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Published: December 13th 2016
As I wanted to experience all the dining options we only ate three times in the main dining room. It is open for breakfast and dinner each day and is open for lunch on sea days. The menus are very diverse and include a selection of starters, soups, salads, main courses, and desserts. We had an excellent lunch and two dinners there. Pat was impressed how good and perfectly cooked the salmon entrees were.
Our favorite optional or alternative restaurant was Tamarind which is now $25. The service and food made this very worthwhile. We ended up eating here three times! I could have made a meal just from the appetizers: pot stickers, spring rolls, baby-backed pork ribs, satay and shrimp tempura.
The Pinnacle Grill featuring dishes from the Pacific Northwest is always reliable, now $35. Once during a cruise when sailing in Europe the restaurant has special china and features a menu from Netherland’s three Michelin star restaurant De Librije for $69. I thought this was pricey until I discovered this included a wine pairing with each of the five courses. It turned out to be the best dining experience of the trip.
The Pinnacle Grill is
open for lunch on sea days and occasionally in port. It costs $10 and is a bargain. They serve some of the same dishes that appear on the dinner menu. The crab cakes, cioppino, black cod and fresh berries with sabayon sauce are excellent and on the lunch menu. For a lighter lunch I order the black cod sandwich without the bread and the fresh berries for dessert.
I was not that impressed with the new Sel de Mer. It was a lovely restaurant with excellent service but the quality of the food did not match the pricey a la carte pricing. Although most of the items on the menu are seafood, Sel de Mer also has other French favorites like duck cassoulet, coq au vin, and beef pot au feu.
We did have lunch at the complementary Grand Dutch Cafe one day. I savored some excellent split pea soup and Dutch apple pie. The Grand Dutch Cafe is a casual coffee bar that also serves Dutch treats and snacks. The food is free but the specialty coffees and other drinks are not.
The Culinary Arts Center was purpose-built, with a show kitchen and individual cooking stations
for the classes.The new immersive farm-to-table concept dinner experience in the center is an excellent experience. For the set price of $39 you receive a welcome cocktail and can drink excellent unlimited wine from Snoqualmie Vineyards, and dine on entrées that are enhanced by freshly harvested microgreens grown on board. You can actually watch the greens grow in a glass-enclosed area in the restaurant. The chefs prepare everything in front of you, and put on quite a show. There are two set menus and we tried both on different evenings. We preferred the basil menu slightly more than the lavender menu. I conservatively drank at least $40+ of wine at each dinner. There is just one seating at 7pm.
The Lido restaurant was multi stationed and they never seem to be a long line except the at the omelet station during breakfast at peak hours. Canaletto serves Italian cuisine in a casual family style, is another one of the extra-cost ($15) restaurant options on board Holland America's Koningsdam. It is located in a special section in the Lido restaurant and is fitted out more lavishly than on other Holland American ships. Since Canaletto is inside the Lido Market, many
guests sit in this space at breakfast and lunch.
The Explorations Cafe is found on the top of the ship on deck 12 inside the Crow's Nest lounge. It is another coffee bar with extra cost specialty coffees, teas and complementary pastries.
Poolside dining was available at the New York Deli and Pizza, and really excellent burgers, hot dogs and fries at Dive-In. You order and are given a pager to await your freshly prepared order though you can get fries with no wait. Pat, the fry expert, said they were great.
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