Viking Star menus

[algaes]

One caution is some seafood items on restaurant menus, not including World Cafe it seems, are prepared as boiled fish. They are labelled as such and were a disappointment to DW who thought the fish we overdone to her tastes. She even sent a salmon dish back asking for one less cooked and the second was still overcooked for her. Often there are no sauces accompanying the prepared fish but then none were mentioned. The fish is being prepared and served exactly as described; DW is just swimming against the flow so to speak.

 

The chefs/cooks also seem to favor beef prepared on the barely medium to rare side. Last night I ordered a steak medium well and it was cooked well done or more. I went up a notch as a medium steak at a prior dinner was barely cooked.

 

Appetizers and side dishes have come well prepared and at appropriate temperatures.

 

There's a rumor that Viking increased the passenger load at Venice having left Istanbul with unoccupied cabins. I can believe it as the Restaurant was a mad house with early diners filling every table. We came at 7:30 and between 8:15 and 8:30 it seems more than half the diners finished and left. That might have something to do with why our dishes came out so slowly.

 

I left at 9 to save seats for the 9:30 show. Our table was just ordering desserts then, 1.5 hours into the dinner. FYI we were dining with a big cheese from ship's personnel and that made no difference in service level.

[PopsA]

Good luck with that one! One of the complaints I've heard from others is that there's no variance in the Chef's Table menu. We just stick with what's on offer - it's easier.

 

I can't wait for you to board PopsA and follow you around asking for all these special requests - maybe you'll have more luck than we've had. We'll just tag along and take advantage of your success. I can tell you're going to be a blast to hang out with!

 

The feeling is mutual Elizabeth! I might get told no a lot from the crew, but it's all in good fun. And occasionally, they may even say yes.

 

It's all in good fun. I certainly won't get bent out of shape when one thing doesn't work out. I'm sure there is many other fun things to refocus on.

 

As for my birthday dinner, if the Chef's Table menu is isn't appealing we will move to another venue. I'm sure we can try it before the 8th to find out. And if worse comes to worse, we can all pack into your cabin and order room service. 😉

 

The key to this cruise is relax and enjoy.

[id4elizabeth]

I spoke tonight with CrusinSubMan (aka John) and he's going to take over the request for PDR with Viking management. He and his wife have gotten to know them very well and I'm sure he'll do better than I have - anything would be better than where I've gotten with it, clearly! So, we'll see...

[PopsA]

We have to be careful. John is a lawyer. Did you get his fee schedule? Hopefully he's taking on this case pro bono.

 

Do you need anything from the states Elizabeth? Anything you might have forgotten or are using up faster than you thought. We would be happy to pick it up for you and deliver in Barcelona.

[roothy123]

Glad this wasn't the menu for my birthday party! Venetian sounds better. Find the Chef and ask if they take requests.

 

I'm not crazy about Indian food, so I'm hoping it's not on rotation when my cruise rolls around. However, maybe that's why they're rotating every 9 days, as I think the shortest cruises are 10 days. Mine is (or is it 10 nights? I forget!) If Indian is on the Chef's Table menu when I board, I'll know to wait for the newest menu. Then again, it wouldn't kill me to pick and choose among the different Indian courses. If nothing else, I bet I'll like dessert!

Edited April 23, 2015 by roothy123

[DianeLikesToTravel]

I like Indian food, but after seeing the menu I would skip this meal. It will be interesting to see if they keep this menu.

[molymoo]

As long as I am here ... I would like to ask you "pioneers" on the maiden voyage a couple of questions that (even after lots of time "lurking" here) are still "nagging" as we look forward to our July Viking Homelands cruise.

 

We are booked in a PV room on the 5th deck (5008 to be exact) and are wondering about the "mini-bar". There are some posts that seem to indicate that the items in the bar are complimentary and will be replenished regularly if not daily. Others seem to indicate that they are just like any other "mini-bar" and there will be a charge for items consumed ... and likely a rather exorbitant charge to boot. Does anyone have the "scoop"?

 

It appears the main restaurant is now simply "open seating" and we will not be asked to designate an "early" or "late" seating time when we want to dine. Is this the case?

 

I haven't heard (or rather read) much about the "entertainment" in the theaters yet. How is it? What is it? Have they worked out the TV issues and are they showing "movies" in the smaller theaters?

 

We will be selecting our excursions tomorrow and our dining next week. Have done enough research to make some more educated decisions on the excursions ... but some have already "disappeared" from the list and one that we had put on our wish list is already "sold out". How have the excursions compared with the descriptions?

 

We all appreciate the time you have taken to post here ... it has been fun "travelling" with you all!

