some lovely petit fours which if they had been left on the table, wouldn’t have lasted very long. Service was excellent throughout and if you’re on Britannia you simply must experience the grandeur of The Epicurean. It’s such an experience.

The Beach House

I’ve not put any of these restaurants in favourite order, but we absolutely LOVED The Beach House and service wise we found it to be the best. The manager would alway find us the best table, the waiters would run off to our allocated restaurant to pick up the bottle of wine from my Commodore’s Collection purchase and the food was always hot and fresh.

This is another select dining option with a cover fee of £7.50 at time of writing and is well worth the money. Delicious potato skins and succulent wings with blue cheese sauce were just some of out favourites and we dined here on quite a few occasions.

For mains, the hanging kebab of king prawn, lobster tail, squid and monkfish is an absolutely must (though it could do with better seasoning) and the beef sizzler steak plate with guacamole, sour cream and tortilla is the ultimate comfort food. Portions are incredibly generous here so come very hungry.

Desserts didn’t and won’t let you down with a real American theme running through them. Decadent chocolate triple layer cake will leave you needing a pre-show afternoon nap, while the cheesecakes are some of the best on the ship here compared to other dining outlets.

The Glass House

The Glass House was somewhere I expected to spend most of my time, working in wine during the day, but surprisingly we didn’t end up here much and come the evening we were always rushing to a show as I’m a big theatre fan. There’s a lovely terrace here and if the wind is light you can enjoy lunch or dinner looking across the horizon.

Order a wine flight, trio of three small plates (£6.95) or the gargantuan North Atlantic haddock in cider batter with triple cooked chips. The latter an absolute steal at just £5.50, served with minted crushed peas, homemade tartare sauce and pickles. My only complaint was the mushy peas were served as a deep-fried ball and I heard similar complaints for just the real deal, especially as there’s already enough batter on the platter plate.

The Limelight Club

One place which really surprised me most was The Limelight Club as it turned out to be one of our best meals. A first for P&O Cruises, The Limelight Club is a venue exclusively for adults, combining great food with entertainment and famous faces.

It looks stunning inside and you can get very close & personal with your favourite TV or music stars for just £25 a head including all of your food and the evening’s entertainment. Some bread stick snacks with dips arrive shortly after sitting down and so did our cold starter of asparagus with parmesan crisp and soft poached egg.

The surroundings really are sumptuous and you can expect one of your best evenings on the ship here and performers that you won’t see anywhere else on the ship. We were watching Wendi Peters who is best known for her role-playing Cilla Battersby-Brown in the ITV soap opera Coronation Street and she was fantastic. After enjoying our utterly delicious main course of roasted rack and slow cooked lamb shoulder with potato galette, Wendi performed a 15 minute taster before the rest of the show continued after dessert.

Dessert was a rather simple plate of peaches with meringue and sorbet, but it was so good we even heard the table next to us joke that they could eat another. Moments later the waitress next to us appeared with a second helping. That’s P&O service for you! As we sipped on our coffee, Wendi continued her evening, singing some of her favourite songs and telling us all about her life and love for the theatre. A really fantastic evening.

Meridian/Peninsular/Oriental – Allocated & Freedom Dining

Now, to our main full-board included restaurant. When you arrive into you room, depending on where you are located on the ship and if you are freedom or allocated dining, you’ll be assigned a specific restaurant to eat in every day. We were in Meridian and service was faultless every single time. We spent a lot of time in the speciality restaurants on the ship but actually going forward with P&O we’d spend a lot more time in our allocated restaurant as we really started to enjoy it. Meeting new people, a daily changing menu and the sirloin steak is – EXCELLENT.

Starters were probably the weakest in Meridian compared to the rest of our meal, but they certainly weren’t bad by any means. What I really loved is when I struggled to pick between two, the staff would surprise us with that one we felt we missed out on. A little greedy, but a lovely touch. We loved the Chinese money bags, the prawn cocktail become a staple of our cruise diet and the cut hams on the gala nights felt like a real treat.

