Living in Texas, I don’t have the opportunity to attend the openings of Disney’s restaurants; but boy did I get lucky on this one! Thank you to the WDW Today Podcast for allowing me to publish pics from their coverage. Check out their twitter stream to see more great pics from the Grand Opening at Epcot’s La Hacienda de San Angel!
Restaurant Info
The backstory behind La Hacienda de San Angel is that a Mexican family restored an old hacienda and wanted to open it to guests and serve food. The beautiful artwork and pottery throughout the hacienda are meant to be created by the house’s artistic owner. La Cantina de San Angel, the counter-service restaurant outside of the Hacienda, is part of the story as well — it was supposedly created to serve the overflow from the hacienda!
La Hacienda will be serving dinner from 4pm each night and will offer an incredible view of the Illuminations fireworks. During the day, it will serve as indoor seating for La Cantina de San Angel, which will serve lunch and dinner daily.
Main dining room
Just a reminder, La Hacienda de San Angel is now open for business for walk-in guests. You can also make reservations for dates after October 15th via Disney’s reservations system! You can see the the La Hacienda de San Angel Menu here. You can see La Cantina de San Angel’s menu here!
Grand Opening Celebration
Here are some incredible pictures from the Grand Opening Celebration:
Mickey and Donald Helped with the Ribbon Cutting
Margarita Bar
Tequila Scorpion
Shrimp Taco
More photos after the jump!
View of the Restaurant's Outdoor Seating Area
View
Tamal de Dulce
Cantina de San Angel
Raspberry Lime Margarita with Rose Petals
Fresh Handmade Tortilla -- Pork Taco
Mariachi Band
Outdoor Seating
Chiles
Artwork in the Restaurant
Booths
Tilapia Tostadas
More Tostadas
Thanks again to WDW Today Podcast for allowing us to use these photos! It looks like the evening was incredible!
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Wow! It looks like the restaraunt had a great Grand opening. These are some great pictures, and are very vivid in colour. I’m surprised that they just limited it to Mickey and Donald when in reality they should have had the three caballeros.
Maybe next time…
Josh — Agreed! Where was Jose?!
Another beautiful restaurant at WDW. And even better the food looks like it is done in the modern style and presentation instead of an old trite stereotype of Mexican food.
I’m always surprised by how well iPhone pictures turn out sometimes. The tilapia tostadas were the tastiest, although I have to admit I had to turn down about half of the appetizers because they had pork or shrimp in them.
The rose petal drink was best described by Ms. Zannaland as “like drinking air freshner” LOL.
Those are great pictures, I wish my droid took good pictures liek those in the not fully over lit area.
The appetizers were surprisingly good. My favorite was the Beef Taco (i think that is what it was), and the (i think) it was seared Beef with a Chocolate/Peanut Mole (not positive if that is exactly what it was)
It could be a silly question but what happened to the restaurant inside the Mexican pavillon building? Is it still there? Are they somehow connected?
Q
I have never been a fan of San Angel Inn, I find the food bland and americanized, really had a few horrible experiences here in the past. Having the same operators as San Angel, I am a bit cautious of La Hacienda de San Angel, however, the photos give me hope, it will be on my list of places to try my next trip.
AJ, do you know if the same group also run the Mexican pavilion at the Food and Wine Festival? The food there has been excellent the last few years.
I can’t wait to try the fresh, handmade tortillas!
@Matt I feel I must comment in defense of the Rosita margarita. I thought it was delish!
Queila – They are connected in the fact that they are all managed by Palmas Services LLC. (http://www.palmasservices.com/)
According to the website:
Palmas Services, LLC has been in Orlando for more than 25 years managing San Angel Inn, LLC and Springs Food Service, LLC for over 10 years. San Angel Inn, LLC runs the San Angel Inn Restaurant, La Cava del Tequila, La Cantina and La Hacienda Restaurant in the Mexico pavilion at Epcot® World Showcase.
Springs Food Service, LLC runs the food and beverage service throughout Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort including room service, the Pepper Market, Maya Grill, Siesta’s, Café Rix, Laguna Bar, Rix Lounge and Las Ventanas.
AJ,
Great report of the Grand Opening. I was one of the first guests to walk through the doors yesterday. I made a video which will be up in moments of the interior. I also ate at the Cantina as soon as it opened. If anyone had questions about either location let me know. I also have lots of pics.
Alan — From what I’ve heard, conceptually they’re really trying to step out of the stereotype and provide more “fresh” authentic Mexican here. Looking forward to seeing what the initial reviews are.
Matt — The pics look great! Thanks again!
Cody — Thanks for the reviews!
Queila and Sarah — Neither of these companies have a great track record with WDW fans when it comes to food, so I’m intrigued to see how this most recent restaurant is accepted. 🙂
Keith — I’m with you on the tentativeness. Great question on the F&W festival — I’m NOT sure if the same group runs the booth as the restaurants.
Sarah — Agreed!
Leigh — Thanks for the review! (Do you eat the rose petals?)
Wdwprince — Thanks for the info!
I was hoping they’d change the order pick-up system at Cantina but it doesn’t look like they did. I’ve been to the old location at least once and was left standing there while everyone else got their orders and the workers forgot about mine. Very annoying.