Magical Dining Deals 2022 at Disney World and Beyond!

Magical Dining is back for 2022, and multiple restaurants across Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando are participating in this popular promotion offering over a month of deals on 3-course meals. This article covers the dates, details, and our recommendations for where to eat during this meal discount.

Visit Orlando’s Magical Dining celebrates its 17th anniversary August 26 through October 2, 2022. For 38 delicious days, guests can enjoy three-course prix-fixe dinners for $40 per person, plus tax and gratuity. Participating locations include select Walt Disney World restaurants, many of Orlando’s most popular restaurants, and several newer restaurants. Michelin Guide Florida Restaurants near Walt Disney World.

For 2022 you can also do a dinner and overnight stay via Visit Magical Orlando Nights. This one features specials from some of Orlando’s top-rated hotels, some of which are home to restaurants participating in Visit Orlando’s Magical Dining Month. This promotion is much more limited and on a smaller scale, with the Wyndham Grand Orlando Resort Bonnet Creek being the only Walt Disney World on-site hotel to participate.

In regards to Visit Orlando Magical Dining Month 2022, here is a complete list of participating Walt Disney World restaurants onsite:

• Jaleo (Disney Springs)
• Wolfgang Puck Bar & Grill (Disney Springs)
• Il Mulino New York Trattoria (Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Resort)
• Todd English’s Blue Zoo (Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Resort)
• La Luce (Signia by Hilton Orlando Bonnet Creek)
• Reservation-Free Food Bazaar (JW Marriott Bonnet Creek)
• Deep Blu Seafood Grille (Wyndham Grand Orlando Resort Bonnet Creek)

Here is the list of participating Universal Orlando restaurants:

• Amatista Kitchen (Loews Sapphire Falls Resort)
• The Kitchen (Hard Rock Hotel at Universal Orlando)
• Island Dining Room (Loews Royal Pacific Resort)
• Mama Della’s Ristorante (Loews Portofino Bay Hotel)

For a full list of the 86 restaurants participating in Visit Orlando’s Magical Dining Month, Click here.

Outside of the above options, an apparent highlight is Four Flamingos, A Richard Blais Florida Kitchen at the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress, which was recently recognized by the Michelin Guide Florida. This Hyatt isn’t technically onsite at Walt Disney World, but it’s a stone’s throw from Disney Springs and is one of our favorite Central Florida hotels.

There’s also Bosphorous Turkish Restaurant, which made our list of Great restaurants near Walt Disney World. Bosphorous has four locations in Central Florida – Winter Park, Winter Garden, Dr. Phillips and Lake Nona. Bosphorous’ go-to dish is Lavas’ signature hollow bread, baked to order. So be sure to add it if it’s not included in the Magical Dining Month menu!

At Universal Orlando, we did the Kitchen and Amatista Cookhouse as part of Magical Dining Month last year. Both are definitely geared more towards the comforting side of the spectrum, rather than being fine dining or any kind of elevated cuisine. We enjoyed both and left absolutely stuffed (and with leftovers).

This year, the other two Universal restaurants are on our radar. With Halloween Horror Nights season and the cheapest time of year for Annual Passholders to book hotel rooms at Universal, we plan to take advantage of it again. (We also need to be more diligent in our search for restaurants in Universal Orlando!)

Since we published Visit Orlando’s Magical Dining Month a few years ago, the price has gone from $35 per person four years ago to $37 last year to $40 this year. When you consider the skyrocketing cost of labor and food inputs, it actually doesn’t seem so bad. Most of these meals are even $5 more deals than they were about 5 years ago.

We have done offers for Magical Dining Month several times and have had great success with the meals more often than not. Sometimes the offer is illusory (by virtue of smaller portions or altered items), but more often than not it is not. It’s a chance for these restaurants to get you in during what is otherwise a slow time of year, wow you, and hope you come back to pay full price. Of the Walt Disney World options, our top recommendations would be Jaleo (by far) and Todd English’s Bluezoo.

Note that you must order from the specific Magical Dining Month fixed price menu to take advantage of the $35 price, and this menu is not the standard menu at some places. It’s usually in mid-range restaurants, but obviously not in fine-dining restaurants that offer dry-aged steaks or other expensive specialty dishes.

Although the lineup at Walt Disney World isn’t as great as in previous years, there are still some good and new options that we’re interested in. In particular, the Bonnet Creek trio of options (but maybe not Unreserved Food Bazaar). Plus, we’ll take any excuse to revisit Jaleo, which is a personal favorite and always great value during Magical Dining Month.

Prior to the closure, many other Walt Disney World restaurants participated in the promotion, including locations at resorts and many more at Disney Springs. This has not been the case in recent years, due to an evolving combination of capacity constraints, pent-up demand and staff shortages.

Over the last month or so, we’ve seen this start to normalize around Walt Disney World. Even during the peak of the summer season, the availability of advance meal reservations has eased. Judging by our recent dining experiences, this is at least partly due to locations filling up more tables. While not every location has returned 100%, it seems like more and more people are getting there — or getting close — with each passing month.

If reservation availability is already increasing in the heart of Florida’s peak season, I wonder if pent-up demand is also starting to dry up. This trend could accelerate further by August, resulting in a very different dynamic than what we have seen over the past two years.

Magical Dining Month is offered because this date range is low season and a slow time for the restaurant industry as a whole – it’s a good way to artificially stimulate demand for restaurants. Not to get too speculative, but I wonder if more restaurants might suddenly find themselves wanting a similar surge in demand. Maybe we’ll see more added to the Magical Dining roster at the last minute?

Of course, that’s a bit off topic here. For now, we’ll be enjoying Magical Dining Month and look forward to future (planned) dining offerings and improved ADR availability at Walt Disney World. This is unquestionably the golden age of restaurants, with many locations in Disney Springs leading the way. I hope you get the chance to try something new that was previously unattainable, price-wise!

Planning a trip to Walt Disney World? Learn more about the hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotel Reviews page. To find out where to eat, read our Walt Disney World restaurant reviews. To save money on tickets or figure out which type to buy, read our tips for saving money on Walt Disney World tickets. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips article takes a unique look at smart on-the-go items. To know what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride guides will help you. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Travel Planning Guide for everything you need to know!

YOUR THOUGHTS

Are you planning to take advantage of Visit Orlando’s Magical Restaurant Month at Walt Disney World? Where will you dine during the deal in 2022? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment of why these discounts are being offered or the future of the restaurant scene at Walt Disney World? Hearing your feedback on your experiences is both interesting for us and helpful for other readers, so feel free to share your thoughts below in the comments!