Be Our Guest Restaurant Lunch & Dinner Review
Be Our Guest Restaurant at Magic Kingdom serves a 3-course prix fixe menu for lunch and dinner, and is themed to iconic rooms in Beast’s Castle from Beauty and the Beast. This Walt Disney World dining review features food photos, a look the inside, discounts, and everything you need to know. (Updated July 13, 2023.)
Whether you’re new to Be Our Guest Restaurant or have dined here before, there are a few things you should know before we get started. First, the set menu with an appetizer, entree, and dessert is the only meal being served at Be Our Guest Restaurant right now. It has been this way since Magic Kingdom reopened, and remains the case 3 years later.
Our expectation is that this prix fixe menu for both lunch and dinner is likely to be served through at least early 2024. If you’re planning a trip after then, you might consider also consider reading our Lunch at Be Our Guest Restaurant Review and Breakfast at Be Our Guest Restaurant Review. Those two reviews also offer basic info about the themed design of dining inside Beast’s Castle that is not covered here.
Additionally, our newest review attempts to answer the question, Is Be Our Guest Restaurant Still Worth the Money? Although less comprehensive than this restaurant review, that covers what the experience is like as of Summer 2023, cuisine quality, Advance Dining Reservation difficulty, and more. It also addresses whether Be Our Guest will be worth it on the Disney Dining Plan in 2024.
Speaking of which, Walt Disney World has revealed details of the 2024 Disney Dining Plan, including that Be Our Guest Restaurant will still be participating in the regular DDP as a 2-credit table service restaurant. Many of you are likely starting to plan 2024 Walt Disney World vacations and likely want to start narrowing down your dining options–even if ADRs can “only” be made 60 (+10) days in ahead of time now.
In any case, here are our thoughts about the all-day Be Our Guest Restaurant prix fixe menu. Again, if you’re visiting between now and early 2024 and are debating Advance Dining Reservations here, it’s likely that this will be your only option. That is, unless breakfast makes a surprise return, which is possible this fall, but don’t get your hopes up for that.
In terms of basics, Be Our Guest Restaurant offers three themed dining rooms, each Imagineered to immerse guests in the mystery and romance of the Disney animated classic Beauty and the Beast.
The main area is the Grand Ballroom. This sprawling dining hall features a domed ceiling, chandeliers, Gothic arches, and snow falling outside. It’s lovely and resplendent, but its cavernous size also means it can be loud and feel vaguely like a (very fancy) mess hall. As such, this is our least favorite dining room at Be Our Guest.
Next, there’s the Castle Gallery. This romantic library features a stunning rose chandelier, which sits just above a lovely seven-foot-tall music box of Belle and Beast that swirls about and plays actual music box music. We like this room; it’s elegant but intimate, and has a romantic atmosphere.
Finally, there’s the West Wing. This is the Beast’s mysterious and infamous West Wing study. It features his enchanted rose as well as some destruction and a moody vibe. This is our favorite room at Be Our Guest Restaurant, and we try to dine here whenever possible. It’s ominous and foreboding, which is a pitch-perfect reflection of those scenes from the film. One thing to keep in mind is that this room can be frightening for small children.
Be Our Guest Restaurant offers a 10% discount for Annual Passholders. If paying out of pocket and doing three courses, you are likely to break even or come out ahead with the prix fixe menu as compared to the old dinner menu.
In fact, both Sarah and I came out ahead with what we ordered–and I’d hazard a guess that the dishes we chose will be among the most popular going forward. Those on the Disney Dining Plan would be decidedly worse off, but that’s irrelevant for now with that suspended.
Anyway, as we said when this change was announced, we’re surprised it didn’t happen earlier. We fully expected Be Our Guest Restaurant to be Signature from day one. It has been so hard to get a table at dinner here for the last 5 years, even on the day Advance Dining Reservations open.
It’s still difficult now, but we suspect that’s at least in part because many guests are booking based upon outdated information. Within the next year, we’d expect it to settle into the same territory as Cinderella’s Royal Table: tough, but not downright impossible. That in-castle eatery often is fully-booked inside 30 days, but seldom fills up months in advance like Be Our Guest Restaurant.
Throughout lunch and dinner at Be Our Guest Restaurant, Beast roams his castle and will pose for photos and selfies.
However, Beast does not currently have a dedicated meet & greet location (as before) and does not pose with guests, sign autographs, etc. Basically, you can’t get within 6 feet of him.
Every dinner at Be Our Guest Restaurant starts with bread service.
It’s very bread-like.
