Disney Springs has an extensive lineup of restaurants to appeal to just about every kind of appetite!

Disney Springs has been bustling lately with construction on new restaurants set to open later this year, closing a few beloved shops, and offering some interesting takes on summer flavors of ice cream, so it’s hard not to want to be around such a lively place. With so many great options to choose from to grab a bite while you’re visiting, how do you go about narrowing down your options?

We had those same thoughts and decided to stop in and review a full meal (and then some) at Jaleo by Chef José Andrés. This restaurant can be found in The Westside section of Disney Springs near Splitsville Luxury Lanes, Everglazed Donuts & Cold Brew, and the AMC Dine-In Theater. The closest parking areas to this restaurant are surface parking and the Orange Garage. 

This restaurant is a signature dining experience in Disney Springs, and is the first Florida location for Jaleo. Chef José Andrés also has four other restaurants in the United States. Jaleo’s cuisine features an impressive menu of tapas that highlight traditional and contemporary Spanish cuisine.

Atmosphere

Jaleo’s dining area is filled with bright warm colors and contemporary light fixtures that help evoke an intimate yet lively atmosphere.

As you enter the front doors, you’re greeted by floor-to-ceiling windows letting in copious amounts of natural light and allowing for an opportunity to watch the crowds go by outside. Here you can sit at either curved booths or rectangular tables.

There is a small area of wine cups, bottles, and other merchandise for purchase.

As you keep walking you’ll find the host station where you can check in for your reservation or inquire about walk-up availability. There’s also a second floor to the dining room — both the upstairs and downstairs have a decent view overlooking the waterway that separates Disney Springs from Saratoga Springs resort.

As we walked to our table, we passed by the open kitchen where you can watch your food being prepared throughout the evening. This was really neat — you may want to request a table close to the kitchen if you enjoy watching the food be prepared.

When we found our table, it was set with a single plate, cloth napkin, and accompanying fork and knife.

Our server also filled our water glass as we were initially greeted.

Menu

As we were being seated, we were presented with a couple of menus. The first was specifically for drink options. Here’s a look at their extensive list of wines…

…and a few more…

… but wine isn’t all they serve here. They also have several other spirited options including sangria, cocktails, gin & tonics, beer, and vermuts. And there were a few “mocktail” — or non-alcoholic cocktail — options to choose from like the Lotus, Apple & Safron, and Grapefruit and Honey.

The main menu consists of tapas-style plates like embutidos or cured meats, quesos or cheeses, buen porvecho or appetizers…

…and sopas y ensaladas or soups and salads, veduras or vegetables, frituras or fried items, paella, carnes or meats, and postres or desserts. There are also a few kid’s meal options to try….

… a Chef’s Tasting Menu…

… there’s also a prix fixe dining package offered with the Cirque de Soleil Drawn to Life show in Disney Springs.

This would make for an ideal place if you’re really looking to get the most out of the nightlife Disney Springs has to offer! One note about the menu — it’s expansive, and we have found that the menu on the Disney World website doesn’t always include everything we find on the printed menu inside the restaurant.

Drinks

After a few minutes of browsing the menu, it was time to order! First, we opted for the Rosé Sangria. 

This sangria is made of Lobetia Rosé, gin, vermouth, seasonal fruit, and citrus. We opted for the shareable half pitcher which cost $32. Our seasonal fruit added for this tasting was strawberries.

Although it may seem pricey, the half-pitcher option is a deal if you plan on splitting it. The half pitcher has 4-5 servings for about the price of two cocktails at Disney restaurants. We tasted the rosé in this drink, but the other ingredients in this sangria did not come through. Overall, we found this refreshing, but probably could have just ordered the wine instead.

We also tried the Salt Air Margarita, which is made of Milagro tequila, Torres Magdala, like, and salt air. This one cost $15.

This margarita really intrigued us and really gave us a texture we’re not sure we’ve had anywhere else. Our server shared a bit of the backstory in its origin. He said that Chef José Andres and his wife were walking the beach one day and took notice of how the sea foam rolled in with the waves and thought that would translate nicely to a margarita. He then worked to swap out a traditional salt rim in favor of salt-flavored bubbles that actually taste like salty sea air to top this margarita, and we applaud the switch!

Not only was it interesting to look at, but it gave great salty coverage with each sip that you might find harder with traditional salt rims. The lime-flavored margarita itself was great but did seem on the weaker side in case you’re looking for a strong drink.

We decided to try one of the non-alcoholic cocktail options, too, so we ordered the Lotus!

This mocktail is made of seedlip spice, London Essence White Peach, and Jasmine soda, with vanilla syrup.  It costs $12, and we were pleased with the flavor and serving size. The Lotus drink is bubbly from the soda, with a strong peach flavor — you also get some vanilla at the end. We really enjoyed this!

