A Fair Review from an Honest Vegetarian
I am a full time, fully fledged vegetarian and have been for over 30 years. I always find it fascinating that it is still difficult to find good food options with dietary requirements. So I wanted to see what Cunard and more specifically the Queen Mary 2 offered.
Here’s a small, but hopefully helpful post on what I found being offered on the Queen Mary 2.
The Kings Court Buffet
The Kings Court Buffet had a nice selection of vegetarian options including vegetable curry , rice, jacket potatoes with the option to add your own toppings separately, vegetarian burritos using Quorn meat-free beef, a slightly spicy sauce, peppers, onions and cheese (these were delicious), varying pasta dishes, a do it your self salad bar. There might have been a few options I missed, but I certainly didn’t have any issue finding something to eat that felt that I was a functioning human vs a rabbit.
There was also a vegan section which could be found in the Kings Court area adjacent to the Chef’s Galley which was great for the jacket potato toppings. This area included cream cheese, mayonnaise, vegemite, peanut butter, jam, marmalade as well as non-dairy ‘milk’ options. There were also offerings of vegan desserts that changed daily, but included vegan red velvet cake, key lime pie, raspberry mousse.
There was also a burger bar set between this small buffet section and the Chef’s Galley, where vegetarian burgers could be requested and were cooked on demand. These were not meat like vegetarian burgers, but were very very thick in taste and size. They tasted like the crust of a pie but with vegetables in, it was definitely yummy but too much with a bread bun and was very stodgy. I was certainly nice to try once, and something different to the regular vegetarian kings court buffet options.
Next to the Vegan Section was a daily Gluten-Free section, this had a selection of gluten-free breads, croissants, cornflakes, fruit muesli and dessert options including gluten-free cakes and puddings.
The Golden Lion Pub
In the Golden Lion Pub, where you could enjoy a free pub lunch they offered one vegetarian option of a Portobello Wellington – a grilled Portobello mushroom with creamed spinach, sweet potato slices and danish blue cheese in a flaky puffed pastry with balsamic glazed shallots. This was absolutely delicious, but quite small… so maybe ask for some fries or vegetables to accompany your meal.
The Verandah SteakHouse Restaurant
The Verandah restaurant also offered some delicious vegetarian and gluten-free options. This was at an additional fee, You can now read my review of The Verandah Restaurant by clicking on this link.