When it comes to unique dining experiences in Disney World, you’ve got a PLETHORA of options.

You could dine in castles or with your favorite characters. You could eat at a table shaped like a car, in a restaurant that’s made to mimic a drive-in movie theater. Or you could go incredibly upscale and try a AAA Five-Diamond restaurant with a multi-course meal. But today, we’re taking you along with us to EPCOT, where we recently visited a restaurant in an aquarium!

At Coral Reef Restaurant, you’re dining inside The Seas Pavilion, and one of the walls of the main dining room is made up of a MASSIVE tank filled will all kinds of sea creatures. It’s definitely a unique view!

On top of that, the restaurant serves a variety of seafood menu items (which may or may not make you feel a little weird to eat while watching the tank). In the past, some have regarded this restaurant as being pretty mediocre — so how did it stack up during our visit? Let’s take a deep dive! (Pun totally intended.)

Atmosphere

Let’s start with the atmosphere! As we previously mentioned, there’s a giant tank in the dining room. But the theming really starts before that, with a blue and green color scheme outside the building and ocean-inspired colors and textures on the walls near the check-in counter.

We were led down this hallway and into the dining room, which is a tiered space with three levels. The highest level is furthest away from the tank, while the lowest level is right up near the windows. If you’re here for the view, those are probably the best seats.

When we sat down, our table was set with appetizer plates and silverware. We were handed a menu to peruse, as well as a drink menu. There’s a mix of booths and tables with chairs throughout the restaurant, and the tabletops remind us a bit of the bottom of boats, with that metal material.

And of course, we have to mention that awesome tank again! Throughout our meal, we saw sharks, sea turtles, rays, and even a group of divers. Kids and adults alike would probably enjoy this.

In-between courses, we just sat and watched the tank. Honestly, so relaxing!

And if you’re interested in learning more about the creatures you spot, make sure to check out your menu. Ours came with a QR code that you could scan to view the “Coral Reef Restaurant Spotting Guide.”

It’s filled with information on various creatures, and it’s a great way to pass the time during your meal!

Now that we’ve covered the atmosphere, let’s talk about the menu.

Menu

First of all, we got a drink menu. There are plenty of cocktails to choose from, as well as a selection of non-alcoholic mocktails for those who don’t drink alcohol. Like other sit-down restaurants in Disney World, they also have wine and beer.

When it comes to the main menu, we’ve got four appetizer options. The Shrimp Cocktail, the Trio of Seasonal Dips, the New England Clam Chowder, and the Caesar Salad.

For entrees, there are six basic options that include Shrimp & Grits, a Grilled Vegetable Skewer, Slow-roasted Prime Rib, Cajun Chicken Pasta, Seared Mahi-Mahi, and Orange-glazed Sustainable Salmon.

There are four desserts as well. (Honestly, the menu here is pretty small compared to some other Disney restaurants we’ve been to.) You can get the Key Lime Tart, Baileys Almande and Jack Daniel’s Mousse, The Chocolate Wave, or the Mixed Berry Mousse to cap off your meal.

The dessert menu is a separate menu they bring out after you’re done with the entrees. So what did we try? Time for our review!

Drinks

To start, we got two mocktails to try! First up is the Agave Garden for $11. It’s made with Lyre’s Agave Reserva Spirit, cold-pressed lime juice, passionfruit-papaya-green tea, and cucumber. It’s a VERY green drink!

What the description failed to mention is that our beverage came topped with a slice of jalapeño as well. Some of the seeds were still intact and that little spice definitely changed up the flavor composition of the drink. The cucumber smell was quite strong, and we could mostly taste cucumber, lime, and jalapeño from the flavor perspective. There was a tiny bit of spice in the drink that warms your throat, and if you accidentally bite a seed (like we did!) it’ll certainly kick things up a notch.

If the color green had a taste, this would be it! It’s not exactly a flavor combination that we loved, but you might enjoy it if you’re a big cucumber or jalapeño fan.

Our second beverage was the Pink London Spritzer for $11 as well. It’s made with Lyre’s Pink London Spirit, grapefruit soda, pomegranate-green tea, lime, and mint. This one was a little more to our taste!

It’s very tart, and it’s not really sweet at all. You’re certainly getting the “soda water flavor,” so if that’s your jam, then you might really love this. It mostly reminded us of pink lemonade, and we got the lime flavor, but we didn’t really taste the mint at all. 

Of the two drinks, we liked this one a bit better, but you might want to avoid it if you’re not into sparkling water. People who drink things like LaCroix will probably enjoy this.

So now that we’re all hydrated, let’s eat some food!

Eats

We selected two appetizers to try out, starting with the Trio of Seasonal Dips for $12. It’s served on a platter with carrots, yellow peppers, red peppers, celery, and broccoli, along with some herb crackers.

The three dips that we were given were a white bean with chermoula, a roasted red pepper hummus, and an olive tapenade. The white bean was probably our favorite of the three — the flavor wasn’t too strong, but it tasted similar to a mild hummus. Very light and smooth.

The roasted red pepper hummus was smooth and delicious. It was tangy on its own but a little spicy if you scooped up some of the jelly on top. We liked it best with the jelly, but once that was gone, it was a pretty basic hummus like what you would buy at the store.

The olive tapenade was the one that ranked lowest for us. It was pretty hard to scoop and VERY heavy on the olive flavor. (You might love it if olive is your favorite food!) It was chewy and earthy, so definitely very different from the other two. Overall, we thought the dips were a little basic, and we might order something more specialized for an appetizer in the future.

