Guide to Summer 2022 Food at Disney World

Walt Disney World has announced new for Summer 2022 coming to the parks and resorts. In this guide, we’ll share details, photos, and thoughts about the decadent desserts, savory snacks, and innovative entrees being added to menus everywhere from Art of Animation to Tony’s Town Square at Magic Kingdom.

Before we get into the details of the menu additions, let’s quickly recap the Walt Disney World dining ‘scene’ as of mid-May 2022. We’ll start with the good news: most restaurants have reopened, to the point that the number of locations that are unavailable is fairly insignificant in the grand scheme of Walt Disney World’s dining capacity. See Open & Closed Restaurants at Walt Disney World – Summer 2022.

Additionally, restaurants that have been open for months have continued to scale up operations, expanding menus, bringing back breakfast, buffets, or other missing meal services. The biggest recent development is that normal character dining has returned to Walt Disney World. This means hugs, autographs, five highs, and applies to both fur and face characters are back at those restaurants, including Breakfast à la Art with Mickey & Friends at Topolino’s Terrace and Story Book Princess Dining at Artist Point.

Now the bad news: the Disney Dining Plan still has not returned, and we’re no longer expecting to see it anytime in Summer 2022. See When Will the Disney Dining Plan Return?, which was updated last week with our latest prediction, and an explanation of why we’re pessimistic.

Some of that pessimism stems from dining capacity. Although it’s true that most restaurants have reopened, it’s also true that few are operating at full capacity. Many tables go unfilled, service is slower, and the whole process simply is not firing on all cylinders. Staffing shortages are the underlying reason for this, and also explain why many menus still are scaled back to some degree, among other things.

With that out of the way, let’s turn to the Summer 2022 menu updates at Walt Disney World…

Let’s kick things off at Magic Kingdom, where there’s a new menu at Tony’s Town Square Restaurant.

New entrées include the Oven-roasted Shrimp Scampi, Butcher’s Steak, Orecchiette with Spicy Italian Sausage, and Penne with Chicken al Forno. As for desserts, there’s the new Tiramisù Cannoli, Italian Strawberry Shortcake, Tony’s Spumoni Tart, or the Mandarincello Custard.

Although several items have been added, many Walt Disney World fan “favorites” remain. The Chicken Parmigiana is still on the menu at Tony’s, as is the Spaghetti and Meatballs…so you can have your Lady and the Tramp moment. Tony’s Town Square Restaurant: it’s food fit for dogs!

This new menu actually debuted a couple weeks ago. We’ve been in Magic Kingdom a couple of times and have seen Walk-Up Waitlist availability, but it’s always a ~50 minute wait. We’ll get to reviewing these new dishes eventually, but in the meantime, please anxiously await a 6-month overdue review of the “new” menu at Friar’s Nook, coming soon!

Over at EPCOT, Sunshine Seasons has some new eats to try: pizza rolls! This quick-service location in The Land pavilion now has both a Cheese Pizza Roll and Pepperoni Pizza Roll. These are $10.49 and $10.99, respectively–holy cow!

Honestly, it’s been a while since we’ve dined at Sunshine Seasons. It used to be one of our go-to restaurants in EPCOT, but has fallen from grace in recent years. We’re probably overdue to give it a second/third/fourth chance and I’d love to see it return to form, but “pizza rolls” are not quite what I had in mind for an improved menu at this location. At least the food at Connections Eatery is solid! (Again, review coming soon-ish.)

Turning to Walt Disney World resorts, where several hotel food courts are adding new plant-based offerings. Start your day off the right way with the Plant-based Mickey-shaped Frittata featuring tomato, spinach, onions, and “mozzarella” served with potatoes and mixed fruit. The IMPOSSIBLE Burger serves up a fake meat patty topped with Carolina-style barbecued jackfruit, pickled slaw, and “cheddar” served with french fries.

These two items will be introduced to various menus now through June 7, 2022 at the following Value & Moderate Resort food courts:

  • Intermission Food Court at Disney’s All-Star Music Resort
  • World Premiere Food Court at Disney’s All-Star Movies Resort
  • End Zone Food Court at Disney’s All-Star Sports Resort
  • Everything POP Shopping & Dining at Disney’s Pop Century Resort
  • Landscape of Flavors at Disney’s Art of Animation Resort
  • Centertown Market at Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort
  • Riverside Mill Food Court at Disney’s Port Orleans Resort – Riverside
  • Sassagoula Floatworks and Food Factory at Disney’s Port Orleans Resort – French Quarter.

Centertown Market has actually served a variation of this burger since Caribbean Beach’s reimagining wrapped up a couple years ago. The main difference now is that it’s an IMPOSSIBLE patty, so I’m guessing they’re promoting and expanding this option to other menus as part of a Corporate Alliances agreement.

