Scarlet Lady: Dinner at Gunbae

One of the signature features of Virgin Voyages is that all the restaurants are included in your cruise fare.  There is not a concept of "speciality" dining. You can eat at any of the restaurants and not have to pay a cover charge.  

Gunbae is one of the restaurants. It is Korean BBQ. You start with a plate of small appetizers. 

From left to right, too to bottom is seaweed salad with kelp, sauteed eggplant, spicy kimchi, bean sprouts and noodles.  The eggplant was my favorite.  Almost like a ratatouille.

We also ordered a couple of the signature cocktails.  Each restaurant has unique cocktails which is something I wish more shipboard restaurants would do.  This is the K-Pop Disco Water. 

This was grapefruit soju, watermelon, lemon, bitters and topped with pop rocks. Very much like a Paloma except a hit sweeter and the pop rocks added a fun component.  

Also had the Lucky #7 which was similar to a Manhattan made with plum soju, whiskey, sweet vermouth and orange bitters.  

I had not had soju before but will be trying more of it.  It is similar to sake except that soju is not made exclusively from rice.  Wheat, barley and even sweet potato is used so the result is a sweeter and more balanced beverage.  

Our server had several recommended appetizers which we had him bring.  There were only two we definitely wanted to try.  First was the Hot Bar which was described as a seafood corn dog. 

This was like a crab cake on a stick. I wish it has a bit more texture but the flavor was good. The sauce needed a bit more heat.  

We also ordered the kimchi fried rice. This was a very savory dish with a great amount of spice. We enjoyed it so much that I didn't have time to take a picture.  

Then more recommended appetizers started appearing including scallion pancake.

Also the dakgangjeong, or in English "forever" fried chicken.

Similar to a General Tsos chicken - but with so much flavor. Spicy but not overpowering.  

Then the grilled meats, veggies and seafood started appearing.   They can much too fast and furious to capture. We had eggplant, zucchini, asparagus, shrimp, pork belly and two kinds of short ribs.  And there were sauces!!  The one of the right was tomato based but also seemed to have some anchovies.  

Theu served you lettuce do you could make.wraps with the meats and sauces.  

This was the grill after the damage had been done. 

We finished with a sweet ending of soft serve.  Not just any plain old sort serve.  This was black sesame and shikye served with some sauces.of caramel, mini-mini marshmallows and granola.  

I think I have my new favorite ice cream flavor of black sesame.  Savory and sweet. And shikye is essentially like vanilla since it is made with a sweet rice beverage.  

A fabulous meal - one I will definitely repeat nest time we sail on Virgin Voyages.