MSC World Asia Eataly: Italian dining sails from Barcelona
The Italian brand opens aboard MSC Cruises' newest ship on 4 December, with show cooking, a sea-view terrace and a wine cellar visit. Menu and prices are still unpublished.
The MSC World Asia Eataly restaurant will open on 4 December, when MSC Cruises' newest flagship leaves Barcelona on its first seven-night Mediterranean cruise. The Geneva-based line announced on 15 October that it will be the second Eataly at sea, after the one aboard MSC World America.
MSC describes a contemporary Italian dining room with a menu of regional specialities and classic Italian dishes. It has not published the dishes, the number of seats or what the restaurant will cost on top of the cruise fare. What it has named are three features: show cooking run by a dedicated table chef, a terrace with sea views and a visit to the wine cellar of The Terrace Bar, where guests choose their own bottle.
Eataly will be one of more than 40 bars, lounges, cafés and restaurants on board, according to the release. Gianni Onorato, chief executive of MSC Cruises, said that "exceptional food and hospitality are at the heart of the experience" the company sells.
Eataly goes back to sea, and the one thing MSC has not said is what it costs.
Where MSC World Asia Eataly will sail
The Chantiers de l'Atlantique yard in Saint-Nazaire is due to hand the ship over on 25 November, after its final sea trials, Cruise Industry News reported. It is the third World class ship and the third of the class to run on liquefied natural gas, according to MSC.
The weekly loop calls at Barcelona, Marseille, Civitavecchia for Rome, Messina and Valletta, and the line sells it with several embarkation ports. MSC's two most recent releases disagree on one call: the September announcement lists Genoa, the October one Naples. Passengers boarding in Barcelona can spend the evening before with our guide to what to eat in Barcelona.
Eataly returns to the Mediterranean
The partnership is older than the World class. MSC Preziosa, which made its debut in Genoa in March 2013, carried two Eataly venues: a restaurant of about 80 seats with an 18-dish menu, and Ristorante Italia, a 24-seat room built on Slow Food presidia products, Scatti di Gusto reported at the time. Until this week, the restaurant aboard MSC World America, in service from Miami since 2025, was the only Eataly at sea.
Cruise lines have spent the year signing chefs and brands for their new ships, as the restaurants aboard Disney Believe show. MSC's bet is simpler: a line with Italian roots putting back to sea an Italian brand that has sailed with it before. The open question is price, which MSC has yet to publish.
