Critics agree, Crystal's cuisine is the finest at sea. Crystal's hand-selected team of chefs respects three essential principles: the highest-quality ingredients, classical French preparation, and abiding passion for their craft. The chefs, sauciers, patissiers and other specialists also relish the inspiration of foreign cultures and ingredients they encounter during their ceaseless voyaging. It is this spark of international creativity - the Crystal touch - that turns a fine dish into a masterpiece.

• The Crystal Dining Room - the main dining room is quite elegant, with plenty of space around each table
• Lido Cafe - buffet-style indoor/outdoor venue for breakfast & lunch
• Palm Court - for afternoon tea or coffee with a choice of sandwiches, cakes & pastries
• Trident Snack Bar & Grill - poolside buffet
• Prego Restaurant - alternative specialty restaurant embraces you in Mediterranean warmth, with the panache & authentic regional flavors of Italy
• Jade Garden - alternative specialty restaurant which is a culinary crossroads of Asia, with regionally inspired dishes like Spicy Thai Shrip & Singapore Noodles
• Bistro Cafe - Parisienne-style coffee bar

Crystal is the only luxury cruise line in the marketplace to feature assigned dining times and tablemates (at dinner only; other meals in the main dining room are open seating) and we'd always thought of that as a drawback of the line. Surprisingly, it wasn't. The maitre d' and his team must be geniuses at matching folks we didn't meet a soul with complaints about table companions. And, indeed, it seemed that passengers really bonded with those folks. The assigned dining scenario also allowed wait staff to develop relationships with passengers and at dinner we found that service was consistently superb.

Hint: On our trip a Baltic cruise in high summer, which meant that the sun set after 10 p.m. the late dinner seating booked up fast, so make your request when booking your cruise.

We had less luck in the dining room during open seating meals of breakfast and lunch. The experience was inconsistent, sometimes excellent, other times bordering on poor. At lunch one afternoon, our waiter told us, mid-meal, that if we wanted dessert we had to order it "now" as the dessert station was closing down; we declined and felt rushed afterward. Eggs benedict ordered at breakfast managed to be simultaneously overcooked and lukewarm.

Crystal Symphony excelled in other dining areas; its two alternative restaurants Jade Garden, serving Asian fusion cuisine, and Valentino at Prego, specializing in Northern Italian offered outstanding experiences. There's a quite reasonable $6 cover charge in each, and our advice is to reward wait staff with an extra tip. It'll be well deserved. The menus stay the same throughout the cruise but are varied enough to offer enough selection if you are lucky enough to make multiple visits (the ship may place a limit on number of visits depending on demand).

One area in which Crystal in general and Crystal Symphony in particular excels is its poolside buffets. These are food themed events, such as "Asia Cafe" and "Cuisine of the Sun" and quality and selection is fantastic.

Crystal offers plenty of casual options during the day. One of my favorite places for a late-morning bagel is The Bistro (it also serves morning pastries and afternoon snacks). I loved the coffee bar (with complimentary cappuccinos and the like); later there's a terrific list of by-the-glass wines. We also enjoyed the outdoor Trident Grill, which served up custom-cooked burgers, wraps, hot dogs and grilled chicken.

The Lido Cafe is the ship's standard buffet alternative and it offered pleasantly displayed and generally varied breakfast and lunch fare.

The biggest disappointment on this trip, my second on Crystal, was afternoon tea. While it's still a popular repast, it wasn't anywhere near as elegant and refined as I had remembered. Scones were served, of course, but with whipped rather than clotted cream. On sea days the culinary staff lays out extra-special themed teas but even these fell flat. Midway through the Mozart tea, the scones ran out and were never replaced.

Haute cuisine is at its "hautest" at the Crystal Dining Room. Though half the ship can be seated at once in the Crystal Dining Room, this is not a banquet hall nor is it a banquet dining experience. Dinner is a five-star event in the Crystal Dining Room. The food is delicious and artfully prepared on Villeroy and Boch China, and has an international wine list to complement it.The room is spacious and elegantly decorated with swag draperies and crystal chandeliers. The menu is French-influenced, rich and delicious. For guests who prefer a lighter fare, there are low-cal, and low-sodium options. For those who prefer to end their lighter fare on a heavier note, the dessert menu will accommodate.

Italiano with colorful Venetian flavor at Prego! Enjoy gourmet Italian food at Prego. An alternate restaurant to the main dining room, you'll find the room more intimate in size, and more fun in its décor. With the chairs covered to look like gondoliers, and columns painted red and white you'll feel as if you're floating along the famous canals. Prego dining is on a reservation basis.

Enjoy Asian delights at the Jade Garden. Serving Asian fusion cuisine that spans the reaches of Asia, your taste buds will explode with the exotic flavors and spices that are partial to the Orient. From Singapore noodles to spicy Thai shrimp the dishes will delight you with their artistic presentation and delicious taste. As with Prego, Jade Garden dining is on a reservation basis.

Bon appetit at the Bistro! Modeled after a Parisian sidewalk cafe, you'll find the Bistro quaint, and the food fare très bien. Have a cappuccino, or try some of the exotic cheeses with wines by the glass; the ambience and tastes will make you wish you brought your beret.