What Is JiJi Asian Kitchen on Carnival?

JiJi Asian Kitchen is Carnival Cruise Line's pan-Asian specialty restaurant, offering a waiter-served, full-course dinner for an additional charge. As of 2026, it's available on four ships: Carnival Horizon, Carnival Panorama, Carnival Sunshine, and Carnival Vista.

Dinner runs $24 per adult and $11 per child (11 and under) before Carnival's 20% service charge — a full-course meal, not à la carte. The menu spans multiple regional cuisines, including dishes from Peking, Sichuan, Nanjing, Guangdong, and Fujian, alongside Vietnamese, Singaporean, Indonesian, Filipino, and Mongolian dishes, served in sharing-size portions.

Quick Answer: JiJi Asian Kitchen is Carnival's pan-Asian specialty dinner venue, currently on four ships (Horizon, Panorama, Sunshine, Vista). Dinner costs $28.80 per adult and $13.20 per child with the 20% service charge included — making it Carnival's cheapest full-service specialty restaurant, well under half the price of the Steakhouse. The same room also runs as the free Mongolian Wok at lunch, with no charge and no reservation required.

JiJi Asian Kitchen Menu

Photo Courtesy: Carnival Cruise Line

The dinner menu is deliberately compact — roughly 26 numbered items across four courses — and it's ordered on a slate-style card with a pen rather than a printed menu.

The dishes cruisers name most often are the slow-braised pork belly, the Nanjing-style duck (slow-cooked, then flash wok-fried), the kung pao chicken, the peppered beef, and the Hakka-style noodles. For dessert, the caramelized crepes and rose creme brulee both have repeat followings. A crisp starter with four dipping sauces, ranging in heat level, comes at no charge, and the meal closes with fortune cookies.

Two things the menu won't tell you upfront. First, the spice is not a mere suggestion — several dishes lean on Sichuan peppercorns and chilies, and servers will steer you away from the hottest options if you ask. Second, vegetarians are largely out of luck: all six entrees are beef-, pork-, chicken-, or shrimp-based, and some of the vegetable sides aren't vegetarian either — the smoky beans are laced with minced pork, and the eggplant is doused in oyster sauce. A vegetarian is left ordering à la carte from broccoli, noodles, and rice.

On dietary needs: know the limitation upfront. Carnival states that dietary requirements can only be guaranteed in the main dining room, and other venues can't be assured allergen-free. JiJi's kitchen leans hard on soy, oyster sauce, hoisin, shellfish, and wheat noodles — notify Carnival at booking and speak to the maître d' directly rather than relying on a note to your server.

Chopsticks are the default, and forks come without asking. A kids' menu covers children 11 and under, but it must be requested.

How Much Does JiJi Asian Kitchen Cost?

Photo Courtesy: Carnival Cruise Line

Two numbers circulate for JiJi, and both are correct — they just measure different things. Carnival's dining pages quote $24 and $11; its dining reservation page quotes $28.80 and $13.20, because the 20% service charge is folded in there. The all-in figures are what actually lands on your Sail and Sign account. Any further gratuity beyond that is optional.

The charge covers food only, not bar service. JiJi has no full bar — just a short list of beer, wine, and signature cocktails — and cruisers have flagged that soft drinks like Thai iced tea can price above a beer. A Cheers! or Bottomless Bubbles package carries over here.

One thing Carnival's wording undersells: the fee is described as covering a starter, an entree, and a dessert, but the meal is actually served family style. The table orders a spread of plates and everyone shares, with dessert the one course ordered individually. Servers typically suggest around three appetizers, three entrees, and a couple of sides for a party of four, and will bring more on request.

How JiJi Compares to Carnival's Other Specialty Restaurants

Against the rest of the specialty lineup on these ships, JiJi sits at the bottom of the price range — tied with Cucina del Capitano and well under half the cost of the Steakhouse.

Which Carnival Ships Have JiJi Asian Kitchen?

As of 2026, JiJi is available on four ships only:

Note the class column carefully. Competitor articles routinely call all four "Vista-class," but Carnival Sunshine isn't — she's a rebuilt Carnival Destiny, with JiJi on Deck 9 rather than Deck 11.

JiJi never made it onto Carnival's newest hardware. On the Excel-class ships — Mardi Gras, Carnival Celebration, and Carnival Jubilee — the equivalent slot is filled by ChiBang!, which pairs Chinese and Mexican cooking and is complimentary on the first visit, around $8 after. Carnival Venezia and Carnival Firenze have Il Viaggio instead. Elsewhere, Asian-leaning complimentary options include Lucky Bowl on Carnival Sunrise and a standalone Mongolian Wok on several older ships, including Carnival Breeze, Carnival Magic, and Carnival Splendor.

If eating at JiJi specifically matters to you, it has to shape which ship you book — there's no way to add it to a sailing that doesn't have it.

Is JiJi Asian Kitchen Included in the Carnival Cruise Fare?

Dinner is not included — JiJi is a specialty restaurant, meaning it's an extra-cost venue on top of what's covered by your cruise fare (the main dining rooms, the Lido Marketplace buffet, Guy's Burger Joint, BlueIguana Cantina, the deli, the pizzeria, and Sea Day Brunch).

Lunch is a different story — see the Mongolian Wok section below for how that works.

