Scarlet Lady Food and Restaurant review

[LMaxwell]

I have been cruising since I was a young child and over the years have 50+ at this point...probably 25+ with my wife, majority being Royal Caribbean, also have several cruises on NCL, MSC, Disney, Carnival, Celebrity and Holland America. We are Diamond with RC and have little desire to reach D+; although we greatly appreciate reciprocity offered by MSC, VV, and Celebrity.  

 

 

Food:  Good to Very Good. We had heard a lot of the hype and tried to set expectations appropriately.  Many of these restaurants would definitely be upcharge on other cruise lines, no doubt about it.  Peak times are impossible to reserve, but if you are ok with 6pm or 9pm, not much issue.  In 4 days there is no way to sample all the food onboard, but we tried! 

 

Pink Agave: C+.  I had the duck and it was actually really good. Wifes fish was not good. Chicken Enchilada was bland. Guacamole (which is everywhere on this ship!) was good but not incredible. This restaurant just didn't wow us or have any sort of exciting energy or atmosphere. We were in and out in under an hour.  

 

Gunbae: A. Great fun, food just kept coming, we were sat with 2 other couples near our age. The waitress just brought it all and we had a great dining experience. Shrimp, Steak, Pork, various apps, lots of Korean sides, a free drinking game. Popular spot and easy to see why 

 

Extra Virgin: A.  You'd pay a LOT for this level of dining on other cruise lines. We had several appetizers including the charcuterie board that was quite good. The fried calamari and fried artichoke were a bit of a let down, but the steak and chicken main dishes were excellent. We got a few different half orders of pasta to try; the gnocchi was overcooked mush, but the pastas themselves were al dente and tasted good. Dessert service, tableside by cart, was a nice little upscale touch. This restaurant was packed the whole time, including the bar area. It had a nice energy and vibe going on. Personally my favorite meal onboard. 

 

Razzle Dazzle: B-; we went for Breakfast twice, not for dinner.  First day we kept it simple - Avocado toast, Acai bowl, fruit plate. Everything was good and served quickly.  We returned next day for breakfast with similar expectations and sat for 20+ minutes without coffee or water (as did our neighbors on both sides) and it eventually took 50 minutes to get a cold waffle and my fruit plate was still somewhat frozen. Just a baffling experience that took way too long and not good. Wifes egg fritatta was thin and served cold. Candied/spice Bacon was good.  Food presentation is highly instagrammable. B- is just the average. Day 1 I'd say an A, Day 2 I'd say a D.  Inconsistent, I'll leave it at that. 

 

The Wake: C.  We went once for brunch and once for dinner. Brunch was great. "The Wake" benedict was delicious and fresh. PanaCotta nicely presented and delicious. Brunch fennel salad fresh and tasty.  Dinner was a let down. The bone marrow is...not good.  Our hanger steak and lamb chops were excellent; the baked potato is actually diced potato covered in cheese. Our dinner service was among the worst service we had on our trip. Zero attentiveness. Empty water glasses. NEVER brought my cocktail. I went and found a restaurant manager who apologized and still didn't bring the cocktail. At the end of the meal the offered to take my cocktail off the bill (thanks?) and then somehow charged me for 4X cocktails.  The bus stations were FILLED with empty wine bottles, wine glasses, plates. I never saw so many over filled stations not getting cleared.  The managers stroll around useless and oblivious. This area should feel upscale as a signature restaurant and while most of the food is good, the service was bad.  No live music as advertised, they just send you down the steps to sit in the deck 6 lobby; maybe someone will seat you eventually?  We had a long line to check in for a 9pm dinner. Whatever this restaurants issue is, it is almost certainly understaffed currently with ineffective management that is not willing to participate. This could be an easy B or even an A for dinner but service was that bad. 

 

Pizza Place: B+. Good pizza, grab and go salads, lines not too bad when we went, just very limited on toppings/options, but probably better to do just a couple of things well and speedy than try to go overboard here.  MSC has better pizza, but Virgin Voyages pizza is miles better than Royal, Carnival, Disney, or Celebrity. 

 

Lick me Till Ice Cream: B. good, fresh, handscooped ice cream. Several flavors available. Good sugar cones. No toppings or anything crazy. Ice Cream was good, not amazing. Nothing wrong here though. Great touch. You'd definitely spend more on other cruise lines (Celebrity has hard ice cream in buffet). No soft serve machines anywhere on ship that I saw. 

