What happened to Be Our Guest?

[Disney for Life]

I remember before the major overhaul of their menu, it's was one of the toughest restaurants to get a reservation. Now, you can practically get any time of day with ease. To me, this doesn't look like a successful change even though most said the food wasn't good there before. I really enjoyed their food, it was a nice place to get off you feet for a while. I have an upcoming trip in September and will not be booking a reservation for Be Our Guest. What do you think, should Disney bring back their old menu and have a packed restaurant like before or keep it the way it is?

 

[snikki]

I’m sure Disney is making more money off a prix fix menu and still having some openings than the whole “ordering a cupcake” for a table of 6 that was going on.

If Disney was losing money they’d change the situation.

 

[Smugpugmug]

Disney swapped the meal to a prix fixe one due to many people ordering one cupcake just to sit in the Beast's castle. Now, they can ensure that each person is paying a set fee to dine there. Unfortunately when they made the swap to prix fixe, the food quality took a massive nosedive and is now one of the worst restaurants in MK.

People will still go just to experience the ambiance of the Beast's castle and the food is an afterthought.

 

[kylenne]

Disney swapped the meal to a prix fixe one due to many people ordering one cupcake just to sit in the Beast's castle. Now, they can ensure that each person is paying a set fee to dine there. Unfortunately when they made the swap to prix fixe, the food quality took a massive nosedive and is now one of the worst restaurants in MK.

People will still go just to experience the ambiance of the Beast's castle and the food is an afterthought.

There was a very very brief window when they first switched to the prix fixe menu that it was still good. We went not long after they did and really enjoyed our meal. But it went off a cliff. My last time there it was very mid for the price and tbh as much as people love to trash Cinderella's Royal Table it was a far superior meal to BOG. Sadly it's off our list, which is a shame because I loved the West Wing.

 

[lukemorenus]

They killed the vibe ... we used to love that place

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

I just think it's gotten absurdly priced and the food has gone down hill. The food when it first opened wasn't amazing but it was pretty solid and had some good options. The food on the newer/price fixed menu are not very good and it's absurdly priced. I have a hard time justifying any meal at WDW for that amount of money and you really don't even get any character interaction, it's not like the beast comes around table to table like they do at other character meals. I'd be spending $280 + tip for my family to eat sub par food. Hard pass on that.

Back before they changed to the new menu, we'd get pre park opening breakfast reservations and hop into PP and 7DMT at RD. Breakfast for 4 of us still was overpriced but at $110, I felt like it was still a better deal than buying PPO morning tickets that came with breakfast since we'd get so many rides in Fantasyland knocked out before 10am.

 

[Anna131517]

The menu has nothing to do with why we won’t go there anymore. We didn’t enjoy breakfast there before COVID but we loved dinner. We went back in 2022 and our experience was a disaster. We waited an hour after our reservation time to be seated. It was so loud that the waiter couldn’t hear us and we couldn’t hear him so he got our orders wrong. When we left I had a migraine and we left the park. I’m not wasting money on that again.

 

[Smugpugmug]

There was a very very brief window when they first switched to the prix fixe menu that it was still good. We went not long after they did and really enjoyed our meal. But it went off a cliff. My last time there it was very mid for the price and tbh as much as people love to trash Cinderella's Royal Table it was a far superior meal to BOG. Sadly it's off our list, which is a shame because I loved the West Wing.

At Cinderella's Royal Table you can meet multiple Princesses AND the atmosphere isn't reminiscent of a high school cafeteria so it has that going for it in comparison to Be Our Guest.

 

[reddog21]

At Cinderella's Royal Table you can meet multiple Princesses AND the atmosphere isn't reminiscent of a high school cafeteria so it has that going for it in comparison to Be Our Guest.

I would love to see your high school cafeteria if it looked like BOG?? Mine definitely did not.

 

[Smugpugmug]

I would love to see your high school cafeteria if it looked like BOG?? Mine definitely did not.

I mean in the sense of how extremely loud it is in the dining halls and how close the tables are together. Last time I ate there I felt like I was sitting with the people at the table next to mine.

 

[_19disnA]

We ate there in the past for lunch under the old menu. Not impressed, average food, very noisy and the atmosphere looked more like a h.s. cafeteria. Overall look seemed dingy and in need of a refresh. Service was a rather strange hodgepodge of QS & TS. No idea what it is that some are so impressed about. I believe a problem in the past when they offered breakfast was that people used it as a way to 'game' the park opening time and get to be near the front of the line for that one popular ride nearby. I think any Disney park restaurant serving breakfast should NOT allow you park access until it opens for every else. That would solve that problem. They no longer serve breakfast at BOG and that pricey fixed menu is likely a big turnoff to a lot of people. Disney's answer to any type of overcrowding is to keep raising prices. We would never eat there again.

