Norwegian Aqua Dining Review: Palomar Stole the Show, and My Wife Ordered Better Than I Did

Two nights on a cruise ship is barely enough time to unpack. It is, however, enough time to develop strong opinions about mushroom soup and discover that your wife has ordered the better dinner.

Again.

During our two-night sailing on Norwegian Aqua, we tried Indulge Food Hall, breakfast at The Local, and two specialty restaurants: Palomar and Le Bistro.

The food was a strong part of the trip. Indulge delivered an excellent casual option, The Local gave this early riser somewhere to eat without waking his wife, and Le Bistro served a mushroom soup I would happily order again.

Palomar was the star, though. Beautiful views, very good seafood, and an octopus appetizer that disappeared from my wife’s plate before I could negotiate a second bite.

There was also a whole fish baked in salt that somehow needed more seasoning. We’ll get to that.

Indulge Food Hall: Come Hungry, Especially for the Indian Food

Indulge Food Hall was one of my favorite dining concepts on Aqua.

We tried a lot of what was offered, and the food was consistently very good. The Indian food was the standout for me — the part I would make a point of returning for on another sailing.

The variety makes the concept work. You can explore different cuisines without committing your entire meal to one direction. For someone who likes to try a little of everything, this is a dangerous amount of encouragement.

It also matters that Indulge is included in the fare. A ship’s food reputation shouldn’t depend entirely on the restaurants that require another reservation and another spending decision.

Indulge gave us food we enjoyed enough to seek out again. That is considerably more useful than an included venue you visit only because you’ve already paid for the cruise.

Breakfast at The Local: Let Her Sleep

I wake up early. My wife is on vacation.

These two facts are best managed by putting a closed cabin door between us.

Rather than stay in the room trying to perform every movement at the volume of a museum security guard, I headed to The Local for breakfast. I had a breakfast sandwich and enjoyed it. Nothing complicated, nothing that required turning breakfast into an event — just somewhere to eat while my wife continued doing the sensible thing and sleeping.

That convenience deserves some credit. Not every good cruise meal needs tableside preparation or a French name. Sometimes it needs to get you out of the cabin before you accidentally wake your spouse looking for a sock.

Palomar: The Best Dinner of Our Sailing

Palomar, Aqua’s Mediterranean seafood restaurant on Deck 17, was the highlight of our dining.

The floor-to-ceiling windows give the room a beautiful setting. It feels like somewhere you’d choose for a proper evening out, with the ocean doing a substantial amount of the decorating. Fortunately, the food gave us reasons to pay attention to the table, too.

The Starters: Order Your Own Octopus

I started with tuna crudo and a Greek Village Salad. The tuna was light and fresh, and the salad was good — both enjoyable ways to begin a seafood dinner without feeling as though I’d already eaten the main course.

My wife ordered the grilled octopus.

That was probably the best thing either of us tasted at Palomar. It was very tender and delicious. She gave me a small taste, which I appreciated right up until I realized the rest had disappeared before I could ask for more.

Apparently, marriage includes sharing. It does not necessarily include a second serving.

She also had the heirloom beet salad and said it was very good.

The Salt-Baked Fish: Tender, Generous, and Not My Next Order

For my main course, I chose the whole fish baked in sea salt with herbs. Norwegian’s published menu lists it as a dish for two with a $25 supplement.

It’s a large portion, and the tableside filleting gives it a little occasion. If you enjoy watching your dinner arrive with a presentation, this certainly has that going for it.

The fish itself was tender. I enjoyed it. It also needed more seasoning, which is a slightly confusing conclusion to reach about something that has just spent part of its evening buried in salt.

The bigger question is whether I’d pay the $25 supplement again. I probably wouldn’t.

The fish was enjoyable, and there was plenty of it. The supplement needs to earn its place beyond portion size and tableside presentation, though. Next time, I’d choose another entrée.

My wife had the scallops and said they were very good. Between those and the octopus, her side of the table was making an increasingly persuasive argument.

Dessert: She Won This Round, Too

I ordered the vanilla cheesecake “in a jar.” It was good.

