A Tony’s Town Square review of dinner in Magic Kingdom:
Magic Kingdom is an amazing theme park for attractions, shows, characters, and so much more… but many Disney fans feel they are a little lacking in decent table service dining options. I will admit – it’s not my favorite place to have a sit-down dinner. I’ll typically park hop or head to a resort for dining.
It’s not that I don’t like any of the options there. Liberty Tree Tavern is a nice meal, and I love the Beauty and the Beast themeing at Be Our Guest. And honestly, my favorite table service in Magic Kingdom is probably Skipper Canteen.
One place I hadn’t been to in quite a long time is Tony’s Town Square. It doesn’t have the best reputation amongst fans, as it serves pretty standard and mediocre Italian food. But it does have some fun decor with the Lady and the Tramp themeing. And sometimes you just want some basic Italian food, which is where I found myself this past February.
Jenn and I were staying at Wilderness Lodge during Princess race weekend, and the night before a half marathon I need some pasta. Wilderness Lodge has some great dining options, but pasta is not one of them. However, Magic Kingdom is not too far away, so off we went for pasta at Tony’s! (And if you want Jenn’s perspective on our meal, you can read her Tony’s Town Square review here).
The atmosphere
I really like the inside of Tony’s Town Square. It’s not as immersive themeing as a place like Be Our Guest, but there are a lot of neat details if you take a look around. The most obvious is in the main dining room, which has a fountain in the center with a Lady and the Tramp statue.
If you continue to peek around you’ll find lots of other details. We actually got a mini tour from our server after our meal, who saw my camera and us taking photos. He quickly walked us around the entire restaurant and pointed out some things (such as the only hidden Mickey in the restaurant!).
There’s also another seating area adjacent to the main dining room which is what I would call a sun room – it has large windows and glass domes in the ceiling. This is where we were seated. If you continue through that room there is also a patio with outdoor seating. This is a great option if you are able to reserve it and time it for a parade or some of the outside entertainment.
Tony’s Town Square is open for both lunch and dinner, and the menus are identical. You won’t find a huge amount of choices, but you’ve got a few appetizers (including salads and soup), about 8-9 entrees, and several dessert choices.
It’s all pretty typical Americanized Italian fare (you can view the menu here), and not all that different than what you’d find at your local Olive Garden. But hey, I enjoy some Olive Garden once in awhile!
Drinks at Tony’s Town Square
Now that Magic Kingdom does serve alcoholic beverages at table service restaurants, you can get something slightly more exciting than soft drinks if you choose to. I was not exciting and just got an unsweetened iced tea, since I was running the half marathon the next morning.
They have a decently sized wine list, as well as a few beers. In keeping with the theme they are all actually Italian wines and beers. There were a few fun cocktails on the menu, too! If I wasn’t running 13.1 miles about 12 hours later I probably would have given one of those a try.
Food at Tony’s Town Square
To start off with, Jenn and I split the Tony’s Garlic Bread For The Table (Toasted Ciabatta with Roasted Garlic-Butter and Parmesan Fonduta):
Our server (who was quite a character thoughout the meal!) highly recommended it to us. Since I wanted all the carbs, garlic bread sounded like a great choice! And it was quite good. If there’s anything we had here that’s a step above what you might expect from Tony’s, it’s this. It came with a side of “Parmesan Fonduta” for dipping. This was pretty similar to Alfredo sauce. It was decent, but to be honest the garlic bread was good enough to stand on its own.
For my main course I went with the Rigatoni alla Vodka (Rigatoni tossed in a Classic Tomato-Vodka Sauce topped with Parmesan-Herb Breadcrumbs):
I was hoping for a hearty, solid pasta dish, and this delivered. The pasta itself was very standard (not impressive), but the sauce was tasty and it was a good portion. It probably could have used a little bit more of the sauce, but being able to add some fresh parmesan on top helped too.
Jenn got the Spaghetti and Meatballs (House-made Beef and Pork Meatballs served over Spaghetti with Tony’s Marinara Sauce):
Again, pretty standard, but not bad. Another generously sized portion. She did share a meatball with me, and it was better than I expected. Side note: we did not share any spaghetti Lady-and-the-Tramp style.
We opted not to get dessert. I can’t say it’s because we were completely stuffed because we may have checked out the cupcake situation back at our resort after dinner. Nothing on the dessert menu at Tony’s was really calling to us.
Is it worth it to eat at Tony’s?
Look, here’s what I’ll say – Tony’s Town Square was better than I expected, but my expectations were not very high. There are just so many better places to eat in Disney World that I wouldn’t often spend a meal and valuable stomach space here.
That being said, the menu isn’t trying to be something fancy or high end. It’s spaghetti and meatballs, casesar salad, fettucine alfredo, and chicken parm. If that’s what you want or need, Tony’s is a lovely spot! There are a lot of positives to it. It’s a pretty space and nice atmosphere. We happened to have a standout cast member as our server. And it’s usually not too tough to get a reservation.
I don’t think I’ll be back at Tony’s too often, but if I find myself needing pasta in Magic Kingdom I know it’s a reliable option.
Related Posts
Have you experienced Tony’s yourself? Do you agree with my Tony’s Town Square review?
I think your assessment of Tony’s is more than fair – it was fine, but fine isn’t always good enough in the WDW restaurant landscape. On the other hand, for our purposes, I think it was a great pre-race meal; I might even go so far as to recommend it for that reason only!