REVIEW: 3 Reasons You Should Go To Disney World’s Busiest Restaurant (And 3 Reasons You Shouldn’t)
There are a lot of restaurants in Disney World, but some are WAY more popular than others.
Welcome to Disney World!
One of the busiest restaurants you’ll find in Magic Kingdom is the iconic Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Cafe in Tomorrowland. With a crowd-pleasing menu, lots of seating, and a prime location, it’s almost always packed. But should you brave the crowds to dine here? I recently stopped by to review some of the eats!
Atmosphere
As I said, the restaurant is located in Tomorrowland (and it takes up a significant portion of the land!). You’ll find entrances near Cheshire Cafe, as well as over by Star Traders.
Cosmic Ray’s entrance
When you dine at Cosmic Ray’s, you can either Mobile Order or you can order your meal at the cash registers inside. There are multiple bays where you can pick up your food.
One of the ordering Bays
Cosmic Ray’s has a TON of seating spread throughout various rooms in the restaurant, as well as a number of tables outside.
Seating in Cosmic Ray’s
However, despite the large number of tables, you may have a hard time finding a spot for your family during the lunch or dinner rush. It’s almost always pretty full in here, and I had to walk a few laps before I could find a place to sit down.
There are SO many people in here!
Of course, the PRIME place to sit is downstairs in the main room, where you can get a great view of Sonny Eclipse!
Sit downstairs with Sonny Eclipse!
If you don’t know who Sonny Eclipse is, he’s an animatronic alien who resides on the stage at Cosmic Ray’s. He sings a setlist full of punny space-themed songs, and he’s a Disney World TREASURE.
You have to say hey to Sonny Eclipse!
Also, we have to mention the Cosmic Ray’s toppings bar!
A toppings bar!
Sadly, this toppings bar is not what it once was. You can no longer pick up things like cheese, lettuce, and tomatoes here. Instead, you’ll be able to get prepackaged condiments on this buffet line.
Mostly just condiments
You can also pick up salt and pepper packets, as well as various sweeteners for your beverages.
Salt and pepper packets
There are multiple utensil stations throughout the restaurant, and you’ll find napkin dispensers alongside them.
Utensils
Okay, now it’s time to talk about the menu!
Menu
There are several entree options at Cosmic Ray’s, including various burgers, salads, chicken sandwiches, and chicken strips.
©Disney
If you’re a plant-based eater, there’s a Patty Melt made with an Impossible Burger. For sides, your options are pretty limited — they’ve got french fries and Cuties mandarins.
©Disney
There are three meal options for kiddos — a Grilled Chicken Sandwich, chicken strips, and macaroni and cheese. At the time of our review, the dessert on the menu was the Stitch Blueberry-Lemonade Mousse Cake, although the dessert options change from time to time.
And of course, if you’re interested in getting something to drink, you can try the Lunar Lemonade or the Sulley Slush.
©Disney
There are also a number of soft drinks and other beverages to choose from, as well as several allergy-friendly meals.
Eats
I visited with a coworker, so we got six different menu items to try, with a focus on items we haven’t reviewed here on the blog before. First up, we’ve got a classic Disney World entree — the Chicken Strips meal for $10.49. It comes with french fries on the side!
Chicken Strips
The meal comes with four strips, which is a decent size for adults. The breading was nice and crispy and there was a good amount of chicken inside. It’s a pretty basic meal, but it’s better than some other chicken tenders I’ve had in the past. This would be a great option for picky eaters!
Inside the strips
Next up is the Chopped Vegetable and Crispy Noodle Salad with Shrimp for $12.59. This is made with mixed greens salad topped with shrimp, grilled pineapple, peppers, crispy noodles, and sesame-ginger dressing. Sounds delicious, right? Well, it was!
The salad!
This was surprisingly good for a quick service salad. It was very bright and refreshing and had some great fruitiness to it. The shrimp had a nice chew and the ginger flavor was strong in the dressing. There are several textures throughout the salad, but the lettuce was a little on the wilted side. However, the fruity pineapple and fresh-tasting dressing really helped balance that out, and we thought this would be a great option for a light summer meal.
A forkful of salad
After that, I had the Spicy Fried Chicken Sandwich for $12.59. Crispy chicken breast, pickle slaw, and spicy aioli all atop a brioche bun, and you get french fries on the side. This was a pretty substantial portion!
