Food

[z111]

I have been disappointed by the food on Viking. 

Much of it seems bland.

Almost all of it is the taste of disappointment. 

 

Chef’s Table had decent plating but none of it was great. If it were a restaurant and i got a bill for it, I’d have rated it 2 out of 5 stars for the food and 5 out of 5 for the service.

 

i lived in Vegas for a long time and i know that you can provide tasty food at scale. (Vegas has some great buffets that probably easily turn 1000 people in a day.)

 

The crew is so fantastic. And when they ask “how is everything”, i don’t feel like i can say what i think, in part because, i don’t think there’s anything they can do.

 

i’m also wondering if food has gone downhill as it seems people generally like the food.

 

Other than that, everything else is beyond expectation. 

 

 

 

[OneSixtyToOne]

It seems that it really depends on the chef and kitchen crew. There are many postings on this board about the food being terrible on a particular ship and others saying the same ship had great food. It’s also very subjective. 

[molymoo]

Food is a VERY subjective subject.  You will find that while you may find the food lacking others might well love it.  We have been on 20 Viking cruises (river and ocean) and find the food can vary and some meals are better than others but we have never been disappointed. 

[kctwinmommy]

Like everyone says, this is a subjective topic of course. Now, I'm a somewhat picky eater, in that I don't eat much exotic or different cuisines, I fully admit that. I'm good with a nice piece of meat, some potatoes, and good bread. LOL! Now, my husband eats way different and will try everything. We also made friends with another couple and ate dinner with them quite often. All 4 of us said we weren't overly impressed with the food. Very few standout dishes (my husband's venison on the last night was one that did stand out, probably his favorite).

 

In fact, I actually lost 3 pounds on our cruise and my husband, who needs to work on his diet, only gained 2, which was fine for him. He did enjoy the Gelato, but not much else from the desserts.

 

I will say, the french fries at the grill in the afternoon were great! I would sometimes just get a plate of those to munch on while sitting poolside. I also loved the Caesar salad! And I really liked getting it at the World Cafe for dinner because then it was easy to ask for extra cheese and dressing. 😃

[z111]

I appreciate the French fry tip!

 

It is subjective to some extent.

 

You might like fish and i might hate it. You might dislike spicy and i may love it. 

 

But no one likes dried out food, and few like flavorless food. 

 

Even the orange juice tasted like water (though this morning tasted like orange juice.)

 

i did discover congee this morning and that was happy making for me. But the hash browns tasted of old oil. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

 

it is what it is. 

 

I’m enjoying the heck out of everything else. I just thought the food would be great, especially at Chef’s Table. 

Edited May 17 by z111

[CCWineLover]

As people have said, opinions on food are very personal and vary amongst everyone.  What one person likes, another dislikes.

 

We generally like the food on Viking, but truthfully we are NOT foodies and don't eat at 5 star restaurants at home - by choice, not cost.   

 

That being said, and we are currently on our 18th Viking cruise, the quality VERY DEFINITELY depends on the specific cruise and executive chef.  Our current cruise on Mars has been fabulous - especially the fish.  We would pick fish any day over steak.  It has been wonderful - the variety and quality of cooking with sauces and other flavors as needed.

 

In our experience, I do believe the quality was affected adversely post-COVID.  However, for us the trend seems to be getting better the last 2 cruises (2024), so I'm hoping the trend continues.

 

One of the reasons we enjoy World Cafe so much is simply that you can try a little of so many things.  Some will be hits, some won't, so we just go get a full serving of the hits that day.  So simple!

[CDNPolar]

I go with everyone else about the subjectiveness of food.

 

We are hitting our 11th Viking cruise - River and Ocean - and although we have had meals that are not stellar, we have never ever been truly disappointed.

 

We do not feel that Viking do "deep fried" well - specifically English style fish and chips, soft shelled crab, etc.  Agree the french fries are good.

 

I do however feel you are not doing yourself or anyone else any favour by not sharing your opinion on the food.  Viking need to hear it.  

 

Not that you would, but it does not have to be mid meal if you don't want to bring a downer on the serving crew, but you could take the restaurant manager aside and let him/her/them know quietly.

[island lady]

It's still all "mass produced" food like a hotel, large restaurant, or dare I say....(gasp) nursing home.  🤭

 

After 20 years with RCI, and now having switched to Viking (thankfully!!) I can definitely say the food we eat on the ship has improved.  😉  

 

Though if it is superior food I want...I will cook it myself.  😄 

[CDNPolar]

1 hour ago, island lady said:

It's still all "mass produced" food like a hotel, large restaurant, or dare I say....(gasp) nursing home.  🤭

 

After 20 years with RCI, and now having switched to Viking (thankfully!!) I can definitely say the food we eat on the ship has improved.  😉  

 

Though if it is superior food I want...I will cook it myself.  😄 

 

Yes, it is mass produced but we still enjoy it and feel that it is worth our cabin / cruise price.

