The Plaza Restaurant
The Plaza Restaurant is a table-service restaurant on Main Street, U.S.A. in Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World, Florida. It stands at the far end of Main Street, around the corner from the Plaza Ice Cream Parlor and next to the Tomorrowland Terrace, with views from its windows across the hub to Cinderella Castle. Its room began in 1971 as the seating area of the ice cream parlor and became a restaurant in its own right in 1977. It is the smallest and, by menu price, generally the least expensive table-service restaurant in the park.
History
When Magic Kingdom opened on October 1, 1971, the corner at the end of Main Street was occupied by an ice cream parlor, sponsored in its early years by Borden and known as Borden's Plaza Ice Cream Parlor. The space beside it was simply the parlor's indoor seating, and the two operated as one establishment. The arrangement echoed Disneyland, where the Plaza Inn served as the principal Main Street restaurant, but the Florida version was from the start centred on ice cream rather than on full meals.
In 1977 the two halves were formally separated. The parlor continued as a walk-up ice cream shop on the corner, while its former seating area was converted into a distinct table-service restaurant under the Plaza Restaurant name. In that form it has continued with no major change of concept since, serving lunch and dinner to guests who have usually reserved in advance, although its small size and position, easily mistaken for part of the ice cream parlor, mean that many park visitors pass it without noticing it.
Setting
The dining room is a single, relatively small and bright room decorated in the turn-of-the-century manner of Main Street, combining Victorian detailing with Art Nouveau touches in its glass, mirrors and lighting. Tables are set close together, and the windows along the hub side look toward the castle and the passing parades and cavalcades on the street outside. Its scale contrasts with the park's larger table-service rooms, such as The Crystal Palace a short walk away, and gives it a quieter, more intimate character closer to that of a small-town café of its period setting.
Food and drink
The menu is deliberately light by table-service standards and overlaps in spirit with the ice cream parlor next door. It is built around sandwiches, including a club sandwich, burgers, salads and a small number of home-style main dishes that have at various times included meatloaf and pot roast, along with soups and children's meals. Desserts are a substantial part of the offer and draw directly on the parlor tradition, with ice cream sundaes, milkshakes and a banana split among the regular items.
Because its prices sit close to those of the park's larger quick-service restaurants while providing waiter service and a seated dining room, the Plaza is frequently cited in guidebooks as one of the better-value table-service choices at Walt Disney World, and reservations for its limited number of tables are correspondingly sought after.
See also
- Main Street, U.S.A.
- Plaza Ice Cream Parlor
- The Crystal Palace (restaurant)
- Casey's Corner
- Magic Kingdom