The Real Magic at Disney World? A Fine Dining Scene That Casts Its Own Spell

Victoria & Albert’s

Victoria & Albert’s is the definitive name in Walt Disney World fine dining. It was the first Disney-operated restaurant to earn a Michelin star, and the first theme park restaurant in the United States to receive one, doing so in both 2024 and 2025. The nightly Chef’s Tasting Menu runs nine to eleven courses and starts at $295 per person, with an optional wine pairing beginning at $155. This is a multi-hour, white-tablecloth experience complete with a harpist, precise service, and a finale that arrives in the form of an enormous wooden chest filled with chocolate truffles and bonbons.

If you want a taste of that level without the full splurge, head next door to Citricos, which shares a kitchen with Victoria & Albert’s and offers similarly elevated cuisine. Located in the Grand Floridian Hotel, Citricos serves a la carte menus in both the dining room and the bar.

Monsieur Paul

Paul Bocuse, who led his three Michelin star restaurant in Lyon for more than fifty years, was one of the earliest and most influential global celebrity chefs. Julia Child may have brought nouvelle cuisine into American home kitchens, but Bocuse introduced its lighter, more modern style to American restaurants, and he did it at EPCOT. He debuted Chefs de France with fellow French masters Roger Vergé and Gaston Lenôtre at the park’s 1982 opening, along with Monsieur Paul as the finer dining option upstairs.

Monsieur Paul serves several of Bocuse’s most iconic dishes, including his signature Snapper en écailles de pommes de terre, red snapper with delicate potato scales finished with thyme sauce. You might also catch the kitchen preparing his famed VGE black truffle soup, created in 1975 for French president Valéry Giscard d’Estaing when Bocuse received the Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur. The $195 seven-course degustation menu is one of the strongest values in Disney fine dining, thanks to its three included beverages: a signature Monsieur Paul cocktail, a pear brandy and sorbet Trou Normand, and a digestif served with your final plate of petits fours.

Wine Bar George

Run by Master Sommelier George Miliotes, Wine Bar George in Disney Springs is arguably one of the best wine bars in the country. This Napa-inspired refuge in the middle of theme-park chaos offers 200 wines by the ounce, glass and bottle. Unlike the serve-yourself wine bars where you tap a card and hope for the best, Wine Bar George has a team of sommeliers ready to dive into méthode champenoise, discuss the nuances of Argentine Malbec in Mendoza, or simply pour you a glass of Nebbiolo that drinks well above its price.

It’s just as easy to order an $8 glass of Protocolo Rosé from Vino de la Tierra de Castilla as it is to splurge on a $150 ounce of 2009 Margaux. The food is built for pairing: settle in at the bar with the Big Board, a generous spread of cheese and charcuterie, or opt for a tableside experience with the flaming Saganaki on Fire, followed by the Whole Greek Sea Bass with white bean ragout.

California Grill

Perched atop Disney’s Contemporary Resort, California Grill was the original game changer for fine dining at Walt Disney World. When it opened in 1995, it became the first Disney restaurant to fully embrace seasonality and local sourcing, shifting many skeptical guests’ perceptions of what dining with the mouse could be. The prime view of Magic Kingdom’s fireworks didn’t hurt either.

Three decades later, the restaurant is still packed every night and still leans into its California fusion roots, with Asian elements woven into its steak and seafood dishes. The dining room offers a prix fixe menu with an optional and well-curated wine pairing, while the bar remains open seating with an a la carte menu. Do not miss the cult-favorite braised short rib wontons, served with doenjang miso cola onion sauce, chili crisp and pickled lotus root.

Capa

The Four Seasons Orlando isn’t technically a Walt Disney World hotel, but its proximity and park-adjacent perks, including theme park shuttles and character dining, make it a favorite among luxury travelers. Ravello, its Italian fine dining restaurant, is known for fresh pastas at dinner and its gourmet “Breakfast with Goofy” buffet. The hotel’s crown jewel is Capa, a Spanish-influenced steakhouse on the top level that serves New Basque cuisine. The restaurant earned its fourth consecutive Michelin star in 2025 and has been recognized by the Embassy of Spain as an official “Restaurant of Spain.”

From the parrilla, offerings include Creekstone steaks from Kansas, Ibérico pluma from Spain and A5 Wagyu. The rest of the menu features crudos, including ensalada de cangrejo (crab salad with cantaloupe gazpacho), tapas such as cerdo (beer-brined pork belly with apple butter and pistachio jazz), and small plates like pulpo (paprika-marinated octopus) and tuétano (roasted bone marrow with chistorra gratin and grilled bread). Book a table during Magic Kingdom’s fireworks, which you can check via the Disney app or website, and you’ll be in for a spectacular view.

Takumi-Tei

EPCOT’s most expensive meal may also be its most exquisite. Takumi-Tei, located in the Japan Pavilion of the World Showcase, offers an elevated omakase experience with meticulous execution. Each of the five dining rooms is designed around a natural element such as water, wood or stone.

For $250, diners choose between the kiku (omnivorous) or hasu (vegetarian) pathways through the restaurant’s kaiseki experience, a seven-course progression that varies by day and by the chef’s inspiration. The meal begins with ichiju sansai, inspired by the cha-kaiseki ritual of “four bowls,” followed by sashimi, hassun (small seasonal bites), a warm or chilled intermezzo meant as “a moment to pause,” a main course of Japanese-French fusion, a final savory sushi dish and a “peaceful finish” of seasonal dessert and matcha whisked tableside. A lighter version of the experience with smaller portions is available for $150.

Jiko

Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge, located beside its namesake theme park, offers one of the most immersive stays on Walt Disney World property, thanks to its savanna-style enclosure where giraffes, zebras and wildebeest graze just beyond guest balconies. It is also home to one of Disney’s signature dining standouts: Jiko — The Cooking Place, an African-inspired steakhouse where dishes such as wild boar tenderloin are cooked over a traditional braai grill.

What sets Jiko apart is its exclusively South African wine list, which includes roughly 100 bottles and is said to be the largest selection in the United States, along with a cocktail program built around African spirits like Sango African Agave Spirit, Bayab African Rose Gin, and Amarula.

Topolino’s Terrace

Perched atop Disney’s Riviera Resort, which draws its French-Italian theme from Walt Disney’s travels, Topolino’s Terrace is a rare combination of kid-friendly charm and genuinely elevated dining. By day, bohemian versions of Mickey (or Topolino, as he is known in Italy) and Minnie visit each table for one of Disney’s most polished character meals. By night, the French and Italian menu takes center stage.

Begin with escargot en gougères (snails baked inside airy, cheese-filled pastry bites) or pork belly fazzoletto with handkerchief pasta. Then move on to bouillabaisse, sole meunière or chicken sugo rigatoni with broccolini, pancetta and black truffle. Topolino’s is also one of the few restaurants to showcase the Disney Family of Wine, featuring labels with ties to the company, such as Kurt Russell’s Gogi Vineyards and Skywalker Vineyards, owned by George Lucas.

Bourbon Steak

Michael Mina’s Bourbon Steak expansion has arrived in Orlando with a new outpost of his twenty-year legacy brand, which opened in July 2025 at the Swan & Dolphin Resort (also home to Todd English’s Bluezoo and Josefina Howard’s Rosa Mexicano). It’s the spot for classic fine dining staples such as caviar service and dry-aged steaks, all delivered with Mina’s signature sense of flair.

Expect tableside preparations like tuna tartare with quail egg and habanero sesame oil, along with the theatrical reveal of the hay-smoked tomahawk ribeye.