Be Our Guest remains one of the most sought-after dining reservations at Disney World, due in large part to its beautiful dining rooms. In this review of breakfast at Be Our Guest restaurant, we’ll discuss reservations, check-in, service, food, and—of course—the beauty of Belle and Beast’s castle. Read on to learn all about breakfast at Be Our Guest!
Be Our Guest Basics
Be Our Guest is a quick service restaurant for breakfast and lunch but reservations are still taken and highly recommended for those meals. For dinner, the restaurant is table service (and includes a Beast character appearance, but the meal is not a true character dining experience), and reservations are essentially required. Beast is not present at breakfast or lunch.
You can read about other quick service restaurants at Magic Kingdom, but for breakfast Be Our Guest is going to be the go-to quick service option.
Be Our Guest is located inside the New Fantasyland section of Magic Kingdom, in the back of the park near Under the Sea ~ Journey of the Little Mermaid and Gaston’s Tavern.
Reservation
As is my custom, I don’t really start thinking about meals until about three to five days before my trip—well less than the 180 days in advance that I (and every other blogger) recommend you log onto the Disney World dining website to book your advance dining reservations.
We don’t typically eat breakfast during our Disney trips. Most of the time I’m visiting, my mornings are consumed by rope drop, and it’s tough to get a breakfast in before an early arrival at the park.
Since I’m trying to be a bit more adventurous moving forward, I booked a 9:50AM breakfast reservation four days in advance during one of the busiest weeks of the year. Lucky? Sure. But you won’t be lucky if you never try!
Be Our Guest Breakfast Times, Rope Drop, and Park Touring
This section is a bit of a diversion to discuss picking your reservation time to work with your Magic Kingdom rope drop strategy. I personally think it’s really important, but if you’re just here to see pretty photos and read about food…well honestly you’re probably on the wrong site to begin with, but skip down to “Arrival and Check In.”
Mid-Morning Reservations
Our 9:50AM reservation for an 8AM open meant we’d have a solid 90+ minutes for rope drop at Magic Kingdom. Since most of our Magic Kingdom days involve a coffee break around 10AM, I’m happy to set aside some time for breakfast instead.
I don’t love giving (about) an hour of park time to a meal, but especially on longer days it’s not a huge loss at this point, and you’re probably due for a rest after 90 minutes of rushing between rides.
Pre-Open Reservations
Alternatively, you might book breakfast well before the park opens. This might give you an advantage at getting on your first ride of the day, but you’ll have to eat quickly and hope your meal generally proceeds quickly.
I’ve never personally tried the Be Our Guest breakfast + rope drop strategy, but I’m familiar enough with it to give you an overview and my thoughts (you can search “be our guest breakfast seven dwarfs mine train” or similar things to find more specific discussions.
Reservations for Be Our Guest typically begin one hour before the park opens to other guests. For a 9AM open, if you had an 8AM reservation, you’d be let in the park around 7:45AM and make your way to the restaurant.
At that point, you’d have just under an hour to get through your meal and then walk over to Seven Dwarfs Mine Train or Peter Pan’s Flight. Those are really the only two rides this strategy will work for that are worth visiting to start your day.
Then you’ll be held, either outside the ride or somewhere in the queue, until the park opens. And typically you’ll either be given priority ahead of the guests being escorted from the hub for rope drop or you’ll merge with them at some point that you wind up with pretty good position.
There are some obvious advantages to this strategy. You aren’t wasting park time since breakfast is before the park opens. You don’t have to endure the stress of rope drop. And you (typically) get a good spot on your first ride.
The downside is just the risks. There’s the risk your meal doesn’t go as quickly as your hoped and you wind up late for the ride, facing a 60+ minute wait instead of a 5-minute wait.
And there’s the risk Disney changes procedures on this before you visit. At any day they could decide that breakfast guests don’t get any sort of priority, and that would be a real bummer if you were counting on this strategy for a ride.
Altogether, I call this strategy a wash. I think the benefits are clear and respectable, and the risks are relatively small. Personally, I enjoy my morning time on Main Street USA before the park opens, and I’ve never had a problem with rope drop. I also usually don’t eat breakfast at all, though.
Meals at Park Open
From a park touring / rides perspective, a reservation that has you eating when the park opens should be your last choice. Literally all you’re doing in that situation is swapping a handful of rides you could walk right onto at open for 30 to 75 minute waits (if you’re lucky) later in the day.
If nothing else, a reservation about 15 minutes into the day would allow you a quick visit to one ride at rope drop. Given my strong preference for smooth days filled with rides, I’d never book a breakfast that risked me missing rope drop. If you do, just know you’re probably sacrificing a few short ride waits.
Arrival and Check-In
You’ll read a lot of different reports about the exact procedures used for the quick service meals at Be Our Guest. Sometimes you’re seated, sometimes you have to find your own table.
