Restaurant: Cinderella’s Royal Table
Location: Magic Kingdom – Main Street
Meal Type: Dinner
Atmosphere
What to say? Well, it’s a castle! Every detail of this enchanted structure brings the fairy tale to life. If you’re looking at the castle from the exterior, the restaurant level is located just behind all of the stained glass windows.
After you check in at the podium in the castle breezeway, you are given a waiting slip and ushered into the Entrance Hall where you’ll meet Cinderella. There’s a suit of armor, coats of arms, and a lovely fireplace all surrounded by stunning architecture. This is where I’d really like to show a magnificent picture of the Entrance hall, but the room is pretty small and, on the night of our visit, the room was pretty packed with people. Make sure you look around though, because there are some details you won’t want to miss. We were thrilled to see Jaq and Gus sitting up on the little ledge near the fireplace!
Once your name is called, you can either take the spiral stairs that feature a lovely Cinderella stained glass window or the elevator up to the second floor where the restaurant is located. Once again, I was expecting to see a dining room with views like the stock image. What we got was the first table to the right at the top of the staircase, and it did not have such a great view. It was still possible to see the windows on the other side of the room and get a glimpse of some of the ceiling in the center, but it was a little disappointing being tucked off into the far corner. It was also impossible to see the characters when they were announced and made their grand entrance into the dining hall to start the table visit rotation.
Food
Even though I had looked at the menus ahead of time, I still didn’t realize exactly
how this meal worked. Apparently each guest picks out their own appetizer, entrée, and dessert. Here’s a look at the adult and children’s menus.
Appetizers:
The meal starts with a basket of warm rolls and butter for the table. There wasn’t anything “special” about them, but it’s always nice to have some warm bread!
I selected the
Castle Salad -Mixed Greens, Apples, Cucumbers, and Candied Walnuts topped with shaved Romano Cheese and a hint of Herb Vinaigrette- for my first course. It was a nice, fresh choice with an exceptionally tasty dressing. The salad was actually fairly large for a side, so I didn’t even finish it despite how good it was.
My husband chose the
Pork Belly Confit - served with Raspberry Habanero Sauce, Blistered Tomatoes, Micro Cilantro, and Radish – for his appetizer. Here’s where I start to rave about the food. I do admit that the appetizer is bite-size small, but (once you remove the micro cilantro) it’s SO good! If given the option again, I’d pass up the larger portion of “good” salad for a smaller portion of “wow” pork.
The kids both decided to pick the
Bite-sized Cheddar Cheese and Grapes for their starters. Once again, I was surprised that this appetizer was a pretty large portion size. A few bites of cheese were already eaten when this picture was taken, but you can still see the large cluster of the sweet grapes. The kids were really happy with this option!
Entrees:
Everything on the menu sounded delicious, but I ultimately decided to go with the
Pan-seared all-Natural Chicken. It is traditionally served with farro risotto, seasonal vegetables, rendered pancetta, and poultry jus. Since I’d just had a lot of salad, I substituted the veggie option for some gouda mashed potatoes to pass off to my husband instead (top pf pic). The chicken was a lovely piece that was neatly placed on the bed of risotto, so naturally I started cutting up the chicken right away and butchered the plate
before the picture was taken
The chicken was moist and flavorful, but the star of the show was that risotto. It wasn’t as creamy as the traditional risottos I’ve grown up with, but the flavor was wonderful!
My husband had the
Steak and Shrimp, which consisted of a grilled beef tenderloin and roasted shrimp served with green beans (instead of carrots) and gouda mashed potatoes. The server also brought out an additional side of green beans just after the meal was delivered for some reason. Maybe they thought that the original serving size didn’t seem correct? The two plump shrimp were perfectly cooked, but with no exceptional seasoning to be excited about. The steak, however, was fabulous! It was tender and flavorful and the only complaint is that there wasn’t more of it.
I honestly thought my daughter would have chosen the beef tenderloin since she loves red meat, but she decided on having the
Chicken Nuggets instead. The nuggets were lightly breaded white meat chunks that ended up being very pedestrian, so it seems like a safe choice for any picky eater. The gouda mashed potatoes are a little dry, but the flavor is very understated and overall they were pretty popular with my husband and daughter.
My son went with the
roasted chicken leg. This dish is normally served with brown rice pilaf and broccolini, but he opted for green beans and corn instead. The chicken was very moist and he loved the corn, but he did not like the green beans at all.
Desserts:
The seasonal dessert being offered at the restaurant on this night was a cheesecake, and it looked absolutely delicious. Despite the temptation to try the seasonal option, we just couldn’t pass up the opportunity to try the classics instead.
I selected the
Gus and Jaq's Favorite, which is a white chocolate-jasmine tea mousse, lemon and lime curd with honey-oat crisp. The only time I’d ever spoke of curds before was when referencing Little Miss Muffit, I’m not a huge honey fan, and I’m certain the only mousse I’ve tried tasted heavily of chocolate, but I figured I’d give Gus & Jaq’s Favorite a try. This ended up being the BEST decision I’d made all night as the dessert was absolutely fabulous!
My husband chose the
Signature Dessert – achocolate tart with caramel, hazelnut, chocolate sauce, raspberry sauce, and gelato. I would have enjoyed some additional raspberry sauce to offset some of the chocolate, but overall it was still another excellent selection.
The children both decided to have the
Peanut Butter S'mores for dessert. I don’t think there can be a bad dessert that includes peanut butter, chocolate, toasted marshmallows, and graham crackers – so naturally this was a hit. There was also a cool cocoa dragon stenciled on their plates to the side of each dessert, which the kids thoroughly enjoyed seeing.
Wishing Ceremony
In the Dining Hall, children are referred to as Prince and Princess and they are given either a magic wand or a sword. Each child is also given a special Wishing Star. During your meal, there is a special “Wishing Ceremony” that takes place where you wave your magic wand or sword and make a wish upon your wishing star and say that magic “Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo!” phrase. These souvenirs are yours to keep when you leave.
Meeting the Characters
Cinderella will greet you in the welcome hall, and the other princesses will make the rounds to tables upstairs while you dine. The characters available to meet upstairs will vary. On our visit, Rapunzel, Jasmine, and Aurora were there in addition to Cinderella.
Adding it Up
This is a breakdown of our dining cost. The CRT reservation was pre-pay, so there was no opportunity to deduct the Tables in Wonderland discount ahead of time. When I called to ask about it, customer service agent told me to just show the card to our server on the date of the reservation. Our server took the card and they calculated a refund amount. This is the receipt they gave us at the end of the meal.
For additional reference, the refund actually came back a couple of days later as $36.97. I’m not sure why there was a .15 cent difference, but I admit I wasn’t interested enough to spend the time doing calculations to figure it out
Overall Impression
While pricey, we felt that the CRT dining experience was definitely worth doing at least once. Waiting in line at the Princess Fairytale Hall just to meet Cinderella and Aurora alone can easily take an hour. For the additional investment, we avoided a miserably long line for the two headliners, met Jasmine and Ariel (also avoiding long lines), had an excellent table service meal in a one-of-a-kind atmosphere, and received a few fun souvenirs. The dinner food selection also seemed varied enough to please a variety of people, whether you enjoy things plain or with layers of flavor. Overall, we really enjoyed our time spent at Cinderella’s Royal Table and would definitely consider doing it again at a later date.
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