Be Our Guest Restaurant Big Menu Changes & Signature Status
Starting Summer 2018, Be Our Guest Restaurant in Magic Kingdom will offer a prix fixe three-course dinner menu with premium French-inspired dishes and new offerings. With this, comes the likelihood that Walt Disney World will have another Signature Restaurant, requiring 2-credits on the Disney Dining Plan.
This new menu will be served starting July 27, 2018, with reservations opening February 23, 2018. Disney Parks Blog shared details about the menu today, along with food photos, which you can see here. Obviously, professionally-staged images can make even the most unpalatable cuisine look delectable (as we saw recently with the taco trio at Pecos Bill, which look nothing like this in real life).
However, in the case of Be Our Guest Restaurant, the descriptions of this new prix fixe menu suggest that these will be premium offerings. Items like Charred Octopus, Grilled Center-Cut Filet Mignon, Saffron-Infused Seafood Bouillabaisse, and Roasted Lamb Chops suggest a certain higher-tier quality. This, coupled with the fact that Be Our Guest Restaurant dinner reservations have been blocked off for about the last month suggests that more than just a menu change is in store…
If the change to 2-credit Signature Dining does occur (and we’re 99% certain that it will), it should come as no surprise. Be Our Guest Restaurant has now been open for over 5 years, and its popularity has not subsided in the least. It’s still the most coveted Advance Dining Reservation in all of Walt Disney World, with availability sometimes gone by the 180 mark.
To be frank, we are surprised this didn’t happen sooner. Even before the restaurant opened, many fans speculated that it’d be Signature Dining. Way back in the day when the menu was released, it featured beer & wine, causing the internet to grab its collective pitchforks in ire over the “fact” that the park Walt Disney built by hand (it’s not) would become a booze-fueled rave party that would make Big Al blush (it didn’t).
UPDATE: Disney has confirmed that this new prix fixe menu is replacing the current dinner menu, and Be Our Guest will be a Signature Restaurant requiring 2 table service credits on the Disney Dining Plan. Out of pocket pricing is not yet available, although $55/adult and $35/child costs are floating around (we have zero clue as to the source or veracity of those numbers–the adult price seems too low to be accurate to us).
Erroneous alcohol predictions notwithstanding, between the alcohol and the classier French menu, there were signs pointing to Be Our Guest Restaurant being a Signature Restaurant. However, that more reasonable prediction also turned out to be incorrect. Instead, the restaurant opened as a 1-credit location, and instantly became one of the best values for using Disney Dining Plan credits.
As its popularity has proven enduring, it seemed only a matter of time before Be Our Guest Restaurant would go Signature. Its trajectory is similar to that of Le Cellier: immense popularity leading to a Signature status justified by a new menu. (Don’t forget that Le Cellier’s story involves going Signature for dinner first, then followed by lunch. We could also see that play out at Be Our Guest, but only if the gain in pricier meals would offset the turnover rate of faster lunches.)
More recently, this seemed like an inevitability around mid-January when readers started to report that no ADRs were available even beyond the 180-mark, and they were told by Cast Members on the phone lines that no reservations would be taken for July through September.
This led to rampant, semi-informed speculation: extensive work in the kitchen would necessitate a closure; a new menu was on the way; something more akin to Cinderella’s Royal Table; conversion to Signature Dining that would require advance notice for those on the Disney Dining Plan.
It would seem that all of this has turned out to be more or less true. While Be Our Guest Restaurant is not going totally in the direction of Cinderella’s Royal Table, it sure sounds like the new prix fixe menu will be quite similar in the quality of what it offers. (Along these lines, it’ll be interesting to see whether Be Our Guest Restaurant starts requiring pre-payment in full a la Cinderella’s Royal Table.)
From our perspective, this is all a bit of a mixed bag. This should make a restaurant that is nearly impossible to book slightly easier to score. We’re not bothered by the doubling of the “credit price” as we rarely use the Disney Dining Plan. The new menu looks good to us, and could be justifiable in terms of the price increase when paying out of pocket. Moreover, we think Magic Kingdom is overdue for a true Signature Dining option…we’re just not sure this is the right venue.
Our biggest issue is that the quality of the Be Our Guest Restaurant experience is not commensurate with Signature Dining. Irrespective of how much of an improvement the menu is, the setting is decidedly not Signature; at least in the traditional sense of the term.
This same complaint could be leveled against Cinderella’s Royal Table, but it’s even more pronounced at Be Our Guest Restaurant. The main dining room is styled after a ballroom, but it feels and sounds as much like a school cafeteria. (Unpopular opinion: I’d love to see Be Our Guest Restaurant close for a few months, eliminate the ‘flex’ nature of the venue, rework the ballroom seating to make it feel more intimate, improve sound dampening, and convert to table service all day.)
