Be Our Guest Restaurant Lunch Review
Be Our Guest Restaurant in New Fantasyland is the best counter service option in the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World for lunch. Here, you step inside Beast’s Castle in a restaurant themed to Beauty and the Beast. In this review, we’ll share food photos, theme commentary, and more. (Last updated June 9, 2019.)
In addition to being Magic Kingdom’s best counter service, Be Our Guest Restaurant also makes our list of the best counter service values when on the Disney Dining Plan (again, for lunch) in all of Walt Disney World. It thus should go without saying that the restaurant is Disney Dining Plan participant; for lunch, it’s a one-credit counter service option.
Be Our Guest Restaurant menu features French-inspired cuisine at lunch, and the restaurant just received an update in June 2019 that we cover in our Review of the New Lunch Menu at Be Our Guest Restaurant! Although ambitious for the usually unadventurous Magic Kingdom counter service restaurants, most guests will find something that appeals to them at Be Our Guest Restaurant for lunch. It’s a real crowd-pleaser!
Note that in addition to this lunch review, we also have a New Prix Fixe Dinner Review and Breakfast Review of Be Our Guest Restaurant. Each meal here is very different, so we recommend consulting those posts to determine which is the best option for your family.
We’ve dined here a few times over the course of the last several years, and each time Be Our Guest Restaurant impresses us a bit more (we have updated this review several times since our first time eating here). During my last meal here, I finally had the chance to dine in the West Wing, which really put the experience over the top for me.
Why is Be Our Guest Restaurant so popular? Let’s take a look…
Be Our Guest Restaurant is now over 5 years old (time flies!), but there’s still a ton of demand for this new restaurant, making reservations difficult to score. When we have visited for lunch, we have encountered waits of around 15 to 40 minutes, and it usually takes another 10 minutes or so to receive our food after we complete our order.
The process for dining at Be Our Guest Restaurant continues to evolve. For a while, there was a FastPass+ booking of the restaurant, but that was eliminated and a new Advanced Dining Reservation system was introduced. This is great news for off-site Walt Disney World guests, as it allows any guests to make lunch ADRs for Be Our Guest, and also the pre-ordering of their meals. You can read some strategy for this in our Tips for Making Be Our Guest Restaurant ADRs post.
This only bears mentioning for emphasis, as I’m sure most people reading this are already somewhat familiar with Be Our Guest Restaurant, but the place is incredibly lavish and the top to bottom details and effects are stunning. People aren’t kidding when they say that this is one of the highlights of the New Fantasyland expansion.
Personally, I think Seven Dwarfs Mine Train is the crown jewel of New Fantasyland, but Be Our Guest Restaurant is a lavishly designed restaurant, and is arguably a more impressive experience (for what it is) than Under the Sea ~ Journey of the Little Mermaid.
I find that simultaneously cool and disappointing. It’s great that so much effort went into making this restaurant an awesome experience. It’s disappointing that a highlight of a multi-year expansion billed as the “biggest in Magic Kingdom history” is a restaurant. We highly value restaurants at Walt Disney World (probably more than the average guest), but we still see attractions as the heart of the experience.
In the grand scheme of things, New Fantasyland loses points with me for Be Our Guest Restaurant being one of the best elements of the expansion (this was especially true before Seven Dwarfs Mine Train opened when Be Our Guest Restaurant was the best part of the expansion, not that it has opened and that’s the best thing, it doesn’t bother me so much).
In the confined context of this review, which is only of Be Our Guest Restaurant, the eatery gains a lot of points for that incredible detail. If you step foot in New Fantasyland without going inside Be Our Guest Restaurant you have not had the full experience of the expansion.
The details and theming are incredible, but they largely speak for themselves. I won’t bore you by fixating on them, except by pointing out a couple of things I don’t like.
First, Beast’s Castle that sits atop the rockwork. It seems like everyone else is gushing over the amazing forced perspective here, but I don’t think it works.
To me, it looks like a toy castle perched up there. I seem to be in the minority on this, though.
Second, the ballroom is gorgeous, but because of its large size and noise level, it feels like an oddly luxurious mess hall to me. Finally, I don’t care for the lifelike look of the faces of the babies painted on the ceiling of the ballroom. This is an Imagineer tribute, but I just don’t think it works. On the one hand, having real children up there gives some character to the art.