The main courses for me were better than the starters, particularly the sirloin steaks which I thought were of excellent quality. On occasions they weren’t cooked to our specification, but all I can say it let them know – they are more than happy to return something to the kitchen so you can enjoy your food at its best. It’s really all about the service. Pork steaks topped with sage butter, lobster on Gala nights, succulent roast dinners or a fish & chips platter for lunch. We always wanted everything!

 

Desserts in Meridian were what I felt always the best part of our meal. Again some weren’t up to scratch, but dining on a ship for 14 days is like dining in the same London restaurant for 14 days – there will always be off days or simply dishes not to your taste. Chocolate molten banana cake, bread & butter pudding, toffee sundae brownie, chocolate orange cake, pistachio slice – the list of what we enjoyed was endless.

The Cookery Club – Marco Pierre White

The cookery club is another part of this ship which feels really special and plays such an important role in regards to entertainment. Sometimes during the mornings or daytimes on the ship when you don’t want to sit around the pool, this is the perfect escape. Especially when it’s hosted by Marco Pierre White himself who is the nicest man on the planet. Forget that angry TV chef persona we all know, because he’ll become your new best friend. We started our class around 9am with a tutorial by Marco first before trying the dishes ourselves.

All of the ingredients are laid out in front of you, staff even clean your stations as you work (I need this service at home!) and as long a you have a good memory you’ll be creating some truly amazing dishes. Our parmesan and mushroom risotto was so good we’ve since made it on our return (with about 20 cubes of butter). We also created a seafood mac ‘n’ cheese which was something of a revelation and really taught us more about cooking seafood better.

The cookery class finished and we sat down to enjoy our creations, having absolutely no room for lunch and almost dinner. I blame the butter. These cookery classes start from around £45pp and is a great option during a sea day, especially if you want to keep out of the midday sun or simply want something to look forward to first thing in the morning.

Celebrity Chef Hosted Dinners – A Private Dinner with Marco Pierre White

I think if I had to pick my biggest highlight of my trip onboard Britannia, it would have to be having dinner with a group of like-minded food lovers and of course the man himself, Marco Pierre White. This is a rather extravagant affair, with prices to match but it’s worth every single penny. Marco is a true gentlemen and it was a place we got to know our fellow diners better.

Whilst we all chatted with Marco as he started to prepare the dishes for us which we’d later sit down and eat, a refreshing cocktail was served and some deep-fried arancini style balls made their way around the room. I couldn’t resist a second helping.

One thing I quickly learnt about Marco’s cooking is that he loves butter, followed by butter and for good measure – an extra cube or two of butter. Come hungry because this is rich, delicious food. We started with a seafood mac ‘n’ cheese which was stunning, a chicken costing almost £100 in value served with morels and was a dream to eat, followed by the best panna cotta I think I’ve ever eaten. A truly stunning evening and the food is the best you’ll eat on Britannia.

We finished up with a little more wine, conversation with Marco and a menu signing before heading off into the evening. This may be one of the most expensive meals you can have on Britannia but honestly, it really is worth it and the people I met at the table completely agreed.

Horizon

The one dining room on this ship which people will either love or hate is Horizon. This is the ships casual dining buffet restaurant and in my opinion it offers exactly what it says on the tin. The cold selection of foods I had no complaints about, apart from the cheese selection which didn’t quite do it for me. But the smoked salmon I could have piled onto my plate all day long.

Hot food, of which was very extensive but it was a little busy at times to squeeze in for my photos had its ups and downs. The British and Indian dishes were the best I found, while the Italian and Spanish dishes didn’t quite satisfy. Breakfast was really good and while I’m not usually a morning person, I found myself waking up for a full English here most days.