Then comes the question of the menu. It’s incredibly doubtful that the new menu will be twice as good as the old one, but then again, it’d be tough to claim that any of the 2-credit Signature Restaurants are twice as good as the best 1-credit options. Certainly Le Cellier did not double in quality–it’s new menu was mostly a pretense to offer cover for the status elevation, which was actually driven by popularity. As with Le Cellier, this change to Be Our Guest Restaurant is almost certainly demand-driven.
With this three-course prix fixe menu, it does seem that Walt Disney World’s culinary teams are at least making more of an effort here to justify the status and price upgrade. That’s nice to see, because the reality is that Disney could offer a menu of nothing but day-old reheated hot dogs from Casey’s Corner, and Be Our Guest Restaurant would still fill up nightly. The atmosphere, Beauty and the Beast inspiration, and the exclusivity would continue to make it highly-coveted.
Another thing that concerns us with regard to the new menu is quality control. Be Our Guest Restaurant is a huge restaurant, with the kitchen having to serve far more guests than the average Signature Restaurant in one of the Walt Disney World hotels. Be Our Guest already has some issues with consistency, and making the menu more sophisticated and labor-intensive is only likely to exacerbate that.
Ultimately, the jury is still out on these changes to Be Our Guest Restaurant for us. Of course, there’s also the possibility that this prix fixe menu will simply be offered in addition to the regular menu, but then again, it’s also possible that Epcot will bring back Horizons! We don’t think this idea is inherently good or bad, and are curious to see what other ways Walt Disney World attempts to enhance the experience. (Beyond atmosphere, a top-notch dessert menu would be a start.) As with most things Disney-related, the final verdict will depend upon implementation. We’ll definitely give it a try–assuming we’re ever able to score an ADR–and will report back!
Want more dining recommendations? Check out our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. For info on whether the DDP is right for you, read our Ultimate Guide to the Disney Dining Plan. For comprehensive vacation 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 the potential changes to Be Our Guest Restaurant? Is this new prix fixe menu something you can get behind, or will the credit-cost increase remove Be Our Guest Restaurant from your list of must-do dining? Any speculation or thoughts of your own to add? Any questions? Hearing your feedback about your experiences is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts or questions below in the comments!
This is not surprising considering the number of people who thought it was ok to get a reservation at Be Our Guest and only order a dessert. That’s an enormous revenue loss per table, and this is an easy way for Disney to stop that situation.
I can’t believe i’m saying this, but I am so disappointed! My husband and I have done dinner twice at BOG, and lunch & breakfast many times. We are newlyweds without kids so we are often grabbing signature ADRs for dinner. We like to leave the parks and get out of our mickey mouse t-shirts and dress up a little for our meals; it really makes it a signature experience. I am a pro at walking through epcot in heels! And with BOG part of the appeal was the nice sit down dinner without the “signature” status. I was ok walking in there in my finest minnie ears after a day in the park, but now I would feel weird about that. Maybe after some reviews I’ll change my mind, but I think we may have had our last Dinner there.
I suspect there will still be a pretty casual dress code since it is in MK — after all, Cinderella’s Table is a signature restaurant and it is full of minnie ears and t-shirts.
I have no problem with Be Our Guest becoming a signature dining restaurant. However, I DO have a huge problem with the prix fixe menu. As a vegetarian, it is just a terrible value. Ordering soup and a veggie pasta would easily be $30 cheaper than ordering octopus and steak at another signature restaurant. Pass.
I have done BOG for breakfast & lunch, haven’t tried dinner, and now I doubt I will. The price is high and while I really liked breakfast, I found lunch just ok, so not sure I would trust the food quality. Also, the new menu doesn’t appeal to me, I tend to like things a little more ‘plain’ and my bf & his girls are vegetarian, of which there is only one choice. I never sat in the ballroom, but it certainly did seem loud walking through it & I can’t imagine having an expensive meal like this in an atmosphere like that. I would love to meet the Beast (which is why I was thinking about it for next time) but I am going to just hope they move him somewhere, since I can’t imagine this is going to be popular with families unless there is a different child’s menu they haven’t released yet.
I was planning on making a dinner reservation here for October solely to meet the Beast. We went for breakfast on our last trip and while it’s beautiful inside, the food was unimpressive and it was loud. My first thought with this was how it now further limits the table service options at MK. I haven’t been to Liberty Tree so we’ll go there next trip. But if you don’t want a charcter meal or signature dining, options are limited.
We have reservations on Father’s Day. Will the current menu still be available? We heard such good reviews about the steak dinner, that’s what we all want.
The change is not until the end of July.
We have reservations on Father’s Day. Will the current menu still be available? We heard such good reviews of the steak dinner so that’s what we all wanted.
