We’re constantly on the hunt for new menu items popping up around Disney World and sometimes, you have to come out of the parks to find them.

Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort offers multiple dining options to their visitors whether you’re staying at the hotel or not. We decided to stop by and see if the Banana Cabana Lounge and Pool Bar really could hang with some of the best Disney restaurants even as a lounge, and things got interesting!

It’s easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of getting out to the parks on your Disney World vacation and not truly enjoy your hotel to its full potential. Sometimes, you just want to find a place to sit back and unwind for a bit to let your cares fall away while you sit under the stars. We were needing a bit of that so we went in search of one of Disney’s hidden gems.

It’s no secret that we really love lounges around the Disney World parks and hotels but there’s one in particular that we just felt drawn to recently. Banana Cabana is a Caribbean-themed pool bar and lounge located at Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort. With so many dining options to choose from here like Spyglass Grill, Sebastian’s Bistro, and grabbing a quick bite from Centertown Market it’s easy to see why it could go overlooked, but when we heard new menu items were arriving, we needed to head over and try them out for ourselves!

If you’re not staying at Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort, it may take you a bit longer to access the grounds — you’ll need to find transportation to the hotel and then walk through the entrance of their main lobby building to the building just behind it.

Atmosphere

The open concept of the bar really works for the location and the aesthetic it’s looking to achieve here and doesn’t take much to appreciate. It’s located right beside the main (feature) pool at Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort, Fuentes Del Moro.

The main bar is located in the back with the kitchen tucked just behind inconspicuously in the corner, while the forefront of the lounge is made up of the main dining area. The seating here is by the table at either a round, square, or rectangular table for larger parties or a table with just a few bench-style seats that look like they could have doubled as cushioned swings at the beach.

You won’t need to look too far for a bathroom since it’s shared with the adjoining Sebastian’s Bistro and can be accessed by the side of the bar.

Overall it was a fun, relaxing atmosphere and allowed for spur-of-the-moment dining options or could easily be used as a planned get-together spot for a romantic night out or just for an hour of fun and conversation.

You’re free to sit down at any open, clean table and wait for the server to come around and help you with your order.

Once your server has made contact with you they will bring out the silverware, condiments, and napkins to your table.

Menu

The menu for the lounge can be found on the My Disney Experience app or website, however, your server will most likely offer you a physical menu.

There’s not a lot offered on the menu to see the pictures of the entrees and desserts which would have been a nice touch but the inside of the menu provided will detail the bar’s expansive list of beverage offerings. Since I was visiting on a day when a few of the menu items were new to the lounge, they were not on the physical menu and a few of the menu items currently offered had just seen a price increase that was not correctly reflected on the app or physical menus, but my server did make sure to tell me about the changes when ordering.

The lounge offers a few appetizers…

… entrees…

… one dessert option…

…and minimal offerings for Kid’s Meals but they’re two that are requested pretty commonly by my kids so I could understand not offering an expansive amount, however, chicken tenders were noticeably missing here.

For drinks, there’s a wide assortment of specialty non-alcoholic beverages...

…specialty drinks to the lounge…

…frozen drinks…

…beer, hard ciders, and seltzers…

…a few more of them…

…and a few wine and sangria options.

There are also Coca-Cola soda products offered here if you prefer. After browsing the menu and talking with my server about the options offered, it was time to order. Since I knew most of what I was looking to order I also requested that all of the food be brought out together to keep from running my server back and forth, and they were happy to oblige.

Drinks

The first thing to arrive at the table was the Jamaican Frozen Runner. This drink is made of Appleton Estate Reserve Blend Rum and Baileys Irish Cream blended with pineapple juice, cream of coconut, and Crème de Banana topped with a bite of pineapple. This drink was a standard cup size and costs $16.

The presentation on this one is minimal but effective. It’s got the look of a creamy pina colada but really wants to be a banana smoothie. The smooth blended icy texture was consistent. As someone who enjoys a pina colada on occasion but can find the coconut flavor a bit strong at times, I really appreciated the creme de banana swooping in to take its place as the more pronounced flavor throughout. It’s also got hints of coconut and fruity so you’ll have places where you can taste the pineapple in it.

