Virgin Voyages Dining Guide
Virgin Voyages have made the very bold claim that they have redefined the way that food is delivered on cruise ships, opting to replace a traditional Main Dining Room with six ‘speciality’ restaurants, the Gallery ‘buffet’ with themed food stalls and a few smaller, lighter dining options dotted around the ship. All of the food on board is included in the fare and their are no set dining times, with guests making reservations for the six speciality restaurants through the Virgin Voyages app. Initially guest are given the option to visit any restaurant once per voyage but if there is capacity they may be able to revisit a favourite restaurant , and there is always the option to go to a couple of them during the day to enjoy a leisurely brunch.
The Test Kitchen:
The Test Kitchen is a tasting menu type venue with cafe style bar seating placed around open kitchens where the food is prepared. The menu is a set six course menu with the dishes described simply as ‘mushroom’, ‘egg’, ‘scallop’, ‘beef or venison’, ‘blue cheese’ and ‘chocolate’. But don’t let the simpleness of the descriptions fool you, the dishes are complex in both presentation and taste.
To accompany the meal there are four optional additional charge drinks pairings to choose from - beer ($25), wine ($35), cocktail ($35) or non-alcoholic ($25). We chose the wine and cocktail pairings (in the name of research obviously) which perfectly matched the dishes.
First up was the mushroom dish with four different types of mushroom used to make a delicious and light mushroom mousse which was served with small rounds of crostini bread. The wine pairing was a crisp sauvignon blanc and the cocktail on was a refreshing long drink of bergamot, tonic and vermouth.
Next was the egg dish which was beautiful confit egg yolk served on a bed of green peas with a caviar topping presented under a cloche injected with smoke to give a gentle smoky flavour to the dish. We were instructed to break the yolk, mix the ingredients together and eat them on the accompanying small slices of brown bread. The wine pairing for this dish was a light and refreshing blanc gris blush rose and the cocktail pairing was a small an alpine liqueur mixer shot.
Then was the fish course which was a small sliced scallop served with a slice of Serrano ham and two types of seaweed. This plate was finished off with a smoky Sorrento ham bisque. The wine pairing was Bourbogne blanc and the cocktail was a rather lovely ginger shot served in the most beautiful glass.
The main course was either a cut of beef or venison served on a currant ‘splatter’ with a cacao decoration and a venison/beef sauce poured over the top. This was accompanied by a side plate of layered potato gratin topped with a bacon crumble. The wine pairing for this dish was a red Syrah/Carignan and the cocktail was a sherry glass shot of a whiskey and cocoa liqueur cocktail mix.
Next up was the cheese dish which was a blue cheese palette cleanser, which tasted rather like a mild blue cheese ice cream. Even Rich who doesn’t really like blue cheese said this dish was ok! It was served with little cubes of pressed pear and walnut pieces which gave the dish some texture and added flavour. The wine pairing for this dish was a beautiful red Beaujolais and the cocktail was a small tumbler glass of apple blossom served with plenty of ice.
The final dish of the night was the chocolate dessert which was indescribably delicious, especially for chocoholics. It was served with milk sponge topping and strawberry caviar on the smear of strawberry purée. The final wine pairing was a delicious tokaji dessert wine and the cocktail was another small tumbler glass of a whiskey based cocktail laced with a banana liqueur.
Overall this menu would not look amiss in a swanky Michelin star restaurant and the surroundings were equally unusual. The service was excellent and the drinks pairings made for a wonderful evening. Who needs entertainment when your dinner lasts for two hours and is this incredible.
The Wake:
The Wake is the fine dining venue located at the back of the ship on deck 6 with large wake view windows. The restaurant entrance is on deck 7 at the back of the Dock House and accessed via a gorgeous staircase adorned with a magnificent chandelier. The restaurant is decor is creams and gold with a very refined feel to it. Brunch is served from 8am until 1pm and there is no need to make a reservation for brunch though you can if you want to.
