Tucked away in a corner of Walt Disney World Resort is a dining experience unlike any other. It’s been called not only the best gourmet restaurant on Walt Disney World property but the best one in the entire state of Florida, with high ratings from the Zagat guide and a Five Diamond Award from AAA for the past 16 years. But what’s it really like to dine at Victoria & Albert’s? Here are some things to know about the most exclusive restaurant at Walt Disney World:
1. Guests are taken care of from the beginning
The Victoria & Albert’s experience starts even before a guest even enters the restaurant, which is on the second floor of the Grand Floridian Resort & Spa and is named after Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and her husband, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Because of the restaurant’s popularity and exclusivity, reservations must be made in advance, up to 180 days before a visit. And when guests call to reserve, they’ll be told about the restaurant’s unique dining arrangements. There are three seating areas: the Main Dining Room, which seats 20 guests and has two seatings per night with a choice of a seven-course or a ten-course meal; Queen Victoria’s Room, which seats eight people for a 10-course meal; and the Chef’s Table, which is the most hard-to-get reservation, as it’s just one table for one seating per night for up to 10 guests. This meal features 10 to 13 courses.
A few days before your Victoria & Albert’s dinner, guests with reservations will receive a call from the restaurant to discuss any food restrictions that they might have. They’ll be asked whether these restrictions are allergies or simply dislikes, as individual preferences will be kept in mind by the chef as he prepares each meal.
2. When the big night arrives…
On the evening of dinner, guests will be given free valet parking at the Grand Floridian, and will be able to wait for a table in the area that’s shared with Citricos next door. When it’s time for dinner, guests will head down a hallway lined with striped wallpaper and old Florida maps, entering Victoria & Albert’s to the sound of live harp music and not much else ( no children under 10 are allowed, so noise is typically kept to a minimum). Guests are then attended to by two servers who are dressed in pale blue tails or puffy sleeves and long skirts (guests must dress the part too — the restaurant’s dress code calls for men to wear a jacket and dress pants, with an optional tie, and women to wear a nice dress or pants).
3. Your order, please…
Even the water order is fancy at Victoria and Albert’s. Guests will be asked if they would like sparkling or tap water, or if they’d like to see a menu of waters from around the world. Guests will then make their other drink orders. Victoria & Albert’s offers wine pairings for an additional fee, and also has non-alcoholic drinks such as pomegranate lemonade.
When guests receive their menus (which change daily), a server will go over them. Guests without food restrictions, will have at least two choices for each course.
The first course is an amuse bouche, and previous versions of this small tasting have included lobster with caviar, rock shrimp and butternut squash puree with beef tenderloin. Other courses include dishes such as seared Maine diver scallop with roasted cauliflower, Virginia black bass with petite French lentils and roasted carrots, and Australian Kobe-style beef tenderloin with Bordelaise sauce. Before dessert, you’re usually given a choice of a cheese selection or gelato, then you end your meal with a choice of treats including Tanzanian chocolate mousse with orange-scented milk chocolate gelato, caramelized banana gâteau or Hawaiian Kona chocolate soufflé. The dishes are presented with flair too, such as Niman Ranch lamb inside a smoke-filled bell jar and fennel-crusted diver scallop on a bed of salt. Even the bread throughout the meal is delivered with herbed butter and six different types of salt.
If guests dine in the Main Dining Room, their courses are brought to the table by a server, and in Queen Victoria’s Room, they’re finished tableside in the French gueridon style of service near a cozy fireplace. And if a guest is lucky enough to snag the Chef’s Table, they’ll be treated to a champagne toast followed by a wide variety of dishes that can be paired with wine and spirits. Of course, they’ll also be in the middle of all of the action too, and its important to note that guests are not allowed to leave the kitchen to go to the restroom without an escort, due to the safety issues involved with sitting in a live kitchen.
And speaking of restrooms, the restaurant’s elegance extends there, too. The stalls are more like tiny rooms, and each one has its own sink inside. You won’t dry your hands with paper towels but with washcloths that you’ll deposit in a wicker basket. That basket features a lining with a very subtle print of silhouettes of Mickey and Pluto — the only hints of Disney characters that you’ll find in the entire restaurant.
Other special touches during the meal include trolley service, butter that’s carved at each individual table and even a special way of making coffee: the brew is prepared at the table in a Cona Coffee Maker, an all-glass creation engineered in Germany that features a flame under a bowl of water that’s topped with a bowl of coffee grounds. After the water is boiled, the server puts out the flame and through vacuum pressurization, the coffee streams into the bowl of water.
4. A lasting impression
As you might expect, such a fine meal with elegant service doesn’t come cheap.The seven-course meal costs $150, or $250 with wine pairings, and the ten-course option is $235, or $340 with wine pairings, in the Main Dining Room. In Queen Victoria’s Room, the meal is also $235 or $340 with wine, and the Chef’s Table meal costs $250, or $355 with wine parings. Some of the menu choices also come with an upcharge.
But in an effort to ease the sting, the restaurant gives guests a printed, personalized menu as a souvenir of their visit, along with another treat such as a loaf of date nut bread or a selection of chocolates that the server will wrap up for each guest. Ladies also receive a long-stemmed red rose that has had its thorns removed.
Victoria & Albert’s isn’t a place where most people could dine frequently, but it’s certainly worth a visit for a special occasion or a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Many guests who have been lucky enough to dine at the restaurant say the meals eaten here are worth every penny.
