The Great Viking Feast Dinner Theatre

This place has great atmosphere and the role playing servers put on a Viking show, and then strongly encourage audience participation. Sit near the front if you want to be in the show which involves Viking trials. I got up and recited Jabberwocky and had agree at time.

...put on by my daughter and myself (my son gets a supporting nod). I'm just saying. It was that good. Brought the longhouse down, we did. Let me set the record straight as to what goes on here at the GVFDT (too lazy to type out their whoooole name) and what to expect. I read some reviews for this place and it left me a bit apprehensive about booking. But, the date of the show fit in perfectly with our itinerary, so I booked. That day, we started with a whale watching tour, then drove up to L'Anse aux Meadows, and finished our day here. And what an ending to a perfect day. I'm glad I gave little credence to negative reviews for this place. If you are an introvert, if you expect the dinner to be your usual corporate, mass-produced food, if you are incapable of opening your mind to new experiences, don't come. You won't like it. You'll hate it. If you are none of these things, go ahead and book and book early because those tour buses fill this place up quick. The set-up is correct in all reviews. This is a audience-driven show. They basically hold court where one audience member accuses another audience member of a "crime" or slight or whatever and its presided over by a cast member playing the chieftain (or something). Now, fun fact, these reenactors were the same reenactors from L'Anse aux Meadows. Yes, they technically are the wait staff, but so what. They are extremely engaging and keep roughly to their character personas. And its true, that kids make this show so much better. And they know this since they focus a lot of the "pre-production" on the kids. Now, my daughter has zero inhibitions and was very excited to be a part of it. My son is the opposite and was perfectly content to sit on the sidelines until his sister got him up there. I won't BORE you with what transpired during our "performance" but my daughter AND my son knocked it out of the park. (If you were there, you'll get that reference). They had a blast participating and the other performances were decent also. The staff did a really good job improvising during the show as needed and were imo, entertaining. Remember, this ain't Broadway. As for the food, the GVFDT tries to give you a taste of Newfoundland. Jiggs dinner, cod tongues, smoked capelin, cod bake, etc. Right when you walk in, bam, the smell of fish hits you. That would be the smoked capelin. Think smelt with the head. My kids were in no way trying it, but since their awesome dad is adventurous, he showed 'em how its done. For the record, I choked in down. It tastes just like it is: smoked fish. But, would I have ordered that in a regular restaurant if given the chance? No. Am I glad I tried it? Yes. Did I have more than one? No. Same, same for the cod tongue. Glad I tried it, one was enough. The rest of the food was fine. Yes, it comes off a steam table (I work on a ship and that's were we get our food, so its perfectly normal to me) cafeteria-style. So what. It was unusual, hot and reasonably tasty. But, its all local made and they're trying to feed a bunch of people quick. Plus, there was plenty if you wanted to hit that cod bake one more time. Do you sit family-style at long tables where you just might have to interact with a stranger? Gasp, yes. Reach out (figuratively) and meet some people. OK, it was slightly pricey, but once again, its food and entertainment inside replica longhouse (conforming to Canadian food and fire safety codes of course) . You want cheap, down the road is Timmy Horton's. Bottom line, here you get a taste of some traditional Newfoundland food with really nice people dressed up like ancient Norse. Hang out after the show and talk to the staff as we did. Those Northern Newfies are some interesting people. And by that time, I couldn't even smell the fish anymore! Oh, and the kids got a bead necklace from the Vikings. My kids loved that. Small gesture, but to the kids, it meant something. The whole night went by quick even though we were in there over three hours. So, book and enjoy.

Concept is great but a successful feast is largely determined by the audience that happens to attend each occasion. We had a group of silly girl scouts who took over the "trial" at the end with a bunch of silly "in" nonsense that nobody appreciated except them and their leaders. The meal was sparse and not all items were available. The Norse actors were fine and did the best they could. The setting in a sod hut is cool.

We felt inclined to try this spot because it was the area where the Vikings first landed. It was expensive and overrated. This is the place where you are served traditional Newfoundland food and everything is explained to you. After the meal, there was a court reenactment along with audience participation.

Great food and the atmosphere in the place was fun filled. The servers were dressed in period clothing and were entertaining. They didn't come across as they didn't want to be there. We thought that they would be presenting a "play" but instead they got the audience involved and the audience did the major of the presentation. A little disappointing.