We arrived just after 9am and were seated in front of one of the large wake view windows. We were immediately served water and coffee, drip coffee is included throughout the ship and is actually really good, although there are speciality coffees available at extra cost for those that want it. The brunch menu is 3 courses with some extra options available for lunchtime from midday onwards. We decided not to have a starter course on this occasion since it was a little too early in the day for a full three courses, with Rich choosing the steak and eggs main course and myself the avocado eggs Benedict, since we had heard so many good things about the eggs Benedict. The food was delicious and the hype about the eggs Benedict was definitely well founded.
We were talked into having a dessert course and I chose the coconut panna cotta whilst Rich chose the crepe cake. Whilst the panna cotta was delicious I did have a little bit of food envy for Rich’s crepe cake which was amazing, literally layers of crepes sandwiched with a creamy filling and piled up to make a cake, what’s not to love? All the time we were there our coffee cups were constantly replenished and the service was attentive yet quietly unobtrusive, perfectly pitched for early morning before the caffeine has kicked in.
The Wake is also the perfect venue for sunset sailways with its large aft view windows to take in the 180 degree views and the sun setting over the sea. We arrived for our evening meal just as the ship was releasing its lines to sail away from Portsmouth. The sun setting and the sail out of Portsmouth passed Spinnaker tower were the perfect backdrop for our fine dining steak house style dinner. We started the evening with the clam chowder and wedge salad starters accompanied by a delicious bowl of sharing brioche bread with soft herb butter to spread generously over it. For our main courses neither of us could resist choosing the filet mignon which is served with a small watercress salad and a half roasted garlic, the perfect accompaniment to a steak. For the steak dishes there was a chose of four different sauces and we chose the salsa verde and the American style steak sauce. Although very different they were both very nice but were rather small portions served up in a dipping dish, we could easily have managed a jug of each to smother our steaks in. We chose to share sides and ordered some asparagus, mushrooms and fries to go with our steaks. The food was delicious however, we would say that they arrived a little on the cool side and could have been served up a little hotter.
For our desserts we chose the baked Alaska and one of my all time favourites, apple tartan which was accompanied by an almond financier and mascarpone cream. They were both very well presented and equally as delicious, however we did feel they came out a little too quickly for our liking, we really would have liked a little more time between courses, especially with the portions being so generous. However the food and service otherwise were excellent and the restaurant setting is definitely the best of all of the restaurants on the ship.
Extra Virgin dinner:
Extra Virgin is the Italian restaurant which is open for dinner only. It has a very rustically refined feel to it, with herb pots decorating the tables. There is an open preparation area where the delicious charcuterie boards, offered to all diners, are made up. The menu follows a traditional Italian restaurant format, with a range of antipasto dishes which are accompanied by the chef’s selection charcuterie board. Then there is a choice of 5 main course dishes, including a fish and vegetarian option, as well as a choice of six pasta dishes. Guests can choose to have both pasta and main dish or one or the other, or as was recommended to us, a main dish each and some pasta to share.
To finish off the meal there are a choice of three dessert dishes but the highlight has to be the affogato trolley which allows guests to personalise there affogato, with a choice from three flavours of ice cream and three flavours of sorbet with a range of toppings such as chocolate chips, almonds and biscotti, before the addition of an espresso shot and a sambuca foam to finish it off, delicious. Before the meal is over, the wonderful bar team offer all diners a lovely shot of limoncello to finish off their meal.
Razzle Dazzle:
Razzle Dazzle is the vegetarian restaurant offering mostly vegetarian and vegan dishes, although it does have a range of ‘naughty’ options for those guests who would prefer to have meat with their meal. This is also the only restaurant that opens for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It has a distinctly ‘fun’ vibe to it and whilst it is probably the most colourful restaurant of them all, it still feels a lot more light, bright and airy than I expected. There are a range of delicious brunch appropriate cocktails and bottomless drinks packages for their brunch and lunch menus, as well as some healthy looking smoothies (at additional cost). The breakfast and lunch menus seem to meld into one another with many of the breakfast dishes available at lunchtime too.
