Cinderella’s Royal Table v. Be Our Guest Restaurant
The two most popular Magic Kingdom table service restaurants both offer the experience of dining inside a castle, which is the main reason Cinderella’s Royal Table and Be Our Guest Restaurant are such difficult reservations to score. In this post, we’ll compare two of Walt Disney World’s most hyped restaurants to determine which you should choose for dinner on your vacation.
Note that if you’re looking for food photos or specific thoughts on dishes we’ve tried, you should consult our Be Our Guest Restaurant Dinner Review and Cinderella’s Royal Table Review. This comparison takes a more holistic approach, comparing the overall comparative experience of each to see how these restaurants stack up to one another.
Moreover, we’re only comparing dinner inside Beast’s and Cinderella Castle. While both also serve breakfast and lunch, breakfast and lunch are dramatically different at the two restaurants (lunch at Cinderella’s Royal Table is the same as the dinner menu). A lot of this post will apply equally to all meals, and we’ll also offer conclusions about other meals at the end, but the direct comparisons pertain to dinner, specifically.
Alright, let’s get ready to rumble: Be Our Guest Restaurant v. Cinderella’s Royal Table. NO HOLDS BARRED…
Theme: Both restaurants are set inside castles, and both make our lists of the Top 10 Themed Restaurants at Walt Disney World and Top 20 Themed Restaurants at Walt Disney World. Even though Be Our Guest Restaurant ranks higher on those lists, I think it’s a closer call than those rankings most bear out.
The thematic strength of Cinderella’s Royal Table is that it feels like you’re actually inside a gothic castle (probably because you actually are), which is really cool. The design is regal and feels lived in, albeit without the opulence that some kids may expect. Don’t under-estimate the psychological effect of walking inside Cinderella Castle, going up its stairs, and looking out the windows. I’d also go a step further and say the interior is underrated. It’s historically accurate rather than movie-accurate, which definitely appeals more to people like me who are primarily Disney parks fans rather than Disney animation fans. Regardless of that, the whole package is awesome.
By contrast, our experience with Be Our Guest Restaurant is not that of dining inside a castle. The suspension of disbelief just doesn’t work, as it’s pretty hard to fathom that you’re entering the toy castle on the roof of the mountains when you enter the doors. (Maybe the effect works for kids?) However, it does feel like you’re entering the world of Beauty and the Beast, and this is particularly true in the more intimate dining rooms. They’re like being “on set” of the movie, and that’s really cool.
Atmosphere: I won’t beat around the bush: both of these restaurants are loud. Part of this is the inherent design of restaurants designed to the interior of a castle. Another part of that is the natural consequence of restaurants that cater primarily towards families. If you’re a couple looking for a quiet and sophisticated date night restaurant, you should be looking elsewhere altogether.
I’m not a huge fan of the ballroom at Be Our Guest Restaurant. I’ve said before that it’s like a cafeteria or mess hall, and I think that’s the most apt way to put it. The tables are close together, the center of the room is massive, and there’s not enough to break up the space or dampen the noise. It’s a fancy-looking mess hall, sure, but it still feels like a mess hall.
By contrast, the main area at Cinderella’s Royal Table is large, but it at least feels more intimate. The space is broken up a bit by multiple tiers, pillars, and other design artifice that works to its advantage. While both have a lot of faux concrete that can make these dining rooms cacophonous, Cinderella’s Royal Table seems to have more fabrics that absorb the noise.
If we were going solely on the main dining rooms at each, Cinderella’s Royal Table would be the decisive winner. However, Be Our Guest Restaurant has the West Wing and Rose Gallery, each of which offer a significantly better vibe. The West Wing can be noisy (something about which I’m reminded I should tell families as it can scare small children), but it’s themed noise, not just screaming patrons. We highly recommend requesting a table in one of these rooms as they are on par with, or arguably better than, the atmosphere of Cinderella’s Royal Table.
Cuisine: The most divisive aspect of both restaurants is their food. We happen to really enjoy each, but you will find plenty of people who disagree. When it comes to Be Our Guest Restaurant, this can likely be attributed to inconsistency. The through-put is pretty staggering, and it’s likely the kitchen is in a perpetual state of chaos.
