New Dining Coming to Disney World in 2020
This week, Walt Disney World announced a slew of new dining experiences that will debut in 2020, which join a list of other restaurants set to debut in the parks, resorts, or Disney Springs later this year or early next. In this post, we’ll cover the upcoming additions, and offer some thoughts on each.
We’ll start with Disney Springs, which in the last year has already opened Wolfgang Puck Bar & Grill and Jaleo by José Andrés, two table service restaurants helmed by James Beard Award Winning Chefs. We love the former and are looking forward to trying Wolfgang Puck Bar & Grill during Magical Dining Month.
Speaking of which, a total of ten Disney Springs restaurants, including both of these newcomers, will be participating in the 2019 Visit Orlando Magical Dining Month. (Along with other on-property Walt Disney World restaurants at the Swan & Dolphin and Four Seasons Orlando.) But we digress…
We’ll start with the best news, which is that Ample Hills Creamery will be opening a brand new location on the West Side at Disney Springs. Since opening their first Walt Disney World location on the BoardWalk, we’ve been showering this decadent ice cream shop with praise. We even recommend it over the nearby Beaches & Cream.
Regular readers are probably sick of us beating the Ample Hills drum, so you can read our full Ample Hills Creamery Review if you want to hear more of our effusive praise for this scoop shop. No exact location or timeframe have been established yet, but we’re guessing Ample Hills Creamery will open by Summer 2020. As for a location, the most logical spot is the former Something Silver store across from Bongos Cuban Cafe, which is closing this month. Speaking of which…
Replacing Bongos Cuban Cafe will be Beatrix neighborhood restaurant, coffeehouse and grab-and-go market featuring healthy food options including vegetarian, gluten-free, and vegan along with fresh-squeezed juice cocktails. It’s said to be a mix of healthy eating and comfort foods.
Beatrix is owned by Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises, a Chicago-based restaurant group that will open their first restaurant in Florida at Disney Springs West Side. No date has been set for this, but there’s almost no chance it’ll open in 2019, unless they make next to no changes to Bongos, which seems highly unlikely.
Personally, I like the look of Bongos, and hope Beatrix makes the most of that unique restaurant design–who doesn’t love a giant pineapple?! The current look of the building is timeless, and it’s a better option than spending millions of dollars on a generic repurposed hipster warehouse style that looks like it’s been abandoned for a decade. Hopefully, Beatrix will open at some point in 2020. If it’s a larger scale redo, it could take longer. (Jaleo’s turnaround time was around 18 months.)
We had never heard of Beatrix, but it makes Eater’s List of 20 Essential Chicago Breakfast Spots, with the following praise: “Unique options abound make it worth a trip, such as a standout version of the Israeli dish shakshouka…Beatrix is also one of the few Chicago restaurants serving Bulletproof Coffee (a jump-starting blend of coffee, butter, and “brain octane oil”).”
Reviews elsewhere of Beatrix are similarly glowing, and I can definitely get behind the idea of healthy and inventive comfort food. In perusing the menu from one of Beatrix’s Chicago locations, it looks like this restaurant could bring something unique to the table in the already crowded Disney Springs dining scene. (As you might imagine, Sarah is much more excited about this than me!)
In the more immediate future, a new food truck called “Cookie Dough and Everything Sweet” will soon be arriving to Disney Springs. The menu will feature all things cookie dough, including cookie dough tacos, funnel cake, cones, and parfait. Disney Parks Blog released some sample images, and this actually looks pretty intriguing. The Cookie Dough and Everything Sweet food truck will open later this month and will be parked near the other food trucks across from Candy Cauldron on the West Side of Disney Springs.
Also coming later this month is Sunshine Churro! You’ll find two Sunshine Churro carts at Disney Springs: in the Marketplace and on the West Side. These carts serve up a variety of classic and gourmet churros with flavors like watermelon, salted caramel, strawberry cheesecake, fruity cereal, and cookies & cream. You can even try churros dipped in milk chocolate or chocolate-hazelnut spread.
Rounding out the West Side of Disney Springs projects, there’s City Works Eatery & Pour House. This is in the same complex as the now-open NBA Experience, and was originally set to open this summer. Its debut has since been pushed back to this winter, and we’d anticipate there’s a push to debut by Christmas 2019.