Although there is a large drinks menu for breakfast and lunch all guests are plied with complimentary tea and coffee throughout their meal which is especially welcome if you get there early. For breakfast we chose starters of avocado toast and the provocatively named ‘coconut milk fairy toast’. Avocado toast is one of my favourite go to breakfast dishes and this one didn’t disappoint, however the star of the morning was the fairy toast, which although at first seemed a little gimmicky was actually so delicious we quickly forgave it it’s garishness! For our main breakfast course we chose the Razzle Dazzle breakfast which is served vegetarian with an Impossible sage patty rather than sausage or bacon, and the classic malted waffle served with berries, cream and syrup, a complete but totally worth it, sugar overload.
At lunch time the breakfast main courses are still available along with a couple of the starters but there are some nice additions to make it more lunch like if that’s what you choose. There is also the option to buy a bottomless brunch drinks package with wine, beer, bloody harry’s or their signature cocktail or some pretty intriguing individual cocktails such as the ‘goldfish’, the ‘donut tell me’, the ‘popcorn old fashioned’ or my choice, the appropriately named ‘gym bunny’! We started our lunch by sharing a mushroom tartare, at the recommendation of our waitress, which was served with crostini toasts. On the lunch menu there is also a salad and soup option although we chose to go straight to the main courses, choosing the impossible burger and the fried chicken burger, both served with the most delicious fries we have found on the ship. Unable to resist trying the intriguing looking desserts we opted for the rainbow churros, signature blueberry green tea cheesecake and the milk and cookies to completely finish us off. The cookies are a great way to end the meal with three flavours of cookies arriving in a cookie jar accompanied by a small bottle of flavoured milk. Simple but effective!
Evenings in Razzle Dazzle offer a similar style menu to brunch with some overlap of choices and some equally as wacky dishes as on the breakfast and brunch menus. I started with a delicious melon salad and since we had enjoyed the mushroom tartare at brunch Rich had that again. For our main courses I chose from the vegetarian menu, deciding to try the butternut squash ravioli and Rich went off-piste choosing the butter chicken from the ‘secret’ menu that only the server knows about! Both the dishes were delicious but a special mention has to go the the ravioli which was as delicious as it was beautiful and was probably my favourite dish of the whole voyage.
For desserts we couldn’t resist another portion of the gorgeous churros served with purple sweet potato ice cream, which tastes much nicer than it sounds, and the signature Razzle dazzle cake which, despite eating there twice before we still hadn’t tried. But we had obviously saved the best until last, as a gorgeous looking chocolate marble cake topped with some sort of chocolate icing and chocolate decorations was placed in the middle of our table - whose idea was it to share desserts?!?!?
Pink Agave dinner:
Pink Agave is the Mexican restaurant which serves only gluten free food and has managed to create the vibe of a luxurious underground hacienda with loud disco music creating an upbeat vibe to match the range of tequilas on display and available to try in a variety of tequila based cocktails. This is a very popular restaurant and was very busy on the evening we went there, but despite the busyness the servers managed to spend time with you explaining the menu and naming some recommendations. We decided to steer clear of the cocktails and chose a bottle of wine instead, although we were within view of the bar area and enjoyed watching the cocktails being made.
Our waitress explained that the dishes were defined by size rather than course, with them coming as small, medium or large size plates that are best shared and delivered as ready rather than in any particular order. We chose to start our meal with some guacamole before moving on to some chicken enchiladas and papas con chorizo, a delicious potato and shredded chorizo dish. The large plates offer a choice of sea bass, roasted duck, smoked pork or marinated ribeye steak. We chose to share the steak which we were pleased we did, as it was very large, and we accompanied it with the vegetarian main dish which was a stuffed pepper.
Although we were quickly filling up we couldn’t resist a dessert, especially as there were some of our firm favourites on the menu. Who can ever resist chocolate tacos? And though it may be an acquired taste, bread pudding is one of my favourite desserts so I had to try the Mexican version, called Capirotada. For an authentic Mexican experience the food and vibe of the venue hit the mark, although we would have liked to have seen a few more vegetarian dishes on the menu. We also found that the tables were quite close to each other and though this created a buzz in the restaurant it sometime made conversation a little difficult.
