List of Reopening & Closed In-Park Restaurants at Disney World

Walt Disney World has released a list of the restaurants that will be operating when Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Epcot, and Hollywood Studios reopen. From that, we’ve come up with a list of the dining options that’ll remain closed, plus some commentary as to why some very popular spots are not opening, including some of the most elusive ADRs.

This follows the Full List of Attractions & Entertainment Reopening & Remaining Closed at Walt Disney World. The key difference between that list and this one is there are a lot more major locations that are staying shuttered, especially in EPCOT’s World Showcase.

There are some surprises on these list in terms of what’s opening, what’s remaining closed, and what modifications will be made. This includes changes and cuts to Walt Disney World’s most popular and difficult-to-book restaurant. Let’s start with a park by park look at what’s reopening on day one…

Magic Kingdom Opening List:

• Aloha Isle
• Auntie Gravity’s Galactic Goodies
• Be Our Guest Restaurant
• Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Cafe
• Joffrey’s Coffee & Tea Company
• Jungle Navigation Co. LTD Skipper Canteen
• Liberty Square Market
• Liberty Tree Tavern
• Main Street Bakery
• Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn and Cafe
• Pinocchio Village Haus
• The Plaza Restaurant
• Sleepy Hollow
• Storybook Treats
• Sunshine Tree Terrace
• Tony’s Town Square Restaurant

The most noteworthy thing here is that even though Be Our Guest Restaurant is returning, it’s using an ‘all-day’ table service menu previously reserved for dinner. That means breakfast is discontinued, as is the counter service lunch–at least for the time-being during the phased reopening.

This 3-course dining experience is $62 for adults (ages 10 and up) and $37 for children (ages 3 to 9). Tax and gratuity are not included. You can read more about this experience in our Be Our Guest Restaurant Prix Fixe Dinner Review.

One thing that remains to be seen is whether Beast will continue meeting guests at the end of the meal. Given the nature of this, it’s something that could conceivably be modified into a selfie spot. Nevertheless, we wouldn’t fault Walt Disney World in the least if they temporarily eliminated this component of the meal–and that’s our expectation.

Other than that, no huge surprises. We were hoping Crystal Palace would operate in modified capacity, but instead it appears that Magic Kingdom will not offer any character dining experiences initially.

Disney’s Animal Kingdom Opening List:

• Anandapur Ice Cream Truck
• Creature Comforts
• Dawa Bar
• Dino-Bite Snacks
• Flame Tree Barbecue
• Harambe Fruit Market
• Isle of Java
• Joffrey’s Coffee & Tea Company
• Mr. Kamal’s
• Nomad Lounge
• Pongu Pongu
• Rainforest Cafe
• Restaurantosaurus
• Satu’li Canteen
• Tamu Tamu Refreshments
• Thirsty River Bar & Trek Snacks
• Tiffins Restaurant
• Trilo-Bites
• Yak & Yeti Local Food Cafes
• Yak & Yeti Restaurant

Not much commentary to offer here, as most of Animal Kingdom’s most popular dining options are returning. We’re slightly surprised to see Tiffins Restaurant make the list. Mostly because it has had trouble filling tables since debuting, and likely will struggle even further in a reduced capacity scenario and amidst a recession.

Otherwise, Animal Kingdom is probably the park most unscathed on the reopening dining front.

Disney’s Hollywood Studios Opening List:

• 50’s Prime Time Café
• Anaheim Produce
• Backlot Express
• BaseLine Tap House
• Docking Bay 7 Food and Cargo
• The Hollywood Brown Derby
• The Hollywood Brown Derby Lounge
• Joffrey’s Coffee & Tea Company
• Mama Melrose’s Ristorante Italiano
• Milk Stand
• Peevy’s Polar Pipeline
• PizzeRizzo
• Ronto Roasters
• Rosie’s All-American Café
• Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater Restaurant
• Sunshine Day Bar
• The Trolley Car Café

Two more pleasant surprises here with both 50’s Prime Time Cafe and Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater Restaurant opening on day one. We wondered whether 50’s Prime Time Cafe would be able to reopen with the servers offering a ‘show’ element, but hopefully they’ll still be able to deliver tough love behind masks.

We’re actually really looking forward to doing Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater Restaurant. This is a divisive Walt Disney World dining spot, but we love it. The one thing we don’t particularly enjoy is being seated behind total strangers (a common problem here for a party of two). This should temporarily resolve that!

EPCOT Opening List:

• Biergarten Restaurant
• Choza de Margarita
• Coral Reef Restaurant
• Crepes des Chefs de France
• Fife & Drum Tavern
• Funnel Cake
• Garden Grill Restaurant
• Gelati
• Joffrey’s Coffee & Tea Company
• Joy of Tea
• Kabuki Café
• Katsura Grill
• L’Artisan des Glaces
• La Cantina de San Angel
• La Cava de Tequila
• La Hacienda de San Angel
• The Land Cart
• Le Cellier Steakhouse
• Popcorn in Canada
• Refreshment Outpost
• Refreshment Port
• Regal Eagle’s Distinctly Patriotic Smokehouse: A Salute to All Foods, But Mostly Barbecued Meats ~ A Sam Eagle Craft Drafts & BBQ Joint
• Rose & Crown Dining Room
• Rose & Crown Pub
• San Angel Inn Restaurante
• Spice Road Table
• Sunshine Seasons
• Tangierine Café
• Taste of EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival kiosks
• Traveler’s Café
• UK Beer Cart
• Via Napoli Ristorante e Pizzeria

Much more commentary here once we get to the not opening list, but the one entry that caught our attention here is Garden Grill. Due to the food being served family style (rather than buffet) and this being fur characters, we previously speculated that it’d be the easiest to reopen in modified form.

