Review: Bourbon Steak Shines at More Than Steak

Bourbon Steak offers high-priced, high-end dining from celebrity chef Michael Mina at Disney World’s Dolphin hotel. As you might guess, the menu focuses on steak—but my family dined there recently and found a lot to love beyond the carnivorean core of the meal. No question it comes with a significant price tag, but if you love the steakhouse experience and your budget will stand it, we think it’s worth a visit.

The interior does not give off the traditional dark colors and cigar-filled rooms steakhouse vibe that some establishments still aim for (looking at you, Morton’s and Capital Grille), even if those restaurants are smoke-free today. Instead, you’ll find more modern decor that feels formal without being stuffy, though the lighting is low and intimate. Unfortunately, our table location didn’t give us any good angles for photographs. One thing to be aware of: we had an earlier dining time and didn’t experience this, but several reviews on OpenTable and another TouringPlans team member who dined recently commented that it was very loud.

I mentioned the high price tag, but just how much is your meal going to cost? On the day that we visited, if you chose the least expensive appetizer, entree, and dessert, your total would have been $71 before drinks and tip. At the other end? $271, if you exclude caviar service from the choices. So, I’m not going to guess at your bill. But whatever you order for an appetizer (median price about $25) or dessert (about $15), you should expect to pay at least $75 for any steak that isn’t a “vanilla” option you would find on any high-end steakhouse menu. (View the menu here)

Bourbon Steak is open daily from 5 to 11 pm, and reservations are currently often available on short notice (it has only been open about a month, and this might change). You can also reserve on OpenTable and may find slots there even when My Disney Experience has none. Note that Bourbon Steak requires reservations to be cancelled at least one day in advance to avoid a penalty fee. The Dolphin hotel is a non-Disney resort, but is easily reached by foot or boat from the Boardwalk, Yacht or Beach Club, and the EPCOT Skyliner station. Parking is free with validation from the restaurant. Like other restaurants at the Swolphin Complex, Bourbon Steak does not accept the Disney Dining Plan, and you cannot pay with a MagicBand.

Starting Off

Other restaurants serve free bread; Bourbon Steak serves a free flight of fries to accompany every meal. On the left: Truffle Fries and Truffle Aioli; in the middle: Herbed Fries and Ketchup; on the right: Paprika Fries and Bourbon BBQ Sauce.

These were A+ fries. Maybe A++ fries: crisp but not over-crunchy, with fluffy, light interiors. The truffle fries were buttery, the herb fries showcased the potato, and the paprika fries were what so many seasoned fries dream of being but fail at because the paprika has been in the back of the cabinet for a year. The paprika on these fries might have just come off the plane.

My advice: skip the ketchup. You can get ketchup anywhere, but the other two sauces were special. It is hard to go terribly wrong with truffle aioli, but this one was perfectly balanced and – like the fries – not over-truffled. The bourbon BBQ was unique and tangy, almost citrusy, and when they cleared the empty fry cups we kept it for the rest of our meal.

Petite Romaine Caesar – $16
garlic streusel, creamy caper dressing vacche rosse parmesan

Not the best picture, sorry. But the salad delivered; a little unique spin on the Caesar with the garlic streusel instead of croutons, and a slightly briny, capery dressing that was refreshing and less heavy than the typical Caesar dressing. It wasn’t the most special Caesar I’ve ever eaten, but it’s a long way above the mediocre Caesars that are everywhere these days. (Yes, I am a Caesar Salad snob.)

Onion Soup Gratin – $15
caramelized onions trio of cheeses, garlic baguette

A standout of the meal, with a deep, rich umami flavor from the meat broth, sweetened by the caramelization of the onions. In this soup, the onions were either cooked until they completely dissolved, or someone took an immersion blender to them. The result was a texture more like gravy, and it really helped bring home the flavors. The crouton and cheeses were yummy, of course, but they were just foils for the broth.

Black Truffle Agnolotti – $47
burrata cheese filling, truffle butter

I absolutely love truffle, so I have eaten a lot of truffle dishes and I know how easy it is to overdo it. This was the second (third if you count the fries and aioli separately) truffle dish of the night that was perfectly balanced. I have no idea how this managed to be both rich and not too heavy simultaneously; it’s possible that having to share it with four other people helped.

The sticky point here is the price. Truffle is not a cheap ingredient, and it’s the large shaved pieces of truffle you see that help bring that big price tag. If your budget doesn’t care or someone else is paying, this is delicious and worth your stomach space. But if the price is a challenge, don’t have FOMO about skipping it. It was delicious, but this is a menu full of delicious things.

Michael Mina’s Tuna Tartare – $24
quail egg, pine nut, mint, asian pear garlic, trio of chili peppers, habanero-sesame oil

This tuna tartare comes with a tableside presentation to break the quail egg and mix all the components; at the end it’s not as pretty as the picture above but you’re guaranteed a complete bite in every forkful. Nonetheless, this was the one whiff of the night. It tasted fine and we finished it, but it needed a bit more oomph (and in my opinion, a bit more acid) to be excellent. There are much better options on this menu, and I would not order this again.

