Regal Eagle Smokehouse Review

We may earn money or products from the companies mentioned in this post. Please click my disclosure policy to learn more.

Sharing is caring!

If you happen to go to Epcot during one of the festivals (which is almost all year), it’s easy to never even eat at a restaurant. Just eat at all the outdoor kitchens! However, you might want to consider a meal at Regal Eagle Smokehouse…

As always with my reviews, it covers thoughts on the standard Regal Eagle Smokehouse menu items as well as gluten free offerings. Use the table of contents to navigate where you need to.

General Info for Regal Eagle Smokehouse

Regal Eagle Smokehouse is a quick service restaurant located at Epcot. There are no dining reservations required to eat here, and no discounts to be applied.

However, Disney’s mobile ordering service is available for Regal Eagle, and is highly recommended at this time. You can still order at the counter if necessary, but Disney is encouraging contactless transactions as much as possible.

If the Disney Dining Plan ever returns, this restaurant would use 1 quick service dining credit.

Regal Eagle is open from 11:15a through park closing.

Location

You can find Regal Eagle in the America Pavilion of World Showcase, in Epcot.

Theme and Atmosphere

Considering the name and the location in America Pavilion, I think we can all guess that this is American cuisine and an all American atmosphere.

And what could make it even better? Muppets! That’s right, Sam Eagle is the representative of this eatery.

There is a smoker located right out front, allowing the amazing scent of smoked BBQ waft through America pavilion. Talk about atmosphere. That alone is a winner for me.

There are a lot of picnic tables scattered around the courtyard with the smoker, along with interior seating.

The decor of the restaurant is pure colonial Americana. The walls and space are covered with reproduction antiques, cookware, and signs. All of this is brought together by red, white, and blue bunting strung across the ceiling.

Exposed brick and a generous wall of windows complete the space.

Regal Eagle Smokehouse Menu

Regal Eagle serves lunch and dinner daily. Most entrees come with garlic toast and your choice of side.

Lunch & Dinner Menu

Sides

• Beer-battered Onion Rings
• Baked Bean with Burnt Ends
• Creamy Coleslaw
• Seasoned French Fries
• Macaroni & Cheese

Kids’ Menu

Officially, the Kids’ Menu states that the meal comes with coleslaw and watermelon and a choice of milk or water. This is a lie.

If you pull the menu up on mobile order, you’ll see an option for a drop down menu under select your side. Once you do that, you’ll see that kids can choose from ALL of the sides.

Similar is true for the drink choices as well. Kids can also choose apple juice, Coke, Diet Coke, and Sprite.

• BBQ Chicken Leg
• Chicken Salad
• BBQ Rib
• Cheeseburger

Regal Eagle Smokehouse Gluten Free Menu

The gluten free offerings at Regal Eagle Smokehouse are pretty phenomenal in the sense that there are plenty of options. Because this is a newer restaurant, everything seemed to be designed to accommodate food allergies right off the bat.

In terms of the entrees, every single one of them is listed as being available gluten free, except the Cheeseburger. I’m not entirely sure why, unless American Cheese has gluten in it?

The same is true for the Kids’ Menu, all of the items are available gluten free. Even the cheeseburger, so now the lack of Cheeseburger on the main menu is even more puzzling.

Regardless, I’m fairly certain if you order at the counter, you can get yourself a cheeseburger.

The entrees are made gluten free by the addition of allergy friendly garlic toast. Sometimes ingredients are omitted (like the fried onion rings on the BBQ Burger).

The gluten free sides are:

• French fries
• Baked bean with burnt ends
• House-made pickles
• Creamy Coleslaw

The gluten free dipping sauces:

• Tangy Mustard
• Sweet BBQ
• Spicy Mop
• North Carolina Vinegar

Regal Eagle Smokehouse Review

I’m sure you’ve already picked up on the fact that I’m a fan of Regal Eagle. Now, let’s talk about why I like it so much.

Mobile Ordering and Check-in

This process is pretty easy peasy. Even with a food sensitivity it was easy to place the entire order through My Disney Experience.

This is a welcome improvement that’s come out of the reopening. Previously, people with special dietary needs still had to go to the counter to order at a lot of the quick service restaurants.

Once you get the notification that your food is ready, the entrance is not entirely obvious. No, you don’t go in the front doors.

This is mainly due to the need to control the flow of traffic right now, so this will hopefully change.

At this time, walk all the way to the far left side of the building and walk down an exterior hallway. There are cast members here to confirm your order and direct you inside.

Aside from that little detour, everything inside is clearly labeled so you know which station to go to.

Atmosphere and Theme

I love the overall feel of the restaurant. As you can tell from the pictures, it’s very open and airy inside. There is also a lot of seating, both inside and out.

