Pink Agave on Virgin Voyages: Our Dinner on Resilient Lady
Pink Agave was our first dinner aboard Resilient Lady, and it set the bar pretty high for the rest of our five-night cruise.
By the end of the sailing, Pink Agave was definitely my favorite restaurant on the ship. There were other restaurants I liked for different reasons, but if I had to choose one favorite, this would be it. There were a couple of things I did not enjoy, but everything else was excellent. The service was great, and one particular steak became the steak I compared every other one onboard to for the rest of the cruise.
And considering I'm not usually a big ribeye person, that says quite a bit. Keep reading to learn more about what our experience was and what we thought of what we ate.
First Impressions & Service at Pink Agave on Virgin Voyages
Pink Agave on Virgin Voyages makes an impression before you even reach the host stand. The entrance itself is really cool, with a glass-lined corridor leading into the restaurant that immediately gives you a sense that you're walking into somewhere special.
Once we reached the host stand, we were greeted very quickly and seated almost immediately. Since Pink Agave was our first dinner aboard Resilient Lady, it was also our first experience with one of Virgin Voyages' full-service restaurants.
The service continued to be very good throughout the entire meal. Once we started ordering, our food came out surprisingly fast, but we never felt rushed. Everything arrived hot and fresh, and we weren't sitting around waiting between dishes.
It was such a great dinner from the very beginning that Pink Agave became the dining experience I compared the rest of our restaurants onboard to.
Inside Pink Agave
Once inside, Pink Agave has a darker, moodier feel, with beautiful lighting, rich colors, and several different spaces throughout the restaurant.
One of the first things you see is the large bar, and then farther into the restaurant there is a smaller bar, which was actually behind where we were sitting. I really liked that there were these different areas throughout the restaurant rather than everything feeling like one large, open dining room.
And even with the darker atmosphere inside, you never forget that you're dining at sea. There are windows looking out over the ocean, giving you that really cool contrast between the moodier interior and the ocean just outside.
What We Ordered at Pink Agave
Virgin Voyages provides this sample menu for Pink Agave, although selections can change. Our menu onboard included many of the same dishes shown here.
There were four of us at the table, so we were able to try several different things throughout dinner. We each ordered what we wanted, but we also shared bites so we could taste some of what everyone else ordered.
That gave me a chance to try quite a bit of the menu and, with only a couple of exceptions, I really liked everything I tasted.
Drinks at Pink Agave
I personally stuck with water at Pink Agave because I was feeling like I needed to hydrate, but my travel partners ordered a couple of drinks with dinner.
One ordered the Whiskey Sour and really liked it. The other ordered La Vida Libre, and she did not like it at all. I tried hers, and I didn't care for it either.
It had a very sour taste with a bitter edge to it that neither of us enjoyed. It was just way too sour for me.
So the Whiskey Sour was a hit at our table. La Vida Libre definitely was not.
Guacamole
The Guacamole was very fresh and light, which I really liked. It had plenty of flavor without feeling heavy.
It was served with these large, curved pieces of crunchy tortilla that almost looked like a tortilla shell had been broken into large sections rather than the typical small tortilla chips you might expect. They were really crunchy, had plenty of flavor on their own, and paired really well with the fresh guacamole.
Esquites
The Esquites had so much flavor packed into it. Corn can sometimes be pretty bland on its own, but that definitely wasn't the case here. Everything mixed into the corn gave it a really savory, flavorful taste.
I really enjoyed this one.
Camarón Amarillo
The Camarón Amarillo was another dish I really enjoyed. I wouldn't have thought to pair little potatoes with shrimp, but the combination of the shrimp, potatoes, and sauce that came with it was really good.
Everything paired very nicely together, and I really enjoyed the flavors of the dish.
Bistec Marinero en Escabeche
This was easily the highlight of the entire dinner for me.
The Bistec Marinero en Escabeche is a ribeye, and I'm actually not usually a huge ribeye person. If I'm choosing a steak, I tend to gravitate toward filet mignon.
But this steak was amazing.
Three of the four of us at the table ordered the steak, including me. I ordered mine medium, and it came out perfectly medium. The steak itself was extremely tender, juicy, and full of flavor.
Then you had the creamy cheese and the brown sauce that came with it. The sauce had a lot of flavor, but it wasn't overpowering. Combined with the creamy cheese and that incredibly tender, juicy steak, the entire combination was just inspiring.
It ended up being the best steak I had during the entire cruise.
