Speciality Dining on Vking Sea: Manfredi's Italian Restaurant

One of the unique features on Viking Ocean is that the two speciality restaurants are included in your fare.  You do need to make reservations since space is limited, but you can eat at these as many times as you want during your sailing.  For our second night we ate at Manfredi's which is defined as an Italian restaurant, but I think it functions more like a traditional steak house on land that has a few Italian dishes.

They start you off with a breadbasket which has a very good selection.  The one that looks like roasted garlic cloves all nestled together is well designed.  A think buttery dough, thicker than filo, that has been rolled with garlic and butter,  Then each "bud" is merged together into the bundle you see.  It was so delicate and buttery.  A really good twist on traditional garlic bread.

When you walk into the restaurant, you will see prep chefs making the bread baskets and other items.  In front of them is a large wheel of parmesan reggiano from which they carve large slices and serve to your table.  I imagine they expect you to have this with some of the bread, but I just love eating the salty cheese by itself with a crisp white wine.

Parmesan wheel

The manzilla (bread) salad wasn't to my liking.  The greens were fresh and crispy and the tomatoes were flavorful.  But that is where it ended.  The dressing had way to much oil so it muddied the whole salad.  And the few croutons there were, while crispy, had no flavor of there own.  Could have been a nice dish with better execution such as a more balanced dressing.

The highlight of this meal for me was the mushroom soup.  I have found that for some reason, mushrooms on cruise ships are always treated with respect.  Whether ithey are sauteed, baked stuffed or fresh sliced on a salad, they are so tasty.  The soup lived up to that standard.  Velvety with rich meaty flavor of mushrooms.  The croutons were buttery and still crisp and they must have waited until just before serving it since they were still had that texture to balance with the creaminess.  

Mushroom soup at Manfredi's

Next up was lasagna.  Whenever I go to certain type of places, there is a signature dish that can tell me alot about other foods in that category. For example, if I go to a pub, I will try their cheeseburger - not fancied up with all kinds of toppings - but a bare bones burger.  If a place that serves primarily pub food can make a great burger, then it shows a lot of promise for their other pub-style food,.  In an italian restaurant, it is the lasagna that I use to gauge that.  The lasagna had some great components:  thin pasta noodles which appeared to be house made, a delicate tomato-based bechamel sauce and a nicele melted mozzarella blend on top.  What wasn't d great was the meat filling.  While it seemed to be made with good cuts of pork and beef, there was a lingering flavor of cinnamon which I didn't care for.  Had it brought more traditional flavors such as basil or oregano, it would have been much better,  

Lasagna at Manfredi's

My tablemates tried two of the available risottos.  The first was a spinach and cheese which was my favorite.  Rice was al dente, while still having that creamy, slightly liquid texture.  Very flavorful.  I think it would have benefitted from some pine nuts for an added crunch.

The second was an escargot risotto which was not as successful.  While the rice was cooked the same as the spinach one, any escargot flavors were muted,  Where I expected some deep garlic flavors, there were none.

Dessert was what they called a chocolate bar but is bettter described as a Rocky Road pie.  It was excellent having deep chocolate flavors, large chunks of marshmallow and nuts.  Pistachio dust added a nice extra crunch.  

Their cheesecake dessert was not so good.  First of all, I compare all cheesecakes to the one my mother made growing up. It was a recipe that her grandmother had gotten from a neighbor back in Everett Massachusetts.  It probably dates back to the 1920's.  Her recipe focused on the cream cheese -  and isn't that the reason you indulge in cheesecake?  I understand a chef adding twists to make the dessert their own, but some  foods are classic and you don't mess with them.  Cheesecake is high on that list for me.  This cheesecake was more cake that cheese.  It was also lacking moisture - perhaps because of the ratio of eggs to cheese and no sauce served with it.  Instead of the three raspberries, I would have liked a raspberry sauce to dip into.  Or maybe even some whipped cream.  However the most glaring issue with this dessert was the topping.  Perhaps to make this more "italian", the chef decided that adding finely chopped fruitcake fruit would do that.  Maybe adding a few would do that - but there was way too much topping.  

We are eating here two more times on this cruise, so I will have more feedback on the new items I try.   Overall, this was not one of favorite meals.  Some great ideas but lack of execution.  I would however go back for that mushroom soup and have that as a meal with some crusty bread.