Discover what to expect at Cape May Café Dinner at Disney’s Beach Club Resort, from seafood favorites to guest tips and buffet highlights.
Located steps away from the sparkling waters of Crescent Lake at Disney’s Beach Club Resort, Cape May Café offers a charming seaside escape from the hustle and bustle of the parks. Known for its relaxed New England-style atmosphere and seafood buffet, this restaurant is a favorite among guests seeking a hearty, flavorful meal in a resort setting. Whether you’re a seafood aficionado or love a well-curated buffet, dinner at Cape May Café is a Walt Disney World dining experience worth savoring.
Setting the Scene at Cape May Cafe
Cape May Café is located on the ground floor of Disney’s Beach Club Resort. Inspired by the quaint, nautical charm of a New England beach town, the interior is bright and airy, with pastel colors, white trim, and subtle beach-themed décor. It’s casual yet classy. This hotel functions as an ideal choice for families, couples, or groups of friends winding down after a long day at the parks.
Advanced Dining Reservations (ADRs) are strongly recommended. Guests make these through the My Disney Experience app or the Disney website. Cape May Café is a popular choice, especially among guests staying at the Beach Club, Yacht Club, BoardWalk, or Epcot-area resorts.
Guests dining at Cape May Café in the evening can expect a more peaceful, laid-back atmosphere compared to the lively character breakfast offered earlier in the day. Gone are the morning meet-and-greets with Minnie and friends. The Cape May Café dinner focuses on the food and the cozy, coastal ambiance. Well, at least it usually does.
The Cape May Cafe Dinner Buffet Experience
Dinner at Cape May Café is served buffet-style. It makes an excellent option for hungry guests looking to indulge in a variety of dishes. The meal costs $49 for adults and $29 for children. This price includes a non-alcoholic beverage. Guests can add “Snow Crab Legs with Clarified Butter” for $29 per pound. Yes, back in the old days, those were included in the buffet price. Dinner runs from 5:00 p.m. until 9:00 p.m.each evening.
The standout attraction is undoubtedly the seafood spread, which features peel-and-eat shrimp, clams, mussels, and other seafood delights. It’s a celebration of ocean-fresh flavor kept warm in inviting, generously replenished serving trays.
Cape May Café Dinner: For Non-Seafood Lovers
While the seafood is the star of the show, the buffet offers much more to satisfy every palate. Guests can enjoy carved meats, such as slow-roasted beef and pork, along with an array of side dishes, including mashed potatoes, seasoned vegetables, roasted chicken, and hearty pasta options. A fresh salad bar and bread station round out the offerings. This provides a balanced mix of options for guests of all ages.
Even if seafood isn’t your go-to, Cape May Café ensures that no guest leaves hungry. There’s always a selection of non-seafood entrees, including roasted chicken, beef dishes, macaroni and cheese, seasonal soups, and flavorful vegetable preparations. It’s also a very kid-friendly buffet, with familiar favorites like chicken tenders, pasta, and fries available for the little ones.
The chefs at Cape May Café are also happy to accommodate dietary needs. Plant-based options are clearly labeled, and guests with food allergies or specific dietary requirements can speak with a chef or server to ensure their needs are met.
Save Room for Dessert
As with any good buffet, dinner at Cape May Café ends on a sweet note. The dessert station features a rotating selection of miniature sweets and pastries that offer just the right amount of indulgence. Favorites include key lime tarts, brownies, chocolate mousse, cookies, and bread pudding.
The variety allows guests to sample several treats without going overboard, though it’s easy to lose track of how many times you visit the dessert section. The presentation is delightful, and the desserts are consistently of reasonable quality, so no sad, dry cupcakes here.
Full Food Menu at Cape May Café Dinner Buffet
According to the Walt Disney World Resort website, Cape May Café offers the following items on the dinner buffet:
- Caesar Salad
- New England-style Clam Chowder
- Plant-based Seasonal Soup
- Seasonal-inspired Salad
- Seafood Pasta Salad
- Carving Station featuring Chef’s Selection
- New England Captain’s Fried Seafood Selection
- New England Traditional Steam Boil with Clams, Mussels, Shrimp, Corn, and Red Potatoes
- Paella
- Roasted Chicken
- Sustainable Catch of the Day
- Plant-based Seasonal-inspired Dishes
- Seasonal Vegetables
- Chef’s Dessert Selection with Cape May Signature Bonbons
- Classic Favorites for Children featuring Pizza, Macaroni & Cheese, Chicken, and Pasta.
Like all online menu descriptions for buffets at Walt Disney World, this list is subject to change and serves as a partial guide only.
Cape May Café Dinner: Why Guests Love It
There’s something comforting about Cape May Café. The combination of familiar food, a laid-back beachside atmosphere, and Disney’s signature hospitality makes it a memorable dining experience for many. It doesn’t try to be flashy. This is about quality and comfort. Many guests return year after year, praising the consistency of the food, the friendly staff, and the serene atmosphere that Cape May Café offers. It’s especially beloved by seafood lovers who appreciate being able to enjoy a hearty variety without leaving the Walt Disney World property.