On the other hand, using real people instead of generic babies draws too much attention to each individual baby and looks a little creepy. I think that “generic” babies would convey the “feel” of the art they’re going for, without causing unduly visual fixation. I’m generally all for Imagineer tributes and others seem to like this, so again, maybe this is just me.
This brings me to the question of “where to dine.” As you might know, Be Our Guest Restaurant has three very different dining rooms: the Ballroom, the Rose Gallery, and the West Wing. For the reasons discussed above, I’m not a fan of the Ballroom. However, it is by far the easiest place to grab a table, and kids might like this location best.
Above is the Rose Gallery. It’s much more intimate, has some pretty details (like the dancing Belle and Beast music box pictured above), and some pretty paintings and tapestries on the wall. This room has the most relaxed and quiet feel of the three rooms.
Then, there’s the West Wing. You know, the West Wing. The place you’re not supposed to go. Apparently, no Walt Disney World guests have actually seen Beauty and the Beast, that, or they refuse to heed the warnings repeated throughout the movie. 😉
The refusal to heed these warnings is absolutely understandable, because the West Wing is totally awesome. Lightning and thunder reverberate through the room. The decor is shredded. Lights are low and foreboding. There’s a glowing rose with petals slowly falling…
It’s by far the best-themed of the rooms, and has a truly ominous feeling to it. Our first 3 times dining at Be Our Guest Restaurant, we couldn’t eat in here because it was so packed, with other guests waiting for tables. It took me visiting by myself and just hovering in the corner like a creep for 15 minutes before I was finally I able to dine here. Totally worth it.
(As a bit of an aside–we don’t have kids, but I could see younger children potentially be frightened by this room. YMMV.)
Be Our Guest Restaurant uses an RFID ordering system. Basically, you tap this rose before ordering your meal from a touchscreen, and take the rose to any table that strikes your fancy.
Cast Members then bring your food to you based on where the rose “says” you are. So if you really want to punk someone good, deposit your rose below their table after ordering and watch them get flustered and upset as your food is given to them. I highly suggest you try this prank on us if you ever see us at Be Our Guest Restaurant! 😉
One motif of Be Our Guest’s lunch menu seems to be ambitious, but slightly undersized entrees. This isn’t such a bad thing, as you’ll probably want to get a soup (French Onion!) plus another entree plus dessert, which will be expensive, but a delicious experience.
The restaurant actually feels like it’s striving for an experience somewhere between counter service and table service in terms of quality. We view this as a good thing, as it’s a serious upgrade over much of the forgettable dining in the Magic Kingdom. However, if you’re on a budget, have a huge appetite, or are a really picky eater, this may be a problem.
(Pictured above are the two new salads that we cover in our new menu review update. Both are solid options, as is the new Corn Bisque Soup.)
Here’s the Tuna Nicoise Salad. Sarah liked this even more than the Quinoa Salad, which is saying something. Here, you get warm seared tuna steak with chilled green beans, potatoes, olives, roasted bell peppers, tomatoes, and a poached egg.
This isn’t your typical, half-hearted Walt Disney World salad. The salad is fresh and features quality ingredients, and the seared tuna steak gives it a great flavor and some protein. I’m not a salad guy, and even I would consider ordering this in the future. This is definitely a solid choice.
Here’s the French Dip Sandwich, served on a Baguette with Au Jus and Pommes Frites.
You can order it cooked to your preference (a nice touch) and the meat is fairly high quality, as is the baguette on which it’s served. Horseradish Sour Cream ties the whole thing together, making this one of the best counter service entrees in all of the Magic Kingdom.
I’ve also had the Croque Monsieur — Grilled Sandwich with Carved Ham, Gruyere Cheese, and Bechamel with Pommes Frites. It was a good sandwich, but small for the price (even by Walt Disney World standards).
It’s not something I’d order again, nor would I recommend trying it unless there’s nothing else on the menu that interests you. Not that it’s bad, it’s just nothing special.
One final item for the “entrees” is the French Onion Soup. I’m not normally big on soups, but this is delicious, with the melted cheese and slightly salty broth being a lethal combination.
