I have a lot of experience with Disney rides, but I’ve never tried most of their sit-down restaurants. This time, we went all out and booked 4 restaurants in Disney World and we also went to 2 fun ones in Universal. {Disney bias on full display here.}
Steakhouse 71. We started our trip with a great newish restaurant in the Contemporary Resort, where we stayed for one night. Steakhouse 71 is a classy restaurant with a lot of art on the walls. The main theme is classic Disney World. There are some really pretty paintings of the Contemporary as well as the monorail inside both the restaurant and the lobby of the resort. The whole resort has a nice, classic feel to it, which makes sense given that it is the main resort that opened with Disney World back in 1971. Luis had the prime rib, and I had the vegetable “Wellington” which was really good. I love when restaurants are more creative with their vegetarian options. We finished with a creme brulee, and our waiter also gifted us with some little chocolate cakes with an edible “Happy Anniversary” sign, which was the perfect ending to our first meal at Disney.
Be Our Guest. After a long day at Magic Kingdom, we went to Be Our Guest, which is one of the signature dining options in the park, and it’s technically character dining because the Beast shows up about every fifteen minutes to bow and stroll around the ballroom, which just so happens to be where we were situated this time. We first ate at this restaurant back in 2021, but it didn’t have the same feel to it as it did this time, obviously. This time was more magical. The menu is prix-fixe, so I had the Endive and Walnut Salad, Charred Eggplant, and the Plant-based Grey Stuff. I went for the plant-based version because I wanted to taste the difference. Aside from the prettier presentation (Luis got the Grey Stuff in the Blooming Rose for his dessert) it tasted basically the same. The plant-based version just uses coconut milk instead of regular milk. Now that we’ve done Be Our Guest twice, and enjoyed it both times, I think we’ll be ready to try some of the other Magic Kingdom restaurants in the future. I mainly wanted a do-over after the Covid-era time when we last visited.
Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater. On Hollywood Studios day, we went to a restaurant I’ve always wanted to go to: the 50s B-movie themed Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater. We were seated at a small table inside a “car” and we watched clips and trailers of cheesy 50s and early 60s movies on a big screen in front of all the other “cars.” There were also some funny and bizarre commercials and drive-in ads for buying snacks. At one point, Luis nearly choked on his burger because he was laughing so hard at a trailer for a gila monster movie. This is a restaurant that’s more about the fun, drive-in movie experience and less about the food, though I had the Flying Saucer Impossible Burger and it was super good, and larger than I expected, too. We had a nice cookies and cream plant-based milkshake for dessert. All in all, it lived up to the experience I wanted ever since I was a kid and first learned about this restaurant.
Satu’li Canteen. When Luis suggested this place for our day at Animal Kingdom, I assumed it was going to be African or Asian food, because that’s what most of the dining theming is there. However, this is an Avatar-themed restaurant, so all of the food is actually spacey. For example, at the recommendation of our server at Be Our Guest, we ordered the Ocean Moon Bowl which has blue noodles and is basically a fancy poke bowl. There was tuna in it, so Luis ate that and otherwise it was a lot of veggies I don’t usually eat (like radish and cabbage.) It was good and fun, and I am glad we were more adventurous with dining choices this time. There are a lot of vegetarian options throughout Disney World nowadays, so even if you go to Flame Tree Barbecue you won’t be stuck eating french fries and broccoli. (That’s the place we’ve normally gone, and they have a plant-based Korean barbecue sandwich!) Satu’li and Flame Tree Barbecue are actually both quick-service restaurants, so you can order and grab a table to eat there. It’s more laid back than the other places we went to, but no less enjoyable. And you don’t have to be a fan of Avatar to enjoy it.
Space 220. For our anniversary on the 14th, we went to Space 220 in Epcot, which was Luis’s choice. The set up when you arrive is that you’re given a ticket and a lift in a “stellarvator” up 220 miles above the earth, to a restaurant on the Centauri Space Station. I kept thinking about Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams. It was another experience-type restaurant, which is Disney’s specialty for good reason, but the food was also…well, out of this world. But seriously. It was proper, fancy chef food. I kept telling Luis that the food reminded me of The Sims 4’s more unique foods you can get at the in-game restaurants. It also reminded me of The Menu, except with far less death. Can you tell I don’t often go to super swanky restaurants? Anyway, I had the Big Bang Bocconcini, the Space Pad Thai, and the Apple Cosmo. It’s another prix-fixe restaurant. It was all delicious and artistically-styled. Luis’s dessert, the Strawberry Saturn, looked like a little pink planet including a ring. It maybe looked more like Uranus because the ring was on its side, but calling it “Strawberry Uranus” would probably put people off. This restaurant was the coolest place I’ve ever eaten, and I’m so glad Luis recommended it. It was perfect for our anniversary. 💖
Toadstool Cafe. We bid farewell to Disney and went to Universal, where the dining options in the main two parks—Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure—are not really anything to write home about, but then on Saturday, our last park day, we went to Epic Universe. In Super Nintendo World, Luis and I went to Toadstool Cafe, which is a place we already enjoyed in California when we checked out their Universal Studios. I love Toadstool Cafe. They have a delicious mushroom soup that comes in a little Toad bowl complete with red and white-polkadotted hat. We got one to take home from California, but this one wasn’t a souvenir, which is okay since we already had one. While you eat, there are “windows” all around that display a bunch of little Toads (they’re actually toadstools, like mushrooms) cooking in the kitchen and being chased by Bullet Bills whenever the Bowser ship comes into view. It’s a laid-back, amusing experience and Luis and I made the soup at home once before because we like it so much. Universal should sell it in cans. But it makes me want to go back to this place every time we go.
Das Stakehaus. And finally…I was too adventurous with this one, but I wanted to give things a try! Das Stakehaus is in the Dark Universe portion of Epic, and it’s in a big dungeon surrounded by portraits of Dracula and staked vampires on the walls. It looks very cool. I ordered the only alcoholic drink on their menu, the Darkmoor Mary Cocktail, which is a bloody Mary with like 50 spicy things in it, and cheese balls made to look like coal somehow. This was the first bloody Mary I ever had. I discovered I don’t like bloody Marys, especially not spicy ones. I also ordered Our Favorite Vegan Familiar’s Stuffed Cabbage, which looks like a bloody heart on top of worms and maggots. The theme was humorous, but it was also a little…unappetizing, especially since I already had a drink I didn’t like. It also didn’t help (or maybe it did?) that we split a delicious vegan burger in the How to Train Your Dragon section about two hours earlier. Das Stakehaus is a cool restaurant for people who are into the horror genre, but I think they maybe took it a little too far. But what do I know? I ordered a spicy bloody Mary knowing I probably wouldn’t like it.
Overall, it was exciting to try all of these dining experiences this time. The rides are still, of course, the main focus when we go to Disney and Universal, but we treated ourselves this time and came away with some fun, lasting memories.