My wife ordered Galaktoboureko, the Greek orange custard pie served with Greek yogurt sorbet, and loved it. Once again, I enjoyed my choice while recognizing that she had probably made the better one.

At some point, I may stop reading menus and simply tell the waiter, “Whatever she’s having.”

Le Bistro: Excellent Starters, a Good Filet, and One Uncooperative Potato

Le Bistro was our other specialty dinner, and it delivered some of my favorite individual dishes of the trip.

I started with the steak tartare, one of the better versions I’ve had on a cruise ship. That alone would put it back on my order list.

My wife started with the French onion soup. I went for the mushroom soup.

If you enjoy mushrooms at all, order it. This was a highlight of the trip — extremely good, and the dish from Le Bistro I’d be most insistent about recommending.

There are meals where you spend the next week talking about the expensive main course. This was a dinner where the soup had every intention of taking the microphone.

The Filet Was Good. The Potato Needed a Meeting.

My main course was the filet, which I enjoyed. The sauce was a nice accompaniment and worked well with the beef. Norwegian’s published menu describes the dish as beef tenderloin with fondant potato, mushrooms and Périgord sauce.

The potato was the weak point. It was bland and firm, and I didn’t enjoy it. A good steak doesn’t need every component on the plate to compete for attention, but the potato should at least participate.

The filet and sauce did their jobs. The potato appeared to be serving its notice.

The Desserts

I had the Île Flottante, a light meringue floating in vanilla crème anglaise, with raspberry coulis. Mine also had a separate piece of caramelized sugar on top — the detail that had me remembering it as something closer to crème brûlée.

My wife ordered the Marquise au Chocolat, a dark chocolate crémeux with rice crunch and Chambord raspberry sauce, presented as a cylinder that looked almost like a chocolate bar.

The dishes I’d most confidently send someone back to Le Bistro for, though, are the steak tartare and that mushroom soup. Those are the ones that stayed with me.

Naturally, I Booked Another Cruise to Investigate

During one of our dinners, we spent the evening talking with a solo traveler at the next table. He had been cruising quite a bit lately, including a short sailing on Norwegian Getaway.

Aqua was only his second Norwegian cruise, and he told us he had almost skipped it. His experience with Getaway’s food had been that disappointing; he described much of what he ate as practically inedible.

So I did what every financially responsible person does when a stranger criticizes a cruise ship’s dinner.

I booked four nights on it.

My son and I are heading out on Norwegian Getaway in two weeks. We plan to eat at least one specialty dinner, visit the buffet, and try the main dining room. If we’re investigating the food, we should probably venture beyond the restaurant that charges extra.

I’ve sailed Getaway three times before and never had a bad experience. It has been a long time, though, and my previous visits can’t tell me what is coming out of the kitchen today.

I also understood his hesitation about giving Norwegian another chance. This Aqua sailing was my first Norwegian cruise since a disappointing experience on Norwegian Joy three years ago. One trip can leave a long shadow over your next booking.

Aqua gave us plenty to enjoy. Now I want to see how Getaway compares. His experience belongs to him, and I haven’t tasted the meals he was served. In two weeks, I’ll have my own plates in front of me — and my son helping with the investigation.

What I Would Order Again

If I were repeating our Aqua trip, my dining plan would be straightforward:

The salt-baked fish is the purchase I’d reconsider. I enjoyed eating it, but I didn’t leave convinced that the extra $25 bought me the best main course at the table.

My Take: Palomar Gets the Return Reservation

This was a two-night visit, so these are impressions of the meals we actually ate rather than a verdict on every restaurant aboard Norwegian Aqua.

From those meals, Palomar was our clear specialty-dining winner. The setting was beautiful, the food was very good, and my wife assembled a dinner that I spent a fair amount of time wishing I had ordered.

Le Bistro still earned its place, especially for the tartare and the mushroom soup. Indulge proved that some of the ship’s most enjoyable eating doesn’t require a specialty reservation at all.

I would return to all four venues.

Next time, though, I’m ordering my own octopus. Relying on my wife’s generosity turned out to be a deeply flawed dining strategy.

Series · Norwegian Aqua 2026 · entries 08–11

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