Be Our Guest Dinner Review
As you may have read in my previous post, Brad and I just returned from Walt Disney World. We went back to celebrate our two year anniversary. When we originally started planning our trip, I did check for reservations for hard to get places at the 180 day mark. Be Our Guest was already booked up for the date we thought we wanted. It wasn't a huge deal to us, but it was a restaurant I wanted to try at some point for dinner. Well about two months prior to our trip, I tried to check once a day or so to see if anything popped up as available. Sure enough on April 6 it did. The moment I saw it, I didn't question a thing, I just booked it. I knew I could rearrange any of my Fastpasses or Touring Plans if needed much more easily than being picky about a time for dinner at Be Our Guest. See below for my review and pictures!
- Location - Magic Kingdom, Fantasyland
- Date - Wednesday, May 13, 2015
- Time - 5:25 p.m.
- Booked - April 6, 2015
- Bill Total - $56.94 before tip
Menu
Characters
At the end of your meal, you are welcome to proceed into the library (the ordering room during breakfast and lunch) to meet The Beast. He does not sign autographs, but there is a PhotoPass photographer there to take your picture meeting him.
Overall Review
We arrived at the check in booth around 5:20 p.m. We checked in, and they gave us a pager and asked that we wait on the bridge leading to the restaurant. They also had a water stand for their guests that needed something while they waited. No sooner than I poured myself a cup, the pager was buzzing. We took the pager to a friendly castmember right outside of the entrance. He asked that we wait for a brief moment and someone would come and get us. Moments later, our name was announced and the doors opened just for us. Tonight we would be dining in the main dining room. On our way to our table, the hostess talked to us about our day, and when I told her about our breakfast that morning at Be Our Guest, she wanted to know all about that. The conversation about the breakfast continued as we zigzagged all the way to our table. Once seated, she asked what we actually had for breakfast, handed us our menus, and left. She made sure to tell us that a similar dish to Brad's was part of their dinner appetizer listings.
As soon as we sat down, I knew the table to our left was going to be slightly annoying. The table was a male and female in their mid to late 20s. I am not certain their relationship, but to me it seemed like a boyfriend/girlfriend couple who have been together a few years. Either way, after we sat down, I heard her mention to her boyfriend about how ridiculously expensive breakfast there would be. She even went as far as to pull up the breakfast menu on her phone and read off the description on my meal. To judge a meal before you have fully researched it is not fair. I agree that when you first see that price, it does kind of stick out to you, but you could easily split one meal between two people and spend less money than a typical quick service restaurant. And to top things off, as the night continued, apparently they ordered numerous appetizers. I remember three at least. Two of her appetizers cost the same as my one very large meal that morning! And my last complaint about this table was her proclaiming she was vegan to everyone. I get that some people chose the vegan lifestyle and want to make certain at restaurants that their waiter and chef know this. But she continuously talked about it throughout her meal even without the waiter and chef present. I felt like she wanted everyone around her to know that she was vegan. It was really just overkill in my opinion.
So now that that rant is out of the way, our waiter showed up quickly after and asked us for our drink order. I had iced tea again and Brad had coke, of course. Drinks were brought out along with our bread and butter. Traditional dinner rolls again. Nothing out of this world, but they were still good. Oh, and a side note, our waiter looked and talked just like Bernard from the Santa Clause movies!
For dinner, I ordered the Pan-Seared Chicken Breast while Brad ordered the Thyme-Scented Pork Chop. Both of our entrees were out of this world. I would definitely say the food here was probably one of my favorites our entire trip. The only negative with mine was that the chicken breast had a bone in it. That isn't anything against Be Our Guest either. A lot of restaurants serve chicken breast this way. It isn't my favorite, but it was still amazingly good. The chicken breast was perfectly moist and had a really nice flavor. Each bite seemed to be covered with the herb-truffle butter sauce. Thankfully the spinach cream sauce was on the side because I wasn't a big fan of this, mainly because it was just not necessary. If you do not like your food to be mixed together, I would pay special attention to the vegetables on this dish. It came with seasonal vegetables and fingerling potatoes. On the menu it reads as if these two items are served separately, but they were not. I had what looked and tasted like a kale salad with carrots and other vegetables mixed in with a vinaigrette of some sort. Mixed in the salad was the fingerling potatoes. I did not mind this at all, but for pickier eaters out there, you may want to request that they keep them separate when plating your entrée. I enjoyed it so much, I nearly cleared my plate.
Brad's entrée of Thyme-Scented Pork Chop was also really good. I am not a big pork chop fan, but it was really tasty. Brad did not pour the au jus sauce on it, but the bite I had, I did dip it. The meat too was cooked perfectly and was not dry at all. It probably didn't need the au jus sauce, but I love the flavor and I had to have it. His plate was also served with seasonal vegetables and au gratin macaroni. His season vegetables were different than mine. He had green beans with mixed peppers which was really good. I personally preferred my small little salad better, however. His au gratin macaroni was AMAZING. Sometimes with macaroni, the cheese can be overpowering or sometimes tasteless. This was neither. It was literally perfect. So much so, I ate what Brad could not eat. I think he enjoyed it, but he is more of a Kraft Macaroni and Cheese guy.
After dinner, we were both just too full for their desserts. Plus, we had lunch there back in September and had dessert then. While the cupcakes were great, I am just not a big cake fan in general, so it really wasn't worth the money for us. We paid our waiter then headed to meet The Beast. Just a side note regarding The Beast, approximately every 30 minutes, he makes a large grand entrance into the dining rooms. It is kind of neat to see, and if you don't necessarily want your picture with him, you can take a quick picture of him from your table to have. We waited in line about 15-20 minutes in the library. He does not sign autographs, so there is not reason to pull your book out. Our PhotoPass photographer was kind and took quite a few photos while we were meeting him and then some posed ones. We were finished up and leaving completely around 6:30 p.m.
Overall, Be Our Guest dinner is my favorite of the three meals offered at Be Our Guest. My ranking would be dinner, breakfast, lunch. The food was top notch, and the service was great too. They get you in and out, but at the same time, you don't really feel rushed. The character interaction was perfect in my opinion. I wish more restaurants were like this. You don't have the pressure of missing a character because you ran to get food or to the restroom. It might take slightly longer, but it would be more beneficial and efficient to me. Also, the theming here is immaculate. You must take the time, if you dine here, to look around each of the three dining rooms. They actually tell you to do that before you leave. I am not quite sure how great of a value this dinner is on the Disney Dining Plan, but I know their lunch and breakfast are great values for sure. If we ever have the opportunity again, we will definitely eat here for dinner once more!
