Hi, Julie here with another Disney World restaurant review for you. Last month we were at WDW and had made some pre-trip restaurant reservations, but we are always open to changing our plans last minute if our mood doesn’t fit the restaurant we chose. On our day at the Magic Kingdom we had originally planned on eating at the Wave at the Contemporary Resort. Then it was so stinking hot and humid that I had to go back to the hotel every day from about 12-3. I decided that I didn’t want to leave the park and waste time travelling out of the park and back again after dinner. Luckily when I checked at 1 pm there was a reservation available at one of our favorite Magic Kingdom restaurants, the Liberty Tree Tavern.
We got there about 2 minutes before our reservation, I usually like to show up earlier, but it was pouring out and we decided to try and run over to space mountain for our fastpass time and run back in one of the rain breaks. It wasn’t really a break per say, but lets just say it was pouring less heavily! Lucky for us though it was at the tail end of the dinner crowd and it seemed that some people had left the park because of the rain, so it wasn’t as busy as I had expected it to be. We only had to wait about 5 minutes before our table was ready. Which is really too bad, since I love the décor so much here, and I didn’t have any time to look around like I usually do.
Our waiter, Tyler, came right over to our table and took our drink order and informed us that dinner was family style and our food would be out shortly. The family style meal included rolls with a sweet butter, roasted turkey breast, carved beef, and sliced pork, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green beans, salad with a strawberry vinaigrette dressing, and apple craisin cake with ice cream.
The salad and rolls came out first and were delicious as usual. I love the sweet butter they used for the rolls. I also love the strawberry vinaigrette dressing for the salad and this time I finally got up the nerve to ask our waiter if it was possible to get the recipe for the dressing. He said it was and brought it right out to me. I can’t tell you how awesome that was. I always knew you could ask for recipes at WDW and most restaurants would give them to you, but I had never actually asked to get one. It was nice to finally find out how easy it was to do so.
After we had our fill of salad and rolls, the main course came out. It all looked and smelled fantastic. Once we loaded up our plates we got down to eating and it tasted as good as it looked and smelled. We filled up so much on the turkey and trimmings that we totally forgot to leave room for dessert, so I can’t report on that, but the rest of our meal was fantastic.
Service here was also impeccable. Our waiter, Tyler, was very attentive and checked up on us several times. He even came over and wiped off the AC vent that was occasionally dripping on me. He spent several minutes chatting with us too. I always like when the wait staff has a minute or two to chat with us. It definitely makes you feel more at home when they do. I think the poor guy needed a break though, he was really running around, had dropped a few items and had a couple of extra-large groups to serve that were not so nice to him. One group ordered a whole new round of drinks and then left 2 seconds after he brought them to the table. We felt bad for him, and since he had been so nice to us, we left him an extra big tip and made sure to mention to the management how much we enjoyed his service. Hopefully it made his night a little bit better.
All said and done, we definitely enjoyed our meal here. The LTT has never disappointed us and we will continue to call this one of our favorite places to eat in the World. It may not be the most daring or exciting food, but it is excellent fare and its a place that makes us feel like we are visiting good friends for a home cooked meal. Here is the recipe for the Strawberry Vinaigrette Dressing that they gave me. I can’t wait to make some for myself. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!
Liberty Tree Tavern Strawberry Vinaigrette
8 Tbsp. strawberry vinegar
1 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. granulated sugar
1 oz. frozen strawberries
2 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
dash Tabasco sauce
dash white pepper
3 cups salad oil
4 Tbsp. water
Place strawberry vinegar, salt, sugar, strawberries, Dijon mustard, Tabasco sauce, and white pepper in a bowl. Using a hand-held blender, blend ingredients well. Add oil in four parts, blending thoroughly after each addition. Add water and blend one last time.