REVIEW: GO HERE for Upscale Italian in Disney World

Disney World has HUNDREDS of restaurants, so how do you decide which ones are worth dining at?

The good news is that we’re here to try all the different restaurants around the resort and tell you which ones are worth your time and money and which ones you may want to stay away from. Oftentimes, Disney guests forget about the restaurants over at the Swan and Dolphin Hotels since they’re not owned by Disney, but Quincy headed over to Il Mulino to give its Italian menu a try, and you may be VERY surprised by our final thoughts.

Background

Il Mulino New York Trattoria is located at the Walt Disney World Swan Hotel and is a casual table service restaurant that serves upscale Italian dishes. Advance dining reservations are required for this location, which can be booked up to 60 days in advance. Everything served here is based on the Abruzzi region of Italy.

The restaurant itself has a very sleek contemporary feel to it, meaning that if you’re dressed up, you won’t feel overdressed, and if you’re in everyday wear, you’ll also feel welcome.

Atmosphere

After you walk through the massive wooden double doors that bring you into the restaurant, you’ll enter into the welcoming space, complete not only with the dining room area, but a large lounge as well.

We really enjoyed all the brickwork and natural light around the restaurant, but that does mean that it’s a little dark in the restaurant if the sun isn’t at an opportune place in the sky and you’re just relying on the restaurant lighting.

The seating area is relatively simple yet elevated, matching with the rest of the restaurant’s vibe, which we really appreciated.

Food & Drinks

The menu here is expansive, especially when it comes to the drinks!

There are pages and pages worth of wines, cocktails, beers, and other alcoholic beverages to get here if that’s what you’re looking for.

It can honestly feel a little overwhelming, but remember that you can take your time! Ask any questions you need to the staff about the offerings, and they’ll be happy to assist you.

Of course, you’ll also find non alcoholic options such as water, soda, lemonade, and more.As for the food, you’ll find an equally large menu detailing the different Italian eats available. To begin your meal, you can order a number of different options, such as antipasti, insalate, and zuppe. For your main course, you’ll find pizza, pasta, family-style meals, chicken dishes, dishes from the grill, veal, fish, and so much more, and there are many sides to choose from.

There’s an entirely separate dessert menu as well, so don’t forget to take a look at that!

For our drinks, we got the Primobacio, Moscato D’ Asti for $14, which we thought was divine. It paired so well with our meal, we didn’t regret the choice one bit.

For our starter, we tried the complimentary bread service complete with eggplant, which you spread on as a cold topping. While we were slightly skeptical at first, the eggplant was so savory and the bread was soft on the inside yet crunchy on the outside like we wanted.

The two paired together did a wonderful job of stimulating our appetite for the meal ahead, which is exactly what we wanted out of it.

We also tried the Carpaccio Di Carne, which is thinly sliced Tuscan-style beef served with arugula, extra virgin olive oil, fresh lemon juice, and carpaccio sauce for $17.

While Quincy isn’t typically a fan of raw meat appetizers, she said the beef was cut incredibly thin and the flavors were balanced very well which really made this one a winner!

The Insalata Caprese costs $16 and is buffalo mozzarella with beef steak tomatoes, capers and roasted peppers.

The mozzarella and tomatoes were incredibly fresh, which gave it major points in our book, however it was missing some of that fresh basil, and we did feel that left it lacking just a bit.

Entree 1 of 2 of the night was the Rigatoni Con Funghi for $29. This is rigatoni with wild mushrooms, spicy cherry peppers, garlic, and truffle oil, and it was our favorite of the whole night!

Quincy and our other reporter were sharing this dish, as the normal portions are massive, and the servers were kind enough to split it for them before it was brought to the table. The dish was incredibly savory and aromatic with perfectly cooked pasta, and while we didn’t expect the spicy cherry peppers, we loved them and thought they brought the dish to the next level.

Our other entree was the Pollo Parmigiana which costs $35 and is pounded, breaded chicken breast served with fresh tomato sauce, and Italian cheese. Quincy reported this was one of the best chicken parmesans she had ever had! The chicken was pounded so thin it was perfectly tender and easy to cut, the tomato sauce was clearly fresh, the breading was perfect — we’ll be dreaming about this for a while.

Then it was time for dessert! We went with a classic dessert — the Tiramisu for $14, which is layered espresso and coffee liquor-infused Lady Fingers coated with mascarpone cream.

While we enjoyed this dessert, we did feel it could use more lady fingers to help break up the texture a bit more, but it was a great end to the meal regardless.

Magic or Tragic?

At the end of the day, it’s up to you and your group to see if this restaurant is the right fit for you! We think this restaurant is magic if:

You’re already staying at the Swan or Dolphin hotels and therefore don’t have to travel far to get to Il Mulino
You love great quality Italian food and aren’t on a tight budget to get it
You’re looking for an upscale meal that doesn’t make you feel out of place in regular attire

However, this restaurant might be tragic, aka not for you, if you match any of the following:

You’re not staying close by and aren’t willing to travel decently far to get here
You’re not looking for a standout meal and just want something that will fill you up
You want comprehensive theming, Disney or otherwise (while this restaurant is beautiful, the theming is a little hard to nail down)