Wake up! It's time for dinner!

The last restaurant that we scheduled for dinner twice on this trip was The Wake. This restaurant is located at the back of the ship and is thus named for the ship's wake that you can view while dining. On at least one of our evenings, we were still in port at our reservation time and got a bonus nice view of the dock lit up as it started getting dark. Our ambience only slightly marred by the hard of hearing couple seated at the table next to us. It was like an old comedy routine watching the two of them try to yell over the noise to each other. One would yell to repeat what the waiter said but the other would have no clue and yell back "What?!" even louder. I feel for the server who kept having to repeat himself only to be yelled at in response. 

Our two dinners were pretty much the same menu choices but unfortunately also the slowest service both nights that we'd had in any of the other restaurants. Each time we were brought this small dish of a four part pull apart pretzel bread roll that was delightful! My regret is not in the extra calories but in the fact that they whisked the dish away and never offered any more! On the second night there, we hadn't even gotten to finish the last pieces before the waiter took it while delivering our appetizer course. I admit that after that I did get a little bread territorial in the final yet to be talked about restaurant. 

While Dad repeated the Wedge Salad, I enjoyed the Clam Chowder - Yukon Gold Potato, Bacon, and Chive Batons. This dish comes with its own tableside show. What is placed in front of you is a bowl that would have you thinking they forgot half the dish in the kitchen.

The waiter then completes the presentation by pouring the soup part of the dish from a little container into your bowl. Our waiter joked to Dad that "they all do this" when I asked him to give me a second to get my camera ready before he started pouring.

For our main dishes, we both chose the Filet Mignon with American-Style Steak Sauce and French Fries. The cut of steak was fairly small, barely bigger than the half head of garlic. Dad was thoroughly confused as to why half a bulb of roasted garlic appeared on his plate each time. He wouldn't believe the simple flavor explanations I tried to give. I came close to telling him that vampires really like filet mignon and this was to keep them away from your plate.

I'd learned by this point that not only is there a lot of dishes on Virgin Voyages' menus that include nuts in the dish descriptions, but that for the most part it ends up being used as garnish. So when it came time for dessert, I asked if the dessert known as "The Wake" had hazelnuts mixed in or just as garnish that one could request to be left off. You would have thought I'd insulted our server personally the way he reacted to my question. He hemmed and hawed and kept trying to insist that the dish wouldn't be the same without the hazelnuts and needed to have them included. When I still asked for an answer to my original question, he finally replies "Well unless you're allergic?" and admitted that it was simply sprinkled on top and easily removed. Didn't expect to have to fight for my right to not eat the nutty garnish.

Meet "The Wake" dessert with all of its 3 "necessary" hazelnuts - Chocolate Mousse, Shortcrust, Caramel Cremoso, and Hazelnuts. The dessert itself, once said hazelnuts were removed from my dish to be enjoyed by Dad instead, was rich and super chocolatey. 

For our second visits to The Wake for dinner, we tried two other dessert options. 

I'm guessing this first picture is the Coconut "Panna Cotta" listed on the menu as fresh berries, candied orange, and pine nut granola. However, those were halved cherries and the pine nut granola seems to have gotten mixed up with the pistachios. That or the more likely answer of "We have a ton of pistachios so let's put it in everything!" For the record, this was Dad's dessert and I only tasted one of the cherries without any pistachio stuck to it. At first glance I thought it was actually halved purple grapes on the plate! I tried asking Dad what fruit that was on the plate but Mr. Picky Eater wouldn't taste test it himself. 

My dessert was the Apple Tatin - Caramelized Apple and Mascarpone Creme. I liked the fact that instead of just putting the baked apple on the plate, they took the time to cut out the sweeter center to keep it aligned on the base crust. It looked like stacked razor thin rings but it took some effort to slide my spoon through as it still had the texture of a crustless apple pie. I'm not a big fan of apple flavored desserts but this was a nice change of pace from all the chocolate.