If you want outstanding food while sea’ing Alaska, you otter get on the Eurodam

Today’s post isn’t just a post.  It is more like a double post. Or a triple one.  If you pay attention to my social media you’ll know that this past week, I took a cruise to Alaska, stopping in Juneau, Sitka, Ketchikan, and even in Victoria British Columbia, which is located in Canada.  We took Holland America Line’s Eurodam, which was where all the restaurants I’m going to write about are located.

On this trip, we did an excursion in each place except Canada.  My favorite excursion was in Sitka. We went on a Sea Otter Quest on a small boat and it was so fun.  I loved the boat bouncing on the water as we looked for sea otters and whales.  

We also went to a place called Fortress of the Bears where they had rescued bears that were orphaned.  During the week long trip we saw tons of wildlife and in almost every place we got off the boat we spotted a bald eagle or a a bald eagle’s nest. Besides the sea otters, bears and eagles we also saw sea lions, puffins, whales, and more.  It was really amazing seeing this stuff and it was one of my highlights of the cruise.

Of course, the other highlight for me was the FOOD.  There was so much food you could eat all day long if you wanted to.  The three things I want to write about are the lunch, main dining room for dinner, and a specialty restaurant called Tamarind.  Of course, I also want to tell you about the service – it could not have been better, and the atmosphere, which, literally couldn’t get any better since you’re staring at the glaciers and icy seas of Southeast Alaska while trying to spot wildlife.

I’ll first tell you about lunch.  I am going to give a big shoutout to Mani, the Lido’s Sous Chef (the Lido was where we usually got breakfast in the morning) who worked so hard to accommodate us by getting off the boat in Juneau to get dairy free cheese to give us a lunch option of pizza.  We also went to the salad bar and got salads a lot and also chomped down on the nachos we got from the Mexican bar. #lovebuffetlines.  Lunch was great, and I really enjoyed it.

We ate in the main dining room almost every evening for dinner.  It surpassed my expectations by a lot – and I set my expectations pretty high.  My favorite meal out of everything was the spring rolls and vegetable stir fry.  

Although I have to admit that I also liked the mushroom crostini and the black bean burger too.  My mom loved the mushroom crostini – they made it on gluten free bread too!

Dolly was our server each night.  We just didn’t have enough superlatives to give this guy.  Every night he had a smile on his face, was so understanding when we we wanted something different than what was on the menu or had to make accommodate my food allergies or my aunt’s and uncle’s and grandpa’s serious cilantro fears.  He was incredible. The combination of Mani and Dolly on this trip – I was #blessed. 

And now for Tamarind: Good dinner? No.  Superior? Yes.  This was one of the two restaurants on the boat that was a special restaurant and that there was an additional cost to – all the other places on the boat were included in the cost of the cruise.  But we decided to go to Tamarind because it looked so good.  We sat down at a nine person table and the first thing we noticed were that there were little white cylinder shapes at each place.  Our server told us that you poured water into the little dish they were in, and they became hot towels to wash your hands on. Cool!  

My first course was a salad and veggie rainbow rolls.  Then, I ordered some udon noodles which they were able to substitute with rice noodles to make gluten free.  These noodles came with chunks of tofu. #hugeportion.  Then, for dessert, I had a mango soufflé with mango sorbet. It was called “mango cloud.”  The meal was super complete, and it was one of my favorites on the trip.  My parents thought so too.

My trip to Alaska was incredible and the food was really outstanding. Thanks Holland America for being so good to me and working so hard to provide great service and understanding for people with different food needs!  We had a great time!