Similar to you Tom, I am shocked it took Disney this long to make it a signature restaurant with its high demand. I am glad I scored a reservation on my recent prior trip because I dont see myself going their in the future since I very rarely go to signature restaurants. Although if BOG continues to serve Chimay Blue beer, I might reconsider haha.
We have a dinner reservation for the end of June, so I was very relieved to read the date of this change. I’ll get to try it with the current menu a la carte, which is my preference. Only ate there for lunch once before, seated in the ballroom, but right beside the snowy windows. It was okay, but nothing special. Will hold out to be seated in the Beast’s study (?) for dinner – if it’s going to be my only dinner there, and possibly last meal there, I might as well make the most of it.
I wish I could say this changes things for us, but we have never been able to eat here for dinner. Maybe in the future some time….
In my opinion, a move to signature status would be a slap in the face to the core of Disneys customers, that being the average joe middle class family who goes on high price Disney vacations with there family and extended family. If Disney wants to bring in a high price signature resteraunt into Magic Kingdon, they should add one new construction and not ruin a popular existing one. Prime example of money grubbing is what this is. I’m really being turned off by many decisions flowing down from the board of directors or whoever is responsible for this !
Lunch will still be a counter service meal, so I’m not really sure how this will change things for those on a budget–that’s the cheaper meal in either scenario.
I agree with Mike, we typically use the Dining Plan and always looked forward to eating at BOG but financially, it’s not worth two table service credits to eat dinner there and the lunch is not the same. I am also turned off by many of the recent decisions.
Could not agree with you more, Tom. BRING BACK HORIZONS!
Wait… what were we talking about???
Congratulations on getting the main point of this article. Everyone else has failed! 😉
I can’t see how I failed to recognize what would be a high volume cafeteria style ballroom with a signature price point. Make it more intimate and they can’t keep the one credit lunch, making it even more difficult to secure a reservation Bad idea all around, great recepie for a train wreck though
Sorry if I missed it, any impact on Breakfast? My family had breakfast there a few years ago and loved it. Definitely more than we would normally eat. Good value and good service..
No impact on breakfast or lunch–for now.
This was my question as well. Thanks for answering Tom!
Disney parks blog just confirmed the prix fixe menu will replace the old menu for dinner. So no 1 credit option or cupcake only meals.
Thanks for the heads up! I was keeping an eye on the comments to that post and already updated.
Now just waiting to see if they confirm the $55 price point (I see someone else asked that and they did not answer). That would be lower than an average 3-course meal at Be Our Guest currently, so I’m still skeptical.
The author of the disneyparksblog article confirmed in a response to comment that it will be 2 credits on the dining plan. I also just can’t get over the kids menu prices – $35??? I would pay that for a character meal where the princesses or mickey and his friends come up to your table, but at BoG it is just a quick photo at the end of the meal with a single character. There is no way a kids meal for a 3 year old is worth that kind of money without the added entertainment of a “real” character meal.
We went to BOG solely to meet The Beast. And of course, the grey stuff! With a 3.5 year old who knows every word to the movie this made her trip. If they are going to move the dinner pricing to fixed and $55 they need to make The Beast available elsewhere.
Agree. We are going end of Sept – beg of Oct and this was on our todo list. I was excited to try dinner here (ate lunch 4 yrs ago) but the big draw was being able to meet the beast. I don’t know if I can justify the cost (and guessing my kids won’t be loving/eating enough) of the new menu. Fingers crossed that they add the beast to another meal or some other meet and greet.
I would love to see Disney move the Beast meet & greet elsewhere if it meant a $55/person price point for the meal. Why he can’t have a permanent meet & greet somewhere in New Fantasyland is beyond me. It’s not like the restaurant “needs” a character to be popular.
Best part was the beast – saved the experience as I wasn’t ready for the cafeteria feel for how much we spent on dinner
Well… one more thing to be keeping my fingers crossed for. Also holding out hope for a night parade in the Magic Kingdom by the time we go this fall. 🙂
This isn’t in any way against the kids, but I would like a character dining experience geared more towards adults. We do all the other ones with our kids, and they’re great, but once in a while I’d like to have a quiet dining experience – without having to give up the characters. Romantic music, the Beast dancing with Belle, a few other characters making guest appearances mixed in. In addition to that, get rid of the school cafeteria ambience, enhance the interior and provide top notch service and food. I’ll pay for that. (I don’t know how to solve the vegetarian issue as I’m not vegetarian, but I agree that a prix fixe price for veggies is too steep!) Let’s not forget to give the Beast his meet & greet somewhere for all the kids & bring back Horizons because I’ve never had the privilege of eating there!
