Victoria Anna Dining
The Victoria Anna offers two dining options. The Dynasty Dining Room is the more traditional cruise style eatery, while the Sun Deck offers a more intimate, just-like-a-restaurant experience.
Food onboard is decidedly Westernized, in response to customer demand. Passengers wishing to experience authentic and exotic Chinese cuisine should visit local restaurants onshore.
Breakfast and lunch in both dining rooms feature freshly baked breads, muffins, croissants, pastries and bagels -- we figure they're the only bagels on the Yangtze. Hot items include the usual scrambled eggs, hot cakes or French toast, breakfast potatoes, breakfast meats that range from Italian sausage to bacon and Hawaiian ham. These items are usually complemented by a few Asian choices, either fried rice or noodles, steamed dumplings or pot stickers with dipping sauces, as well as a vegetable dish. An assortment of juices, milk and cereal are available, and waiters pour generous amounts of coffee or tea. Lunch selections vary from the slightly exotic, as in chicken curry, to the more every-day, as in hamburgers with fries. Pizza, pork cutlets, fried fish, spicy chicken stir-fries, sweet and sour pork, as well as Chinese vegetables and noodles round out the offerings.
In the Dynasty Room, the main venue, dinner could be quite a festive affair; one night was set aside for birthday and anniversary celebrations, complete with birthday/anniversary cakes. On this night, guests were taught by Cruise Director Dick Carpentier to sing "Happy Birthday" in Chinese, and all participated gleefully. And while we're not often inclined to describe entrances to cruise ship dining rooms, it must be noted that the entrance to the Dynasty features double, multi-paned doors flanked by two six-foot-tall bronze horses. It gets you in the mood!
The Sun Deck Lounge is an a la carte option (just like a restaurant, you pay per item ordered), and it offered a more western-style experience, with menu items such as chicken tenderloin-wrapped shrimp, herb-roasted chicken, seafood Newburg, medallions of pork Dijonnaise, pesto pasta, ravioli marinara, and desserts including apple pie, pecan pie, and chocolate mousse cake. Guests enter the Sun Deck Lounge through double doors of inlaid glass past a window looking into a presentation kitchen where the chef and staff prepare that evening's a la carte menu items. Menu prices ranged from pasta dishes at about $10 US to Peking Duck at about $38 US, with most items in the $15 to $20 price range.
In addition to local wines, international selections, including an assortment of California wines are available.
For early risers, coffee and continental breakfast are offered in the fourth-floor Yangtze Room, beginning at 5:30 a.m. Afternoon tea and biscuits are also available in the Yangtze Room at 3:30 p.m. Items such as sandwiches, soups and desserts are available from room service at modest a la carte prices.