The Wake Virgin Voyages menu is a steak and seafood dinner and brunch menu served aboard Scarlet Lady, Valiant Lady, Resilient Lady, and Brilliant Lady. Core dishes include filet mignon, hanger steak, New Zealand lamb chops, and raw bar platters, and almost everything is included in your cruise fare except for a short list of “Treat Yourself” upcharge items like the Tomahawk steak. It’s one of the hardest reservations to land onboard, so knowing the menu before you book helps you plan the right time slot.
What’s Actually on the Dinner Menu
Dinner at The Wake opens with a handful of starters that set the tone for the rest of the meal. The clam chowder is poured tableside from a small pitcher, which is a nice bit of theater before you’ve even picked up a fork. Roasted bone marrow, a wedge salad with smoked bacon and blue cheese, duck terrine, and caramelized sea scallops round out the starter list on most sailings.
From there, the “From the Grill” section is where the restaurant earns its steakhouse reputation:
- Herb roasted chicken
- Hanger steak
- Filet mignon (roughly 7 oz)
- New York strip (roughly 12 oz)
- New Zealand lamb chops
- Salt-encrusted sea bass or Atlantic salmon, depending on the sailing
Sides are ordered family-style and shared across the table. Creamed spinach, brown butter mushrooms, a bacon-wrapped twice-baked potato, and fries all show up regularly, and the mushrooms in particular get requested by name from returning sailors.
Here’s the detail most menu roundups skip entirely: The Wake serves a four-sauce flight with every steak order, at no extra charge. It typically includes a classic steak sauce, a salsa verde, a romesco, and a bone marrow bearnaise. The bearnaise is the one worth saving room for. It turns a good steak into something closer to what you’d get at a standalone steakhouse charging three times the price.
Brunch at The Wake Works Differently Than Dinner
The Wake’s brunch menu is not a smaller version of the dinner menu. It’s its own thing, and it runs from around 8am with lunch service layered in starting at noon, when extra dinner-style items get added to the brunch lineup. Past sailors have flagged dishes like a Reuben Benedict showing up on brunch menus, alongside lighter options if you’re not up for a full steakhouse breakfast.
This is also where the bottomless brunch happens. The Wake is one of two venues onboard offering it, alongside Razzle Dazzle, and it includes unlimited mimosas and Bloody Marys for a set window, usually around two hours, for a small extra charge. Many sailors pay for this straight out of their Bar Tab rather than as a one-off charge, which is worth knowing before you book if you’re already tracking a drinks budget.
One booking quirk worth knowing: the Virgin Voyages app tends to default to dinner slots when you’re reserving. If you want brunch, you’ll usually need to swipe backward through the time options to find the morning availability. It’s a small thing, but it trips up a lot of first-time sailors who assume brunch just isn’t bookable.
The Dessert Menu Deserves Its Own Section
Dessert at The Wake gets less coverage than the steaks, which is a mistake, because it’s genuinely one of the better dessert lineups on the ship.
The Meyer lemon cheesecake is the one people photograph. It’s plated to look like an actual lemon half, and when you crack into it, you get a creamy cheesecake filling with a cinnamon cookie crumble underneath. It’s a bit of a showpiece, but it also tastes good, which isn’t always guaranteed with dishes designed to look impressive.
“The Wake” itself is a rich chocolate mousse cake and the restaurant’s signature dessert, named after the venue. If you want something lighter to close out a big meal, the Baked Alaska is the better call. It’s less dense and works well if you’ve already gone heavy on steak and sides.
What Costs Extra at The Wake
Virgin Voyages built its whole pitch around included dining, and The Wake mostly delivers on that. The steaks, sides, sauces, and most starters are part of your fare. But there’s a short list of premium items clearly marked on the menu, and pricing on these has moved around a bit over the past couple of years, so treat the numbers below as a general range rather than a locked-in figure.
| Item | Typical Price | What You Get |
|---|---|---|
| Petit Plateau | $40–$45 | Half lobster, oysters, poached shrimp, mussels, snow crab claws, clams |
| Grand Plateau | $70–$85 | Whole lobster, oysters, crawfish, poached shrimp, mussels, snow crab claws, Alaskan king crab legs |
| Oysters | $20 (half dozen) / $40 (dozen) | East and West Coast varieties |
| Aged Tomahawk Steak | Around $65 | Sliced and plated tableside |
Everything else, including the filet, lamb chops, sauce flight, and desserts, comes at no extra cost. If you’re trying to keep a sailing on a tight onboard budget, you can eat extremely well at The Wake without touching the upcharge column at all.