Spicy Fried Chicken Sandwich
The chicken breast on this is really thick and it’s not juicy, but it’s not really dry either — somewhere in between. The slaw adds a nice crunch and brightness, and the spice in the sandwich is adjacent to a buffalo flavor. It wasn’t actually very crispy, but I suppose it was crispy enough to be called “crispy chicken breast.” We weren’t really blown away by this sandwich, but it wasn’t bad!
Inside the sandwich
The final adult entree we got was the Plant-based Patty Melt for $12.79. And boy, did we have some THOUGHTS about this one! It’s an Impossible Burger topped with plant-based Swiss cheese, pickle slaw, and asteroid sauce on toast. The “cheese” RUINED this sandwich.
Plant-based Patty Melt
The burger was chewy and tender and the slaw and asteroid sauce made a nice combo of crunchy and smooth textures. There’s a hint of peppery flavor in the meat, and the flavors weren’t bad. But the CHEESE. The plant-based Swiss cheese was slimy and felt slippery on my tongue — that texture just completely threw off the whole sandwich. If it didn’t have the cheese, it would be significantly better!
Sadly, this was NOT a winner
We also opted to try one of the kid-friendly entrees. This is the Kids Macaroni and Cheese, and you can get it for $6.99. It comes with mac and cheese, two sides, and a beverage. That’s a STEAL!
Kids’ Meal
As far as Disney World mac and cheeses go, we consider ourselves experts here at DFB. This one actually isn’t bad — the cheese was super creamy and the pasta was soft, but it held up to the cheese well.
Mac and cheese
I think this would be a bit better with a bolder cheese flavor, but for a kids’ option, it’s fairly good. Not really anything to write home about (and we’ll still be picking our beloved Gasparilla Island Grill mac and cheese over this one!), but your little ones probably wouldn’t complain.
MMMM pasta
And finally, let’s talk about our drink! We ordered the Lunar Lemonade for $5.99. It’s Minute Maid lemonade with desert pear syrup over ice, and it reminded me a lot of the violet lemonade you get during the EPCOT Flower & Garden Festival, but in liquid form instead of slush form.
Lunar Lemonade
It has a strong tartness and a really heavy syrup flavor. Overall, I like the Flower & Garden version better. Even with the ice melting into this and watering it down, it was a little too strong and artificial.
It has a strong syrup flavor
Now that we’ve talked about all the eats, what are my final thoughts?
Overall
Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Cafe serves its purpose REALLY well. It’s meant to be a crowd-pleaser restaurant with lots of seating that can serve thousands of guests per day. And it does exactly that!
Inside Cosmic Ray’s
If you want a simple burger or chicken meal, this. is a great place to go. It may be hectic while you’re there and it may be a challenge to find a table, but everyone will probably be able to find something they like on the menu. The food probably won’t knock your socks off, but let’s be honest — we’re all really here for Sonny Eclipse. 
Nosh or Not?
Sing along with Sonny Eclipse if…
- You need a cheaper, fast meal in Magic Kingdom. If you Mobile Order, you can get in and out of here pretty quickly, and if you’re okay with sitting outside, you’ll probably be able to find a seat without much trouble.
- You have picky eaters in your party. You can’t go wrong with burgers, chicken sandwiches, and chicken tenders. This is a great place to get a little something for everyone!
- You are a major Sonny Eclipse fan! There’s nothing quite like Sonny Eclipse at the other quick service spots, and listening to his jokes and songs is a great way to pass a meal.
Avoid the Cosmic chaos if…
- You don’t like heavy crowds or loud environments. As I mentioned above, it’s pretty much always busy here. If you don’t like weaving through a bunch of people and sitting near strangers, this probably isn’t for you.
- You’re hard set on indoor seating. It can be hard to find a table inside during the lunch or dinner rush, and you might have an easier time if you go to Columbia Harbour House or Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn & Cafe instead.
- You want some unique or really amazing food. This isn’t really a restaurant for the foodies out there, so if that’s you, head somewhere else where you can get more special eats.
The full spread
That’s a wrap on my visit to Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Cafe! Stay tuned to DFB for more food reviews and updates from the parks! We’ll keep you in the loop with everything going on at Disney World.
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Have you ever been to Cosmic Ray’s? Tell us in the comments!
The post REVIEW: 3 Reasons You Should Go To Disney World's Busiest Restaurant (And 3 Reasons You Shouldn't) first appeared on the disney food blog.
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