Walt’s – An American Restaurant Review

Walt’s — An American Restaurant is a fine dining table service restaurant located on Main Street in Disneyland Paris, themed to Walt Disney and the various lands of Disneyland. This review features food photos, a photo tour of the restaurant, and our thoughts on whether it’s worth the time and money to dine here during your Disneyland Paris vacation.

Walt’s is widely considered to be the nicest restaurant in Disneyland Paris, and is probably the Paris equivalent of Club 33 in terms of design. Although it does not require a membership, it is quite popular, and the decor in Walt’s is arguably superior to Club 33. We visited Disneyland Paris during a relatively uncrowded season, and Walt’s was still very busy–we almost weren’t able to dine here. Reservations are highly recommended.

The rooms in Walt’s – An American Restaurant are as follows, each of which are upstairs: Fantasyland Room, Frontierland/Thunder Mesa Room, Discoveryland/Tomorrowland Room, Adventureland Room, Disneyland Hotel Room, and Grand Canyon Room. Per Wikipedia, there also used to be rooms downstairs for Walt and Lillian Disney, as well as Main Street, USA. Now, the entire lobby seems to be themed to Walt and Lillian’s lives prior to Disneyland.

Before we head upstairs, let’s take a look at the lobby…

As you can see, the lobby alone is gorgeous and has a ton of cool details. Even if you aren’t able to score reservations, it’s worthwhile to pop inside to check out the various pieces of Disney history on display. You probably won’t be able to go upstairs without dining at Walt’s.

Now here’s a look around the various upstairs dining rooms of Walt’s – An American Restaurant:

While these photos show the rooms at large, they skip a lot of the details that really made the rooms cool. Next time we dine at Walt’s, I’ll make sure to grab photos of all the details, as they are a big part of what makes dining there so great of an experience!

Now, let’s turn to the review portion of the post. Let me preface this review of Walt’s – An American Restaurant by saying that I do not believe our experience at Walt’s was the norm. Our meal at Walt’s was awful. DisneyFoodBlog’s review was glowing. It’s a 4-star restaurant on Yelp, which is a very good score, as its reviewers are notorious for turning their noses up at Disney dining. Same goes for TripAdvisor. MousePlanet reviews are also positive. Now, there are some other lukewarm reviews out there, but we seem to be in the minority on Walt’s.

I present these other reviews because our word isn’t the gospel, and to help explain why even though we didn’t care for the food at Walt’s – An American Restaurant, we would highly recommend it as our top dining pick for Disneyland Paris. Why? It has nothing to do with dining, and everything to do with the amazing decor, ambiance, and general experience. If you make your way to France and are a Disney fan, it’s an absolute must-do. As stated above, it’s on par with Club 33, except you don’t need a membership or “know someone” to get in!

With that said, let’s take a look at what we ordered, along with some thoughts on our food.

Before we dig into the menu, a word to those soda addicts planning a trip to France…I would say our biggest “surprise” expense in Europe was soft drinks. I consume copious amounts of Coke on our trips to help me stay awake well past the time when any sane person would’ve gone to bed, and my Coke habit was costly on our visit to Disneyland Paris!

Europeans don’t guzzle soft drinks like Americans, which meant that most places served Coke in small bottles, with each bottle costing around $2-4 in restaurants. A little bottle doesn’t have the amount of caffeine I need to function, so at some meals early in the trip, we were spending $10 or more on Coke. Like a wise drug addict, by the second day, I switched to the more potent and cost-effective stuff: coffee.

The menu at Walt’s is set up to “encourage” guests to order a three-course meal. It’s like their own sneaky version of the Disney Dining Plan. We planned on having three courses anyway, so we ordered from the Menu Grand Classique rather than doing a la carte.

I didn’t think to take a photo of the menu, and the Walt’s – An American Restaurant menu online seems to differ from what we had. I can’t remember the exact appetizer names, but Sarah had a cream soup and I had a three-part appetizer, the highlight of which was salmon. (Based on the menu that’s currently up, it sounds like I had the Discovery Platter (tartare of crab, smoked salmon and langoustine) and Sarah had the Cream of Bolotti beans served with Parmesan foam.) The appetizers were actually good, but not great.

Appetizer photos:

I ordered the Walt’s Gourmet Burger, which was a plain burger topped with pan-fried foie gras, roasted peppers, red onion and lettuce, served in a granary roll with waffle fries.

This turned out not just to be a bad burger, but one of the worst I have had at a sit-down restaurant in my life. I didn’t even finish it, and I love burgers. The foie gras was good, but not good enough to save the dry, overcooked burger. This is partially my own fault for ordering a burger when I had been warned not to. Plus, with so many great things to try, who orders a burger at a nice restaurant in France?!

Sarah ordered the Filet of Grilled Beef, which was definitely a much better option in a fine dining establishment. Hers wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t exactly tender and flavorful. Still, not what you’d normally order in France, but this was an American restaurant (actually, almost every single restaurant in the park served standard American fare).

Entree photos:

Dessert consisted of crème brûlée, warm chocolate fondant, fresh fruit salad, and a mini macaroon. Dessert was probably the best part of the meal, especially the crème brûlée and warm chocolate fondant. Still, it didn’t even begin to compare to some of the decadent desserts we’d later have in downtown Paris cafes and bakeries.

Dessert photos:

Overall, Walt’s – An American Restaurant was a huge letdown for us, but only in terms of cuisine. Obviously, this is a big part of the restaurant experience, but the other elements so compensate for the subpar food that we don’t for a second regret dining at Walt’s. Moreover, because so many others have reported such better meals, we are inclined to believe that we simply had bad luck. It happens at even the best restaurants, and we are firm believers that one anecdotal experience–especially one that is not in line with others’ experiences–should not be enough to write off a restaurant. While our meal left a lot to be desired, the general consensus on Walt’s is so positive that even we would dine there again (and for us, seeing all of the cool pieces and decor isn’t as big of a ‘pull’ as it would be for a first time guest). In other words, ignore this review and instead look at the photos of the restaurant. A meal at Walt’s is an experience, and well worth doing!

For the basics of planning a visit to Disneyland Paris, check out our Disneyland Paris Trip Planning Guide. Want to see more photos or read about Disneyland Paris in agonizing detail? Check out our Disneyland Paris Trip Report! Have you ever experienced Walt’s – An American Restaurant? Did you like your meal? Are you interested in Walt’s? Your comments are half the fun, so please share any questions or feedback about Walt’s Restaurant at Disneyland Paris that you have in the comments!