Eats

Now that we had our beverages for the evening, it was time to dig into the eats!  We had to try the dish that Jaleo is best known for — so paella was definitely at the top of our list. We opted to order the Arroz Con Pollo y Verduras paella.

This dish is completely shareable for $140. The paella consists of seasoned and fried rice, chicken, vegetables, and mushrooms. Ours had bite-sized cauliflower, carrots, zuchhini, broccoli, and green beans sprinkled into it as it was cooked with the rice.

A word of caution to ordering this one: This dish takes a while to cook because it’s so massive in size. From the time we ordered this dish to the time it was served took about 45 minutes, so if this is on your list to try, we highly recommend putting your order in for this shortly after being seated. When it’s served it’s brought out in a large pan with a coaster underneath it. A bell is rung and servers shout, “PAELLA”. From there our server portioned the paella out to our plates. Garlic aioli sauce is served along with it in a separate bowl.

The rice was well cooked, and the veggies mixed in were also tossed in the same seasoning — buttery, but a tad tangy, too. The sauteed chicken thighs were chewy, and the garlic aioli that accompanied the paella was exceptional. We appreciated that they brought out plenty of the aioli on the side to add to our liking.

The paella would be a great dish for a celebration — but it’s a bit much in both portion and price for 1-2 people. Our server suggested it could comfortably serve 4-5 people, but we honestly think this could be enjoyed by a table of 8 — especially if you plan to have some appetizers and desserts. Overall, this was a very filling dish and didn’t disappoint.

We also decided to try one of the dishes from the Buen Provecho (Enjoy! in English) section of the menu: the Cono de Atún “Gilda”. 

This appetizer consists of a cone of tuna tartare, modern olive, Cantabrian anchovie and piparra pepper for $8. We LOVED this one! This tiny but mighty cone is packed to the brim with flavor and was so savory and light. The first bite was fairly fresh so we didn’t get any overly fishy flavors. There was also a heavy olive flavor which added a buttery flavor to the tuna as well. This one is a small bite, though, so you’re not getting a whole lot of cone to share (or enjoy all to yourself) for the price.

Then it was time to try the Chorizo Iberico de Bellota!

This board is made of cured pork chorizo from the legendary free-range, acorn-fed, black-footed Ibérico pigs of Spain and will cost you $8. If we thought the cone was fabulous, this dish rivaled as an appetizer. Aside from the better portion size, this just might be the best Chorizo we’ve ever had at Disney World. We would go so far as to say it was … euphoric! We found it moist, with a deep, rich meaty flavor. Sliced super thin, it had a bit of spice and was a tad oily. The accompanying bread was crunchy, similar to a breadstick.

We also tried the Quesos Selection of 3 Cheeses.

For this order, we decided to choose cow, goat, and sheep cheeses in the Murcia al Vino, Rey Silo Blanco, and Queso Manchego to compare the flavors. This dish cost us $24. The cheeses were accompanied by the same bread sticks as the chorizo.

The manchego was sharp and bold, flavors we really enjoyed. It was paired with a moscatel compressed apple slice.

The Rey Silo Blanco was incredibly smooth and creamy with an almost fondue-like texture. It was served with honeycomb, and apricot marmelade.

The Murcia al Vino is a great cheese for someone who isn’t sure they love goat cheese — red wine was the strongest flavor here, and it masked some of the earthiness typically associated with goat cheese.

The Murcia al Vino was served with a honey, pine nut and rosemary shortbread cookie that was soft and crumbly, topped with a wine reduction that had dried fruit and caramel notes — almost fig-like in taste.

Overall we were really pleased with our cheese selections and the accompaniments that rounded out this board.

Then it was time for something crunchy —  the Endivias con Queso de Cabra y Naranja.

This dish is a full plate of endive leaves with goat cheese, oranges, and almonds, priced at $12.

We thought these were AMAZING! We found them to be so light and refreshing, like miniature salads. The flavors were very bright, with the cheese and mandarin oranges adding a savory and sweet element to the bitter endive.

We’re all about keeping the flavors coming, so the Coca de Escalivada con Boquerones were next to try! This is made of red bell pepper, eggplant, and onion with boquerones (fresh, unsalted anchovies). This dish is Josper roasted — a hybrid oven/grill cooking method that originated in Spain and is used to impart light smoke flavor. This one cost us $14.

This dish could surprise you with its somewhat aggressive anchovy presentation, but the anchovies were high quality and pleasantly meaty. The veggies tasted like ratatouille — heavy on the mild eggplant flavor. The cracker-like base was surprisingly crunchy even after sitting for a while under the vegetables.

However, it wasn’t the most memorable thing that we ordered all night, and we’re not sure we would opt to get it again versus other things we tried. But for something different or if you love eggplant, we feel like it’s a solid choice.

