We always have a few friends – you know who you are! – who want to know what we’re eating as we travel around.

You know this is our first ocean cruise, but we have travelled with Viking River Cruises, where we loved the food, so our expectations were pretty high. We have not been disappointed.

First, let me tell you about the options. The Viking Sun is small by ocean cruise standards, just 900 people, so it “only” has 6 restaurants.

Mamsen’s is a small Norwegian deli-style restaurant, serving breakfast, lunch, afternoon and late night snacks of typical Norwegian fare: think waffles and muesli in the mornings, and open-faced sandwiches and European desserts later in the day.

The World Café and adjacent outdoor Aquavit Terrace is buffet style, and serves three meals a day. Imagine it, and you can find it here. Breakfast ranges from fresh breads and pastries, through all the egg options, to fruits and cereals, smoothies made to order, full English breakfast, and even congee! At lunch, the chefs will compose their daily special salad for you and carve the day’s lunch roast, or you can help yourself to the salad area, a wide variety of hot and cold dishes from all over the world, soups, sandwiches, breads, cheeses, charcuterie, desserts, fruits….it goes on and on… literally. My favourite section is the gelato bar, where Pinky (yes, really) scoops eight different flavours, all made on board each day, into waffle cones or bowls. At night, there is a huge sushi bar, pasta bar, meats with accompaniments – always one station with “live grilling” (steak, salmon, chicken breast) – salads, desserts…..it’s honestly hard to describe.

The Restaurant is a slightly more formal space (no jeans at dinner) with table service. All 3 meals are served from a menu that changes every single day. Remember that Ted and I joined only one leg of this ship’s 160 day world cruise, so they don’t want their long term guests to get bored. Dinner includes a daily choice of 10 apps, 10 mains, and 10 desserts, plus (on port days) a 3-course “destination menu”.

The Pool Grill opens at 11:30 and stays open right through to dinner hour. They grill made-to-order burgers or hotdogs with a huge selection of toppings, serve chicken wings, pulled pork sandwiches, etc and have a full salad bar. Their fresh cut fries are the best!

On sea days that are not too windy, a huge “pop-up” restaurant sets up on the upper pool deck featuring special events: Italian paninis, Indian street food (dosas made fresh on the grill!), Mexican Street Tacos, etc. My favourite was King Crab Salad day. I’ve never seen crab legs that big, and definitely not in that quantity! Servers tossed individual salads for each person, and then topped them with 3 or 4 massive legs – mmmmmmmmm!!

Our favourite restaurant on the ship was Manfredi’s, the Italian restaurant, with a scrumptious menu of Italian specialties and the best bread basket on board: olive focaccia, crusty rye flour Calabrese, garlic rosettes, crispy-crusted pannetone-shaped gorgonzola loaves, a delicate almost paper-thin lavash shard with sliced roasted garlic, and cumin breadsticks, all served with balsamic-infused oil for dipping and big chunks of fresh parmigiana cheese cut from the huge wheel near the restaurant’s entrance.

The beautiful Wintergarden space is converted to a tea room each day at 4:00, serving full English-style cream high tea: tea made from fresh leaf blends of course, then scones with preserves and clotted cream, followed by a 3-tiered tray holding 4 varieties of finger sandwiches and 4 delicate desserts.

The ship’s pièce de resistance is The Chef’s Table, where every 3 or 4 nights a new 5-course curated menu with wine pairings is offered. We tried 3 different Mexican nights, one with guest chef Pia Quintana (Google her!) brought on board at Cabo who also did a cooking demo for us. We also enjoyed a Thai night and a British night. As we cruised, we overheard people unhappy with the rigidity of a fixed menu, unhappy about portions that were too small, or food that was too “nouveau”. Just goes to show you can’t please everyone. Ted and I thoroughly enjoyed getting to try foods we would not otherwise have experienced, and definitely enjoyed tasting 4 different wines with each meal!

Some of the shore excursions have also included meals, sometimes at a small local restaurant, but once at a really lovely Chilean winery.

It’s just not possible to go hungry, because there is also 24 hour room service and a mini-fridge in our room that gets restocked daily with water, soda, nuts and (I know I have mentioned them before, but ….. REALLY) mini Toblerone bars!

None of these things cost extra above the cruise price, and all meals come with unlimited wine or beer. Sparkling water, juices, teas, and coffees, including espresso based ones, are always available. You could pay for an unlimited liquor package, but neither of us would be able to make use of it.

Anyway, back to food. We can’t possibly share pics of everything we ate over the 4 weeks we cruised, but here are a few more of our favourite plates (when we remembered to take a photo!)

On Christmas Eve there was a fantastic chocolate buffet, complete with complex art deco style chocolate sculptures. Unfortunately, the feeding frenzy prevented Ted from getting pictures of it intact.