REVIEW and PHOTOS: Grab a Galactic Bite at Docking Bay 7 Food and Cargo in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge

Proprietor Chef Strono “Cookie” Tuggs is ready to feed Black Spire Outpost visitors at Docking Bay 7 Food and Cargo in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge!

Docking Bay 7 Food and Cargo Entrance

This fast-casual counter service restaurant located immediately to the left of the Millennium Falcon entrance is located in a working hangar bay. In fact, Chef Tuggs himself has docked a freighter right here loaded up with fresh ingredients sourced throughout the galaxy.

Chef Tuggs honed his cooking skills in the kitchen of Maz Kanata on Takodana. After his time there, he traveled far and wide finding exotic ingredients along the way to create dishes now known as “Tuggs’ Grub.” His preferred mode of transportation? A modified Sienar-Chall Utilipede-Transport which also serves as a mobile kitchen and food service location. You can see the Multi-Transport Shuttle, in fact, directly on top of Docking bay 7.

Docking Bay Cargo Containers

Another recognizable feature of the restaurant’s roofline is a large circular dome, so when you’re hunting for Docking Bay 7, be sure to look for these characteristics. Docking Bay, as with every other landmark in Black Spire Outpost, does not have a sign in English labeling the entrance to the restaurant. You’ll need to scan the symbols above restaurant and shop entrances to confirm that you’ve found the right place (you’ll need your Datapad for that — click here to learn more!), but with Docking Bay 7, if you see a transport shuttle on the roof, you’ve arrived.

Docking Bay 7 ‘sign’ to the right of the entrance

Another feature of the roof that you’ll want to look for: a subtle homage to the first three Star Wars films! Spot three gray cargo containers with yellow writing that say 77, 80, and 83. Those are the years of Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi, respectively.

Docking Bay 7 Food and Cargo is slightly elevated from the path in front of it, so diners must climb several steps or use a long ramp to get to the entrance.

Docking Bay 7 Food & Cargo

But enter you must, because the atmosphere in Docking Bay 7 Food and Cargo is very cool.

Atmosphere

Inside Docking Bay 7 Food & Cargo you are, unsurprisingly, surrounded by cargo and transport detritus. Cargo crates, exposed ducts and pipes, and large pods and cargo containers abound.

Docking Bay 7 Food and Cargo

If you look up, you’ll even spy a cargo crate being lowered through a ceiling hatch!

Cargo being lowered into the space!

Cargo Container Seating

Other decor elements include alien creatures — clearly meant to represent ingredients on the menu. Most creatures look fish-like, and some alien fish are also “on ice” as decor, too.

Ingredients on display

Creatures on display!

Fresh ingredients!

Fish on ice

On ice!

When guests enter, the rather small (for the space and for the expected crowds) ordering area is to the right. Above the ordering area are three menu board screens. Two display the entrees; the center screen displays drinks, desserts, and kids’ meals.

Order here!

The process to pick up an order is the same as is found in most quick service locations in the Disney Parks. After the order has been placed, diners move to the left and wait at a counter for their trays of food.

The seating area at Docking Bay is to the left of the entrance, and the decor here is essentially the same as we see everywhere in Galaxy’s Edge: industrial on top of industrial — but with subtle pops of color, including colorful uplights.

Seating area looking back toward ordering area

Docking Bay dining room

Thankfully Docking Bay has some interesting design elements and materials that break up (but still sustain in spirit of) the monotony of gray. Tables are mostly chunky metal, and the chairs vary from chunky metal and wood to short stools.

Metal tables in Docking Bay 7

Seating

Some seating is in colored cargo pods that have ‘windows’ cut out of the ends and one side of it held open as an entrance.

Cargo Container Seating

There are five cargo pod seating areas in the restaurant. Some have only one table with seating, while others have two or more tables with seating.

Cargo Pod Seating

Additional seating is at high-top tables. These stone-like tables provide a good amount of seating. And while they may be tricky for kiddos, they’re a welcome addition to the restaurant. Note that the high-top seats do have backs, while most low seating on stools does not.

