WARNING: You might not be prepared for these Disney World dining experiences!
Magic Kingdom isn’t specifically known for its restaurants, but it is home to TWO VERY POPULAR castle dining experiences with Be Our Guest Restaurant (inside Beast’s Castle) and Cinderella’s Royal Table (inside Cinderella Castle). Each restaurant offers a totally unique dining experience that you can’t get anywhere else in Disney World, but both come with a hefty price tag. Before you shell out tons of cash on either or both of these dining experiences, there are a few caveats you need to know.
Before we get into it, we have to remind you that our DFB Guide will keep you up-to-date on all the latest happenings with Disney World restaurants, as well as recommendations for you during your next vacation! Check out the guide and stay posted right here at the Disney Food Blog to stay in the know! With that down, let’s go over the potential drawbacks of both Cinderella’s Royal Table and Be Our Guest Restaurant!
You Have to Be Down With Prix Fixe Menus
Both Be Our Guest Restaurant and Cinderella’s Royal Table offer prix fixe menus, meaning you’ll pay a set price per person and then choose from select offerings for each course.
Dinner and lunch at Be Our Guest start at $72 per adult plus tax and gratuity and $43 per child ages 3-9 plus tax and gratuity. Meanwhile, Cinderella’s Royal Table serves breakfast for $74 per adult plus tax and gratuity and $45 per child ages 3-9 plus tax and gratuity. Its lunch and dinner costs are $88 per adult plus tax and gratuity and $52 per child ages 3-9 plus tax and gratuity.
Non-alcoholic and alcoholic beverages cost extra.
If you plan on dining at either location on a limited budget, you can throw that idea out the window right now.
Be Our Guest Has Lots of Room for Disappointment
We’re not gonna sugarcoat it — if you’re going to spend over $70 per adult for dinner MINIMUM, you should expect a really great experience. Unfortunately, that’s not guaranteed at Be Our Guest Restaurant.
For starters, if you’re showing up expecting a pure character dining experience, you may be surprised to learn that the Beast doesn’t actually meet guests!
Additionally, while the food is ok, it hasn’t really blown us out of the water to justify its prices. You’re more there for the ambiance, rather than the actual dining
You also may be seated in the Rose Gallery. It’s a cute room, but it’s not iconic like the Grand Ballroom or super atmospheric like Beast’s Forbidden West Wing. In the past, it was ONLY open when they offered quick service meals, so they didn’t even seat people there for dinner, but that’s no longer the case.
We can imagine it being a bit of a disappointment if the picture you’ve got in your head is JUST the Ballroom.
Suspect Portion Sizes at Cinderella’s Royal Table
Cinderella’s Royal Table may charge you $88, but that doesn’t mean you get great portion sizes. On the contrary, in our experience, the small portions are so expensive and hard to justify, especially at the kids’ prices.
It’s wild to spend $40+ for kids to eat chicken tenders or pick at their plates just for the experience. Visiting once to say you’ve done it makes sense, but it’s tough to justify repeat visits.
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Share your reviews of Be Our Guest and/or Cinderella’s Royal Table in the comments below!
Eaten at both. Cinderella’s was just.. ok. Small portions and found it lacking. Beast’s I absolutely love, food has been exceptional, and atmosphere, partly since it is one of my favorite movies, is great. Only thing can say there is man you come out just stuffed!! Dont book Tron right away after it.
I ate at the castle about 35 or 40 years ago. It wasn’t prix fixe at the time . I remember I had a delicious prime rib meal. The good old days……
Haven’t eaten in the castle since it was King Stephan’s Banquet Hall, in the 80s.
Before the days of reservations, when you ran at rope drop to the sign in table for a seating time.
And yes, it was good back then.
@Carol LOL No, you really didn’t. It opened in 2012…
Christina, I don’t think that’s true at all. I was single when I ate there and I’ve been married over 30 years.
We eat breakfast at CRT. When we went last April I had an awesome french toast breakfast. My kids got the kids breakfasts and my wife got her eggs. I ended up eating my food and almost everyone elses (I don’t like to waste money). We did eat there on one of our first trips and had dinner. It was okay but the food wasn’t really “kid friendly” if I remember correctly but we prefer breakfast because it’s cheaper (and when did prices go up? I don’t remember paying $77/adult last year.) we’ve never eaten at BOG. I’ve heard bad things and seen videos of the food and wasn’t impressed, plus with not meeting the Beast, no thanks.
Both of those restaurants are ridiculously priced and used to not be so expensive!! And when I say used to, I don’t mean decades ago I mean pre 2020 they were reasonably priced, but still getting on high end in 2019. Now the cost is out of my budget.
We ate lunch at Cinderella’s castle, 2 adults, 2 kids in 2002. Did not like. Haven’t tried BOG yet.