Magellan’s is a table-service restaurant in Tokyo DisneySea that offers a fine dining experience.  The restaurant’s cuisine features seafood and steak as well as a few other options.  Our review of the restaurant will include photos, thoughts on the ambiance, food and value, and a few tips on Magellan’s.

DisneySea is full of incredible stories, from American Waterfront all the way back to Lost River Delta.  At the center of those stories sits Magellan’s.  Nestled inside Fortress Explorations, the restaurant is inside of Magellan’s and on the doorstep of the park icon, Mount Prometheus.  Mediterranean Harbor is full of beautiful architecture, with Fortress Explorations and Magellan’s perhaps being the crown jewel.

Magellan’s, and DisneySea in general, is the birthplace of S.E.A. – the Society of Explorers and Adventurers.  This extraordinary back story is part fiction, part reality.  Magellan’s theme is based on exploration, named after one of the most famous explorers Magellan’s.  S.E.A. was inspired by the idea that explorers would join together and, you guessed it, explore.  Fortress Explorations, the walk through attraction attached to Magellan’s, pays tribute to Galileo, Magellan and other explorers.

Magellan’s, on the other hand, is where these explorers would go to relax and enjoy the cuisine from throughout the world.  As time has passed, Disney has added to the S.E.A. story.  Much of DisneySea’s Tower of Terror story centers around one of the founders of the fictional S.E.A., Harrison Hightower.  Mystic Manor in Hong Kong Disneyland and Miss Adventure Falls in Typhoon Lagoon (WDW) each have nods to the society as well as a few other areas throughout Disney Parks.  To read more on the great back story, check out this article.

The ambiance in Magellan’s certainly matches the intricate back story.  The center of the restaurant features an incredible globe that is jaw-dropping.  Rich wood and detailed ornamentation give way to a beautifully painted rotunda overhead.  While all of the big picture decorations are gorgeous, the details are equally as thoughtful.  A walk around Magellan’s is a study in how well Imagineering can do with a thoughtful back story and substantial budget.

There is a secret dining room at Magellan’s, reminiscent of a wine cellar.  To learn more about it, read Disney Tourist Blog’s review of the restaurant.  We didn’t opt to sit in the secret room, as I was intrigued by the main dining room on the first visit.  If you do want to try out the secret room, just request it at the host table.

We actually ended up in a side room, so maybe requesting the secret room would have been a wise move.  Still this side room was outstanding with an interesting globe in the middle and some beautiful woodwork and details throughout.  While there are plenty of immersive and thematic restaurants throughout Disneyland and Disney World, Magellan’s stands alone in terms of theme and ambiance.  Before even getting to the food, Magellan’s is well worth visiting just based on the theme of the restaurant.

Luckily, the food is excellent as well.  Like most of the table-service restaurants at Tokyo Disney Resort, set meals are commonplace at Magellan’s.  This typically includes an appetizer, entrée and dessert as well as a drink.  I should also mention that lunch is quite a bit cheaper here than dinner with minimal change in the menu.  The cheapest lunch set is just over $30 which is an absolute steal considering the dining experience.  The cheapest set at dinner is about $50, which is still a relative bargain compared to other top-notch theme park restaurants.  Still, I would simply recommend going at lunch.

For my appetizer, I had the Charcuterie.  I liked the smoked meats on this plate, especially the salmon.  The roasted vegetables were also delicious as was the mango pudding(?) in the small cup.  With all of our selections at Magellan’s, the presentation was beautiful.

Melissa’s appetizer consisted of shrimp and scallops along with vegetables.  Seafood is great throughout Tokyo Disney Resort and Magellan’s seafood selections were superb.  I liked the sauces on the plate as well to add a little different flavor profile.

I ordered fish for my entrée and was not disappointed.  The white fish had incredible flavor and I enjoyed the creamy pesto sauce on top.  I did end up thinking the helping of sauce was a little heavy-handed but scraping a little off wasn’t a big deal.  This was my favorite entrée that I tried at Tokyo Disney Resort and I was pleasantly surprised by the portion size of the fish.

Melissa elected to go with the beef, which was also delicious.  While I would always recommend fish over beef in Japan (unless opting for Kobe beef) this was delicious.  The red wine sauce on top complimented the steak well.  The cut was tender and melted in your mouth.  This portion size was a bit smaller but not different from what we’d expect for fine dining in America.

For dessert we both ordered the mango sorbet with berries.  The sorbet was full of flavor and exceptional.

Our meal was exceptional and well-rounded, with all courses being ones that I would happily order again.  While not the very best food I’ve had in a theme park resort, Magellan’s is easily in the top-10 and probably top-5.

The portion sizes were fairly small but not much different from what I’ve experienced at fine dining restaurants stateside.  Getting three courses that were both rich and delicious didn’t have us feeling hungry after we left.  I wouldn’t let the smaller portions get in the way of booking this restaurant.

Speaking of booking, getting a reservation here can be somewhat tricky if you go to the resort at a busy time.  Booking ahead of time online is an option for those that are staying at one of the Tokyo Disney Resort hotels.  If not, navigating the Tokyo Disney Resort website using Google Translate may be your best bet in getting a reservation ahead of time.  There may still be a chance to get a same day reservation, just do it first thing in the morning.

As for the value of the restaurant, I think it’s a bargain relative to what we have in the U.S.  In terms of atmosphere, Blue Bayou may be the best we have in America and Magellan’s beats that all while being significantly cheaper.  In terms of cuisine, Magellan’s is up there with high-end signature restaurants like California Grill and Carthay Circle but, again, cheaper.  No, the food isn’t quite as good as Napa Rose or Victoria & Albert’s but the atmosphere makes up for it, making this the best value of any table-service restaurant we’ve been to.

Overall, Magellan’s is my favorite theme park resort restaurant in the world.  The back story, theme and ambiance are all above and beyond.  There is no comparison at Disneyland or Disney World to Magellan’s environment.  The food doesn’t fall far behind that, being excellent and served beautifully with a fair price.  If you go to DisneySea, Magellan’s should be on your itinerary.

Overall Rating – 10/10

If you have questions about Magellan’s or Tokyo Disney Resort, let us know in the comments!  You can read more about our travels in Japan by clicking here. If you enjoy what you are reading here on Wandering in Disney please share this post with your friends, as well as like our social media pages.  You can also subscribe to the blog via WordPress or email.  Links to all of those are on the right side of this page.  Thank you for reading, we really appreciate it!