 

Grab and Go - Quikeze - A. Charcuterie boards, overnight oats, smoked salmon platters, granola bars.  Loved the availability and fresh leaning angle of the snacks (proteins, low fat, salads). Would mix the Charcuterie grab and go with the Pizza; yesssssss

 

The Dock: A . Awesome selection of grill bites on menu; then another "happy hour" menu from 4:30-6:30PM. Truly delicious Greek/Med inspired food. There are also carts that have another 4 or 5 grab and go Med selections during the day - Not well advertised.  Everything was delicious; steak, octopus, hummus, shrimp, lamb skewers, Turkish dessert bites.  One of the Quizkeze grab and go is here also.  

 

The Galley: 

Bento Baby: B.  Loved grab and go fruit boxes in morning; would stash one in fridge for the afternoon.  Good quality sushi during day time, just not a huge selection.  No waits. Very clean. Overall very good; if they had a slightly larger selection this could be an A. 

 

Panini Station: A.  Sandwiches actually had great taste, flavor, nice selection available daily. Another spot to find avocado toast.  

 

Noodle Station: C+. Only tried once. It was okay. Broth and noodles fine, but not much else to the soup. Didn't want to just fill up on carbs. 

 

Taco Bar: B-. Somewhat Americanized tacos. Tiny. Not bad by any means but if you are looking for authentic street food tacos this isn't them.  

 

Diner and Dash:  Did not order from here; but DID see that at lunch and dinner times they would have a small "cruise ship buffet" type area with carvery (steaks, turkey, Wings, ribs).  Did try ribs at lunch and they were amazingly good for a cruise ship.  So....you try the place and let me know. 

 

Hamburger Bar: C  really tasty french fries but the burger itself was totally bland. no seasoning at all.  So....not bad, but not worth it for me for the fat and carbs when there are healthier/tastier choices.  Guys Burgers on Carnivals are A+ and worth whatever damage they do to you.  VV Burgers are nothing special. 

 

Breadboard:  C.  Flatbreads LOOK great, but they were dry and flavorless the two times I tried. You may like it, but it was pretty much empty carbs so I avoided it. Most bread based item we tried didn't live up to hype around the ship it seemed. 

 

Sweet Spot: A. Chia Pudding, Fresh fruits, small desserts that actually had taste/flavor. Graham Cracker mason jar was good, "scarlet lady" dessert was good. Kind of opposite of most ships; the desserts actually had good taste! This area operates more like "serve and go" so you don't have to wait for roaming staff to take orders. 

 

Sun Club Cafe: B. Just shared a small bowl here to try it; fresh leaning, not too busy, provides another good option for pool days without going to the Galley. I do feel this is an area they could expand the menu by a couple items and not mess with a good thing. 

 

Food service is spotty. We were at 80% capacity sailing and some times we had awesome service, sometimes it was really slow. In theory ordering from multiple venues in Galley should work, in practice it does NOT. Items either arrive at all varied times, some do not arrive at all. Some areas would look setup for quick serve and then tell you to go order from staff. So that's why a tiny taco can take 20 minutes instead of 20 seconds to get.  Including soft drinks is nice, but they were frequently out and almost always out of ice, so just stuck with water really. Incorrectly mixed, warm diet coke isn't actually a benefit even if it is free.  The standard onboard coffee is horrible to a level that is comical. There are two upcharge coffee shops and with Deep Blue Extras we got $10 credit at coffee shops daily which is a really nice touch.  I'm no coffee snob by any means, but the standard coffee was just terrible. 

 

So did it live up to the hype? In some areas, yes, in others, no so much.  Was it "better"? than other cruise lines.  Oh yeah. The food was so much better than MSC, Royal Caribbean, and Celebrity that there is almost no comparison. You would spend a LOT of money chasing specialty dining all week on Royal Caribbean to be equal to Virgin Voyages, and I don't think RCI would even match up.  Celebrity still wants everyone to pretend like they are on the Titanic if you want a half decent meal...it's so 1970's that it's laughable they still do that.  I did like the variety, theming, and availability of healthy-ish options to go along with more traditional fare.  I was never hungry, but I also didn't feel "full" on junk food like I would on Carnival or MSC because that's what they mostly offer. Holland Americas buffet is excellent and I'd say ever so "slightly" superior to the Galley for quality, and definitely ahead on variety.  Disney food...I was never impressed with it at all. 

 

Overall: B.  Would I return? Yes. We never got to the test kitchen, never tried the salad bar/bagel bar in the Galley, didn't find the secret happy hour menu at the Dock until the last day, etc. So we have more to experience.  Hopefully Virgin sorts out their service issues; a bit more consistency and staffing would have helped the experience. 

