Coral Reef Restaurant

At the Coral Reef Restaurant you get to dine underwater. That’s right, underwater. It’s an awesome experience. The restaurant has 3 tiers of seating and all the tables have a good view of the 8 foot tall windows that look into the aquarium tank. It’s a memorable dining experience.

Located in the building of The Seas with Nemo and Friends. It’s tucked around the corner from the main entrance. It feels like you are entering a cave when you enter the podium area. That feeling extends into the restaurant itself.

The restaurant features a menu filled with great sounding sea food. It’s open for lunch and dinner. Prices are expensive.

Really cool picture of the inside

Photo by Express Monorail

Dad’s Random Thought

The Coral Reef Restaurant reminds me of the first James Bond movie, Dr. No. James and the first blonde Bond girl (Uusula Andress) are taken hostage and forced to eat dinner with the evil Dr. in his underwater lair. They sit down at the dinner table in front of a big window that has fish swimming on the other side. Probably where Disney’s Imagineers got the idea for the restaurant.

Menus from the Coral Reef Restaurant

Lunch

Lunch is served daily from 12:00 to 3:00. A full menu is served at lunch. Here are some of the highlights

Appetizers/Soups/Salads

• Chilled Shrimp
• Crab Claw Salad
• Creamy Lobster Soup

Prices for appetizers run from $9.00 to $12.00. Salads start at $6.00.

Entree

• Blackened Catfish
• Grilled NY Strip Steak
• BBQ Salmon Sandwich

Lunch Entrees start at $12.99 for a Ceasar Salad and range upwards to $28.00 for the NY Strip.

Side dishes are included with entrees.

Dinner

Dinner is served from 4:30 to 8:00 or later.

The dinner menu is much the same as the lunch menu. Below are some of the highlights.

• Roasted Scottish Salmon
• Grilled Mahi Mahi
• Wild Mushroom Lasagna

Dinner entrees start at $19.00 and go up to around $30.00.

The dinner menu is disappointly sparse.

Dessert

Desserts are the highlight of every meal. (At least it should be.) Here is a list of the desserts at the Coral Reef Restaurant.

• The Chocolate Wave
• Almond Gelato
• Butterscotch Creme Brulee
• Bailey’s and Jack Daniels Mousse
• Cheesecake Napoleon

All the desserts are $7.99.

Disney Restaurant odds and ends

You can make Advanced Dining Reservation 180 days prior to your arrival. This restaurant reservations are required most of the year. These can be made online at Disney’s Dining Reservations or by calling 407-WDW-DINE.

This restaurant is part of the Disney Dining Plan. Click on the link for more information about how the plan works.

All Disney Restaurants are non-smoking.

Dad’s Bottom Line

Dad’s strange sense of humor thinks it’s real funny that someone would put a seafood restaurant inside an aquarium. Makes me wonder of the fishies look through the window and see the future?

This restaurant routinely gets bad reviews from normal people. The quality of the food doesn’t match the price and is inconsistently prepared. Service is spotty at best. Some people have great experiences, but there are more complaints about this restaurant than any other.

We did eat there on our last trip and it was the one of the best meals we ever had at WDW. The service was outstanding.

Still, this is one of the most unique restaurants anywhere. You should try out the view at least once. Dad’s recommendation is to make a reservation and go for dessert only.