There are quite literally DOZENS of places to eat in Disney Springs alone.

The shopping and dining district is filled with everything from snack stands to quick service spots to high-end table service meals. Disney Springs is a great place for a fun night with friends or a chill weekend shopping spree, and the next time you visit, I might have a surprising restaurant recommendation to add to your list!

A coworker and I recently visited House of Blues in Disney Springs to have dinner and I’m here to bring you a full review! This is a spot that flies a bit under the radar, and I’ll admit that I set the bar fairly low going into the meal. But how did things turn out? Let’s dive in!

Atmosphere

House of Blues is located on the West Side of Disney Springs, all the way down at the end. It’s literally the LAST stop before you get to Cirque du Soleil and the Strawberry Parking Lot. As you approach the restaurant, the first thing you’ll probably notice is its gift shop out front! There’s lots of music paraphernalia in here.

House of Blues is home to a quick service stand (The Smokehouse) as well as an outdoor bar — both are in front of the sit-down restaurant and share some courtyard seating.

If you’re dining inside the restaurant, you’ll walk up the porch steps and head in toward the host’s stand. This is where you check in for your meal!

The first thing I noticed about this restaurant was the theme. They go really hard into music and the arts in here, and you can even take your photo with statues of the Blues Brothers at the entrance!

There are several different dining areas, so the restaurant could seat a large quantity of people. 

There are two porch-like sunrooms off of the main room which would be nice to request for a quieter dining experience. In the main room, we had people walking past our table frequently.

The main dining room is home to an upper deck as well as a lower deck. Here, you’ll find a mixture of booth and table seating.

There’s also an indoor bar if you don’t want to get your beverages outside. There were some TVs playing a variety of stations during our visit.

And of course, I’ve got to give you a look at the table setup! They come stocked with silverware, napkins, ketchup, salt, and pepper.

Now that we’ve taken the tour, let’s talk about the menu!

Menu

The menu here is mostly Southern American-style food. Appetizers include items like chicken tenders, loaded fries, nachos, and cornbread, while the entree list has salads, sandwiches, and burgers. In addition, there are several main dishes like Jambalaya, Fried Hot Chicken, Voodoo Shrimp, and Baby Back Ribs. 

The beverage menu includes a wide variety of unique beer, wine, and cocktail options. Our server had several great recommendations from this list.

And of course, we can’t forget about dessert! They have three options — a brownie, a key lime pie, and a bread pudding. (Bet you can’t guess which one we’re going to choose! 😉)

Now it’s time to dig in!

Eats

Before we placed our food order, my coworker decided on the Beast of Bourbon at the server’s recommendation. This beverage is $15 and made with Knob Creek Bourbon, maple syrup, chocolate bitters, and orange. She thought this was a very solid variation on an Old Fashioned and that the maple syrup and chocolate complemented the Knob Creek Bourbon well.

Since there were two of us, we ordered quite a few things from the menu! We got the Cajun Chicken Pasta, the Fried Hot Chicken, the Shrimp Po’ Boy, the Loaded Fries, and the skillet of Mac and Cheese. Let’s dig in!

First up, let’s chat about the appetizer! We got the Loaded Fries for $16, which were topped with jalapeno-bacon, pickled red onion, four-cheese sauce, cilantro crema, and cotija cheese. And BOY were these good!

They were very cheesy and the sauce had a bit of sharpness to it. The toppings covered all the fries down to the bottom, which we really appreciated after we ate off the top layer. There are lots of toppings overall and they give it a nice variety in texture, especially with the onions, peppers, and bacon. I would definitely get this again!

Moving on to the entrees, the Shrimp Po’ Boy was one of our choices for $19. It’s made with fried cajun shrimp, French bread, spiced remoulade, lettuce, dill pickle chips, and tomato. It’s a pretty hefty sandwich, and it’s served with french fries and lemon on the side.

The shrimp here had a little bit of a kick after I ate four or so, and the cajun flavor came through nicely. The pickles and tomatoes added a good crunch to the sandwich, but the remoulade is what brought it all together! It was tangy and so delicious that our server brought me a cup of it on the side to dip my fries in. 

The fries were pretty basic fries like you’d get at the quick service restaurants around Disney World, so I advise eating them before they get cold! They were shoestring and not very crispy, but not super soft either.

My one complaint with the Shrimp Po’ Boy is that I think it needed a more exciting bread. The sandwich had so many great flavors and textures, but then there was just a lot of white bread to eat the toppings with. Maybe a bread with special seasonings or something more robust would be better.

