Could this new cruise ship have the finest Italian restaurant at sea?

I'm a tough critic when it comes to Italian restaurants as I was born Italian but grew up in the U.S. I'm the "heritage keeper" of the family, and a vital part of that responsibility is keeping the recipes and southern Italian cooking techniques alive in our kitchen.

I make pasta with semolina I import from Italy. At Christmastime, I bake two dozen different types of traditional Italian cookies, and at Easter, my friends expect to receive carefully braided loaves of bread or a pizza rustica.

So, when I heard that MSC Cruises planned the first Eataly at Sea restaurant aboard MSC World America, I knew I had to get a seat at the table.

Related: First look: The giant, new MSC Cruises ship that's taking on Icon of the Seas

What is Eataly?

Eat, shop, learn — that's the concept behind Eataly, a chain of part-restaurant, part-market venues first imagined by Oscar Farinetti in 2002. The first outpost, Eataly Torino Lingotto, opened in 2007. Today, there are nearly a dozen Eataly locations in the U.S., including in Boston, Dallas, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and New York City. Those special venues join many others across the globe — from Paris to Sao Paolo to Seoul, South Korea.

At Eataly, you can purchase high-quality provisions such as extra-virgin olive oil, truffles, pasta, tomato sauce and sweets. You can also attend a cooking class or wine tasting and, of course, pick

up gourmet foods to go or dine at an on-site restaurant.

People who are lucky enough to live in a city with an Eataly tend to visit often. Others add the Eataly outposts around the globe to their "must-visit" lists when on the road.

MSC World America hosts the first Eataly at sea on Deck 8. Open for lunch and dinner, it's considered a specialty restaurant, so keep that in mind if you wish to dine here. To have access to a meal at Eataly, you'll need to purchase the appropriate dining package before your sailing.

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If you didn't prepurchase a dining package, once on board, you may be able to make an Eataly reservation and pay a la carte for the meal, depending on availability.

MSC World America's Eataly venue has an open-kitchen concept, and it's fun to watch the chefs in action as they skillfully prepare burrata, whole fish entrees and pasta dishes — most of which feature fresh tagliatelle, mandilli or tonarelli made right on the ship.

What Italian restaurants at sea compete with Eataly?

Eataly's name has a certain cache and star power, but there are other solid Italian restaurants aboard other cruise ships.

Before dining at Eataly aboard MSC World America, I determined the closest competitors would be Manfredi's (Viking ocean and expedition ships), Cucina del Capitano (Carnival Cruises), Tuscan Grille (Celebrity Cruises), Jamie's Italian (Royal Caribbean), Sabatini's (Princess Cruises), Canaletto (Holland America Line), La Terrazza (Silversea), Toscana (Oceania Cruises), and Onda by Scarpetta and La Cucina (Norwegian Cruise Line).

Related: Cruise ship restaurant nirvana: The 10 best meals you can have at sea

What's on Eataly's MSC World America menu?

At Eataly, you can order a meal with up to five courses (and various wines to accompany each course), so arrive hungry.

Wine selection

Stéphane Franchini, senior director of food and beverage for MSC Cruises, explained the extensive wine selection.

"All our Italian wines are sourced specially for Eataly's wine list (40 entries) covering all main regions and wine types," he said. "Our three top selections are from Toscana: Sassicaia, Tignanello, and 50&50."

Antipasti

There are seven options for this course. A few interesting choices include fried seafood and vegetables, bigeye tuna tartare and mixed chilled seafood.

Waygu beef carpaccio is perhaps the most luxe appetizer on the menu, with meat sourced from Japan's high-end purveyor Muneharu Ozaki.

And, of course, it wouldn't be an Italian restaurant without a starter of prosciutto di Parma with Parmigiano-Reggiano DOP.

(Note: Whenever you see DOP regarding food ingredients, it signifies its authenticity and that the product came from a Protected Designation of Origin in Italy.)

Le insalate

For the salad course, three dishes are on offer: a traditional Caesar, roasted cauliflower with green apple, and radicchio with Parmigiano and Villa Manodori balsamic vinegar produced in Modena, Italy.

These salads are a bonus for anyone looking to eat a bit lighter. You may also add a protein — chicken, guanciale (cured pork cheek/jowl with a more pronounced flavor than pancetta), steak or shrimp — to make that your main dish.

La pasta

There are seven pasta dishes with roots across Italy, so it will be tough to choose just one.

For me, the most alluring dish is mandilli al pesto, which hails from Liguria, Italy. Often referred to as "silk handkerchiefs," this rendition is topped with homemade basil pesto, toasted pine nuts, green beans, potato, fruity Taggiasca extra-virgin olive oil and Pecorino Romano DOP.