 

However, the best food I had on a Mass Market Line was no better in my opinion than Denny's, Perkins, or iHOP.  All of these bottom of the barrel for me.

[duquephart]

Harsh. Not being top shelf doesn't relegate them to bottom shelf.

[mlamb1234]

Just finished a 28 day cruise on Mars from Istanbul to Barcelona and would say, overall, the food was average. Breakfast was the normal fare and was consistent both in the MDR and World Cafe. The orange juice, as another poster said, was watery and tasted often like “tang.” We were out on excursions during most lunch times however the few times we did have lunch it was OK. The pool grill was good and most items were made to order. Dinner on the other hand was a hit or miss. The MDR was average with several standout dishes and several not so good. We ate six times in the chefs table and found that to be our favorite. We would have eaten there more often but the menu changes were every three days. Being on a 28 day cruise (4 b to b), it became repetitive. The real low point of our dining experience was Manfredi’s. We ate there four times with only one meal that we thought was good. The other three were poor. The rib eyes were tough and on two occasions, we tried the carbonara and both times it was dry and pastey and sent back. A grouper entree was so over done, it was inedible and sent back only to receive another that wasn’t much better. We were two couples and all had similar opinions of our dining experiences. We thought the ship was magnificent and the crew/service was outstanding and for those reasons would consider another Viking ocean cruise. 

[island lady]

38 minutes ago, CDNPolar said:

 

Yes, it is mass produced but we still enjoy it and feel that it is worth our cabin / cruise price.

 

However, the best food I had on a Mass Market Line was no better in my opinion than Denny's, Perkins, or iHOP.  All of these bottom of the barrel for me.

 

LOL...what is it they say...I eat to live.  Not live to eat.  😄 

 

Since we indeed need sustenance to live on the cruise ship...we will need to partake.  😉  All those "adult beverages" kind of help it go down a bit better though!   

[Orangegurl]

Hello z111. I am on your same cruise and I too have found some of the food (not all) rather disappointing. I’m no expert - this is only our second Viking Ocean cruise - but I remember the food being much better overall on our last cruise. My pasta last night was cold and the sauce rather congealed. The risotto on Tuesday was very bland. Otherwise we have had a wonderful time so far. The service is awesome (as always) and we have met some delightful people. I hope we cross paths! 

[bookbabe]

4 minutes ago, mlamb1234 said:

Just finished a 28 day cruise on Mars from Istanbul to Barcelona and would say, overall, the food was average. Breakfast was the normal fare and was consistent both in the MDR and World Cafe. The orange juice, as another poster said, was watery and tasted often like “tang.” We were out on excursions during most lunch times however the few times we did have lunch it was OK. The pool grill was good and most items were made to order. Dinner on the other hand was a hit or miss. The MDR was average with several standout dishes and several not so good. We ate six times in the chefs table and found that to be our favorite. We would have eaten there more often but the menu changes were every three days. Being on a 28 day cruise (4 b to b), it became repetitive. The real low point of our dining experience was Manfredi’s. We ate there four times with only one meal that we thought was good. The other three were poor. The rib eyes were tough and on two occasions, we tried the carbonara and both times it was dry and pastey and sent back. A grouper entree was so over done, it was inedible and sent back only to receive another that wasn’t much better. We were two couples and all had similar opinions of our dining experiences. We thought the ship was magnificent and the crew/service was outstanding and for those reasons would consider another Viking ocean cruise. 

We were also on Mars recently, but we stayed on Istanbul to Bergen…36 days onboard.  We both lost weight.  I am allergic to fish and DH doesn’t eat exotic or game meats, which poses a problem when those foods comprise a majority of the offerings every night.  Even Tuna Pizza..*****?!  There’s only so many times in a row you can eat steak.  lol.  And a lot of the time the dishes we could eat were only mediocre.

 

The Asian station at the back of WC had a few good options, but there and in all the restaurants the menu was quite repetitive, probably because the cruise was made up of a bunch of shorter segments.  
 

Manfredi’s was okay, not fabulous, only ate there twice, but I agree the carbonara needed more sauce.  Ate at CT twice, but a lot of their menus are challenging for us due to the no fish or exotic meats issue.

