Scarlet Lady has over 20 places to eat, and not one of them is a traditional main dining room. There is no buffet either. Virgin Voyages scrapped both concepts and replaced them with six table-service restaurants, a food-hall with eight stations, a 24-hour diner, a pizza counter, a poke bar, an ice cream shop, and room service. Every restaurant is included in the fare. No cover charges, no supplements on standard menu items, no tipping. This is the single biggest thing that separates Virgin from conventional cruise lines, and it changes how you plan your days on board.

The quality is genuinely high. Virgin commissioned Michelin-starred chefs to design the menus, and each restaurant has its own dedicated kitchen, chef, and staff. The Italian is not reheating the same food as the steakhouse. They are separate operations.

How Dining Works on This Ship

All dining is included in the voyage fare. There is no upcharge for the six specialty restaurants. A few premium menu items carry a supplement - the Tomahawk steak at The Wake costs around £55 ($75), and the raw bar platters run £35-65 ($45-85). Drinks pairing menus at The Test Kitchen and Extra Virgin are £20-28 ($25-35). But the standard menus, from appetiser through dessert, are covered.

Reservations are required for the six table-service restaurants (The Wake, Extra Virgin, Pink Agave, Gunbae, The Test Kitchen, and Lucky Lotus by Razzle Dazzle). Book through the Virgin Voyages app. The window opens 15 to 120 days before sailing depending on your fare type. Essential Fare opens at 45 days. Only about 30% of slots release pre-voyage - the rest open on boarding day.

On short sailings of five nights or fewer, you can book each restaurant once for dinner. Longer sailings allow two or three visits. Brunch at The Wake and Razzle Dazzle does not count against your dinner reservation limit.

Dress code is relaxed. Virgin’s official line is “no dress code” - the reality is smart casual to going-out attire. You will see jeans at The Wake and cocktail dresses at Gunbae. Nobody is enforcing anything.

Main Dining Room

Scarlet Lady does not have one. This is deliberate. Instead of a single large dining room serving rotating menus, Virgin distributed the capacity across six smaller restaurants, each with a distinct cuisine and its own kitchen. This is the model.

The closest equivalent to a “regular dinner” is Extra Virgin, the Italian restaurant on Deck 6. It has communal tables, a warm atmosphere, and the kind of menu - antipasti, pasta, secondi, dessert - that feels familiar enough to visit multiple times without fatigue. The handmade pasta is genuinely excellent. It is the restaurant most passengers return to first when they can book a second visit.

If you want breakfast or brunch in a sit-down restaurant rather than the food hall, your options are The Wake (Deck 7 aft) and Razzle Dazzle/Lucky Lotus (Deck 5). Both open for brunch from 8am to 1pm. The Wake’s brunch is particularly good - the steak and eggs and the razor-clam chowder are standouts.

Specialty Restaurants

Extra Virgin (Deck 6) - Italian

Dinner only, 6-10pm. Communal tables and a private dining room designed to feel like a mobster’s lair. The menu runs to about 30 dishes - charcuterie boards, six pasta options, meat and fish mains, and a tableside affogato cart that is worth planning your evening around. The handmade pasta is the star. Book this restaurant early - it is one of the most popular on the ship. The Sip and Savor drinks pairing is £28 ($35) and genuinely well-matched. Read more about dining at Extra Virgin.

Pink Agave (Deck 5) - Mexican

Dinner only. The most visually striking restaurant on the ship, accessed through a light portal designed by Tom Dixon. Contemporary Mexican with an emphasis on regional flavours - tlayudas, memelas, esquites, enchiladas. The entire menu is gluten-free, which makes it the best choice for coeliac passengers. The mezcal selection is serious. Pink Agave has the smallest dining room of the six, so book this on the day reservations open. The Sip and Savor pairing here is also £28 ($35).

The Test Kitchen (Deck 6) - Experimental

Dinner only. A six-course tasting menu where you are given a list of core ingredients - mushroom, egg, scallop, venison, blue cheese, chocolate - but the dish itself is a surprise. There is an open kitchen at the centre of the room. It is theatre as much as dinner. Optional drinks pairings (beer, wine, cocktails, or non-alcoholic) run £20-28 ($25-35). The Test Kitchen is for adventurous eaters. If you want to know exactly what you are eating before it arrives, skip this one. If you enjoy being surprised, it is the best meal on the ship.

The Wake (Deck 7 aft) - Steak and Seafood

Brunch 8am-1pm, dinner 5:30-9:30pm. The glamorous option, located at the stern with wake views. Steaks are the headline - filet mignon, New York strip, hanger steak. The razor-clam chowder is outstanding. Brunch here is arguably better than dinner, with steak and eggs and a bottomless brunch option for £20 ($25). For dinner, premium items like the Tomahawk (£55/$75) and seafood tower (£45-65/$55-85) carry supplements. The standard menu does not.