Gunbae dinner:
You know Gunbae is going to be a unique experience from the moment you walk in the door to be shown to your table. The host walks you through the restaurant loudly announcing your presence whilst the other guests shout out a hearty Gunbae welcome. Guests are seated around large round tables, each with a central hot plate before being welcomed with a shot of soju and an invitation to take part on a drinking game by their food servers. Shots downed we were presented with a tray of ramekins consisting of five delicious appetisers. To start the meal there are a choice of small plates and rice/noodle dishes which are best shared amongst the whole table. We tried the seaweed salad, the Bibimap fried rice and vegetable dish, the stir-fried vegetable and noodles, and our favourite dish of the evening, the forever crispy chicken.
It isn’t long until the main event starts with your multi-tasking waiter/helper/cook presenting the trays of food you have chosen to cook on the open hot plate. The options include an assortment of vegetables, seafood, marinated short ribs or the chefs combo of shrimp, pork belly and short ribs. We chose to try them all except for the seafood assortment and they arrived on individual trays along with tongs for all the guest to get involved in the cooking and turning of the food on the hot plate. We started with the vegetables, then moved on to the combination plate and finished off with the marinated short ribs, which were delicious. Our wonderful waiter/helper was around to chop up the short ribs as they cooked and advise us when he thought the food would be ready to eat, but obviously guests can cook the beef to their own taste and take it off when it’s cooked as they like it. We were advised to wrap the grilled food in the accompanying, beautifully presented lettuce leaves and dipped in one of the three sauces provided. Although by now we were pretty full we couldn’t leave without trying the combination ice cream, Sikhye and black sesame twist served with black sesame granola, mini mocha (marshmallows) and miso caramel. A delicious ending to a wonderful meal, even if we had had to cook it ourselves!
The Galley:
The Galley is Virgin Voyages take on the traditional cruise buffet and is another aspect of cruise life where they have really tried to reinvent the wheel, and we loved it. There are a range of ’stalls’ offering a variety of different eating styles, from a taco stall, a noodle bar, a salad bar, a bento box stall, a popsicle trolley, a burger bar, a panini stall and the usual bread and sweet treat areas. Instead of guests queuing with trays to take their own food they are invited to take a seat in the buffet area where a crew member will come along and take their food and drink orders, which guests can view on the Virgin app. Someone will then collect the food for them and bring it to their table. The crew are amazing at taking very specific orders and can make notes on their devices, so, if for example, you want to share a plate of pancakes they will have them served up on two plates, meaning you can be as choosy as you would be if you were collecting it yourself. Although the dishes are made up to order (minimising waste) it is still pretty instantaneous and comes as ordered. For those that simply can’t wait there is a grab and go fridge just inside the door which offers a range of healthy boxes for guests to simply pick up and take away to eat either in the galley or somewhere else on the ship. A shout out has to also go to the all day breakfast stall which literally does as it says on the tin and serves a traditional English breakfast throughout the day until the Galley closes.
The Dock lunch and snacks:
The Dock is a very relaxed beach bar type area which has an indoor bar and a wonderful outside deck at the aft of the ship on deck 7. The outside area is furnished with some very comfortable day beds and there is plenty of shade for those that like to get out of the sun. At midday the food trolley comes out and the menus appear on trays dotted around the beds and seating areas. The menus have a little flag you can out up when you want to order food or drinks to let the staff know you would like something - such a good idea to save them keep disturbing you by asking if you want something.
The menu has small hot plate dishes on it which are available to order, and the trolley has some cold plate dishes which you can take at any time. These plates are a perfect snack size and two or three each make a perfect light lunch. The dishes include things like salads, humous, pitas, squid, and skewers. Also around this time there is usually some form of relaxing entertainment such as a solo guitarist who wanders round the deck playing Spanish guitar tunes. It really is a perfect pairing of food, music and setting to make you feel like you are at some exotic beach bar, even when you are simply poodling about in the English channel.