With Cinderella’s Royal Table, critique of the cuisine might come down to expectations based upon price. This meal is on par with other Signature Restaurants price-wise, and the food is definitely a rung or two below California Grill, Jiko, or the like. That fails to take into account that you’re paying for the in-castle location, as well as meeting princesses.
When you compare either of these to other character meals, there is no comparison. (In fairness, most character meals are buffets, so you’re trading quantity for quality here.) The quality of the ingredients, the melding of the flavors, and the care of the presentation impresses at both. We give high marks to the cuisine at both, and taking price out of the equation (something we’ll add back in below), we’d give the advantage to Cinderella’s Royal Table in terms of cuisine.
Value: This is an easy victory for Be Our Guest Restaurant. Depending upon whether seasonal pricing is in effect at Cinderella’s Royal Table and the entree you order at Be Our Guest Restaurant, you’re looking at the latter potentially costing half as much (or less) than Cinderella’s Royal Table. If you’re on the Disney Dining Plan, it’s exactly half the cost: 1 credit versus 2 credits.
Of course, value is not strictly about menu prices, but the intersection of cost and quality. We’d say that both restaurants are close to equal in terms of food quality. We give Cinderella’s Royal Table the edge, but it’s a slight edge. No matter how much better the food is, it’s not “better enough” to justify the massive chasm in price.
Others may contend that meeting the princesses in a pleasant environment with no waiting offers a significant value. For some, this is certainly going to be true. Are princesses worth $10-$20 times the number of people in your party? We probably aren’t the best people to answer that. Honestly, we’d rather just meet Beast at Be Our Guest Restaurant (who otherwise can be a tough character to find–princesses are everywhere).
We also like that Be Our Guest Restaurant has a la carte pricing, which is the fairer approach for non-buffet dining. Someone ordering the vegetarian option shouldn’t pay as much as someone ordering beef tenderloin. We get that this is “necessary” to ensure every table is filled by parties ordering a full meal, and not just doing a cheap soup or salad to enjoy the ambiance and meet characters. Still, the value difference in meals can be significant, and the price difference cannot.
Hassle: We’ve made off-hand remarks in this post about Cinderella’s Royal Table no longer being the tough ADR it once was. Well, that’s relative, as it used to be nearly impossible even at the 180-day mark. Now, it’s easier but still not easy. Still probably one of the top 10 restaurants at Walt Disney World in terms of booking difficulty, but you can find tables inside of a month out from time to time. More importantly, you can usually book Cinderella’s Royal Table once park hours have been released.
The same cannot be said of Be Our Guest Restaurant unless you get incredibly lucky. Even several years after it debuted, Be Our Guest Restaurant remains the hot ticket in Walt Disney World dining. Now it is frequently the restaurant with no availability even 180 days out, and many a Magic Kingdom itinerary has been built 6 months in advance (without knowledge of park hours) due to getting “lucky” and scoring a Be Our Guest Restaurant dinner ADR.
Irrespective of whether it’s your first visit or fortieth, you’d have a hard time convincing me Be Our Guest Restaurant is worth that hassle at dinner. The food is not that good (certainly not much better than Skipper Canteen, which regularly has same-day walk-up availability) and the same ambiance can be enjoyed at breakfast or lunch. With those meals being significantly easier to book than dinner, we have a really difficult time justifying the effort and planning sacrifices you have to make by doing dinner at Be Our Guest Restaurant.
I know this flies in the face of the internet hype machine that builds up Be Our Guest Restaurant as a must do, but that’s my take. And that’s as someone who actually finds the dinner menu at Be Our Guest Restaurant to be very solid.
Ultimately, there’s a reason both Cinderella’s Royal Table and Be Our Guest Restaurant are two of the most recognizable and popular restaurants at Walt Disney World. In their own ways, they each deliver in terms of theme, and can make for a very memorable experience for kids…and even adults like us. We’d also recommend both at breakfast for a pre-park opening ADR, as this gives you the opportunity for empty park photos on Main Street. (A more limited opportunity with the changed Welcome Show procedure, but an opportunity, nonetheless.)
