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 October 9, 2022.)

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 one year later.

Our expectation is that this “all day” menu is still the only option through at least early 2023. If you’re planning a trip before then, this is the only review you need. If after, you might consider also reading our Lunch at Be Our Guest Restaurant Review and Breakfast at Be Our Guest Restaurant Review. Those also offer basic info about the themed design of dining inside Beast’s Castle that is not covered here.

Additionally, the Disney Dining Plan remains unavailable. As such, any discussion in this review of Be Our Guest Restaurant being a two-credit table service restaurant is irrelevant. Walt Disney World has indicated that the Disney Dining Plan is only temporarily unavailable, and will return in the future. See When Will the Disney Dining Plan Return? for our thoughts and predictions on when that’ll be back!

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 2023 and are debating Advance Dining Reservations here, it’s likely that this will be your only option.

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: 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 “Center-cut Filet Mignon: Robuchon Yukon Potatoes, Seasonal Vegetables, and Cipollini Marmalade with a Red Wine Glaze.”

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, which includes “Almond Macaron, White Chocolate “Chip” Cup with Grey Stuff, and Dark Chocolate Truffle.”

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!