by Beth Keating
Review
DisneyBizJournal.com
June 16, 2024
When you dine at Disney World, you have a choice of more than 200 different eateries. Many of them are uniquely themed, and Imagineers went all in on some of the details.
Want to dine at Beast’s castle? You’ll feel like you are in the movie by dining at Be Our Guest. Want to take an expedition across Asia? Yak & Yeti will offer you and your fellow travelers a place to rest and refresh on the journey. Waiting for a cruise through the jungle? Skipper Canteen will help you prepare for the journey amidst a plethora of puns.
For a family member’s recent birthday, the choice was to dine in space. (He said it made him feel like he was dining in Ten Forward on the Enterprise.) After years of trying to snag a reservation for the nearly three-year-old Space 220 restaurant in EPCOT, we were able to grab one, probably because someone else had to cancel, as this lone available reservation popped up on a random day and time. Everything else had been booked up for weeks on end. For our purposes, though, the random date was close enough to the actual birthday to warrant scooping it up.
Your meal will be served 220 miles above earth (Space 220, get it?), and you’ll need to take a space elevator to get up to the space station. Viewports provide an aerial view of EPCOT as you travel, and you’ll see the Florida landscape below you as you rush upwards in the “stellarvator,” as well as the view to the space dock as you approach the station above you. When you reach your destination, you’ll pass by a window into the grow lab where lettuce rotates in preparation for harvest.
As you enter the dining room, you’ll understand why Space 220 is one of the hardest reservations to get on Disney property. Floor to ceiling glass at the front of the room allows you to look back on Earth, and to watch the various spaceships and astronauts floating by. There’s even a space dog going for a walk.
Dining at Space 220 is a thrill, but a costly one. While our meals were good, overall, and the service was better than most Disney restaurants, it’s still a pricey night out. You are paying for those giant windows into space.
Meals at Space 220 are a fixed price affair. Adult dinner pricing is $79.00, and you get to select one of each: Lift-Offs (Appetizer); Star Course (Entrée); and Supernova Sweets (Dessert). Lunch is a slightly cheaper prospect at $55.00 (and you can use an Annual Passholder discount for lunch. Dinner is a DVC discount only.). For lunch, you’ll select one of each: Lift-Offs (Appetizer) and Star Course (Entrée). If you are lucky enough, you can also grab a walk-up at the small bar, where you can order a la cart.
For our meal, we chose the Neptuna Tartare and the Big Bang Burrata for the appetizer course. The Neptuna Tartare was made from Yellow Fin Tuna, with an Avocado Crema, Mango Coulis, Edamame, Wonton Crisp, and a Yuzu Dressing. The tuna itself was sashimi grade, extremely light and fresh. The dressing was unexpectedly sweet, but in a delightful way that added contrast. There was also a smidge of wasabi that brought a bit of heat to the dish, but not so much that those who are less tolerant of heat would be uncomfortable. There was a little bit of spice to the dish, but it was not what we would call “spicy.” Our very attentive waiter was sure to check on the wasabi adaptability before we finalized our order!
The Big Bang Burrata was a dish of panzanella and watermelon salad, with a lovely tarragon dressing for garnish. This appetizer was one of two plates for the evening that were different from what other guests had ordered in the past, and what we’d seen online. Where previous iterations of this appetizer had been a full ball of burrata, tonight’s version was just a half ball. Nonetheless, the burrata was soft and milky, and the freshness of the cheese absolutely came through. A crunchy bread stick (akin to a biscotti) served as the panzanella, and it had a brush of tomato chutney across the top, similar to a bruschetta. It wasn’t the best part of the dish, though, because it was super hard to bite into, and we left most of it on the plate. Sweet multicolored cherry tomatoes and small cubes of watermelon completed the dish, with everything arranged on a bed of arugula, which added a nice “salad” touch and a bit of a peppery flavor. The light tarragon dressing was delicious, and had a hint of citrus, in our opinion.
We would have ordered both of our appetizers again.
For our Star Course (entrées), we requested the Grilled Swordfish and the Galactic Miso Salmon. Our waiter said those were both popular, and delicious, choices, and he was right.
The fennel-crusted Grilled Swordfish was plated on a bed of Mediterranean couscous and creamy puttanesca. The excellent piece of swordfish was a thick, steak-like fish, rather than the flakier version that you get with some white fish, and well grilled. The accompanying couscous was seasoned with tiny, diced vegetables and a bit of an oil drizzle. The tomato based sauce accompanying the fish was like a smooth, high quality bisque, sweet and deeply “tomatoey.” We would have been happy to have an entire bowl of that sauce. Our waiter checked to make sure that we enjoyed fennel when we ordered the entrée, explaining that it took some guests off guard, but we thoroughly enjoyed the addition of that flavor profile. Thumbs-up for the swordfish!