And by lethal, I mean that this is something you’ll find yourself craving after your trip, causing you to start thinking about booking another trip, which would be “lethal” to your finances. A bit of a stretch, but we go for the dramatic here! 😉
For dessert, first up is the Grey Stuff Cupcake. We thought it was pretty good, but not as great as the hype led us to believe. More than anything, this is a novelty dessert offered so that people can say, “try the grey stuff, it’s delicious” and post photos with “clever” captions on Facebook and Instagram.
It will not go down as one of the best snacks in the Magic Kingdom, even if it is really popular. There’s nothing wrong with a little novelty and it’s worth a try for that reason alone, but it’s a bit of a stretch to say “it’s delicious” about this dessert.
For dessert, we have also had the Lemon Meringue and Strawberry Cupcakes.
Sarah liked both of these, I only liked the Strawberry cupcake (I don’t care for lemon meringue in general, though, so my opinion is worthless on that cupcake).
For some reason I was expecting these to be cheesecake (my bad–they’re clearly labeled as cupcakes on the menu). I don’t know if it was just my expectations for a cheesecake or if this was actually the case, but I found them to be a tad dry. Still fine and worth the price.
Before heading out, make sure to wander around a bit to explore the rest of the restaurant, especially the West Wing, if you didn’t get a chance to dine there. If you want good photos of the rose and snowfall effects, be sure to turn off your flash, as flash sort of ruins the effect.
Overall, Be Our Guest Restaurant gets high marks in this review. Very high marks. From the ambitious menu to the ambiance and theming, Be Our Guest Restaurant is a winner that will be popular for years to come. I still think I slightly prefer the overall experience at Gaston’s Tavern in New Fantasyland, but that’s just personal preference. Regardless, both are very good, and each bring something unique to the table.
Be Our Guest Restaurant is right up there with Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater as one of coolest and best-themed restaurants at Walt Disney World, despite some thematic misfires. The restaurant also scores points with us for trying more inventive cuisine, which should be lauded given that this is a restaurant located in the kid’s haven of New Fantasyland in the Magic Kingdom. It is worth noting that Disney has tinkered with the menu here a lot, so you should check a current menu before you get your heart set on any of these items when planning.
It’s clear that you’re paying a premium for the location, as menu prices seem higher than the Magic Kingdom norm, and entrees are slightly smaller for some items, but we think it’s worth it for what amounts to a premium counter service restaurant. All things considered, after a few meals here over the course of the last couple of years, Be Our Guest Restaurant has slowly grown on us and taken the crown as our favorite Magic Kingdom restaurant. It’s a must-visit for lunch, especially if you’re unable to score the elusive Be Our Guest dinner reservations.
Want more dining tips? Read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. Planning other aspects of a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
Your Thoughts…
What do you think of Be Our Guest Restaurant? Is it worth the time, money, and effort? Does it live up to the hype? Which meal—breakfast, lunch, and/or dinner? Did you enjoy the meal? What was your favorite part of the experience? Want to eat at Be Our Guest Restaurant? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
I go to see daily a few websites and sites to
read posts, but this website presents quality based writing.
I got this website from my buddy who informed me concerning this web site and at
the moment this time I am browsing this web page and reading very informative posts at this place.
Questi laptop, dalle capacitÁ ridotte rispetto ai computer fissi,
svolgono funzioni di agenda e funzioni-base quali la navigazione l’elaborazione
di testi.
We ate here last christmas at lunch and everyone adored the ease, food, quick service credit value, and I’m hoping my visit to Be Our Guest for breakfast is just as good when we go this October.
The lunch experience is as described in the blog. In 2013, my party of 9 had a 4:00 dinner reservation. We were greeted at the gate and escorted into the castle. The girl in our party was given a cadelabra (Lumiere) and she led the way to our table in the ballroom. Red cloth napkins were shaped into roses at each place setting and presentation was delightful. Our waitress took our orders and the food was amazing with large portions. Perhaps there are smaller portions for the counter service lunch menu? My drink came in a souvenir goblet that lit up nicely in the low mood lighting. Desserts were brought to the table in a serving case. You could pick one and it was prepared right at your table. While waiting for food there was time to enjoy all of the decor the castle had to offer. Twice during our meal our “host” the Beast, wandered through the ballroom greeting guests. When our meal was complete we were escorted to the library for a private meeting with the Beast. It was the only time in the park I had met a character without waiting forever. My neice was dressed in Belle’s yellow dress and had saved her napkin rose to give Beast as a present. He pretended to think she was really Belle and rather than just pose with her, he took her gift, bowed to her, took her hands and danced with her for a moment.The look on her face is my most cherished Disney memory. Basically, the dinner experience is much more of an experience than lunch. I would definitely eat there for dinner over lunch any day.