City Works Eatery & Pour House currently has seven locations across the country, and offers a massive selection of 90+ local, regional, and global craft beers on tap with a constantly rotating draft list. This modern sports bar is said to serve classic American cuisine with chef-driven twists.
The 8,632 square foot City Works Eatery & Pour House restaurant at Disney Springs will offer expansive indoor and outdoor seating, a large gift shop, high-definition TVs and state-of-the-art A/V–including a 165-inch screen television. The space will also exhibit three full-service bars, two of which allow for covered, open air dining along the patio.
While it will serve as the restaurant for NBA Experience, City Works will have an independent entrance and exit, meaning you won’t have to pay the NBA Experience entry fee to dine here. City Works is likely to compete with Splitsville and ESPN Club as the go-to spot for sports fans looking for the best game-viewing experience.
Finally, there’s the still unnamed space restaurant adjacent to Mission: Space at Epcot. Back in May, Walt Disney World announced that this Pantina Restaurant Group-operated location will open in 2019.
Additionally, the menu will feature internationally-inspired cuisine, over 1,000 bottles of wines, and a wide selection of craft beer. That, along with the single piece of concept art (above) are all that we know about this space restaurant.
At the time this opening was announced, I said the following: “the space restaurant opening this year comes out of left field. Construction has progressed quickly on the building, but I think we’re all anticipating and hoping for a carefully Imagineered and believable environment inside. Even a late 2019 opening seems like insufficient time to accomplish that. Hopefully I’m wrong on this.”
After watching a few more months of construction, I’ll go on record and say that I highly doubt the space restaurant will open in 2019. Sure, a lot of progress has been made–but part of (what we assume is?) the restaurant building isn’t even fully enclosed. Maybe there will be some big reveal at the D23 Expo, but detailed specifics about a third party restaurant aren’t really keynote address material for the Anaheim convention. It just feels like more information would’ve been released by now–and more progress would be visible–if this restaurant were still on track to open in 2019. Again, I hope I’m wrong on this. I’m excited for Mission: Plates, or whatever they end up calling it.
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Your Thoughts
What do you think of these new restaurants opening (mostly) in 2020 at Walt Disney World? Are you excited for this slew of third party offerings, or would you prefer some original concepts by Disney? Do you agree or disagree with thoughts? 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!
Hey Tom if you need help with answers to questions or thoughts you put out there without the answers to confuse people let me know This has been my backyard for over 30 years and have the pulse on things is something I have always had or tried but only stated something when I had the information first hand as for Mission Restaurant you are looking more like February or March as they still do not have team put together yet.
Hey Tom, is there still talk of the Toy Story restaurant?
Hi Tom! All of these new places sound really exciting! The only problem for our family is that the prices in Disney restaurants are too crazy high. We usually stay in one of the All-Star Resorts and, if we’re not on the free Dining Plan, we eat at the Resort Food Court at the end of the day and bring sandwiches for the day in the parks… I know it won’t happen but It would be great if Disney would adjust their food prices to those of the real world where real families live… Keep up the great work!
Anxiously waiting to hear more about “Mission:Plates”!! I hope it’s not delayed to 2020!
We usually spend about 4 nights at Bongo’s during at 7 night trip so needless to say it’s going to be missed. It was the only place left in Disney Springs where you could people watch with a Mojito and a nice Cigar. I knew this day was coming, but I still had hopes that Disney and Bongo’s would find a way to work through their differences.
Super bummed City Works opening is delayed!
Is it bad that probably the second thing I look forward to the most during my first trip to WDW is the food? I see a lot of people and comments (not blogs) around different places that mention the food is either really mediocre at best or not good at all, and shouldn’t be wasting my time/money on trying to eat somewhere different every day. I have 9 table service restaurant reservations, and and plan on trying at least 4-5 different counter service. Granted, 5 of my table service picks aren’t actually inside the parks, but are at resorts or Disney Springs. I’m a total foodie, so I’ve been salivating at pictures and menus for a while now, and making sure I pick decent places. I have to keep my husband’s interest so he’ll let us come back for 2021!