Our other entrée was the Galactic Miso Salmon, a hearty-sized piece of glazed salmon, on top of sautéed leeks, served with a tempura-fried mushroom and a curry blood orange beurre blanc. We can honestly say that this was one of the best salmons we’ve been served on Disney property, and it was perfectly grilled, with a tender, fork flaky texture. The miso glaze on top added a hint of sweetness and a little bit of a crunchy outer layer, but underneath, the fish was moist and mild tasting, an excellent combination of contrasts. A deep fried mushroom was a nice accompaniment, adding a crunchy, earthy texture alongside the softer fish. Served on a bed of vibrant vegetables made of shredded sautéed leeks, the dish was a lovely mix of flavors. The beurre blanc sauce was not at all sweet, but had a tiny bit of heat on the follow through. With a light background of citrus (and maybe turmeric), the sauce was a yummy addition to the fish without overwhelming the salmon’s more delicate flavor or sweet outer crust.
Then it was on to the dessert course. One of our choices was the Blue Planet, a chocolate cheesecake, with cookie crumbs, vanilla truffles, and raspberry gel. This was a good dessert, but certainly not cheesecake by any means. In fact, it wasn’t even the dessert I was expecting, based on the same named dessert that another family member had ordered several months ago. Their version was a large circle of chocolate cheesecake with a swirl of chocolate mousse that upheld a trio of large flat triangular chocolate “sails” on top. And that was what we were expecting. I even asked the waiter when he brought the plate if that was the “cheesecake.” He assured me it was, and that the menu had changed since last one of our family members had been there.
Alas, it was a nice dessert, but not really cheesecake. The blue gel over the top (hence the “blue planet” name) didn’t really have much flavor, just lots of bright color. There was also an adorable raspberry gel in the shape of Mickey on top of a green chocolate “lace” decoration. A set of three white chocolate truffles decorated the sprinkle of chocolate cookie crumbs surrounding the “planet.” The crumbs were meant to resemble space dirt, and the inside of the truffles were as liquid-y and creamy as any truffles ever offered. As a fan of white chocolate, they were a nice touch.
Our second dessert choice was The Astra, a honey cake with almond mascarpone mousse, orange marmalade, orange cream, and an adorable honeycomb cookie. This dessert was also a lovely choice, but a bit unexpected as well. It was advertised as a honey cake, but was really more of a pudding. This cute dessert was very sweet, and orange to the extreme, with real orange pieces in the mix. If you are a visitor to Florida, and looking for the hit of citrus, this is your dessert.
The drinks at Space 220 were pricey, even by Disney standards, and they were obviously geared toward staying galactically themed. They were beautiful to look at, and we probably would have skipped them at the higher prices, but as we were celebrating a birthday during the meal, we threw caution to the wind and ordered up. The smooth Gamma Burst ($19.00) was Grey Goose Strawberry Lemongrass, Midori Melon Liqueur, and Strawberry Popping Pearls. The pearls were definitely a fun twist, and it was a unique drink that you probably won’t find at other locations. The Command Center ($17.00) was Conniption Kinship Gin, St-Germain Elderflower Liqueur, Lemon Juice, and Freeze-dried Raspberries. The freeze-dried raspberries looked like a sprinkle of space dust across the surface of the drink. While the raspberries were an interesting addition, the Command Center itself was a more standard gin-based drink.
While it is located inside EPCOT, in the World Discovery section of the park, the restaurant is actually operated by the Patina Restaurant Group, which runs dozens of eateries across the country. At Disney World, their restaurants include Tutto Italia, Tutto Gusto and Via Napoli in EPCOT; and The Edison, Maria & Enzo’s, Enzo’s Hideaway, Pizza Ponte and Morimoto Asia in Disney Springs.
The difficulty of obtaining a dining reservation aside, we probably won’t be back to Space 220 any time soon. The food was good, but at the fixed three-course prices, and the inability to use passholder discounts, means that this dinner was a steep price point for a meal. We had great service from cast members, and the views from the massive windows were really entertaining, waiting to see what space citizens would show up next. But a return to space station Centauri will be a “special occasion only” trip in the future.
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Beth Keating is a theme parks, restaurant and entertainment reporter for DisneyBizJournal.
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