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FULL REVIEW: We’re Eating EVERYTHING for Lunch at the Star Wars Hotel in Disney World

February 25, 2022 ,

We know, we know. You’ve had one big question on your mind for MONTHS now — what does lunch taste like…in SPACE?! 🚀

Dining Room

Well, we now have an answer! Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser (a.k.a. the Star Wars Hotel) is just days away from its official opening in Disney World. We recently got the chance to explore this spot as part of a media preview, and during our time aboard the spaceship, we got to do a lot of eating. We’re sharing full reviews of breakfast, dinner, and more (so be on the lookout for those) but today, we’re exploring EVERYTHING the hotel has to offer for lunch!

Star Wars Hotel Basics

For those who might not be familiar with the experience as a whole, the Star Wars Hotel is not really a hotel. It’s a 2-night immersive, cruise-type experience that allows guests to live out their own unique Star Wars stories. Fair warning though, a trip on the starcruiser will cost ya some big bucks.

Captain’s Table

During the experience, guests can take an excursion to Batuu over at Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, train with a lightsaber, learn how to operate the ship’s defenses, interact with Star Wars characters, and more.

Just chillin’ with our space friend

But, there’s one important thing everyone’s got to do in space…EAT! Most of the food offerings aboard the Star Wars hotel are included in the price of your admission (like they would be on a cruise). Lunch on the ship, for example, is fully included on both days of your trip.

Ready to eat?

An important thing to note about lunch is that for the first day, you’ll find all of the offerings on the ship (as there are no excursions on that day). On the second day of your trip, when the excursion to Batuu is planned, there will be lunch available on the ship, but there will ALSO be some included items if you’ll be down in Batuu around lunchtime.

But, we’ve eaten in Batuu many times, so let’s get into how the lunch food is on the Galactic Starcruiser!

Lunch on the Ship

Atmosphere

On Day 1, lunch was served from 1PM to 4PM, giving guests plenty of time to make their way over to the dining area to eat once they’ve boarded the ship. Lunch is served at the Crown of Corellia Dining Room, so that’s where you’ll want to head to grab a bite to eat — it’s located over on Deck 4.

Dining Room

Lunch is served buffet/cafeteria style, so you can grab exactly what you want!

Buffet area

During dinner, the Crown of Corellia has a more unique vibe, with entertainment offerings available during the meal and whatnot. But, during lunch, things are much more casual here.

Dining room at dinner

Throughout the space, you’ll find standard tables and booths available in a variety of configurations and sizes so you can find the right spot for you and your group. The chairs are a cushy blue fabric with gold accents.

Table at Crown of Corellia Dining Room

In terms of silverware, the tables are already set, so you don’t have to worry about picking any up when you go to grab your food.

Booth in the dining room

And, this is space, so the utensils look juuust a bit different!

Space utensils

Again, the lunch eats are served buffet/cafeteria style so when you’re ready to eat, you’ll head to the buffet stations to pick up your tray and start picking the things you want to grab!

Day 1 Food & Drinks

There are a lot of different options along the buffet line. Each option is essentially plated already on a little portion plate. So, all you’ll need to do is pick up as many of the small, individual serving plates as you want and put them on your tray. It’s sort-of like playing a game of Tetris — you gotta just stack up those smaller plates on your tray (and you’ve got to be strategic if you want to grab a tray full of food!).

So many things!

We already showed you the buffet line, but here’s a look at the drinks station!

Drinks station

In terms of drinks during lunch aboard the Starcruiser, you can find an endless supply of blue and green milk. The flavors are still very much the same as the ones in Galaxy’s Edge for these drinks, BUT be warned: the texture is VERY different. These blue and green milks had more of a milk consistency and less of that thicker, more icee/frosty like consistency that they have in Batuu. So that’s something you’ll want to be prepared for! We really enjoyed it.

Blue and Green Milk

There are refillable soft drinks available here, too!

Soft drinks

The silver cups are nearby for you to use.

Silver drinking cups

Looking for a specialty drink? These are available as well, but they cost extra! There are non-alcoholic drinks like the Muja Twist which is a mix of watermelon, a herbal garden blend, mint, and sparkling bubbles for $8. You can also pay extra for various alcoholic drinks during lunch. Here’s a look at the menu:

Drink menu

Remember the food and non-alcoholic drinks on the buffet line are all-you-care-to-enjoy, so you can go back up to the buffet line to get more of whatever you like or just to try more items.

