Delicious Disney! Eating steak and sushi on a foodie tour of Mickey's Florida resort  

By Lizzy Dening

Published: 11:30 EDT, 8 October 2013 | Updated: 11:39 EDT, 8 October 2013

What springs to mind when you think of Walt Disney World? Rollercoasters? Cinderella’s castle? A certain round-eared rodent? Whatever it is, it almost certainly won’t be haute cuisine.

Traditionally home to nothing more exotic than hamburgers and fizzy drinks, the culinary side of this enormous Floridian resort - roughly the size of San Francisco - has come a long way since its opening in 1971, and now embraces a host of delicacies from around the world, from lobster bisque to spicy tagines, Caribbean beef ribs to hand-made gnocchi, seared scallops to crème brûlée.

Le menu, s'il vous plait: Disney's Beauty and the Beast Be Our Guest restaurant whisks guests into the French countryside and...

...serves up hearty French cuisine

When my boyfriend, Ross, and I went on an adults-only trip to take in its six parks in Orlando, we were determined to try some tempting dishes, and – thankfully – because Disney realises grown-ups need a treat as well, we also had a keen eye for a cocktail or two.

Our visit coincided with the re-launch of the California Grill, a stylish, simply decorated restaurant at one of the resort’s hotels, the Contemporary, where the food (and the view) does the talking.

Celebrated for its steaks and sushi, we sampled grilled salmon and amazingly zingy tuna dragon rolls, accompanied by prawn tempura and generous strips of ginger and pickled cucumber. Even though my belt was considerably tighter afterwards, I was powerless to resist an adorable platter of miniature ice cream sundaes, which featured a Lilliputian-sized Coke float.

An occupational hazard of dining at the California Grill at around 9pm is an inability to direct food accurately towards your mouth – a by-product of staring from the enormous windows directly over the Magic Kingdom’s nightly firework display.

Another culinary hot ticket is a table at the Beauty and the Beast-themed Be Our Guest restaurant. Here, lunch is available as a ‘quick dine’, which includes steak sandwiches, quinoa salads and refillable soft drinks.

You enter via a hallway of rather chatty suits of armour, are ushered into the Beast’s study to order, and are given an ‘enchanted rose’ to help the waiters find your table.

Then it’s simply a matter of deciding which of the three rooms to settle in – my favourite was the snowy-windowed main ballroom, an exact match of where Belle and the Beast share their first dance but a close second is the West Wing, which reflects the film’s darker moments, with a storm ranging in the windows, a rose hologram which slowly loses its petals, and a portrait which changes under flashes of lightning.

Dinner is a grander affair, and – hurrah – wine is served! (Top tip for frazzled parents: it’s currently the only venue in the Magic Kingdom section of the resort to sell alcohol, so it’s worth booking in advance).

The menu follows a loosely French theme (though I’m not sure purists would agree...) with the most popular dishes being coq au vin, and desserts including ‘the grey stuff’, as mentioned in the line: ‘Try the grey stuff, it’s delicious/Don’t believe me, ask the dishes!’

What exactly is it? Here it corresponds to a sugary, cream frosting – beware resulting hyperactivity - which was previously only available on special occasions, but is now on both lunch and dinner menus in different guises.

You may even be lucky enough to have a visit from the hairy master of the house, who is on his best behaviour and gives an excellent hug.

And your waiters tonight are...the park's most famous characters play a role in the restaurants

Of course, there remain a number of fast food cafes, which retain all the traditional queues and cholesterol you might expect, and where you might be hard pushed to meet your five-a-day. I wasn’t much taken with Restaurantosaurus, for example, which was filled with screaming children and the smell of grease, which somewhat detracted from its prehistoric theme.

The Mara, where we had breakfast one morning, and avoided afterwards, didn’t have a single vegetarian option available, although they gamely cobbled together something with eggs and lots of cheese for me. But for every venue which doesn’t hit the spot, there are hundreds of other restaurants and cafes catering for healthy eaters, veggies and the fussy, no matter what your budget. And under Disney's current 'Free Dine' plan, you can eat for free if you book into participating hotels and can actually make huge savings on a family break.

Pretend it's 1957: In the Sci-fi Diner, guests can watch fifties tv and chow down on burgers and shakes

For pure fun, and to escape the midday heat, you can’t beat lunch at the Sci-fi Dine-in Theater Restaurant, at Hollywood Studios, designed to replicate a drive-in movie, where you are seated in car-shaped booths. Here you can watch cartoons and clips from 1957, while enjoying all-American classics such as cheeseburgers, onion rings and even a truly indulgent Oreo-based cocktail.

I've omitted to mention yet the meal that the Americans do best: breakfast. At our hotel’s buffet (Boma, Animal Kingdom Lodge) I thought I had died and gone to early-morning heaven when I saw the spread.

There was an African-inspired fry-up – in keeping with our hotel’s theme - featuring boboti, a sort of corned beef hash, and a traditional porridge known as pap, alongside grilled asparagus, tropical fruits and cereals, plus treats from closer to home such as M&M pancakes, Mickey waffles, French toast, muffins, pastries and made-to-order omelettes. It’s a wonder I didn’t get stuck on any rides.