We’re always looking for ways to keep from totally blowing our budget while on vacation at Disney World.

Making sure you’re as prepared for your Disney World trip as possible can come with its challenges. How do you know if everyone you’re traveling with is going to find something they like at the restaurants you choose? We decided to venture out of the parks in search of a worthy meal that could please multigenerational families with one swift experience, and we think this restaurant truly nailed it!

Sebastian’s Bistro is nestled along the backside of the check-in building that houses Centertown Market at Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort. Its building is also attached to the neighboring Banana Cabana Pool Bar & Lounge. This moderately priced meal is served family style (meaning they have a set menu that’s brought out to your table and you can ask for more servings as your meal progresses) with a few appetizers to get you started, enhancements to add on to your meal, several beverage options, and all of this will wind down your dining experience with an included dessert.

We were looking for a fun night out with a tropical atmosphere. It had been a while since our last meal here, so we decided we would try it out to see if our experience could change!

Atmosphere

The vibe here is very light, and upbeat. There are lots of bright pastel colors set against some bolder tones (like red for Sebastian the crab) that really are aesthetically pleasing and make sense for the theme this restaurant is trying to convey.

As we stepped in through the entranceway we were greeted by several servers waiting to take on the next parties and noticed a bathroom by the end of the hall directly ahead. We swooped to the left and wound around the dining room…

… until we were seated at our table that was nestled up against a huge window. This window seat was fabulous for a few reasons; it gave us some really great lighting (for some great photos to share) and we got an incredible view of the sunsetting and the nightlights turning on as the sun went down.

Although we sat at a table, there was also booth seating…

… and tables capable of hosting larger parties altogether. The dining room was very large and featured high ceilings so it really may have appeared larger than it truly was (but it worked!).

We also spotted a fun wall painting featuring the main crab himself! The overhead speakers played tropical-themed music and really helped add to the overall ambiance throughout the evening.

After we were seated, we were offered a table setting with a main dinner plate, rolled silverware in a cloth napkin, and a smaller plate in anticipation of appetizers.

Our server excused himself to grab the more extensive menus and a glass of water for us while we decided on what we’d like to eat (spoiler alert: that didn’t take long since it’s a family-style meal here).

Menu

We were given a main course menu that featured a few appetizer and beverage options…

… along with a few enhancements that could be paired with our meal.

We were also offered a separate menu for beverages…

… and wine selections.

As we mentioned before, this meal is served family-style, meaning the entree is brought out to your table and replenished as you request more things so that helped to narrow down our choices. However, there is an option called Harvest of the Caribbean that can be enjoyed if you would rather opt for the plant-based version of the meal. Either version of the main entree will cost you the same price of $38 for adults and $20 for children ages 3-9. This price will include all the appetizers, either version of the shared entree meal, and dessert.

Ultimately we settled on the appetizers, an enhancement, a few drinks (alcoholic and non), and the Taste of the Caribbean entree with sides. We placed our meal and were quickly met with the start of our islander meal!

Drinks

The first things we requested to be brought out to the table were our drinks. We chose to order the Flounder of Reason Colada and the Caribbean Smuggler to give us a variety.

Let’s talk about the Flounder of Reason Colada first. This drink was non-alcoholic and was made of a frozen blend of pineapple, coconut, and banana layered with orange-flavored ice cream topped with whipped cream. This drink cost us $6.49.

This drink knocked it out of the park for us in all the best ways. The presentation between the yellow and light blue layers really could help you see the resemblance to Flounder, Ariel’s fishy friend from The Little Mermaid movies.

It was a fun call back but the drink tasted even better than it looked. While it kept a nice blended frozen consistency throughout, the flavors just really helped to set this drink up for success. As a mock-tail, you still could taste the colada style of the pineapple and coconut but there were definitely notes of the banana that were noticeable. The orange-flavored ice cream gave it almost a float consistency as it melted and it was delicious. This could easily be a fun kid-friendly drink for anyone to enjoy!

Then it was time to turn our sights to the Caribbean Smuggler. This alcoholic drink was made with Captain Morgan Original Spiced Rum and Parrot Bay Coconut Rum with cranberry and pineapple juices for $14.

Listen, this drink is truly a rum runner’s dream. It wasn’t too heavy on the rum, but kept a smooth taste to it that didn’t leave an overly intrusive aftertaste in your throat.

The spiced rum and coconut rum combo really complement each other mixed in this drink, and the pineapple garnish was a nice touch to the presentation.