[id4elizabeth]

The mini bar replenishment depends on your cabin category - hence the differences in the posts here. Ours gets replenished on occasion - I would not say every day. We've had to gently remind our steward from time to time. But when he does stock it we are getting just Diet Coke which is what we requested. There's a description on line on the Viking website for what your cabin category gets and it's accurate.

 

Main dining room has been open seating since Istanbul. My guess is that they'll continue with this and they'll be no "fixed time" dining reinstated as this open approach seems to work. I've heard from others that if you have a party of more than 6 people, they will take "reservations" but I cannot confirm that personally.

 

We have gone to bed early and not gone to any shows, because most of them are scheduled for late (as in 9:45 for example), but there was one early tonight. TV issues generally improving, but live TV stops and starts so often it's very difficult to watch. Dining reservations still not online, nor are ship's arrival and departure times. They do have our excursions and our account online.

 

No movies in theaters as of yet to my knowledge, and the TV movies are incredibly old, old, old.

 

Excursion descriptions are accurate as to the facts as long as you take out the marketing spin, or rosy glow, from the descriptions. For example, if they say you are going to xyz monastery, then that's where you go. Whether that monastery lives up to all the dramatic adjectives in the descriptions is maybe suspect, but I think this is pretty normal on any vacation tour description.

[sitraveler]

PV minibars are refilled daily.

 

Chefs table menu is 1 only, no sub's nothing else. They do change every 9 days.

We are trying 3 during our 21 day cruise. I went to add a 3rdcas we were getting 1 &3, and had no problem.

 

Secret tours now available. Not published.

 

Having a wonderful time, wish you were here.

[id4elizabeth]

OK Lou - you have me curious - What's the deal with the secret tours? Inquiring minds want to know...

[molymoo]

Thanks for your responses! We too are intrigued about the "secret tours"!

 

We have been doing some research and we are at least tentatively planning on doing our own thing in some of the ports. We found a "food tour" in Copenhagen that sounds wonderful! We did one in Budapest last summer and that was one of the highlights of our trip. We are also booking one of the roof top tours in Stockholm. There was one originally on the Viking Star itinerary but it has disappeared! We liked the idea enough that we found one through trip advisor and will be doing that when we get to Stockholm. We are also doing own thing in Bergen as they have sold out the Bergen City Tour with the Mt. Floien Walk. We are doing the Oslo Bergen Rail pre-extension so we will have the city tour and the funicular is easy enough to take up on our own and walking down is pretty much a "no brainer".

 

We will register for our excursions tomorrow and dining next week ... getting excited! Is it crazy that I have already started the preliminary packing?

 

Keep up the great posts! We are loving them!

[SuSuTrav]

How has the quality of the food been? The menu for The Restaurant looks very basic and not too interesting. Perhaps The Chefs Table balances it out? And/or Manfredi's?

[filbert-kc]

How has the quality of the food been? The menu for The Restaurant looks very basic and not too interesting. Perhaps The Chefs Table balances it out? And/or Manfredi's?

 

We've been to Chef's Table twice, two different menus, the Asian Panorama and the La Route des Indes. (Three menus to go: Venice Carnival, Sweet & Salty, and A Gastronomic Journey Through Time.)

 

I liked Asian Panorama much more than the Indes menu. The flavors were much more harmonious to me, although I'm not much of a Peking Duck fan which is the main course of Asian Panorama. The Indes menu seemed to be a lot of nice spices just sort of thrown together without much thought IMHO. The main course there is a beef tenderloin, which (again IMHO) simply didn't work with the spices they used.

 

But everyone's palate is different. Chef's Table is definitely an adventure. If you go there expecting a "normal" meal you will, I think, be disappointed. Expect odd and different there.

 

Manfredi's has been pretty solid the two times we've been there so far, although we've ordered the calamari appetizer twice and been disappointed twice--it's been soggy, not crispy fried calamari. Other than that we've been really happy there. Be warned that the spicy rib eye main course is indeed very spicy though, which is good if you like that sort of thing, or not so much if you don't.

Edited April 25, 2015 by filbert-kc

[id4elizabeth]

My DH got the rib eye our first night and he could only eat about a third of it, and he likes spicy food. On subsequent nights we've found out that you can ask for the rib eye "with no spice". You still get the peppery flavor from the marinade, but not the pepper flakes in the coating. He quite enjoyed his the second time. So far, I would rate our experiences so far as 1-Manfredis, 2-The Restaurant, 3-Chef's Table, 4-World Cafe. I downgraded Chef's Table only because of the East Indies night. Overall though, I think the food has been better than on our River Cruises (3 with Viking).