 

 

[sid_9169]

I had sort of the same experience at The Wake recently, with the food being great but the service nearly non-existent... I sat there for about twenty minutes there at the end, and the waitress never came back, so I just left... 

 

I also had my breakfast go missing at The Galley one morning, and finally just put the flag up again and reordered. When I ordered the second time, it showed up in two minutes... 

[tbmrt]

1 hour ago, LMaxwell said:

didn't find the secret happy hour menu at the Dock until the last day, etc.

Please tell me more about the secret happy hour menu at the Dock.

[_tacocat_]

i have no clue what the issue with the wake is, but i've had awful service there almost every time i've been there on all 3 ships at brunch and dinner no matter how many people are onboard - from 800 to 2,300.  something is just broken with their setup. 

 

on resilient last week, i ordered the tomahawk and expected a longer wait because it was a special item - fine.  then it took almost 45 minutes after our apps were delivered to get the steak!  the couple next to us was waiting and waiting and waiting for their mains for even longer and getting a little testy.

 

i've also never seen live music advertised there, though it does have a piano on scarlet and valiant (not on resilient).

 

i'm also convinced the galley was never designed to have waiter service, but they added that for a covid precaution to keep large groups from congregating at each station.  it would make SO much more sense to keep it in a food hall-style format.  you'd do a lap to see what was on offer, then go wait at a station and order whatever. 

 

for most of the stations, they're pretty quick build items - e.g., tacos: tortilla, filling, sauce; salad - base, toppings, dressing; dinner carving station at the grill - meat, potatoes, veggies - so you could just pick them up as you ordered, then for the longer-lead items just provide your table number. 

 

that would kind of force everyone to pick something, eat it while still the right temperature, then go back to another station for seconds if they want something different.  i was a bit peeved last week - they had a roast in the galley one night, which on scarlet had been able to be counter ordered.  i had to order from a server, and the station attendant plated it and kept calling for service, but no one came to deliver the plate.  the attendant was getting pretty ticked too.  surprise surprise, it was cold by the time it eventually made it to my table.

 

[_tacocat_]

4 minutes ago, tbmrt said:

Please tell me more about the secret happy hour menu at the Dock.

not a secret 🙂 it's called "opa hour" and it's in celebration of their newly launched greek itineraries.  i don't have the menu offhand, but it's a bunch of additional greek bites.  you can also get the normal dock/dockhouse menu during that time.  i'm sure some blogger has posted a picture of the menu somewhere at this point haha

[LMaxwell]

34 minutes ago, tbmrt said:

Please tell me more about the secret happy hour menu at the Dock.

From 430pm-630pm

Greek Bites - cod souvlaki, lamb skewer, dips, pita bread

Mezze platter - red pepper and feta dip, hummus, toursi, pita

Citrus Braised fennel salad

Grilled Cod Souvlaki

Lamb Sausage Skewers

Greek Sweets - balava, apricot delight, maamoul 

 

Also look for the push cart filled with more dips, cookies, chocolate treats during the daytime. 

[meowzas]

I totally agree that the Galley was probably not intended for waitstaff to serve from.  It was super confusing and not awesome to eat alone while my husband waited another 15 minutes for his food.  Not ideal, but it is what it is.

[cantgetin]

We had the same experience at The Wake....very slow service.  45 minute wait (timed) from being seated till someone took our order.  2 1/2 hours for dinner.  And supervisors standing around doing nothing.

In contrast, Razzle Dazzle was great and the supervisors would bus tables and otherwise get involved when it was busy.  RD was a surprising bright spot on our cruise.

[aqlollipop]

We've only done dinner at the Wake once, and we must've gotten lucky. Service was, while I wouldn't say "quick", I would say it was paced as I expected for the type of meal service it seems to want to be. Nonetheless, we were in and out in probably about an hour or just over. 

[CruisingWalter]

17 hours ago, LMaxwell said:

Pink Agave: C+.  I had the duck and it was actually really good

 

You got a better duck than I did. I avoided that dish on our second sailing and had a much better meal. 🙂

 

17 hours ago, LMaxwell said:

Razzle Dazzle: B-; we went for Breakfast twice, not for dinner.

 

Do dinner on your next sailing and get the Butter Chicken. That was easily the best meal of our second sailing on Scarlet. I'm looking forward to that restaurant again for our November Valiant sailing.

 

17 hours ago, LMaxwell said:

The Wake: C.  We went once for brunch and once for dinner

 

The Wake was much better in July 22 than it was this past April. Not sure what has happened to that restaurant, but consistently we're seeing lower ratings for that restaurant this year than we did in 2022. We did not enjoy it nearly as much this year and honestly would not do dinner again, maybe just brunch.