 

We had issues a few times when we dined late where the kitchen had run out of a dish we were looking forward to and subbed something else for the second half of the evening, especially at WC.  Once, the restaurant manager chased us down and had the executive chef make DH short ribs when he expressed disappointment that they had run out at WC (we left and headed down to the restaurant to get something different and they found us there).  They were great, but DH’s point was that they should be experienced enough to make sufficient quantities of dishes to meet demand.  And it should tell them something when they don’t run out of even the first tray of some of the weirder stuff, like maybe take a closer look at your menus?

 

We love the ship size, service, atmosphere, staterooms, spa, etc, and have more Viking cruises booked, but we’ve accepted that we don’t sail Viking for the food.  It’s the one thing we would change about Viking if we could.

[Breckski]

There's current thread discussing how to complete the overall cruise evaluation.  Summary - everyone has different expectations going into the cruise.

 

I think the same is true for food on a cruise.  My expectation is for the food on Viking to be better than what's found on the mass lines, but certainly not as good as a quality local restaurant.  With these expectations going into the cruise, we're normally pleased/satisfied with Viking.    

[Famsw]

On the Viking Sea in February and Saturn in April. We've migrated to the World Cafe for most dinners because of the small bites option.  We did enjoy Manfredis and the Chefs Table. One fun fact-the onion rings at the Pool Grill were so popular they ran out of ingredients mid cruise (they make them from scratch every day).  When supplies finally came in, the line was almost to the pool! We found the gelato on Saturn not to our tastes too icy and no flavor.  On the Sea it was perfect.  Now, I'm grateful someone else is cooking and can find something I like anywhere.  To each their own.

[CDNPolar]

30 minutes ago, bookbabe said:

 

 

We love the ship size, service, atmosphere, staterooms, spa, etc, and have more Viking cruises booked, but we’ve accepted that we don’t sail Viking for the food.  It’s the one thing we would change about Viking if we could.

We have not been on Ocean for over a year, but have been on several River cruises and happy with the food.

 

This is concerning to me with Ocean and out next is not until October.

 

We have always enjoyed the food on Viking, and hope that this is not a spiral down... 

[CDNPolar]

17 minutes ago, Famsw said:

On the Viking Sea in February and Saturn in April. We've migrated to the World Cafe for most dinners because of the small bites option.  We did enjoy Manfredis and the Chefs Table. One fun fact-the onion rings at the Pool Grill were so popular they ran out of ingredients mid cruise (they make them from scratch every day).  When supplies finally came in, the line was almost to the pool! We found the gelato on Saturn not to our tastes too icy and no flavor.  On the Sea it was perfect.  Now, I'm grateful someone else is cooking and can find something I like anywhere.  To each their own.

 

You just reminded me that I have to try the onion rings at the Pool Grill.  We have never eaten at the Pool Grill.

[z111]

1 hour ago, Orangegurl said:

Hello z111. I am on your same cruise and I too have found some of the food (not all) rather disappointing. I’m no expert - this is only our second Viking Ocean cruise - but I remember the food being much better overall on our last cruise. My pasta last night was cold and the sauce rather congealed. The risotto on Tuesday was very bland. Otherwise we have had a wonderful time so far. The service is awesome (as always) and we have met some delightful people. I hope we cross paths! 

What are you up to today? We are doing the animals one.

 

We are on the 6th floor.

 

Chef’s Table was pretty bad the other night. We are there again tonight and i would hope they could at least step that one up.

 

We haven’t done manifreddi’s yet

 

i’ve found the congee is pretty good for breakfast.

 

Last night i had the venison at The Restaurant, and it was maybe 3 out of 5 stars, which is better than a lot.

 

The orange juice somehow got better also.

 

Vegas can manage to do great buffet food, at scale. And i think folks are being overly forgiving in expectations.

 

i don’t expect everything to be outstanding but I do expect at least SOME of it to be. And i would not expect anything to be inedible, and yet, i have found a lot of that.

 

Also, our excursion tomorrow is 5 hours and lists a snack.

 

Yesterday’s snack was one tea biscuit (and i didn’t even get one! LOL!)

 

not sure about that either.

 

p.s. I’m not griping about everything. The Viking staff are amazing, the spa facilities are beyond expectation. And i enjoyed yesterday’s default excursion (and the totem pole lecture on ship was great to isten to on the tv AFTER the excursion 🙂 ) 

Edited May 17 by z111

[CCWineLover]

1 hour ago, bookbabe said:

We were also on Mars recently, but we stayed on Istanbul to Bergen…36 days onboard.  We both lost weight.  I am allergic to fish and DH doesn’t eat exotic or game meats, which poses a problem when those foods comprise a majority of the offerings every night.  Even Tuna Pizza..*****?!  There’s only so many times in a row you can eat steak.  lol.  And a lot of the time the dishes we could eat were only mediocre.

