The 2 Disney World Hotel Restaurants That Experts Always Try to Gatekeep

It’s no secret that there are a lot of AMAZING restaurants in Disney World.

You’ll often hear many of these restaurants recommended by frequent visitors or Disney World experts. You’ll always get recommendations for places like Boma at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge, Steakhouse 71 at Disney’s Contemporary Resort, Wine Bar George at Disney Springs, and Via Napoli in the Italy Pavilion at EPCOT. However, we’ve got two restaurants that often stay off the radar, although they should be talked about MUCH more.

It’s okay, though, because we’re going to tell you about these two restaurants that may be off the beaten path, but we think they’re both worth taking the time to visit.

The Fountain

You’ll find The Fountain at the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin, which is a location SO many Disney World visitors miss out on if they’re not staying there.

The Fountain is all about comfort food like delicious burgers, sandwiches, soup, and more. We’re big fans of the Soft Pretzel Bites, which are served with a delicious cheese sauce.

We also love the Low-n-Slow Brisket Sandwich, made with house-smoked Angus beef brisket, Vermont white cheddar cheese sauce, charred tomato barbecue, Wickles pickles, sautéed onions and mushrooms on a garlic toasted Amoroso roll. It’s AMAZING.

The Fountain is very similar to Beaches and Cream, but without all the difficulty that comes with trying to get a reservation for Beaches and Cream. That’s because The Fountain also has some of the BEST milkshakes and hand-dipped ice cream cones and sundaes. You need to try the Coco Loco Shake.

Even better? You’ll pay less at this restaurant than you would at Beaches and Cream. It’s also located in the same EPCOT area where you’ll find Beaches and Cream, so save yourself the hassle and money and eat here.

Read our review of The Fountain here

Ravello

Granted, Ravello is definitely off the beaten path, as it doesn’t necessarily sit on Disney World property. You’ll find it at the Four Seasons Orlando, but if you have an opportunity to make your way here for breakfast, you’ll find yourself surprised with a Disney character breakfast you probably knew NOTHING about.

This is an Italian restaurant for dinner, but for breakfast, you can enjoy Good Morning Breakfast with Goofy and His Pals. It’s a breakfast buffet with Disney characters that happens every Thursday and Saturday, and select Tuesdays around the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. And almost no one knows anything about it. Here, you can meet Goofy, as well as Mickey and Minnie.

The food here is generally typical breakfast buffet food, but we’d also say it’s top-notch. Traditional Italian and American-inspired breakfast foods are available with a lot of variety. So it’s like a buffet, but elevated.

Basically, this is a lot like the character breakfast at Topolino’s Terrace, except that it’s generally easier to get reservations here and it’s rarely crowded. We also think the character interactions are WAY better at Ravello — you get a lot of one-on-one time with all three characters.

It’s also a great way to check out the Four Seasons without having to stay there, although if you ARE staying there, this character breakfast is a no-brainer. Yes, it could be tricky getting transportation here as it isn’t on Disney World property, but you could always take something like Uber or Lyft. Believe us when we say it’s worth it. Ravello has one of the best Disney character breakfasts we’ve ever done.

Read our review of breakfast at Ravello here

So there you have it — two Disney World hotel restaurants that probably haven’t been recommended to you. But we don’t gatekeep, so that’s why we had to tell you about them.

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