Be Our Visitor Restaurant at Walt Disney World was forward of its time…and never essentially in a great way. In actual fact, you might argue that’s true of New Fantasyland in Magic Kingdom as a complete, because it has now been surpassed by considerably comparable expansions on the worldwide parks. However nowhere is that this extra apparent than in relation to consuming contained in the citadel from Magnificence and the Beast.
That’s as a result of in relation to Beast’s Fortress, Tokyo Disneyland put Be Our Visitor Restaurant to disgrace with the Enchanted Story of Magnificence and the Beast. Walt Disney World diehards may argue that’s not a good comparability since Magic Kingdom constructed a experience whereas TDL constructed a world-class experience. However nothing dictated the facade needed to be a “toy citadel” perched atop a small cliff (with poor pressured perspective), save for budgets.
Including a little bit of insult to harm, TDR has as soon as once more proven WDW how its achieved with high-capacity in-castle eating. Moderately than sticking with Magnificence and the Beast, the restaurant we’re speaking about right here relies on Frozen…as might be apparent from the title of this submit. Regardless that they’re completely completely different movies and franchises, as recommended above, this venue is most akin to Be Our Visitor Restaurant in Magic Kingdom.
Royal Banquet of Arendelle is a counter service restaurant in Fantasy Springs, the brand new port-of-call at Tokyo DisneySea themed to Peter Pan, Tangled and Frozen. Considerably like New Fantasyland over a decade earlier than it, Fantasy Springs blends a number of mental properties right into a single land in means that works. See our Fantasy Springs Evaluate: Nice Land, Good Port for extra on that.
Frozen Kingdom is the identify for the Arendelle space, and it’s set after the occasions of Frozen. Queen Elsa has embraced her powers to create ice and snow, and the Kingdom of Arendelle has been returned to its former glory. On the far finish of the Frozen Kingdom are towering snow capped mountains with a number of cascading waterfalls. Within the distance, close to the summit of North Mountain, Elsa’s ice palace glistens proudly, lined in snow. On this facet of the land, you’ll discover Anna and Elsa’s Frozen Journey, which is one among Disney’s greatest rides wherever ever.
This identical courtyard can be house to 2 eating spots. The primary of those is Oaken’s OK Meals, which is only a walk-up window snack spot. The opposite is Royal Banquet of Arendelle, which is the counter service restaurant positioned inside Arendelle Fortress. Royal Banquet is a behemoth 570-person capability restaurant, with a number of indoor eating rooms and a lined outside eating space with views of the fjord cliffs and mountains within the distance.
Earlier than venturing inside Royal Banquet of Arendelle, we’d be remiss if we didn’t focus on the outside. That is no easy facade or a little bit of window-dressing to hide a giant field restaurant like Be Our Visitor. On the contrary, Imagineering has gone all-out and created a very in-castle eating expertise.
Arendelle Fortress is huge and, to proceed borrowing Walt Disney World comparisons (sorry non-People, however the Trip Kingdom looms giant and it’s our high body of reference) is sort of a mash-up of features of the Norway pavilion at EPCOT.
What you’ve acquired with Royal Banquet of Arendelle is mainly Akershus Royal Banquet Corridor in scale and scope mixed with the model of the smaller stave church. That’s true each inside and outside, truly. This shouldn’t actually be an enormous shock–it’s additionally in line with Arendelle Fortress from Frozen!
The beautiful exterior is basically manufactured from ornate wooden paneling, trim, and shingles. It’s punctuated by sharp peaks and Nordic structure–an ideal reproduction of Arendelle Fortress from the movies. No element is spared, proper all the way down to the balconies and stained glass home windows.
The very best factors of Arendelle Fortress preserve a excessive diploma of element, even in spots the place it’s arguably “pointless” to take care of suspension of disbelief. That is to be anticipated of OLC, however one thing you’d in all probability by no means see in a comparable restaurant constructed right this moment at Walt Disney World. Once more, look no additional than the sharp distinction between this and the toy citadel of Be Our Visitor.
I’d go so far as to say that Royal Banquet of Arendelle is the visible spotlight of the Fantasy Springs ‘skyline.’ It’s higher than the Frozen experience or something within the Peter Pan or Tangled minilands.
Inside Royal Banquet of Arendelle, there’s a big ordering bay the place company decide up their meals.