Sarah started with the Maine Lobster Bisque: Crème Fraîche and Poached Lobster.
We had wavered between this and the escargot for our second appetizer (while great, the French Onion Soup is an inexpensive lunch option), and I think we made the wrong choice…and that’s only in part because soup is the most boring subject for food photography.
The soup tasted good, with a rich and creamy flavor. Even though the portion looks small in the photo, it was ample, especially considering the decadent flavors. Having “lobster” in the menu’s item name twice is probably accurate, as that’s how many chunks of lobster were in the dish. I’d expect sparse lobster meat at a normal Walt Disney World table service restaurant; here, it’s a disappointment considering this is now a Signature restaurant.
For my appetizer, I started with the Charred Octopus: Citrus-laced Fingerling Potatoes, Pickled Hearts of Palm, and Red Pepper Coulis served Cold.
Presentation here was good, and red pepper coulis provided a spicy complement to the octopus. The flavors all worked well, but my octopus was too tough. I’m not sure if this was simply bad luck, because it otherwise worked. Unfortunately, as served this couldn’t hold a candle to the superlative octopus at Tiffins, or even the more tender offering at Coral Reef.
For her entree, Sarah ordered the Spice-dusted Lamb Chops with Roasted Salsify, Baby Zucchini, Charred Tomatoes, and Royal Trumpet Mushrooms with a Lamb Demi.
If you look back at our previous Be Our Guest Restaurant Dinner Review, you’ll notice this dish is nearly identical to the lamb we ordered for that meal. About that lamb, I wrote: “the accompaniments and presentation made it befitting of a fine dining meal, although the size was a bit on the small size.”
Perhaps all that speculation above about Walt Disney World analysts realizing they could increase per guest revenue at Be Our Guest, or wanting to close the ‘cupcake’ loophole was incorrect, and this really went Signature because Bob Iger is a regular reader of this blog and saw that I thought this dish was already fine dining caliber, and made it so. Yeah, that seems totally plausible and not at all conceited.
Anyway, exact same story with the new Lamb Chops. Very good dish with a portion that’s slightly too small. The spice-dusting provides a bit of flare, but also made some bites slightly over-seasoned. (There’s no kick, for those worried about that–it’s a crowd-pleaser.)
For me entree, I ordered the Grilled Filet Mignon.
I’ll admit, my expectations were low. I was expecting either a glorified strip steak or perhaps a center-cut that was really, really small. Instead, I received a generous portion of one of the best cuts of meat I’ve had at Walt Disney World in years.
Perfectly cooked, tender, juicy–I could go on and on. I was shocked and am still wondering if maybe this fell off the truck on the way to Capa at Four Seasons Orlando. Or perhaps regular reader of the blog Bob Iger handpicked this cut for me, knowing we’d be dining at Be Our Guest this evening. (If that were the case, you’d think we wouldn’t have been seated in the far corner of the Ballroom, but I digress.)
The red wine glaze underneath added a subtle twist to the steak, but I actively tried to avoid using it because the meat held up on its own. Everything about this was exquisite, and I’m still a bit flabbergasted. Despite my effusive praise, in the back of my mind I know that I had to have gotten a little lucky here. Even if yours is only 75% this good, it’s the must-order dish on the new prix fixe menu.
The meal ends with the same dessert trio for everyone. Note that this changes from time to time, so what you see here may not be what you get if you dine at Be Our Guest Restaurant this year, in 2024 or beyond.
One thing that is consistent about the dessert trio is how underwhelming it is. If I were feeling curmudgeonly, I might complain that a Signature Restaurant doesn’t offer a selection of ambitious dessert options, but I can’t here. This is so adorable that it melted my cold heart. Plus, realistically everyone coming to Be Our Guest is doing it for at least in part of Beauty and the Beast coolness.
These desserts aren’t merely fodder for social media–they’re delicious and compliment one another nicely. This is a definite upgrade from the cupcakes served here before, and the mix of taste plus delightful presentation instantly places this among the best overall desserts at Walt Disney World. It’s really fun.
Part of the “fun” for me is that it’s also very photogenic, and a tricky subject. I’m not even going to tell you how long I spent taking pictures of this before eating it (the 3 edited photos in this review are a small number of my total keepers, though). Suffice to say, it’s probably a good thing we were seated in a far corner of the room.
Overall, we enjoyed dinner at Be Our Guest Restaurant before and we like it slightly more now. For the most part, fan opinion seems to fall either in the “love it” or “hate it” camps, but we’d say we’re firmly in the “like it a lot” camp. It’s not on par with Signature Restaurants in the resort hotels, but it’s better than expected.
