If you’re staying at a Disney World Value Resort on an upcoming trip, you might be slightly discouraged by your dining options.

While Deluxe and even Moderate resorts often have multiple restaurants with various cuisine offerings, the Value Resorts are typically limited to a pool bar and a cafeteria-style quick service restaurant. But don’t worry — it’s definitely possible to find good things to eat at those places! And we recently stopped at Disney’s Pop Century Resort to prove it.

At Pop Century, the main restaurant available is Everything POP Shopping & Dining. As you may have guessed by the name, this location is a gift shop and restaurant combined. And on a recent visit, we placed an order so that we could share our thoughts on the food!

Atmosphere

Let’s start out with the atmosphere! You enter the store and the restaurant through the Pop Century lobby.

Once you walk through the shop, you’ll find yourself in the dining area. This restaurant offers both Mobile Order and service at the counter. There are multiple food stations spread out with various items.

There are also sections for pre-packaged snacks, baked goods, and refrigerated items.

Once you’ve gathered your order (if you pick up food yourself or get it from one of the stations), you’ll head to the cash registers. There, a Cast Member will ring up your total and you can pick up drink cups if you would like them.

There are multiple drink stations available with fountain beverages, and along these stations, you’ll find utensils, condiments, and more.

And of course, we have to showcase the seating. There are dozens of tables indoors, as well as some outside seating. There’s a lot of space in here, and it wasn’t anywhere close to being full during our visit.

So now that we’ve shown the basics, let’s discuss the menu.

Menu

Since this is the main dining location at the resort, they have a WIDE variety of food on the menu for guests. The menu starts off with a selection of burgers and chicken options, as well as a chili cheese hot dog. 

The entrees section has Seared Salmon, Braised Beef, Shrimp and Grits, and Buttermilk Chicken. Or you could go simple and order one of the hot or cold sandwiches. 

Another common offering in the cafeteria restaurants of Disney World is the pizza and pasta section! At Everything POP, you can get pepperoni or cheese pizza, as well as three different types of pasta. 

And of course, there’s a selection of salads for those who want to eat some greens. These are found in the refrigerated section of the restaurant.

They have a plant-based Impossible Burger for vegan/vegetarian diners and there are four different choices for a kids’ meal.

The sides are pretty basic — french fries, macaroni & cheese, and breadsticks. But if it’s your birthday or you’re celebrating a special occasion, you may want to check out the celebration cakes!

Of course, a meal wouldn’t be complete without dessert. At Everything POP some of the most popular treats are the Tie-dye Cheesecake, the POP Goes Bananas Cupcake, and the Flashback Oatmeal Creme Pie.

The rest of the menu is made up of pre-packaged snacks and various beverages, as well as some alcohol options.

Eats

So what did we order? We decided to pick up an entree and two desserts to try!

To start, we’re trying the Shrimp and Grits for $14.99. This is an entree you can order from some of the other value resorts as well, and it’s made with shrimp, grits, smoked ham, vegetables, and cream sauce.

Unfortunately, this entree was more than a little underwhelming. The grits were really thick and kinda sticky, almost as if they weren’t fresh but just being kept warm on the stove. The shrimp were fairly good though — plentiful and cooked with a nice chew, and thankfully peeled and deveined.

The little ham chunks were nice and helped fill out the bowl, but the sauce is where things kinda fell apart for us. It reminded us of a cheap Alfredo sauce, and isn’t exactly the kind of sauce we’d want with shrimp and grits. It didn’t have much flavor besides cream, and we would’ve preferred a gravy or a tomato-based sauce with more flavor. It just ended up feeling like they drowned the shrimp and grits in cream.

Besides that, the vegetables didn’t add much to the dish at all. They were chopped so small and covered in so much sauce that it was hard to even tell they were there.

However, things turned around with dessert! Our favorite treat of the meal was the Flashback Oatmeal Creme Pie! This is an oatmeal raisin cookie sandwich filled with marshmallow creme and topped with dark chocolate and cinnamon glaze.

This. Was. Delicious! The cookie has both purple and golden raisins inside and visible pieces of oats with a slight cinnamon flavor. There was a great mix of textures and flavors throughout.

The cookie was chewy and thick, but it was also soft enough to pull apart.

It was one of the best oatmeal raisin cookies we’ve eaten, and the marshmallow creme just added the right amount of sweetness to top it all off! A great combo indeed. You can get it for $5.49.

And last but not least, we have to talk about one of Pop Century’s most iconic snacks — the Tie-dye Cheesecake for $5.99.

This treat is pretty much exactly what it sounds like…a cheesecake made with multiple colors to look tie-dyed! The base is actually a red velvet cake instead of a pie crust, and it was fluffy, but a smidge on the dry side.

The cheesecake is super thick and has a light cream cheese flavor. It’s not very sweet, but it’s mild enough to appease people who don’t like strong cheesecake. We couldn’t taste the dye flavor, which we appreciated!

Overall, it was a fun treat and we would order it again, but we don’t know if we would trek all the way out to Pop Century just to pick one up.

Overall

The big thing about Everything POP is that if you’re staying at this resort and don’t have time to go elsewhere, this is pretty much your only dining option. So how do you guarantee a good meal? Well, we had great experiences with the desserts, but the shrimp and grits were a miss for us.

If you’re planning on eating here during an upcoming trip, you should be fairly safe to try the basics (things like burgers, hot dogs, salads, sandwiches, and pizza). We’ve found that the more “out there” dishes tend to be a bit riskier bets, but sometimes you find something that’s pretty good. If given the chance, we would probably recommend that you hop on the Skyliner and ride to Caribbean Beach or Disney’s Riviera Resort to eat your meal at their quick service restaurants.

Nosh or Not

Travel back in time and dine at Everything POP if…

• You’re staying at this resort and want some food close to your room. If you don’t have the time or energy to go elsewhere, this restaurant isn’t a bad option. There are some things on the menu that you might really enjoy!
• You have a variety of palettes in your party. Thanks to the cafeteria-style dining, there are SO many different things on the menu!
• You’re in a rush and you want something to grab and go! Since you can Mobile Order here or pick up pre-packaged items from the snack, refrigerated, and bakery sections, it’s easy to dine here on your way to the buses or Skyliner.

Step away from your hotel and dine elsewhere if…

• You want a unique restaurant experience. If you’re looking for fine cuisine, a character meal, or a cool atmosphere above convenience, then there are plenty of other options around Disney World!
• You’re about to head to the parks. There are some shockingly good places to eat in each park, so if you’re heading to the theme parks and you have time, it might be a good idea to try out the food there.
• You have some flexibility. As we mentioned above, there are good quick service spots at Caribbean Beach and the Riviera Resort. You could also take the bus to Disney Springs — all good options if you don’t have a park ticket!

That’s our full review of Everything POP! For more updates on Disney World restaurants and all the tips for dining during your Disney World trip, stay tuned to DFB.

With DOZENS of places to eat at Disney World, we know it can be tough to plan your meals. That’s why we wrote the DFB Guide to Dining at Walt Disney World. We have reviews, pictures and details about every restaurant all in one digital download – along with ALL of our best tips and strategies from decades of Disney World trips. We’ve got a special discount code for DFB readers, too! Use WDW2023 at checkout for 25% off!

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What’s your favorite thing to eat at this restaurant? Tell us in the comments!