Let’s eat!

Alright, now that we’ve taken a look at these items let’s get into how they taste! We’ll start with the salads. First, we tried the Green Leaf Salad, which has red quinoa, amethyst croutons, a parma-cheese round, and creamy chandrilan green vegetable dressing.

Green Leaf Salad

This was excellent! It’s just a regular salad, but it was very well made and the flavors all came together really well.

Refreshing!

The leaves were super fresh and the dressing honestly made the dish. It was savory and a bit tangy.

A little salad to kick off our meal

Next, we had the Chandrilan Salad, which has mushrooms, kale leaf, olives, squash fruit, and white berry vinegar.

Chandrilan Salad

This is basically just a big veggie blend! It was good, but it’s standard vegetables with couscous. There are a lot of mushrooms, and if you don’t like any of the other veggies in this, it’s probably not for you — because it just straight up tastes like veggies! Not bad, but nothing outstanding.

Ya gotta like veggies!

The next item we tried was the Fire Melted Cheese Takeaway with red fruit soup dipper. Fruit soup?! Yep, in space, they call tomatoes red fruit, which they technically are, so it makes sense! This is a bubble waffle grilled cheese with a side of tomato soup.

oooo this looks interesting

We loved this! It had a lot of cheese in the actual bubbles and tasted like your super buttery grilled cheese with the added benefit of the cheese and butter being able to get into all those nooks and crannies that the waffle has.

Have you ever had a grilled cheese in a waffle?

The soup was also good — it pretty much tastes like the tomato soup served all over Disney World. It was thick and we could taste the basil, which added a nice sweetness.

Red Fruit Soup

Dipping our grilled cheese in the soup was a great bite. But, you can’t really go wrong with grilled cheese and tomato soup!

A fun twist on a classic

After that, we tried Sorgan’s Stew, which has crawlfish tails, rice, and yellowseed stick. Notice how it’s crawlfish instead of crawfish — that must be the space version!

Sorgan’s Stew

We really liked the stew itself. The flavor was great and the rice really soaked up the broth which made it thick in a good way.

There’s a creature in our stew

The crawlfish itself was fine, if you like crawfish! It’s probably not the best you’ll ever have, but it did have good flavor that also infused the stew.

It’s definitely colorful!

Next up, we tried the Pork and Cheese Takeaway with black-spice spread. This is basically a ham and cheese sandwich that looks all fancy! This takeaway was good — the bread it was on is similar to the pão de queijo we usually find over at the Brazil booth during EPCOT’s Food and Wine Festival. So, the bread itself was really cheesy and tasty!

A little different than the ham and cheese sammies we’re used to!

The bread also went well with everything in the sandwich. It was crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. The black spice spread is like a very strong mustard. We really liked it, but you will probably only like it if you enjoy strong, tangy mustards! And, a little goes a long way.

That bread is stellar

Time for some more veggies! The Roasted Flora with Tubers and Red Cabbage is another veggie dish, but we liked it a lot better than the Chandrilan Salad. It actually felt composed as a dish — a bit more cohesive!

Roasted Flora

It was very light, which is great when you’re in an all-you-can-eat situation. If you like veggies, you’ll like this, but you gotta like mushrooms too because that flavor is prominent! Overall, these were great, well-cooked veggies.

Eat your veggies (if you like them)

After that, we tried the Nori-crusted Redfish with Mushrooms and Red Cabbage. This was a flaky white fish that reminded us a lot of salmon in terms of flakiness. But, it is less fishy than salmon usually is!

This actually could be salmon or steelhead trout

The skin was crispy, too. It’s a light, buttery fish and makes a good protein for your meal if you don’t want something fried or heavy. The rice was also good and wasn’t over-the-top when it came to the cilantro flavor.

Peek inside

We tried a flatbread next — this is the Tikka Tip Yip Chicken with Paneer Cheese flatbread! This was really, really good, you guys. It had a lot of those classic Indian flavors and spices, with a strong masala flavor — very aromatic!

This looks familiar

You can definitely taste the cheese because there are big chunks of it on the flatbread. It was puffy, but not in the weird way that the pizzas down on Earth (cough cough, PizzeRizzo) are. They stayed crispy because there actually is a wood fired oven on the ship.

Space pizza

If you enjoy those flavors, you should like this one a lot — it was actually one of our favorite things at lunch! It worked so well because it had unique flavors but still felt familiar since it’s basically pizza.