High Tops

Table design

High tops and counter seating

But the real star of the dining area for us is through the left-most exit door when you look into the restaurant from the entrance. Through that door is an outdoor seating area for Docking Bay 7, and it’s lovely.

Exterior entrance of Docking Bay as seen from outdoor patio

Triangular scraps of fabric are stretched across the overhead space, provided a little texture, color, and protection from the sun.

Outdoor seating with shade from triangular fabric overhead

Punched-metal lanterns and lanterns with rounded corners and edges are installed in bunches overhead. These provide some nice ambient lighting after dark.

Lighting

Seating here consists of twelve wood-looking tables and chairs (similar to inside) and some of the built-in stone benches.

Outdoor Seating at Docking Bay

The outdoor seating area is surrounded by a low stone wall. Pillars of destroyed stone are bolstered by pipe from which decorative lanterns hang. Decorative fencing provides some separation without obscuring views of the land beyond.

Low wall for separation

For those visitors who need a respite in Black Spire Outpost, this little seating area will do the trick. Even if the space is filled with diners, it’s a place to relax, observe, and process your experiences. And there’s a view. Brace yourself.

Views from Docking Bay 7’s Outdoor Patio

The word you’re searching for is “wow”. The Stone outcroppings in the background juxtaposed with the tan tones of the restaurant are something special. This is easily one of the loveliest spots we found in Galaxy’s Edge, and we can see it becoming a go-to place to escape. Not gonna lie: if they had alcohol at Docking Bay, this would be a terrific beer garden (or cocktail garden… that’s a thing, right?).

Eats

Breakfast, lunch, and dinner are served at Docking Bay 7 Food and Cargo! And all entree dishes come in reusable plastic, cast iron-looking oval pots with handles. Kids’ meals are served in smaller pots of the same design. Note that we haven’t tried everything yet, but will share full breakfast and lunch reviews soon!

We sampled several of these items at a preview we attended last week. We weren’t allowed to take photographs then, but the food samples were out today for photographing, so here we go! We’ll have more reviews from Docking Bay 7 soon!

Breakfast

The breakfast menu features three choices: Rising Moons Overnight Oats, the Bright Suns Morning meal (also available for Younglings), and the Mustafarian Lava Roll.

The Mustafarian Lava Roll is a sweet breakfast treat — basically a cinnamon roll!

Mustafarian Lava Roll

This is basically dessert for breakfast. We haven’t sampled one yet, but hope to tomorrow!

Mustafarian Lava Roll

Rising Moons Overnight Oats will be available in Ronto Roasters and Oga’s Cantina, too. These are Oats, Dragon Fruit, Yogurt, and Seasonal Fruit.

Rising Moons Overnight Oats

The oats are pink in color, we presume from dragon fruit juice. And the ratio of fruit to oats is a little heavier on the fruit. Seasonal fruit on our visit consisted of blueberries, melon, mango, and kiwi. And because it’s Disney, there are some popping pearls on there, too.

Rising Moons Overnight Oats

All-Day Entrees

We’ll explore a few options specific to lunch or dinner next, but All-Day Entrees feature Smoked Kaadu Ribs, Fried Endorian Tip-Yip (crispy chicken), Roasted Endorian Tip-Yip Salad, and Yobshrimp Noodle Salad. (Again, we’ll have MORE FOOD PHOTOS on Friday!)

Smoked Kaadu Ribs are Korean-inspired and as such have a slightly sour taste. The ribs themselves were a bit dry, and the sauce was definitely a little heavy on the vinegar for us. The ribs come with cabbage slaw which was pickled (a vague homage to kimchi, minus some of the distinctive seasoning) and, again, just too sour for our taste. The corn blueberry muffin — really more of a ball than a muffin — was delicious. We’d eat a bunch of those for a snack or breakfast if they were available.

Smoked Kaadu RIbs

Overall, not our favorite dish, but if you’re more familiar with or a fan of sour-based savory dishes, this might work for you.

