That food is good on cruise ships is a wonder of skill, hard work and organisation. Chefs at sea face multiple challenges: cramped spaces, constantly moving surfaces, salt air and changing humidity that affect bread and pastry, a ban on open flames, and the need to provision well in advance.

Cruise ship restaurants also have to produce many more dishes in both variety and quantity than any restaurant on land ever does – and satisfy customers who return three times a day for a week or more.

And yet, cruise ship food, especially on upmarket lines, can be as good as you get in regular restaurants and is getting better. While on-board dining was once unadventurous, that has changed enormously as passengers become increasingly younger, food-savvy and more demanding.

Main-dining restaurants on ships are no longer the one-fits-all option; an enticement of smaller venues that focus on particular cuisines has proliferated. You can expect cruise ship dining to be sophisticated, varied and ever more informal, all of which suit the well-travelled Australian. Here are six cruise lines with particularly outstanding food.

Regent Seven Seas Cruises

The most upmarket mainstream cruise line operates mid-sized ships of 764 guests or fewer, each kitted out with eye-catching extravagance of chandeliers, inlaid marble, designer furnishings and flower arrangements.

You’ll dine in the most beautiful restaurants at sea, happily matched by the quality of ingredients and dishes. Salads, breads, cheese, pastries and tarts are outstanding, and there’s no stinting on upmarket ingredients, from seared scallops to foie gras. Among memorable on-board dishes are lobster bisque with cognac cream, eggplant involtini stuffed with mozzarella and smoked ham, and a simple grilled mahi-mahi.

For modest-sized ships, the restaurant range is impressive and includes buffet-style La Veranda, evening Italian restaurant Sette Mari, and Compass Rose, surely the best main-dining restaurant of any cruise line.

Most Regent ships also feature speciality restaurants Prime 7 steakhouse and Chartreuse for French bistro-style and fine-dining dishes. Three of the ships, Explorer, Grandeur and Splendor, also offer Pacific Rim. Pan-Asian restaurants on cruise ships seldom satisfy savvy Australian palates; you’ll find better at your local Thai or Indian. Pacific Rim is an exception, with a clever menu unified by Japanese influences but running the gamut from duck-confit spring rolls to pungent Thai coconut soup and black Angus beef with negi mash and bulgogi sauce. Even the simple seaweed and wakame salad is outstanding. See rssc.com

Oceania Cruises

When “the finest cuisine at sea” is your marketing slogan, you’d best not disappoint. No surprise, then, that half the 800 crew on Oceania ships is dedicated to its restaurants, whose menus are overseen by French-American celebrity chef Jacques Pepin.

Oceania’s mid-sized ships (with 1250 guests or fewer) operate in the premium niche, with a luxury feel on board and excellent service, but relatively modest fares. All but one speciality dining experience is included.

The added-cost experience at La Reserve provides a seven-course French menu with matched French wines, bracketed by two sensational dishes, a poultry veloute and a baked Alaska studded with Williams pears and chestnut ice-cream.

Speciality restaurants are Jacques – a French bistro with the best cheese trolley afloat – Toscana for Italian, Polo Grill, and (on Allura and Vista) contemporary American restaurant Ember. The most popular is pan-Asian venue Red Ginger, whose miso-glazed sea bass and lobster pad Thai are among the most-ordered dishes on the ship.

Even the standard venues have superior food. Poolside Waves Grill tempts with wagyu burgers and lobster medallions, Grand Dining Room has satisfying four-course evening meals, and Terrace Cafe provides quality buffets with upmarket choices such as seafood, sushi, Dover sole and lamb chops, produced in small batches or to order. Desserts are excellent: blueberry trifle with shortbread crumble or light-as-a-cloud yuzu-lime eclair. See oceaniacruises.com

Azamara

Azamara isn’t a cruise line that wows you with size, decorative bling, or foam and fuss on the plate. This is a premium cruise line, a notch below luxury, and operating small, pleasant ships carrying around 700 passengers. Yet Azamara wows anyway, particularly in its restaurants, which demonstrate that middle-of-the-wave doesn’t have to mean bland.

For mid-sized, mid-budget ships, the dining is outstanding for the wide variety of its cuisine – you can expect Mexican and Indian nights, for example – and for Azamara’s effort to present regional cuisines as it sails.

In France, you’ll enjoy escargot-filled vol-au-vents, confit duck leg, cassoulet and a scrumptiously caramelised tarte tatin. In Slovenia, you’ll get an education in bograc (a wine-simmered meat stew) and sirovi struklji (cheese dumplings flavoured with poppy seed) at buffet venue Windows Cafe.