Planning a trip- the first with the new Fantasyland.
Question: Can you just go into Be Our Guest to look at it or do you have to eat to see it? I am concerned about getting reservations from all the blogs I am reading!I don’t really HAVE to eat there. However, as an avid BB fan, I HAVE to see it!!!
Also, is it true that if you can sing Be Our Guest at the restaurant then you have access to another menu??
Thanks for your help!
This was a great review! My husband and I heavily relied on your reviews for a few trips to WDW and our most recent trip to Disneyland, and this was the most accurate (for us) review I’ve encountered.
I think I have a bad taste in my mouth for trusting anyone though after making reservations and paying out the nose for 3 bites of bad food at Resteraunts Merekesh. Everyone was all about the place, I was convinced it would be the best food Eva. Mistake. But. I got to see Neil Patrick Harris. All was well after I had a rice Krispy treat for dinner.
Anyway. This here is totally on point. When we saw the menus I had to do a double take at weather it was counter service or table service. I wouldn’t be surprised if they made both lunch and dinner table service. I think I may prefer it.
Note – that fact that you abbreviated “YMMV” had me wake the dogs with laughter. After reading so many reviews, when trying to figure out a place for dinner in Disneyland earlier this week I said the words “your mileage may very” followed by a ‘wth just came out of my mouth?’ Look to the husband. It was great.
Super grateful for the effort you and Sarah take to create these reviews. Even if our MMV.
The only lunch reservation we could get is 1:50 which makes it tight to see the 3pm Festival of Fantasy Parade. This may seem like a silly question but can we arrive before our reservation (say 1pm or so) to look at the sights to save us time? and then eat and get out of there by 230? Is this doable or do I sound like a total newbie (which I am)?
Useful info. Fortunate me I found your site unintentionally, and I am stunned why this coincidence did not came about earlier!
I bookmarked it.
Hello to every body, it’s my first pay a visit of this website; this webpage carries remarkabloe aand iin fqct fine
stuff designed for readers.
HI there!
I was wondering if you can help me with my couple of questions…
I have two reservations at BOG for my family,including our 7 year old princess. Trying to choose what to keep and what to cancel…
What’s the main difference between the Lunch at 1:10 PM & the Dinner at 4:55 PM(not talking about the menu)at the BOG?
Thank you very much.
I too have reservations for both lunch (11:00am) and dinner (7:30pm) on the same day and I am so excited to try both; as I understand that both experiances are very different. (Never been to either yet)
Julia, what I plan to do is have a very light lunch (soup & dessert) than a full dinner. So my recommendation is keep both reservations and enjoy both experiences.
Have Fun!!
I agree with you on the perspective.
The only reason I loved how the castle was set up is because the castle in the film, I believe, was on higher ground with a waterfall, just like it is in the park. But it is a little awkward to walk in this sort of cave-like entrance, and try to pretend you’re in the castle ahaha.
But I suppose with a kid, if they were actually skeptical, it’d be easy to tell them it’s an enchanted door that sends you into the castle . . . or something.
I’m in love with this restaurant. The moment I heard the concept and what it would be called, I was in love, so I might seem biased seeing as how I’m automatically a fan due to the fact that it has the ballroom and the West Wing. (I like to see the Rose Gallery as the place where the actual Be Our Guest song happened, but I am pretty sure that’s not intended lol)
I hope it stays a quick-service restaurant at lunch because I think it is one of the things that makes it unique, and it’s nice to have it there for people who can’t do the dinner experience.
Though I have to say, I’m not sure if you’ve gone for dinner, but it is a much more incredible experience at dinner. I had dinner in the ballroom, had the potato leek soup, pan-seared chicken, and then the grey stuff for dessert, which comes on a cookie-like brownie.
