Raglan Road Is a Rollicking Good Time – And the Food Is Good Too

Raglan Road is one of the OG dining locations found in what is now Disney Springs – but back in 2005, it was known as Downtown Disney (anyone else still slip up with that name change?). There are several reasons that this restaurant is still going strong almost two decades later, and after a total re-imagining of the area surrounding it. The food is comforting and well-made, and the atmosphere is totally unmatched by anything around it. If you’re looking for a filling meal with energetic – and sometimes inspiring – entertainment, Raglan Road can’t be beat.

My family, as well as Jennifer Heymont’s crew, all recently dined at Raglan Road on two separate occasions. Below, we share our combined review of our meals.

Raglan Road Logistics

Location and Transportation

Raglan Road is located in The Landing district of Disney Springs, which is now the home of some of the best dining in all of Walt Disney World. Raglan Road is one of the rare holdovers from the “Downtown Disney” days, and there is a reason that it’s lasted this long and still holds up well when it goes toe-to-toe with some of the newer options nearby.

If you’re driving yourself to Disney Springs, the Lime garage is technically a smidgen closer to Raglan Road, but the walk isn’t bad from the Orange garage either. From Lime you’ll shortcut through the Town Center district, and from Orange you’ll walk between Town Center and the West Side district to get to The Landing.

If you’re staying at a Disney resort, you can also take a bus (or in some cases, a boat) to Disney Springs. From the bus stop, you’ll have to walk through some of the Town Center district to get to The Landing. If you’ve taken a boat, Raglan Road is very near The Landing dock.

You can also take Uber or Lyft to Disney Springs, but the drop-off and pick-up locations are at the very far west and east sides of the area. From either one of those locations, you’ll have to trek across half of Disney Springs to get to Raglan Road, which is almost perfectly centrally located.

Reservations and Availability

Raglan Road is owned by a third-party, so it’s one of those lucky few locations where you can make dining reservations directly through Disney or through OpenTable. Reservations are highly recommended, especially on the weekends.

OpenTable will almost certainly have better availability than Disney’s website. This generally won’t matter if you want a weeknight dinner or lunch on any day. But for those coveted weekend dinner reservations, you’ll want to go to OpenTable. As an example, when writing this article on a Monday, dinner reservations for a party of four on Friday were almost all booked up, but OpenTable had availability every 15 minutes for the entire day.

Cost

Prices for food and drink at Raglan Road are pretty high, which is actually par for the course at Disney Springs. Appetizers will set you back anywhere from $10.50 (for soup) to $55 (for a seafood appetizer board). Entrees range from $21 for a goat cheese salad, to $24 for a burger or chicken sandwich, up to $38 for the Braised Be Beef (short rib).

At the time of publication, the only discount available at Raglan Road was 10% for Annual Passholders – but even that only covers food and non-alcoholic beverage, and only on weekdays from 11 am to 3 pm.

Raglan Road Atmosphere and Entertainment

Entertainment is an incredibly important part of the dining experience at Raglan Road. The food is generally well-above-average, and we’ll get to that below. But there are plenty of above-average restaurants in Disney Springs, and what makes Raglan Road special is its atmosphere.

The restaurant is a master-class in immersive Irish. Many of the elements of the pub, including the four bars, were handcrafted in Ireland before being shipped to the United States for installation. The venue is admittedly unrealistically huge by Irish-pub standards, but the dark polished-wood paneling and the snugs (small, private cubby-holes) preserves the feel of the traditional pub.

The main room is shaped like a pentagon and sits beneath an impressive dome. In the middle of this room is a tall, table-looking platform that is accessible to Celtic dancers via a short staircase. There is also a small stage set by one wall. Then, radiating out from this central room are the cozier dining areas and some snugs.

The real draw here is the Celtic music. Often, there will be two or three bands playing at any given time on the main stage or in multiple outdoor dining areas. Main stage entertainment runs from 5 pm to 10 pm every night, and from noon to 3 pm on weekends during “brunch”. Patio entertainment gets started a little later, generally around 6 pm.

Remarkably talented Celtic dancers will either dance along with the live music, or to pre-recorded tracks when the band takes a break. They use the aforementioned central table, as well as the stage. But if you’re seated in one of the dining rooms to the side, don’t worry – pairs of dancers make their way about once an hour to each “wing”, with a special up-close performance.

