Disney's Version of the Lunch Special

Yikes!

I get that this is about the "experience" of eating lunch while looking at the earth from space but I cannot see the practical side of me ever spending $280 for lunch no matter how much money I have or how good of resolution the TV screens have. And on the flip side, if I had more money than I knew what to do with, I would expect better for $280.

At least they throw in the very plain looking scoop of ice cream for "free" with the kids meal.

I am unimpressed by the menu. I don't mind paying for an extra good meal now and then, but if I'm going to do it, the food better blow me away.

Agreed on the uninspired menu. I expected more from Patina.

$70 a person isn't bad if the food is good. However whether or not the food is good you won't know until you try it. Is this one of those places where the experience is worth the price when the food is just your normal theme park restaurant food?

All I got out of that piece is the author spent $29 on food service chicken tenders for her kid.

Is that pricing all that far off from other Disney sit-down restaurants?

Too bad they couldn’t have coordinated this with Mission: Space where you go through the “launch” with a different storyline that you’re docking with the space station, then exit the ride a different way into the restaurant.

The pricing is pretty similar to other upper tier dining in the parks: Be Our Guest, Royal Table, Le Cellier, Brown Derby, Tusker House. All are very similar. The value is in the eye of the beholder.

We would like to experience but weren't able to get a reservation this trip. We'll try again next time.

Space is even a little worse than most of those. BOG is $62 for 3 courses. Space is $55 for 2, $79 (!) for 3. I don't mind paying those prices if the food is good. Tiffins in AK is fantastic. Brown Derby can be a little hit or miss, but is usually pretty good. Citrico's at the Grand Flo is very good, as is Jiko at AKL.

Space looks like wedding/convention standards at high-end restaurant prices.

In that vein, I don't get Le Cellier. When they first went Signature, the menu was excellent. I happened to be there opening week, and had a venison dish that was superb. That menu lasted a month or two, and now they are back to more or less the old "standard steakhouse" menu at the new prices.

Back in the "good old days" Le Cellier had one of the best filets I have ever eaten. Combined with the cheese soup and pretzel bread and I would eat there whenever I could. But as good as it is, it's not signature price worthy.

I last went to Le Cellier about two years ago. I don't eat red meat, and chicken isn't technically on the menu, but I had it anyway. It was pretty good, service was excellent. Diana had some form of steak, said it was among the best prepared she's ever had.

$280? I guess it would have been a little less without the drinks...but that is still pretty high. It is a unique experience...so there is that. I've eaten at the Skylon Tower in Niagara Falls a few times. The menu was good but not spectacular...but you pay for the view. This space view is fake...but I guess it is still unique.

Sounds like something I would try once and not repeat.

wahoo skipper said:

Sounds like something I would try once and not repeat.

That's what I'm thinking too...and it's not necessarily even high enough on my Epcot list to make the cut unless I've got a long trip in the Epcot resort area.

I'm not there often enough to get tired of fitting in a parrillada for one dinner. Looks like they ditched the meat version, which is okay--I prefer the seafood one.

I am really underwhelmed by this place. Take away the elevator ride and space views and you have a Tomorrowland cafeteria with an expensive prix fixe menu.

I've heard that it's not hard to get a walkup reservation, and it's much cheaper if you sit in the lounge (same experience, cheaper a la carte menu).
https://www.disneyfoodblog.com/2021/09/22/photos-and-full-review-of...-in-space/

If it's an experience you want to try but don't especially care about the food or can't get a ressie, I've heard nothing but positive experiences of walk up lounging.

When did Disney dining get so expensive? Last time I was at Be Our Guest you could score some ratatouille for around $20.

I don't get the fuss about Le Cellier. I wasn't terribly impressed with the steak I had there many moons ago. For the price I can get a much better steak at several steakhouses within a 30 minute drive of my house.

I feel that way too.

I've had some really good meals at Disney, but I qualify that as great for an amusement park. It's not anything so spectacular that I couldn't get it elsewhere at a restaurant, but it's a damn good menu for a park. For example, the big meat platter at Whispering Canyon was great, but I can get some damn good brisket, ribs, and chicken locally and it doesn't cost me $35. Would I go back? Definitely, because in the context of being at a park, that's a great meal.

And I'm talking specifically about sit down restaurants. The counter service locations are pretty much all standard mass produced fare. The chicken fingers, fries, and pizza are the same crap that everyone else buys from Sysco.

Sidenote: I feel the same way when people rave about Knoebel's food. I feel that it's good, but not anything mind blowing. It's just that it's decent quality and cheaper than most parks.

Well, most of the counter service stuff is "better." You only have to cross town to Universal to see worse (Potter locations excluded). Legoland is even worse. The standard Disney chicken fingers are pretty solid, and the same thing they have on DCL.

We had a meal in the Potter restaurant just inside the main entrance to (I think) Hogsmead. I think it was supposed to be a British menu? It was nasty. But it was quality nasty.

I don't really recall any specific meals outside of Potterland at Universal, so I guess that's neither good nor bad? Regardless, chicken fingers>Rip, Ride, Rocket.