Test Kitchen Menus

[Jessetfan]

Booking for dining for my March cruise opens in February, but I'm trying to put together a plan in advance. Is there any way to know when the A menu will be served versus the B menu at the Test Kitchen? Will I be able to see in the app when I'm able to book or are there certain days that they always serve one menu? We're doing the Western Caribbean Charm itinerary on the Valiant Lady. 

[neverendingcruising]

Generally the first half of the cruise is A menu and then it switches to B. If it's in the app I haven't seen it, we tend to book it first or second night and then check when we get on board if we need to reschedule. Our preference is the A menu. 

[conandrob240]

Menus?

[cantgetin]

There are 3 menus in Test Kitchen.....A, B, and veg.  The vegetarian/vegan menu is available every night.  A and B rotate.  Our experience was that what we were told by shoreside sailor services was wrong.  We strongly preferred the A menu, but we subbed a couple of the vegetarian courses.  My travel companion's view was that if I really wanted it, she'd got to A again, but never B.  My suggestion would be to book a night early in the week (which is usually A), and then check out which menu they will be serving after you board.  Depending on length of cruise and your interest, you can aways book a B night as well after boarding.

The menus do not list what the dish is, only what the main item it is made from is.  This is the A menu--you can see the food on many YouTube videos.  Mushroom is a mushroom pate, egg is an egg yolk with peas, scallops is scallops in broth, venison/been is your choice of one or the other in quite an interesting plating.  Blue Cheese is ice cream, and chocolate is obviously desert. (hint--the vegan chocolate coconut was amazing but very rich...I was offered "a bite."

I don't have a copy of the B menu.  The main course was shrimp or lamb chop.  It was corn (good), salmon (ok) Beet ???, lamb/shrimp (ok), asparagus, and strawberry.  We either got pizza or room service later that night.

Edited December 30, 2022 by cantgetin

[conandrob240]

So on a 5 night cruise, they have A for 2 nights then B for last? B looks much more interesting to me

[cantgetin]

2 hours ago, conandrob240 said:

So on a 5 night cruise, they have A for 2 nights then B for last? B looks much more interesting to me

That's the part where I kept getting different answers.  First, I've never done a 5 night cruise.  I've been variously told by shoreside customer service people that it depends on days of the week (which seems accurate based on my cruises) and also that it depends on the days in the cruise.  My suggestion would be to book one Test Kitchen meal.  After you board, go to the big red table on deck 7 or to customer services on deck 5 and ask which menu will be served on which nights.  Then adjust your reservations as needed.  We had NO trouble changing reservations after boarding--sometimes not to our exact preferred time, but within 30 minutes.  In fairness, we were a group of 2, which was probably easier than a group of 6 or 8.  Our most recent cruise was about half full with 1400 people on board.

[Lustate]

Just a note.

 

Menu B is not as nice as menu A. The cocktail pairing are really good but a little boozy so if your a slow drinking you may want to ask for a pause between courses. 

[conandrob240]

4 hours ago, Lustate said:

Just a note.

 

Menu B is not as nice as menu A. The cocktail pairing are really good but a little boozy so if you’re a slow drinking you may want to ask for a pause between courses. 

Personally I’m not a blue cheese or mushroom fan so B is my preference

[aqlollipop]

If it's just the two of you, you should also have no problem doing a walk up at Test Kitchen as well if you can't get a reservation for the menu you want. My husband and I did this 2 weeks ago. My take on Test Kitchen is people seem to love it or hate it. My husband and I love it. A is better than B, but both are good to us. I am not an adventurous eater and my husband is a bit of a foodie and somehow Test Kitchen magically works for both of us.

 

Don't go in with preconceived notions about particular ingredients. I am also not a mushroom fan and that mushroom pate is my favorite thing! That said, if you can't stand the idea, you can substitute any course with its vegetarian alternative. In the case of mushroom and blue cheese, that is tomato (gazpacho) and mandarin orange (sorbet).

[_tacocat_]

9 hours ago, cantgetin said:

That's the part where I kept getting different answers. 

on scarlet, it's a voyage-agnostic rotation.  so 3 days of a, 3 days of b, then back to a.  it depends where your voyage falls during that rotation.

 

on valiant, it's menu a for the first half of each voyage, then menu b for the second half.  so 3 or 4 nights of a, then 3 or 4 of b.

[_tacocat_]

14 hours ago, cantgetin said:

There are 3 menus in Test Kitchen.....A, B, and veg. 

4 actually-  A, B, Veg A and Veg B!  Don't sleep on the veg items, those have been some of my favorites.  From the old menu, the tomato gazpacho/sorbet + the mandarin sorbet were awesome and the vegan olive oil "caviar" with the peas was super cool.  From the new menu, the pumpkin barley risotto was delish too.

[Jessetfan]

Thank you all, this is fantastic information! I'm really hoping to do the A menu, since I don't eat shrimp or lamb, and the A menu looks better to me. If we end up with the B menu I'll probably end up going with the vegetarian option for that course. I think on both menus there may be things that one or the other of us won't eat, but it's our first cruise with VV, so we'll give it a shot either way (we've got 6 nights, so no reason to skip out on a restaurant) and if it doesn't fill us up we can get pizza or room service or something.

[_tacocat_]

6 minutes ago, Jessetfan said:

Thank you all, this is fantastic information! I'm really hoping to do the A menu, since I don't eat shrimp or lamb, and the A menu looks better to me. If we end up with the B menu I'll probably end up going with the vegetarian option for that course. I think on both menus there may be things that one or the other of us won't eat, but it's our first cruise with VV, so we'll give it a shot either way (we've got 6 nights, so no reason to skip out on a restaurant) and if it doesn't fill us up we can get pizza or room service or something.

you can also sub out courses (or skip them entirely).  for the a menu, my husband and i usually do the veg menu, skip one of the courses (i forget which one), and get the filet for our main hah.

[cantgetin]

2 hours ago, _tacocat_ said:

4 actually-  A, B, Veg A and Veg B!  Don't sleep on the veg items, those have been some of my favorites.  From the old menu, the tomato gazpacho/sorbet + the mandarin sorbet were awesome and the vegan olive oil "caviar" with the peas was super cool.  From the new menu, the pumpkin barley risotto was delish too.

Agree that the veg are some of the best items.  We subbed the mushroom and blue cheese (after a bite of each as server strongly encouraged) for the corresponding veg items...which were much better.  In fairness, I declined those items initially, but Oliver wanted me to try them...then as he promised, brought me the gazpacho

 

[Fogcityca13]

The mango sorbet is pretty amazing and I recommend at least one person in your party gets it and shares. I love blue cheese but it’s not really a palate cleanser, in my opinion.
 

I’m also going to rave about the nonalcoholic pairing, extremely well done. All the drinks were very refreshing and went well the entree. We shared that with the cocktail pairing and managed leave not totally blitzed.

[CruisingWalter]

15 hours ago, Fogcityca13 said:

I’m also going to rave about the nonalcoholic pairing, extremely well done. All the drinks were very refreshing and went well the entree. We shared that with the cocktail pairing and managed leave not totally blitzed.

My wife went all mocktails our week on Scarlet and RAVED about them. She said the 'bloody mary' was one of the best she's ever had, regular or mock.