Most folks visiting Disney World might not think to look at the hidden gem restaurants located in Disney World’s hotels. While there are excellent character dining options with princesses at Cinderella’s Royal Table and Akershus Royal Banquet Hall, there’s another popular dining experience that people seem to FORGET about in Disney World!

We recently ventured beyond the gates (okay, it was a boat ride away) of Magic Kingdom for an enchanted evening meal. But did this meal live up to the high bar we’ve set for this restaurant in the past, or is its appeal starting to fade? Let’s find out!

Artist Point is nestled within the halls of Disney’s Wilderness Lodge. It’s a great destination for those looking to tackle a unique meal outside Disney World’s theme parks. If that name isn’t quite ringing a bell for you, that could be because you know it by its character dining name — Storybook Dining.

Here, you’ll enjoy a prix fix menu while clapping and laughing along with some of the most notable characters pulled from the classic animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Just don’t be started if you see a villain make their presence known while you’re dining, and you’ll quickly see why this meal has won over the hearts of many.

Atmosphere

The atmosphere at this restaurant will make you feel like you’re truly turning through the storybook pages of Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs and entering their fair land. The dining rooms mainly consist of tables and chairs, and there’s ample seating throughout the multi-room dining space with enchanted twinkling trees.

There really isn’t a bad seat in the restaurant because it’s designed to feel open, and you’re often invited to stand up and wander around (just don’t stare down the Evil Queen too long when she’s around)!

After we were sat at our table, we were offered menus that listed the prix fix options for the meal. We were also given a few souvenir cards with signatures from the characters who would be visiting us throughout the meal.

Don’t worry about having to get up from your table to meet with Snow White…

…Dopey…

…and Grumpy, as they’ll come around to visit you (maybe a few times) while you’re dining.

However, our server was quick to offer us an invitation to visit with the Evil Queen…

…(and beg her grace for a portrait) that can be redeemed at special points throughout your dining experience.

We highly recommend taking full advantage of this meet-and-greet because it is currently the ONLY way you’ll get to meet with the Evil Queen at Disney World (and year-round)!

Menu

This restaurant features a prix fix menu with a storybook twist, where most of the meal’s selections are made and brought right to you. Your story will begin with shared appetizers.

From there, the meal moves to the core of the story entrees (where you’ll choose one of the choices offered).

Finally, your meal comes to a close with a sweet ending of shared desserts.

Of course, there are a few options available to enhance your meal, like non-alcoholic specialty drink selections for an additional fee…

…wickedly refreshing cocktails…

…beers…

…and wines.

The children’s menu will also offer a selection of appetizers…

…choice of entree…

…and choice of two sides.

Everyone at the table will be allowed to share the desserts at the end of the meal and allergy-friendly options are available upon request. Meals here will run you $65 for adults and $39 for children ages 3 to 9 plus tax and gratuities.

Drinks

Time for a drink! We opted to try the Through the Forest cocktail.

We were able to add this to our meal for an additional $5. It’s made of Wildberry, Lime Juice, Mint, and Sparkling Water. Essentially, it’s a non-alcoholic mojito with a raspberry blackberry kick. We really loved how bubbly it was and that it felt like a true mocktail!

If you’re looking for a drink that won’t taste like heavy syrup and want something to help add some brightness to your meal, we highly recommend either of these!

Eats

Since this is a prix-fix meal, most of the meal is preselected for you. All we needed to do was make a decision on which entree we would like to try out for this meal. For continuity, we’ll talk about the meal as it was presented to us throughout our dining experience. The first course we were brought out was our shared appetizers.  They were brought out on a tree with several tiers that included the Wild Mushroom Bisque, Wicked Shrimp Cocktail, and the Hunter’s Harvest.

We started things off by sipping the Wild Mushroom Bisque. It’s made with chive oil and pureed into a thicker soup consistency. It tastes almost peppery, and the earthy mushroom flavor is subtle (this might be a good way to stealthily get your kids treated to some mushrooms while you’re here).

Then, it was time to dig into the Wicked Shrimp Cocktail. It has a bloody mary vinaigrette, seaweed salad, and spiced house-made seasoning.

Just like its name suggests, it is “wicked” good! The shrimp was plump and briny, and we found the seaweed salad and vinaigrette to be fitting accompaniments to help it stand out.

The Hunter’s Harvest rounded us out for our shared apps. It’s made of Turkey and Chicken, Cranberry Preserve, and Crispy Sauerkraut.

They’re rolled into a meatball consistency, and when you bite into them, it’s like a flavor explosion in your mouth. They’re lightly coated in something sweet like a teriyaki sauce, and we found these to be a delicious tease of the turkey and chicken meat, coupled with the sweet cranberry preserve. Still, we almost missed the crispy sauerkraut unless we were really looking for it underneath the other more prominent flavors.

We found all of these to be quite an interesting tease for our upcoming entrees. Speaking of which, we haven’t told you yet which of the entree choices we had decided on. We opted for the Sorceress Spell of “Tricken” Chicken (which was the plant-based option on the menu) and Magic Mirror’s Slow-braised Pork Shank.

Let’s start things off with the “tricken” chicken plate first. This dish is made of cauliflower puree, roasted vegetables, and vegetable jus. The vegetables had some interesting colors, which helped liven up the presentation of the plate.

The veggies were well cooked, and the vegetable jus was earthy and herbaceous, giving it a distinct taste and smell. The cauliflower puree was very thin (like you would expect a puree to be) and certainly had a cauliflower taste.