With that said, each restaurant has its own distinct selling points. Even though both are “in-castle” dining, the actual appeal of each should differ. If you want an authentic in-castle dining experience or a character meal, choose Cinderella’s Royal Table. If you want a meal that more or less captures the essence of Beauty and the Beast or you’re simply on a tighter budget, choose Be Our Guest Restaurant.
Now it’s your turn—if you’ve dined at both, vote on which of these two Walt Disney World restaurants you prefer:
Taking into account theme, atmosphere, cuisine, and value, which of these two Walt Disney World restaurants do you prefer:
– Disney Tourist Blog (@DisTouristBlog) January 14, 2018
This should be an interesting showdown. Be Our Guest has plenty of fans, but it also has plenty of detractors, too. However, those who like one probably like the other (and those who dislike one probably dislike both). Our prediction is Be Our Guest wins due to price, but we also get a lot of “neither” replies to the poll.
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. 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
Do you agree or disagree with our comparison of Be Our Guest Restaurant and Cinderella’s Royal Table? Which restaurant would you give the edge in terms of theme and ambiance? In terms of cuisine? Are either or neither worth the hassle and cost? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing feedback about your experiences is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
We have eaten at both Castles, the food was excellent and the atmosphere was great. However our all time favorite is the Crystal Palace’s Morning Brunch with Winnie-the-Pooh and all his friends from the Hundred Acres Woods. The atmosphere was awesome and the food goes beyond excellent. All the characters roamed around talking with everyone and graciously took the time to take photos with everyone.
Need update now that BOG is 2 credits.
We just had dinner at CRT last night. I followed your advice to try and get a window table (arrive early, be prepared to wait) but it seems that this is not how it is done anymore. We arrived an hour early (it was raining and we were tired) when we asked about a window table and said we wouldn’t mind a wait we were told that they can not assign seating. Also they would only let us check in at EXACTLY the time of our reservation. So we waited until we could check in at 7:10 and once again requested a window table from another cast member, and once again was told they could not assign any seating that it is luck of the draw. While the cast members were not rude, they were very taciturn with everyone about check in time and no seat assignments.
We JUST got back from a trip to Disney World and ate at both Be Our Guest and Cinderella’s Royal Table. We had a 5:20 reservation for BOG and it was NOT full at all. They were taking walk-ups with a 35-40 minute wait. None of the rooms were full and the Rose Garden room was particularly empty. Food was great and a wonderful experience! Just wanted to share…if you don’t have a reservation, it’s worth checking just in case!!! The Beast was a real ham when we went and I honestly feel like meeting him alone was worth the price!
And the people that were checking in at Cinderella’s Royal Table (2:20) the same time as us had snagged their reservation THAT morning just by checking in. Food was incredible there too and OF COURSE you can’t beat the princesses!
On the grounds of EXPERIENCE – I’d say CRT hands down. We got a table at 6:45-ish, and it felt incredibly magical. We were escorted into the castle as the fireworks were about to go off (which felt special), every single member of staff called me princess and i think they called my partner prince.. it was absolutely amazing. Our server was lovely and so doting, we were sat with a view of the windows and of course at 7pm we saw the fireworks.. they dimmed the lights & played the soundtrack it was so romantic. We saw a proposal (how can anyone not feel so much love in there at that moment). The food was really good, but the ambience in the restaurant in the evening was just MAGIC – i’ve never had anything like it before. You know that feeling you had as a kid when it’s christmas and you feel like you could achieve anything, the world is so great and so inspiring.. it felt like that. ALSO MEETING ALL THE PRINCESSES WAS AWESOME!
Whereas BOG… we were sat in the room with the spinning belle/beast.. felt very left alone in pretty much a grand school canteen. No intimacy.. i wish we were in a different room but not too sure it’d have changed much. Food was really mediocre.
Thanks tom 😀
In my humble opinion I think bog is better than crt. First off I think the steak at bog is better than any entree at crt. Second of all I’m a guy that’s not really into princesses a little too serious for that type of thing. The bog. Is awesome with the west wing and snow falling and everything that’s my 2 cents anyway
You teased in the email update that there are 5 castles in WDW! I would love to know the trivia answer…I’m stumped!
Me too! I can think of Cinderella, Beast’s, and Eric’s. I think there is one at one of the min-golf courses.