Entrees

There are four steaks below, so before we dive in here, let me talk about some things that were common to all the steaks. First, we ordered a range from rare to medium, and each steak arrived at the perfect temperature we had asked for, with an excellent seared crust. No steakhouse achieves that all the time; I have been served over-temp steak in Michelin-starred steakhouses.

When you order a steak in any high-end steakhouse, the first thing you should do when it arrives in front of you is cut into the middle – and if it’s not what you ordered, you send that misfire back. Steaks cook quickly; it won’t be that everyone else is halfway through their meal before your replacement arrives. And when you’re paying that much, you deserve for it to be perfect.

Second: if you look carefully, you will notice flakes of salt on the plates below. Salt is a well-known flavor enhancer, especially of meat, and high-end steakhouses often use a liberal hand. We did not find any of our steaks to be over-salted, but it is hard to imagine that anyone would have felt the need to add more salt on top of what we received. If you are on a low-salt diet, or you habitually use little salt in your cooking, I recommend that you make your server aware of that and request that the amount of seasoning be adjusted to your taste.

14oz New York Strip – $67

There’s no question that this was a beautiful, high-quality piece of steak, perfectly cooked and seasoned. I cannot recall having a significantly better version of this steak anywhere. Maybe you’re hearing a but? Yep, it’s there. But, I have had equally wonderful versions of this steak many times in high-end restaurants, even ones that weren’t steakhouses. If your favorite steak is the NY Strip and it is exactly what you want, or you need to stick to the lower end of the price range, you’ll be very happy. But if you’re looking for something to set Bourbon Steak apart from the others, this isn’t it.

22oz Dry-Aged Cowboy Ribeye – $105

Next up: one of three rib cuts. Ribeye is one of my favorite cuts, and if I’m not in the mood for a filet mignon, I will almost always order ribeye. Cowboy is a bone-in cut with a short frenched “handle”, and again this was a high-quality piece of meat with the more intense, ever-so-slightly gamy umami that comes from the dry aging. One thing that can be tricky about a bone-in cut is getting an even cook both near the bone (which slows cooking) and on the opposite side, and that was nicely done here. This steak is worth the difference in price to step up from the New York Strip. (In my opinion, of course.)

8oz Wagyu SRF Rib Cap – $95

Perhaps you are wondering what the SRF is? It’s for Snake River Farms, a highly regarded farm-to-table operation specializing in American Wagyu, Kurobota pork, and other specialty meats. Here’s why that matters.

First, I’m a pretty trusting person, and when a steakhouse of this reputation tells me something is Wagyu, I will tend to believe that it has the qualities and heritage of the name. But there is a fair amount of skeevy “just slap a Wagyu label on it” product for sale in the US. So by listing the supplier, you know this is legit. Second, Snake River Farms sells American Wagyu, which is a first-generation cross between Angus and Kuroge Washu Wagyu genetics. American Wagyu has less fat than 100% Wagyu, but still more than the Angus, and it retains the marbling that Wagyu is known for.

Anyway, this is my new favorite steak. I had read about American Wagyu, but never had the chance to try it before. I’ve previously written that A5 Wagyu is a flavor closer to filet mignon; sweet umami, but without the ‘beefiness’ that you get from other cuts. That ‘steak flavor’ beefiness is what the Angus cross is supposed to bring to American Wagyu, and it definitely did! So take a ribeye, which gets its greatness (standard disclaimer, it’s my opinion) from being the right balance of lean and fat. Take the rib cap, which is a cut of ribeye that is more tender and marbled than the rest of the rib chop. Elevate that with the Wagyu background, and you have got yourself a winner.

Hay-Smoked Tomahawk – $205
potato crusted fondant potatoes red wine demi glace

Our final rib cut of the night was a Tomahawk, similar to the cowboy cut but with a longer, frenched bone that’s very dramatic. It arrives at the table in a covered Le Creuset oven, still bathing in the smoke, and is immediately removed to a board. The bone is cut and laid in the serving dish for your later gnawing pleasure, the steak is sliced and added to the dish, and the demi-glace poured over the whole to give the presentation shown below.

Like every other steak we were served, our Tomahawk was perfectly cooked, and the meat was high-quality and luscious with nice, even marbling. But the smoke flavor was so mild that it disappeared under the demi-glace. In the end, we couldn’t find a single thing about this steak to make it worth the $100 price jump from the Cowboy ribeye.

Espelette Butter Roasted Chicken – $42
haricot verts, caramelized onion jus espelette butter

I feel like this deserves a preamble. If you go to a fish restaurant and you plan to write a review, you have to order at least one entree that isn’t fish. If you go to a steakhouse, you have to order at least one entree that isn’t steak. I could not talk any of the unhelpful people who came with me into ordering something that wasn’t steak. So, dear reader, I fell on my sword and ordered this chicken just for you.

