Miguel Torga Dining

Miguel Torga has just the one dining room on the Main Deck, with meals included in the overall price. CroisiEurope is unusual in that it serves a set menu for both lunch and dinner, with no choices offered. The line's chefs will cater for dietary requirements, but passengers are asked to make special requests at the time of booking so food can be sourced in advance.

That goes for vegetarian meals too. That said, they are willing to accommodate a little last-minute flexibility. When I turned down foie gras, it was replaced by the vegetarian option pretty quickly.

The menu is almost exclusively French fine dining, with a few Portuguese traditional favorites thrown in for good measure, and of a consistently high quality. Menus are posted every morning in reception and on TV screens in cabins.

Breakfast is buffet style from 7 or 7:30 a.m., depending on the itinerary. Pots of coffee and pastry baskets, with rolls and croissants, are placed on every table, and the buffet spread is predominantly continental-style, with cold cuts, cheese, fruit salad, yogurt, cereal, pastries, bread and preserves laid out. Eggs and sausages are provided, and there's hot water to boil your own eggs and a self-service toaster.

Lunch and dinner are both served as set menus, with three courses: appetizer, main and dessert, with an extra cheese course at dinner. You should advise before the cruise if you need vegetarian meals. Portion sizes are sensible but you may still feel like you have over-eaten by the end of the cruise and if you prefer good old plain comfort food, then you might struggle with the menus.

Seating is set at the beginning of the cruise, with staff aiming to sit groups and nationalities together, in tables of two to eight maximum. Once tables are designated at the start of the cruise, everyone tends to stay in those places, but you could ask to move if you were not happy with your setting.

Lunch generally starts at 12 or 12:30 p.m., depending on excursion timings. A typical lunch might be calamari-stuffed Coimbra; lamb rack, viennoise mustard, green asparagus, pumpkin and Duchesse potatoes; and pineapple carpaccio with rum-dried fruit ice cream.

Dinner starts around 7:30 p.m., and might entail duck foie gras and gingerbread brioche; veal with white bean fricassee, Provencal tomato and polenta; goat cheese marinated in olive oil and herbs; and natas do ceu to end. This is a Portuguese dessert, translated as "cream from heaven."

Lunch and dinner are both served with complimentary red, white and rose wine. Bottles from the premium wine list can be ordered at extra cost. Coffee is served at the end of every meal.

Once every cruise there is a gala dinner, which features the traditional flaming baked Alaska paraded around the dining room. As you would expect from a French line, meals are there to be savored and enjoyed, and service is efficient, but unhurried. Tables are set with crisp white linen and you'll not be rushed out the dining room if your conversation carries on well after the plates have been cleared from the tables.

Room Service: Miguel Torga does not have room service. There are no snacks available outside of mealtimes.