Disney’s Plaza Restaurant Breakfast Review at Magic Kingdom

Plaza Restaurant began serving breakfast with seatings from 8am through 10:30am on Sunday November 4th, 2018. The Plaza is currently scheduled to continue breakfast service through March 2nd, 2019, though you’d expect that the most important meal of the day would continue to be served after that if it proves successful. You’re probably familiar with the restaurant that sits at the end of Main Street on the Tomorrowland side across from Casey’s Corner for its relatively-inexpensive sandwich fare that continues to be offered from 11am onward. You can pull up my most recent lunch/dinner review from earlier this year, here. You can check out the official word and search for reservations on Disney’s official site, here.

The current lunch/dinner menu is virtually identical to what we saw earlier this year, though prices are up one to two dollars since the most recent price increases in early October.

Here’s the current menu:

The full menu is available here.

I’m not sure how many people have committed to experiencing a meal at Plaza and now find themselves trying to decide whether they want to change their original lunch or dinner reservation/plans to breakfast, but I’m guessing that it’s relatively few. Plaza remains one of the least expensive restaurants on property with its average lunch/dinner entree price around $18.58. Service is typically fast and food is typically good, though we’re decidedly in no-fuss territory with the various sandwiches and burgers, in addition to a couple of heavier, more expensive items like the Meatloaf and Brisket Mac & Cheese.

Exactly six entrees comprise the Plaza’s breakfast menu, ranging in price from $14 to $18 with the average right around $15.83. While it’s far from an overwhelming number of selections, I thought there was a nice variety of options, whether you want to go with the Classic Mickey Waffles with your usual accompaniments or spice things up a little bit with the Lobster-Fried Green Tomato Eggs Benedict. The Create-Your-Own Omelet, on the low end of the price spectrum, offers some control with a number of choices. There are a couple of omissions: Plaza doesn’t serve pancakes or French toast and at least as far as the printed menu is concerned, I don’t see an opportunity to substitute egg whites in the omelet or on the side of most of the entrees. On the other hand, we’ve got Mickey Waffles topped with Powdered Sugar and Mickey Sprinkles, so things are decidedly in not-so-bad territory.

As we know from our extensive Magic Kingdom rope drop coverage, Disney lets all guests enter the Park around 7:45am with a regular 8am or 9am open. So an early breakfast reservation at the Plaza doesn’t offer any touring advantage because everyone else that’s also there will have access to the same areas inside the Park. And depending on where you’re headed after breakfast, an early reservation may hinder your ability to make it to something like Seven Dwarfs Mine Train if you’re still eating breakfast at 8:45am, or worse, 9:15am.

For that reason, I’d first consider a late breakfast around 10:15am, particularly with a regular 8am open or an 8am (or earlier) Morning Extra Magic Hour. After 2+ hours of touring, you’re probably going to be pretty hungry, particularly if you’re up at 6am, on a Disney bus headed to the Park by 7am, and running around Magic Kingdom from 7:45am through 10am. If your first stop of the morning is a lesser priority, which includes things like Big Thunder Mountain and Princess Fairytale Hall, then you could certainly enjoy a relaxing breakfast to start your day. Our breakfast took just under an hour on the first day of service and we were in absolutely no hurry whatsoever. I’d plan on your breakfast taking between 45 and 60 minutes, though you could speed things up if you’re ready to order when you’re seated or take a little longer if you eat each Mickey sprinkle individually. No judgment either way.

At Magic Kingdom, you’ve got a couple of other sit-down options, including the Crystal Palace character meal, which will set you back $38 for guests ages 10+ and $23 for kids under the age of ten. You can pull up my most recent Crystal Palace review, which includes a look at breakfast, lunch, and dinner, here.

Of course, Plaza and Crystal Palace are completely different experiences; Crystal Palace is both an all-you-care-to-enjoy buffet and a character meal featuring Winnie the Pooh, Eeyore, Piglet, and Tigger greeting tableside. But Plaza is considerably less expensive with an entree and fountain beverage averaging about $20, or roughly 52.6% less money than an adult Crystal Palace breakfast. Eeyore’s expression, as he traipses by behind the topiary, is the same look I have on my face when I receive the bill here.

Cinderella’s Royal Table is even more different from Plaza than Crystal Palace – you’ve got the princesses, a pastry plate, and choice of entree with the gratuity (but not tax) factored into the price above, since it’s a mandatory 18%. Plus the whole eating-inside-the Castle-thing. But it’s another option if you’re trying to decide where to eat breakfast inside the Park.

Be Our Guest Restaurant is the most similar in cost to Plaza with the $28 price covering the entree selection, pastry plate, and non-alcoholic beverage.

You can pull up my most recent review of the Be Our Guest breakfast experience here, but above is what $28 worth looks like in the Scrambled Egg Whites.