A quick note from experience: the Grand Plateau is easy to over-order for a couple. It’s built for four to six people sharing, not two. I’ve seen tables order it for a date night and end up taking half of it home in a box, which on a ship isn’t really an option. Split it across a bigger group or stick with individual oysters if there are only two of you.
Why the Menu Might Look Different on Your Sailing
Virgin Voyages has been quietly adjusting Wake menus ship by ship rather than rolling out one identical menu fleet-wide. As of August 2026, brunch and dinner menus vary slightly between Scarlet Lady, Valiant Lady, Resilient Lady, and Brilliant Lady, so a dish you loved on one ship might be swapped for something else on the next. Sailors have reported items like the hanger steak disappearing from a brunch menu on one ship while staying on another, and dessert details like the panna cotta recipe changing between sailings.
The practical takeaway: don’t assume the exact dish list from a blog post, including this one, will match what’s on your ship the week you sail. The categories (steak, raw bar, sides, sauce flight) are consistent. The specific items rotate.
If you’re planning a Virgin Voyages sailing, our Virgin Voyages cruise guides can help you plan your dining, reservations, and onboard experience.
How The Wake Compares to Other Virgin Voyages Restaurants
If you’re trying to figure out how to split your reservations across a sailing, here’s how The Wake stacks up against the other big-name venues onboard.
| Venue | Cuisine | Meal Times | Standout Dish |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Wake | Steak & seafood | Brunch, dinner | Filet mignon with sauce flight |
| Extra Virgin | Italian | Lunch, dinner | Truffle potato gnocchi |
| Razzle Dazzle | Vegetable-forward, plant-based options | Brunch, dinner | Nashville hot cauliflower |
| Gunbae | Korean BBQ | Dinner | Tableside grilled Wagyu upgrade |
| The Galley | Market-style, grab-and-go | All day | Rotating global street food stalls |
The Wake is the closest thing onboard to a traditional land-based steakhouse, which is exactly why it fills up fast. If you only book one “special occasion” dinner on your sailing, this is the one most repeat sailors point to first.
Booking Tips That Actually Matter
Reservations for The Wake typically open 45 days before your sailing date, or 60 days out if you’re booked in a RockStar Suite. Given how quickly this venue books up, especially for dinner and bottomless brunch slots, it’s worth setting a calendar reminder for the exact day your booking window opens rather than checking in casually a week or two later.
Dress code is loose across the ship, but The Wake is one of the few venues where most sailors do make a bit more effort in the evening. Smart casual works fine. Nobody is checking for jackets, but you’ll notice more people dressed up here than at, say, The Galley.
FAQs About The Wake Virgin Voyages Menu
Is The Wake included in my Virgin Voyages cruise fare?
Yes. Nearly the entire menu, including steaks, sides, the sauce flight, and desserts, is covered by your fare. Only clearly marked premium items like the Tomahawk steak and raw bar platters cost extra.
What is the price of the Grand Plateau at The Wake?
The Grand Plateau typically runs $70 to $85 and includes whole lobster, oysters, crawfish, poached shrimp, mussels, snow crab claws, and Alaskan king crab legs. Pricing can shift slightly between sailings.
Does The Wake menu change between ships?
Yes, and this has become more noticeable in 2026. Scarlet Lady, Valiant Lady, Resilient Lady, and Brilliant Lady each run slightly different versions of the brunch and dinner menus, so specific dishes aren’t guaranteed fleet-wide.
Do I need a reservation for The Wake’s brunch?
Reservations are strongly recommended, especially for the bottomless brunch slots. Walk-ins are sometimes possible depending on availability, but booking ahead through the app is the safer move.
What is the signature dessert at The Wake?
“The Wake,” a rich chocolate mousse cake named after the restaurant, is the official signature dessert. The Meyer lemon cheesecake is the more talked-about item because of its lemon-shaped presentation.
Is there a kids menu at The Wake?
The Wake leans adult in atmosphere and menu design, and Virgin Voyages sailings are 18 and up by policy, so there isn’t a separate children’s menu here.
Can I use my Bar Tab for The Wake’s bottomless brunch?
Yes, many sailors apply their onboard Bar Tab toward the bottomless brunch upcharge rather than paying it as a separate one-off cost.
What should I order on my first visit to The Wake?
Start with the clam chowder or bone marrow, get the filet mignon or hanger steak with the full sauce flight, add the brown butter mushrooms and twice-baked potato as sides, and finish with the Meyer lemon cheesecake if you have room.