 

The Asian station at the back of WC had a few good options, but there and in all the restaurants the menu was quite repetitive, probably because the cruise was made up of a bunch of shorter segments.  
 

Manfredi’s was okay, not fabulous, only ate there twice, but I agree the carbonara needed more sauce.  Ate at CT twice, but a lot of their menus are challenging for us due to the no fish or exotic meats issue.

 

We had issues a few times when we dined late where the kitchen had run out of a dish we were looking forward to and subbed something else for the second half of the evening, especially at WC.  Once, the restaurant manager chased us down and had the executive chef make DH short ribs when he expressed disappointment that they had run out at WC (we left and headed down to the restaurant to get something different and they found us there).  They were great, but DH’s point was that they should be experienced enough to make sufficient quantities of dishes to meet demand.  And it should tell them something when they don’t run out of even the first tray of some of the weirder stuff, like maybe take a closer look at your menus?

 

We love the ship size, service, atmosphere, staterooms, spa, etc, and have more Viking cruises booked, but we’ve accepted that we don’t sail Viking for the food.  It’s the one thing we would change about Viking if we could.

So so sorry for you.  You are probably on the wrong cruise line.

We've been on 18 Viking cruises and are on Mars right now.  We think the food is just fine - but we always do our homework.  And we fortunately don't have allergies.

I wish I could say we lose weight but we do gain it.  I do think Viking goes out of their way to accommodate those who can't eat the majority of the foods.  I also have heard from many who have been so thankful that Viking has helped them out.  Try meeting with the restaurant manager, whom we know.

[bookbabe]

1 hour ago, CCWineLover said:

So so sorry for you.  You are probably on the wrong cruise line.

We've been on 18 Viking cruises and are on Mars right now.  We think the food is just fine - but we always do our homework.  And we fortunately don't have allergies.

I wish I could say we lose weight but we do gain it.  I do think Viking goes out of their way to accommodate those who can't eat the majority of the foods.  I also have heard from many who have been so thankful that Viking has helped them out.  Try meeting with the restaurant manager, whom we know.

As I said very clearly, we like everything else about Viking, so I think we’ll keep the three future cruises we have booked, thanks.  But thanks for reminding me why the fellow passengers aren't necessarily a reason we book Viking either.  Why you think I haven’t done my homework is beyond me, I do plenty of research before booking vacations of any sort, especially at the price points for most of our trips.  And that wasn’t our first or only Viking cruise, we’ve done multiple itineraries and ships, and our opinions of the food haven’t changed since cruise one.  If you like food that’s been fancied-up for the sake of fancy with mixed success in the taste department, that’s your right.  If everyone liked the same thing, there would only be one dish on the menu.  
 

Food isn’t our main priority in cruising, we have tons of fabulous restaurants near our home that we can eat at any day of the week, plus all the great restaurants we encounter in our other travels.  We do have a world cruise booked with Regent, whose food is more to our taste, but it was still cabin and itinerary that was our deciding factor, not the dinner selections.

 

And I have met with restaurant managers in the past, I just don’t want to have to commit the day before and lock in what I feel like for dinner the next night.  And be thankful you don’t have food allergies, you have no idea how much more difficult it makes things unless you’ve been there.

*Editing to add that I did make the attempt to talk to people at CT on Mars because there was a menu DH wouldn’t have minded trying that was heavily fish-based, and the hostess refused, saying to just talk to the waiter that night.  And Mars is the first ship on any line we’ve travelled that didn’t send out main restaurant menus the night before, even if I didn’t choose to return them with selections each day.

 

Edited May 17 by bookbabe

[Orangegurl]

6 hours ago, z111 said:

What are you up to today? We are doing the animals one.

 

We are on the 6th floor.

 

Chef’s Table was pretty bad the other night. We are there again tonight and i would hope they could at least step that one up.

 

We haven’t done manifreddi’s yet

 

i’ve found the congee is pretty good for breakfast.

 

Last night i had the venison at The Restaurant, and it was maybe 3 out of 5 stars, which is better than a lot.

 

The orange juice somehow got better also.

 

Vegas can manage to do great buffet food, at scale. And i think folks are being overly forgiving in expectations.

 

i don’t expect everything to be outstanding but I do expect at least SOME of it to be. And i would not expect anything to be inedible, and yet, i have found a lot of that.

 

Also, our excursion tomorrow is 5 hours and lists a snack.

 

Yesterday’s snack was one tea biscuit (and i didn’t even get one! LOL!)

