This entry concerns a cruise on the river Douro in Portugal. The cruise has been reviewed elsewhere on TripAdvisor and a link to my report about the cruise can be found here.
http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowUserReviews-g189180-d1549777-r199569793-Douro_River_Cruises-Porto_Porto_District_Northern_Portugal.html#REVIEWS
Whilst there were issues with the actual cruise bit of the holiday, I have to say that the food on Viking cruises is excellent in my opinion and what we received on this trip was up to the standard of previous trips. The big difference was that previous trips with Viking had been supplied with Austrian Chefs, and the one on this trip was Portuguese, and we were seeing Portuguese cuisine. Portuguese cuisine is not world famous for several reasons (the ingredients and style are a bit limited and rustic), but what was offered to us left a positive impression. Accompanied by decent local wines, I found little to complain about.
This was the menu from the first night on board. It was probably not as good as some of the subsequent menus. There was some evidence that they were still getting their act together on the first night but things settle down fairly rapidly. Typically there was an amuse-bouche to start then followed by a starter, main and desert or cheese and if you wanted both desert and cheese that was no problem. On this occasion not being certain what roasted meagre was (turns out to be a local white fish) and not particularly wanting duck or the vegetarian dish I opted for the 'always available' option and I knew from past experience that there pan-seared New York steaks were good.
I think the one below is the Portuguese Sausage.
The steak.
None of the individual portion sizes are big, but invariably, by the end of the meal, one was replete. Hotness was not an issue, and was better than Restaurants, probably because they knew they were dealing with a largely UK and American client base who wanted their food hot. I was happy to give 8's to the food on the trip, but never more. The food appeared already plated up, with covers after a bit of a wait. It looked like it was being brought up from down below. Not an easy job. The staff were new to the roles, as this was the maiden voyage, and as we did not have assigned dining tables, we found one with a particularly helpful waitress who looked after us during the holiday. I hesitate to use the work voyage, as we did not actually go very far, but that is another matter dealt with on TripAdvisor.
Portuguese cheeses,whilst interesting are not what you might go looking for. There was nothing of particularly interesting taste or texture, and I guess the French probably have the cheese thing sewn-up.
As always on this sort of trip, there will be people who do not find the choice of food or its taste to their satisfaction. I have to say that I have never had a problem with food on Viking River Cruises and have always looked forward to that aspect of the holiday.
More pictures of different meals:
There was no evidence of resupplying the ship; we never saw the supply wagons arriving. We can therefore only assume that the whole of the catering supplies for the voyage was there when we left Porto and stored in it either chilled or frozen. As there were only about 80 passengers, and the trip only lasted 6 days, this sounds entirely feasible.
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