The passengers often referred to the restaurant as the Ritz.[6] Ms. Walter Douglas, a first-class passenger who survived the shipwreck, gave her account of the À la Carte Restaurant:
"It was the last word in luxury. The tables were gay with pink roses and white daisies […] the stringed orchestra playing music from Puccini and Tchaikovsky. The food was superb: caviar, lobster, quail from Egypt, plovers' eggs, and hothouse grapes and fresh peaches".