Eats

Shortly after our drinks were brought out we were offered the appetizers that come with the meal. This meant we were brought out both the Buttery House-baked Pull-apart Rolls and The Spice Necklace Salad.

Ok, we’ve got to talk about this beautiful salad first! The Spice Necklace Salad is made of Mixed Greens and Kale with Spiced Candied Pumpkin Seeds, Tropical Fruit, and Radish with Key Lime Dressing.

You’re probably going to hear this a lot throughout this review but the presentation here was beautiful! the leafy greens were in different hues giving it great dimension, and we enjoyed their crunch against the sweet spiced candied pumpkin seeds (which tasted more like sunflower seeds to us).

The radish slices were very thinly cut making them flexible enough to mimic a flower, and the key lime dressing drizzled over it all gave it a nice tartness against the sweet candied seeds.

The tropical fruit that topped this was mandarin oranges and they were plump and juicy which burst in your mouth as you took a bite!

Then we started in on the Buttery House-baked Pull-apart Rolls (which also featured a Cheddar Mickey biscuit!)

These are served with a few sides of spread in the guava butter…

… and the caramelized onion jam.

The rolls were soft Parker House style rolls and were lightly crisped at the top and bouncy like a pillow on the inside. The guava butter really flipped the script on us for what we were expecting. At first glance, it looks like a guava sherbert… but when you taste it, you only get the sweetness of the flavor as butter. It was different, but a good different. Our mind was anticipating ice cream and met with a sweet flavored butter… and while that was a wild idea, we loved it!

The caramelized onion jam was equally as divine. It was a sweet spreadable jam that had a subtle savory flavor to it from the onions. This was another flavor combination that turned out to be a delight but really sent our taste buds and our minds into a battle of wills.

The surprise cheddar Mickey biscuit was a delight!

This little thing was crisp yet flaky like a croissant would be and tasted like a Cheez-It!

We could easily have ordered a plate full of these to enjoy all night and be perfectly content!

If you’re keeping up with us so far, we were just getting started at this point. Our meal enhancement was brought out with our main entree so there was A LOT of food to go around! We ordered the Crab and Fish Cake to go along with our meal which cost us an additional $13.

This dish is served with tropical mango slaw and guajillo aïoli which worked together like a symphony of flavors. The crab and fish cake was delicious with a lightly crusted outside to hold the cake together, that when cut open…

… revealed all the delicious seafood meat inside along with several crunchy veggies mixed in. You may need to get creative with this one because it will fall apart easily once you’ve started cutting into it. The flavor is put on full force when you’re able to get some of the mango slaw (which really DOES taste like mango) and the aïoli sauce.

It was finally time for our main entree, the Taste of the Caribbean. This entire dish is massive taking up multiple plates since it can serve multiple people at one time. It’s made of oven-roasted citrus chicken, slow-cooked mojo pork with mango sambal, grilled chili-rubbed beef with mojito relish, and sustainable baked fish with Veracruz sauce.

The sides were served on another plate containing Cilantro Rice and Beans, Vegetable Curry, and Grilled Seasonal Vegetables.

There’s a TON to go over about this one so we’ll start with the more simple plate of sides. Kicking off the sides to explore we started by tasting the cilantro rice and beans.

There’s certainly a cilantro flavor to the rice and the way they’re cooked makes them a tad sticky, like you typically can find with Caribbean-inspired rice. The kidney beans had a nice burst to them when you bit down on them but they didn’t provide much more in terms of flavor than the rice provided overall.

The vegetable curry tasted more like a spicy beef soup, just without the beef.

It’s a warm tomato-tasting broth that also has distinct notes of each of the vegetables that make it up with the celery being the most forward. We really enjoyed this one and could have been content ordering this as a standalone dish.

The seasonal vegetable served with our particular meal was broccolini. 

We found it to be buttery with hints of garlic that was cooked very well! The tops were soft while maintaining the crunchiness of the stalks (but not overcooked.) This served as an enjoyable side but not the most memorable part of our meal.

Now it was time to move on to the big plate!

This dish served up the oven-roasted citrus chicken…

… slow-cooked mojo pork with mango sambal…

… grilled chili-rubbed beef with mojito relish…

… and sustainable baked fish with Veracruz sauce.

We’ll break this dish down one by one, starting with the over-roasted citrus chicken. This may be one of our favorite flavors of chicken at Disney World. The chicken drumsticks and breast are tossed into great buttery spices, and the skin with the meat really added to the overall flavor. If we had to be nitpicky about this one, it’s that we found the inside to be a bit dry and would have loved to have had a bit more juicy meat against so many of the flavors that started off strong on the outside.

