REVIEW: We Ate a $300 Meal at This NEW Disney World Restaurant and We’d Do It Again

Planning a trip to Disney World and not sure where you should eat while you’re there? Luckily, you’ve come to the right place!

Here at AllEars, we know all the ins and outs of Disney World restaurants — including where you should definitely eat, and where you should skip. We recently stopped by Disney World’s newest restaurant, Bourbon Steak at Disney’s Swan and Dolphin Hotel, and are bringing you our FULL review!

Background

This restaurant is the newest to grace Disney World! It’s a part of the Mina Group, which was founded by award-winning chef and restaurateur Michael Mina.

This new restaurant is a chain across the country, and we have even stopped by one of their California locations to gauge what to expect from the new restaurant.

This restaurant is a celebrated, re-imagined modern take on the quintessential American steakhouse with premium cuts of beef and seafood infused with global flavors. It aims to showcase the three primary elements of Mina’s culinary philosophy: product, technique, and presentation.

The new restaurant has officially soft-opened. Here’s what you need to know about dining at this restaurant.

Atmosphere

The restaurant is located where Shula’s Steak House was previously. The atmosphere of this restaurant is dark, sophisticated, and elegant!

There are a few types of seating in the restaurant, like traditional tabletops and bar seating.

The menu is extensive, including lots of steak, seafood, sides, cocktails, and more!

This restaurant even requires a dress code! It requires guests to “Dress accordingly in attire that respects the restaurant’s sophisticated and upscale aesthetic. Clothing should be clean, neat, and in good condition, free from offensive language and/or graphics. Please, no swimwear.”

But enough about that, what are we eating?!

Food & Drinks

Starting off, to drink, we picked up the Our Famous Martini for $22. This is made with Grey Goose Vodka, Bombay Sapphire, Lemon Manzanilla Sherry, Dry Vermouth, and Citrus Essence.

This was an incredible martini! It had no bite or burn from the liquor, but you can still get that liquor flavor. It was extremely balanced with an aromatic citrus flavor. It was very drinkable despite being very liquor-forward, and it was presented with a martini accoutrement that included a regular olive, a stuffed olive, a lemon rind, and a pearl onion.

We also tried the Blueberry Martini for $18. We were told this is one of their most popular drinks, and we see why!

It came with blue cheese-stuffed olives on the side, which we found interesting. Our reporters really love Blue Cheese, but if you don’t, this combo might be off-putting. The drink wasn’t overly sweet. It was more of a dry sweetness, and you could smell the blueberry before you even sipped it.

It was an explosion of blueberry flavors in your mouth, but it reminded us of natural flavors rather than a candy flavor. We can see this pleasing a lot of people, whether you lean towards and sweet cocktail or a more liquor-forward cocktail.

For our food, we started with the Complimentary Fry Trio!

No complimentary bread here, you can get complimentary fries! These were amazing. There were truffle fries, herbbed fries, and paprika fries. The truffle aioli fries come with truffle sauce to dip them in.

The fries were so herbaceous, and the sauce was so heavy with the truffle flavor, but it wasn’t overwhelming. The herbbed fries came with a classic sweet ketchup, which felt like a leveled classic fry experience.

The paprika fries were smoky and had an almost mesquite flavor with a bit of a kick. It wasn’t spicy, but it had a nice heat. We wish we had many, many more of these!

Next, we grabbed the Black Truffle Bread for $14.

This was maybe the best bread we’ve ever had in Disney World. We were pretty upset about the idea of paying for bread, but they were amazing. They were Parker House rolls with black salt and truffle butter soaked into the bread. It had the consistency of a moist cake.

This was just to die for! The salt was the perfect balance with the butter, and we would absolutely get it again. Next, we grabbed the Jumbo Lump Crab Cake for $26.

This was made with a pink peppercorn tartar sauce, Old Bay, and Florida citrus flavors. This one didn’t look like a traditional crab cake, but it was crunchy on the outside, and it also had some really nice peppers and microgreens. If you’re looking for a dish that is mainly just a light, refreshing crab salad, this is the one for you!

Finally, for our appetizers, we grabbed the Onion Soup Gratin for $15. This was SO GOOD! It’s made with caramelized onions, a trio of cheeses, and a garlic baguette. They split the portion size for our two reporters, which we were blown away by.

There was a little bit of veal in the beef broth, which helped cut the saltiness, and it made it even richer. It is maybe one of the best French Onion Soups we’ve had in Disney World. It was bold with a heavy onion flavor, and it almost reminded us of a thin, Thanksgiving gravy-flavor-wise. It truly blew us away.

