Manfredi's & Chef's Table Questions

The booking window for specialty restaurants opened up today for our cruise. I'm in a deluxe veranda, so I fully expected a few of my first choice dates and times for Manfredi's to be already taken by suite passengers. However, I did pretty well (for example, wanted a table for 2, sea day, 7 PM; got shared table at 7:15). Sharing a table is actually fine, as we'll get to meet more people, but now I'm curious: How many people share the table - 4? 6? variable?

What are the table sizes in the Chef's Table? Also, is the menu or theme of the dinner for future nights available somewhere upon boarding? Given that the menus change every 9 days, we may want to switch our reservation to another night if one menu sounds more to our liking than the other.

Hi Roothy - we had actually requested "shared" for our Manfredi's and Chef's Table on our reservations, but always ended up with a table for 2. Now, our reservations were for 6:30, so don't know if that makes a difference. There were more 2-toppers than anything else. The larger tables were round and were set up to seat 6, but if you had a party of 8 they would squish 8 in. They also had square tables for 4. The table sizes were the same in both restaurants.

As far as menu at the Chef's Table, we went to the check-in desk at the restaurant just a bit before 6:00 and asked for the current menu. They gave us one to take with us. We also asked when it changed and they told us the day it changed and what it would change to. They gave us a copy of the next menu too. So that's where I'd go. And if you want to change dates, you can change your reservation right there as well. The other time you might go there is about 8:15 when the 8 o'clock folks have already been seated.

Occasionally there's a fellow seated at a table near the Explorer's Desk that was there to make dining reservations for people (he had a placard on the table) but his hours seemed erratic. I would expect him to know the menu, but I don't know if he did as we never spoke to him. His hours may be more predictable now though as we were onboard several months ago now.

Thank you, Elizabeth. That's very helpful. Actually either a two-person or a shared (bigger) table is fine for us, as long as we can eat at a time that's not too late. Oceania has a similar "tiered" reservation system, and since we always book a low category, I've learned to prioritize my dining wish list according to day and time first, and shared/not shared and space between specialty dining reservations second. Making our Viking reservations turned out to be easier (and quicker) than I expected.

The booking window for specialty restaurants opened up today for our cruise. I'm in a deluxe veranda, so I fully expected a few of my first choice dates and times for Manfredi's to be already taken by suite passengers. However, I did pretty well (for example, wanted a table for 2, sea day, 7 PM; got shared table at 7:15). Sharing a table is actually fine, as we'll get to meet more people, but now I'm curious: How many people share the table - 4? 6? variable?

 

What are the table sizes in the Chef's Table? Also, is the menu or theme of the dinner for future nights available somewhere upon boarding? Given that the menus change every 9 days, we may want to switch our reservation to another night if one menu sounds more to our liking than the other.

The Chefs table changes every 5 days now. Much better. If you walk up, they will show you all 3 menus for the 14 day cruise on the first night --- and take reservations.

Oh, excellent! Thank you very much for letting me know. Are you cruising now, or have you cruised since they started that? If so, what kinds of foods did they offer on the various nights you were aboard?

Oh, excellent! Thank you very much for letting me know. Are you cruising now, or have you cruised since they started that? If so, what kinds of foods did they offer on the various nights you were aboard?

We got off ship a week ago. Menus were "sweet and salty," a "culinary tour through time" or something like that, and Asian. Asian was quite good. We did not do the middle one because it did not interest us. Depends on your tastes. First one was OK, but not as good as the last.

Somewhere on these boards someone posted Chef's Table menus from the maiden voyage from Istanbul. I think all three of these were shown there.

BTW, one of our fellow diners had a food allergy (shellfish), and they gave her a replacement for that course (a salad).

The Chefs table changes every 5 days now. Much better. If you walk up, they will show you all 3 menus for the 14 day cruise on the first night --- and take reservations.

When eating at the Chef's Table, you may want to eat early (if at all - not sweet and salty) - so that you can go up to World Cafe and get a meal afterwards. We did not enjoy Chef's Table but some people did. As for the wine paring - not for CA friends who are used to many good wines. The servers try to make it very special though.

We thought the "sweet and salty" was the worst of the menus.