It’s also possible that Garden Grill will temporarily drop the characters entirely. The revolving restaurant with views into Living with the Land has a ton of appeal on its own. The official page for Garden Grill has yet to be updated–right now it still features Chip ‘n’ Dale’s Harvest Feast, but doesn’t indicate a modified version of the meal.

Magic Kingdom NOT Opening List:

• Aunt Polly’s Dockside Inn
• Casey’s Corner
• Cheshire Cafe
• Cinderella’s Royal Table
• Columbia Harbour House
• Cool Ship
• Crystal Palace
• Diamond Horseshoe
• Friar’s Nook
• Gaston’s Tavern
• Golden Oak Outpost
• Lunching Pad
• Plaza Ice Cream Parlor
• Prince Eric’s Village Market
• Tomorrowland Terrace
• Tortuga Tavern
• Westward Ho

Several of these–Aunt Polly’s, Tomorrowland Terrace, and Tortuga Tavern–are seasonal anyway, so not big losses. Many other restaurants are snack stands that are pretty far from iconic. So, as with the other lists, this looks worse than it is.

For many families, the biggest blow is going to be Cinderella’s Royal Table. Meals with face characters, even in modified form, simply are not possible right now due to a mix of physical distancing and character integrity. Nevertheless, we were hoping for a royal reprise of King Stefan’s Banquet Hall. Maybe that’ll come eventually? (Walt Disney World rarely passes up a chance to capitalize on nostalgia.)

The bigger blow for us is Columbia Harbour House. This is one of our Magic Kingdom counter service go-to restaurants, and the upper level seating area is a great spot to decompress. Without this and Be Our Guest Restaurant lunch, the counter service scene at Magic Kingdom is stereotypical theme park food.

Animal Kingdom NOT Opening List:

• Caravan Road
• Dino Diner
• Drinkwallah
• Eight Spoon Cafe
• Harambe Market
• Kusafiri Coffee Shop & Bakery
• Mahindi
• Pizzafari
• Terra Treats
• Smiling Crocodile
• Tusker House Restaurant
• Warung Outpost

No big losses here.

As with Crystal Palace, it’s unfortunate Tusker House can’t operate in modified capacity, but a huge part of the appeal is the huge variety of the buffet spread. That almost certainly would not translate to a family style meal.

Hollywood Studios NOT Opening List: 

• ABC Commissary
• Catalina Eddie’s
• Dockside Diner
• Epic Eats
• Fairfax Fare
• Hollywood and Vine
• Hollywood Scoops Ice Cream
• Kat Saka’s Kettle
• KRNR Rock Station Food Truck
• Market
• Municiberg Neighborhood Bakery
• Oga’s Cantina
• Tune-In Lounge
• Woody’s Lunch Box

Ditto the above, except this time for Hollywood and Vine. We were holding out a sliver of hope that our Minnie’s Summertime Dine reservation would be viable, but it’s hardly any surprise.

Woody’s Lunch Box is a bit more surprising–perhaps this is more a matter of capacity? The execution here was half-baked from the get-go, and operating at (further) reduced capacity may be more frustrating than just redirecting guests over to Docking Bay 7 in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.

EPCOT NOT Opening List:

• Akershus Royal Banquet Hall
• Block & Hans Fine American Ale
• EPCOT Experience Bites and Beverages
• Chefs de France
• Cool Wash
• Kringla Bakeri Og Kafe
• Les Halles Boulangerie Patisserie
• Lotus Blossom Cafe
• Monsieur Paul
• Nine Dragons Restaurant
• Restaurant Marrakesh
• Sommerfest
• Takumi-Tei
• Taste Track Burgers & Bites (???)
• Teppan Edo
• Tokyo Dining
• Tutto Gusto Wine Cellar
• Tutto Italia Ristorante
• Yorkshire County Fish Shop

I knew I should’ve published that Akershus Royal Banquet Hall dinner review weeks ago. (If I did, you all would’ve known it’s possible to order multiple entrees, as that’s discussed at length in there!)

EPCOT is the park hit hardest on the dining front, which probably explains the desire/need to have a hybrid Flower & Garden/Food & Wine Festival this summer.

While EPCOT’s list of restaurants that aren’t opening isn’t much longer than the others, the difference is quality. Rather than being random snack stands, this is a good chunk of the World Showcase dining.

There are a couple of explanations for this. First, without Cultural Representatives, World Showcase might be short-staffed. Even though non-International Program Cast Members are being allowed to work in World Showcase temporarily, that’s obviously not as simple as flipping a switch.

Second, most of these restaurants are operated by third parties, some of which have been hit hard in the last few months. Patina Restaurant Group is one such example, and most of its Disney Springs restaurants have also not reopened. In EPCOT, Patina is reopening Via Napoli but not Tutto Italia & Gusto.

Speaking of Patina, they’re also the group behind Space 220 Restaurant. It’s not listed above because it never opened, and you should expect it to retain that non-operational status for at least a few months for a couple of different reasons. Perhaps last year’s original “this winter” goal will be met one year late (keeping in mind that “this winter” ends March 20, 2021).

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

What do you think about this list of restaurants that are reopening and remaining closed at Walt Disney World? Any closures that disappoint you? What about pleasant surprises? Will you be attempting to visit Walt Disney World this summer or fall, or are you waiting until 2021 when things (presumably) start getting back to normal? Do you agree or disagree with our commentary? 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!