Then it was time to tackle the Patatas Bravas! This dish cost $14 and is a Jaleo favorite made of fried potatoes with spicy tomato sauce and aioli. 

Now this dish is probably the most memorable of everything we had all night. The potatoes were cooked to perfection with a soft inside and light crunchy casing and were paired with great seasoning. The garlic aioli was the same as the one brought out with the paella, and we were happy to see it return to another dish so seamlessly.

One more dish really screamed at us to try it when we looked over the menu so we figured, why not! That’s how we ended up with the Mejillones a la Brasa con Mojo Verde! This dish is priced at $16 and is made of mussels cooked in the Josper and served with mojo verde (Canarian Green Sauce).

We immediately could taste why these are so revered. The mussels were savory and fresh, while the sauce was herbaceous and earthy. The mussels may have been a bit lacking in flavor, but the sauce turned up the taste, and they paired well together.

The only thing we felt that could have made this a bit more enjoyable was if crackers or something crunchy were offered along with the dish.

The final savory option we tasted was the Croquetas de Pollo.

These are traditional stuffed chicken fritters for $14. 

They’re deep fried, stuffed to the brim with chicken and creamy cheese. These felt like comfort food to us — it was hard not to think about chicken pot pie when we took that first bite. We loved the fun presentation on a chicken plate, as well!

Desserts

If we weren’t full already, it was finally time to try some sweet desserts! We started with the Arroz con Leche.

This dessert is made of rice, saffron espuma (foam), milk, and caramelized apples, and cost us $11. We thought the rice in this one was plump and soft as it should be when cooked with the milk to give it an exaggerated texture. The milk was light and didn’t feel too weighed down with sweetener or condensed milk.

However, we could have done without the saffron foam — it seemed too thick on top of this dish. If you have sensitivities or aversions to certain textures, you might not enjoy this.

Up next, we tried the Tarta de Queso Vasca!

This one is very simple in its ingredients and presentation as it’s made of a “burnt” Basque goat cheesecake for $15.

We found the cheesecake here to be very creamy, but it was hard to get past the intentionally burnt top, which added a chewy “lump” to every bite. This was heavy on the sharp cheese flavor and would be enjoyed by those who tend to opt for a cheese plate for dessert rather than a sweeter dish.The portion size was decent and could easily be shared.

Our server recommended the Sorbetes Caseros with the cheesecake, to add sweeter notes. The flavor of the day turned out to be a strawberry sorbet and sliced strawberries for $9. 

We found the sorbet to be creamy and smooth, and the fresh cut strawberries were a nice touch. We also discovered that a light citrus juice was squeezed over the strawberry slices giving it another dimension to the flavor.

And our server was right! It was a winning combination when paired with the cheesecake!

Overall

Overall, we were very pleased with the taste, variety, and portions of food at Jaleo. There were a few bites that seemed a bit lacking, but overall we enjoyed the food, drinks, and atmosphere — and we felt very relaxed throughout our whole dining experience. We could easily see this as being an ideal dining spot to take in the sunset and unwind after a busy day traveling or in the Disney parks.

Our server was fast, attentive, and displayed extensive knowledge about the menu at Jaleo. We appreciated the expert recommendations he gave us.

Nosh or Not

Stop into Jaleo if…

• You’re looking for a relaxing atmosphere to unwind at Disney Springs. If you’re ready to take a step back from a busy day in the theme parks or just traveling in general, this is a great place to visit with a calming atmosphere.
• You’re looking for a signature dining experience but also enjoy hearty portions of food. While signature dining restaurants are typically billed for smaller portions and classier cuisines, Jaleo has the opportunity to offer you top-notch flavor along with a bigger portion size on most of their menu offerings.
• You’re looking for a great Spainsh-influenced meal. If you love Spanish food or have less experience with it and are looking for a food adventure, we think you could really enjoy your next meal here.

We’d recommend another option if…

• You or your dining crew are pickier eaters. Again, heavy Spanish influence in the meal offerings here and while you’ll have great flavor there’s not a ton of spice built into most of the dishes we tried this visit.
• You’re really trying to stretch your dining budget. We said earlier that a lot of these meals are big enough to share but they’re also meant to be served tapas style. This means that most of these will be smaller portions or several on a plate and with signature dining restaurant prices. If you’re really looking to stretch your dining budget, you may not fill up on one tapas dish alone.

Disney World menus change frequently, and that’s why we’re constantly reviewing the food, drink, and snacks to help you make the best decisions on your next Disney trip. So for the latest in Disney food changes and reviews, stay tuned with us at Disney Food Blog!

FORGET IT. We’re Canceling All Our Plans to Get This Ridiculously Incredible Disney BREAD

What’s your favorite dish to eat at Jaleo in Disney Springs? Tell us what you’re ordering on your next visit in the comments below!

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