The American Pavilion in Epcot’s World Showcase has a counter service restaurant that serves up some incredible BBQ! 😋 The Regal Eagle Smokehouse opened in early 2020 (before the pandemic) and is located to the left of the American Adventure building. We visited it around lunchtime last week and wanted to give you our thoughts on this “quick-service” restaurant.
First of all, when you get anywhere close to the American Pavilion, you can smell the custom smoker doing its thing out in front of the restaurant (a very smart ploy to get people to drop money on food) . . . a great smelling BBQ is hard to resist! Currently, all food ordering for quick-service restaurants at Walt Disney World is done with the My Disney Experience app.
Screen capture of what you’ll see on the app:
Ordering on the app is easy:
Quickly locate the restaurant on the app, click on “Order Food”, & choose your arrival time window (listed in 30-minute increments). Next, scroll through the food selections & select the food/drinks that you want to order for your family, & place the order. Let the app know when you’re there and ready for them to start your order, and then the app will tell you that they are currently preparing your food.
When your food is ready, the app will let you know. The screen on your app will turn purple, & it will give you the window number you’ll need to go to in order to pick up your order. You’ll show your screen to the cast member at the door, and they will direct you from there to pick your order up! A very simple process, and to tell you the truth, we think it’s actually easier than telling a cast member behind a counter what you want to order (in a crowded line where half of the people are still trying to make up their minds about what they want).
My oldest son and I got the BBQ Burger: 1/3lb Angus burger topped with BBQ pork & garlic aioli between 2 slices of garlic toast, topped with a fried onion ring & served with a side (I got the baked beans with burnt ends, and he got the macaroni & cheese).
Here was our take on these 1/3 lb Angus burgers with pulled pork: INCREDIBLE, and dare I say “Life-Changing”? The bun is actually two thick pieces of buttery garlic toast and when you combine that with the fresh beef and the smoked pork piled on . . . it made this combination something that we’ve never experienced before! 😋 This flavor explosion scored a 10 out of 10 for us!
My wife ordered the North Carolina chopped smoked pork butt platter. It came with a slice of garlic toast & she chose onion rings as her side. The pork butt was good & had nice flavor, but she said there was a fair amount of fat in her portion, so she avoided eating some of the fatty pieces. The onion rings were fantastic!
Our other son had the sliced Texas beef brisket sandwich with the house-made pickles (these are more of a vinegar based cucumber & onion salad than what you would think of as traditional “pickles”, but they were very good!), & he had the berry punch to drink.
He enjoyed both his sandwich & the pickles. The punch was also very good & a nice change of pace from the usual Coke products. It is made of white grape juice with strawberry, peach & blackberry, so it was delicious & refreshing!
Have you experienced the Regal Eagle in Epcot, if so, what were your thoughts?