Todd English’s Bluezoo Review
Todd English’s Bluezoo is a celebrity chef seafood restaurant at the Walt Disney World Dolphin Hotel in the Epcot Resort Area. In this review, we’ll share food photos from our meal here, thoughts on the atmosphere, and whether we recommend this as a fine-dining meal is worthwhile, particularly as an alternative to Flying Fish.
We dined at Bluezoo (technically, the name is “bluezoo” but I find vanity capitalization stupid, so I’m not going to indulge it here) as part of Orlando’s Magical Dining Month, something that several Walt Disney World table service restaurants are doing this year, including several at the Swan & Dolphin Resorts.
As with the name, Todd English’s Bluezoo has an ENTIRELY LOWERCASE MENU. PERSONALLY, I THINK IT’S OBNOXIOUS WHEN PEOPLE OR BUSINESSES DEFY CAPITALIZATION CONVENTION FOR THE SAKE OF BEING TRENDY OR DIFFERENT. SEE WHAT I MEAN? I’m guessing few others care, though, so I’ll spare you the rest of my irrational angst about this, and instead share some of the many highlights of Bluezoo…
In terms of ambiance, Bluezoo is reminiscent of the redesigned Flying Fish. Or perhaps Flying Fish is reminiscent of Bluezoo, given that it predates Flying Fish’s new look.
In any event, you’re immersed with the feeling of being underwater as soon as you enter the restaurant. Not in a literal sense, but the vibe is still clear. It’s reinforced with an abundance of blue in the color palette, along with water features and low-key lighting.
As with Flying Fish, you have some abstract stylization, dramatic lighting features, and some pretty details. I’d hazard a guess that this incarnation of the restaurant was designed some time ago, but it has aged rather well. It still feels crisp and modern.
One thing to note about Bluezoo in terms of ambiance is that it feels more sophisticated and upscale–even more than the average Walt Disney World Signature Restaurant. On our visit, we saw maybe one child in the entire restaurant, and many well-dressed adults.
Kids are welcome, but if you plan to dine here with kids on the more ‘energetic’ side, you might consider an earlier seating. Since Bluezoo is not a Disney Dining Plan restaurant, you’ll encounter a more adult clientele.
While I would not call Bluezoo stuffy, I would say that you’ll feel uncomfortable if you wear regular theme park attire to Bluezoo. I was wearing a button-down shirt and shorts and Sarah was wearing a (casual) dress, and we both felt underdressed. Whether this makes Bluezoo more or less appealing is probably a matter of personal preference.
The Magical Dining Month menu was a bit limited, so we decided to do a mix of that and the regular menu. Plus, I had just dined at Flying Fish two nights’ prior, so I wanted to compare the salmon dishes head to head.
Our meal at Bluezoo started with the bread basket, which was varied and spectacular. It included three breads: ciabatta, onion bread, and a crisp garlic herb flatbread.
These breads were all fresh and delicious, and the side of butter was so smooth and rich that I ended up eating it all. Easily one of the best bread baskets we’ve had at any Walt Disney World restaurant.
We started with the New England Style Clam Chowder, which is described as “light and brothy with salt cured bacon, house-made oyster crackers.”
Light and brothy is probably not how I’d describe this dish. It definitely didn’t have the typical consistency of chowder, but it was rich and flavorful, and the abundance of clams and the brothiness certainly made it on the heavier side. That’s absolutely fine by me, as this was probably the best chowder I’ve ever had. It was incredible.
For entrees, Sarah had the Simply Fish. This is described on the menu as “our daily selection of finest fresh fish selected from coastal waters around the world, simply grilled on our teppanyaki grill, served with your selection of sauce – warm crabmeat with dijon mustard and chives or sauce of the day.”
Sarah’s fish was a bit milder and on the lighter side, but that was perfectly offset by the crab and creamy sauce (which was added tableside). We appreciated that the fish was not smothered in the sauce, instead giving the fish some room to “breathe.” The name might indicate that it’s simple, but we found this to be a well-prepared and delicious dish.
I had the King Salmon, topped with quinoa, tri-color cauliflower, beet purée, and sorrel vin blanc.
This was fattier than the salmon I had at Flying Fish, and given that and the price, I’m betting it was farm raised. Frankly, I don’t take issue with farm raised salmon, as I enjoy when the meat skews a bit towards the fatty side on the marbling, but reasonable minds may differ on that.
This was $3 less than my Õra King New Zealand Salmon at Flying Fish, which I called a good real-world value in our review of that delicious dish. I’d say the New Zealand Salmon was marginally better in taste, with a more pronounced difference in quality and accompaniments. This was still really good, and I’d highly recommend it.
We also ordered a side of Lobster Mac & Cheese. This was the only mis-fire of the meal.
I’m a sucker for lobster mac & cheese, with there only being two kinds in my mind: good and great. This barely registered as good, with the cheese tasting like it was diluted and a surprisingly small helping of lobster. Given the price and the quality of everything else, it was quite the disappointment.
For dessert, we had the Warm Chocolate Banana Molten Cake, featuring “chocolate cream pudding, chocolate sauce, caramelized banana, banana ice cream.”
This somehow managed to surpass our high expectations. The description alone is a veritable laundry list of desser all-stars, to the point where one might even worry that it’s all “too much.” That is not the case. It’s an assault on your taste buds, but a wonderful, glorious assault. The warm cake…meeting the caramelized banana…meeting the banana ice cream. It was beyond amazing, and a can’t miss dessert. I’d go back to Bluezoo just for this.