It also a long way toward the back of the park to reach BOG with only one ride nearby, so you walk a long way to get there and then have to walk back to get to other areas of the park.

 

[reddog21]

I mean in the sense of how extremely loud it is in the dining halls and how close the tables are together. Last time I ate there I felt like I was sitting with the people at the table next to mine.

Nothing is as bad as Olga's when they decide to sit you at a table with other people you have never met in your life just so they can pack the place full.

 

[Smugpugmug]

Nothing is as bad as Olga's when they decide to sit you at a table with other people you have never met in your life just so they can pack the place full.

That and all of the cocktails being premixed are reasons why I haven't been there yet.

 

[kylenne]

Nothing is as bad as Olga's when they decide to sit you at a table with other people you have never met in your life just so they can pack the place full.

*Oga's is basically a college dive bar in space. If that's not your vibe then yeah you won't like it. It's a very niche sort of experience. We stood at the bar and loved talking to other SW geeks there. It helped that we were bounding.

BOG's atmosphere varies wildly depending on where you're sitting imo. The first time we ate there, just after the prix fixe menu went into effect, we were in the West Wing and it was night and day compared to the second time I ate there during covid and was seated in the ballroom (they were not allowing people to request rooms at the time). The ballroom is the worst because of how cavernous it is and how sound carries, that's where the cafeteria vibe really comes from imo. It's not just that the tables are close together, it's the acoustics amplifying all that sound. The West Wing is smaller and more intimate and has the spooky atmosphere due to the very low lighting and the occasional storms. It's almost like two entirely different restaurants. I also don't like the way the Beast just runs in and out now, there was something much more special about going to have your "audience" with him when you were done eating. It all feels very phoned in now.

 

[sponica]

Nothing is as bad as Olga's when they decide to sit you at a table with other people you have never met in your life just so they can pack the place full.

I'm glad I went to Oga's but uh, it was loud and sticky and we were at a standing table with strangers...just like a college bar

That being said, as far as BOG. When we went in 2022, it was bonkers crowded and not enough staff. Felt like we had to put out a search and rescue team to find our waiter, who had waaaaaaaaaaaaay too many tables. The food was decent-ish?

 

[Pink Pajamas]

The menu has nothing to do with why we won’t go there anymore. We didn’t enjoy breakfast there before COVID but we loved dinner. We went back in 2024 and our experience was a disaster. We waited an hour after our reservation time to be seated. It was so loud that the waiter couldn’t hear us and we couldn’t hear him so he got our orders wrong. When we left I had a migraine and we left the park. I’m not wasting money on that again.

2024? Was there time travel involved?

 

[momo695]

I'm so glad we went before the change. We just can't bring ourselves to pay for that menu when there are cheaper sit down places in MK that we love.

 

[daae3]

Went when it first opened and enjoyed the experience...thought the food was ok...having a dance with the Beast on the way out was awesome...took friends in 2017...pre pre fixe...and no one liked the food...the experience with the Beast had already been shortened....I think he just ran through and growled....we all agreed it was one and done...discussed it for an upcoming trip...but we don’t like being forced to order an appetizer and dessert as well as an entree...none of the options appealed and the price was way too high....

 

[CynBeth]

We seem to be in the minority but we visit every few years have a dinner there every trip the last being Thanksgiving Week 2021 and we have always had good food and service. Either have been in the West Wing or Ballroom and everything has been great. Do not feel the tables are any closer than any other TS we visit.

 

[Her Dotness]

The first few years after BOG opened, we enjoyed lunch there.

Food was really good, we thought, though the service an odd combo of TS and QS. Having to collect your own flatware and fill drinks yourselves was more QS than we cared for, though. That was awkward for DH who uses a powerchair.

Being given the molded rose locator to set on the table so the server with food delivery cart could find you was fun for the novelty.

The one breakfast we had a year or so after that began was dreadful for DH. His open-faced steak sandwich was literally as cold as if they'd put it in the fridge and pulled it out when thoroughly chilled. I didn't believe him at first when he said it was. I tried a bite, and it was actually colder than his fruit. We were refunded a DDP credit for that fiasco and said enough of the breakfast.

Dinner was mostly okay the twice we ate it but had one or two badly prepared items and very slow service both times.

There are some who like BOG and plenty longing to see the place, so it'll get diners no matter the price or quality, imo.