 

17 hours ago, LMaxwell said:

Hamburger Bar: C  really tasty french fries but the burger itself was totally bland

 

That's because you ordered the wrong burger, 🙂 next time try the French Toast Breakfast Burger. It's ridiculous. Especially if you add some syrup. It does a lot of damage, but it's awesome. But I totally agree, the burgers are too bland to eat by themselves. 

 

On The Galley service, we were completely impressed this past April by the remarkable change from our horrible service back in July 2022. Our orders were taken promptly both times we did breakfast. Food arrived within 10 minutes of ordering.  On that coffee, sheesh it is terrible. Only Princess syrup coffee on their older ships is worse. I was actually shocked on the MSC Seaside last week that they had decent buffet coffee. 

 

Overall your assessment is pretty spot on. Though I give the pizza an A and put it only behind Princess for the best pizza at sea. MSC's was good and had the best red sauce, but I find the Princess pizza better overall with Pizza Place right behind. 

 

Glad you had a great time.

 

 

 

[CruisingWalter]

16 hours ago, _tacocat_ said:

i'm also convinced the galley was never designed to have waiter service, but they added that for a covid precaution to keep large groups from congregating at each station.  it would make SO much more sense to keep it in a food hall-style format.  you'd do a lap to see what was on offer, then go wait at a station and order whatever. 

 

Actually it was always intended for server style, it was in the original marketing. The tableside service was another way Virgin was 'elevating' the old buffet so guests would not have to stand in line and wait for their food.

 

Where they got it wrong was the ordering process. They fully expected a single person to take orders from a group of tables and then deliver those orders. The servers were overwhelmed during peak times and the system completely fell apart to where we were waiting over 15 minutes just to flag down a server and then another 30 to get the food. 

 

If you look at the Indulge Food Hall on NCL Prima / Viva they got it right from the start. Touch pad ordering from your table and the servers simply bring you the food. 

 

Now The Galley (at least on Scarlet) has the service problem mostly fixed. Dedicated servers take the order then expediters bring your order from the stations. We had speedy service during our April sailing on Scarlet. 

[cantgetin]

2 hours ago, CruisingWalter said:

. 

 

Now The Galley (at least on Scarlet) has the service problem mostly fixed. Dedicated servers take the order then expediters bring your order from the stations. We had speedy service during our April sailing on Scarlet. 

As of April 2023, service problem was mostly solved on Valiant as well.  We had one episode where they tried to bring us food that belonged to someone else....and once when I got a wrong item (I ordered a turkey and cheese panini and they brought the special of the day panini). Not bad for a 15 night trip.  When we saw the food that belonged elsewhere, we pointed out that it wasn't ours, the crew member checked the ticket and took it to the other table....ours appeared within about a minute.  Overall service was much improved from our previous experiences.

[neverendingcruising]

I was surprised that Resilient does not have the flags in the Galley but we never waited any amount of time to have our order taken. Not sure how or why it seems they don't need the prompt on that ship. 

 

Regarding the burgers, we've found that the special burger of the day is always leaps and bounds better than the everyday burger. I think the specials are always made to order and the regular ones they make in advance. In particular, the "oink oink" is a favorite and there was one on a yellow bun that I'm forgetting the name of that was incredible!

 

Sadly the butter chicken is gone from Razzle Dazzle on Resilient, however it was replaced with a fantastic burger. Two smash patties with blue cheese and gravy, highly recommend!

[CruisingWalter]

2 hours ago, neverendingcruising said:

I was surprised that Resilient does not have the flags in the Galley but we never waited any amount of time to have our order taken. Not sure how or why it seems they don't need the prompt on that ship. 

 

Brand new ship with a better system in place from the get-go I would imagine.  I'm still at a loss as to why they don't simply put the menus on the app and just have us order from there. Just enter your table number, enter the items and wait for delivery. Would cut down on the need for so many staff just to take orders.

 

[cantgetin]

3 hours ago, neverendingcruising said:

 

 

Sadly the butter chicken is gone from Razzle Dazzle on Resilient, however it was replaced with a fantastic burger. Two smash patties with blue cheese and gravy, highly recommend!

The "Beer Chicken" at RD was also great, and I don't drink beer.  I have no clue how they made it, but I ordered it at least twice on our last TA.

Agree that the special burgers were better than the standard, although adding a little seasoning made the standard decent.  I think VV is still fine-tuning things in some areas, but continuous improvement is good!  