There’s also the practical planning perspective, which is that the Magic Kingdom dining lineup is the weakest in all of Walt Disney World. There’s literally only one other dining option in the entire park that stacks up to Be Our Guest Restaurant, and that has a more adventurous menu that won’t appeal to picky eaters. When considering the practicality of a Walt Disney World vacation, that makes Be Our Guest even more of a winner (and must-score ADR!) since its in-park competition is not exactly fierce.
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.
YOUR THOUGHTS
What do you think of the prix fixe dinner menu at Be Our Guest Restaurant? Do you think it’s worth the money? Would you rather do dinner elsewhere in Magic Kingdom, or is this the best option? Does it live up to the hype? 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!
After reading for years that BMG was a must-do, my partner and I had lunch there early last year and were completely underwhelmed (and we ate in the beast room). Checked that off the list; never again. We found the lunch food and the experience at Crystal Palace to be far superior.
We found our own loophole on our trip (that ended 3 days before the parks closed). Docking Bay 7, for some reason, would only charge you for a child’s QS meal if you used mobile ordering for an adult meal with an alcoholic drink. We ended up eating there 5 times over the course of the trip and used 10 of our 14 child’s QS credits on $30+ meals. I felt a little guilty, but I like your perspective on loopholes! Unfortunately, I don’t think that’s a loophole that anyone else is going to be exploiting any time in the near future…
We’ve eaten at BOG 3 times, 2 breakfasts and 1 Christmas Eve dinner. The breakfasts were fun (experience-wise) but the food was just mediocre. The Christmas Eve dinner in the West Wing .was great all-around. I magically scored the Christmas Eve dinner rsvps 2 days prior after months of checking daily for openings. So, yes, it CAN be done, with persistence.
Hi Tom-
Always appreciate the commentary. We have reservations for late July but are VERY reluctant to eat indoors. We haven’t eaten in a restaurant since early March. Any chance there will be some outdoor seating at BOG? If not we will cancel our reservations.
I don’t see outdoor seating happening at Be Our Guest Restaurant because there’s simply nowhere to put it.
I *hope* it’ll be added at other Magic Kingdom restaurants (where it is feasible) because right now Tony’s Town Square is the only location with outdoor seating…and it’s not good. (See our list for other locations: https://www.disneytouristblog.com/best-restaurants-outdoor-seating-disney-world/ )
We had dinner there in December. First time at BOG. Not a fan of prix fixe but the filet was pretty good. Dessert adorable if not too sweet for us but portioned just right. Snagged the reservations on the drive to Orlando for MVMCP. Could not believe our luck. The loudness and cafeteria atmosphere really really detracted from the enjoyment of the meal and ambience. We were in the rose gallery. Would not be inclined to dine there again.
tom, I know lunch is now prefixe at Be Our Guest. Is it the price and menu as the dinner?
Way overpriced. Very disappointed. The dessert was the highlight though. And character time with The Beast was cool!.
We ate here after Christmas 2018 and was very dissappointed. My husband and I have eaten at Be Our Guest since it’s opening and have seen it go through a few menu changes. Personally, I like their previous menu before the price fixed menu. Their salmon and lamb dishes were so good. We had the Filet Mignon and both of our filets were dry and lacking flavor. Most reviews on here rave about it, but I think it can be much improved. The octopus appetizer also dry and lacked flavor. My cheese plate was nothing special or unique. The dessert is very creative and loved the chip cup with mousse. The macaroon was delicious. The chocolate truffle was a pumpkin flavor and really bad, we just left it on the plate. The edible paper is just a creative touch, but has no flavor, tastes like paper. Overall, the entrees and appetizers need a flavor boost. You are mostly paying for the experience and that visual surroundings and getting to meet Beast. We are taking a break from this restaurant until the food gets a bit better. If you’ve never eaten there, try it at least once because it’s really a beautiful place to eat with a couple unique rooms and meeting Beast.
