Taste of Disney

I was excited when they began serving breakfast again at Cinderella’s Royal Table in August of 2021. While I loved dining in the castle, I didn’t love the high price (around $60 plus tax & gratuity, or even more for lunch or dinner) that was charged pre-Covid when it was a full character experience with multiple princesses visiting your table. But during this time (from Aug. 2021 – Feb. 2023) the character experience was limited to just a socially-distanced Cinderella, waving to the guests from afar. Therefore the cost was reduced to $42. So I jumped at the chance to have breakfast in the castle for $42! 

NOTE: The current price (as of Feb. 2024) for this breakfast (with all the princesses now back and greeting guests at their tables) is $69, plus tax & gratuity. Lunch and Dinner are $84, plus tax & gratuity. 

Now on to our review. We immediately entered the foyer after checking in for our reservation outside. We took a seat by this “Knight in (not so) shining armor”…

It had been two years since I had dined in the castle so it was fun to see the beautiful foyer again…

It seemed unchanged, except there was no Cinderella sitting on her throne. 

It was only a couple of minutes before we were called upstairs…

I remember the first time my family dined in the castle, more than 20 years ago, and how excited we were to see what would be there when we reached the top of those winding stairs.

We were pleasantly surprised to be led to a table by one of the tall windows overlooking Fantasyland…

I had to take a photo of the fancy crown-shaped napkin before unfolding it to place in my lap…

After placing our beverage and entree orders with our server, this platter of strawberries and breakfast pastries was brought to our table….

The best of the three pastries was the Blueberry Mickey Muffin…

The chocolate croissants were not quite as good as they looked. They received a 3 rating. Then coming in last for the pastries were the plain croissants, which we only gave a 2. They could have really used some butter, however no butter was given to us or offered by our server. We knew there was much more food to come so we didn’t bother to ask for any. Instead we just took a bite and moved on. 

In between our pastries being served and our purchased specialty beverages arriving, Cinderella made her one and only appearance during the 45 minutes that we were here (that we noticed anyway)…

For an extra cost of $14.00 plus tax & tip, we shared The Royal Breakfast Flight…

Our favorite of these was the sweetest of the three, the Peach Bellini (pictured in middle). The standard mimosa (on the right) with orange juice and sparkling wine was also good, but not quite as sweet as the Bellini. Our least favorite (but still good) was the White Sangria (on the left). Our overall rating for the flight was 4. Oh, and by the way, you can still get this flight here at breakfast (current price as of Feb. 2024 is $16.00) or you can also get a full portion of any one of these three for a price of between $12.50 (for the Peach Bellini) to $14.50 for the Mimosa. Another option on the current Feb. 2024 menu is a Bloody Mary for $15.00. We enjoyed getting to try them all though by choosing to share the flight. 

By the way, the included beverages here were the usual assorted fountain drinks (Coca-Cola products), Joffrey’s coffee, Twinings hot tea, iced tea, hot chocolate, Minute Maid brand light lemonade, apple and orange juice, and 1% or chocolate milk. I had the coffee, which was fine. I also normally get orange juice (since I’ve always been able to get both coffee and juice at these “beverages included” breakfast meals) but didn’t this time since we purchased the Breakfast flight. 

Now when it came time to choose our entrees I was having a difficult time deciding between a savory option and a sweet option so our server offered to bring me both. My savory choice was the Beef Tenderloin and Egg…

And a closer look…

This entree featured a good size beef tenderloin steak sitting on top of a potato and egg frittata that was covered in Boursin cheese sauce. Though I had requested the steak be cooked medium well it was more medium. From past experience I have found that Disney chefs (even those at the Signature restaurants) rarely ever get this right. Despite its medium temperature (maybe because of it?) I really enjoyed this. I was pleasantly surprised at how tender and flavorful it was. This was the first of several steaks that we had on this trip and it turned out to be one of the best. I think the only one that received a higher rating was Andrew’s steak at Steakhouse 71.

Then there was the frittata and cheese sauce…

The frittata was light and fluffy and filled with potatoes, red peppers and onion. And then there was the yummy cheese sauce. The frittata was a great complement to the steak. I gave this entree a rating of 4 1/2, with just a half point deduction for the temperature of the meat being different than what I ordered. However, as I said before, it may have actually been better with it being less cooked. 

For my other entree, the sweet one, I had the Caramel Apple-Stuffed French Toast…

This was French Toast stuffed with Sweet Cream Cheese and Spiced Apples. It was drizzled with caramel sauce, and topped with powdered sugar and a few fresh raspberries. It was good but very sweet. We both were only able to eat a few bites. Eating the whole thing would have put me into sugar overload so I was very happy I hadn’t ordered this as my only entree. Our rating for the French Toast was a 3. 

Andrew’s choice was the Traditional Breakfast…

This included scrambled eggs, three large sausage links, a slice of crispy bacon and diced fried potatoes. His thoughts regarding his breakfast: The eggs were too runny and the bacon was very salty. The potatoes and sausage were just okay. Rating of 2 1/2.

NOTE: All three of our entrees are still currently on CRT’s breakfast menu. The other three options that we had (Shrimp & Grits, Baked Quiche and Royal Avocado Toast) are also still on the current menu. In other words, there have been no changes or additions to their menu in the last 2 1/2 years. The only thing that has changed is the price.

So overall, with the exception of my surprisingly good steak and frittata, nothing about the food was memorable. The experience of dining in the castle is always memorable though. I can’t wait to bring my granddaughter there someday.