Fried Endorian Tip-Yip is a dish that will be familiar in some ways — because it’s fried chicken! But of course, it had an other-worldly twist in that it’s a block. Seriously: it’s cut into a rectangular cube with straight edges and no sense of what that meat should look like organically. Rather than the typical Disney Parks chicken nugget breading, the Tip-Yip has a panko-style breading, giving it a different texture than you might expect from a chicken tender, essentially, in the Parks. And unfortunately, aside from the breading, the chicken didn’t have much flavor. Even more unfortunately: it was dry. Way overcooked. Maybe it’s the Tip-Yip way, but meh.

Fried Tip Yip

The Roasted Vegetable Potato Mash was actually quite good. Peas and carrots are incorporated into the mashed potatoes, and this side dish is seasoned well. The Herb Gravy that’s generously spooned into the bottom of the dish had a tang to it that we couldn’t quite identify. (We’ll check with cast members soon!) Maybe it’s just that it was so unexpected with the comfort food vibe of mashed potatoes and fried chicken, but I didn’t care for the gravy.

Fried Tip Yip

The Yobshrimp Noodle Salad was not our favorite. This chilled dish consists of shrimp, marinated noodles, vegetables, and cilantro. The kids’ version of this dish specifies a sweet orange dressing, so we think that’s the dressing on the adult version, too. We found the overall flavor to be a bit one-note: pickled. Something about it, again, was just too sour for us. But if you enjoy pickled foods, you might like this! It’s certainly a light and creative option for theme park dining — no doubt about that — but we just weren’t fans.

Yobshrimp

Docking Bay also offers a few items that are only lunch or only dinner. The Lunch-only option is the Felucian Garden Spread. This vegan dish consists of plant-based ‘kefta’, herb hummus, tomato-cucumber relish, and pita.

Felucian Garden Spread

This Mediterranean-inspired dish combines some bold flavors and a lovely presentation. We didn’t get the chance to try this one, but everyone who has seems to love it.

Felucian Garden Spread

The dinner-only menu items included our favorite dish on the entire menu: Braised Shaak Roast! Essentially this is a pot roast with gravy, cavatelli pasta, kale, and vegetables. The pot roast was delicious — savory, well-cooked, and comforting. Just the kind of thing you’d want to eat if you traveled to another, unfamiliar planet. The vegetables we received included pearl onions, carrots, and green beans. They were all prepared well — cooked but not mushy.

Braised Shaak Roast

Surprisingly, even though pasta seems an odd side for pot roast, it really went perfectly with it. The Braised Shaak Roast is just so good. We’re sad it’s only available for dinner, but we’ll have to keep watch of the menu and plan accordingly so we can get it again!

(More pics coming soon!) The Roasted Endorian Tip-Yip Salad was — you guessed it! — roasted chicken on a salad! Marinated chicken is placed atop Mixed Greens and accompanied by Roasted Seasonal Vegetables, Quinoa, and Pumpkin Seeds.

The dressing is Green Curry Ranch, which didn’t work for us. But for a salad, it has a lot going for it: butternut squash, kale, yellow cauliflower, quinoa. It’s a bowl full of nutritious components, but we just didn’t love it. Perhaps with a different dressing — like a vinaigrette to awaken all those other flavors — it would work better.

(More pics Friday!) The other dinner-only menu item is the Ithorian Garden Loaf. This is another option for vegan and vegetarian diners. This plant-based ‘meat’loaf had a good amount of flavor, and the texture was decent, too. The Roasted Vegetable Potato Mash was great, and the seasonal vegetables and mushroom sauce were logical accompaniments. While this didn’t rival the Braised Shaak Roast, for a vegan option, it’s really quite good.

Okay, now, we have some issues with the kids’ menu here –– namely that very few kids will be into the food at Docking Bay 7 Food and Cargo. Two of the menu items — Fried Endorian Tip-Yip and Yobshrimp Noodle Salad — are the same as the adult menu just in smaller portions.

Though truthfully, we think the kids actually get a better deal with the Fried Endorian Tip-Yip because theirs comes with mac and cheese! Despite being dry, the mac and cheese had great flavor, and we thought it was one of the better things we tried in the entire meal. (So grown ups, this might be a good option for you, too, if you’re not into the adult version!)

