Viking Ocean Cruises Dining guide
Mamsen’s:
Our favourite daytime eatery on board the magnificent Viking Venus has to be the delightful Mamsen’s. Mamsen’s is a tempting little delicatessen counter located within the Explorers lounge with a limited amount of cafe style seating. Although there is a deli counter to see the food on offer, there is table service available at the seating nearby and the servers within the whole of the Explorers lounge will bring you snacks from the deli whenever you desire. At breakfast time this was one of our favourite places, being very quiet in the mornings. The coffee is strong and hearty, served in the beautiful Mamsen crockery, reminding me of my great aunts 1970s tea set. The breakfast choice is limited to three types of traditional Danish pastries, oatmeal, herring, berries and the signature waffle dish which are made to order and personalised as you wish with the option to have them served with the traditional brown goats cheese, an acquired but interesting option. For me I loved just being able to get a delicious bowl of fresh berries to enjoy with a lovely hot cup of coffee.
At lunchtime Mamsen’s can become a little busier than breakfast time, with a range of delicious hot and cold open sandwiches available, including beef tartare, cured salmon and Atlantic shrimp. There is also a daily soup option which stays on the menu as a late night snack along with cured meat and flatbread board for guests with the midnight munchies.
There are a range of traditional cakes and cookies to delight the sweet toothed amongst us with intriguing names such as success cake and princes cake, alongside a delicious apple cake. Cakes remain available for most of the afternoon and are joined by some lovely little fruit tarts and incredible open cheese sandwiches, a temptation too far for me to deny myself with my afternoon cup of tea.
The Living Room:
The Living room has a small cafe style counter offering light dishes and snacks throughout the day starting with a range of delicious pastries and muffins in the morning before moving on to sandwiches and cakes later in the day and sweet treats into the evening. As a bit of a coffee snob Rich found the coffee here strong and flavoursome. We loved the atrium setting with a choice of seating in both the open atrium area and little nooks and crannies located over the three storeys surrounding and overlooking it. The snacks and light meals are available very early in the morning until late at night making the Living Room the perfect place to get a homemade snack to accompany a drink, including the all day long, delicious cookies.
Winter Garden:
The Winter Garden is a conservatory type venue located next to the central pool offering lounge type seating with lanai’s either side of the main seating area. Between 3pm and 5pm (times may change depending on your voyage) the whole area becomes a hub of activity with guests arriving early to secure a table for the formal afternoon tea whilst being entertained with live music, either on the piano or the guitar. The choice of tea is wide ranging and the food selection varies every day. We love that you can even see the afternoon tea menu for every day in advance so you can choose the ones that will tempt you the most. There is a plate of sandwiches, a plate of scones served with cream and jam and a plate of cakes and sweet treats, with offerings such as macarons, tarts, eclairs and mini sponges.
The World Cafe:
The World cafe is the buffet restaurant located at the aft of the ship with a lovely double height bar located at the back which leads out onto the Aquavit open terrace complete with dining tables to enjoy your meal al fresco if the weather allows. The cafe is beautifully appointed with nice tableware laid out on every table and wonderful sliding glass doors all round the exterior of the buffet which can be opened up to the wrap round outside terrace when the weather is appropriate. There are food stations on either side of the buffet, both of which are usually open to prevent congestion and whilst much of the food is the same on both sides there are some differences such as the ice cream station located on the port side. At the back of the serving area is a speciality hatch which is where you would go for pancakes and other freshly prepared hot dishes in the morning, pizzas at lunch and dinnertime, and other special menu items they have, like dosas on the Indian buffet lunch. On our sailing the buffet food was served to us by the crew rather than self service. There were plenty of crew both behind the counters and in the eating area, making sure no one had to wait for food, drinks or clear tables.
At breakfast time the range of food is plentiful and delicious, with the usual hot and cold choices, as well as some Danish specialities, such as the wonderful waffles and the most delicious cinnamon buns in the world, all served with a constantly flowing supply of drip coffee. If the weather is nice its lovely to take your breakfast out on the Aquavit terrace and enjoy the wake view.
At lunchtime there are a range of offerings with the occasional themed lunch. I particularly liked the salad bar with a daily salad variation and the Indian theme lunch. At lunch and dinner time there are wine and beer options to go alongside the soft drinks available free of charge throughout the day.
Evenings in the World Cafe are relatively quiet (no wonder with the other wonderful venues on offer throughout the ship) but the food is a cut above most other buffets we have experienced, with a melt in the mouth Chateaubriand on offer on the evening we ate there. There is a sushi bar available every night and often a theme for the evening with the seafood buffet being one of the popular highlights of the evening offerings in the World Cafe.
Pool grill:
The pool grill is located at one end of the main central pool and offers plenty of seating, both at tables and on bar stools. The retractable pool roof makes this an all weather venue, although it is nicer when the weather is warm and the roof is off. This venue is only open for lunch from midday until late in the afternoon. The food on offer is the usual grill type fare such as burgers, hot dogs and steak baguettes. Though the food here is good, a word of caution to any vegetarians, the veggie options are limited with the veggie burger being rather disappointing. There is also a self service salad bar though obviously when we were there the staff were plating up for you. This is the prefect place to enjoy a late lunch if you are out on a longer morning excursion.
