Victoria & Albert's

Though it just recently won its first Michelin star, Victoria & Alberts has held a stellar reputation in the region. Indeed, someone emailed me about a year ago insisting that I visit. It is the highest dining experience at Disney World and is known for its service. I attended the Michelin event earlier this year where they not only received a star, but their head of service Israel Perez won the Michelin Outstanding Service Award.

Getting a reservation so is not so easy - a result of bots stealing most of them and reselling for a profit. This is an industry-wide issue and something the Disney IT folks have been battling for 2 years. I checked back here and there and found tonight's reservation dangling out for someone to grab. And so I did. When I mentioned this, Mr. Perez generously offered his card and told us to email should we need any reservation in the future. 

The dining room here is stunning (see the photo below). A very small circular room decorated in Victorian style - a nod to its location in the Victorian-style Grand Floridian Hotel as well as its namesakes - Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Between the staff regularly addressing you by name and a live harpist filling the room with beautiful music, you definitely feel like you're somewhere special.

There were some larger parties that evening, so some tables sat empty. This made our placement at a tight table between a wall and mirrored doors (without a view of the harpist) and odd choice. We requested to move to a table that breathed a bit more and they gladly obliged.

It's difficult to describe the service here. Personalities varied widely. This server was formal and a bit plastic. The next one was uber-conversant and friendly. The next...perhaps new, gave her scripted spiel and turned to leave with barely any eye contact. Save the uber-friendly guy, we didn't get the feeling that any of them were there with us. They cared about service, mind you. But they talked more at you then with you. There were boxes to check and, once checked, they left.

Not horrible. But uneven. And definitely not what I expected, given their reputation.

The food took an interesting arc. Ask ChatGPT for a fine dining tasting menu and it's likely to give you something that looks just like this one. Initial bites. Pasta. Fish. Squab. Wagyu.

More box-checking.

But this may be the first tasting menu that went on a steady progression from OK to outstanding. Each successive dish improved on the last. The wines followed the same path. Had you asked me 1/3 of the way through dinner, I would have been pretty disappointed.

The dishes simply had too many components. For example, English Pea puree with a mirren and dashi broth. I love dishes like this! But the puree had too much cream, which muted the pea flavor, belying the brilliant green you're looking at. And it was all overwhelmed by chicken skin crackles - there for texture, but unbalanced given the other components. The turbot suffered the same fate - with a beautifully cooked fish and unctuous broth overwhelmed by a cakey breading atop the fish that didn't need to be there. Same with the lobster agnolotti - far too many components for a dish with such beautiful individual elements.

The result was muted flavors - not from poor cooking, but from too many components climbing on top of each other.

The last 1/3 of the meal was stellar. The lamb was the first dish I thought "Yes!! Properly seasoned!!" I've been fortunate to eat a lot of wagyu. Theirs was among the best Teresa and I have ever had.

Desserts were also outstanding. The cheese course was downright brilliant and worthy of 3 stars. 2nd best to the only dish I've ever "violently" defended. LOL. (See Prarial.) The carrot cake cone was too large, but so brilliant and yummy. Definitely a standout.

In the end, my struggle here is with the price point. I get that you're paying a Disney premium. But for $375/pp (before drinks and tip), there are better experiences to be had in Orlando (Sorekara and others) and even Tampa (Restaurant BT, Koya and others).

For those who are less experienced at fine dining, this place does come with all of the trimmings that makes it a special evening. Valet parking is even included with the reservation. (As the young valet explained, "because the dinner is so expensive". I startled him by jokingly replying "Oh. It's expensive?!?")

But if you have had the good fortunate to fine dine with regularity, the food averages out to good. 1 star, but that's it. And service that was just so uneven, I can't say I'll be running back for a revisit.