 

not sure about that either.

 

p.s. I’m not griping about everything. The Viking staff are amazing, the spa facilities are beyond expectation. And i enjoyed yesterday’s default excursion (and the totem pole lecture on ship was great to isten to on the tv AFTER the excursion 🙂 ) 

Hey z111. We went on the kayaking excursion this morning then explored the town. Sitka is delightful! Several items on The Restaurant menu for dinner tonight look promising. Fingers crossed. We are also on the 6th floor. 

[CCWineLover]

11 hours ago, bookbabe said:

As I said very clearly, we like everything else about Viking, so I think we’ll keep the three future cruises we have booked, thanks.  But thanks for reminding me why the fellow passengers aren't necessarily a reason we book Viking either.  Why you think I haven’t done my homework is beyond me, I do plenty of research before booking vacations of any sort, especially at the price points for most of our trips.  And that wasn’t our first or only Viking cruise, we’ve done multiple itineraries and ships, and our opinions of the food haven’t changed since cruise one.  If you like food that’s been fancied-up for the sake of fancy with mixed success in the taste department, that’s your right.  If everyone liked the same thing, there would only be one dish on the menu.  
 

Food isn’t our main priority in cruising, we have tons of fabulous restaurants near our home that we can eat at any day of the week, plus all the great restaurants we encounter in our other travels.  We do have a world cruise booked with Regent, whose food is more to our taste, but it was still cabin and itinerary that was our deciding factor, not the dinner selections.

 

And I have met with restaurant managers in the past, I just don’t want to have to commit the day before and lock in what I feel like for dinner the next night.  And be thankful you don’t have food allergies, you have no idea how much more difficult it makes things unless you’ve been there.

*Editing to add that I did make the attempt to talk to people at CT on Mars because there was a menu DH wouldn’t have minded trying that was heavily fish-based, and the hostess refused, saying to just talk to the waiter that night.  And Mars is the first ship on any line we’ve travelled that didn’t send out main restaurant menus the night before, even if I didn’t choose to return them with selections each day.

 

Wow what a long statement!

again so sorry.  Everyone has different experiences.

 

ours is different.  We substited at CT every time and we’re never “refused”.  Many others did too.

menus are posted the day before for all restaurants.  Never had an issue with seeing them.  Are you sure we are on the same ship?  In Falmouth today.

 

 

[bookbabe]

7 hours ago, CCWineLover said:

Wow what a long statement!

again so sorry.  Everyone has different experiences.

 

ours is different.  We substited at CT every time and we’re never “refused”.  Many others did too.

menus are posted the day before for all restaurants.  Never had an issue with seeing them.  Are you sure we are on the same ship?  In Falmouth today.

 

 

We were fine getting substitutions actually at CT during the meal, it was the fact that the hostess (blond, Eastern European) wouldn’t even consider letting us talk to the chef in advance to see if/what could be done.  Because of my allergies, we very rarely go to any meal without advance planning, to avoid disappointment or mishaps.  She wasn’t the best hostess I’ve encountered.

 

And menus on the app or tv that morning or even late the night before aren’t what I’m talking about.  On Saturn and Sky, and on other cruise lines, a set of menus was delivered with evening turndown for me to peruse and make choices, which I would then return the next morning at breakfast, so that the chef and kitchen could be prepared.  That wasn’t an option on Mars.  Overall, Mars just seemed less concerned about allergies, sort of blasé about the issue as a whole.  Not something you would have noticed if you weren’t dealing with allergies, though.

 

Mars did have some great crew, especially the CD “make good choices” Matt and the Shore Excursions Mgr Steven, who I think was going on vacation shortly after we disembarked.  They were both fabulous dealing with the vast number of entitled Karens that seemed to be unhappy with every aspect of some of the shore excursions.  The restaurant staff just wasn’t up to their same level, though.  There were a few standouts, but a lot seemed new and weren’t really giving the best service yet.

[OneSixtyToOne]

8 hours ago, CCWineLover said:

We substited at CT every time and we’re never “refused”.

As have we. I think the disconnect is it appears the poster asked the hostess to make substitutions and was told to tell the waiter. The waiter is the person to convey your order request to, not the host/hostess.  “Refused” is a strong word. Sounds more like the hostess conveyed the proper procedure and it was construed as insufficient to meet the OP’s needs / desires.

 

As for menus, they are available on the app and throughout the ship video monitors daily. If you have special food requirements/preferences and have indicated this in MVJ, you will also have copies of the menus delivered to your stateroom daily.
 

There are certain foods that I don’t eat and have had the staff bend over backwards to accommodate me and indicate what I should avoid.