Cape May Cafe Review
We dined at Cape May Café our first day at Disney World for my 30th birthday trip. I will be completely up front and tell you I did not get enough pictures. I really wish I had. However, you can find plenty of pictures of this amazing eatery online. But let me give you my review (in case you can't tell I like it already!).
- Date Booked: 10/29/15
- Date and Time of Reservation: Sunday, 1/10/16, 6:20 pm
- Location: The Beach Club
How to get there: So the biggest dilemma when you eat here is how you get there! Since it is at a resort, there is not going to be any direct transportation from your own resort. Well, unless you are staying at one of the other Boardwalk hotels, then you can walk or take the boat there. However, we were staying at the All Star Sports Resort. So there was definitely no direct transportation. Since we arrived earlier in the day, we did Disney Springs for lunch and shopping in the afternoon. So we actually just took a bus from Disney Springs over. We opted to take the bus to The Boardwalk Inn because we knew we would be too early for our reservations, and we wanted to walk around and see The Boardwalk itself. If you happen to be at one of the four parks or two waterparks, you can take a bus directly to The Beach Club. You also can do like us and take a bus from Disney Springs. If you are at Epcot, you can walk over by utilizing the back exit of Epcot in the World Showcase. If you are at Hollywood Studios, you can take the boat over. As you can see, there are various ways to get there. The main goal is to get somewhere that has a bus/boat/walking path that can get you to The Beach Club!
Checking in: The restaurant can be found right off the lobby of The Beach Club. It is hard to miss for sure. You check in at the entrance to the restaurant. We checked in about 6:05 for our 6:20 reservation. They asked for my cell phone number, and they said they would text me when our table was ready. I received a text about 5 minutes later. We returned to the check in counter, and they took us to our table. Just a note, the earlier you eat, the less crowded it is. While this is true anywhere, it is a nice to know here because of the buffet style dining. We had been at The Beach Club for about an hour or two prior to our reservation and we explored. We noticed around 5, there were a few people seated, but it was not crowded at all. By 6:10 when we were seated, there was not an empty table to be found. The con to this: lines at the buffet. The pro to this: the buffet food is always moving and you get fresh food almost every time. Just a little something to think about when you are booking your dining here.
Review: As I said before, we were seated about 10 minutes before our reservation time. My mom and I had a four person table which gave us plenty of room for all of our food and empty plates! Our waitress arrived within a few minutes to take our drink order. She explained how the buffet line worked (although it was still a bit unorganized) and sent us on our way. Unfortunately I lacked getting any pictures of the actual buffet. However, I can vividly remember it (for the most part). So the buffet is squared shape. The plates/bowls can be found at what I assume they consider the beginning of the buffet. It is in front of the cold options. However, I never quite knew where the line truly started. But I blended in and managed to get my food. So as I said before, the cold section is a good place to start. You have a variety of salads, peel and eat 'em shrimp, dips (like hummus), etc. I believe soups could also be found around this area. If you continue clockwise, you entered the land of warm food options. You had crab legs, corn, boiled red potatoes, boiled shrimp, warm butter, etc. As you made the corner you found the bread section and the children section. I didn't spend much time here. The last section was more warm food. Here I found fried shrimp, salmon, macaroni and cheese, brussel sprouts, and more crab legs.
I got two plates to start with. I honestly do not think I had an item that I did not like. If I had to pick my least favorite item, it would have been the fried shrimp. And honestly, it was still really good! On plate one, my favorite item was the salmon. I love a good cooked salmon, and the sauce/breading on it was divine. It was like a maple based sauce. Really, really good. My second plate was mostly crab, but I also had some corn, potatoes, and shrimp. The shrimp was good, but not worth the work. The potatoes and corn were exceptionally good considering they were from a buffet. In all honesty, you would have thought they made it fresh right then. Usually corn is kind of chewy on buffets, but this was cooked perfectly. And of course, the whole reason for eating here, the crab legs. They were so good, I went back for another round. I love crab legs and could eat them every day. I hate the work you have to put in, but these are worth it! Yummy!!
While indulging in our dinner, the waitress stopped by and scanned my MagicBand for payment. Of course, we were on the dining plan, so it removed 2 of our table service credits (one for each of us). We then went and divulged in dessert. The dessert table is on a wall near where you entered the restaurant. They had a variety of items. I got a lemon cake thing, cookies and cream cupcake, caramel flan, and pistachio cheesecake. All were good, but my favorites were the cheesecake and lemon cake. Delicious!
Since it was my birthday trip, I had my birthday pin on. I also received a pin when I checked in that stated I was celebrating a new baby. Of course, this confused many people. They assumed I already had the baby, but if they saw me standing, they knew immediately it meant I was pregnant. So it was all in how the person saw me. Well my waitress and I talked about it. Then a few minutes after we started dessert, she brought me a vanilla cupcake with chocolate icing and a candle. She gave me the option of just taking the cupcake or she could sing. I really didn't care either way. I love the attention, but not every waiter/waitress likes to sing. Well she did! The entire restaurant sang Happy Birthday to me. It was nice and a lot of fun.
Below is the receipt had we paid full price. I definitely think it is worth eating here on the Dining Plan. The food is extremely good, and the atmosphere is nice. My only complaint was the buffet line was kind of chaotic, but I would eat here again in a heartbeat. I love seafood, and if you love seafood, you would enjoy it too!
