Coral Reef is a table-service restaurant in Walt Disney World’s Epcot. Famed for their aquarium viewing while dining, the restaurant offers seafood and American dishes. Coral Reef does take part in the Disney Dining Plan as 1 table-service credit and they also offer a 10% discount to those with an Annual Pass or Disney Visa. In this post, we’ll review the restaurant’s atmosphere, cuisine and value.

Not many restaurants get to boast views of thousands of sea creatures while dining and being a filming location for a special episode of Boy Meets World. In fact, I’m willing to bet there’s only one – Coral Reef Restaurant. For all of you Boy Meets World aquarium lovers, this is mecca. The Lisan al-Gaib of restaurants. That Venn diagram overlap might be shrinking but the good news is that Coral Reef will also appeal to us simpletons that just want to watch a turtle swim by while having dinner.

Cory swimming down in scuba gear to profess his love for Topanga probably won’t happen while dining here. That’s fine by me, I always thought that Cory should have ended up with Lauren in season 5 of the show anyway. I mean, that girl was basically running a ski lodge before she graduated high school. Think of her career prospects!

There is a chance that you’ll see other people in scuba gear though, as tours frequent the tank on one end of Coral Reef. This tank is huge and is the source of atmosphere, entertainment and theme in the restaurant. Sharks, rays and hundreds of different fish swim by in one of the largest man-made ocean environments ever created.

Seating in the restaurant is tiered so that different levels can get a view of the aquarium. Naturally, the closer guests are to the windows the better. Getting stuck in one of the top corners should still offer a decent view but it won’t be as interesting of an experience as the 2 tiers of seats closest to the aquarium.

Coral Reef is laid out very similarly to Space 220, or vice versa since Coral Reef came first. Instead of the space theme, there’s sea life! It’s a good tradeoff and the aquarium alone makes this a really strong atmosphere. That’s needed as the rest of the seating area is a mixed bag.

I do like the mosaic tiling on the walls separating the tiers. The curvy lines throughout the restaurant are also a strong point, fitting in well with the ocean idea. The rest of Coral Reef’s interior looks dated. While it all stays in theme, the blue and green carpet is a little faded and the aqua roof doesn’t match the rest of the restaurant. Even the straight lines in the back of the restaurant feel a little out of place.

Whether that matters is up to the diner. Speaking for myself, it feels nitpicky to say the atmosphere suffers from a back wall while a shark is swimming by. But if you’re seated closer to that back wall than the shark, you have a strong case to make. All this to say, the atmosphere at Coral Reef is unique and well done if you like to stare at sea life for an hour and have a prime seat. If you’re looking for something beyond that then I think the restaurant could disappoint.

Here’s a look at the menu at Coral Reef. Most options center around seafood, with a few exceptions. Is it funny, cruel or on point to eat seafood while watching fish swim by? I’m not sure of the answer but I feel like Quint from Jaws would have a good laugh at it. As far as prices go, this is middle of the road for a WDW table-service restaurant with entrees hovering around $35 with a few outliers on each side.

Our meal started with a bread service. Coral Reef is one of the few non-signature restaurants at Disney World that offers a complimentary bread to start the meal. This is a Hawaiian Bread with a Citrus Butter. The bread itself was sweet and doughy, but not particularly flavorful even when adding in the Citrus Butter. I thought both ingredients were one note in flavor.

We also tried the Lobster Bisque off the appetizer menu. Melissa liked this more than I did, as I found the texture to be way too thick and gloopy. There were bits of lobster inside of the bisque that elevated the flavor. As a whole, this was fine but nothing more. The $14 price tag feels on par with most appetizers but probably more than I’d want to pay to have it again.

We ordered the Fettucine Shrimp for one entree. This included Fettuccine, Shrimp, Garlic, Lemon, White Wine, Butter and Parsley. The dish was a small step above your typical pasta chain restaurant, thanks to the shrimp. Walt Disney World does shrimp surprisingly well and these were no exception. The Fettucine was okay and drenched in a creamy sauce that could have used brightening up. At $35, this was overpriced but a safe bet. There’s definitely better pasta dishes on property.

This is the Grilled Snapper consisting of Coconut-Lime Rice, Mango Salsa, Avocado, Toasted Coconut and Chili-Lime Seasoning. I love seafood and thought this would be an easy win but this dish was a mess. The Snapper was cooked well, juicy and heavily seasoned. But the accompaniments didn’t work for me. I didn’t detect much Coconut or Lime from the Rice and everything else piled on top of the fish felt like overkill. The goal seemed to be to liven up the fish but there was just too much going on here, without augmenting any of the flavors. At $35, this was the most disappointing of the things we tried.

As you can probably tell from my thoughts on the food, I just don’t think Coral Reef is good enough. The meal was disappointing and the atmosphere can’t make up for it. While the aquarium is a unique dining spot, guests can also just go see this reef for free without having a meal. That’s ultimately what we recommend as I don’t think Coral Reef is worth trying until they change up their menu or until Boy Meets World films a reunion episode there.

Overall Rating – 6.5/10

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