Disney’s Contemporary Resort has been undergoing some major refurbishments over this last year. From new rooms themed like the Incredibles, a new look in the lobby, and they have replaced The Wave with a new restaurant; Steakhouse 71. This restaurant, while it was one of my favorites for the cauliflower tacos, was definitely in need of an update. The look and style of Steakhouse 71 absolutely fits the new design of this resort.
When Disney first announced Steakhouse 71, I was a little hesitant. Another steakhouse?! RIP my favorite cauliflower tacos! But when I saw the menu of this restaurant, I was pleasantly surprised to see the new plant-based offerings here. Just like all other Disney owned restaurants, we’ve been given a vegan option for an appetizer, entree, and dessert. So let’s talk about the food here!
First up is the on menu vegan appetizer, Steakhouse 71 Onion Rings. Yes, vegan onion rings, on the menu. Not something to special order, ready to go ON. THE. MENU. These crispy rings come with a vegan spicy ranch to dip them in as well.
The onion rings were ridiculously crispy and really flavorful. The onions were cooked well and the whole thing was really delicious. I do want to note that we only got about 6 rings, so if you love onion rings don’t share.
To be expected, they were pretty greasy. But we will absolutely be enjoying these again. You can also just order these are the bar as well if you want a snack and not a full meal.
We spoke with Chef Nik and she suggested that we modify two of the other appetizers to be vegan. The first one was the Baby Iceberg Wedge Salad, which is vegan by swapping the dressing and removing the bacon and egg.
The wedge salad was a huge win in our book. The little iceberg wedges were the perfect size and the spicy ranch (same as the onion rings) worked well with it. The pickled onions and tomatoes added a nice lightness to this as well. I definitely recommend doing the vegan swap for this as it was a great lighter start to the meal. I do wish we had something crunchy on them though, like the wedge salad from 50’s Prime Time Cafe with the vegan bacon.
The other vegan swap we did was the Sea Salt-dusted Potato Brioche. To make this one vegan we had to swap the bread to be sourdough and then the butter to be Earth Balance. I would skip this as it is an extra cost and is just a board of bread. The garlic-tomato spread was fine, the tomato had a sweetness but mixed with the garlic was nice. But overall I wouldn’t get this one again.
For the entree here we actually have two options, but only one is on the menu. On the menus is the Vegetable “Wellington”, which is an incredibly creative and well thought out vegan entree. The puff pastry has a nice softness to it while also having that pastry crunch when you cut into it.
Inside the wellington is a mushroom duxelles which is finely chopped mushrooms with other herbs. If you are a no mushroom person for taste, this does have an earthy mushroom taste, but if you’re an anti mushroom texture person, you won’t even notice it there.
The inside of the wellington also had essentially a vegan spinach artichoke dip. There were lots of well cooked artichokes inside, a creamy tofu based mix in there with the spinach. The flavors were all strong and everything was just absolutely delicious with this. There was also a pesto with this, but that was the only thing I didn’t notice while eating this.
The wellington comes on a romesco sauce, which adds some nice flavor to the pastry. We also got one and a half brussels sprouts and two little onions. The portion on this was smaller than I expected, but with all the other options here I didn’t mind. This is an excellent vegetable based dish and I highly recommend trying this one!
Off menu you can get a vegan version of the Steakhouse 71 Stack Burger. The vegan version features two Impossible patties, vegan cheese slices, vegan mayo, pickles, and onion. It also comes on a gluten free bun, and for the first time ever I have no complaints about that. It was also the same Bloomfield Farms brand that we’ve now encountered at ‘Ohana and Trails End.
This burger was amazing. When I say this, I mean this is the best Impossible Burger I have ever had. The burger patties are smashed and the edges became very crispy. They were cooked perfectly and had such a great flavor. The cheese was actually melted on these too, which we all know can be rare.
If I had one complaint about this entire burger it was that the pickles were sweet and not dill. And even at that, I didn’t care because it was just so good. I couldn’t taste much of the mayo on here, I would ask for more next time. The gluten free bun didn’t really have that gluten free taste or texture, it worked really well with everything. I have been craving this burger since I ate it a few days ago.
The burger came with waffle fries, just like the onion rings these were well seasoned and very crispy. If you have any of the ranch left over, you should absolutely dip your fries (and burger!) in it. If you don’t get the onion rings, ask for a side of it!
Dessert here was another top notch option. The Apple Tart Tatin was flavorful, well cooked, and a great texture. The caramelized apples were easy to cut through and had such a nice cinnamon flavor to them. They were on top of a puff pastry and it was decadent. This does come with a blackberry sorbet, ours was a little over frozen and crumbly. I do wish the tart had been warmed prior to eating it, it was more of a just warmer than fridge temp, but it was still very good.
This restaurant is such a great upgrade for this resort. I have never seen this restaurant location so busy. The food here is incredible and I will be recommending everyone I know to try this place.
I did ask on the way out about whether or not they plan on bringing back to mobile order to go that they had when it was The Wave, I was told they are not doing it for at least the first month while they learn the menu and see how busy they are. I hope they eventually add it back because I want to eat all of this again but sit out on the lake!
Review from October 2021.
Price $$$
Ooh this sounds amazing! Great review thank you x