Chef's Table

For those who have had the opportunity to eat in the Chef's Table during 2018 - what were your favorite two meals? Yes, I know, everyone will have a different opinion - but just wondering if a pattern begins to form and that certain specialties get repeated over and over.

Our experience was that they rotated through their menus every two days. Wish we could have tried them all but we did enjoy the Asian (that fire and ice granite was memorable) and Venetian offerings.

We were on the Viking Sea in July 2018 and dined at the Chef's Table twice. We had the Asian Panorama and La Route Des Indes. Both dinners were excellent!

I think the pattern your were looking for may already be emerging. Asian Panorama and La Route Des Indies were our favorites, as well.

I assume you are asking about the top two because that's how many reservations you can make before sailing. On our cruise we were able to make as many additional reservations onboard as we wanted, so we ended up trying 4 of the 6 menus offered.

• Asian Panorama – we found the duck overcooked, but otherwise this was excellent

• La Route des Indes – all excellent

• Sweet & Salty – all excellent except for the 'bird's nest' garnish on the dessert, which we just ignored

• Xiang – all excellent [except the dessert reminded DW of tapioca, which she doesn't like – I OTOH loved it]

We passed on Erling's Scandinavian Bistro – which was offered four times – and Venice Carnival. They didn't offer the Journey Through Time menu, which we would have squeezed in if we could have.

We found the Chef's Table the highlight of an already terrific cruise. The portions are small enough that DW didn't feel stuffed, and the presentation is stepped up a notch from the MDR. The premium wine pairings were well chosen [and since DW doesn't drink at all, they were comped for me – which made them taste even better!]

During our fourteen day cruise, we had six reservations for Chef's Table, we ended up cancelling one as we would have repeated one of the menus. We had Asian Panorama, Routes des Indes,Venice Carnival, Sweet and Salty and Erling's Scandinavian Bistro. It's difficult for me to pick a top two, as I thought everything was good, and each menu had memorable items. The only item that I did not care for was the Spicy Tuna first course which was a part of the Indes menu.The two most memorable menus for me were Asian Panorama and Erling's Scandinavian Bistro.

On our recent VO cruise, we dined in Chef's Table on the evening they were serving the Asian tasting menu. Like others, we did not care for the duck, but the other courses were fine.

We weren't exactly blown away by CT, so we cancelled our second reservation and went back to Manfredi's.

Just off the Orion. Went to the Chef's Table 3 times and found the food very nice. A bit unusual but quite tasty. The wine pairing worked fine - we were on the Beverage Package so had the premium wines which I think enhanced the meal. You can pay $25 if you haven't got the package but if you consider it would have cost us $75 to upgrade, the package takes on a whole new level of value for money.

We are just back and 6 menus were offered on a 2 day rotation - there are 7 now I understand. We ate there 6 times - we had the Scandinavian twice and gave the Venetian one a miss - we love it there - they had more covers on our cruise in the Chef’s Table than ever before - there are those like us that like to try every menu and they will bend over backwards to fit you in. The quicker rotation has increased the popularity among the “regulars” . It is not everyone’s cup of tea I quite understand that! Manfredi’s reservations are much more of a challenge!

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They do a good job of fitting you in if you want to come on almost any night. We liked the Venetian menu best on our latest cruise. The one thing we did not like was the take on Peking Duck on the Asian Panorama menu-a burrito filled with shredded duck with a small amount of sauce and a tiny piece of crispy skin on top was not good. Most other "inspired by" dishes worked better.

I did not like the Mexican menu's pre-dinner drink....food was OK...good mole!

I did not like the Mexican menu's pre-dinner drink....food was OK...good mole!

Was this some sort of tequila beverage?

Which is the Mexican menu? I don't see that on the menus on My Viking Journey for my cruise in December.

Which is the Mexican menu? I don't see that on the menus on My Viking Journey for my cruise in December.

I have the Mexico menu on MVJ for the WC in January. There are 12menus! Mexico is:

Mexico

Amuse Bouche

Tostadas De Pulpo

First Course

Tamalito De Pollo

salsa verde

Granité

Nopales Con Limon

Main Course

Short Rib

mole, pure de camote, miel de agave

Dessert

Chocolate En Texturas

mousse, biscocho, crumble

Thank you for the Mexican menu. My Viking Journey lists only 4 sample menus, but the whole cruise is only 8 days, so maybe that's why! In any case, I'm glad they rotate every few days now. It was much less frequently when they started. I assumed the same sample menus would be listed for each cruise, but I guess not. Ours shows Asian Panorama, Route des Indes, Sweet and Sour, and Venice Carnival. I don't think we've had the latter two. The beef on Route des Indes was excellent, but some of the other little things on that menu were too oddball for me (picky eater). I remember a great shrimp appetizer on one menu that my husband and I both loved, but I forget which menu it was.

I don't worry too much about which menu will be in rotation. For me, there's always something I don't particularly like, but there are several more things I do, so I just eat what I like and don't worry about the rest - which are usually just the amuse bouche - little taste teasers, not the main dish!

Since there are only 4 menus listed for my cruise, does that mean those 4 are likely to be in rotation on our cruise, or are they really just sample menus, as the heading states?

Chef's Table seems to be a work in progress and Viking is always tyring to find ways to improve it a bit. We enjoy it! Do we always like every item...Nooooo....but it is fun to explore especially when we aren't paying for it at an expensive state side restaurant!

I just selected our optional restaurant choices this morning, but had been looking over them for the past several days. Our cruise is for 12 nights. There were 6 sample menus for the Chefs Table available for us to see prior to registration opening. When I made our reservations, the same 6 menus were what we had to choose from, each available for 2 nights only. On previous cruises, the menu was the same for 3 nights. As your cruise is for 8 nights, the 4 menus that you can see on My Viking Journey as sample menus will be the only 4 that will be available to you. They will each be available for 2 nights. I am a pretty picky eater, but on a previous cruise we had the Sweet and Salty menu. I enjoyed the entire meal. I thought it was excellent and was happy to see that we would have the choice of that menu on our upcoming cruise.

Thanks. Did you choose the menu first and then available days popped up, I assume? Do you remember if the menus were listed in the same order as the days in the cruise? If not, it's no big deal, but I like to space out my specialty restaurant reservations as much as I can so any info is helpful.

Thanks for the info - very helpful.

The salty menu looks great.

roothy123

When you go into the "Make Reservation" a drop box will appear with all of the dates for your cruise. As you go through each date, that night's menu will be shown. I went through each date first to see which menu was available for each night. Like you, I wanted to space our optional restaurants out as much as possible. Then I went back and selected the menus we preferred on the nights we preferred. I made reservations at the Chefs Table first and then made the Manfredi's reservations. The availability of the Chefs Table menus on the reservation site is such an upgrade as there is no more scrambling once on board. The sample menus that were shown on My Viking Journey before reservations were available were shown on a horizontal scroll, so I can't say if they were in any particular order.