The server I had was absolutely incredible, offering to help us get reservations in the future and even gave our emails to the chef for some of the recipes! My friend who was with me mentioned that we had tried to go for my birthday and couldn’t, and our server took it upon themselves to bring me another plate of grey stuff and sing me happy birthday.
The restaurant’s food and service is really great (though I might have just been lucky with that particular server) and even at lunch, it’s truly enjoyable. I can never get anything but the turkey sandwich because I love it so much, and it’s a lot more food than I typically get when I’m paying for quick service.
I’d probably agree with your rating for both times of day. 9.5/10.
It’s a must-do 🙂
Thanks for sharing your experience!
I had the ratatouille and it was delicious! I also liked the rolls. 🙂
After reading your “West Wing Update,” I must confirm your suspicions. My daughter (4) chose a table in the West Wing, loved the dim lighting, and was enchanted with the rose. Then the thunder and lightning storm began. Terrified shrieks and tears ensued, and we rushed to another table (in the Rose Gallery…I was having nothing to do with those creepy babies, either). This was from a girl who braved Thunder Mountain and Everest, and whose favorite part of the trip was Villains’ Mix & Mingle at MNSSHP. The West Wing is amazing, but you were correct in imagining that it may scare little ones!
Sorry to hear that my suspicions were confirmed. It’s a really awesome place, but you never know what might scare kids. Hope you still had a good meal!
If you thought the adult entrees were small, you should see the kids entrees! We love BOG but have found we need to have the kids split adult meals. The kids steak dinner has a steak the size of a pink pearl eraser! It wasn’t enough food for even the 4 year old.
Wow, that’s sad. Not surprising, but still sad.
I’m really enjoying the theme/design of your site. Do you ever
run into any internet browser compatibility problems? A small number of
my blog visitors have complained about my blog not operating correctly in Explorer but looks great in Opera.
Do you have any advice to help fix this problem?
I just wanted to throw this out there- If you can’t get in for a dinner reservation, as we couldn’t, check the morning of for cancellations that night. We attempted to do lunch but they were full (and it was only 11am) The lovely hostess recommended talking another hostess who had last minute cancellations, we were able to eat dinner and I have to say it was the best meal we ate during our trip. Also make sure to ask your server what they turn into at night, our’s was a Grandfather clock!
We were fortunate to snag an ADR for dinner on our first trip to Disney World on Oct. 27. It took a lot of persistence but it finally paid off and about 30 days out we got it. I thought the experience was wonderful as did the rest of my family. No, it’s not a five star French restaurant but they really try to bring you as much of a fine dining experience as you want to have. We thought the food, especially the lamb rack, was outstanding. We had a great bottle of Beaujolais with our meal. The ambience in the ballroom is simply enchanting (but yes loud). The desserts were good…we had the grey stuff and strawberry cupcake. Our waiter was very helpful and courteous. Afterwards we had our pictures taken with Beast. This was, in our opinion, the best dining experience of our trip. If you are going to restaurants like Victoria & Albert’ s or Monsieur Paul you may turn a chin up to Be Our Guest, but for the average park-goer just looking for a great dining experience based on a beloved Disney movie, this is all you could ever want!
We had a kind of bad experience with BOG today (Monday 11/10/14). We went with our four young daughters to get in line at 11:00 am and instead found cast members out by the bridge saying “the standby line is closed and we don’t know if it will reopen”. My wife quizzed them to try to understand what this meant. They said if there are a certain number of fastpass plus reservations then “there are no tables” and there was also no way to stand in line to wait standby. This was very disappointing for us because our daughters were really looking forward to the experience.
This is something that I think needs to be fixed by Disney. If the restaurant can be reserved for lunch, that should be enabled via Disney Dining, instead of this confusing system of fastpass for lunch and a different system for dinner.
And if they do stick with this system for lunch, they should still manage a standby line for people who want to wait.
Heads up in case you want to do BOG for lunch! 🙂
This is just the way it is. The FP+ system is a bit sad in my opinion, because spontaneity is almost impossible, but it’s the rules of the game. If you really want to do something you have to plan it and use it as an FP choice or book an ADR as appropriate.
Great web site, really been looking forever for ideas on the perfect rattan furnishings for our
home and in our garden. This website really helpedgreat blog some great info here
Here is my blog post; port royal rattan daybeds
– Donnell –