Of course, the big advantage to Be Our Guest breakfast is the ability to eat quickly and be outside the restaurant by 8:50am to be among the first to arrive at Seven Dwarfs Mine Train with much less effort than you’d put into trying to rope drop Magic Kingdom’s most popular attraction from in front of Cinderella Castle.

Finally, back on Main Street, you’ve also got the Starbucks offering breakfast sandwiches for about $7 each, in addition to a number of pastries and other items.

With your other options out of the way, let’s see how Plaza breakfast stacks up.

In addition to the six adult entrees, there’s three Kids’ Meals offered, including smaller portions of the Mickey Waffles and Classic Breakfast, in addition to the Cereal. Four sides are also available; if you’re looking to cut costs a bit, two adults can probably get away with sharing an entree and potentially a side given the large portion sizes that we’ll see momentarily. (I promise.)

Since this is Magic Kingdom, of course alcoholic beverages are available for breakfast, including a Peach Bellini, Plaza’s Mimosa, and a Sangria that I would bet money on is actually Beso Del Sol. A couple of Smoothies and Cold Brew Joffrey’s Coffee are available, in addition to your usual selection of fountain drinks, juices, and coffee.

If you’re wondering if you can order a 16-ounce Cigar City Jai Alai at 8am then I can confirm that you can indeed. Don’t ask me how I know that.

Typically, I recommend staying away from Magic Kingdom’s sparkling wine cocktails, in favor of a beer or glass of wine, as they’re typically an exercise in juice consumption. For most people, a 16-ounce Blue Moon is probably not in the cards at 9:30am, so my advice would be to skip the $11 “Plaza’s Mimosa – Sparkling Wine and Guava-Passion, Orange, Pineapple Juice.” Yes, it is POG juice mixed with sparkling wine, but you’re looking at a drink that’s at least 60% juice, which makes it awfully expensive given the eleven dollar price tag. You can get a Dark and Tropical Stormy at Trader Sam’s Grog Grotto for less than that. It’s fine if you’re headed in that direction anyway – there might be something fun about enjoying a mimosa to start the day inside Magic Kingdom.

The $10 “Peach Bellini – Canella Prosecco and Peach Juice” is a little better with the effervescence of a pretty decent bottle of bubbly showing through past the fresh peach juice, which complements the crisp acidity of the wine nicely. It’s my pick from the cocktail/wine/beer menu.

I was almost blown away by the high quality of the food that Plaza was serving for breakfast, starting here with the $18 “Steak & Eggs – 10-ounce Strip Steak with Two Scrambled Eggs served with Breakfast Potatoes and Buttermilk Biscuit.”

This is a ton of food.

The Steak was as large as what Be Our Guest Restaurant served for $36 before it switched over to the $60/person fixed price menu; and the steaks may be identical.

Medium is the temperature I requested and it arrived right around that – maybe just slightly over with a nice pink center. A thin layer of fat wrapped itself around one side, which would be easy to cut off and discard if you’d like. That’s what I usually do, but I actually thought it was rendered nicely with a little bit of a crispy quality that added a lot of flavor to the tender, nicely-seasoned beef. The quality of the meat is your standard grocery store strip that would run you around $9/pound, but it was prepared nicely and there was a ton of it.

I thought it was more flavorful than the steak served at the Bon Voyage Breakfast at the BoardWalk.

Perhaps the best comparison would be to the Grand Floridian Cafe’s $20 “Steak and Eggs – Sirloin Steak, Cheesy-Hash Brown Casserole and Two Eggs-Any Style.” Plaza’s steak is significantly larger and in my opinion, tastier, which is all good news.

With the exception of the Mickey Waffles, all of the entrees are served with the same Breakfast Potatoes. It was a nice assortment of crispy potatoes mixed with a little bit of onion and pepper and a surprising amount of thick cut ham, which added a meaty, salty flavor to the mixture. This is still easywdw.com, so I would say that the potatoes could have been a little hotter and fresher out of the pan, but it was certainly a good effort for the first day. Finally, the biscuit enjoyed a nice fluffy density, perfectly flaky with plenty of buttermilk and a hint of herbs. Usually I’m looking for a jam or spread of some variety when it comes to biscuits, but the pull-apart quality of Plaza’s offering made these delicious on their own. Quite surprising.

We would certainly be remiss to skip over the $14 “Mickey Waffles – Three Mickey Waffles topped with Powdered Sugar and Mickey Sprinkles on a spread of tasty Banana Pastry served with Bacon, Sausage, and a side of Fruit.”