Two main dishes feature tagliatelle pasta, reminiscent of festive ribbons. Many think it's the same as fettuccine, but tagliatelle should be thinner. Eataly presents the first dish from Emilia-Romagna, Italy, with a tomato, pork and beef ragu with Parmigiano-Reggiano accents.

The second dish (tagliatelle al tartufo nero) comes from Tuscany. The pasta is tossed in a simple butter and Parmigiano-Reggiano sauce accompanied by fresh black truffle.

If you're particularly hungry, order the rigatoni all'amatriciana. A hearty dish from Italy's Lazio region, it starts with rigatoni with a nice "bite" combined with a sauce comprising guanciale, tomatoes and Pecorino Romano.

A nice touch: You can request an Urbani black truffle to be shaved atop your pasta tableside.

I secondi and contorni

There are several Instagram-worthy main courses to choose from. La gran cotoletta alla Milanese is a fried, breaded bone-in veal chop for two flavored with chicory, lemon and Olitalia extra-virgin olive oil.

The seared whole branzino with Taggiasche olives, Sicilian capers, tomatoes and herbs is also a delight to the senses.

Continuing the seafood theme, there are a gratinated scallop dish with a spicy tomato-olive compote and a Tuscan-style calamari filled with peas, mashed potatoes, spinach and herbs.

A variety of side dishes range from broccoli rabe to grilled vegetables to mashed potatoes.

I dolci

Finally, for those with a sweet tooth, the venue offers the chance to cap the meal with a traditional tiramisu, chocolate hazelnut mousse cake, limoncello cake, gelato or fruit salad adorned with basil.

How was the experience?

A colleague and I were lucky enough to dine at Eataly on a preinaugural cruise that showcased MSC World America to travel agents and members of the media. We got a prime-time 8 p.m. reservation and were promptly seated in the front dining room by a very friendly Italian hostess. The round table was spacious for just two people and signaled that a bounty of delicious food would soon arrive.

There are also a second section of the dining room farther back and a few alfresco tables for sweeping views of the ocean or port of call.

The dining room was absolutely buzzing throughout our meal. You may love or hate that. For us, we felt the excitement of being some of the first people to dine at an Eataly on the ocean. Others felt that it was a bit louder than they had expected. I definitely had to lean in a bit to hear my dining companion.

Since this was a preview sailing, not all the menu items were available. Darn! But that gives me a good excuse to get back on board soon.

A bread basket with rosemary focaccia, breadsticks and more kicked off the evening. It was served with bowls of Ligurian extra-virgin olive oil for dipping.

We started the meal with the burrata appetizer. The exterior was buttery and had a nice sheen, while the interior was more creamy. The mozzarella and cream sat atop a bed of Tuscan tomato bread compote with Taggiasche olive crumbles and a basil oil finish. It was an outstanding way to begin the meal.

My ancestral homeland is in the Lazio region of Italy, so I had no choice but to order tonnarelli cacio e pepe, a regional specialty, for my pasta course. The portion was huge and could have been a main course itself.

This combination of pasta, Pecorino Romano cheese and black pepper may seem simple, but it's surprisingly easy to ruin this dish by overcooking the pasta, not blending enough of the starchy pasta water with the cheese to ensure the sauce sticks to the pasta or going too light on the black pepper. I'm pleased to report that this dish checked all the boxes for me (almost).

Tonnarelli should be more reminiscent of a thick, square spaghetti. This pasta, while delicious with the perfect amount of "bite," seemed a bit more like tagliatelle or fettuccine.

I had studied the menu before dinner and was disappointed that the restaurant wasn't serving the roasted suckling pig with sage butter or breaded bone-in veal chop on the night I visited due to the nature of the preview sailing. However, I selected the braised boneless short rib.

The dish's construction was beautiful, with two squares of short rib carefully placed atop whipped potatoes. The puree was light and heavenly. The sauce had just the right amount of earthy saltiness and black truffle. The meat could have been a bit more tender but then the presentation would have suffered. A side dish of sauteed spinach completed the main course.

For dessert, we had a choice of tiramisu — an Italian stalwart made with mascarpone cream, espresso-soaked lady fingers and cocoa powder — or a limoncello-soaked sponge cake with lemon cream. My dinner guest had the tiramisu and enjoyed it while I went for the lemony finale. I adore lemon and wished there was more of a punch, but the flavors were balanced, and it was a solid end to the meal.

Next time, I want to try the chocolate hazelnut mousse cake or the toasted and salted pistachio gelato.

Bottom line

I would love to dine here again. I liked the energy of the room paired with its garden party atmosphere, thanks to the greenery dripping from the ceiling and decorating the walls. The menu will satisfy anyone who loves authentic Italian cuisine.

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