Sometimes you order via self-service touch screen, sometimes you’ll order from a person at a register. It’s a busy place, so it isn’t surprising procedures vary slightly.
The one thing to be aware of from the moment you approach the restaurant is that while you don’t want to hold up the line, you need to be sure to take a second to appreciate the details as you pass by them.
As we’ll discuss later, most of what you’re paying for (and the reason you woke up early 180 days ago to make the reservation) is the chance to be up close to and inside this building. If you don’t take a second to appreciate the details, you’re wasting your visit.
We approached a Cast Member at the entrance and she scanned my Magic Band to look up our reservation. We told her we were not on the dining plan, and she put us in a line for a register operated by a Cast Member. As I said, there are also self-service screens, but I guess we weren’t cool enough to use those.
Not being tied to the Disney dining plan, we were able to order whatever our hearts desired. We both went with the Le Fou Festin (a plant-based option) and I got a Mimosa. Coffee was included with both entrees. We paid at the register, were given a receipt, and were directed to go take any available table.
I took that shot at the dining plan, but Be Our Guest breakfast is admittedly a good use of a quick service credit. By my calculations, a quick service credit is worth about $22. Breakfast at Be Our Guest costs $29, so you’re getting good value.
Be Our Guest Seating
During the breakfast and lunch periods—when the restaurant is quick service—I’ve heard of guests occasionally being seated, but we were left to our own hunt for a table.
I took us a few minutes to find a table, which frankly I quite like. Granted, we’re just two young adults, so we can hunt for a table without a child in tote or grandpa having to deftly navigate the narrow space between chairs. But I appreciate that the restaurant is operating at capacity.
There are three dining rooms at Be Our Guest. All three rooms are worth visiting, regardless of where you sit. We visited during Christmas season at Disney World, so you’ll see some extra holiday decorations in some of the photos. We’ll describe the dining rooms first, then you can tap through the gallery of photos.
The main room is the Grand Ballroom. It’s huge, with beautiful decor and animated windows displaying falling snow against a nighttime backdrop.
To the left/west is the West Wing, which is both actually dark and dark in tone. You’ll find a torn portrait of Beast and the cursed rose. I was a little disappointed in the quality of the rose, which isn’t even three-dimensional.
To the right/east is the gallery. Here you’ll find beautiful paintings of the characters, along with a rotating figurine of Beast and Belle dancing in the center of the room. (Use the arrows on either side to tap through the photos.)
Be Our Guest Breakfast Service and Food
Unlike a typical counter service meal, you don’t have to pick up your food. It will be brought to your table. About 15 minutes after ordering, our food was brought to us.
In the past, I know they used Magic Bands to match food to your table. I’m not positive that they still do this (thought I’m not sure how else they would), but I left my band behind anyways as I took photos.
For the quick service meal, the extent of service is being brought your food and having your table cleaned after you leave. You’ll self-serve beverages at stations throughout the restaurant.
We were given the choice of the plant-based pastries or the standard option, and during our indecision the Cast Member just decided to give us both. Here are some food photos:
I don’t typically review restaurants because I’m not a foodie…or even remotely interested in food…and because I’m a vegetarian so who cares about my bacon-free breakfast review.
But I’m hardly the first person to say I was disappointed with the food at Be Our Guest. Truth be told, I much preferred the standard breakfast I got a few days later as part of Magic Kingdom Early Morning Magic.
The menu is mostly standard fare, so most of it is hard to mess up. I’m sure the fairly limited selection will disappoint people hoping for more ambitious creations in this famed spot.
As for LeFou’s Festin, it just didn’t check any boxes for me. The plant-based scrambled eggs were more like mashed potatoes than eggs (because…you know…they’re plant based), and the plant-based meats were what you’d find in any “Meat Alternative” aisle at Whole Foods.
The pastries—regular and plant-based—were delicious. For $29 per person I was happy with the quantity of food, and of course you’re paying a premium just to experience the restaurant.
Conclusions
Adult breakfast at Be Our Guest costs $29+tax and includes a beverage. A quick service breakfast with a side pastry and coffee at Everything Pop (the cafeteria at Pop Century) costs $19.77+tax. So you’re basically paying a $10 per person premium for the meal at Be Our Guest.
Altogether, that’s not so bad. You’re probably getting more food than you’d get at the standard quick service meal, though I’m not willing to concede the quality is notably better.
But you’re also getting breakfast inside the park and access to one of the best spaces in Magic Kingdom. On the one hand, it’s still to pay a premium to access a beautiful space inside one of the most beautiful parks on the planet. On the other, I’ve never heard someone be disappointed with the experience as a whole (I’m sure tripadvisor can show you a scathing one-star review if you want one).
As a regular guest, Be Our Guest is probably on my once-every-few-years list. If you’re planning a once-in-a-long-time trip, Be Our Guest is a good option for breakfast in Magic Kingdom. It lacks the characters and table service qualities that make some of your other options special, but it’s a standard meal in a beautiful space.
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