We love big chunks of cheese

Now, for some more kid-friendly options! They have a Dipped Tip Yip chicken with noodle cheese at lunch which is pretty good! It’s basically just your standard, all white-meat chicken nuggets with cheesy noodles, so it’s hard to go wrong there.

A kid-pleaser!

The nuggets were crispy and the cheese on the noodles has the consistency of plastic cheese, but with more of a “real” cheese flavor.

Great for picky eaters!

There are also Sunflower Butter and Jelly pods! These were AWESOME.

These are fun!

They’re super portable and a great thing to grab on the go. If you like sunflower butter, this should be a hit for you! We also think kids should enjoy this one.

Space’s version of a kid’s classic

Just beware that some of them have different sunflower butter to jelly ratios, since they are being made by people (not by machines like uncrustables!).

Can we stuff some of these in our bag?

For dessert, there are a few options! First, we tried the Choco-whip with Hibiscus Meringue. This is made without wheat, dairy, animal meat, eggs, and honey, so you should be good if you don’t eat any of those things!

Interesting

This was a very rich chocolate that was thicker than a chocolate mousse usually is. It mostly tasted like rich chocolate with a hint of fruitiness and floral flavors from the hibiscus. No complaints here!

It’s definitely great for pictures

There is also a Blue Bantha Milk Fruit Whip. This is basically blue milk in a mousse form!

This came from a Bantha?

It’s like a fruity mousse, with mostly citrus flavors. We didn’t love this, just because Disney does a lot of mousses and it’s nothing special to us anymore, but some people will probably enjoy the novelty of this dessert!

It’s fine

Finally, we had the Daily Sweetbread. This was an amatheyst sweetbread that was ube flavored. So, sweetbread (as you can see) means cookie in space!

Cookies!

This is a crinkle cookie with a little crunch on the outside and a soft texture on the inside.

If you love ube, you should love this

This was delicious and it’s not overly sweet, either. It’s a great cookie for someone who wants to try something a little different!

Day 2 Food & Drinks

Now, for Day 2 lunch! This was served from 11AM to 4PM. There’s a different menu here for Day 2, so we tried everything, of course! Let’s start with the drinks. We got the Bloody Rancor, which is a specialty alcoholic drink off of the menu for $15. This one is different from the Bloody Rancor down at Oga’s Cantina! It has vodka, golden tomato juice, and carbonate-dipped bloody rancor cubes.

A very orange take on a Bloody Mary

Those bloody rancor cubes are frozen tomato puree! This Bloody Mary wasn’t too special, and we personally think it needed to be more spicy. The only cool thing about it is the frozen tomato cubes!

Frozen tomato cubes isn’t a phrase we thought we’d write, but here we are

We also got the Dagobah Vimlet, which had vodka, herbaceous orange liqueur, lime, and peppercorn for $15. This drink was super herbaceous to the point where it was almost swampy, but in a good way. If you like herbal cocktails, then you should like this drink.

Dagobah Vimlet

It was very strong on the peppercorn flavor, which was nice. Overall, it’s a very earthy drink that kind of smells like grass, but we did enjoy it!

A little leaf floating around

Now, for food! We started with the Chili-spiced Cucumber Garden Grow Greens. These are marinated cucumbers. There is a little heat in the marinade that tasted like chili oil to us, but it’s not overly spicy. The cucumbers are cut really thinly and a super crispy as well.

Cucumbers

But, we didn’t think the marinade on these was that great. We wanted more flavor, like a vinegary taste or just something that packed more of a punch. But, they weren’t bad, they just weren’t as good as they could be. We would recommend these if you want something light, though!

Refreshing, but could use more flavor

Next, we got the Red Fruit Burrata with balsamic pearls and red fruit jelly. There’s that red fruit again!

Red Fruit Burrata

So, this is basically a space caprese salad. It’s made with tomatoes, burrata, and basil. There is also balsamic but it’s IN the pearls!

Balsamic pearls are something we never knew we needed

It comes with purple bread as well which is like a soft dinner roll. We enjoyed this! It’s a fresh option and if you like these flavors you should like this. Is it the BEST caprese you’ll ever have? Probably not. But, does it look cool? Absolutely!

