Disney’s Steakhouse 71 offers retro flavors with ‘Contemporary’ flair
Salisbury steak dates to well before the 1970s, but you cannot separate the dish from the TV dinners those of us who lived the decade remember. So, when the mad scientists of Walt Disney World’s Flavor Lab began spinning up ideas for Steakhouse 71, this pop-culture classic was hot-listed.
Two formidable patties — a blend of brisket and chuck — rest atop a luxe bed of garlic mashed potatoes amid a translucent chestnut wash of mushroom gravy. Fried onions, errant and artfully scattered with flecks of green onion and parsley, offer up tantalizing visual texture that delivers tenfold upon taste. All of it begs for mopping with a torn swath of sea salt-dusted potato brioche.
I know photographers in Orlando’s food community who could make its earthy tones look appealing. Because frankly, it is. I, however, couldn’t do it justice. And so, words.
Here are a few more: This ain’t Hungry-Man.
So, if you feel like recapturing that nostalgia, with a colossal Contemporary Resort upgrade, here’s your chance. It’ll run you $22 as you get a peek of the space’s transformation.
Steakhouse 71, formerly The Wave, was timed with Walt Disney World’s 50th anniversary and gets a storyline to match.
The corridor leading to the host station is lined with photographs of what was then called “The Florida Project.” Construction, design, Walt and many of the park’s major players, all of it leading up to a grand portrait of the Magic Kingdom on opening day.
It’s a nice place to kill time, perhaps with one of the bar’s new craft cocktails in hand, if you’re waiting for a table. Which you certainly might be.
“It’s amazing what a story and a themed menu will do,” says proprietor Darlene Cipriano. “Our food was amazing at The Wave … though we always had reservations available. But we changed into a steakhouse and now we’re slammed.”
Indeed business was brisk on my lunch visit. Dinner was wall-to-wall. Reservations are mandatory, I’d venture, though seats were available at the bar — where a couple was dining as I ordered a fig Manhattan ($16).
It was tasty (definitely
figgy, though a tad sweet for my taste) but their’s — a gorgeous amber fish bowl for two — gave me drink envy.
It’s called the 71 Sunset ($26) — at nighttime, anyway; order it at breakfast (which people do more often than you’d expect, says Cipriano) and it’s the 71 Sunrise, instead. “The shared cocktail has always been popular here,” says Cipriano, chuckling. The Wave’s Seven Seas Lagoon “was this big, obnoxious blue drink with Swedish Fish and boba and little peach rings … We sold a million of them!”
A popular stop for monorail crawls, The Contemporary has done up another Instagrammable wonder with the drink, with its Mary Blair aesthetic and, again, ’70s inspiration. It’s a take on the tequila sunrise, with POG juice (a dreamy blend of passion, orange and guava) instead of straight OJ.
It’s one I’d go back for, perhaps alongside some of the best onion rings I’ve ever had. I have Disney’s plant-based dining mission to thank, as these massive bangles ($9) are handbreaded, not battered, and a true labor of love.
“It’s hours of work every single day,” says chef Barry Montville, whose team worked for days to perfect an eggless binding method.
A top seller, they’d pair marvelously with the Stack Burger ($20 including choice of side), which our server touted as “possibly the best burger in Disney World.”
I haven’t had all that many Disney burgers, but this one’s gotta be up there.
“At The Wave, our executive chef really enjoyed burgers so we began playing with different versions … we continued to add things as each day he’d come by to have lunch, and what we landed on here is a variation of that, a smash burger with pork belly, lemon aioli, housemade pickles and American
cheese with a brioche bun our bakery makes fresh every day —buttery and toasty.”
The French onion soup, too ($10), was a standout — balanced with gratinéed cheese (provolone, Gruyere, Parmesan, mozzarella) that goes for miles, possibly literally, though I
didn’t do a formal pull.
It features a wealth of oniony input from Spanish and Vidalia onions, shallots and more, all of it caramelized for five hours.
“We use a little flour to bind it, then reduce it with some veal stock for another two to three until we get the proper flavor and consistency,” says Montville. A little port wine, some sourdough and that hefty blanket of cheese make this one worthy of checking out.
Sunday dinner was jammed, but service was as swift and on-point as lunch. The Steakhouse Cuts section beckoned.
While my companion opted for the Florida sustainable fish en papillote, on this night, grouper (and excellent at $30), I went big: 12-ounce roasted prime rib and classic Yorkshire pudding at $38, a
Disney best buy for sure ( just two ounces more runs $52 at the Yachtsman).
Served alongside red wine-glazed mushrooms, the formidable slab was tender and juicy and, says Montville, one of the best-sellers.
Slab is also a word I’d use to describe the venue’s eponymous chocolate cake ($10). Comprised of Jack Daniels simple syrup-infused devil’s food cake, milk chocolate pastry cream and a Valrhona dark chocolate blend, its 15 layers rep the 15 floors of the Contemporary.
Finished with dark chocolate ganache, the towering wedge stands upright, selling itself as it makes its way through the dining room.
You also can continue with the retro theme with Montville’s favorite, the ambrosia ($8), a modern presentation of another much-older dish that enjoyed a ’70s spike in popularity.
“It’s a true throwback,” he says, “with hints of pineapple and mandarin orange, orange curd, mini marshmallows, coconut cake … the raspberry couli on the side ties it all together.”
It’s fun and colorful for a family-friendly steakhouse — one with pricing that in the Mouse’s realm is inarguably friendly — as are the nods to the decade that Disney came to town.
As such, if you like pina coladas, and gettin’ caught in the rain — and especially if you’re a proud, longtime passholder — you’re gonna love it here.
IF YOU GO Steakhouse 71: 4600 N. World Drive in Lake Buena Vista; 407-824-1000; disneyworld.disney.go.com/ dining/contemporary-resort/ steakhouse-71
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