This was my second time visiting the SH71 Lounge, with the first being in October 2021 (not long after it opened). Though it wasn’t bad, it wasn’t as good as the dinner we had at the Steakhouse 71 restaurant. So I had hopes of maybe having dinner at the restaurant again during this trip since we were staying at the Contemporary for our first two nights. But unfortunately with the first night being on our Disney World arrival day, I didn’t feel like I could commit to a dinner reservation. And then I had other dinner plans for our second night at the Contemporary. So I decided that the next best thing to having dinner at the Steakhouse 71 restaurant was to have dinner at its Lounge, which doesn’t take reservations (first come, first serve seating).
I was happy to find that there was several open seats available at the bar when we entered the lounge at 7:00 on a Friday night (of the Easter holiday weekend). My husband and I sat at a corner with a good view of one of the tv’s so we could watch one of the NCAA tournament games that was on.
I noticed that there were some changes made to the Lounge’s menu…
One of the things that stood out to me was that the PB & J Chicken Wings had been replaced by Chipotle Honey Barbecue Wings. Another guest seated next to us at the bar ordered these and he said they weren’t very spicy. I also noticed that they had added a soup (French Onion) and salad (Caesar) to the available options at the lounge. These were not offered on their menu when I visited in October 2021.
We began our ordering by choosing our drinks. While Don just ordered a beer (a blonde ale), I wanted a cocktail. For my first cocktail of our trip, I wanted something sweet and fruity. Something that screams, “I’m on vacation!” Haha. Unfortunately I didn’t see anything like that on their Specialty Cocktail menu so I asked our friendly bartender, Daniel, to confirm that (which he did) but he also said, “No worries, I’ve gotcha covered!” He proceeded to make me a cocktail by starting with a generous portion of Parrot Bay coconut rum. Then he added several different fruit juices…I think pineapple, cranberry and orange. Here is a photo of our drinks…
Although my cocktail wasn’t creamy like a a pina colada, it still pretty much tasted like a pina colada. And I love pina coladas so I gave this a rating of 4 (Good).
Our neighbors at the bar also ordered one of the Lounge’s specialty cocktails to share (which they graciously allowed me to photograph)…
Moving on to our food choices. Seeing the Caesar salad on their menu, I asked if we could get one of the other salads offered on Steakhouse 71 restaurant’s menu. My request was granted…
With “Chopped” being in both the title and description of this salad I was expecting the lettuce to be more finely chopped. But this didn’t really matter to us, it was just an observation. The other ingredients of the salad were good, but I do wish there had been a little more goat cheese and a lot more cranberries (there were very few). I liked the brioche croutons, as they were softer. Sometimes croutons can be a bit too crunchy and stale tasting. The White Balsamic Vinaigrette was a bit bland. I make this same salad at home a lot but use Lite Raspberry Vinaigrette, which we love. Oh, I also sometimes add almond slivers, which we enjoy. So anyway, we gave this salad (which we shared) a rating of 3 (Okay).
We also shared this…
Stack Burger – Signature Blend of Beef, Pork Belly, American Cheese, Lemon Aïoli, Red Onion, House-made Pickles, on a Brioche Bun. Served with Parmesan Waffle Fries. – $23.00 NOTE: We requested no onion.
When they sat this plate down before us, I was a bit underwhelmed with how it looked. My first thought was that it was rather small, especially for a $23.00 burger. The sandwich, basket of waffle fries, and container of ketchup only took up about half of the plate…
I had seen this burger (or a much better looking version of it) in several blog and vlog reviews and it was always raved about. Some reviewers called it the “Best Burger on Disney World property!” So I guess maybe my expectations were rather high.
Here is a photo of my half of the burger…
But more important than how this burger looked was how it tasted and I’m happy to report that it tasted better than it looked. The American cheese was a good quality (not just Kraft American cheese slices) and I appreciated that there seemed to be more than just one slice. However, the burger could have been elevated by having a bit more flavorful cheese…like even a good cheddar. To my surprise, my favorite ingredient of this sandwich was the lemon aioli. I’m generally not a fan of lemon flavoring but I really liked this aioli. So overall our rating for the burger was a 4 (Good). But I’m still on the hunt for the “Best Burger on Disney World Property”.
The Parmesan Fries though were a different story…
These were way overcooked and very greasy. The parmesan cheese on them was tasty but other than that they rated only a 2 (Not Good).
I decided I also wanted to try a dessert that I had recently seen on the Steakhouse 71 restaurant menu. I wanted to get back to our room though to watch the fireworks so I asked for it in a “To Go” container.
Ok, so I love chocolate cream pie and I love banana cream pie but this was like no other cream pie I’ve ever tasted. Actually I have no idea why they call this dessert a “cream pie”. It was actually a hard chocolate shell filled with milk chocolate mousse…
It had very little banana flavor from the mushy caramelized banana and the vanilla wafer (at the bottom) was more like a very hard graham cracker. It was so hard that we couldn’t cut it with the plastic fork we were given. For me the only good part was the macadamia nut crumbles. This dessert was so disappointing because it was not at all what I was wanting and expecting when I ordered a chocolate banana cream pie. Because of this I would have to rate it only a 1 (Really Bad).
I wished that I had taken the time to check out the desserts (which were less expensive) at the Contemporary’s quick service restaurant, Contempo Cafe. This was a mistake that I corrected the next evening when I again wanted to have a sweet treat while watching the fireworks from our balcony.
So overall this experience was a bit of a mixed bag. I like the convenience and informality of the lounge. It’s a nice option to have if you are staying at the Contemporary. However, on future trips it’s unlikely that I would go out of my way to dine at the lounge again.
Taste of Disney 