At current, company want a Cellular Order simply to enter the restaurant, and there’s no ordering on the money registers inside. We’d count on this to alter ultimately, as we’ve observed that Cellular Order hasn’t actually caught on at Tokyo Disney Resort (strides have been made, however Japan isn’t a cashless nation). However for now, demand exceeds provide, so the Cellular Order spots are filling up.
The ordering bay is embellished with work, pretend truffles, and royal chinaware on show. There’s additionally a self-service water station (we love these), and extra of those will be present in every of the eating rooms.
After selecting up their meals, company can select amongst 4 seating areas inside Royal Banquet of Arendelle.
There’s additionally one other space outdoors going through the attraction, affording views of Elsa’s ice palace, waterfall and fjord. It’s an attractive spot to sit down and take in the surroundings, however all of our meals at Royal Banquet of Arendelle to date have come when it’s been sizzling outdoors.
Probably the most formidable of the inside eating rooms is the Nice Corridor the place Elsa’s coronation was held.
The arched ceiling options rosemaling floral ornamental work on every panel and alongside the beams, with grand chandeliers and extra lighting fixtures hanging down from posts. This immediately transported us again to the agricultural church buildings we visited in Norway’s countryside a number of years in the past. Nicely…minus the tons of of Japanese company consuming lunch. But it surely was positively transportive when empty!
Unsurprisingly, the Grand Corridor is the place everybody desires to eat at Royal Banquet Corridor of Arendelle. Nicely, apart from the bloggers. The lighting is a bit too darkish and funky for very best meals photograph situations. But it surely’s positively essentially the most atmospheric and well-themed rooms within the restaurant. I may see decompressing right here on the finish of an extended day in Fantasy Springs some evening.
The opposite rooms are the Portrait Gallery, Library and (I believe) the Eating Room.
Each single house in Royal Banquet of Arendelle is exceptionally designed, however none of them attain the thematic excessive bar of the Nice Corridor. That eating room is simply so nicely achieved–the whole lot from the structure to the ambiance to the best way the tables are organized is unparalleled. It’s the whole lot I had hoped the Ballroom at Be Our Visitor could be.
Listed here are extra images of the assorted eating rooms at Royal Banquet of Arendelle:
What we actually recognize about all the eating rooms is the extent of element. Since these areas are so sprawling and filled with seating, it’d be simple for them to really feel impersonal and cavernous.
As an alternative, all of them really feel heat and lived-in because of the household portraits adorning the colourful partitions, together with household heirlooms and private possessions. There’s a stone hearth; bookshelves, toys and trinkets; meticulous wooden paneling; detailed wallpaper–the checklist goes on and on.
It’s actually refreshing. As an alternative of particulars being budget-cut as “pointless,” it actually appears like Imagineers have been capable of go above and past right here. They went above and past with so many little issues to essentially promote the areas–it’s what makes a home a house…or citadel a house, I suppose.
After all, none of this issues (or at the very least, issues so much much less) if the meals doesn’t ship.
Royal Banquet of Arendelle is technically a counter service restaurant, however very like different spots at Tokyo DisneySea, it occupies an area between common ole counter service and desk service. At the least, from the attitude of value and high quality.
This finally ends up being the costliest counter service restaurant at Tokyo DisneySea, which costs which are larger than some desk service eating places within the park. Set meals right here at the moment value 3,500 yen, which is greater than we paid for pizza and dessert at Ristorante di Canaletto.
Like most eating places at Tokyo Disney Resort, entree choices are restricted at Royal Banquet of Arendelle.
That is much more excessive than regular. The set menu consists of the next:
- Smoked Salmon Trout and Orange Salad
- Potato Gratin
- Bread
- Olaf’s Marshmallow-Chocolate Mousse
- Selection of Smooth Drink
- Lobster and Redfish Pot Pie or Beef Pot Pie
Beginning with the final merchandise–the primary course–the meat pot pie could be very filling and hearty hunks of meat all through.
The flaky pastry is incredible, working nicely with the soupy stew contained in the pie. It’s not all beef inside–there’s additionally cauliflower and pasta filling. The meat is scrumptious, completely ready and tender. The entire thing works fairly nicely, however on the identical time, it’s only a pot pie. This isn’t going to blow anybody away.
The meat pot pie is doubtlessly a satisfying dish for chilly winter nights, but it surely’s not one thing I’ll order once more some other time of yr.