For our first entree, we grabbed the 10 oz Center Cut Filet Mignon for $69. It came with a chimichurri sauce and a burnaise sauce!

This was an incredible steak. One of the best we’ve had in years – in or outside of Disney. Beautiful crust on the outside with a pleasant saltiness. It was perfectly cooked to order at medium rare. We’ve had some med rare filets lately that had a bit of a chewiness at that heat, and this had NO chewiness. It was like butter to cut through and to chew with incredible flavor.

If you want a steak in Disney World, we think you need to come here. It is classic steakhouse style, so you get pretty much just the steak. We got bearnaise sauce and chimichurri at our server’s suggestion. We loved chimichurri, but this was a bit too oily for our taste. We found it a little overpowering for the filet, but our server said “bearnaise and filets were made for each other,” and he was right. Holy smokes. It was like this buttery smooth, rich elevation of what was already a delicious steak.

Next, we grabbed the Maine Lobster Pot Pie for a whopping $82. This was made with market vegetables, russet potatoes, black truffles, and brandy lobster cream.

This is insane! They roll up to your table with this massive pot pie dish, carve the top off perfectly, and then reconstruct the lobster tail and claws on top of the crust, before ladling on the veggies and pot pie filling all around it.

Flavor-wise wise this was a TON of lobster — especially for one person. It featured beautiful, huge, meaty pieces that pull apart easily. The filling of the pie was basically like a rich buttery sauce that infused all of the veggies with that flavor and paired perfectly with the lobster. Add the surprisingly durable crust of the pie, and you have a luscious, beautiful dish.

Be warned: It’s extremely rich! This is an indulgent meal. The story with this is that it was Michael Mina’s go-to for dinner parties, and people loved it so much and requested it so often that he started serving it in his restaurants.

For the side, we grabbed the Creamy Mac & Cheese for $17. This was a very good Mac and Cheese! It’s shells pasta with a sauce that texturally reminded us of a Béchamel because it was so creamy and yes, rich.

It was also loaded with a crisper, saltier cheese that added a bit of a firmer texture and a pleasant sharpness to your bite that cut through the creaminess while keeping things super cheesy. It was delicious, but we’ve had a LOT of good mac and cheeses, so it’s hard to be a standout.

For dessert, we grabbed the Warm Beignets & Dipping Custards for $19. The “sauces” are literally like desserts on their own. It was a chocolate mousse, a literal crème brulee, and a salted caramel pudding with mclellans in it. These were so insanely good, but again, very rich and sweet. We are begging you, please share this dessert!

You get a ton of fluffy, hot beignets to dip. The salted caramel blew us away as the most unique, with a delicious caramelly texture that was still kept light. You could certainly taste the liquor and feel a bit of a burn, which elevated this far beyond what you’d expect from a beginner dip.

The creme brulee was pretty standard — if you do a creme brulee right, they are all pretty good. It was pretty good with a creamy custard and sticky, crunchy top. The mousse was solid as well and honestly genius to dip a beignet into lighter mousse instead of heavy chocolate sauce.

We also grabbed the Key Lime Napoleon for $14. We loved this, too! (We can’t believe how many times we’ve written this.) The waiter said this was a nod to Florida flavors, of course, and they were very clear that we needed to crush it to get everything to mix together.

The key lime was tart enough to cause that zing in your jaw, but not so tart as to make you pucker, and it was balanced very well by the classic sweetness of the raspberry sauce and fresh raspberry.

We sometimes find Napoleon textures a little off-putting, but this one was done very well with the thin, crunchy pastry on top and the lady fingers supporting. A bit had a good combo of creaminess, crunch, and soft pastry.

Magic or Tragic?

This Disney World restaurant is a must-visit if…

• You want to try Disney’s newest restaurant
• Want to have an upscale dining experience
• Or you are going out for a special ocassion

You should skip this Disney World spot if…

• You’re dining on a budget
• Want more Disney themeing
• Or need more family-friendly dining options

This is a beautiful restaurant with gorgeous lighting and paint color! It feels classic and modern while being upscale and comfortable. The service was amazing! We were definitely more impressed with the food and service here, and the environment feels more upscale too compared to Disney’s other steakhouses on property. 

In the meantime, we’ll be on the lookout for more restaurant updates from Disney World and beyond. Make sure you stay tuned to AllEars for the latest Disney news and more!

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Have you eaten at this Disney World restaurant before? Tell us in the comments.

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