But don’t worry — our second appetizer saved the day! The New England Clam Chowder is available for $10 and it’s made with baby clams, Applewood-smoked bacon, potatoes, and cream. And you guys…this was GOOD.

It was VERY creamy and served nice and warm. There are good-sized clam chunks through and the bacon on top was a little chewy, which really mingled well with the chewy clam texture. The potato chunks were a good size as well, and we even spotted some small bits of chopped celery. The flavor of the clam really seeps into the soup base and makes everything cohesive.

We had more food to eat after this, but we ate the whole bowl happily. It was THAT yummy. If you’re a clam chowder fan, we’d probably recommend this as the appetizer of choice.

And as a little bonus, you also get a complimentary bread service here! Our server brought the bread out a little late, but made up for it by bringing us a Mickey-shaped surprise. 😉

They’re pretty basic dinner rolls and they come with a small pat of butter. But when the bread is served warm, you just can’t resist! These are fluffy and altogether a delicious crowd-pleaser. We were told that you could get refills on bread as well.

Now time for the main course! We ordered the Orange-glazed Sustainable Salmon, which is $29. It comes with a vegetable stir fry and shiitake sticky rice.

The glaze on the salmon is sweet with a slight tanginess from the orange, and the salmon itself is moist but could use a little bit of salt. We really enjoyed the garnish on top, which added some overall brightness to the salmon when eaten together. If you grab a bite with the salmon, shiitake rice, and garnish, the flavors are all really well balanced between tangy, earthy, and bright.

However, the “stir fry” left us a little disappointed. There were only a few vegetables, including some chopped-up mushrooms, carrots, peppers, and one green bean. They were pretty basic, and didn’t add much to the overall dish.

In general, we were hoping for a slightly larger portion of food for the price you pay. It wasn’t the best salmon we’d ever eaten and the size (as well as the size of the veggies) was on the small side.

But yet again, we have something coming up to redeem the meal! For dessert, we ordered the Baileys Almande and Jack Daniel’s Mousse. It’s $9.50 and is made with chocolate ganache and candied almonds. It’s also plant-based, but be warned that it contains alcohol products if you’re allergic.

This and the clam chowder were our favorite things we ate! It’s quite rich and comes encased in a chocolate shell that tasted like dark chocolate. There are raspberries on the side that were tangy and fresh, and paired really perfectly with the chocolate flavors.

The chocolate mousse was rich and smooth and had crumbled candied almonds on the bottom. The mousse on top had a bit more texture to it, and definitely had a hint of alcohol flavor, but it wasn’t overwhelming. The ganache on the very top was also smooth and rich and reminded us of chocolate frosting from a can…but in a good way!

We would definitely order this dessert again, and it was a highlight of the meal! So what did we think overall?

Overall

The atmosphere is probably the main reason that you’re planning a meal at Coral Reef, and we certainly don’t blame you for that. If you get a table down in the front near the tank, it’s a true winner with a spectacular view. However, those sitting further away might be a bit disappointed.

The food was up and down throughout our meal. While the trio of dips felt like something we could buy at the grocery store, the Clam Chowder was a soup we’d go back again just to order. The salmon left us a little underwhelmed, but the dessert helped make up for that. It seems that it REALLY matters what you order here, but if you pick wisely, you could end up with a delicious meal. (Oh, and they have surprisingly good dinner rolls!)

As far as the non-food portion of our meal goes, we should warn you that this was a LONG lunch. We ordered all three courses, but in total, our meal was about 2.5 hours. Some of that time was accounted for by taking photos and notes on the food, but service was a bit slower here than at other Disney restaurants we’ve been to. The tank and fish were there to keep us entertained, but you probably won’t want to plan this meal on a day when you’re in a hurry.

Nosh or Not

Take a trip under the sea and dine at Coral Reef if…

• You have some ocean-lovers in your family. This is truly a pretty unique experiences that you won’t find many places — the tank at The Seas is the second largest in the U.S. and there are some awesome sea creatures to check out. The spotting guide makes it all the more interesting.
• You have a hankering for seafood. While there are seafood dishes at other restaurants in EPCOT, this is the one true “seafood” sit-down restaurant. If fish and shrimp are what you want, that’s on the menu here!
• You’re doing two days in EPCOT and you want to try something different. Maybe you’ve been to EPCOT a bunch of times or you’ve got two days in the park so you’re not limited on time. If you’re not rushing to make it to World Showcase and you have time to kill in the front of the park, this might be a fun meal if you haven’t done it before.

Just keep swimming past if…

• You want the BEST table service meal in EPCOT. Listen, EPCOT is a BANGER when it comes to delicious food. There are places like Le Cellier and Monsieur Paul in the World Showcase, along with Garden Grill and Space 220 in the front of the park. Even though parts of the meal were good, this is definitely not the BEST food in EPCOT.
• You’re visiting EPCOT for a festival. This is a great meal to try when you’re in-between festivals, but if you’re coming for Food & Wine or Flower & Garden…go eat at festival booths instead. Those items are more limited offerings!
• You’re limited on time. As we mentioned above, this was a LONG meal. If you don’t have two hours to spare, you might want to find a faster table service or stop by a quick service spot instead.

All in all, we had some great service at Coral Reef and some of those eats were amazing! Would we pick this as one of our must-try spots? Probably not. But if you’re looking for something niche and interesting — go for it!

We’ll keep you updated with more restaurant reviews and thoughts on all the food in Disney World, so stay tuned to DFB!

Click Here to Read Our Review of Garden Grill Next Door!

Have you ever been to this restaurant? Tell us your thoughts in the comments!