By Soarin’ Diva
One of the most difficult dining reservations to obtain recently is for one of Walt Disney World’s newest restaurants at Epcot, Space 220. For one of my more recent trips, I was unsuccessful in nabbing a coveted dining reservation, which was really disappointing because my husband and I had been wanting to go to Space 220 since it was announced that it was even coming into existence. If you know me though, I’m nothing if not determined when it comes to getting a reservation. I stalked My Disney Experience multiple times a day every day until a reservation dropped and I was able to quickly snatch it up for my husband and me.
The day came for our reservation and we couldn’t contain our excitement. Space 220 is located on the right side when entering Mission Space at Walt Disney World’s Epcot. We noticed a line of people sitting on the concrete outside the door, I can only assume it was a line of people who weren’t able to get a reservation and were hoping for a spot in the lounge. I confess, I would have been really disappointed to not go, but not disappointed enough to sit for hours on the concrete hoping for a spot, but to each his own. We gave our names to the Cast Member outside the door, who had us wait a moment, then sent us in to check-in at the lobby of the restaurant.
Once checked in, we were given a boarding pass and another Cast Member arrived to load us on the elevator. From the elevator, we shot up over the earth, into space. It was VERY cool to look down and see the Earth getting smaller and smaller as we jetted up into the atmosphere. Of course, Disney thinks of everything when it comes to themes!
When we exited the elevator, we were shown into the dining room where we were seated at our table. The dining room has an upper level, and a few steps down to a lower level as well. The upper level also hosts the lounge on the back wall where the bar is. We were seated on the upper level right above the lower level and, though it wasn’t right next to one of the amazingly large windows, it still had a wonderful view of all the windows and all the astronaut activity going on in space that was visible through the windows.
We ordered our food, which comes in three courses for dinner. For his starter course, my husband chose the Starry Calamari, which is obviously fried calamari, Italian cherry peppers, a spicy marinara, and roasted pepper citrus Aioli. I chose the Big Bang Burrata, which is Burrata di Mozarrella, grilled artichoke hearts, arugula and sunflower seed Romesco, for my starter. For drinks, we ordered off the non-alcoholic menu. I chose the Lightyear Lemonade, which is fresh-squeezed lemonade, butterfly pea tea, and mint my husband chose the Moonrocks, which has coconut, blue cotton candy syrup, lemonade, moon dust (whatever that is), and moon rocks, which is actually a pack of Pop Rocks that you sprinkle on top of the drink. My husband really enjoyed his Calamari, I thought my Big Bang Burrata was okay, not great, but not terrible. If we go back, I would most likely choose something else. It just seemed a little bland to me, I probably would have found a salad more to my liking. As far as the drinks, I really didn’t care for my lemonade and wouldn’t order it again, but I tried my husband’s drink and I thought his was really good. I would probably order the Moonrocks and since I don’t really like Pop Rocks, I would just leave those off. Also, just to mention, if you love free collectibles, all of the Zero Proof Cocktails come with a pack of free trading cards, which I thought was pretty cool.
For our main course, my husband chose the X2 Duck. This was a roasted and confit crescent duck with butternut squash flan, brussel sprouts, and an orange glaze. When our plates arrived, my husband initially thought the portion was a little on the small side, but he quickly came to realize it was more than enough to fill him up. He gave rave reviews of the duck, he absolutely loved it. I’m 100% positive he would order that again if it was still on the menu, he enjoyed it that much. I ordered the Florida Red Snapper. The snapper came with San Marzano tomato broth, fingerling potatoes, broccollini and Sicilian tapernade. I really enjoyed this dish. I actually became pretty full and wasn’t able to eat much of the vegetables, but I did give them a taste and they seemed quite good. I definitely recommend the snapper. I have noticed as I write this that they have changed how this dish is prepared and what it comes with now as well. My review can only be based on what we had when we ate in February, I can’t attest to what is currently being served, though I’m sure it’s probably pretty similar.
Now for the best part of any meal, the dessert! I ordered the Chocolate Cheesecake, of course, because I’m a chocoholic and I never turn down cheesecake. This is whipped chocolate ganache, cookie crumbs, chocolate sauce, white chocolate pearls and topped with dark chocolate shards. Exceedingly rich and very delightful and delicious! My husband wanted to try the Sticky Toffee Pudding Cake. This cake had dark chocolate sauce, caramel crunchy pearls, and of course a sweet toffee drizzle. I don’t see this on the menu for dinner now, I’m not sure if it’s still offered or not, but if it is, I know my husband really enjoyed it and would recommend it.
When we finished eating, I had one goal in mind before we left the restaurant. I wanted to see the bathroom. I think most of us have become used to Disney doing an incredible job designing bathrooms with theming that fits the area it’s in, so I expected no less from Space 220′s bathroom. Unfortunately, I was doomed for disappointment, as it was only a cold and sterile stainless steel bathroom, nothing really cool to look at. What the bathroom lacked in atmosphere (see what I did there), the restaurant itself made up for. It was really incredible to look out the windows as you eat and see astronauts float by having lightsaber battles, or taking selfies or space surfing. Disney really did an amazing job on the window view.
So, with all of this information at your fingertips, it’s up to you to decide if dining at Space 220 is worth the high price tag. At $79 per adult for dinner, it’s one of the more costly sit-down meals you can experience at Walt Disney World. For us, we only wanted to try it once to experience the atmosphere, and since then, my husband has said he would do it again in the future, so that tells me it was completely worth it for him. I have heard from others that didn’t care for their food at all, so it’s all dependent on what your tastes are. I went into this expecting to not like the food and only for the scenery, so I was happy to discover I did enjoy the meal, so it was worth it for me as well.
Would you like to give Space 220 a try? Contact our recommended travel agent, Patricia at All Dreams for Travel, and she can do all the work for you. Best of all, all of her services are FREE, all you have to do is click here to request a quote!
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