Overall, our experience at todd english’s BLUEZOO was excellent. It certainly did not hurt that three of these courses (chowder, simply fish, and dessert) cost a grand total of $30 due to Magical Dining Month, which is a downright steal. Even had we paid full price for everything, Bluezoo would stack up very well with other Signature Restaurants at Walt Disney World. It also seems like a ‘safer’ pick for a date night, adults’ only experience, or for convention-goers who want to escape the normal high-energy atmosphere that tends to come with Walt Disney World restaurants, even the higher end ones.
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
Have you dined at todd english’s BLUEZOO? Do you agree or disagree with our take on this restaurant? Any menu recommendations? 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!
The chef’s name is English,.. certainly he has the authority to do what he wants with his language,..
also, one of the two opinions you have held that I vehemently disagree with (the other just a disappointment due to your rapid condemnation) has been your past dismissal of the Swan and Dolphin as ‘hideous’ whereas I find them glorious and inspiring beyond all Disney World structures aside from Wilderness and AKL,.. they feel like dream memories, maybe recalling my (for obvious reasons, short) past life as a concrete dolphin or swan?
I must say, I completely share your outrage over the capitalization. Properly formatted text is basically the only thing separating us from the monkeys. Well, except for opposable thumbs.
So, proper text formatting and opposable thumbs are the only things separating us from the monkeys. Also, spoken language.
SSOOOO…… proper text formatting, opposable thumbs, and spoken language are the only things separating us from the monkeys.
This may go on for some time. And I swear that an overproofed bourbon had nothing to do with the creation of this comment. Really.
That being said, my wife and I are returning to WDW for the first time in 10 years and we have largely planned our trip based on your excellent blog, so thanks. Our seafood meal will be Narcoossee’s, despite the most recent review. I didn’t manage to reserve the Grand Floridian to stay nor Victoria & Albert to eat, so it will be our one chance to visit.
Regards.
English is hardly logical and there is a lot more than communication that makes us different from other primates. The culinary ARTS to some might include how they choose to use words. It seems egotistical to me to make a big deal about it because it offends your sensibility. There is so much in the english language that doesn’t make sense, so who cares if they captilze their name or not? People who have a sense of superiority when others make grammar or spelling mistakes. many times i don’t capitilize because i find it inefficient when typing. so what?
Individuality will not be tolerated!
My family almost never eats at high-end restaurants, but my sister got married in 2015 at the Swan and her wedding dinner was at bluezoo, in one of the rooms at the back. My strongest memory of the restaurant was my father’s face when they delivered his meal. He had chosen a steak dish which said it came with a potato puree or similar wording, which he either didn’t notice or assumed would just be plain potatoes. When he got his steak with about 1/2 cm layer of potato puree under it, he asked the waiter, “Where are the potatoes?” The waiter kindly brought him a side dish of potatoes shortly thereafter. For a restaurant where that kind of thing probably doesn’t happen too often, they handled it very well. I remember the rest of us enjoying our meals, but my dad to this day is still concerned that a dish that said it came with potatoes could come like that.
That’s a bummer the lobster mac wasn’t good! I had a lobster stuffed baked potato there few years ago that was amazingggg. I love bluezoo!
I have dined at Bluezoo in the past and while it is a good restaurant, it is still hampered by the fact that it resides in the Dolphin, which shouldn’t exist in the first place.
“…it is still hampered by the fact that it resides in the Dolphin, which shouldn’t exist in the first place.”
It took me the longest time to ‘get over’ the hideousness of the Swan & Dolphin to even give it a chance as a substantive hotel (and really, I still am not over it entirely). While I really enjoy the amenities, rooms, restaurants, and pricing, I’d trade all of that in a second if it meant the hotels not protruding high above the Walt Disney World skyline.
There are some people who think the aesthetics of the Swan and Dolphin are amazing, interesting and of their time (which should be preserved). Taste is subjective. I hope the Swan and Dolphin look the way they do till the day I die. I find the way Disney and other hotel companies styling their buildings and rooms bordering on offensiveness because of the complete lack of character, lack of imagination, dull color palettes, cookie cuter looks…….. LONG LIVE THE DOLPHIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Speaking of Flying Fish, is the Chef’s Wine Tasting ever coming back?! My wife and I adored that experience. You would think with the popularity of “Chef’s Table” on Netflix over the last couple of years that WDW would jump on the opportunity to offer that experience to a splurging audience.
At this point, I’m starting to guess no. Sad…we would’ve loved to have given it a try!
Thick chowder is for tourists….so I am not exactly sure where I am going to go with this.
Just to clarify, this chowder isn’t thick. It’s a heavy dish, meaning that it’s rich and filling.
Ah, I see. I think I’m just overly sensitive from my time as a chef in New England.
On a list of Disney World locations for seafood, where would you place Coral Reef? It is pretty much our go to for seafood while at Disney, if not for the food then the view alone marks it up on the list for us. Just wondering where it compares to bLUEZOO.
Woof. I’ve been to Flying Fish, bluezoo, and Coral Reef and would rank them in that order. I had a less than great meal at bluezoo but the party i was with loved their choices. That said, Coral Reef is a bottom third restaurant at WDW imo. Outside the cool fish tanks the food there was bad.
Ouch. We’ve been at least a few times, and always enjoyed. I wouldn’t give them a Michilen Star or anything, but always solid.
I’ll have to see if we can get into one of the other two on our next trip.
Bluezoo and Flying Fish are definitely in a league above Coral Reef in terms of cuisine (as they should be–Flying Fish is a “Signature” and Bluezoo would have the same status if it were Disney-owned).
Our biggest complaint about Coral Reef is that it can be incredibly hit or miss. You can go one night and have an exceptional meal, and back the next, and have a lousy experience. When they kitchen is on its game, it’s pretty good, though!