I find it interesting that they just announced a switch to paper plates for lunch, and now they want to potentially make it a signature dining experience? Make up your mind! I’d be fine with it being signature dining, honestly. Then maybe it wouldn’t be *quite* as hard to get a reservation as a lot of people don’t want to spend that much…
I don’t mind the elevation to “Signature” status – signature can mean a lot of thins and in this case the popularity probably justifies it.
But i’d hope prix fixe is not the only choice. I don’t want to eat that much food – an app, entree, and dessert in one sitting is way to much food for me. And I’m certainly not paying $55 so my 10-year-old can throw away 60% of her food.
All good thoughts by Tom.
This impacts my family planning a September trip. We have done BOG for lunch and we wanted to have a nice dinner there this time. But a Prix Fixe signature dinner would mean spending over $50 each for three children who eat very lightly. Hard to swallow. Overall, I’ll spend table service money just for kid atmosphere, but for signature prices I want California Grill quality.
So where to go for dinner? CRT – signature prices, lackluster food. Crystal Palace – bad experience. Plaza – no reservations. I am guessing we will give Skipper Canteen a try since it gets such good reviews (Tom’s included). But I am skeptical that the theme will appear to my 3, 5 ,and 8 year olds like Beasts castle. (This is where EPCOT shines, lots of choices, lots of price points, lots of atmosphere).
One more thought on my above points:
Via WDWInfo:
Kids meal at California grill (w/o taxes & tip) $10-15
Kids meal at Cinderella table (w/o taxes & tip) $45-$65
Kids meal at BOG (w/o taxes & tip) $????
$35 for the kids “prix fixe” meal. Crazy.
“But I am skeptical that the theme will appear to my 3, 5 ,and 8 year olds like Beasts castle.”
It definitely won’t. Skipper Canteen is like the Jungle Cruise, and the wry sense of humor and some of the details will go over the heads of kids.
I’d say Crystal Palace might be your best bet.
For what it’s worth, my twins LOVED Skipper Canteen at age 5. They really got into the “explorer” theme with the many interesting rooms and interesting pictures on the walls (we were in the SEA room), but they also love the Jungle Cruise ride so they may not be typical. The server had fun interactions with them like teaching them a special explorer hand signal and telling them cute pun-ny jokes about the menu. As a parent, I loved it – great food, nice ambiance, and they serve wine and beer now.
Laila – Thanks for your feedback!
For what it’s worth, we think the food and overall experience at Skipper Canteen is considerably better than at Crystal Palace (and it’s cheaper!), but that’s from the perspective of adults without kids. If you think your kids might enjoy Skipper Canteen, you should definitely go for it. Requesting a room in the S.E.A. room is probably a good idea, too.
The noise factor of Be Our Guest is one of my biggest concerns with it potentially going signature too. It’s also annoying how poor the acoustics are at Cinderella’s Royal Table, but where it’s a character restaurant I forgive this more over there.
I also assumed the pre-fixe menu was in response to the guests who would make reservations just to see the inside of the restaurant and then only order the cupcakes.
I’m not a fan of the quick service at Be Our Guest at all really, so in that respect I wouldn’t mind seeing it go to table service all day.
“I also assumed the pre-fixe menu was in response to the guests who would make reservations just to see the inside of the restaurant and then only order the cupcakes.”
That makes complete sense, too. I’ve heard of people doing this, but I cannot fathom doing that at such a popular restaurant. I’d feel awkward and uncomfortable, and I’d expect to receive less-than-magical service. I can barely justify doing appetizers + desserts (no entree) at unpopular restaurants.
Is the lunch still going to be quick service for the Dining Plan? And we’re going in Sept. 2028. I assume we will not be able to even do lunch here then.
I would feel completely awkward too. It seemed like making reservations for just the cupcakes was popular with some of the CPs during my college program. If they found a reservation but didn’t want to spend the money they’d sometimes go and just get dessert.
Last summer I did BOG lunch and dinner and the year prior I did just lunch.
We did lunch in the main ballroom and near the rose. The ballroom was loud and chaotic but I thought was a pretty good deal for a quick service meal. Lunch in the beast’s chambers/rose room was excellent, fun and my daughter loved it.
I really hope it remains a quick service meal.
We had dinner in the main ballroom and sat near the winter window. It was quite beautiful and the food was decent. Still got my moneys worth as a 1 credit meal. However the service was slow, the volume was high and if we weren’t sitting near the edges of the room it would of been an average experience.
I’ve done CRT and it was a wonderful experience and the food was quite good if I remember correctly. If I had to choose between CRT and BOG for a signature meal, CRT wins hands down. How can you compete with all the characters at CRT vs. standing in line after the meal to meet the beast?
I understand why they are doing it, but the atmosphere, the food and character experience totally don’t match up.