Fine Dining at Victoria and Albert’s

This review reflects our experience from August 2016.

Dining in Walt Disney World can be an experience in its own. When you’re looking for fine dining there are several options throughout the World, but nothing quite compares to the dining experience you will find at Victoria and Albert’s at Disney’s Grand Floridian. Victoria and Albert’s was named number 2 in Best Fine Dining Restaurants by Trip Advisor in 2016. This restaurant features three dining options, the Dining Room, Queen Victoria’s Room, and the Chef’s Table. The Dining room allows you to choose between a 7 or 10 course meal, the Queen and Chef’s Table are both the 10 course meal.

If you choose to dine at Victoria and Albert’s you must adhere by their strict dress code. Men must wear jackets, no exceptions, and women must wear a nice cocktail dress or dressy pant suit or skirt.

We have always wanted to try Victoria and Albert’s, so we figured no better time than to celebrate our last Disney trip without a child. We booked the Dining Room and were contacted several weeks prior to our trip. We were first contacted via email to see if we had any special dietary concerns, I alerted them that we were vegan and they quickly responded back asking if there was anything we don’t like and if honey was okay for us. I wrote back saying we were open to whatever the chef wanted to serve and that honey was okay with us, if it is not for you then it is no problem. Two weeks before our trip I received a call to confirm our reservation and go over our dietary needs again. This alone made me know we were in for a treat!

The night of our dinner finally arrived and we made sure to look extra fancy, by our standards. Upon walking into the entrance of Victoria and Albert’s and Citrico’s, they share a check in area, a woman immediately came out from the doors of Victoria and Albert’s to ask if we had a reservation for that evening, it must have been Corey’s jacket that tipped her off. We were quickly seated and greeted by our two waiters.

The Dining Room was mostly empty and pretty quiet until the harp player arrived. Our head server brought us our personalized vegan menus and told us we were in for a great experience that will take roughly three hours. He went over the difference of the 7 and 10 course meals and how to choose what we would get if we opted for the 7. When you do the 7 course meal you choose between two different appetizers in two sections, if you do the 10 course you get everything on the menu. Let’s begin our epic dining experience!

First up is the Amuse-Bouche which was Apples with Banana and Curry. We both enjoyed this, but it was a little odd. We think there was a typo on the menu because it tasted like a banana curry.

After the Amuse-Bouche we were given bread with oil. Typically you are given different butters, but we received different oils to pair with the bread. During our meal we were given three different types of breads with different oils. These ranged from cold pressed oil to a walnut oil.

Next was the Heirloom Tomato Gazpacho with Hearts of Palm. I’m not a huge gazpacho fan, but Corey is. It was good enough that I ate it, but Corey really enjoyed it. The tomatoes were delicious though!

Both Corey and I chose the Crispy Rice Cake with Baby Bok Choy for our first appetizer. This was the best item either of us have ever eaten, ever. The rice cakes were crispy, the mushrooms and edamame added a lot of flavor and the soy sauce with this dish was incredible. Everything about this dish was just absolutely perfect.

Again Corey and I chose the same dish and both went with the Noodles with Chanterelle Mushrooms. Neither of us really loved this dish, the liquid with the noodles didn’t really stick and add much to it.

The main entree was English Pea and Asparagus Risotto. We both were expecting this to just be a small bowl of risotto but it ended up being a super small bowl of risotto with a bunch of potatoes. The dish was described as risotto with potatoes three ways, mashed potatoes, potato rings and parsnips. Everything on this plate was delicious. Having only had risotto once before and not liking it, we both loved this. We also both love potatoes no matter how they’re prepared, and each was unique and full of flavor. The mashed potatoes were super creamy, the potato rings were crunchy and the parsnips offered a bit of a different flavor.

The next dish was dessert number one, which was Brandied Cherry Sorbet. This dish was a super small scoop of sorbet with some cherries on the side. The sorbet itself was good, but we’re kind of over sorbet as dessert at this point.

Second dessert had two options. I got the Pumpkin Oatmeal Almond Cake and Corey got the Strawberry Banana Napoleon. Neither of us really cared for our desserts, Corey described his as mushy and cold, while mine was super dense. The pumpkin flavor was pretty hard to pick up.

While we were getting towards the end of our meal we noticed people getting coffee from some weird contraption. Corey decided he wanted to try coffee from this too. Our server brought it over and lit the flame about 15 minutes before the coffee was actually ready. The coffee is Sulawesi Island Coffee by Joffrey’s and is included in the meal.

We thought we were done and then a small plate of candies arrived. We had dates stuffed with something like an almond cream, a brandy filled chocolate cherry and two fruit gummy-like squares. The dates were the best part for us on this, but all were good.

Before our two hour meal ended, we assume it would have been three hours if we did the 10 course, I was given a rose and our personalized menus.

This was an incredible experience. It was pretty pricey, $185 per person for the 7 course ($235 for the 10), but it was worth it! Additionally you can do a wine pairing with your meal which obviously boosts the cost. If you think of the cost of doing a tour, you’re spending about the same amount of time, but just eating. If you’re celebrating a birthday, anniversary, baby/honeymoon or just want to have a fancy dinner we highly recommend giving Victoria and Albert’s a try.

Would we go back?
We would love to, but probably won’t for a few years.

Price?
$$$$$$

Corey & Melissa