During our family’s most recent visit, we were seated as far away from the main room as possible. This made for a quiet and relaxing meal, which is something I’ve never had before at Raglan Road. But our girls were encouraged to get up from the table to walk over and take a closer look at the dancing, which they did multiple times. And when the dancers came to our section for their demonstration, they were each gifted stickers. As far as I can tell, stickers are just as good as cold, hard cash for young children.

My husband and I can still quote several songs from our first Raglan Road visit back in 2013 (adults-only), and our girls were very inspired to dance on our most recent visit. No matter your party type, there is something special about this location.

Raglan Road Food

Overall, the menu here is extensive, and almost every option is delicious (but heavy). If you’re looking for a light meal, you’ll want to consider another restaurant or think seriously about sharing. And sharing will be a tricky proposition with so many great items on the menu!

Don’t sleep on the bread service here. Ireland knows how to do bread, and I’ve had dreams about the Guinness reduction that is served alongside. It’s one of the few Disney dining items that I’ve regularly re-created at home.

Appetizers

Kiss Before Shrimp – $18.50
Pan-seared shrimp in a garlic and chili lemon butter sauce with sliced baguette

If you love to sample a diverse range of cuisines and you are familiar with gambas al ajillo (to quote José Andrés, the very very famous tapa of shrimp sauteed with garlic), then you will recognize this dish instantly. Butter, garlic (on the light side, as these things go), a little bit of bite, and they even brought us extra baguette to sop up the sauce with when the dish was first delivered, instead of having to ask later. Oh, and the shrimp were perfectly cooked and delicious too.

An Irish Egg – $18.00
Guinness and onion sausage crusted egg, Bushmills bacon jam, wholegrain mustard aioli

The challenge of an Irish egg is that the texture’s in the egg and the flavor is in the sausage. The sausage here was first-class in flavor and made a lovely coating, exactly the right thickness to avoid being too salty and just dry enough to make complement the runny yolk that is the hallmark of the Irish Egg. (The Scotch Egg is the same dish, but made with a hard-boiled egg instead of soft-boiled.) The bacon jam and aioli were also lovely, but we felt that only the aioli brought anything to a bite that had egg and sausage in it.

Bang Bang’s Chicken – $18.00
Buttermilk marinated fried chicken with a spicy bang bang mayonnaise

There was a nice crunch on the chicken, and the bang-bang mayonnaise was not too hot. There was not much that was special about this compared to similar dishes in other restaurants, but it was tasty.

Pull the Boxty – $17.00
Irish style crispy boxty potato cake, pulled ham hock and caramelized red onions with a Dubliner cheese sauce

We really liked this, but if you’re looking for the potato-and-onion of a latke you won’t find it here. The potato cake was crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside, with no particular flavor other than the blandness of potato. So what was to love? Well, the ham hock and caramelized onions were a pungent, lovely duo and the cheese sauce a mild complement to the bite. The boxty here played the same role as mashed potatoes do when you eat them with rich gravy, adding a lovely bit of crunch to boot.

Entrees

Worth The Wait Beef Sandwich – $26.50
12 hour braised beef, garlic aioli, sautéed mushrooms, crispy onions & smoked cheddar on ciabatta

What you can’t see in the picture above is how tall this sandwich is; it’s a challenge to fit in your mouth. Everything was on point though, and if you take it apart make sure to get most of the components (and especially the crispy onions) in each bite. The whole really is more than the sum of its parts here.

Shepherd’s to Die for Pie – $27.50
Braised and pulled beef & lamb with root vegetables in a rich red wine jus with Irish peat smoked mashed potato

This dish is aptly named; the jus had the kind of rich, deep, brown umami flavor that makes you think you’ve died and gone to heaven. We had to use our imaginations since we visited in some of the hottest months of the year, but on a wintry night by a warm fire, the comforting brown-ness of this dish and its root vegetables would be just the ticket. If we had one complaint about this dish it would be that the flavor was so intense that by the time you were halfway through your taste buds were saturated and you weren’t quite appreciating it the same way anymore. Our advice would be to go halfsies on this and some other dish with other members of your party.

Fish & Chips – $27.50
Our famous Premium North Atlantic cod filet, beer battered & served with chips and fresh tartar sauce 

The coating was not greasy, crunchy, and easily held up through the addition of malt vinegar without becoming a sodden mess. Yum, yum, yum. Other sandwiches came with the same “chips”, but this is a good place to talk about them. The thinnest layer of crispy exterior over a soft, fluffy interior, with the barest touch of salt. The perfect fry to eat on its own, or dress up with ketchup, mayonnaise, or the condiment of your choice.

