Steakhouse 71 Review

Steakhouse 71 Review

Walt Disney World is home to some great restaurants. Being a pack your lunch family for park days while growing up, we never ate at these restaurants. I didn’t realize how many I missed until I actually started dining out there. There were some incredibly themed, and some very good meals just hiding under my nose while I ate a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or ate at Cosmic Ray’s for a cheeseburger. The restaurant that really changed my view on Disney restaurants was the Grand Floridian Café. It was our first table service restaurant other than the Sci-Fi dine-in restaurant at Hollywood Studios. It was fantastic for years, but soon, it started taking away items off the menu. Sad to see, but that is the story of Disney World restaurants.

This brings me to Steakhouse 71. I just ate here on February 6^th as a special occasion restaurant, and I was so excited to dine. We had been four times previously and each time was excellent. I am sad to report that this restaurant has entered the Disney dark times. The steaks were fantastic the last four times we came here. It was tender, flavorful and came with chimichurri sauce that was always great. To pair with this steak, they had tremendous mac & cheese that was creamy, with breadcrumbs on top. All of it was delicious. After trying the steak frites, and the New York Strip, my favorite cut, I decided to try the pork chop. I don’t have the words to describe how good this pork chop was. It was my go-to order the next two times.

The chimichurri sauce got taken off the menu. Annoying, but this is just the way it goes. I debated going back to the steak, but I couldn’t pass up the pork chop. I was glad I did.

The mac & cheese that came out was just slightly different than the usual kind. It wasn’t nearly as good. The New York Strip looked and tasted exactly like a cruise ship steak. It was heavily seasoned and thin. It was cooked correctly, but with the amount of seasoning it had was playing cover up to a crappy steak being served. The pork chop was no longer incredible either. It was very good, but just not something I would go out of my way for.

There were also no empty tables in the restaurant. We only got entrees and this meal was over an hour and a half with an hour of waiting on our food. An extreme difference than the other times we went when there was plenty of availability at the restaurant. Not sure if they were making their numbers needed so they were able to cut down the quality to increase profits but the difference in crowd levels and quality of food was EVIDENT.  

This used to be my favorite restaurant on property. I loved the proximity to the Magic Kingdom, access to the walkway. My girlfriend even ate breakfast there after she waved to me during my marathon. We loved this place. The pricing wasn’t outrageous either according to Disney standards of the 30% Magic tax. The Grand Floridian Café also went into this dark period, and I haven’t been back in a year or two.

I wish I could come on here and tell you to go eat at this gem, but after my most recent meal, it might be best to spend your money elsewhere.