When planning our visit to Disneyland Paris we wanted to carefully select the best dining options at restaurants that would be unique to this park. One place quickly rose to the top of our list: Walt’s - An American Restaurant. Andrew is a huge fan of Walt Disney history and when we heard this was the theme of the restaurant, and also that is was one of the higher-end options available on our Premium dining plan we really wanted to check it out. Walt’s had just gone through a refurb but opened the week we were visiting so we were lucky enough to snag a time for lunch. Did this restaurant live up to the hype? Read on to find out what we thought…
Overview
Walt’s is located inside the Disneyland Parc, right in the middle of Main Street. The entrance is on the street level but the dining rooms are upstairs with a view of the park below. Being able to dine overlooking Main Street was a huge draw for us. We also figured Walt’s would be a much better spot for an adult lunch as opposed to a character meal elsewhere.
The restaurant is a Victorian-style tribute to the life and work of Walt Disney that serves sophisticated and contemporary American cuisine with European influences. In other words, they take traditional American comfort food and add a fancy European flare to them. Walt’s is one of the higher priced sit down options but is popular, so we highly recommend making a reservation if you wish to dine here.
Sitting in the Main Street level lobby.
A statue of Walt.
The staircase leading up to the dining rooms.
A favorite photo of ours.
There is so much cool history to check out at Walt’s.
Atmosphere
The restaurant entrance is located right next to Lilly’s Boutique, marked by a small marquee sign up top. The overall look is old fashioned and fits right in on Main Street. The main lobby entrance is where you check in and the room includes photos, statues, and other memorabilia to explore all related to Walt Disney. As you ascend the steps, you can view many framed images of Walt and his work. The upstairs is split up into six different dining rooms. While all feel very opulent, fans will notice that each room is themed to represent a different land within the park:
Fantasyland - A gothic-style room that presents an early vision of Fantasyland. The room is adorned with paintings, concept art and sculptures of European tales, such as Sleeping Beauty, Pinocchio and Alice in Wonderland
Adventureland - Oriental in style, this room features sketches of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride by Imagineer Marc Davis
Discoveryland - To underline Jules Verne’s strong influence on Discoveryland, this room displays a huge collection of illustrations from his many books. There's even a fireplace ornamented with a golden model of the Nautilus.
Disneyland Hotel - A smaller room featuring sketches which inspired the architecture of Disneyland Hotel.
Grand Canyon - Adjacent to the main Frontierland room, this quiet space displays drawings of the Grand Canyon as seen from the Disneyland Railroad attraction
Frontierland - Big Thunder Mountain, Phantom Manor and Thunder Mesa Riverboats dominate this library-like room themed after the haunted town of Thunder Mesa
We were sat in the Fantasyland room which was very pretty and regal feeling. The restaurant didn’t seem full, so we were a bit bummed to be sat at a small two top table off against a wall instead of close to a window like we had envisioned. The dining room was quiet and peaceful and did have an upscale feel, perfect to relax away from the parks.
We loved the Jules Verne theming in the Discoveryland room.
The Frontierland room felt much like a library.
The Fantasyland room had patterns containing animals and florals.
You could find Moroccan lamps in the Adventureland room.
The Food
One of the reasons we upgraded to a Premium meal plan was to have access to restaurants such as Walt’s. There is a special page in the menu labeled for the Premium plan listing choices of appetizer, entree, and dessert. We started off by each ordering our included non alcoholic beverage: a Fuze tea for Andrew, and a Shirley Temple for Julie. Our server also brought over some bread service, which did happen to be one of the least memorable breads during the trip unfortunately.
Here is also where our meal took a somewhat frustrating turn. The item that Andrew had seen on the online menu leading up to the trip was now no longer on the menu, and the other choices didn’t sound that great. He decided to order something off a different page in the menu. The thing we soon learned is once you do this it completely messes up the meal plan. Instead of simply paying the 8-10 euro difference from one entree to another, the entire prix fixe value is split up. Not only do you have to pay full price for the appetizer, meal, and dessert, but you also have to pay for your beverage that should have been included. So all of the sudden your 52 euro meal becomes 90 euro and you have to pay the difference. This system seems bonkers to us and is certainly frustrating.
The cover of the menu.
Our drinks and bread service.
The menu even featured lots of cool photography and history tidbits.
Starter: Waldorf salad € 17.99
with romain lettuce, blue cheese vinaigrette, grapes, walnuts, peanuts, apples and croutons
Julie ordered this and loved it. The nuts, fruit, and dressing all went together well, and the size was a great portion too!
Starter: Cream of sweet corn and smoked duck soup € 18.99
with Sorghum “popcorn”
Andrew ordered this unusual dish. He found the soup really good even though not a fan of duck. The sorghum was a unique touch for texture but didn’t add to the taste really. While it was good and fun to try, but not something he would go out of his way to order again.
Entree: Free-range “Label Rouge” chicken breast € 39.99
with Thanksgiving stuffing, sweet potato mash and giblet gravy
Julie ordered this dish inspired by a traditional American thanksgiving and the presentation was awesome! The meal was good, but to be honest it was pretty standard and nothing really outstanding. The portion was somewhat small, which was ok since the salad had been so big. The stuffing dried out the chicken and it didn’t even compare to a simple grocery store rotisserie chicken. The sides however were excellent.
Entree: Grilled beef tenderloin € 49.99
with Thelma potato, crunchy vegetables and red wine sauce.
Once again the presentation was pretty cool, but the meal was pretty standard and not on par with a high end dining experience. At first the steak was overcooked but our server was quick to send it back and was cooked just right the second time. The sauce was very good, but the side dish was like a weird potato salad. Overall disappointing since there was such a huge price difference by choosing this entree.
Dessert: Sponge Cake € 15.99
with rum, seasonal fruits with orgeat syrup
While we were expecting more of a rum cake based on the description, this one ended up being more of a dry plain cake which was just ok. However the cream and the berries were outstanding, aren’t they pretty looking too?
Since Andrew was paying ala carte prices he decided to skip dessert. Our server felt bad about his initial steak experience and brought him out a complimentary espresso which was very nice of him, even though Andrew isn’t a fan of Espresso. :)
Service
Our server, Salvatore, was fantastic! We found out that he had previously spent time working in the Italy Pavilion at Epcot, and was scheduled to head back to Florida sometime next year. He really knew the menu and was able to answer any questions we had. He was prompt and handled the steak situation well. He was one of our favorite servers of the trip.
Final Thoughts
Unfortunately, Walt’s did not quite turn out to be the special experience we were hoping for. We thought this would be a favorite, but ended up ranking at the bottom of our list (which we are still glad to have done this, than depending on quick service). While the venue was pretty and had special history we were bummed to not have a window view. Some of the food was good, but the majority was just ok, and did not warrant the high price tags. The debacle with paying almost double for Andrew’s meal was frustrating. However we had great service. We have a hunch that Walt’s probably has an exclusive feel similar to Club 33 in Disneyland (not that we have been to compare), so it is very cool to see. If you are most likely never going to make it into the secret club, Walt’s could be the next closet thing to check off the list. We were glad we were able to check it out and see all of the fun Walt theming, and would have been bummed to not have gone. But unfortunately when weighing our overall experience we wouldn’t go back, it’s certainly a one and done. We suggest if you want to enjoy the nostalgia and theming go for it! But just know that you may be paying a lot for some basic comfort food with some weird twists. We hope that maybe Walt’s will maybe improve one day, as it really has the opportunity to be an amazing experience.