The best offering to come out of Horizon was the afternoon tea. You can also have a more civilised version served in your allocated restaurant but sometimes not wanting to dress up, we came here for something a little more casual. The scones were great, the sandwiches were fresh and the cakes were dangerously addictive. The only complaint about the cakes was sometimes the terminology. Cheesecake usually had sponge and not biscuit base, whilst some of the chocolate creations weren’t quite as described. Still, I manage to eat my fair share of them, especially during the late night snacks offering which goes on until nearly 2am.

Sindhu

They say to save the best till last and I’ve done just that. Sindhu, is backed by the famous Indian chef Atul Kochhar and as a cruise ship restaurant, it can easily rival some of the best Indian restaurants in the UK. Showcasing a menu of perfectly balanced spices, delicate flavours and wonderful aromas, this restaurant has become a firm favourite with so many frequent cruisers and like everywhere else on this ship – it looks great.

A meal here will cost you £20pp and you’ll receive more food then you could ever manage. I can’t event count how many times we dined in Sindhu, but we managed to make our way through most of the menu and never was there a dull moment. Each meal the chef invites you to try a little taster from the kitchen, one day it was a crispy chicken pakora with mint sauce, another it was deep-fried halloumi with coriander chutney. When you take your first bite in Sindhu, you know the food is going to be good. The popadoms and chutney are also excellent.

My favourite starter from the menus we tried was the aloo samosa chaat. A mixture of Punjabi style vegetable samosa, textures of potato, tamarind chutney and coriander chutney. Lots of flavour, medley of textures and visually it looked great.

Other favourite starters, particularly which my dining companion enjoyed was the macchi koliwada, which was spice crusted haddock with Mumbai caesar salad. Not to mention the signature tandoori ratan of basil king prawns, chicken tikka, smoked lamb skewer and mint chutney.

We tried a few different main courses and really fell in love with almost all of them, though in the excitement I somehow only managed to photograph just one. The cardamom infused chicken korma was stunning, the Sindhu signature plate of coconut prawn masala, chicken tariwala curry and lamb bhuna is even better – but the star was the kolhapuri gosht. A succulent chunk of beef tenderloin with curried mash, garlic spinach purée and bhuna masala sauce. All main courses are served with a fragrant dhal, vegetable curry, plain rice and selection of breads.

If you have any room left by this point, I highly recommend staying for the desserts. The banoffee apple pie lacked banana flavour, yet it was so incredibly satisfying and the delicately spiced pastry crumbled to the touch. My favourite was the chocolate and chilli tart with lime infused crème fraîche. Rich and decadent, but it still somehow felt light on the stomach. We almost always had no room for the coffee & petit fours, but it was a lovely gesture and perfect way to end our Sindhu experience.

There is so much more to the food on Britannia and I really haven’t scratched the surface. Burgers and chips by the pool in the Lido Grill, sandwiches from the Grab & Go (also pool side), platters in the Market Cafe or the famous afternoon tea by celebrity chef Eric Lanlard. There really is so much on offer here.

I think as you can probably tell, I’ve fallen in love with Britannia and its food and I can’t wait to explore other P&O ships and those under the Carnival Corporation umbrella. Clearly this is a cruise ship group who not only knows its food, but its service, attention to details and design because each place we dined in felt comfortable and at times you wouldn’t even know you were on a ship – apart from the views. Hopefully I’ve convinced foodies that P&O Britannia is the right choice and my next review about every inch of this ships interior and exterior should only convince you even more, so watch this space!

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Scandinavia and Russia, 14 nights, from £1,199pp
P&O Cruises is offering a 14 night cruise on Azura (A915) from £1,199 per person for an inside cabin. Departing 8 June 2019, the price includes kids’ clubs, full board meals and entertainment on board.  Departing from and returning to Southampton ports of call are Warnemunde, Helsinki, St. Petersburg (overnight in port), Tallinn, Stockholm and Copenhagen (evening in port). 
To book, visit www.pocruises.com, call  03453 555 111 or visit your local travel agent.
Link to cruise: http://www.pocruises.com/a91