Disappointing meal in Marco Pierre White’s Ocean Grill
Once back on board we settled down to watch one of the movie channels in our cabin to rest our feet. We had booked a meal in one of the speciality restaurants on the ship. This meant getting changed for dinner into smart casual.
Our meal was in the Ocean Grill, this was the Marco Pierre White restaurant on board. There were lots of empty tables except for the a few of the small tables along the windows. I had the baked English Camembert, an 8 oz Sirloin Steak and we shared the dessert taster for two.
Frankly the meal was a disappointment.
My Camembert was cold. The main on the menu was offered with a choice of sides. But no mention was made on the menu that the steak came with chips. So my Marco’s Great Chips as one of my sides was superfluous!
Equally the taster was a disappointment especially the over rich chocolate tart and the weird ‘Eton Mess’. This bore no relationship to any Eton Mess that I had ever had anywhere before.
The restaurant deserved to be empty every night if this was the standard of food delivered. We had chosen to eat early as we planned to leave the ship for a visit to Funchal in the evening. Despite arriving for dinner at 7.30 pm we finally left at 9.45 pm having sat for long periods of time with either a clear table of dirty plates in front of us.
Funchal in the late evening
The shuttle bus service was still running and we left the Avenida Arriaga and headed down towards the sea. There we went into the still open Sports Bar.
This was below the level of the pavement and had a large open area filled with tables outside. We sat and enjoyed our beers but the ladies had chosen white wine and it was not of the best quality.
The toilets in the bar provided us with a good laugh as the walls were covered in cartoon tiles.
By now the shuttle bus had stopped so we walked back to the ship along the promenade.
We took a detour to look at the Cristian Ronaldo museum (and his statue) as we passed by. Once near the ship crew members were walking the opposite way into Funchal their work on board over. The harbour walls are decorated by the ship and we noticed this sign, the footprints and this dog’s silhouette.
The good news for us was that the dehumidifier along the corridor from our room had been unplugged so we were spared its noise overnight.
Day 9 Funchal, Madeira