Cape May Café Dinner: Our Recent Experience
During the last full week of June, we visited the Cape May Café for dinner. This visit was on a Thursday in June, so we received the limited-time Walt Disney World passholder 40% discount promotion at Cape May before it expired on July 1. This may not have been a good plan.
In a nutshell, our experience at Cape May Café in June was well below our previous experiences. For example, when we were seated, we noticed a packed area around the buffet. This remained true for most of our meal, which lowered the overall quality of the experience. When getting your food, take three times longer than eating it, the potential positive experience lessens.
Things started okay. We checked in at 7:15 p.m. for our 7:30 p.m. advanced dining reservation at Cape May Café. Later, we were seated at 7:27 p.m. Our server took our drink order at 7:33 p.m.
Like most Walt Disney World buffets, the non-alcoholic beers and diet soda options are limited. By limited, we mean O’Doul’s and Diet Coke. Neither of those ranks very high on our list. As a result, we skipped the O’Doul’s.
Guest Behavior
In fairness, this is not entirely the fault of Cape May Café, but during our visit, the behavior of some guests was embarrassing. Since the food on the buffet was not being restocked very quickly and the buffet area is small, guests were pushing to get in line for food. Also, guests were eating while in the buffet queue. With the food not being ready, guests were taking pieces of items on the buffet, eating them while in line, waiting for other items to appear from the kitchen.
Additionally, since most of the food is prepared in a kitchen outside the buffet queue, cast members had to ask guests to move so they could get behind the buffet stations to place the food. The overall set-up for the buffet at Cape May Café leads to this, with it being one large square in the middle of the restaurant. If things get backed up, it can get ugly. In contrast to the superior Walt Disney World buffet restaurants, such as Boma at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge, this buffet queue does not flow smoothly, and it is very challenging for cast members to bring food to guests who are waiting.
Disorganized Queue
We didn’t enjoy staying in a disorganized queue to get food at Cape May Café at Disney’s Beach Club Resort. We compared it to the pain of parking your car at the Magic Kingdom, followed by the hassle of taking transportation to get to the theme park. That lessens the experience. However, unlike the fun of Magic Kingdom, Cape May Café offered below-average food during our recent visit. Needless to say, this expected delicious coastal feast failed to be relaxing.
Due to the high level of crowding in the buffet area for most of the evening, we were unable to take photos of the majority of the food on the buffet. As a result, several images in this review are from previous more relaxing visits.
Strengths of Cape May Café Dinner During Our Visit
Although it would be easier to focus on the negatives, our adventure at Cape May Café dinner involves some bright spots. The service was above average for a Walt Disney World buffet.
Additionally, the desserts were nothing spectacular. Still, they reached or exceeded what guests should expect at a dinner buffet. Guests should be able to find something they like. We found the cheesecake to be the best option during our visit.
Of the main savory items on the Cape May Café dinner buffet, the fried shrimp stood out as the best option. Additionally, the fried clams are also worth considering. Continuing the trend of recommending fried food, the fried fish nuggets (which are reasonably sized fish patties) qualify as one of the better items on the Cape May Café dinner buffet.
The salmon also deserves to appear on your plate here. However, the salmon shines due to the sauce and toppings covering it, rather than its own flavor.
Weaknesses of Cape May Café Dinner During Our Visit
We could comment more on the lack of organization and inconsistent resupplying of the buffet. However, that point should have been evident by now.
Sadly, our server recommended several items from the Cape May Café dinner buffet—all of those turned out to be average or below. For example, the recommended seafood pasta salad, macaroni and cheese, paella, and coffee-rubbed carved beef striploin (served from the carving station) were underwhelming. However, the roasted pork next to the striploin tasted above average.
The station with the seafood boil elements lacked overall flavor on this evening. Additionally, the plant-based options did not show the skill that Walt Disney World chefs commonly display with vegan entrees.
At the risk of sounding harsh, our group found almost nothing we would want to come back and try at the Cape May Café dinner. While $49 qualifies as a reasonable price for a dinner buffet at Walt Disney World, our meal failed to match that price point.
Final Thoughts
If you’re looking for a relaxed, satisfying dinner in a setting that feels far removed from the theme park crowds, Cape May Café at Disney’s Beach Club Resort usually is a strong contender. It strikes a balance between variety and quality, with enough options to please everyone in your party.
Adding in the nautical charm and proximity to Epcot, along with the Disney Skyliner, this dining experience delivers more than just a meal. It is a lovely evening on the “coast” right in the middle of Walt Disney World.
Whether you’re staying at the Beach Club or just passing through, dinner at Cape May Café deserves a spot on your Walt Disney World dining list. Well, it deserves a place on your dining card as long as you think our visit was not the norm. For the record, we hope it is not the norm now either. Nonetheless, we will not be making another trip anytime soon to find out!
For more theme park dining reviews, visit MSM News every weekday at noon Eastern Time. As always, eat like you mean it!
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