Room service:
Viking do room service very well. There is plenty of space to lay the food out on the large coffee table and the food is just as good as you would get in the restaurants. The breakfast menu is very comprehensive and offers a range of hot and cold dishes, along with strong, hearty coffee. Room service is complimentary and the food is delicious and delivered promptly, again a very good option if you are late back from a shore excursion, fancy a quiet night in or get the midnight munchies.
The Restaurant:
Viking’s main restaurant is a more refined affair with the main dining room being divided up into smaller ‘rooms’ giving the whole dining experience a more personal feel than some of the main dining rooms on ships this size. However, this does mean that even though the restaurant does span the entire width of the aft of the ship, the galley being situated in the middle of the room means that you can’t see from one side of the ship to the other, restricting the panoramic wake view often found in main dining rooms. Despite this many of the tables are located around the edge of the restaurant so there are plenty of tables with a sea view. The dining team try to seat guests in the same area of the restaurant so that the waiting team can get to know you and the service is attentive and helpful. The food in The Restaurant is very good, with plenty of choices and though we didn’t get to eat here very often we enjoyed every dish we chose. The Restaurant is also open for breakfast and lunch when it offers food options not available in the world cafe and provides a more refined, quiet and leisurely dining experience.
Manfredi’s:
Manfredi’s is one of two complimentary but bookable speciality restaurants on board Viking ships. In a nod to Viking cruises founder, Torstein Hagen’s friendship with Silversea cruises founder, Manfredi Lefebvre, this restaurant offers traditional Italian cuisine. Guests are all guaranteed at least one visit to this restaurant on their voyage which is bookable in advance of their cruise, depending upon the room category booked. Once on board there may be the option to book other dates, depending on availability. However this is one of the most popular venues on board and it may be difficult to get another reservation here. And we can see why, the food is delicious and the menu so vast we could have come back here half a dozen time and still have dishes we wanted to try. From the dishes we did get to try, a special mention has to go to the amazing bread basket and the delicious gnocchi, along with the guests favourites Ossobuco and Bistecca Fiorentina. The wines match the food perfectly and for guests who purchase the Silver Spirit drinks package there are more premium wines to choose from.
Chef’s Table:
Chef’s table is the other speciality restaurant and offers a tasting type set menu matched with perfectly paired wines and a different themed menu on offer each evening of the voyage so guests can choose which menu they would like to try and book for that particular evening. For every dish presented the server will describe the ingredients and flavours and the sommelier will present the wine that pairs with these flavours, which again if you have purchased the drinks package will be from the premium wine menu. We tried three different menus, the Californian menu, the Asian Panorama menu and the Great Britain menu.
Asian Panorama menu:
This was our favourite of the three menus we had the opportunity to try on our voyage. We started with a king crab amuse bouche, followed by delicious lobster and chicken dumplings wrapped in lettuce leaves and dipped in a sweet chilli sauce. after a refreshing spicy lemongrass granita was the Peking duck main course which was unlike any Peking duck we had ever had before with melt in the mouth duck atop a delicious filled Mandarin pancake. To finish the meal the final course played to my indecisive nature by presenting us with an assiette of three East meets West inspired desserts, including two of my favourites, cheesecake and creme brûlée.
California Cuisine menu:
From the face of it this was probably the menu that excited us the least, but we were wrong, it was a delicious meal with some very clean but intense flavours throughout. We started with a vegetarian amuse bouche, a dainty sweet potato chip topped with deliciously light apple and rosemary infused creme fraiche. The starter was a crispy crab cake sandwiched between a bed of avocado and a refreshing coleslaw. After a boozy Moscow Mule granita came the star of the menu, seared halibut served with a delicious herb vinaigrette and cauliflower crumb and decorated with a rocket salad. The dessert was equally as light and refreshing as the rest of the meal, pairing orange and ginger in a delicate parfait.
Great British menu:
As we were sailing on a Round Britain cruise it was lovely to see a home comfort menu with some Great British favourites on it. This menu started with an amuse bouche giving a modern twist to a Scotch egg using a quails egg served with a salad and pickle. The ‘starter’ was a firm British favourite - fish, chips and mushy peas, which although delicious was a rather large starter dish, especially when followed up with a hearty plate of beef brisket and mini Yorkshire pudding. Make sure you come to this meal hungry, especially if you want to fit in the delicious Whim Wham dessert, a tumbler full of creamy, cakey fruitiness.
We cruised on Viking Venus in June 2021 on one of their 7 day cruises out of Portsmouth and paid our cruise fare in full.
If you enjoyed this blog why not take a look at another of our dining guides.
If you are interested in booking a cruise with these or any other luxury cruise lines then we would recommend contacting a connoisseur at our trusted cruise partners Panache cruises - please mention that you have been referred to them through Visit With Us.
If you would like to receive notification of any new blog posts, updates of our travels or links to our vlogs we would love for you to sign up to our mail list below. Thank you.