Not all red fruit is red, apparently

After that, we tried the Sweet Tuber with Spicy Batuu Curry. This is basically a sweet potato soup with a granola bar on top. Yeah, sounds weird, right? The “tuber” on top seemed almost like one of those Nature Valley Oat Bars.

We don’t know how to feel

The soup, however, was pretty good! It was a thicker sweet potato soup with good texture and a good balance of sweet and savory flavors. But, dipping the granola bar in the soup was a bit strange. It was too sweet of a combination, in our opinion, but we were torn on this one, as one of our reporters liked it and another did not. It is a decent portion size, though!

A granola bar with soup?!

Oh look — more food! Time for the Kaadu Rib Bites with a sweet-and-sticky glaze and spicy slaw. These were great! They taste exactly like how you would expect them to. They’re tiny sections of ribs with a classic short ribs glaze. The meat was tender, but it didn’t really fall off the bone. It was still juicy, though!

Rib bites!

The spicy slaw had a lot of Asian-inspired flavors and also included some sesame seeds, which added some great flavor and texture. We were big fans of this slaw and all of the flavors went really well together.

Just a couple little ribs

Next, we tasted the Tamarind-glazed Burra Fish with long fruit leaf, braised kale, chickpeas, and curry. This fish is heavier than the one we had at lunch during Day 1. It’s not as flaky and was a bit more tough. It was also a lot fishier! We did like the grains this dish came with and the kale underneath the fish was really tasty! The curry sauce had the traditional curry flavors but wasn’t spicy at all. If you like a more meaty fish, you would probably enjoy this!

Burra Fish

We tried a dish made without wheat, dairy, animal meat, eggs, and honey next. This was a Marinated Seared Tofu with saffron rice, peas, sumac, aioli, and flaky flatbread.

Great for plant-based eaters!

We LOVED the base on this dish! It had a lot of mediterranean flavors and the couscous mixed with the Kalamata olives was delicious. It also had cream sauce that reminded us of a tzatziki, but it wasn’t tzatziki. The pickled onions also went well with all of the flavors!

Big fans of this flavor profile

The tofu itself was cooked well — it was crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, but it didn’t have a ton of flavor. The bread was very thin and flakey. It was good, but nothing to write home about.

Tofu needs a bit more love

Next up is the Blue Foccacia and Sausage Takeaway with red fruit jam and ahi aioli. It’s a space hot dog! Well, kind of. It’s a sausage instead of a hotdog, but that is the general idea here.

Okay…we’re intrigued

The bread is on that same airy purple bread we got with the burrata.

Definitely colorful!

The sausage had a great snap and excellent flavor. It was very well spiced. The red fruit jam and ahi aioli are supposed to be the ketchup and mustard here. They went very well with the sausage and didn’t overwhelm the flavor! This would probably be a good dish for someone with a pickier palate.

Kid-friendly!

Then, we had the Bantha Vinegared Herb-sauce Coti-cheese flatbread. This was AMAZING. It’s topped with beef (Bantha means beef in space), red peppers, cheese, and that vinegared herb-sauce.

Bantha Flatbread

The biggest flavor definitely came from the sauce, which was so tasty.

We LOVED

The pizza also stayed crispy thanks to that wood-fired oven!

Crispy pizzas are important to us

Note that there is also the same Sunflower Butter and Jelly pod available during lunch on Day 2!

Also available for Day 2 Lunch!

Now, for dessert! We started with the Cream of Jogan. Jogan is a fruit in the Star Wars universe found throughout the galaxy. This dessert was fine. It was a really pretty color, and it’s definitely Instagrammable, but it was nothing too special.

Cream of…what?

It’s just a mousse with vague fruity flavors, like a lot of the other mousses Disney loves to make. It wasn’t bad — just lackluster. We did enjoy the chocolate rocks it came with though!

Pretty, but kind of boring

Then, we got the Salted Caramel-chocolate Cake. This is a classic dessert that you can definitely find outside of a galaxy far, far away.

Looks more interesting than a classic dessert, though!

The topping is icing-like and there isn’t much of a salted caramel flavor here. It was more heavy on the chocolate and was sweet, but not overly sweet or too rich.

’twas just okay

Finally, for the Daily Sweetbread! Today, it was a chocolate chip cookie.

Choco choco chip

We liked having a classic chocolate chip cookie to snack on. It was soft, sweet, but not too sweet, a little salty, and overall delicious!

We’re here for a good chocolate chip cookie

It’s a classic chocolate chip cookie, what’s there to complain about?!

