On StarShip, a dining room with a view

Floating restaurant sails into Boston

The three-course meal aboard the Yacht StarShip may include lemon tart with fresh berries. (Yoon S. Byun/Globe Staff)

"Love, exciting and new. Come aboard, we're expecting you . . ." It's tempting to sing certain television theme songs when on Yacht StarShip, a dining yacht that is new at least to Boston, if not Tampa, where it's spent the last seven years. In yacht years, that makes it old enough to summer here and winter there, like many of a certain age. It arrived in June, and will head back to warmer climes in October.

"For a three-hour tour, a three-hour tour . . ." Well, 2 1/2, unless you count the half-hour boarding time. The boat leaves the South Boston waterfront at 7, navigates the waters in sight of the city skyline, and gets back promptly at 9:30. Along the way, passengers are dined (the fee of $99.95 covers three courses), wined (not covered in the fee, but that doesn't seem to be stopping anyone), and entertained by a DJ on the upper deck.

From there the experience can be splendid. If it's a beautiful night, the sunset and then the moon compete for your attention with the city itself, seen from a different vantage point. Which harbor island is that? There's Chelsea, and Charlestown. Look, it's the Zakim bridge! And there's the Zakim bridge again. The boat doesn't go far, or fast - fuel's not cheap.

The cruise also offers a view of Boston's life as a port. From the water, the industrial takes on a certain grace - hydraulic machinery pumping efficiently, corrugated shipping crates creating crazy quilts of color.

But grace can be short-lived. Soon serious real estate envy kicks in. Those buildings right on the water look awfully nice, and the residents sipping cocktails on their dock beside a light-up palm tree appear quite pleased with themselves. Before you can start calculating mortgage payments, however, the boat's slipped on. Now you're watching planes close overhead, coming in for a landing. The DJ's playing "Fly Me to the Moon," and a grandmother and her foxy coed granddaughter are sweetly doing the cheek-to-cheek. Lovely.

However, most of the evening is spent on the lower decks, in a pleasant but slightly Marriott-ish environment, looking at the lights through the window. The food is better than it has to be - Yacht StarShip makes much of its three diamond rating from AAA (slightly less impressive sounding when you remember they go up to five diamonds) - which is to say, it's a notch above wedding food but a notch below many non-floating restaurants. Cooking aboard a boat presents challenges, and executive chef Paul Finocchi tackles them fearlessly and sometimes successfully.

Fire Island shrimp, an appetizer of sauteed shrimp with fruit salsa, are indeed fiery. This comes as a welcome surprise; the kitchen could have played it safe and bland here. Artichoke bruschetta doesn't rock the boat, but it's pleasant, the toasts topped with artichoke hearts, goat cheese, and sun-dried tomatoes. Citrus-spiced calamari are on the chewy side, and though the batter is light, it's greasy in a way that suggests the frying oil could have been hotter. There's no noticeable citrus spice, either, but there are plenty of rings and tendrils, and good saffron aioli and roasted red pepper coulis for dipping. Wild mushroom strudel is too heavy, mostly mushrooms and not enough phyllo, which in turn is pale and not crisp enough.

These dishes aren't part of the three-course meal but appetizers for which one pays extra. Soup or salad is the first prepaid-for course, a choice among mixed green salad, asparagus salad, or the soup du jour, which over several visits to the yacht was clam chowder. They should make it a permanent fixture, because it's excellent: thick but not gloppy, smoky, and stocked with plenty of clams. The green salad is fine, accompanied by a plethora of dried cranberries that sink below the leaves and form a scarlet pile on the plate. Asparagus salad is the least of the three, withered stalks and not a lot of flavor.

Entrees are a mixed bag. Pork tenderloin is nicely cooked, though on the dry side of juicy; a marinade that includes cilantro, parsley, lemon, and chili paste gives it punch. Grilled sweet potatoes offer a warm, earthy counterpoint. Roast chicken breast is also nicely cooked on one occasion, but dry on another. It comes with a risotto cake that tastes more like pilaf from a box, and the accompanying brown sauce has the flavor of reduced bouillon. Gnocchi are extremely gummy but not leaden, tossed with so many vegetables the dish practically screams, "I'm the vegetarian option!" Tiny spring carrots are a nice inclusion.

Braised lamb shank is neither particularly tender nor particularly flavorful, curious for a braise. The minty Israeli couscous salad it comes with, however, is refreshing. It might be worth the $15.95 supplement for the center cut beef filet, which is both particularly tender and particularly flavorful; it comes with potatoes and is topped with a bit of gorgonzola. But $15.95 is a hefty surcharge when one has already shelled out 100 bucks for dinner, booze, and appetizers not included (though an introductory 2-for-1 deal is currently being offered). It's beef, after all, not foie gras. By the time you've signed the bill, it can easily amount to $150 per person.

That's steep for a 2 1/2-hour dinner cruise (there are also brunch and lunch cruises). And by the time you've settled in at your assigned table, obtained a cocktail (the mojitos are a good bet), ordered, and eaten, it's nearly time to dock. To enjoy dinner and enjoy the ride, you'd need another hour. You can - and should - have dessert on the upper deck; choices include a decent turtle cheesecake and a green tea creme brulee that is also decent but doesn't taste like green tea. But if you want to do much dancing, you'll need to arrive at 6:30, get your order in tout de suite, and skip the extra-charge appetizers. The DJ/cruise director will thank you. His dance floor is never full.

Neither is the yacht. How could it be, with room for 600? One can buy optional "cruise enhancements" that guarantee window seating, but when I was aboard there were always windows enough to go around. ("Enhancements" can also include long-stemmed roses and champagne.) Service isn't the speediest, though it is friendly. It's hard to imagine how everyone would get fed in time were the ship at capacity.

For the most part, however, this is a well-run operation, with the little details taken care of. There's excellent signage leading you to the parking garage and the berth, so you know the folks in charge must not be from Boston. But Yacht StarShip seems to have taken pains to provide jobs to locals; members of the wait staff have such strong South Boston accents one imagines they can walk to work. Employees have plenty of personality. "Falling overboard is highly discouraged," the cruise director deadpans during his welcome-aboard message. "Activities of this nature generally lead to distress." He says something like it every night, but it's still funny.

And it plays well to the less-than-full house of lovebirds and politely tipsy groups of friends, quite a few of whom are of an age to winter in Florida with the boat. Perhaps it's less than full because the price tag can buy dinner for two on land, or booze cruise tickets for four. Given the economy - I hear it's got a little hitch in its giddy-up these days - you have to wonder if Yacht StarShip will indeed return to Boston next season. In the immortal words of the "Gilligan's Island" theme song, they'll have to make the best of things. It's an uphill climb.

Devra First can be reached at dfirst@globe.com.