Planning your Azamara cruise and wondering what awaits you at the buffet? Found aboard all four ships in Azamara Cruises’ fleet (Journey, Quest, Pursuit, and Onward), Windows Cafe is the buffet restaurant. It’s also one of the casual dining spots, with the other being the Patio Cafe. (There’s also snacks available at the coffee bar.)
The dinner service at Windows Cafe features themed dinner nights. While this concept is fairly common across all mainstream cruise lines, Azamara tells you not only all the themed nights at the start of your cruise, the menus are also displayed outside the restaurant, making it easier for you to plan ahead where you’d like to dine.
So keep reading for those buffet dinner menus! And if you’re interested in breakfast and lunch at Windows Cafe, I’ve also got some menus, though not all of them, as most of the time, I’m too busy having fun at ports to eat lunch onboard.
This is NOT a sponsored post. I paid for my Azamara cruise and all associated expenses myself.
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Azamara’s Windows Cafe Buffet Dinner Themes
On my 9-night Croatian intensive cruise, here’s the buffet dinner themes, ranging from seafood, French, Mexican, Italian, Indian to British. The last night’s “Moroccan” themed buffet dinner was eventually changed to an “Indonesian” themed dinner.
What about destination themed menu items? There are destination specific menu items in Windows cafe but I found that those menu items tend to feature during lunch time.
What’s White Night? White Night is Azamara’s signature outdoor celebration. Cruisers are encouraged to dress in white entire (or at least something in white). An elaborate buffet dinner is served on the pool deck, with live music. I’ll show photos of what was served on White Night below.
p.s. I’m missing a photo of the Asian buffet night menu! From memory, it was mostly Chinese, with many stir fry dishes, noodles and fried rice.
Azamara Buffet Dinner Theme: 🍤 Seafood
For 🦪 🦐🍣 Seafood Night, what wasn’t on the menu was the sushi and sashimi options👇. I had some salmon sashimi, spicy tuna roll, and some nigiri.
Azamara Buffet Dinner Theme: 🇫🇷 French
I did eat at Windows Cafe on French night, because I specifically wanted to eat have the Duck Confit – one of my favourite French dishes. The duck was sensational, especially considering it’s been put in a buffet. I also tried a little bit of the Beef Bourguignon and it was quite authentic!
Azamara Buffet Dinner Theme: 🇲🇽 Mexican
The highlight was Mexican night was definitely the ceviche! The fajitas they had available were made of wheat and corn, so I ended up only eating the meat, with salad.
Azamara Buffet Dinner Theme: 🇮🇹 Italian
Here’s a mixed antipasti plate with the calamari seafood salad👇
Azamara Buffet Dinner Theme: 🇮🇳 Indian
I didn’t eat in Windows Cafe on Indian night, so unfortunately no photos!
Azamara White Night: ⚓ Buffet on Pool Deck
On White Night, the pool deck is set up with tables, with a buffet extravaganza! The buffet items available are “international cuisine”, from sushi, salads, soups, all sorts of grilled seafood (incl. grilled lobster), grilled meat and vegetables and a large selection of desserts and gelato.
I had some sushi and then my surf & turf combo: grilled lobster and sirloin, with fries/chips.
And here’s part of the dessert buffet spread on White Night👇
In the dessert buffet, none of the desserts were marked gluten free. So I spoke to one of the chefs, who happened to be the executive chef on board! He was so kind and offered to make me gluten free Crêpes Suzette himself (plus a scoop of vanilla ice cream, of course!)
Azamara Buffet Dinner Theme: 🇬🇧 British
I didn’t eat at Windows Cafe for British night, so I’m afraid I don’t have photos to share!
Azamara Buffet Dinner Theme: 🇮🇩 Indonesian
If you’re reading this because you’re gluten free, you’ll immediately notice that there’s no gluten free items marked! This is what I mean when I say that Azamara Cruises’s allergen markings on menus are not consistent. Just because you don’t see anything marked gluten free doesn’t mean that there are none. Be sure to ask!
Azamara Buffet Dessert Selection
You’ve probably noticed that none of the buffet menus have dessert marked on them. I suspect it’s because the dessert buffet selection is not themed. But it doesn’t mean that there’s any shortage of desserts! Plus, there’s always a wide selection of gelato and sorbets on offer.
Gluten Free Desserts: I’ve always found at least one item which was marked “gluten free” in the dessert selection. If it’s not something that you like, be sure to check out all the gelato / sorbet section in the dessert buffet. I was told by the head waiter that all the gelatos (except for Rocky Road and Cookie Dough). Here’s a day when there’s two gluten free dessert items👇 at Windows Cafe!
Windows Cafe Drink Options
In Windows Cafe, you order your drinks with the servers, including water, sodas and wine. There’s also a self-service area that you can help yourself to tea, coffee and water. For dinner, you can order whatever drinks you’d like to have, including wine and cocktails. (If you upgraded to the premium drinks package, you can use it in Windows Cafe as well.)
Windows Cafe Breakfast Buffet
The breakfast buffet at Windows Cafe is pretty standard – eggs (however you like it), bacon, sausages, fruits, porridge, cereals (with non-dairy milk options), pastries and an omelette station. There were many Asian guests onboard, so on most mornings, there would also be a selection of Asian breakfast items including rice congee (with toppings), miso soup, fried rice etc.