Is there a mini version of Snow White’s castle visible on the 7 Dwarfs ride?
I’ll include the locations in the next newsletter if you all don’t guess them here first!
You’re missing two other castles in one of the other parks. 🙂
Perhaps in Norway and Canada at Epcot? BTW, Tom, my husband and I love this blog for the info and entertainment value, and my husband has learned much from your photography blog. Thanks!
Are Beast and Belle present the entire day at BOG for photos? Do you have to use two credits for DDP for Cinderella’s Royal Table for lunch as well? Or just dinner?
Belle is not at BOG at all. Beast is there for photos only at dinner time.
you have to use 2 table credits for breakfast lunch and dinner at crt. While the beast isn’t available for breakfast and lunch, it’s also only a quick service at these times and 1 table service credit for dinner.
Rumor has it BOG will start using “disposable” products during lunch instead of proper plates and silverware.
And and FYI (or it could just be me). But I can’t navigate to any of the older comments in this article. I can see recent ones, but when I click on the older comments link I get navigated to a single comment.
never mind the FYI, it appears to be working now….weird
Don’t care about princesses since it’s just my husband and me. Had dinner at CRT; surprised at quality of food, but like someone else posted, still had to wait quite a while. So glad we did it though because I had wanted to go ‘in’ the castle for ages. Although felt a bit foolish with the princesses coming to our table. Took their photos but still felt kind of weird. Too bad they don’t have a room for just couples (ditto on a hotel!).
Have had lunch a few times at BOG (never dinner or breakfast). Thought food was pretty good and service was quick. Sat both times in West Wing; wouldn’t think of sitting elsewhere. Like author, feel ballroom has cafeteria feel. And detested the rose room although we took photos of all the paintings and wall hangings. First time we used the kiosks to order; second time, cast members did it for guests and it moved much more quickly.
If we went back to either, I’d probably try CRT for breakfast (great photos) or lunch–not dinner. Was strange to eat that kind of meal without a drink although I think they offer alcohol now. At BOG, probably lunch again as neither the breakfast nor dinner menu sounds enticing. But we are such fans of Liberty Tree Tavern for dinner and Casey’s for lunch, don’t know that we will.
I did lunch on Christmas day a few years ago at CRT and thoroughly enjoyed the theme and experience. The staff were so friendly as I was feeling so ill and they found a place for me to sit while still holding my place in queue to go be seated. The food was good but not amazing for 2 dining credits. I would again but wouldn’t use dining plan.
The experience at BOG was a little different. We had breakfast their which was great because most expensive breakfast and good use of QSD credits. We ordered at the counter with person and got seat straight away. However we went back again for lunch and had to use the touch screens to order and waited about 30 minutes past our booking time just to place our order. Based on this I wouldn’t go back again. I’ve done it once now and that’s enough for me. I did enjoy the different rooms and how they were set up but do agree it felt more hectic than CRT.
Even with having a reservation for Cinderella’s Royal Table, and arriving at the designated time, we were made to wait one hour before being seated. The food was NOT worth 2 dining credits nor was the atmosphere. I will not dine there again.
We have done both for dinner and we enjoyed both experiences, though in our case we thought the food at CRT was much better than at BOG. My husband, our family photographer, was very pleased with the lighting in CRT, but that is time of day and location dependent. However, now that we’ve met all the princesses multiple times at CRT and other places and Beast once, I don’t feel the need to ever go back unless we are traveling with first-timers. Whether on the meal plan or paying cash, there are better options at the monorail hotels. We haven’t tried Skipper’s yet. We generally plan our MK days so that we are ready for a retreat away from the park around dinner time and don’t mind the extra time needed to get to those hotels – California Grill is our favorite, but we do others on our second MK day (usually we do 2 MK days and 1 day in each of the other parks on our trips). We do enjoy BOG for breakfast, where it has been a quick service meal on the meal plan and as such is a great value IMO. However, we follow the general plan of sleep until we want to wake up and stay out until the park closes, so we don’t do BOB breakfast every trip. As an aside, if a family is looking for an easy way to see all princesses while eating, Ankerhaus is a very good value. We all enjoyed the food, but my husband did not like conditions for photographs. Most people taking photos with cell phones would probably not be bothered by them.