Sip Afternoon tea:
Virgin offers an afternoon tea in the Sip Champagne bar at the additional cost of $19 per person or $39 with a glass of bubbly. It is served from 1pm until 4pm which we loved as it meant we could go along relatively early and replace our lunch with three small plates of yummy indulgence. There is a large range of loose leaf teas to choose from which are presented in an elegant tea pot infused with a silver bauble of tea leaves. The tea consists of three varieties of savoury sandwiches, all of which have steer away from the norm to fit in with the Virgin quirkiness. Then each person has two plain scones served with a deliciously smooth strawberry jam and clotted cream. The tea is finished off with a plate of five different small cakes, including a small slice of rainbow cake and a macaron amongst others. The tea itself was delicious and varied and the service was attentive, however, we did find that at this time of day the Sip bar lacked atmosphere and some live music would have been a lovely addition to the bar during afternoon tea.
Pizza Place:
The pizza place is located just off of the main ‘roundabout’ (atrium) on deck 7 and is a complimentary restaurant with a small indoor seating area and a lovely outdoor area with tables and informal sofa seating, located on the promenade deck. There are only four types of pizza on offer but they cover all of the bases and can be accompanied by the grab and go side salads on offer at the restaurant entrance. If the restaurant is full or you would prefer to eat your pizza somewhere less busy you can order it to take away and will be given a buzzer to alert you when your order is ready. As it was a rainy lunchtime when we visited, the restaurant area was quite busy so we ordered ours to take away, grabbed a Caesar salad to go with it and headed up to our room to enjoy a leisurely pizza lunch whilst taking in a rainy day movie.
Sun Club lunch:
The Sun Club is a small outdoor cafe located up on deck 16 towards Richards rooftop area at the front of the ship. It’s an unassuming little place which many guests might walk passed without realising the magic that happens in the little galley headed up by one chef and the friendliest of waitresses. Again the menu is simple, offering three basic poke bowls, chicken, tuna and salmon, although these can be customised for vegetarians. We ordered the chicken and salmon bowls which were absolutely amazing, a complete and nutritious meal in a healthy bowl of goodness. Our only regret, we didn’t find this place until our last day!!!
Grounds Coffee Stop:
The coffee shop is located just off of the main roundabout on deck 7 and is a comfortable area to sit and enjoy a specialist coffee or tea (at extra charge) along with some unusual flavoured pastries and muffins first thing in the morning and some delicious cookies through the rest of the day. The drinks and snacks are available to take away although we loved relaxing on the extra deep bench seats and deck chair style seating or even catching up on some computer work at the long bench seating conveniently adorned with lots of usb and charging points.
Social club:
The Social club is a lively American diner style venue where guests can grab a board game, play the table football or air hockey, or even enter the wonderful little 80s arcade games room for some retro gaming (keep me away from the Space Invaders game or I’ll spend all day there!). And, if like me, it’s a rainy day and you can’t drag yourself away from the arcade machines the bar offers snacks to keep you going. The choice reflects the American diner vibe and offers popcorn, pretzels, reuben sandwiches and little sweet bites, like rice crispy cakes, marshmallows, cake pops, brownies and shortbread. Not a traditional eatery maybe but still worth its place in the dining guide, those little sweet treats are worth a detour any day.
Lick Ice Cream:
The ice cream parlour is conveniently located next door to the pizza place and is very popular mid afternoon with guests taking their cones out onto the lovely sofas on the promenade deck to enjoy in the sunshine. The ice creams on offer could be described as non-traditional but this doesn’t make them any less delicious, with the menu describing them as ‘six creative artisanal flavours’ which are served in red, blue or white cones each with a different flavour, some more quirky than others. We particularly loved vanilla and salted cones together with the orange and chocolate flavoured ice creams.
Disclosure: We were on board Scarlet Lady for a back to back voyage, made up of a four night voyage paid in full by ourselves, followed by a three night voyage when we were guests of Virgin Voyages on behalf of World of Cruising magazine. We were not paid to be on the voyage and have complete control over any content we produce.
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