Hot Rocks dining.
"Watch this," says the chef with a grin, and spins an egg on the end of his outstretched spatula like a circus juggler. I wonder how many eggs flew off and splattered on walls or guests when Edmund first started working a teppan grill, but that must have been long ago.
Although Silver Muse's Kaiseki restaurant has only just opened, its chef has oodles of experience, and previously worked in a Nobu restaurant. His egg just rotates as guests "oh" in appreciation. Then he cracks it on the teppan with a sizzle. His spatula clashes like a samurai sword, click click click, and a little square omelette appears.
Dexterity over a hotplate while on a moving ship seems like a fraught activity, but this evening, at least, Silver Muse is gliding across a silken Mediterranean and my Japanese meal is an effortless dance of sharp knives and pretty plates. I'm sitting at the teppanyaki counter rather than the surrounding tables preferred by some couples for their more intimate atmosphere. From here I can see the kitchen action and talk to Edmund and fellow guests. The chef is chatty, the waiters agreeable, the atmosphere more relaxed than I'd expected in a posh Japanese restaurant on a posh Italian ship.
Silversea's Silver Muse.
My first course arrives in a prettily presented Japanese version of a tiffin box, shaped like a giant porcelain egg. I've opted for the fish version, and find a seaweed salad with yuzu dressing, and snow crab with pickled ginger and beetroot. The lowest tray reveals tuna tataki seared to a dark blush. As the ship glides onwards, Edmund twirls his spatula and produces more courses: a hearty helping of butterflied Maine lobster with mustard dip, Alaskan black cod in a miso glaze, and a finale of wagyu beef teriyaki.
This is evening five of my cruise between Monaco and Malta, and my fifth specialty restaurant. Tonight, I finish with a green tea ice-cream with spiced chocolate sauce. The night before it was apricot and mango Eton mess; before that a ginger and lime creme brulee.
There's some serious indulgence aboard this new ship, which was christened in Monte Carlo in April. Silver Muse is somewhat larger than Silversea's other ships, carrying 596 passengers, and that has allowed it – among other refinements – to offer more dining venues. It has eight restaurants, impressive for a small ship, and that figure doesn't take into account the Arts Cafe (which provides light snacks and Illy coffee) or the fact that Kaiseki restaurant is quite different at lunchtime, when it serves sushi and sashimi rather than teppanyaki meals.
Maandalay appetiser.
The room-service menu is impressive too. It runs to seven pages and offers room-service staples, plus select dishes from the specialty restaurants. You can devise a proper three-course meal and have it served by a butler on a white tablecloth in your suite.
What's also notable about Silver Muse is the range of vegetarian options on every menu. You can eat very well on this ship even if you stick to meat-free choices: endive and mozzarella in bechamel sauce; asparagus with goat's cheese; Tuscan vegetable broth with white beans; polenta with Alba truffles and parmegiano reggiano. There's also a huge range of seafood options, from hearty chowder to pan-fried Greenland cod, seabream with grilled asparagus to tuna sashimi.
That old stalwart of cruise ships, the main dining room, has been abandoned all together in a trend common to a few other ships. Only two venues (Kaiseki in the evening, and the Relais & Chateaux-branded French fine-dining venue La Dame) attract an additional charge. In effect, every day features specialty dining on this luxury ship, so you need never eat in the same venue twice on shorter cruises, despite the ship's modest size. On the downside, I speak to several solo travellers who lament the absence of a sociable, shared-table main restaurant. The specialty restaurants – some of which are quite small – need booking in advance, leaving little flexibility for last-minute decisions, and the variation in dress codes between each is confusing and, in this era of increasing cruise-ship informality, unnecessary. Unlike in main restaurants, menus don't change nightly, so you probably won't want to dine in the same venue multiple times, even if it is your particular favourite.
Pre-dinner champagne.
Previous Silversea guests will find several familiar restaurants, including upmarket La Dame, an intimate venue whose entree of wine-poached pear topped with foie gras is only the beginning of some seriously good, artery-clogging food. (Don't worry, this is a French restaurant, so the red wine will surely counterbalance all that fat, cream and culminating cheese selection.) Also making another appearance is La Terrazza, a buffet-style, Italian-influenced breakfast and lunch venue that in the evening becomes a waiter-service restaurant. I make a repeat visit here, happily tasting my way through marinated octopus, Tuscan vegetable soup, pappardelle with braised duck meat, and braised pork shank in white wine.
While restaurants common to other Silversea ships have made a comeback, however – I'm especially pleased to see my favourite Hot Rocks grill offering hot-stone steaks on the open pool deck – Silver Muse also has several venues exclusive to this flagship. Silver Note is a small venue reminiscent of a jazz club that serves tapas-style, Peruvian-fusion small plates. The latest cruise fashion for more informal venues gets a boost with another outdoor eatery, Spaccanapoli. Its menu is very limited – mostly pizza – but the pizzas are cooked Neapolitan style with a sparse scattering of quality ingredients, oozing cheese and with crisp, burnt edges the way a good Italian pizza should be. There's also Asian-fusion venue Indochine, one of the larger restaurants and, for me, the least successful. In common with most pan-Asian restaurants, the menu wanders too far and wide across cuisines. Choices include Burmese chicken, sweet-and-sour fish, Vietnamese soup noodles, Thai yellow curry with squid, and Indian dishes such as aloo paneer accompanied by truly disappointing naan and roti. No one cuisine stands out in Indochine and it's difficult to create a cohesive meal out of competing styles and flavours. Still, there are some enjoyable dishes such as black tiger prawns in garum masala and yogurt with charred peppers and onions. Many American and British passengers seem pleased enough, but Australians can avail themselves of spicier, more flavoured, more authentic Asian meals at any neighbourhood restaurant at home.
In contrast, Silver Muse's signature seafood and grill restaurant Atlantide ticks all the boxes. It has an elegant, understated decor in creams and browns, an agreeable and attentive staff and – in common with all the ship's dining venues – it doesn't hold back on quality produce: blue lobster, royal crab, Argentine grass-fed steak, Baltic salmon, beef and caviar tartare with poached quail egg. Tables for two invite a romantic evening over king scallops, or lobster salad with caviar and zucchini. You can move on to veal chops or a whopping 500-gram slab of French Limousin beef if you're feeling frisky.
Silver service: Lobster salad with caviar served on Silver Muse.
Beyond the windows the sea glitters. The ship shudders slightly as if in pleasure, cutlery tinkles, wine gurgles into glasses. Surely I have room for a Ferrero Rocher chocolate cheesecake? Yes, why not. With food this good, passing up the chance for more would be madness.
TRIP NOTES
MORE
CRUISE
Silver Muse calls at 130 ports in 34 countries this year. The ship is currently in the Mediterranean before a transatlantic crossing to Canada and the USA and a transit of the Panama Canal to reach South America towards year's end. An example itinerary is a nine-day Barcelona to Civitavecchia (Rome) cruise departing on May 20 2018, priced from $8865. Phone 1300 306 872, see silversea.com
Brian Johnston travelled as a guest of Silversea.
Sign up for the Traveller Deals newsletter
Get exclusive travel deals delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up now.