Jamie's Italian by Jamie Oliver

The Logbook — Real Guest Soundings

Depth Sounding: This is a composite account from multiple guest experiences, edited to our venue standards for clarity. Individual sailings vary by ship, itinerary, and crew.

Jamie's Italian Review: The Pasta They Make Fresh Every Morning

We sat down at Jamie's on Symphony of the Seas on the second formal night, looking for something less stiff than the main dining room but more interesting than Windjammer leftovers. The host seated us at a corner two-top on Deck 8, right where the open kitchen starts — you could see the pasta station from there, flour dusted across the counter, sheets of fresh tagliatelle draped over dowels. That's the thing about this place: the food is made in front of you, and it shows.

Food & Drinks

We started with the meat plank — San Daniele prosciutto, fennel salami, coppa piccante, mortadella with tomato crostini, bocconcini mozzarella, and pecorino with chilli jam. It's meant to share between six. Two of us handled it fine. The truffle tagliatelle was the clear winner of the night — rich, nutty, with a cream sauce that balanced the earthiness without drowning it. The carbonara ran a close second, silky and smoky with guanciale that had actual chew to it. We tried the chicken parmigiana as a main — the breading lacked crunch and the sauce tasted closer to the buffet's marinara than something from a specialty kitchen. That's the honest pattern here, and reviewers across the fleet agree: the pasta is where the skill shows. The non-pasta mains are fine, but they won't make you glad you paid the cover charge.

Fair warning — at $54.99 per person for dinner, it's not cheap for Italian food. If that gives you pause, the lunch menu runs the same kitchen for $23-26, which is genuinely good value. And unlike some specialty venues, you can order as many courses as you want — no limits on starters, mains, or desserts.

Service

Our server walked us through the planks versus individual starters, recommended the tagliatelle without hesitation, and flagged that the epic brownie needs about ten minutes to come out warm. That kind of specificity beats the generic "everything is wonderful" pitch you sometimes get elsewhere. On busy nights — sea days especially — the kitchen can back up. We avoided that by booking the 6:00 PM seating instead of the 7:30 rush.

Atmosphere / Ambiance

Wooden tables, that open pasta station, exposed brick textures, Edison bulbs — it reads as a Tuscan trattoria that happens to be floating through the Caribbean. Families fit in easily; so do couples. The noise level climbs as the room fills, which adds energy but means it's not the place for a whispered anniversary dinner. For that, 150 Central Park is down the corridor on the same deck.

Conclusion

Rating: 4.2/5 — The pasta justifies the cover charge; the mains don't always. Order the truffle tagliatelle, the meat plank, and the epic brownie. Skip the burger and the tiramisu. Book the early seating on sea days to avoid the kitchen backup. If you're a Diamond Plus Crown & Anchor member, the BOGO dining perk drops the effective price to ~$27 per person — at which point this becomes one of the better values on the ship.

Pro Tips:

• Ask for the pasta as your main course — you can request a larger portion, and it's consistently better than the non-pasta entrees
• Book the 6:00 PM seating on sea days to dodge the 7:30 crowd that can push kitchen wait times past 40 minutes
• On Symphony and Harmony, Jamie's is on Deck 8 in the Central Park neighborhood — grab a post-dinner espresso at the adjacent Park Cafe
• The epic brownie needs lead time; order it with your main so it arrives warm

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