Moving on to our next dish, we’ve got the Cajun Chicken Pasta. This was $23 and made with blackened chicken, penne pasta, cajun cream sauce, bell pepper, tomato, red onion, basil, and parmesan cheese. It’s a pretty decent portion!

If you’re a white meat only kind of chicken eater, you should primarily know that you’ll find chunks of dark meat throughout this pasta. It actually packs quite a bit of flavor! The sauce here is creamy with just a hint of spice and while the chicken is described as blackened, we couldn’t really taste blackening spices in the dish. All in all, we really liked this and would order it again if we were in the mood for pasta!

Our final entree was the Fried Hot Chicken for $22. It came with two crispy-fried chicken breasts, Nashville hot sauce, house-made slaw, french fries, and dill pickle chips. The fried chicken was cooked all the way through and still super juicy without being greasy. The breading has a bit of a kick to it and the chicken is marinated in hot sauce. 

The heat level here is about the same as regular buffalo wings, so if you can handle that, you’ll be good with this dish! The cole slaw is pretty basic but provides a creamy contrast, and the dill pickles were crunchy and bright. The fries are the same as the ones that came with the po’ boy.

Moving on from the entrees, we also ordered one of their sides! Say hello to the Mac and Cheese Skillet for $11. This is four-cheese sauce, macaroni pasta, and toasted breadcrumb topping. So simple, yet SO good. I thought this was one of the most delicious offerings of the night!

It’s creamy, but not saucy, and the sharpness of the cheese really comes through, even as it starts to cool. The pasta was very soft, but as a person who likes her pasta cooked slightly past al dente, I appreciated that. If you wanted a lil something extra to split with another person at your table, this would be a great choice!

Last but not least, we’ve got dessert! We ordered the Bread Pudding (duh!) which was $11. It’s topped with bourbon butter and toffee sauce, and wow. Just WOW. The bread pudding itself was soft and cooked all the way through, very moist in the middle.

The sauce was rich and smooth, with some deep bourbon flavor and a hint of toffee sweetness. We got ours topped with vanilla ice cream, and the cool creaminess paired particularly well. This is definitely going on the list of amazing bread puddings in Disney World!

So how did House of Blues stack up overall?

Overall

At the end of the meal, my coworker and I sat back (with absolutely stuffed bellies) and agreed that this meal blew us out of the water! We were expecting fairly plain food from House of Blues but they proved us WRONG with sophisticated flavors and textures. They really do comfort food well here!

Particular standouts included the skillet of Mac and Cheese, the Cajun Chicken Pasta, and the Loaded Fries. (They really do pasta and cheese sauce RIGHT!) And of course, you CANNOT skip that bread pudding!

Nosh or Not?

Walk all the way to the end of Disney Springs to dine if…

• You’re looking to try somewhere new to you in Disney Springs. Want to venture outside the same old, same old in Disney Springs? This is a great option! It often gets overlooked because it’s so far down at the end, but we’d recommend it to anyone who wants to try something different.
• You love southern comfort food and Homecomin’ is full. I still have to put Chef Art Smith’s Homecomin’ above this in terms of delicious southern comfort food, but they fill up quickly over there, and reservations are usually available for House of Blues. Hop on down here if Homecomin’ is busy or you’ve been there, done that, and want to compare the two.
• You don’t have a reservation and you want a sit-down meal. As I mentioned above, it’s generally pretty easy to get a reservation here, even last minute. The restaurant seats a large amount of people at once, so you should be able to get in easily.

Don’t wander down to the West Side if…

• You are having a park day. It can be a pain to get to Disney Springs from the parks since transportation doesn’t run directly between the two anymore, so planning a Disney Springs meal on your park day is probably not the easiest idea.
• You’re trying to stay to one side of Disney Springs. Disney Springs is MASSIVE, and if you’re parking in Lime Garage and hoping to stick to The Marketplace area with World of Disney, the LEGO Store, and Days of Christmas, it would be quite the hike to get over to House of Blues.
• You want to save money. For a table service meal, this wasn’t very expensive. But there are lots of delicious quick service options in Disney Springs that would be cheaper than this as well.

That’s a wrap on my visit to House of Blues, thanks for coming along with me! We’ll keep you in the loop with more dining reviews and news from around Walt Disney World, so stay tuned to DFB.

Click Here to See My Review of Homecomin’ by Chef Art Smith!

Have you been to House of Blues? Tell us your thoughts in the comments!