The mojo pork was equally as enjoyable! This reminded us of pork carnitas meat coated with lots of lime, giving it an acidic flavor, but they were very moist with just enough fat in the meat to have a nice chew. There wasn’t a whole lot of this brought out on the initial plate but our server was happy to bring us out more when we asked for it!

The grilled chili-rubbed beef with mojito relish was the highlight of this entire dish! It’s normally cooked at a medium to medium-rare temperature, but you can have it cooked to your liking (our server asked if we wanted ours cooked differently). It’s thinly sliced and packed with flavor, with a great chew that’s just enough resistance as you bite down on it. If you were wondering if it was good enough to order seconds on, the answer is YES!

To round out the entree plate we tried the sustainable baked fish. We found the fish option to be enjoyable but not super flavorful (or buttery).

The Veracruze sauce reminded us of a chutney. It had a nice sweet flavor to the sauce but it was also very much a savory sauce at the same time.

If you’re thinking “Did they even make it to dessert?,” the answer is yes, but we were ready to tap out from being so full at this point. If it wasn’t for the opportunity to try the Our Celebrated House-made Coconut-Pineapple Bread Pudding, then we probably would have thrown in the towel well before.

If this treat looks familiar to you, you’re not wrong. It’s also served at the neighboring Banana Cabana Pool Bar & Lounge and as a sister version (sans coconut) at ‘Ohana, Tambu Lounge, and Kona Cafe (even Kona Cafe To G0.) It’s paired with a signature caramel sauce and vanilla ice cream. We drizzled that warm caramel sauce (read that as poured the whoooole thing) on top of the bread pudding and cold ice cream and got to work!

Once you’ve put the warm caramel sauce over the top, you’d better be ready to dig in because this dessert can get messy quickly. The sauce is super creamy with a rich caramel flavor highlighted against the vanilla bean ice cream flavor. The coconut addition to this version of the pineapple bread pudding is what really sets it apart from the rest in our opinion.

The coconut shavings that are included are mostly found on the outside in case you’re not a fan, but we’re begging you to try it along with the rest of the treat. They add a nice crunchy texture without overpowering the sweet juicy pineapple tidbits you’ll find peppered throughout the layers of the bread pudding. It was delicious, and we’re pretty certain we could have eaten our weight’s worth in this dessert alone.

Overall

Overall we definitely had some superstars that really stood out to us throughout this meal like the sliced beef, chicken, mojo pork, both appetizers, the vegetable curry, and of course, dessert. However, the rest of the meal was just average for us or less memorable. We certainly didn’t taste anything that we really wouldn’t try or eat again; there were just a few that really outshined the rest of the menu offerings.

The meal itself really can pack a punch and hold its own without ordering any of the extras, however, we’ve got to admit we really enjoyed the extra options of the fun and fruity drinks and the addition of an enhancement with our meal. This really elevated the dining experience for us and we’re still talking about how beautifully themed the restaurant is decorated!

Nosh or Not

We think you’ll enjoy this Caribbean-inspired meal if…

• You’re a big fan of Caribbean cuisine. Your taste buds will love you if you’re someone who has an appreciation for sweet and spicy Caribbean flavors, there’s plenty to go around here!
• You’re dining with a group! This restaurant very easily could accommodate larger dining groups and with the family-style meal, there’s very easily something to find for everyone to eat.
• You’re looking for a fun, vibrant meal without a hefty price tag. This family-style meal has a lot going right for it in terms of flavor, portion, and variety. It’s a budget-conscious option for anyone looking to enjoy a decent meal. Dining here will feel a bit more sophisticated, while you steer clear of restaurants that can provide a similar look and feel for a more expensive experience.

You’d probably rather dine elsewhere if…

• You’re not a fan of tangy spices and flavors. This has a very heavily Caribbean vibe and the look and taste of the food here will match that throughout the offerings.
• You’re looking for a more intimate dining experience. This dining area does have several rooms however, they’re large and capable of accommodating large dining groups. If you’re looking for a more intimate experience, this wouldn’t be a great option for you.
• Family-style meals just don’t do it for you. Aside from the enhancements, all of the entrees and sides will be served together… touching each other. If you prefer to dine at restaurants that offer an option for either a family-style shared meal or a separate entree like Whispering Canyon Cafe does, you just won’t have that choice here as the main meal is only served family-style.

We’ve reviewed EVERY restaurant in Disney World! Be sure to stay tuned with us for the latest reviews and check a few of our other reviews below!

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Have you ever dined at Sebastian’s Bistro? Give us your thoughts on your experience below!

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