Because Pink Agave was our first dinner aboard Resilient Lady, this steak became the one I compared every other steak onboard to for the rest of the sailing. At a couple of different points during the cruise, my travel partner even pointed out that I was still talking about the steak from Pink Agave.
She wasn't wrong.
Every time I had another steak, that Pink Agave ribeye was still in the back of my mind. By the end of the cruise, none of the others had topped it.
For something I wouldn't normally even choose as my preferred cut of steak, it ended up being one of the most memorable things I ate during the entire trip.
Enchilada de Pollo
One of my travel partners ordered the Enchilada de Pollo, while the rest of us ordered the steak. I did get to try some of her enchilada, though, and it was pretty good.
I was definitely happy with my decision to order the Bistec Marinero en Escabeche, but the enchilada was another good choice from the menu.
Time for Dessert
We tried several desserts before we left, and this was another area where Pink Agave gave us plenty to talk about.
My usual dessert preferences tend to lean toward things that are smooth and creamy, fruit-forward, cheesecake-based, or tarts. I generally don't gravitate toward desserts that are particularly dry, crumbly, cakey, or bready.
Which makes the dessert that ended up being my favorite a little unexpected.
Capirotada
The Capirotada was my favorite dessert at Pink Agave.
And yes, it's bread pudding.
Bread pudding would not normally be the dessert I'd expect to choose as my favorite, but this one completely surprised me.
It was incredibly moist and had a really good flavor. It didn't have that dry, overly bready, or cakey quality that tends to make me choose something else when I'm looking at a dessert menu.
It also had a delicate sweetness to it without being sickly sweet. It was just the right balance for me.
I really enjoyed this one, and surprisingly, out of all the desserts we tried, it ended up being my favorite.
Milhojas
The Milhojas was also very good, and I liked it for some of the same reasons I liked the Capirotada, even though the two desserts had different flavor profiles.
Looking at the layers of pastry, I expected it to be really crispy, but the pastry was actually much more delicate than I expected. The cream between the layers had that same kind of delicate sweetness I enjoyed in the Capirotada without being overly sweet.
The flavors were different from the Capirotada, but both desserts had that lighter, more delicate sweetness that I really enjoyed.
Tamal de Chocolate
The Tamal de Chocolate was the one dessert I really did not enjoy.
It had a chocolate-and-corn flavor that reminded me of the masa used to make a traditional tamale, along with a surprisingly gritty texture.
I'm normally not someone who is particularly bothered by food textures. It generally takes quite a bit for texture alone to bother me. But in this case, it was the combination of that gritty texture with a flavor I also didn't enjoy.
The whole thing was just very unpleasant to me. I did not enjoy this one at all.
Of everything we had during dinner, this and La Vida Libre were the two things I genuinely did not like.
Tacos de Chocolate
I didn't personally try the Tacos de Chocolate, so I can't give you my own opinion on this one.
My travel partner did try them, though, and she said they were really good. They're made with Mexican chocolate, cinnamon, and dulce de leche.
Was Pink Agave My Favorite Restaurant on Resilient Lady?
Yes, it definitely was.
There were other restaurants onboard that I really liked for different reasons, but if I had to choose one favorite from the entire cruise, Pink Agave would be it.
There were really only two things I didn't care for during the entire dinner: the Tamal de Chocolate and La Vida Libre. Everything else was perfect.
The Guacamole was fresh and light, the Esquites was packed with flavor, and I really enjoyed the combination of shrimp, potatoes, and sauce in the Camarón Amarillo. Surprisingly, out of all the desserts we tried, the Capirotada ended up being my favorite, and the Milhojas was really good, too.
But the thing I kept coming back to was that steak.
When your travel partner starts pointing out that you're still talking about a steak several days after you ate it, it apparently made an impression.
Pink Agave set the standard from our very first dinner, and none of the other steaks I had during the cruise managed to beat that Bistec Marinero en Escabeche.
Planning a Virgin Voyages Cruise?
Pink Agave is absolutely a restaurant I would want to eat at again on another Virgin Voyages sailing.
I've booked Virgin Voyages for clients, but experiencing it firsthand gives me a different perspective on all those little details that are difficult to get from simply reading menus and descriptions. Pink Agave is a perfect example. I can tell my clients what the restaurant actually felt like, how the service was, what I enjoyed, what I didn't, and which dishes were still on my mind several days later.
And when it comes to Pink Agave, there's one thing I already know I would order again.
That steak.
And my only regret about Pink Agave? Not eating there again while we were still onboard.
Dreamverse Travel can help you choose the right Virgin Voyages sailing, navigate your pre-cruise planning, and work through the details before you ever step onboard.
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