Raglan Road Irish Pub and Restaurant
is one of our favorite stops in all of Disney World (check out our most recent review here!). And now we know we certainly aren’t alone in that opinion!
Orlando Magazine has recently announced its annual Dining Awards for 2014, and the Downtown Disney restaurant has taken the coveted top spot for Orlando’s Best Restaurant.
Writer Joseph Hayes credits Chef Kevin Dundon’s energy and menu influence with the success of Raglan Road. But it’s more than that, he says.
The restaurant, a series of faithfully restored bars and furnishings from ancient Old Country pubs, has the feel of a genuinely family-run restaurant (which it is). It gives Dundon a place to use traditional recipes and farm-fresh ingredients as a leaping point for new, satisfying and occasionally surprising ideas such as a killer twist on smoked haddock & Dubliner cheese dip or a wine-infused broth and seafood he calls ‘It’s not bleedin’ Chowder!’ The combination of New Irish cuisine, a pint of ale and a wink from a high-stepping Irish lass is hard to beat.
Keen Eye for Shepherd’s Pie
Chef Kevin received the news by phone while at home in Ireland, and expressed his gratitude to fans of the restaurant. “We’re very proud of this honor and want to thank all of our fans for dishing up a delicious win,” Dundon said.
Chef Kevin Dundon
Raglan Road also took honors in several other categories, including first-place spots for “Best Live Music and Entertainment” and “Best Place to Take Company”. The pub placed second as the “Best Place to Take Kids” and third-place for “Best Beer Selection”.
Raglan Road Dancers Perform as Creel Plays in the Background
We couldn’t agree more! Well done, Raglan Road!
Do you agree with the readers of Orlando Magazine? Let us know in comments what you love about Raglan Road!
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Completely deserved award for the Raglan Road and it really does go to show that good, simple dishes, prepared with fresh ingredients and cooked to perfection, shine through!
We’ve never had a bad meal there and I can only hope that ‘Downtown Disney Springs’ sees more quality dining like this!
We finally went to Raglan Road for the first time in March, and MAN was it amazing. It beat out Sanaa for our favorite restaurant in The World. Absolutely incredible food- this is a well-deserved honor. I can still taste the bread and butter pudding!!! This will be one restaurant we visit on every trip from now on.
Yay! I’ve never been but made and cancelled a million reservations for my hubby’s bday before settling on this one – excited to see I must have made the right choice! Irish grub at Orlando’s Best Restaurant followed by our first Orlando City Soccer game is sure to be a hit!
We went to Raglan Road for the first time on our last trip. We knew it would be good, but we had no idea it would be so good. First off, everyone LOVED their food. I had the risotto special of the day and it may have been the best meal I have ever had in Disney, and probably not that close. The entertainment was also amazing.
It was so good we booked a second night on the same trip with some friends from Florida. The second night, the seating was not as good to see the show (it seems like they give better seating to those who reserve early), but the food and service were still excellent. My wife asked about the special they had a few days before, and they went back to the kitchen to see if it could be made for us (they couldn’t because they had none of the prep done, but I was still impressed they asked).
As we were eating our meal, we could really see the dancers without getting up. Our friends asked where the kids could go to get a better view of the dancing since we couldn’t see from our seats. The manager was walking by and heard the question and told us to hang on a minute and he would see what he could do. Five minutes later he brought back two of the dancers and a wooden platform and they put on a show right next to our table! It was incredible and solidified the restaurant as a must go for every trip to WDW.
This has to be a must-do restaurant for us each time we visit WDW. I can thoroughly recommend Kevin’s Heavenly Mist, the risotto, shepherds pie and lots more. Only regret is they no longer have the trio of pannacotta which was an absolutely dreamy dessert.
Really like Raglan but the tap beer selection is pretty bad – surprised they came in third for best beer selection…there’s not much craft beer to be found.
Raglan Road is the first place we visit every time we have come to Florida, even when we were not doing WDW. It is worth mentioning that their selection of gluten free choices is wonderful. My kids love being able to have Fish and Chips, which is usually never an option and my 9-year-old son is already talking about ordering the calamari when we come back in January.
I’ve tried to like Raglan Road, I’ve really tried. I think the place is beautiful and I really want to like it but in four trips, we’ve had bad service and average food at best: overcooked entrees, missing items, bad food temps, etc. I think the music is too loud and it makes conversation impossible. Some of the food we’ve had there was quite good. I can tell you this, though, it’s not Orlando’s best restaurant. It’s not even Pleasure Island’s best restaurant.
Disney is not the happiest place on Earth; Raglan Road is. This is my first stop whenever in Orlando. I love drinking some Irish draught while listening to an authentic Irish band and I love watching those beautiful girls dance. I was in Orlando for the ASSE conference in June and introduced a friend to Raglan Road, he had a great time. The food is always excellent, the atmosphere is perfect and the entertainment is great. My only regret from this last trip is that one of the house bands (Creel) wasn’t going to be performing and had taken a break from performing for a while.