Why the chicken? Well, I have eaten Michael Mina’s delicious fish at other restaurants. And I have heard from a couple of people who tried the sea bass here that it is excellent. So I felt I could pass that information along for a commentary on the fish without trying it. Plus, roasted chicken is a good test in the same way that scrambled eggs are a good test. It’s simple, but not as easy as it looks, and there’s nowhere to hide any mistakes.

This chicken measured up. It was moist, tender, and delicious, with a little vibrance from the espelette butter, but nothing spicy. The white and dark meat were equally well done. There was absolutely not a single thing wrong with this chicken, except that it wasn’t a steak and I was surrounded by plates of beautiful steak. If you do not love steak, or you have exceeded your red meat quota for the week, you can order this chicken with confidence.

Sides

Whipped Potatoes, Echiré Butter – $15

Never heard of Echiré butter? Me neither. It turns out to be an appellation controlée butter from a 19-mile region in France. Had it come without the label, I would never have thought “Hmm, there seems to be something different about the butter in these potatoes”. But we could taste that there was plenty of it, and I’ll be honest: my family has a tendency to order mashed or whipped potatoes at a steakhouse and take all but a few bites home because we were too busy with the steaks. At this meal, we took home a few bites of steak, but there were no potatoes left to go with us.

Roasted Mushrooms, Garlic-Herb Butter – $15

These were nice mushrooms, very good but not particularly special. If you love mushrooms with your steak, you should consider them. If not, save your space for something else.

Charred Broccolini, Preserved Lemon – $15

Nicely done, with both a bit of char on the trees and a bit of crunch still in the stems. If (like me) you are tired of the go-to steakhouse asparagus and want to branch out to broccolini, I highly recommend this. Bonus points because the florets hold bearnaise sauce better than the asparagus does.

Desserts

Bourbon Steak Chocolate Bar – $15
peanut butter crunch chewy chocolate brownie

Those in the mood for chocolate, raise your hands. Here is your dessert. Not too sweet, and the chewy brownie was nicely set off by the shards of chocolate, nuts, and peanut butter crunch.

Key Lime Napolean – $14
layers of flaky sugared puff pastry citrus cream

This is so beautiful that it feels a shame to smash it. But the pastry is flaky and shatters when cut, and it’s the only way to get that lovely bite of everything at once. The sweet and citrusy flavor of the custard plays against the tart raspberry notes, and with the flaky pastry this was one of the lighter desserts we tried. A good choice if you want a bit of something sweet but you’re pretty full from dinner.

Warm Beignets & Dipping Custards – $19
macallan 12 yr butterscotch pudding crème brûlée with fresh raspberries milk chocolate pot de crème

The beignets were good but they were not the star here; just a convenient mechanism for conveying custards to your mouth, albeit more by scooping than dipping. So let’s talk about those custards. The chocolate pot de crème was light, with an almost mousse-like texture. More milk chocolate than dark, it was nice but not the most nice of the three.

I am a crème brûlée fanatic, and it was excellent. But I did not finish it, because I was too busy with the butterscotch.

Oh, that butterscotch! There is butterscotch that is sweet and buttery, dominated by the sugar and with only a bare hint of the scotch. And then there is grown-up butterscotch that has all those sweet buttery notes accompanied by deep, complex flavors from heavily caramelized sugars and whisky. You are probably guessing that this is that second kind of butterscotch, and you are right. This is a family-friendly blog, so I will not repeat my husband’s suggestion as to how we should use it. But dang, this stuff was amazing.

Bruléed Basque Cheesecake – $15
roasted harry’s strawberries grand marnier turbinado crunch

I would have eaten more of this cheesecake if I hadn’t been so full of butterscotch. It was the other standout dessert of the meal, with an even coating of crunchy sugar and a creamy, light texture. The strawberries were a bit sweeter than the cheesecake, and all told it was a nicely balanced take on some classic cheesecake flavors, with a serving size that was definitely shareable.

Michael’s “On The Rocks” Root Beer Float – $14
sassafras ice cream signature walnut chip cookies

Last, but not least, another fun presentation with the root beer pour done tableside. The sassafras in the ice cream was mild, the chocolate straws were a fun plus although you couldn’t drink through them (we tried), and the cookie was very dunkable. This dessert was also on the lighter side, and a good pick if you are partial to root beer floats.

Wrapping Up

Steak is popular, and you can find it on menus up and down the price spectrum. But high-end steakhouses are their own little world. There’s only so many ways to prepare a steak, even if Wagyu or dry-aged creates opportunity for a unique spin. So it’s the dishes that aren’t steak that are make-or-break for whether a splurgy expensive steakhouse is worth a repeat visit. We thought Bourbon Steak met the mark here, and more than.

Bourbon Steak isn’t just a good steakhouse. It’s a good restaurant. No, I wouldn’t order the chicken again, but that’s only because nothing will tear me away from my new love, the SRF Rib Cap. There were a couple of items that were solid, but not exceptional. But there were several standouts like the fry trio and the butterscotch – it’s these that put Bourbon Steak on my “will be back for a sufficiently special occasion” list, not the beef.

Have you been to Bourbon Steakhouse? Would you consider it for a splurgy special occasion? Let us know in the comments!