We reviewed it back when the new-look food court debuted, and had nothing but praise for the burger: “Juicy, lightly spiced, and full of meaty flavor, this burger was good enough to trick me (it’s a Beyond Meat patty, for those curious). I could’ve done without the abundance of slaw, but everything else worked together flawlessly. It’s truly incredible the strides Walt Disney World’s vegetarian cuisine has made in only a few years–I remember when this stuff bordered on inedible, and now it’s among menu highlights.”

Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa is gearing up for summer when it comes to food, which two locations that are serving new menu items. Beginning today (May 17, 2022), we have the return of fan favorites to Grand Floridian Cafe for the location’s signature “blunch” meal. (Note: this is Disney’s term, not mine–the word blunch makes me want to blarf.)

The Reuben is back and accompanied by coleslaw and steak fries. You also can enjoy a classic – Chicken and Waffles with hand-breaded chicken breast and malted waffle with a sriracha-honey drizzle.

We’ve discussed it in other posts, but Grand Floridian Cafe’s Buttermilk-fried Chicken is the pinnacle of comfort food. The boneless chicken breast itself is tender and juicy, with the batter providing a perfectly crisp texture and mild seasoning. The chicken by itself is phenomenal, but the tang of the bacon vinaigrette elevates this to the next level.

It’s not simply a guilty pleasure indulgence–this chicken is actually interesting and has some nuanced flavor. Add to that the creaminess of the loaded smashed potatoes, which themselves are perfection, and this is one of my early favorite meals at Walt Disney World.

I’m curious whether the “blunch” version can live up to the high bar of the dinner-time Buttermilk-fried Chicken. I’ll give it a try and go in with an open mind, but I’m a bit skeptical. Don’t mess with a good thing.

Speaking of dinner, the Café Meatloaf is a house-made turkey meatloaf with smashed red bliss potatoes, broccolini, and mushroom gravy, while the Shrimp and Grits feature jumbo shrimp with chorizo and fennel perfectly paired with a deliciously creamy, mascarpone cheese grits.

The Caramelized Onion Soup Gratin, which is a traditional French onion soup, makes a comeback for both lunch and dinner.

Continuing at the Grand Floridian, Gasparilla Island Grill is has some adorable items to enjoy starting today. The Cheshire Cat Wildberry Mousse features swirls of wildberry mousse, berry compote, and cake crumbles topped with a white chocolate Cheshire Cat.

For fans of the iconic Walt Disney World character, there’s the Orange Bird Cake Pop. This treat consists of a yellow cake pop swirled with citrus-scented buttercream to look like this iconic character. Lastly, you’ll find iconic flavors in the Brownie Crispy Cone, an ice cream cone filled with caramel-swirled brownie topped with a crisped rice treat, white chocolate drizzle, and sprinkles. I don’t know about you, but I need all of these.

Over at Good’s Food to Go (which is not at Grand Floridian–it’s at Disney’s Old Key West Resort–but we’re lumping these together for some reason) there’s the Key Lime Pie Swirl. This sweet treat is a DOLE Whip lime and vanilla soft-serve swirl topped with graham cracker crumbs.

Finally, we head over to Disney Springs, where the newest addition to the Walt Disney World dessert lineup has debuted.

Salt & Straw is now officially open, and this ice cream spot has an array of unique flavors on the menu including fan favorites as well as a rotating monthly selection, so there’s always something new to try. (I feel like I’ve failed in my civic duty to taste test and review every flavor at the new location.)

Salt & Straw isn’t the only thing new to Disney Springs. Marketplace Snacks is getting a revamp with Mickey and Friends Bubble Waffle Sundaes starting today.

Choose between flavors like the Mickey Waffle Sundae featuring vanilla soft-serve, hot fudge, cookie crumbles, and white chocolate crisp pearls, the Minnie Waffle Sundae with vanilla soft-serve, strawberry topping, sliced strawberries, and white chocolate crisp pearls, or Donald’s Waffle Sundae made with vanilla soft-serve, lemon curd, and blueberries.

If you want a bit of chocolate, Goofy’s Peanut Waffle Sundae has vanilla and chocolate soft-serve with hot fudge, peanuts, sliced bananas, sliced strawberries, M&M’s Minis, and a cherry on top while Pluto’s Waffle Sundae has chocolate soft-serve, chocolate-covered pretzels, peanut butter sauce, and milk chocolate crisp pearls.

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

Thoughts on these new snacks and menu items debuting at Walt Disney World in Summer 2022? Do you agree or disagree with our advice? 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!

4 Responses to “Guide to Summer 2022 Food at Disney World”
  1. Emma May 18, 2022
  2. Rhett May 18, 2022
  3. JB May 17, 2022
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