The seafood pot pie is the superior alternative, stuffed with lobster and redfish in a creamy sauce. I’m a sucker for precisely this kind of dish, variations of that are fairly frequent all through Tokyo Disney Resort.
This felt like a better high quality twist on these, that are usually tacky gratins. They’re additionally usually so much cheaper. However you get what you pay for, I suppose, because the seafood pot pie delivers an elevated dish that’s higher than these and its beef counterpart.
We’d advocate the seafood pot pie over the meat pot pie, however this nonetheless isn’t a ringing endorsement. The factor is, although, you might want to order one thing to get within the door (for now) and these are your solely choices (for now).
The potato gratin is a bit completely different than what we’ve encountered elsewhere.
This consists of three child potatoes on the backside with a creamy sauce, topped with a crunchy layer of potato on high. It is a bit soupier than I’d’ve appreciated, but it surely’s laborious to argue with potatoes in cream sauce. The topping additionally added a pleasant texture. All issues thought-about, I appreciated this.
The salad with smoked salmon and mandarin oranges is an fascinating combo, however the type of factor you may discover as a facet all through Japan.
It’s truly an ideal medley of flavors.
What you see is what you get, for essentially the most half, with the dinner roll.
It’s semi-sweet, however nothing like milk or melon bread. I assume the entire level of that is to dip into the pot pies to take in the stew or cream sauce. The roll recordsdata that position admirably.
Lastly, there’s the chocolate mousse with an Olaf mochi on high.
It is a good dessert, with a mousse just like chocolate pudding and a scrumptious marshmallow mochi with a tangy lemon filling. The flavors right here work nicely, however actually, I’d fairly simply have a trio of the mochi (a la the little inexperienced alien ones for which Tokyo Disneyland is known).
There are additionally memento units accessible at Royal Banquet of Arendelle. Simply in case 3,500 yen is simply too darn low-cost for a meal!
We didn’t purchase both of this stuff. We did get the novelty dessert cup from one of many different Fantasy Springs eating places. They’re the right dimension to double as espresso cups they usually’re dishwasher protected.
In the end, we love the setting of Royal Banquet of Arendelle. It’s a standout amongst standouts at Tokyo DisneySea. We’d extremely advocate consuming right here to step contained in the citadel, and meaning shopping for one of many above particular units. (That’s, until you do the Trip Package deal, by which case you’ll be able to flash your drink tickets and stroll in for a ‘free’ beverage–try this as an alternative of consuming right here in case you’re eligible!)
In the case of the meals, Royal Banquet of Arendelle turns into a more durable promote. There are two parts to this. The primary is the fee. If you happen to requested me what I felt all of that is “value” based mostly on the pricing at different eating places at Tokyo Disney Resort, I’d in all probability come again with a worth about 1,000 yen decrease than the precise worth.
The second is when it comes to abdomen house. There may be simply a lot nice meals at Tokyo DisneySea. If in case you have restricted time–two days or fewer–it’s actually tough to advocate allocating one among your ~4 meals to Royal Banquet of Arendelle. Though the meals is top quality and sufficiently tasty, it’s simply not memorable sufficient.
There’s nothing particular about it and also you received’t end up craving it months later. For us, that’s an issue…and the chance value coupled with the actual value is why Royal Banquet of Arendelle is a troublesome promote that has us torn.
Planning a visit to Tokyo Disney Resort? For complete recommendation, the very best place to begin is our Tokyo Disneyland & DisneySea Journey Planning Information! For extra specifics, our TDR Resort Rankings & Opinions web page covers lodging. Our Restaurant Opinions element the place to dine & snack. To save cash on tickets or decide which sort to purchase, learn our Suggestions for Saving Cash submit. Our What to Pack for Disney submit takes a singular have a look at intelligent gadgets to take. Venturing elsewhere in Japan? Seek the advice of our Final Information to Kyoto, Japan and Metropolis Information to Tokyo, Japan.
YOUR THOUGHTS
Have you ever dined on the Royal Banquet of Arendelle? What’d you order? Did you like or hate the Frozen meals? Assume it’s definitely worth the larger value for the upper high quality, or would you favor to get a budget burgers and sandwiches on the Tangled tavern? Ideas on how the Frozen restaurant stacks as much as different choices at Tokyo DisneySea from a thematic perspective? Do you agree or disagree with our evaluation? Any questions? Listening to your suggestions–even while you disagree with us–is each fascinating to us and useful to different readers, so please share your ideas beneath within the feedback!