This one will take a bit to melt on you and once it does it will get a bit frothy at the top like a smoothie does. The liquor at the bottom also wanted to separate when it had sat for awhile while I was eating but I was able to remedy that by giving it a quick stir. My only complaint with this one is not with the drink itself but that it’s not super friendly with the paper straws that are served here so you may want to proactively ask for more than one.

Eats

Then the food all arrived!

I know that looks like A LOT of food, and it is. In addition to the Jamaican Frozen Runner, I decided to order the Seafood Fritters, Guava Buffalo Chicken Wings, Banana Cabana Burger, and Pineapple-Coconut Bread Pudding. Since it took a little while after I had sat down to be served (I went overlooked because of a surge of people sitting around the same time and a shift change this particular afternoon) my server brought out complimentary Loaded Fries, too.

To pace myself, I started off with the Seafood Fritters.

These fritters were made of shrimp, crab, and fish (my server thought it could have been cod but wasn’t certain) served with passion fruit aioli, and cost $14. The aioli tasted more like a ranch aioli to me and had a tangy kick to it. The seasoned fritters were round and were very soft and super pliable to cut or bite into.

Once I bit into it that’s when the spicy flavor really was able to surface outside of the breaded layer and helped set the tone for the rest of the evening’s menu. I think people who aren’t familiar with slippery seafood might struggle with the texture of these.

Their fried coating wants to mimic hush puppies but it’s too soft to really throw them into the same category. While I enjoyed them, they weren’t my favorite thing I tried in this meal. I could see what the chef was really going for here and while that landed in concept, the execution of them may have done better using just crab instead.

Then it was time to move on to the Guava Buffalo Grilled Wings.

These are bone-in chicken wings coated in sweet guava and buffalo-flavored sauce and cost $15. I’m gonna go ahead and rename these the “I may hate myself in the morning, but I’m gonna love you tonight” wings because they pack the punch! They’re coated in a thin sweet guava glaze that you can’t get enough of but as you’re licking your fingers clean that slow burn starts creeping up on you. They’re accompanied by a few uncooked, carrot sticks that were refreshing to bite into.

The chicken is juicy and the skin pulls right off with the meat.

I thought these were delicious and I would totally order these all over again. However, I do want to caution you — these were the spiciest things I had during this meal, and as someone who really enjoys a spicy chicken wing, I couldn’t get enough of them.

Just be careful because too many spicy things altogether could spell trouble for you (and your digestive system) later.

After I cleaned up from devouring the chicken wings, it was time to try the Banana Cabana Burger.

This burger is made of Caribbean Barbeque, Tomatillo-Jalepeno cream cheese, and Pineapple Salsa with plantain crunch served with french fries and costs $19. The burger looks tasty enough and the meat is cooked to a medium-well temperature with just a hint of pink to it. I asked my server about requesting a different temperature to the burger and she said that could be accommodated to your preference but the medium-well temperature was the default.

The bread for the bun reminded me of a Sister Schubert’s roll you can get in the grocery store and there are two interesting layers of flavor above and below the meat patty — the bottom is crunchier while the pineapple and jalapeno cream is on the top, and gives more of a juicier but spicy bite that bursts as the pineapple tidbits are popped.

The burger is fine but didn’t scream “Caribbean” to me beyond the pineapple salsa and the spice. The tomatillo-jalapeno cream cheese tasted more like an avocado spread. The crunchy layer underneath the burger patty is freeze-dried plantain chips and gives an audible crunch as you initially bite in but tapers to a subtle crunch where only you hear it the loudest as you continue to eat.

I see what the chef was going for here but it just didn’t land with me. Maybe if they had added a sweeter sauce to the top instead of a creamier jalapeno mix it would have really stood out. However, if you’re not a fan of spicy flavors and are looking to dine here, my server was very quick to point out that the regular burger is on the menu for that reason.