Carnival sells no dining package that bundles specialty restaurants the way Royal Caribbean or MSC do. It has occasionally run pre-cruise value bundles that include a one-time specialty dining discount of around $25, though these come and go within limited booking windows. Otherwise, you pay per visit, in full, each time — though the charge is occasionally waived as part of promotions, casino offers, or suite bookings. Check what your specific fare covers before you reserve.

What Is Mongolian Wok at JiJi?

This is the part most first-time cruisers miss. At lunchtime, JiJi's room operates as the Mongolian Wok, a complimentary noodle service running roughly noon to 2:30 p.m. — no cover charge, no reservation, and no connection to the evening's fee.

The format is worth understanding, because many people get it wrong. It's not a buffet — you don't order at a register or build your own bowl. You're seated at a table, given a slip of paper listing your options, and you choose: a protein (chicken, pork, beef, or shrimp), a noodle, and a sauce (spicy Sichuan, Thai barbecue, black bean, or soy). Some ships also ask whether you want a stir-fry or a soup bowl. A waiter collects your slip, and your meal is cooked to order.

The single most useful tip: it's typically open on embarkation day, when almost everyone else is packed into the Lido buffet. Cruisers who know this board the ship, head straight up to JiJi, and eat a made-to-order lunch in a near-empty room. Later in the cruise, a queue forms within minutes of opening. On the Vista-class ships, JiJi and Cucina del Capitano sit side by side, and JiJi reliably has the shorter line.

Manage expectations on the food itself — cruiser verdicts land closer to "solid" than "spectacular," with noodle texture the recurring complaint (undercooked in one bowl, overcooked in the next). The menu is far narrower than dinner's, and lunch isn't guaranteed daily, so check your Fun Times or the Carnival HUB app.

Do You Need a Reservation for JiJi?

No — walk-ins are seated as space allows. That said, a reservation is the smarter choice, since JiJi is a small room and the popular 7 p.m. slot tends to fill quickly.

Booking opens well before sailing through Carnival's Cruise Manager, and online reservations close 48 hours before your sail date. After that, book onboard at the restaurant, by phone from your stateroom, or through the Carnival HUB app. JiJi also skips Carnival's strict cancellation penalty that applies to the Chef's Table, Bonsai Teppanyaki, and the Thing 1 and Thing 2 Birthday Breakfast — those charge full price for cancellations inside 48 hours; JiJi doesn't.

Dinner runs from 5:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., though hours vary by sailing. On the Vista-class ships, JiJi is tucked at the back of Deck 11, connected by a staircase from the Lido Marketplace and a comfortable distance from the main dining rooms. Some guests deliberately book JiJi on a Cruise Elegant night, since the main dining rooms run quieter and JiJi offers an easy alternative.

What Is the Dress Code at JiJi Asian Kitchen?

Cruise Casual — the standard for most evenings on Carnival.

For men: trousers, khakis, jeans, tailored dress shorts, and a collared shirt, polo, or neat T-shirt.
For women: casual dresses, skirts, trousers, blouses, sundresses, capris, or jeans.
Not okay: swimwear, cover-ups, cut-off jeans, athletic wear, sleeveless shirts for men, or flip-flops.

Carnival names only the Steakhouse and Rudi's Seagrill as following the main dining room dress code, and publishes nothing stricter for JiJi. Match the evening: Cruise Casual most nights, a step up on Cruise Elegant evenings (one on cruises of five nights or shorter, two on six nights or longer). Nobody will turn you away in a polo shirt, but the room reads better dressed than the Lido.

Is There an Age Restriction at JiJi?

No. JiJi has no minimum age and is built with families in mind — Carnival prices a specific kids' menu for children 11 and under, and its own promotional photography for the venue shows children eating there.

This is worth stating plainly, because several widely read cruise sites claim JiJi is restricted to guests 12 and older. That claim appears to be a misreading of the pricing structure, which is often written as "$24 for guests 12 and up, $11 for children 11 and under." That's an adult fare tier, not a door policy — a venue charging a discounted rate for under-12s could hardly bar them from the room.

A few real caveats do apply: the kids' menu must be requested, adult portions are sharing-sized (so order to the table rather than per person), and spice on several dishes will run too high for younger palates — ask your server which plates to skip. Lunch service is open to all ages with no restriction at all.

Is JiJi Asian Kitchen Worth It?

For most guests on these four ships, yes. At $28.80 all-in, JiJi is Carnival's cheapest full-course specialty dinner — comfortably under half the Steakhouse price — and it buys you a multi-course, waiter-tended meal for roughly the cost of a single entrée at an average mid-range restaurant on land.

The case for booking: the food is genuinely different from the main dining room, the family-style format lets a party of four taste eight or ten dishes instead of one each, and the pan-Asian spread is wider than the single-cuisine Asian venues most competing lines offer.

The real downsides: the menu is short enough that a second visit rarely feels necessary, noodle dishes get mixed reviews on consistency, and some menu descriptions are vague enough that your order may not match what you pictured. (One small logistics note: on the Vista-class ships, the sports court sits directly above the dining room, which can add some noise during lunch service.)

A reasonable middle path: eat the complimentary Mongolian Wok lunch early in your cruise, ideally on embarkation day. If you like the room and the flavors, book dinner. If you don't, you've spent nothing finding out.