FULL REVIEW: We Have a Love-Hate Relationship With This Divisive Disney World Restaurant

Deciding where to spend your hard-earned money and expensive dining plan credits at Disney World can feel like a weighty decision. While there are so many great options to choose from, not all of those can be found inside the theme parks.

When we caught wind of a menu change that was garnering a ton of praise in such a short amount of time, we decided this could be an opportunity for a disgraced Disney World restaurant to truly change our opinion of it (and we may have gotten more than we bargained for)!

Perhaps one of the most controversial restaurants you’ll encounter in all of Disney World can be found in Magic Kingdom. While you would think that Fantasyland would be one land of restaurants where most people could agree, that’s simply not the case for Be Our Guest Restaurant.

This restaurant was influenced directly by the Beauty and the Beast film and gives its diners the exclusive opportunity to experience dining in a character’s castle immersed in a way like never before at Disney World.

Background

Be Our Guest Restaurant was revolutionary for the New Fantasyland area of Magic Kingdom when it debuted in 2012. Not only is it purely stunning as an over-the-top themed restaurant that looks like it lept right out of the film and sprung to life but it was also the first restaurant in Magic Kingdom to offer alcoholic beverages.

It’s seen quite a few changes though. Be Our Guest has gone through several HUGE rounds of menu changes where we’ve seen beloved quick service meals that have since become extinct, a la carte dinner switched to a prix fixe meal, and even a brunch option at one point. In its current state, Be Our Guest Restaurant offers lunch and dinner as a prix fixe course however, they have since debuted a new limited-time entree that we were curious to try out!

Atmosphere

The atmosphere here is bar none. It truly is one of the most fantasy-filled restaurants you’ll ever experience in all of Disney World. As you walk up to the restaurant, you’ll be greeted by the check-in desk located at the entrance to the bridge that takes you into the actual castle.

Once you’ve checked in with the Cast Member there, you’ll be given the go-ahead to cross the bridge that’s flanked with somber gargoyles…

…and a picturesque waterfall just before you reach the castle.

Upon crossing the bridge, another Cast Member will be waiting to greet you and get you fully checked in. They’ll usher you inside where (if you find yourself waiting for a few minutes) you can wander the hallway to see the talking suites of armor….

…and stained glass picture which is a call back to the Beauty and the Beast film.

Once your table is ready, you’ll be walked into one of the three dining rooms to enjoy your meal. You’ll be dining in either the Grand Ballroom (which looks JUST like it did in the film)…

…the mysterious West Wing…

…which is where you’ll also get an opportunity to see the enchanted rose and Belle’s magic mirror given to her by the Beast.

Or you could find yourself dining in the Rose Gallery room which features fanciful portraits and tapestries of the castle’s inhabitants in their enchanted forms…

…and features a rotating statue of Belle and the Beast dancing under a brightly lit rose above.

For this meal, we sat in the Grand Ballroom where we could take in all of the details we’re familiar with from the film like the cascading chandelier, and snowy drifts that can be seen from the back windows.

Don’t be too shy — you are allowed to get up and walk around! It’s perfectly acceptable if you find yourself curious about the other dining rooms and want to walk around and visit each of the three dining rooms to take in all the sights, spot cool callbacks to the film, and snap lots of photos!

You may not want to wander too far initially though because at some point throughout your dining experience, the “master” of the castle (the Beast) will come out to the dining rooms to say, “Hello” and thank you for coming out to join them for a meal.

Unfortunately, this is a rather speedy interaction where he’s too shy to come around and meet with each individual table. However, Belle has gently suggested the compromise of making an appearance in each dining room which he’s happy to comply with. You’ll still be able to grab some great photos of him when he visits your dining room during his brief outing but this won’t be a one-on-one meet-and-greet opportunity.

Food & Drinks

With that mention of new menu items, it’s time to turn our conversation to what exactly you’ll find to eat here. Keeping with the film, the Beast’s castle is set in France so you’ll find French cuisine served here.

Since it’s a prix fixed meal your price of $70 for adults and $41 for children will include your non-alcoholic beverage like water, tea, and sodas, and your choice of appetizer, entree, and dessert to round out your three courses.

You’ll also find there are a few specialty non-alcoholic beverages and a few alcoholic options with select beers, wines, and cocktails for an additional charge.

Since we had learned there was a limited-time entree introduced to the menu, we asked our server if we could order that too which cost us an additional $45 since this was on top of our prix fixe choices.

While several options were tempting, we settled for the Sweet Corn Bisque for our appetizer, Short-Rib Beef Bourguignon as our entree, and the Dessert Trio to wrap up our meal.

We also received a baguette of bread with olive oil and butter spread as we sat down at our table.