Gunbae (Deck 6) - Korean BBQ

Dinner only. The loudest restaurant on the ship by design. Your server cooks meat at the table while you play drinking games with a complimentary bottle of plum wine. You shout “GUNBAE” (Korean for “cheers”) and the energy stays high all evening. The meat is generous, the banchan sides are authentic, and the staff handle the grilling so your clothes stay relatively smoke-free. Book early in your sailing - this fills up fast.

Lucky Lotus by Razzle Dazzle (Deck 5) - Chinese-inspired

This is the newest addition. In late 2024, Scarlet Lady converted Razzle Dazzle’s dinner service into Lucky Lotus, a Chinese-inspired concept. The brunch menu remains largely the same as the original Razzle Dazzle - vegetarian-forward with “naughty” meat options, including a secret burger that your server will tell you about. For dinner, Lucky Lotus serves Peking duck bao buns, vegetable dumplings, five-spice pork chop, stir-fried rice noodles, and grilled ribeye. The Sip and Savor pairing is £28 ($35). The brunch drag show is still a fixture and is genuinely entertaining.

Casual and Buffet Dining

The Galley on Deck 15 replaces the traditional cruise buffet. It is a food-hall with eight-plus stations arranged around open seating with views over the sea. You sit down, scan a QR code for the menu, and a server takes your order. Food is cooked fresh and brought to your table. It is not self-service.

Stations cover everything from 24-hour breakfast at Diner and Dash to ramen, sushi, tacos, burgers, paninis, and a bakery. The Galley is where most passengers eat breakfast and lunch. Quality is solid, particularly the bakery pastries and the salad bar at lunchtime. Peak times - 8-9:30am for breakfast, 12-1:30pm for lunch - get busy. Go at 7am or 10am to avoid the rush.

The Pizza Place on Deck 7 serves custom-built wood-fired pizzas from 11:30am to 6:30pm and again from 9pm to 1:30am. It is the perfect late-night option after Scarlet Night or a session in The Manor. The Dock House on Deck 7 aft does Mediterranean small plates and mezze in an outdoor setting - the octopus skewers are excellent.

Sun Club Cafe on Deck 15 serves poke bowls poolside. Lick Me Till Ice Cream on Deck 7 scoops six flavours of handmade ice cream and gelato, all included.

Room Service

Ship Eats is Scarlet Lady’s 24-hour room service, ordered through the app. The menu pulls dishes from several onboard restaurants - you can get a New York strip from The Wake’s menu, beet hummus from The Dock, or a charcuterie plate, all delivered to your cabin.

There is a £8 ($10) delivery fee per order. The fee is waived if your order includes any priced item totalling £8 ($10) or more - so adding an espresso or a fresh-pressed juice effectively makes the delivery free. RockStar Suite guests get free delivery. Pre-order breakfast the night before by 2am for delivery between 5-11am.

Quality is above average for cruise room service. Delivery times run 20-40 minutes, better than quoted. The menu covers breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. The honest negative: the delivery fee model means room service feels less “included” than everything else on the ship. Use it for breakfast on port days when you want to get off the ship early.

The One Dinner to Book

If you book one specialty dinner on Scarlet Lady, make it The Test Kitchen. The six-course tasting menu is unlike anything else at sea. Each course arrives as a surprise, and the open kitchen gives you a direct view of how the food is prepared. The portion sizes are modest but the range of flavours across six courses means you leave satisfied.

Book for 7pm if you can. The Test Kitchen takes about two hours, which gives you time to head to The Manor or a cocktail bar afterwards. The optional drinks pairing at £20-28 ($25-35) is well-matched and worth the supplement, particularly the cocktail option. No reservation change or bar tab can be used for the pairing - it is paid separately.

Dietary Needs and Allergies

Virgin Voyages handles dietary requirements better than most cruise lines but with an important caveat: their kitchens are not allergen-free environments. Cross-contamination is possible.

For vegetarian and vegan passengers, Razzle Dazzle/Lucky Lotus is the dedicated option, but every restaurant has clearly labelled vegetarian and vegan dishes. The Galley stations also mark dietary categories. Pink Agave is entirely gluten-free. Extra Virgin can accommodate dairy-free requests with notice, and The Test Kitchen offers a full vegan tasting menu.

For gluten-free passengers, Pink Agave is the standout - every savoury item on the menu is marked GF. Other restaurants have GF options but sauces may contain gluten, so always confirm with your server.

Virgin Voyages does not offer halal or kosher dining options. If you have severe allergies, contact Sailor Services at least 45 days before sailing. The crew records dietary restrictions in your sailor profile after the first restaurant visit, and servers confirm them at every subsequent meal.

The practical tip: on your first dinner, tell your server about all dietary needs. They log it in the system. Every restaurant you visit after that will already know.