In common with many cruise lines, Azamara’s speciality restaurants are a grill (Prime C) and Italian (Aqualina). The latter is one of the best on any ship, abandoning pretence for unfussy food big on flavour, whether a classic caprese, Tuscan white-bean soup, or mushroom risotto.

Usually, American-style coffee poured from flasks disappoints Australian cruisers, but Azamara’s coffee is excellent ship-wide, and Mosaic Cafe has baristas who produce proper coffees, including several types of iced coffee and some spiked with alcohol. See azamara.com

Ponant

French-flagged Ponant specialises in remote expedition cruising, but you won’t be surviving on hard tack or survival rations in the Arctic or Papua New Guinea. Its luxury ships, which carry 184 or 270 passengers, feel like billionaires’ yachts. The interior design by Jean-Philippe Nuel is stylish and minimalist, the cuisine elegant, and the wine cellar well stocked with Bordeaux and Beaujolais.

The downside of small ships is a limited choice of restaurants, and Ponant ships have just two apiece. The casual buffet venue tends towards international comfort foods, ranging from salads and soups to a selection of hot dishes and always excellent cheeses, breads, and pastries.

The main Gastronomic Restaurant is the standout, dishing up fine French dining you’d pay extra for in a speciality French restaurant on many cruise ships. Menus are overseen by a company run by legendary Michelin-starred chef Alain Ducasse.

The style is superior French, but not overly fussy. Small portions compensate for rich sauces and reductions, and allow you to enjoy four-course degustation menus nightly – five if you care for the cheese plate.

Dishes range from lobster tail with ginger and carrot jelly to veal tenderloin with forest mushrooms or an adventurous escargot ravioli or frog-leg terrine. The complimentary wine is nearly always satisfying. See ponant.com

Seabourn Cruise Line

Seabourn is upmarket but breezily informal, with a focus on onboard wellness, dining and cheerful but attentive service rather than attention-grabbing interiors. Its small luxury ships carry 450 or 604 guests, although Seabourn also operates 264-guest expedition ships.

Main dining venue The Restaurant’s four-course evening menus lean towards the Mediterranean, featuring dishes such as black truffle risotto, Iberico pork chop, or grilled swordfish with capers.

Indoor-outdoor The Colonnade offers one of cruising’s best buffets whose browsing choices are supplemented by made-to-order hot dishes. It’s often big on seafood such as chowder, crab cakes, expertly cooked fish, and poached jumbo shrimps.

In the evenings, the pool grill transforms into an informal Earth Ocean, one of the most inventive and whimsical restaurants at sea, featuring an ever-changing range of international cuisines. It might be a rich bouillabaisse one day, orecchiette pasta with Italian sausage, olives and aged pecorino another, or a vegetarian dish of warm glazed tofu with kimchi.

Seabourn is retiring its steakhouse, The Grill by Thomas Keller, which will be replaced during 2024 with a new venue, Solis, which will focus on light, modern Mediterranean cuisine. Meanwhile, Sushi is an intimate venue with a handful of tables that serves sushi, sashimi, gyoza, and bento boxes based around miso salmon, teriyaki chicken or glazed mushrooms. See seabourn.com

Uniworld River Cruises

River ships are better than ocean ships at providing cuisine that reflects the destinations they float through, and all upmarket river cruise lines do it well. For gourmets, another enticement to river cruise in Europe is that many itineraries sail through top wine regions, such as Bordeaux and the Rhone in France, Rhine and Moselle in Germany, and Portugal’s Douro valley.

Many itineraries are similar, but if food is your driving force, Uniworld delivers top-notch regional dining on luxury ships with impeccable service, gracious elegance, and often gloriously unrestrained decor.

In Provence, for example, you’ll enjoy cod loin in bouillabaisse, daube provencal (a wine-soaked beef stew) and soupe au pistou (vegetable soup freshened with pesto) – plus an impressive range of regional cheeses. Chefs aren’t afraid to challenge the palate on occasion by offering the likes of blue cheese ice-cream.

In Venice, menus might feature a delicate chicken broth with tortellini, spaghetti alle vongole (with clams) and vitello alla piemontese (veal with truffles).

River ships don’t have room for multiple dining venues, but many newer Uniworld ships have informal, limited-seating alternatives such as Le Cafe du Soleil and La Brasserie on Bon Voyage in the Bordeaux region; the latter dishes up classics such as onion soup and beef bourguignon. Bon appetit. See uniworld.com