While the bread had a crisp baking to the outside to hold its form, we found the inside of the bread to be soft and light…

…but we really enjoyed it when we were able to add the oil and butter to it.

Since we were really feeling fancy and digging the vibes we decided to order a drink with our meal. We opted for the French 75 which cost us an additional $15. This drink is made with Fords Gin, lemon juice, and pure cane sugar topped with Charles de Fère Reserve Chardonnay Tradition Brut.

This drink had a nice, light gin taste to it, but you could certainly pick up on the zesty lemon taste as well! It wasn’t an unpleasant taste though, and we thought it was bubbly like you would expect from a Chardonnay drink to be and would totally have ordered it again!

Within minutes of placing our order, our food started to arrive! The Sweet Corn Bisque was up first and it didn’t disappoint.

This dish was made with corn madeleine, tomato, and chive. This one had a distinct sweet corn taste to it and we could smell the warm sweet corn wafting to us when it was served.

The corn madeleines are like a slightly undercooked sweet cornbread which were tasty, and soft where they had sat in the bisque but we do want to caution you that they can get caught in the back of your teeth while you’re eating them (but they’re delicious)!

Then our entrees arrived! Let’s talk about the Short-Rib Beef Bourguignon first. This entree is made of smoked bacon, potatoes, and red wine jus.

We thought this one was delicious too which quite shocked us. The beef was so tender you could pull it apart with your fork kind of like a pot roast and there’s no bone in the short rib making it super easy to gobble down! The smoked bacon has a bit of a fatty layer to it on the top making it full of flavor with a low, smoked wood taste. Our only complaint with the short rib was that we found it a bit dry unless you also got some of the red wine jus with your bite of meat.

The potatoes were mashed and creamy which were topped with crunchy crisps which gave it a different texture when you got all of the different elements of the dish in one bite.

Now we would have been moving on to dessert if there wasn’t a new limited-time entree added to the menu so you know we had to try it out! The Steak Frites is made of slow-roasted butcher’s steak sitting in Dijon sauce and served with house-cut fries and mixed green salad.

The steak is recommended by the chef to be cooked to a medium-rare temperature and our server advised they try not to cook it any higher because the cut of the steak becomes dry and chewy as it’s more cooked.

The house-cut fries came well seasoned, and again, had a special request. This dish isn’t offered with any condiments like ketchup solely because the chef wants to experience an elevated flavor when you pair the seasoned house-cut fries with the Dijon sauce and it’s well achieved!

The mixed greens salad was crunchy and fresh even surrounded by the sauce and was a decent portion as a side for the entree that didn’t overpower the main course.

You might scoff at the size of the butcher’s cut of steak at first glance but don’t let that fool you! If we had solely ordered this entree and nothing else, we’re pretty sure we would have walked away completely satisfied. This dish was well worth its price in flavor!

The steak was so tender and juicy and simply melted in your mouth when you soaked up some of the Dijon sauce with it. We ended up asking for more of the Dijon sauce (to which our server happily obliged) but man, this was a worthy addition to the menu.

The flavor finale in the Dessert Trio was last but not least. This is a plate served as a trio of desserts…

…which is comprised of a Lemon Jam Macaron…

…a Chocolate Tart…

…and a Dark Chocolate Truffle.

Starting right to left, the chocolate truffle was creamy and decadent in the center but very chocolatey like a melted milk chocolate Hershey bar but thicker coated in more milk chocolate.

The chocolate tart was so cute with its white chocolate character medallion featuring the curious but sweet Chip the cup, topped with white crispy pearls, and the outer tart layer is chocolatey as well.

The macaron’s flavor gave a light vanilla flavor at first and once we bit into it and tasted the filling we started getting more of the lemon coming through. There were also fruity hints inside it that tasted like a raspberry gel (which was the jam) and we really enjoyed it too. The outer cookie pieces of the macaron were fresh and crumbled very easily when we cut it open.

Of the three, our favorite was the adorable chocolate tart.

Should You Go?

Answering if you should visit this restaurant or not can be complicated. While this was once an extremely popular restaurant that was one of the hardest advance dining reservations to secure in all of Disney World, its menu changes since the reopening have made it fall out of major public favor.

While this isn’t a restaurant that we typically would recommend, we walked away from this meal completely shocked with how well we liked the steak frites plate. Be Our Guest Restaurant still has a ways to go to fully redeem itself to its former popularity, but we think this limited-time entree was a great step in the right direction to turning around its reputation.

We’re not done eating our way around Disney World just yet! Check out another one of our most recent reviews and be sure to stay tuned with us for more!

REVIEW: We Tried 6 NEW Foods at a Popular Disney Hotel Restaurant – Was It Worth the 45-Minute Wait To Get In?

Would one good entree be enough for you to try this one super popular Disney World restaurant? Tell us in the comments below!

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