We booked 1 year ago, assuming and hoping there would be a new menu by the time our trip came around. So far, no luck. The current vegetarian option is 6 corn tortellini. I thought for sure they’d need to change that menu option because it’s not worth $60. So far, they’ve kept it. Fingers crossed they change it by August…
We dined in the West Wing in June, before the change to the Signature & I’m so glad we did. We paid out of pocket, and I actually ate an appetizer, main, and dessert (I was peer pressured into dessert, but I was so stuffed!). I was wavering between a couple of different appies and mains, so our waiter (he was fabulous) offered his opinion and boy was it great advice! I had a mussels appetizer which was absolutely delicious & there were soooo many mussels it really should have been shared (A dozen can be seen in my photo), plus 2 good sized pieces of (garlic?) bread which I used to soak up every last drop of the sauce once the mussels were all gone! And for my main I had the scallops & prawn pasta which was full of seafood and was so incredibly yummy! Both of these items are gone from the new prix fixe menu. So sad. So since I’ve now met the Beast, dined in the West Wing & can no longer get that scrumptious meal again, I doubt I’ll return to BOG for dinner. I may go for lunch at some point, but it’s not high on my priority list now. If you ever see Mussels Provencal &/or the Scallops & Prawns Pasta on the menu again in the future, ORDER IT! I highly recommend both.
Was your steak medium rare?
Was your steak medium rare?
As my first visit was in 1975 I would like to say this. I hate the game, not Disney. I love Disney. I do not like getting ripped off though ( the game ). Every one plays it. We save money where we can. That means we eat mostly in what we feel is a lovely room with a kitchen, and only eat at a place that truly deserves our business. We can cook most of the rest. The same thing goes for parties, special events etc. I would encourage everyone planning a trip to really take a hard look and what they want to spend their money on and evaluate it. Disney rocks, but the game doesn’t.
Have eaten dinner there about 10 times.
Did not mind the switch to price fixe however our last meal there on March 2cnd was not great. They discontinued the bread service and the edible mat that was on the dessert plate. For what they charge I think this move was very cheap on their part…. what does it cost to offer a roll!
My husband and I dined here recently for dinner. I would agree wholeheartedly on the filet mignon, which was phenomenal. I had the Roasted Pork Tenderloin, which had a large portions of meat (2 pieces of tenderloin) along with a piece of delicious pork belly and the bacon dusting added a nice flavoring too. The potatoes are melt in your mouth delicious. Only the Brussels sprouts were just a bit hard, but overall we had a great time and will go again! This was our first dinner at the Castle, having pretty experience having lunch there a few times.
I’m not sure if it was mentioned in the review, but I thought it was very cute that the dessert plate had the edible design!
We recently had our first dinner at Be Our Guest and were totally pleased. The menu items were very attractive. Being vegan I ordered the Smoked Ricotta and Corn Tortellini as the item I guessed would be easiest to adapt when I got it. I was delighted! It had some familiar and some brand new tastes, all of them the best ever. Beautifully presented. Super waiter. Amazing dessert. We’ll be back. We did not have a meal plan, but had just gotten our first “Tables in Wonderland” card, so the cost was very acceptable for us.
My daughter and I had dinner here Saturday, 9/8. We booked 180 days out and were aware of the change without knowing the menu. We were pleasantly surprised. Our filets could be literally cut with a fork, rare & mid-rare. They were perfectly cooked unlike those at The Yachtsman which had to be returned for severe over cooking. We had no issues with the 2 meal credit. Our meal total was $127.00, compared to our cheeseburgers for lunch at The Plaza that cost us $97. As for Cinderella’s Table, I will not eat at a place that bills my CC 6mos before I eat the meal, nor will I pay $165 for lunch with princesses that can be seen for much less in dining costs.
I believe that most dining is over-priced at WDW, but aren’t we paying for the atmosphere and the better than average chefs anyway. We were fortunate to have the free dining plan and paid to upgrade to deluxe. Aside from Yak & Yedi, we were greatly pleased with our choices over 8 days.
I got an ADR for our October trip and I am excited to try it. I am paying out of pocket and have TIW – so I will pay about the same as I would have before. I am happy they made the change, hopefully it will make it easier to get an ADR going forward.
Is breakfast (lunch?) still on the ‘snack/budget’ plan?
While aesthetically pleasing, I still wish they had dessert options. A nice little torte or something. I feel one macaron (not a macaron fan), a chocolate covered cherry , and a mousse filled chocolate cup don’t cut it, at least add one or two more options, Disney. For someone shelling out over 250/300 for a family of five, I’d like more options like at most other signature locations.
Had breakfast at Be Our Guest and we were very disappointed! Didn’t think the food was good at all! So I would have to say our first and last time dining there!
We ate here in August (may or may not have selected trip dates based on this reservation) and loved the new menu! Our favorite dish prior to the menu change was the strip steak and I was worried we we’re going to miss that. We ordered the filet and totally forgot what a strip steak even was. It was so tender you could cut it with a fork! My husband still talks about our meal there. Chip was too cute and I was so full I couldn’t bring myself to eat him. But we definitely love the new menu! Especially since we don’t use the dining plan.