Location

Magic Kingdom in Fantasyland

Setting and Atmosphere

Be Our Guest is the newest restaurant in the Magic Kingdom, and also its best. In fact, Be Our Guest is one of our top recommendations for lunch in any Disney theme park, and worth a special trip to the Magic Kingdom just for the experience. We also recommend Be Our Guest as a less-expensive, easier-to-reserve alternative to Cinderella's Royal Table. If we were in Cinderella's slippers, we'd be considering a call for help to those "restaurant renovation" reality shows.

Inside are three separate dining areas, themed after the ballroom, Rose Gallery, and West Wing from Disney's animated film Beauty and the Beast.

Located along the back border of Fantasyland, the restaurant is set deep inside a faux rock wall which serves as the base of Beast's castle. In fact, the restaurant is so far back inside the Magic Kingdom that there are no windows to the outside world in any of the three dining rooms, because the view from them would be of the park's otherwise hidden infrastructure. The lack of windows makes the dining rooms dark, especially the West Wing room. As in the movie, Beast's enchanted rose appears in the West Wing, not in the dining room named "Rose Gallery."

Other Recommendations

Counter-Service Lunch:

Our favorite lunch selections are the seared tuna Niçoise salad and the Croque Monsieur sandwich. The tuna is peppered slightly and set on a bed of greens with chilled green beans, potatoes, olives, peppers, and tomatoes, and topped with a hard poached egg. The Croque Monsieur sandwich is a grown-up version of grilled ham and cheese, with carved ham, Gruyere cheese, béchamel and pommes frites (french fries).

The lunch menu also includes a carved turkey sandwich on warm baguette with Dijon mayonnaise; and a grilled steak sandwich with garlic butter spread. These are also served with fries. A braised pork dish, with bacon and vegetable mashed potatoes, rounds out the carnivore section of the menu.

Vegetarians will enjoy a loaded vegetable quiche. We found it a little too "eggy" for our tastes; others liked it for that reason. The other options is a quinoa, shallot, and chive salad, which is vegan, and is the best non-meat choice on the menu.

For the kiddos at lunch, look for a carved turkey sandwich, roasted pulled pork, Mickey meatloaf, seared mahi mahi, or whole-grain macaroni topped with marinara and mozzarella. Of these, the Mickey meatloaf is the best, while the mahi seems dry every time we've tried it. Also note that the portions on the kids' meals are large enough to satisfy many adults.

Table Service Dinner:

The big surprise at dinner is that you can order wine and beer with your meal, because Be Our Guest is the first Magic Kingdom restaurant to serve alcohol. The wines are from France and California, and can be ordered by the glass or bottle. If you're feeling festive, champagne is available too (by the bottle only). Beers are from Belgium and France.

Appetizers include a charcuterie plate with cured meats and sausages; mussels steamed in white wine; French onion or potato leek soup, and a salad with champagne vinaigrette. Vegetarians and vegans will enjoy the salad trio with roasted beet, raisins, and orange; green beans, tomatoes, and roasted shallots; and watermelon, radish, and mint. Our favorite is the potato leek soup.

Main course options include a thyme-scented pork rack chop with au gratin pasta; rotisserie rock hen with roasted fingerling potatoes; pan-seared salmon in leek fondue; grilled strip steak with pommes frites; sautéed shrimp and scallops with veggies in puff pastry with creamy lobster sauce; and an oven-baked, vegetarian ratatouille.

Of these, the shrimp and scallops in puff pastry gets the most positive comments from diners. The pork rack chop is also a hit, though not quite as good as the pork chop at the Studios' Hollywood Brown Derby.

The strip steak is hit or miss, depending on the quality of the beef. Some nights it's chewier than you'd expect from a $30 cut of meat, other times it's fine. The ratatouille incorporates the quinoa salad from lunch, and, according to our staff vegans, could use more vegetables.

For dessert at lunch or dinner, enjoy strawberry cream cheese, lemon meringue, or triple chocolate cupcakes, a chocolate cream puff, or a passion fruit cream puff. Our favorites are the strawberry cream cheese cupcake and the lemon meringue cupcake. Vegans can request sorbet.

For kids at dinner, it’s grilled steak, grilled fish of the day, whole-grain macaroni, or grilled chicken breast.

Summary

As the hot new restaurant in Walt Disney World's most popular theme park, expect dinner reservations to be very hard to get. Make your reservation as early as possible (ideally, 180 days in advance of when you want to dine). And if you visit for a counter service lunch, be prepared to wait in a long line.

For the counter service lunch, touch-screen, automated terminals (like you can find at Pecos Bill and Contempo Cafe) are available for guests to customize their orders. For special dietary requests and cash orders, cashiers are available.

After placing your order, you’ll sit down, and your order will be delivered to you on real tableware — no paper and plastic around here. Guests who have eaten at Wolfgang Puck Express in Downtown Disney will understand the process here.

Dinner is a table service meal and requires a credit card guarantee. While not a character meal, per se, Beast visits the dining room and is available for photos.

Menus

Details

Requires Credit Card to Reserve: Yes
Requires Pre-payment in Full: No

Discounts

Type Discount Valid Weekdays Valid Meals
Tables in Wonderland 20% All Dinner only

Disney Dining Plan

2013

Requires 1 credit
Also has DDP snack items

Lands