Nosh or Not

In all of our traditional reviews, you’d find a nosh or not section where we give our final thoughts on whether this restaurant is a place you might or might not want to visit. In this case, things are a bit unique on the Starcruiser as you don’t really have too many other options for dining if you don’t want what’s available on the lunch line. So, we’re still including a nosh or not section, but it’s more of a pros and cons list in relation to the lunch service.

Just keep in mind that if you don’t want to eat what’s available on the lunch line, your only other true options are some snacks that are available (like trail mix), bringing your own food onto the Starcruiser, eating on Batuu on that second day when you have the excursion, or seeking out other snacks in places like the Sublight Lounge.

You’ll likely enjoy lunch on the Galactic Starcruiser if:

  • You love a buffet meal. Lunch is buffet, all you can eat, cafeteria style. If you love to try a whole bunch of different items and fill yourself up on those goodies, then this is something you’ll likely enjoy
  • You want to try some fun food options with comfort items mixed in. There were some more fun food options on the buffet line when it comes to things like the cheesecake or the bubble grilled cheese, but things here weren’t tremendously unique or adventurous so it still has a bit of that comfort factor since there are dishes you recognize like salmon, grilled cheese, etc.
  • You need to have EVERY experience possible on the Starcruiser (and want to get your money’s worth!). Remember, you paid for this food with the price of the hotel! Sure, you can grab something down in Batuu that you’ve also paid for, but that will just be a single meal and a drink. But at the buffet, you can get a ton of different foods to try out. Plus, this is the only time you’re going to be able to get food like this (unless you book a second trip), so you might as well try it!

You might want to pack a lunch for the Starcruiser or seek other options if:

  • You’ve got super picky eaters. Buffets are usually a great pick for picky eaters since there are a lot of things to choose from, but here the options aren’t all that big. So, if you’ve got a kiddo (or adult companion) that won’t eat anything but those more standard options or will be craving a simple PB&J, you may want to pack some items with you and stick them in the mini fridge of your room to pull out for lunchtime.
  • You want to spend as much time as possible on Batuu. If you want to maximize your time during your outing to Batuu, you won’t want to cut any of it short by staying on the ship to eat lunch on day 2. Grab something down in Galaxy’s Edge instead!
  • You would rather some non-space food. If you’re already tired of the food on the ship, then you may want to go down to Batuu (on day 2) and then make your way over to somewhere else to eat in Hollywood Studios. Maybe you’re craving a grilled cheese from Woody’s Lunch Box or want a charcuterie board over at BaseLine Tap House. You can do that during your time off of the ship!

Overall

Overall, lunch in space is a mix of some space-y themed items, really unique dishes, and flavors you know and love from Earth. 

In general, we think lunch in space is something that’ll please most palettes (except some really picky eaters) and leave you satisfied and ready to tackle more assignments aboard the Starcruiser. Who’s got time for lunch anyway when there are SO many things to see and do on the ship?!

Sublight Lounge

Our recommendation? If you’re really looking to experience everything Starcruiser has to offer, hit up lunch whenever it fits into your schedule, pick up those more unique/fun looking items (and the extra tasty ones), eat relatively quickly, and then get yourself back into the action! You’ve only got 2 days to really explore the ship (since you disembark on the 3rd day) so we don’t think spending TOO time sitting down for lunch is the best use of your time.

On the other hand, if you’re feeling overstimulated by the Starcruiser experience and just need a break, take lunch as your opportunity to take a seat, relax, and get a breather from all the action. It can be a lot to take in all at once, so lunch could be a good time to reset and prepare for the rest of the day.

And remember if you have special dietary needs or have food allergies, let the staff at the Starcruiser know so things can be prepared ahead of your trip. Click here to see more about special dietary needs and the Star Wars hotel.

We’ll be bringing you FULL reviews and more details about the Star Wars Hotel soon so stay tuned for that. And, as always, may the Force be with you.

Click here to see the Star Wars Hotel exclusive clothing that is available online!

Star Wars Hotel -- Galactic Starcruiser News and Information

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What do you think of the food at the Star Wars Hotel? Tell us 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. 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. Recently, we were invited by Disney World to attend their media preview of Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser. 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

The post FULL REVIEW: We're Eating EVERYTHING for Lunch at the Star Wars Hotel in Disney World first appeared on the disney food blog.



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