Magic Kingdom offers so many wonderful experiences for guests. You can find attractions for all ages. You can find shows and character interactions to make everyone smile. The parades, cavalcades, and fireworks create a magical day. Still, a day at Magic Kingdom presents the difficulty of survival. When I say survival, I mean making it through the day without your feet giving out. This potential negative grows if staying off-site. Your day begins at the Transportation and Ticket Center. You then must navigate your way across the lagoon to the Magic Kingdom entrance. Since you wanted to arrive early, your day will be long to make it to fireworks that night.

As a theme park food blogger, my concern for people in this situation revolves around settling for overpriced below average quality counter service food inside Magic Kingdom. Sure, you could settle for a below average burger at Cosmic Ray’s. Yes, the basic hot dogs at Casey’s Corner will suffice. Yet, what do you do if you want a a good meal? You could make a reservation for a table service dining option within Magic Kingdom. This choice brings air conditioning, a beverage, and an actual place to sit.

If you decide to take a break from the business of Magic Kingdom with table-service dining, your choices are mostly average (The Plaza, for example) and/or expensive (Be Our Guest, for example). However, I would suggest an alternative. Have you considered taking an early afternoon break to go dine at one of the monorail resort hotels? Since you are already at Magic Kingdom, the monorail trip will be short. Also, you get to see a deluxe level resort hotel at Walt Disney World. To recharge yourself for the rest of the day and night, this excursion outside Magic Kingdom might be perfect.

As you might deduce, I suggest making a reservation at Steakhouse 71 located within the Contemporary Resort. When checking reservations 55-60 days in advance, lunch spots were open but very few.

As you may know, this restaurant used to be called The Wave. After some redesigning of the space and the menu, Steakhouse 71 became a highly desired reservation. Steakhouse 71 serves three different menus with a breakfast one, a lunch one, and a dinner menu. The lunch and dinner menus share some similar menu items but not many.

In the first few weeks of Steakhouse 71 opened in October 2021, I visited here for lunch in a large group. My primary purpose that day involves testing out the burger here. Having been back a few more times, I can attest this place offers excellent lunch options. The “Crab Cake Sliders” here provide a great example. Even crab cake snobs find these crab cakes high quality. Now, this is Walt Disney World so you should expect high quality at their deluxe resorts. These sliders cost $19. The menu description sounds wonderful. It reads lump crab cakes, old bay remoulade, tomato, pickled slaw on a brioche bun. These sliders come with a choice of sides (petite wedge salad, parmesan fries, or pasta salad).

Before I describe the sliders, a few words should be said about the sides. Though improvement has happened, the sides pull the lunch down. In fact, with an incredible onion ring appetizer, these sides pale in comparison. For this entrée, I would get fries. If you decide to get the other two, beg for less dressing and/or oil. Both tend to get soggy. The flavors work but texture suffers.

Regarding the crab cake sliders, these sliders taste exceptional. The crab cake offers way better flavor than the previous version with The Wave. My main negative revolves around the sliders being a bit small. Still, you get two of them. Also, the piece of crab cake looks tall. I advise gently pushing the top piece of bread down on the crab cake before taking a bite.

Far away, the star of these sliders is the crab cake itself. The crunchy outer portion looks and tastes exactly as it should. The crab cake interior presents a soft texture. The sweetness of the crab meat balances well with the spice of the Old Bay Remoulade. Yet, Jeremy Stein, of Main Street Magic Podcast, would suggest the crab cake slider could use a little more “Old Bay” seasoning. Jeremy meets my crab cake snob definition. He knows good crab cake and approves of these.

The flavor and consistency of the brioche bun adds to the enjoyment of these sliders. This lunch menu item provides value, quality, and an overall light lunch. This lunch should charge you back up for rest of your day at Magic Kingdom.

Since Steakhouse 71 has been open less than a year, reservations are coveted here. MouseDining offers subscription plans to help you get this reservation as well as many others. If you want to enjoy excellent dining options like this for your Walt Disney World vacation, consider signing up for a subscription to get alerts when hard to find reservations become available. I respect that planning a table service reservation can feel like it takes away some of the magic. Still, eating nothing but counter service chicken tenders and below average burgers will not help the magic either. As always, eat like you mean it!