The finest cuisine you will ever dine on is one way of describing the dining experience on board the Balmoral, the grandest of the Fred Olsen cruise ships. With five restaurants to choose from, you have a wide range of choices before you – not only in where to dine, but what food you wish to have at any given time of the day or night.




The Avon Restaurant will provide you with the intimate feeling of being the only ones on the Balmoral although you will have more than 1000 fellow passengers. Both the Avon and the Spey Restaurant offer the same menu choices. The porthole windows are oversized giving you a great ocean view as you sail along. Both of these restaurants are new to the Balmoral and were added in the refit completed in 2008. They add the right touch of sophistication and style to the cruising experience. For breakfast and lunch, there is open seating in both the Avon and the Spey, but there is assigned seating for the evening meal between 6:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.
When you enter either the Avon or Spey Restaurants for dinner, your waiter will place a large basket containing four different kinds of bread on your table. These are warm and just out of the oven, giving you a slight taste of the great food that is to come. You have a choice of three menus that vary from one day to the next. There is always a meat, fish, pasta or poultry dish on the menu and the scrumptious desserts just can’t be missed. If you are on a diet or have to follow a special diet plan, the chef can make accommodations to suit your needs. Breakfast is served at these two venues where you can choose from the menu or choose foods from the expansive and impressive buffet.

The food is cooked to perfection and with 32 different wines to choose from you can truly taste wines from all over the world. You even have the option of pre-ordering the wine you prefer from your room so that you have it at your table as soon as you sit down.

Dining at the Palms Cafe is a more casual affair for lunch or for those evenings when you just don’t feel like dressing for dinner. The meals are buffet style and you serve yourself, making as many trips back to the selections as you wish. You don’t have to wait for a set time to dine because this restaurant is open all day and into the evening. You can just pop in whenever you feel the hunger pangs coming on.

For the lavish affairs that accompany a cruise on the Balmoral, such as the Captain’s Dinner, the Ballindalloch Restaurant is the ultimate in luxury, both in the decor and the meal itself. There are various menus to choose from, such as starting off with poached jumbo prawns. The second course consists of a soup and then you can choose a tastefully prepared meal of beef tenderloin, ending with an exquisite crepe suzette. This is just one of the choices and there are always at least three for every dinner.

While there is room service available on the Balmoral, it is limited in the choices of foods that you can order. Breakfast, for example, is mainly continental and during the day and evening, you can order snacks and sandwiches to be delivered to your room. There is also the Grill for those times when you just want something fast, such as a burger or fries, to take with you although you can sit and enjoy your meal here as well.

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