The third kids’ menu item is A Taste of Takodana, which serves up black bean hummus, edible soil, and nuts along with veggies and multigrain crisps for dipping. We know there are plenty of kids out there who like healthy food, but those kids are perhaps a little rarer than this kids’ menu gives them credit for. Still, what an offering on a theme park menu!

To bribe your kids into eating at Docking Bay 7, you’ll want to know about two Desserts that are up for grabs: the Oi-oi Puff (a raspberry cream puff with passion fruit mousse) and the Batuu-bon, made with Chocolate Cake, White Chocolate Mousse, Coffee Custard.

The Oi-oi Puff was really stellar. It was pretty big and filled with a sweet and tart raspberry mousse. It was topped with what the menu describes as passion fruit mousse, but it was definitely panna cotta-ish in texture and bland. We were expecting to be hit with tropical fruit flavor and just didn’t get that.

Oi-Oi Puff

But of the two desserts, the Oi-oi Puff was our favorite.

The Batuu-bon was a dense, brownie-like cake that reminded us of flourless cake. (Note, this is not listed on the online menu as Gluten/Wheat-Allergy Friendly, so check with the cast members when you order!)

Batuu-Bon

It’s topped with a white chocolate dome that’s filled with a small amount of coffee mousse.

Batuu-Bon

While this dessert is rich and dense, it wasn’t as compelling as the Oi-oi Puff. It was small, and it was a little too fussy.

Batuu-Bon

Now remember…all items are served with SPORKS ONLY! ;-D Ha ha! No knives for you!

Spork at Docking Bay

Docking Bay 7 also has a few specialty beverages: Moof Juice, Phattro, and Batuubucha Tea. These are available all day long.

Moof Juice was our favorite of the three. It consists of Simply Fruit Punch®, Simply Orange® with Pineapple, and Chipotle-Pineapple. It was super delicious. Moof Juice is peachy orange in color, and while it claims to have chipotle in it, we didn’t taste much of that. Definitely don’t shy away just because of the chipotle; it’s a fruity drink without any smoky heat. (What a strange thing to say about a drink!)

Moof Juice

Phattro was our second favorite drink. It combines Gold Peak® Unsweetened Tea, Odwalla® Lemonade, and Desert Pear. It’s basically fruity iced tea — not a bad thing at all, just not overly special or clever.

Phattro

The Batuubucha Tea is straight-up Suja® Pineapple Passionfruit Kombucha. That’s… not our thing, so we didn’t like this at all. But if you are a fan of Suja’s kombucha, it’s good to know this drink is available.

Batuubucha

Overall

Docking Bay 7 Food and Cargo is a destination, for sure, in Black Spire Outpost. From the massive exterior features, it’s clear the restaurant is meant to be a stand-out in the land. But we didn’t find the food to be outstanding at all. With the exception of the Braised Shaak Roast, Moof Juice, and the Oi-oi Puff, there’s really nothing we would go back for.

But here at the DFB we always say that the one thing Disney is consistent about in its dining is that it’s inconsistent. We may well find that the menu changes over time, that dishes get tweaked as they receive feedback, and that quality improves (or diminishes) over time. So we’ll keep checking so you’ll know what to expect.

“Till the Spire”, friends!

Which of the Docking Bay 7 Food and Cargo dishes would YOU like to try? Let us know in the comments!

Disclosure: In nearly all circumstances, Disney Food Blog writers and photographers pay full price for their own travel, hotel, food, beverage, and event tickets. We do this because it’s important to us as journalists to ensure not only that we give you unbiased opinions, but also that you can trust us to do so since we’re paying our own way. Note that we did pay for all items that we tasted on this review. Those that we just photographed were available via the media event we were attending. On rare occasions, when we are invited by a company to attend a preview as media, and when we choose to accept that invitation, we will always make you, our readers, aware of that situation. Today, we were invited a media event for the opening of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. Note that when we attend events as media we are 1) Not required to review that event/food on any of our channels, and 2) Not required to review that event/food favorably. You can always count on DFB to give you a 100% unbiased and honest review of any event that we attend, food that we eat, or beverage that we drink. You can see more in our Disclosure Policy. Thank you for reading. — AJ

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