The Trio of Waffles, here with just the bowl of fruit in focus as far as I can tell, is presented nicely with a dusting of the sweet powdered sugar and the fun addition of the sprinkles, which add a bit of a crunch to the crispy, pillow-y waffles that so many of us love.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from the “Banana Pastry” and the menu’s insistence that it would arrive “tasty” made me all the more nervous. What you get is basically the filling from a tasty (yes, I said it) banana cream pie, almost like a rich custard with the sweet flavors of vanilla and whipped cream. I’m not sure how I would describe the banana component. To call it “candy banana” would be a disservice – it’s nothing like a Banana Runt or Banana Laffy Taffy. But the pastry enjoyed a really bright, natural flavor and was absolutely delicious. Don’t be wary if you’re typically banana-adverse, but you could ask for the cream on the side and the dish is served with maple syrup by default if you’d prefer to go in a more “traditional” direction. Fantastic as is, though.

It was nice to see a bowl of fruit that wasn’t full of mushy cantaloupe, honeydew, and watermelon. Instead, we’ve got plump, juicy blueberries and ripe strawberries.

The $16 “All-American Classic Platter Platter – Two Mickey Waffles, Scrambled Eggs, Breakfast Potatoes, Sausage, Bacon, and Buttermilk Biscuit” is a collection of items that we’ve seen previously. The Scrambled Eggs were the weakest component of any of the dishes, in my opinion. They took me right back to the day after Thanksgiving, 1995 – the last time I had a “Big Breakfast” from McDonald’s. There wasn’t a lot of flavor and the slimy layers of egg seemed to expand the longer they sat on the plate. Salt and pepper went a long way, but it wouldn’t surprise me if these were powder at some point in their life.

Two standard Mickey Waffles are served au natural here with a side of syrup. The Sausage and the Bacon are similarly standard – there’s a little bit of spice to the sausage and the bacon isn’t as crispy or as flavorful as you’d probably like. Overall, the plate does the job, particularly if carbs are what you’re after, but it plays things as safe as it gets. And sometimes, that’s okay.

On the opposite end of that spectrum, we’ve got the $18 “Lobster-Fried Green Tomato Eggs Benedict – Two-poached Eggs with Lobster served on top of a Crispy-fried Green Tomato with Hollandaise Sauce served with Breakfast Potatoes.”

The Fried Green Tomatoes in place of the usual English Muffin add a nice southern twang from the start and the juicy tomatoes wrapped up in a nice crispy coating do an admirable job of soaking up the deliciously rich flavors of the Hollandaise Sauce without burdening the dish with the usual dry, flavorless muffin bottom. If you think about it, nobody is really picking up Eggs Benedict, so there’s a whole lot of different things you could put underneath the poached eggs and whatever other ingredients you want to use.

More surprising than the deft execution – the eggs were poached perfectly, silky and tender and somehow encapsulating the liquid yolk all the way from the kitchen – was the amount of lobster present. These things were stuffed with so much lobster that the meat is actively propping up the egg even further off the tomatoes.

These were easily the best Eggs Benedict that I’ve enjoyed on property.

Better than California Grill, the brunch that will now set you back a cool 90 bucks per person. While I love brunch up there, the entrees have always been the weakest link.

The Lobster Eggs Benedict from Narcoossee’s brunch was good too, but the lump lobster meat at Plaza elevates it over the signature restaurant’s offering.

The Lobster Eggs Benefit from the Grand Floridian Cafe was also good, but you’re looking at $20 worth and the only side is a couple bites of “marinated tomato salad.” I’ll take the Plaza’s Breakfast Potatoes.

Here’s a non-lobster version with the Country Benedict from the Sunday brunch at Homecomin’. It might look the part, but each bite was so dry and so bland.

I could go on…

If you’re unfamiliar with the Plaza, it’s a pleasant, homey, small restaurant with what are described as “Art Nouveau” touches. The setting ends up being far more elegant than the price points and clientele might otherwise suggest. While the solarium straight back takes you away from some of the glamour of the main dining room, I prefer that space because it’s so bright, the views outside are fun, and it’s quieter and a little more intimate.

Overall, our breakfast experience at Plaza Restaurant exceeded any expectations I might have had. It was an incredibly delightful meal with friendly service and fantastic food at surprisingly reasonable prices. While the typical advice might be to start your day at The Wave’s breakfast buffet or with Kona Cafe’s Tonga Toast or something else outside of Magic Kingdom, I think Plaza Restaurant now has to be in that conversation of where you want to eat a sit down breakfast on a Magic Kingdom day. You may still be able to fault the lack of menu variety, but if something on the menu sounds good to everyone in your party, then I think you’ll enjoy the experience just as much, or more, than a resort restaurant. You’ll also benefit from the fact that the entire Magic Kingdom is right outside the door.

As far as comparing Plaza breakfast to the other options at Magic Kingdom, I think Plaza offers the best bang for your buck. Obviously, if you’re looking for a character meal or an advantage to Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, then Plaza is not what you’re looking for this trip, but I hope the option sticks around past March and the restaurant continues to deliver food of this caliber.

Please don’t tell anyone at Disney that it’s this good.