The chicken was cooked more like a chicken patty since it’s a plant-based option and less like an actual chicken. It was fine to pass as a chicken, but you really needed to be able to appreciate a drier chicken patty over envisioning this meal as a juicy piece of chicken. We realize this comes with the territory of being a plant-based option instead of true chicken, but overall, it didn’t wow us.

Then, it was time to start in on the Magic Mirror’s Slow-braised Pork Shank. This dish is served with polenta and gastrique and tasted just as amazing as it looked!

We found the meat in our dish to be very tender (like “fall off the bone when touched with a fork” tender) and had great flavor! The pork shank reminded us of carnitas, where the slivers practically melted apart in your mouth.

The polenta reminded us of thicker-styled grits that were buttery and, with gastrique juices, almost had a sour cream flavor to them. We could go on and on about this dish because it blew us away, and we can’t recommend it here enough when you visit.

OK, you’ve gotta stay with us because there’s still dessert to get through. This meal comes with a lot of food, so make sure to save some room!

Dessert is another multi-sampling option, just like the shared appetizers. Here, we were treated to Miner’s Treasures, Poison Apple, and Gooseberry Pie. But there was also a special chocolate treat that was brought out to our table resembling a chocolate heart served on dry ice that billowed out of the Queen’s box she’d gifted the huntsman for Snow White.

Disney couldn’t have gone more over the top with this presentation because you feel like you’ve hit the jackpot here! The Miner’s Treasure is a cute little “rock” of sorts with Dopey’s likeness featured in the treat.

It tastes like cookies and cream whipped mousse inside and held together surprisingly well! The rock pieces taste like bits of brownie at first, but once you chomp down, you get a milk chocolatey taste, kind of like an M&M candy piece. If you’ve ever tried the Grey Stuff at Be Our Guest, this was very similar.

The “poison” apple really caught our eye from the start, and for good reason!

Its candy outer shell is easily breakable, as it’s not made of thick, hard chocolates. It looked like a thinner chocolate with a whipped dark chocolate mousse inside containing crispy pearls with a hint of sour apple flavor.

The gooseberry pie dessert about did us in, though, on the flavor scale!

It features a toasted meringue top that’s crunchy and soft underneath (like whipped egg whites). The gooseberries tasted like a small cooked sour green cherry but also had the consistency of a cooked apple. The pie crust didn’t have much flavor but did crumble nicely when cut.

In all seriousness, the crust went nicely with the stronger prominent, sour taste of the gooseberry.

Overall

Overall, It’s really hard to find fault with this stunning dining experience. This restaurant works really hard to deliver an experience you won’t easily forget! Everything from the theming, the characters, and even the details from the menu and desserts work harmoniously to bring together a dining experience you’ll be talking about for weeks after you’ve wrapped up your meal here.

If you’ve found yourself looking for a filling meal with a little bit of entertainment AND don’t mind going a bit out of your way to visit another Disney World hotel, we think your efforts won’t be in vain here!

Nosh or Not?

Come on down to the join the celebration if…

• Meeting rare characters is a high priority for your trip. This unique dining atmosphere is the perfect storybook setting to meet with beloved, classic characters that typically don’t meet in the park. Whether you’re into princesses or villains, there really are several to meet with during this meal for all character enthusiasts, and we give it high praise for allowing us some one-on-one time with characters we don’t typically get to meet inside the Disney World parks.
• You’re looking to dine like royalty! It’s true… here you’re treated to a multi-course meal where you never have to leave the table unless you want to greet the Evil Queen or take a few photos with the dwarves and Snow White. The servers here do a phenomenal job of tending to your taste buds as swiftly as possible and keeping your meal moving right along to the next course!
• You’re taking an “off” day outside of the Disney World parks. One of the complaints we hear most is that people don’t typically like to come out of the Disney World parks once they’ve scanned in to use their tickets that day (and with ticket prices being what they are, we can’t say we blame them). However, this makes Storybook Dining a prime dining opportunity to book for one of the days you’re not planning to visit the parks, like your rest day or even the day you check in. It helps give you a taste of what’s to come for your vacation without feeling like you’re missing out on much while you’re not inside the theme parks.

You’ll do better dining somewhere else if…

• You’re looking for a more intimate dining experience. The dining room here is several rooms large, open space, and can get loud even when folks are talking at their regular volumes. Add in a little fun and excitement when the characters come around, and you could find it a bit more noisy than you would have preferred.
• You’ve got a list of specific characters to see and the ones from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs aren’t exactly on the list. We get it! Being strategic about where you choose to dine at Disney World is already a huge learning curve, but not all character dining will feature the same characters. If you’re looking to meet a broader cast, you might do better meeting Mickey and Friends at places like Chef Mickey, Garden Grill, or Hollywood and Vine.
• You think your money on this meal might be spent better elsewhere. You’re not offending anyone at all if you decide this meal, its menu lineup, and, more importantly, its price tag just doesn’t align with your plans. Everyone has different tastes, and with so many other restaurants around Disney World, there’s sure to be something else that catches your interest.

Don’t take our word for it, though! Check out Storybook Dining for yourself, and before you make your own Disney World dining reservations, take a look at a few of our most recent reviews below and stay tuned with us at Disney Food Blog for all the latest Disney World menu news, updates, and changes!

REVIEW: We Can Tell You What NOT to Order at This Disney World Restaurant

Is Storybook Dining at Artist’s Point one of your favorite character meals at Disney World? Tell us why or why not in the comments below!

The post REVIEW: I Left Magic Kingdom for This Disney World DELUXE Hotel Restaurant – and I Have NO Regrets first appeared on the disney food blog.