[LadyVol1]

I'm sure people will think I'm complaining, and I am. For the third day in a row I got large leaves of lettuce from the World Cafe bagel sandwich of the day station (part of the salad bar station) to use in my own ad hoc sandwich and for the third day in a row, there were large pieces of dirt on them. The first day I said nothing. Yesterday I informed a one-stripe suited restaurant mgr./supervisor about it and he took it from me and brought me some washed (dripping wet) leaves. Today I took it to Tomislav (World Cafe Restaurant Manager) and said, "I'm telling you this since it's the third day in a row I've gotten dirty lettuce and I think you should know. I'm going to wash it in the sink." He replied, "Thanks for telling me." I then continued to the sink with my dirty lettuce, washed it and patted it dry with the hand towels. A passenger came over and saw the dirt and was appalled.

 

I kind of thought Tomislav would have offered to get me clean lettuce but since I did tell him I was going to wash it, I guess he figured that the passenger is always right. Anyway, since I don't know if the leaf lettuce is organic I thought I would share my experiences with you. We wash the lettuce at our house regardless of whether it is store bought or from my brother's garden.

[LadyVol1]

After enjoying too many nibbles at 4-5PM tea, we decided to eat a late "dinner" at Mamsen's at 10PM when it opened for snacks. The split pea soup was even better than the last segment since it now has kielbasa in it. (I had two bowls!) We didn't have any of the plates of cold cuts (the other menu item) but they looked very similar to the last segment -- very high quality salamis and other meats. And there were more people in Explorers' Lounge as compared to the last segment so there was a nice buzz at 10PM (but it wasn't packed and there were plenty of good seats still available).

[DeeniEncinitas]

Thank you so much for the wonderful menus!

Can not wait to cruise the Viking Ocean!

Denise

[TheBucks22]

On a previous HAL cruise, their equivalent of the World Cafe typically offered the same dinner entrees as the main restaurant. Is that the case with Viking?

[LadyVol1]

The Restaurant has 14 days of menus so we are repeating the left page (all but the Regional Specialties at the top of the right page). I was shocked that the Star only has 14 different dinner menus for its main dining room but this was confirmed by Anna, the one striper at The Restaurant's check-in area. (She's either a Head Waiter or Maitre D. I keep forgetting her official title.) Anyway, for those on longer than 14 days, we are seeing the same menus but the preparation varies greatly between 14 days ago and now. 14 days ago the Tom Kha Gai soup had more flavor and was served hot. This time around it seemed like it was mostly coconut milk and mushrooms and was served warm. The pear Helene clafoutis was much more loose (undercooked?) this time and served with a mound of what tasted like Hershey's syrup on it. I guess it's possible that some chefs have changed jobs in the kitchen but when I've gone on other 50+-day cruises and noticed the same menu items (but never identical dinner menus!), they've been prepared the same. But variety is the spice of life so I'll just order different things and not the items I really enjoyed the first time around.

[algaes]

Attached are three scans. The menu is too wide to fit scanner:

 

- Appetizers and main courses (1st and 2nd columns of menu)

 

- Pastas and side dishes (3rd column of menu)

 

- Desserts and after dinner drinks (separate menu)

 

Those tempted to order the Biscetta Fiorentina should note that early versions were intensely hot as in spice not temperature. I've heard some have ordered it tamed down. Discuss current preparation technique if you want to order the item.

Manfredi's Appetizers and Main Courses.pdf

Manfredi's Pastas and Sides.pdf

Manfredi's After Dinner.pdf

Edited April 29, 2015 by algaes

[algaes]

This is the next iteration for Chef's Table. Again it is food and wine pairings intended to be served and eaten as described.

 

P.S. We left Venice eight days ago.

Chefs Table Menu 3.pdf

[algaes]

This is the menu from The Restaurant on May 3rd. We left Barcelona this afternoon and the regional specialties on the top of the right page are Spanish cuisine items.

The Restaurant May 3 left page.pdf

The Restaurant May 3 right page.pdf

[Azulann]

This is the menu from The Restaurant on May 3rd. We left Barcelona this afternoon and the regional specialties on the top of the right page are Spanish cuisine items.

 

The tasting menu of Spanish regional foods sounds delightful.

It would be hard to choose what to select from both sides of the page too.

[Godiva_Girl]

I've done the regional menu from The Restaurant twice now and both times was wonderful!!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[jlp879]

Thank you for taking the time to post all these menus. Very helpful.

 

I have a question about the menu at the Chef's Table. The food is supposed to be paired with special wines. Are they included in your wine with dinner or is there an upcharge for enjoying the paired wines?