After so many spicy offerings it was nice to see something vaguely familiar in the Loaded Fries.

As I mentioned before these were brought to me as an apology for my longer-than-usual wait to be served after I had sat down and are on the menu for $12. They’re made of french fries topped with chili with black beans, cotija, and Jalapeño salsa.

The fries are standard “Disney” fries you can get practically anywhere fries are served but the toppings were nice. They’re a bit heavy so I had to scoop them with a fork however, the chili was delicious and meaty with black beans. The cotija cheese had a distinct sharper taste (kind of like queso fresco or goat cheese) to it but didn’t leave the top of my mouth coated which I appreciated. The salsa was fresh but tasted more like pico de gallo.

Desserts

As if I didn’t have enough food already it was time for dessert, so we ordered quite possibly the best dessert in all of Walt Disney World the Pineapple- Coconut Bread Pudding.

This dessert is made of its namesake ingredients and topped with caramel sauce. It’s also served with a side of vanilla ice cream for $10.

The one I received was served in a deep bowl with a decent portion certainly big enough for 2 people to share but I don’t know that it would have survived split by more people. It was noticeably warm to the touch through the bowl underneath as I held it and the caramel sauce gave a sweet smell as I pulled it closer.

It took a while for the ice cream to fully melt from the top but it joined the creamy caramel sauce moat that formed around the bread pudding. The bread pudding itself was warm, soft, and moist (even without the caramel sauce and ice cream to help it), and I was able to cut through it like butter with my spoon. There were also a few tidbits of pineapple at the top that were cooked so well that their juices melted into the coconut-flavored bread pudding with ease, but no coconut flakes or textures that I was able to taste. The vanilla ice cream had more of a vanilla bean flavor so it had more of a forefront of a true vanilla rather than an artificial flavoring and when paired with a bite of the bread pudding made me feel like I was in the tropics dining with the locals.

Overall

Overall for a lounge, it definitely left a lasting impression on me. This isn’t JUST a fancy pool bar and hang-out spot — they really had a great vibe flowing throughout the lounge. While the new menu items with the exception of one didn’t sweep me off my feet the wings were more than memorable enough to carry that weight and beckon me for a return visit. The food arrived incredibly fast from the time it was ordered — and, let’s be honest, I ordered a lot with this meal, and requesting it to come out all at once was no easy feat. The pool was close by making it ideal to stop by as you’re lounging in the sun on the pool deck or when your kids get hungry from burning all their energy swimming all day (because that’s ALWAYS the first thing they ask for getting out of the pool) with no real need to change out of your swim clothes to grab food whether you’re dining there at the lounge or taking it to go.

The servers were buzzing around the place behind the bar, heading in and out of the kitchen to attend to incoming tables,  and were quick to bus the newly emptied table so they could help keep the incoming traffic’s wait time down. The food was good (some were exceptional like the wings and dessert) with definite nods to more tropical, Caribbean flavors which help you feel like you’re really not at Disney World but at a truly Caribbean resort destination. I’m still dreaming of a few of the things I tried out on this visit so I can totally see a return visit for a date night or pool day at the hotel in the near future for my family.

Nosh Or Not?

We think this is a perfect lounge to try if you’re…

• lounging by the Castillo Del Moro pool at the hotel
• looking for a more tropical-aligned menu
• don’t mind food with a combination of sweet and spicy

You’ll probably want to grab a bite somewhere else if…

• Caribbean flavors just really aren’t your favorite
• You prefer an indoor dining experience
• You are looking for more variety in sides that will accompany your quick bites

If you enjoy brushing up on all the latest menu changes and foods constantly changing at Disney World, check out our full reviews of restaurants, lounges, snacks, and treats below and as always, be sure to stay tuned with us for more food reviews!

The Complete Guide to Eating at Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort

Have you ever stopped by Banana Cabana before? Tell us why or why not in the comments below!

The post REVIEW: NEW Menu Items Debut at a Hidden Disney World Lounge first appeared on the disney food blog.