For gluten free diners, there’s pre-packaged Schar branded bread as well as freshly baked gluten free plain muffins every morning. The GF muffins can also be requested at the coffee bar throughout the day.
Windows Cafe Lunch Buffet Menus
Here’s a few menus from the lunch buffet at Windows Cafe. I didn’t eat lunch onboard on most port days, so I’ve only got a few days’ worth of menus. But it should give you an idea on what’s available during lunch, whether you have food allergies or not.
For lunch, my favourite venue is actually the Patio, a smaller dining venue on the pool deck on the Pursuit. The staff at the Patio were absolutely fabulous throughout my cruise! Whatever I requested, the chefs would do their best to accommodate my gluten free request, including doing additional food prep to ensure no cross contamination.
For example, I wanted to have buffalo chicken wings one day. All the wings have been prepped but the chef said they have raw wings in the back and volunteered to make them for me from scratch! So don’t be shy. Do ask if you have food allergies!
Gluten Free Tips on Dining in Windows Cafe
If you’re gluten free (or has any type of food allergies), you may not want to dine in a buffet setting at all, as cross contamination is always possible.
But if you’re keen to try out some dishes in Windows Cafe or just to grab a quick breakfast on a port day, then here’s my best tips on how to safely eat in Windows Cafe:
- Use Allergen Labels, not Menus: Every item in the buffet should be marked with allergen labels – see what the respective symbols are. So while the menu is a good reference for planning where you’d like to eat, always go with the allergen labels next to each dish being served.
- Gluten Free Option Available not really used: You’ll see in the menus that there’s meant to be dishes called “gluten free option available” (“gfo”). I did not see anything marked “gfo” during my entire 9-day cruise. So ask if something could be made gluten free!
- Ask if GF if not labelled; not all dishes are labelled: Daily specials (and I suspect last minute menu changes) may not be labelled with allergens at all! I always ask if the dish is something that I’d like to have and I see that it’s not labelled.
- Speak to the Head Chef if needed: The best dish I had in Windows Cafe was a “destination special” called Brodetto – a fish stew popular along the Dalmatian coast. The menu did not have any allergen markings on it. I spoke to the chef on duty and he didn’t know whether it was gluten free. So I asked him to check with the executive chef on duty. It turned out that the Brodetto was gluten free. The chef even made me a special portion in a freshly cleaned pan!
My Experience: I don’t normally eat in buffets for dinner, largely because I generally find that the food in the MDR and/or specialty restaurants better (across almost all cruise lines). Also, as a gluten free diner, I tend to have more options if I pre-order my food from the MDR.
However, on this Azamara Pursuit cruise, I ate in the Windows Cafe a LOT! Unfortunately, I gave up on the MDR very early in this cruise.
Both evenings where I had dinner in the MDR took over 3 hours, despite ordering my food the night before. After a long port day, I simply didn’t have the energy or patience to wait an hour between each course to be served.
I also missed all the ship’s entertainment on both those evenings, because by the time I was done, it was already close to 10pm and the last show started long ago! Despite me being one of the first to sit down when the MDR opened. Mine was not the only table with this issue, so it’s definitely not down to ordering gluten free items.
And that’s why I thought it’s worthwhile to share my GF experience in Windows Cafe in case the long dinners in the MDR recur on other Azamara Cruises!
Special Dietary Needs on Azamara Cruises
A final reminder to always let your cruise line know of your special dietary needs as early as possible. (I do it once my final payment has been made.) The official special dietary needs policy on Azamara Cruises is to notify them no later than 40 days before departure.
I booked my cruise just two weeks before departure and marked myself as gluten free when I booked the cruise, without any issues. But it’s always good practice to let them know as early as possible!
Featured Image is the Azamara Pursuit docked in Zadar, Croatia
If you’re planning a cruise with Azamara Cruises, I hope that this post has helped you understand what buffet dining is like, especially if you have any food allergies!
You’ll find the day time and late night room service menu here and also the room service breakfast menu here, plus my best tips on how to eat well as a GF diner! Both these blog posts got a surprisingly number of views, so I thought I’ll share information on the buffet as well.
Can you tell what the Azamazing night is? I didn’t even realize it’s different than the White Night lol. Also, is the sashimi you had on the buffet? It’s so hard to find much info about sushi on Azamara. Thank you so much for a very informative post. I appreciate all the pictures of the menus.
Hi Linda, the Azamazing nights are meant to be entertainment focused, usually a performance tailored to suit the local culture. Most of the Azamazing evenings are now, unfortunately, held onboard the ship. (A big chunk of them used to be ashore, in a unique setting, so it was like getting a shore excursion for free.) The White Night is more food focused – it’s effectively a big BBQ-focused buffet on the pool deck.
Yes, I had sashimi in the buffet, hand-sliced by a chef in front of me! But it’s a “special” for the seafood themed buffet in Windows Cafe and on that 9-night cruise, it was the only time sashimi was offered. Nigiri and sushi rolls were available on the seafood night, as well as White Night but as you probably already know, Azamara does not have a dedicated restaurant that serves sushi or asian cuisine, unlike some of the larger ships. The specialty restaurants are Prime C (steakhouse) and Aqualina (Italian). And that’s why no one ever talks about sushi being served occasionally on Azamara!