[LMaxwell]

5 hours ago, CruisingWalter said:

 

Brand new ship with a better system in place from the get-go I would imagine.  I'm still at a loss as to why they don't simply put the menus on the app and just have us order from there. Just enter your table number, enter the items and wait for delivery. Would cut down on the need for so many staff just to take orders.

 

That would make a lot of sense.  

 

On Holland America, for their NY Pizza and Deli, and their Dive In (Burger, Chicken Sandwich, Hot Dog) you can access the app and order these items; then get a notification when they are ready.  These quick serve places are adjacent to the pool, so they don't really have expedited runner service, but I'd watch people stand in line for 30 minutes just to ORDER, and I'd just open the app from my pool chair and, order, and pickup the food in 15-20 minutes when the app would say it was ready.  

 

[CruisingWalter]

4 hours ago, LMaxwell said:

On Holland America, for their NY Pizza and Deli, and their Dive In (Burger, Chicken Sandwich, Hot Dog) you can access the app and order these items; then get a notification when they are ready. 

 

On Princess you order from the app and they bring it to you. They can locate us anywhere on the ship to deliver drinks or food with the Ocean Medallion wearables. I LOVE it. 🙂 

[LMaxwell]

3 minutes ago, CruisingWalter said:

 

On Princess you order from the app and they bring it to you. They can locate us anywhere on the ship to deliver drinks or food with the Ocean Medallion wearables. I LOVE it. 🙂 

 

Now that I see your avatar, I think I watched your videos before going on VV! Do you have a YT channel w food reviews? My wife sent it to me and I enjoyed it. If that's you...putting the menu on the screen and there long enough to read is a really nice touch. The video was helpful in our planning and knowing what to expect. 

I used to love putting my phone on airplane mode and throwing it in the safe; it was a highlight of cruising for me. But I recognize today's technology can really allow for improved experiences on vacation. I try to stay off the internet and still disconnect from the real world, but using my phone to get ship services like this is very cool to me. I think VV will adopt some of these ideas into their app. I could see phone-app ordering working at the Dock pretty well, the pizza place...and the coffee bar too. 

 

Overall I was pretty happy with Virgin Voyages food and options. Yes, it's easy to get nit picky about what doesn't work right, or what small tweaks could make a big difference. If my burger or chicken enchilada is bland, that's just my taste/preference and there's plenty of dishes I didn't have an opportunity to try yet, and I look forward to going back and doing things in a different order and different selections. 

 

Inconsistent service is on VV to fix, although they are not alone with this challenge in the travel and service industry. It was a couple of really negative experiences that stood out, while the majority of our experiences were seamless, pleasant, and efficient. 

 

I mean...no one is paying ME to design a cruise ship, so here I am on Cruise CRITIC with all the rest of us. 

 

Their standard coffee is offensive and obnoxiously bad though, lol. They must've got a deal. 

[CruisingWalter]

8 hours ago, LMaxwell said:

Now that I see your avatar, I think I watched your videos before going on VV! Do you have a YT channel w food reviews? My wife sent it to me and I enjoyed it. If that's you...putting the menu on the screen and there long enough to read is a really nice touch. The video was helpful in our planning and knowing what to expect. 

 

Yep that's me, glad the videos were helpful. So many people have mentioned the menus since the first video I make sure to keep doing them now. 🙂

 

8 hours ago, LMaxwell said:

Their standard coffee is offensive and obnoxiously bad though, lol. They must've got a deal. 

 

What's really ironic is the coffee they brought to our cabin as part of room service was fantastic. Maybe that's brewed in small batches but that coffee was very good. And yes that buffet coffee is terrible. 

[jon81uk]

Am I the only person who loves the drip coffee in the Galley? It’s got a nice sweet rounded flavour I thought.

[starbar36]

36 minutes ago, jon81uk said:

Am I the only person who loves the drip coffee in the Galley? It’s got a nice sweet rounded flavour I thought.

I like it too! Maybe it just doesn't suit the American palate (I'm from the UK). I find it similar to coffee I've had (and liked) in Scandinavia.

[Noho Ho]

I enjoyed your review.

 

I think some of the foibles you pointed out would be deal breakers for me. Still, I plan to see for myself.

 

Thank you.

[LMaxwell]

5 hours ago, Noho Ho said:

I enjoyed your review.

 

I think some of the foibles you pointed out would be deal breakers for me. Still, I plan to see for myself.

 

Thank you.

Are those more around service or the food itself? I feel like they are close on the service but currently it is more of a staff volume situation