Also, wouldn’t the cookie dough taco be like..incredibly rich and sweet? It’s seem like it’s an insane amount of cookie dough, but I know it’s hard to judge from a picture. I’ve never eaten cookie dough like this before, so I can’t really pretend to know what I’m talking about. Of course, if I do come across this food truck, I will try at least one scoop.
I love eating at Disney! Planning meals is a major part of my families planning sessions. What we’ve found is that, generally, the food is better at the resorts than in the park so you made a smart choice planning meals there.
As someone who has done multiple trips to WDW, I can tell you that there are some amazing restaurants! We often plan “foodie” trips. I will say that some of the best restaurants AREN’T in the parks but at the resorts. California Grill, Sebastian’s Bistro, Flying Fish, Yachtsman,Sanaa, Boma, Jiko, Citrico’s, The Wave, Trail’s End. All are resort restaurants and all are excellent.
Olivia’s at Old Key West is really good too!
I’ve never been to Olivia’s but our March trip is at OKW so I’m excited to try it!
Hate to hear Bongos is leaving!
We Eat there almost every trip. Unlike all the new restaurants that they keep adding to Disney Springs that I am not that interested in.
For most of the restaurants are so high priced I can’t justify eating there with family of 5 unless it’s going to be outstanding food!
WHY I end up at blaze pizza! Great bang for the buck! Wish they had one in the parks!!
Ate at paddlefish last trip and found it lacking.
Definitely not as good as Fulton’s which was a disappointment to me.
I am interested to get more information on the space restaurant at Epcot. But like you mentioned. I hope they hit it out of the park.
If they cut corners will be a letdown.
With Epcot’ having a great lineup of sitdown restaurants It can’t just all be they feeling of being in space. Food will have to compete.
Another off topic assessment of food. I went to go get Churro’s outside of world of Disney.
Good grief they have shrunk!!!! Bet they were 5-6 inches shorter and thinner. I didn’t notice till I paid and cast member was handing them to my kids! THEy used to have to sit at a angle in the case. As I have bought them for year. This summer they were so small told kid don’t ask for any in the future. Very disappointed!
Would love to see the Epcot Food & Wine Festival operate year round. With spontaneous visit to Epcot, you probably won’t be able to get a table service restaurant reservation. The Epcot Food and Wine Festival allows you to dine around the world .& enjoy small bites rather than a big meal.
As a Chicagoan I can tell you that Lettuce Entertain You is a perfect partner for Disney World in many ways. Since the early 1970s they’ve made their reputation on pushing the envelope on over-the-top theming and innovative restaurant concepts. (Like Ed Debevic’s, a retro diner where the wait staff were all actors who never broke from their sassy, faux-rude schtick).
However, it’s ironic that Beatrix is the concept they’re bringing to WDW as it’s literally the least thematically interesting restaurant concept they’ve ever launched (the innovative aspect is how they combine a restaurant with a self-serve marketplace). The food is definitely very solid at Beatrix (right up Sarah’s alley based on what you have described) but not overly exciting, and the vibe feels more like “lobby cafe of a nice Marriott” than “Vacation Kingdom of the World”.
Well, the Beatrix I ate at last month while in town was literally a cafe in the lobby of a Chicago Marriott…a meant-to-look-like-a-boutique-hotel sub-brand of Marriott, but one nonetheless. That aside, I really enjoyed the restaurant’s atmosphere and the food. My family and I had a great relaxing lunch there. It’s totally the aesthetic that Tom harps about constantly, but this place will be infinitely more useful than Bongo’s, regardless of what it looks like. I happen to love the look, but sorry Tom, they will be “spending millions of dollars on a generic repurposed hipster warehouse style that looks like it’s been abandoned for a decade.”
You should submit the name “Mission: Plates” to Disney for the name of the space restaurant! It’s brilliant (and a bit hilarious, too).
It’s not my idea–someone posted it in the comments here when the restaurant was first announced. I also love it, but I can’t take credit!
Mission: Plates = brilliant!
I’m really excited for another ample hills location. Beatrix sounds great too.
Love “Mission: Plates”! How about “Flying Saucers” as an alternative?