As far as dining in Disney World goes, Magic Kingdom isn’t necessarily our top spot.
Cinderella Castle at Magic Kingdom
Of course, we can’t resist stopping by the Spring Roll Cart or checking out any new secret menu items at Skipper Canteen, but for the most part, there are better restaurants elsewhere in Disney World. One Magic Kingdom spot that has left us salty (literally) in the past is Tony’s Town Square. We recently spotted some menu changes at Tony’s and decided to head on over to see if the new menu items were worth a visit!
Tucked away in Main Street, U.S.A.’s Town Square is Tony’s Town Square Restaurant. This Lady and the Tramp-themed spot serves up Italian food with stellar Main Street Views.
Time for Tony’s!
We haven’t sung its praises in the past and neither have many of our readers, but could the new menu offerings change our tune? Let’s dig in and find out!
Atmosphere
First things first, let’s check out the atmosphere of Tony’s. You’ll find it directly next to the Town Square Theater at the front of Magic Kingdom. You can make a reservation ahead of time or you can join the Walk-Up Waitlist by using the My Disney Experience app. At the time we joined the waitlist, there was an estimated 10-minute wait.
©Disney
There are three dining areas inside Tony’s, including an outdoor patio, an indoor sunroom, and an indoor dining room. The sunroom has beautiful views of Main Street, U.S.A. and as a bonus, it’s air-conditioned!
Great views
Inside the restaurant, you’ll find TONS of references to Lady and Tramp, like this gorgeous Lady and the Tramp fountain.
Lady and the Tramp
The main dining room has a black and white checkerboard floor with both table seating and booths.
Dining Room
Now, let’s move on to the main event — the new menu items!
Menu
Tony’s recently overhauled their menu to include more “upscale” Italian dishes. There are the Anitpasti and Secondi Piatti offerings…
©Disney
… some decadent desserts…
©Disney
… and your typical kids’ menu!
©Disney
Tony’s also offers a selection of wine, beer, and one wine cocktail.
©Disney
Food
After looking at the new items, we decided to start with some Antipasti, and first up was the Toy Box Tomato Salad. For $12, you get marinated tomatoes with torn burrata cheese, cucumbers, focaccia, pickled onions, and basil.
Toy Box Tomato Salad
We thought it was…just okay. The vegetables were fresh but the burrata cheese definitely needed more salt, which was ironic considering our last review. The serving size is quite small for the price tag and really this wasn’t too fulfilling.
Toy Box Tomato Salad
Of course, it wouldn’t be an Italian restaurant without…CARBS. So, we ordered recently added Tony’s Garlic Bread for the Table, which included toasted ciabatta with roasted garlic-butter and parmesan fonduta for $11.
Tony’s Garlic Bread
Honestly, this garlic bread was the STAR of our whole meal. The bread was heavy on the garlic (not a problem for us) and the sauce was like a creamy parmesan Alfredo sauce, and it worked perfectly with the garlic bread. We might never look at garlic bread the same again — that’s how incredible it was.
YUM
Get a closer look at these appetizers in our video below!
Who’s ready for some lunch? 👋
One word: CHEESE 🧀
We’re starting our new at Tony’s Town Square with Tony’s Garlic Bread for the Table 🧄🥖 and the Toy Box Tomato Salad 🍅 pic.twitter.com/mQdi2dQFW7
— Disney Food Blog (@DisneyFoodBlog) May 11, 2022
Next up, we wanted to check out the new Secondi Piatti items. We started with the new Oven-Roasted Shrimp Scampi — shrimp with lemon, roasted garlic-butter, and white wine served with crispy parmesan potatoes for $30.
Oven-roasted Shrimp Scampi
We haven’t always had a good experience with shrimp dishes at Tony’s, but this Shrimp Scampi was excellent! It had a strong garlic taste that balanced perfectly with the butter sauce, and we really enjoyed it. It was a great portion size too!
So good
Another new dish on Tony’s menu is the Penne with Chicken Al Forno. It’s made with roasted chicken, caramelized onions, and mushrooms, baked in a spicy creamy tomato sauce and topped with mozzarella. But is it worth $26?
Penne with Chicken Al Forno
We thought the chicken was cooked really well and there was enough cheese to balance out the mushroom flavors. Our reporter wasn’t a huge mushroom fan but felt that there weren’t too many mushrooms, so if you don’t like them you can easily eat around them. This dish was pretty good!
Penne with Chicken Al Forno
Is it a surprise to you that we love cheese? See these dishes up close in our video below!
And surprise to no one, our entrees have MORE CHEESE 🧀 🧀
If nothing, we’re consistent 😉
Our Tony’s Town Square entrees are the Oven-roasted Shrimp Scampi 🍤 and Penne with Chicken Al Forno 🍗🍅 pic.twitter.com/tEIEeVdpL9
— Disney Food Blog (@DisneyFoodBlog) May 11, 2022
We also tried some new desserts! Tony’s Spumoni Tart was a flourless chocolate cake, pistachio cream, and dark cherry mousse for $9. It had an artificial cherry flavor that we didn’t hate, but it was VERT tart.
Tony’s Spumoni Tart
The pistachio cream was somewhat savory and we felt like it was there more for the color than the flavor, especially when it came to cutting the treat in half. Overall, the tart was just okay.