When we were there most people chose to eat outside, which is not surprising considering the pandemic and all. Both times we went to Regal Eagle we had no problems getting a table outside.

The decor and atmosphere fairly hits you over the head with good old fashioned Americana. I think it’s very well done overall.

The exposed brick walls, colonial-esque columns, stars and stripes bunting, even the quilt block tiling at the self service stations all meld together to create just the right atmosphere.

In addition to that, all of the wall decor is carefully curated to enhance the intended feeling of the restaurant. There are also subtle, and humorous nods to Muppets throughout.

All in all, a job well done.

Food

Let’s get down to business! Am I the only one that now has a Mulan song stuck in their head?

Anyway, regardless of atmosphere, the food should be the star, right? I think Regal Eagle Smokehouse does a good job of presenting us with tasty barbecue to enjoy.

Is it entirely authentic to each region it’s supposed to represent? I’m gonna hazard a guess the answer is no. So, BBQ purists might not appreciate Regal Eagle.

But the rest of us are good to go!

North Carolina Chopped Smoked Pork Butt Platter

Frankly, any time I go to a BBQ restaurant, chopped pork is always my go to. I simply love it in general.

The picture shown here is the normal platter as enjoyed by my husband. Clearly, he went with the macaroni & cheese side (as he usually does whenever possible).

I think the way they are currently serving the food, in these tiny cardboard vessels, takes away from the visual appeal. Everything is crammed together in there.

Pre-COVID everything was served on real metal pans. It certainly makes all of the food look better and more appetizing.

The meat is pretty darn tender and melt in your mouth. My only gripe is I wish there was more of it.

The portion sizes are a little on the small side. The only bonus to this is it gives you more room to fill up on all the different Epcot snacks.

Sliced Texas Beef Brisket Sandwich

Keep in mind, this picture is the gluten free version of the sandwich. For all of you who can eat that wonderful thing called bread, you’re sandwich comes on slices of garlic toast.

I think that ups the ante considerably.

My overall thought is that this is an enjoyable sandwich. The meet it tasty and pretty tender.

For anyone who hasn’t eaten gluten free bread, it’s notorious for falling apart pretty easily. The brisket was tender enough that this actually wasn’t an issue for me. That’s a pretty good sign, as far as I’m concerned.

Without the addition of BBQ sauce, I probably wouldn’t like this sandwich as much. But I’m generally someone who enjoys dousing food with sauce, just on principle.

As far as I’m concerned, this sandwich was another winner, but I prefer the chopped pork over this.

Kids’ Meal

Let me preface this by saying that my daughter is completely obsessed with ribs. And I mean completely obsessed. Clearly, she was excited to see ribs on the menu.

I like that the kids menu goes a little beyond the standard quick service menu offerings. It still has the old staples for the picky eaters, but offers options for the more adventurous eaters.

The kid sized portion of the ribs is pretty small, but then again, just about any portion size is too small according to my daughter.

I like that the kids have a choice of 2 sides to supplement the entrée, and that the sides also aren’t all run of the mill options. Both of my kids happen to adore watermelon, so that’s a major win for us.

Sides

So far we have tried 4 of the side options. While someday my husband or daughter might get the pickles as a side, I can promise you I will never eat them.

I mainly want to take a moment to talk about the baked beans with burnt ends. Now, I get that not everyone is a fan of baked beans. But I am. I love them.

And these are some of my favorite baked beans, ever. Admittedly, I’m not a gourmet connoisseur of baked beans. I just know what I like. And I really like these.

There is such a depth of flavor to them. Lip smackingly good and a good sized portion. And the burnt ends…

Seriously, if you like baked beans, this is the side for you.

I can’t eat the mac n cheese, but it looks completely delicious and creamy. Doug says it was good, but he didn’t wax poetic like I did about the beans.

I wish that the fried onion wings could be made gluten free, but I know that’s asking a lot. Guess I’ll have to go to Raglan Road whenever I want to get some of those.

Final Verdict on Regal Eagle Smokehouse

Clearly, the final verdict is you absolutely need to eat at Regal Eagle Smokehouse. It has become a fast favorite of ours at Epcot, and we make a point of going when we can.

In fact, as I wrote this post and edited all of the pictures, all I could think of is that I just want to go again!

When they first opened, there was an additional menu item, the American Platter. That gave you a choice of three meats and a side, along with the garlic toast.

I truly hope they bring the American Platter back, because that’s what I’d order in a heartbeat. I love being able to sample multiple different meats.

Sharing is caring my friends

Your Thoughts

Do you think Regal Eagle Smokehouse sounds good or not so much? Do you plan to try it out during your next trip to Epcot? Let me know in the comments below.

Don’t forget to follow The Disney Journey on Pinterest and Facebook to stay up to date with all the latest news and updates.

Sharing is caring!