Gnocchi Sea Gnocchi Do – $33.00
Handmade potato gnocchi, seared Foley’s Georges Bank scallops, crispy pork belly, tomatoes & kale in a white wine butter sauce

A little acidic and soggy. What the heck is the kale doing in there. Otherwise, no notes. Perfect scallops. Pillowy gnocchi. Great pork belly (even though it wasn’t crispy, as advertised). Would order again. Without the kale.

Now You’re Talkin’ Chicken Sandwich – $24.00
Fried buttermilk chicken breast, hot sauce, scallions, shredded pickled slaw, truffle aioli and grated parmesan

This was terrific. Everything on that list (except maybe the scallions) contributed to making something special out of a piece of fried chicken. The hot sauce brought spice, the pickled slaw acid and a bit of lightness, the aioli added a bit of depth to round out the flavor, and the parmesan rounded it out just a little bit more and added a touch of salt. We loved it.

Crispy Cream Goats Cheese Salad – $21.00
Crispy fried goats cheese with pickled carrot, squash & arugula salad, pear & shallot relish, blackberries, candied pecans, quinoa crunch

Our families are huge fans of goat cheese, of fried cheese, and of the trend towards salads featuring lighter greens (arugula or mixed small lettuces) with nuts, fruit, and slightly sweet-tart dressings. This should have been right in our wheelhouse. You can see that “but” coming, right? The cheese was wonderful, but the relish was sticky and sweet, the blackberries weren’t tart enough to provide the necessary balance, and neither was anything else.

Desserts

Ger’s Bread & Butter Pudding – $12.00
Like no other you have ever tried. Believe us.

Most of the time, the custard soak on a bread pudding happens before the baking. This one arrives at your table almost dry – there’s been butter added before baking, but to complete the dish you need to pour on the creme anglaise that comes with it and let it sop up that yummy vanilla flavor before drizzling the caramel on top. What this means for you: if you love bread pudding, you’ll love this – it’s got all the classic flavor components and a lighter, fluffier texture. If you’re one of those people who doesn’t like bread pudding because it’s too “squishy”, don’t be afraid to take a chance on this. Especially if you pour the creme anglaise out onto the plate and then turn the pudding out into it, you can get all the lovely eggy creamy vanilla flavor of bread pudding but without the smooshy texture.

Sunshine State of Mind
Sweet orange pudding meets a touch of delightful whipped cream, elegantly paired with an orange butterscotch sauce

The pudding had a clean orange flavor and a lightness that you might not expect from the description. But the winner on this plate was the butterscotch. Butterscotch that is just sweet is everywhere; this was the real stuff, with the edge of complexity that comes from letting the caramel come within a hairsbreadth of burning. Jennie couldn’t taste the orange in the sauce, only in the pudding, but she would seriously go back to this restaurant just for the butterscotch.

Drinks

Arthur’s Old Fashioned – $16.00
Tullamore Dew 12 Irish Whiskey, Guinness simple syrup, orange bitters, Guinness cured bacon

I’m a sucker for an Old Fashioned. I’m determined to try every single one that Disney offers on property. And Guinness simple syrup? Guinness cured bacon?? Be still my heart! Unfortunately, this drink didn’t live up to the potential of its components. The bacon was hard and weird – not at all like an orange peel garnish like I would have expected. The Guinness simple syrup didn’t really come through at all. So instead I paid a hefty price tag for … a pretty sub-par standard old-fashioned. No thank you.

Kids’ Entrées

Grillin’ Chicken – $12.00
Tender chicken breast served with mashed potatoes and veggies

This was … grilled chicken. Our kid dipped hers liberally in ketchup, as children are wont to do. Chicken was a little dry, but manageable.

Macaroni & Cheese – $10.00
Macaroni pasta with Dubliner cheese and veggies

Big kid is a mac and cheese connoisseur. And despite this being even larger than what I would consider an adult portion, she annihilated all of it. Top marks.

Kids’ Desserts

Ice Cream Surprise
vanilla ice cream in a cone topped with sprinkles and filled with a surprise

Spoiler alert: this is plain ice cream, and the surprise is M&Ms. It will delight your children. Our kids are dessert-eating pros (they claim to have a second stomach for just desserts), and the two of them couldn’t finish this beast by themselves. Plan accordingly.

 

Have you eaten at Raglan Road before? What were the stand-out dishes or other parts of your dining experience?