It looks very Neopolitan
Finally, we ordered the Mandarincello Custard. You’ve heard of Limoncello? Enter its Mandarin-orange cousin, Mandarincello served with almond biscotti for $8. The custard had a strong citrus taste and it was very thick — think less creme brulee and more straight custard. If you like orange-flavored desserts, you might enjoy this.
Mandarincello Custard
Which dessert would you choose?
We still whole heartedly believe cheese can be dessert 😘🧀
But we’re trying Tony’s Spumoni Tart 🍒 and Mandarincello Custard 🍊
It’s still the dairy family at least 😅 pic.twitter.com/4hXBonqySC
— Disney Food Blog (@DisneyFoodBlog) May 11, 2022
Nosh or Not
You SHOULD try the new items at Tony’s if…
- You already enjoy eating at Tony’s Town Square Restaurant and you’re looking for Italian dishes at Magic Kingdom. These new menu items might not be earth-shattering but we did enjoy a few of them! We will say, you can find better Italian dishes in Disney Springs and EPCOT though.
- You’re really into garlic bread. Like really into it. We won’t judge if you join the Walk-Up Waitlist just to try that garlic bread!
- You’re looking for a restaurant with good Main Street, U.S.A. views. If you are seated on the porch, you can get an excellent view of the Festival of Fantasy Parade or the 50th Anniversary Cavalcade.
You should SKIP trying Tony’s new menu if…
- You want really upscale Italian food. Even with these new menu additions, they might not be what you’d consider “upscale” Italian food. You might want to try Via Napoli in EPCOT if that’s what you’re looking for. These dishes are basic and the restaurant has proved to be very hit or miss.
- You have a limited dining budget. The Shrimp Scampi is $30 and the Penne with Chicken Al Forno is $26, so this isn’t exactly cheap dining.
- You want a relaxing meal. We felt a little rushed during our meal so this might not be the place to sit and visit. You could instead grab a quick service meal where you can generally sit as long as you like.
Overall
So, would we come back to Tony’s for the new dishes? We’d love to come back just for the garlic bread, but we’re not sure if we’d return just for the other new menu items. While Tony’s Garlic Bread was a fairly reasonable price of $11, the entree prices and the rushed atmosphere make us hesitant to return.
If you’re already a fan of Tony’s, these new menu items might be an even bigger incentive to visit, but they don’t quite deliver “upscale” Italian for us, even if we enjoyed a few of the new menu options. If you don’t care about that and you’re looking for an excellent Magic Kingdom location with great views, you might consider it worth a visit.
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Samantha: We have been to Tony’s 3 times fairly recently. The second time in was frankly substandard. So, we went in in January with low expectations. Wow, what a pleasant surprise. From wait time to service to food, everything was awesome. The food was upscale and tasty with good sized portions. We even beat the price increase. It was so good, I had our server bring over the Tony’s manager. When I told her our experiences and the noticeable turn around, you could tell she was really moved. So, to the doubters, I understand your reluctance. Still, maybe give Tony’s one more chance.
When I read the headline, I totally thought this was going to be about Pinocchio Village Haus ROFL!
Is Tony’s really MK’s most hated restaurant? I avoided Tony’s for years because people talked bad about it, but I finally tried it and now it’s one of my faves! It’s way better and way less expensive than the last meal I had at Cinderella’s Castle for sure. Personally speaking, I can’t wait to go back to Tony’s!
I agree…
Upscale is never my goal. To me that just means really nice atmosphere & expensive food. All I actually want is delicious food. Most of the time when traveling the best food is found in obscure little hole in the wall restaurants where someone is cooking old family recipes. I know that can’t be accomplished at Disney, but maybe delicious food should be their goal. Also fwiw Disney food prices make me angry. They’re unjustifiable. I miss the fun part of going to Disney but I’m falling in love with exploring the world, whether it’s close to home, on the other side of the world or somewhere in between. Familiar is nice but new is exciting! I never in a million years thought I’d say this but I might be ok never going back to a Disney park again, even though it used to feel like home. (I haven’t been since c0v!d) just my thoughts, zero judging anyone else’s experiences or choices.
I’ve been to Tony’s several times over the last three years and each time has been a terrible disappointment. The food is terrible, even by theme park standards. I really hope the food has improved…they need all the help they can get there!
We ate Toni’s last week and horrible doesn’t begin to describe the food. The bread was not edible nor where the entrees . I heard It compared to the Olive Garden, not even close. We would eat at the Olive Garden any day. Had to find some place else to eat after we left, a total waste of money.
We ate at Tony’s on our visit at the beginning of May. We have been big fans of this restaurant for years. They used to start the table off with bread and herbed oil …that is gone. Now if you want bread it’s $15 garlic bread.
The amount of food was a decent amount and very good. Now portions are small and prices have doubled. My family of five adults all agreed , we will not go back until the chef is replaced and menu is changed.
Pizza gone! We always got the pizza.
We ate at Tony’s in October 2020. We thought it was a nice experience. The food was good as well as the service. I was surprised at others bad reviews. This would be my pick for Magic Kingdom.
I love Tony’s! We eat there every time we go to Disney World and have never been disappointed in the atmosphere, service, or the food.
We always tend to eat at Tony’s, on the porch, especially if there is a parade. I’m not happy with these changes on paper at least, have not tried myself yet. No complementary bread service to start out? They changed my favorite item the shrimp scampi pasta dish. I’m very hesitant on the new option. We will see in Nov when I go. I’m might be eating the Fettuccine Alfrado with shrimp as a new alternative.