We finally had a chance to experience on of Disney World’s most popular restaurants—Space 220. In this review we’ll walk you through every step of the experience, starting from planning how to get inside, how we booked, what we thought of the experience, and, of course, the food. We’ll close with some discussion about whether or not Space 220 is “worth it.” Read on to learn all about Space 220.
Ways to Get into Space 220
There are three ways to get into Space 220. The first is to reserve a table at Space 220 Restaurant, which is what we did (more on this below). The second is to reserve a table at Space 220 Lounge. The lounge is within the same room as the restaurant, it’s just located on the “inner” portion, away from the windows. It also has a more limited menu (and isn’t prix fixe).
You can see that the lounge and restaurant are separately listed on the Disney website (though they share a single large space):
The third way to get into Space 220 is via the walk up line for the bar. This option isn’t available to people under 21. People 21 and over, though, can walk up to Space 220. If the line isn’t full, you’ll be able to stand there and wait for space to open up at the bar.
The bar is a physical bar (i.e. not the attendant lounge space), facing away from the windows.
But if you have average range of motion, you can turn around to look at the windows. (The windows are also reflected off a mirror, but I’m not sure how enjoyable that view is.) Here’s the view from when Emily visited the bar once:
Overall she thought this was a great way to visit, but this was also a solo trip where she was basically only otherwise concerned with riding Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind. On a trip with kids or where your schedule doesn’t allow you an extra ~45 minute wait for a seat at the bar, you might not find this option viable.
We booked a table at Space 220 Restaurant. Advance Dining Reservations are highly recommended (i.e. basically required) at Space 220 Restaurant. I used MouseDining to track Space 220 Restaurant reservations. Even when availability popped up, it often went quickly, but I was quick enough to snag a 5:30PM reservation.
Space 220 Restaurant does not participate in the Disney Dining Plans. If you’re planning on using a dining plan during your trip, budget for the fact that this meal will be out of pocket.
Our Space 220 Experience
You’ll find Space 220 tucked away to the side of Mission: Space (right side, if you’re facing the ride). There’s a Cast Member stationed outside the restaurant to manage the flow of people coming for the restaurants vs. the lounge vs. the bar.
We checked in with the Cast Member outside the restaurant who looked up our reservation and sent us right inside. The host area immediately felt like I was somewhere new.
We were given a ticket for our trip to space and then queued for about two minutes before we boarded the elevator.
Inside the elevator, everyone can get a view of the departure to the space station. Zoe (about 39 inches tall) was able to see over the lower railing. It’s pretty cool to watch the “ascent” into space.
Between the elevator and the restaurant you’ll pass a circular hydroponic garden and the wine room.
The restaurant itself doesn’t hide the ball—you’re here for the view.
From the moment we set foot in Space 220, we were transported. Okay…that sounds a bit cliche, but it’s also true. Probably what impressed me most about Space 220 was that it managed to create a sense of awe without doing too much.
That is, there weren’t any exceptional “wow” moments of design (it’s still cool), and nothing about the ‘soft product’—Cast interactions, menu items—was obsessed with the idea that we’re in space.
Photo from Emily’s previous visit
You could contrast this (favorably) with Galaxy’s Edge, where you have to navigate greetings like “Bright Suns!” and menu items like “Pirjanad Hot Chicken Tip Yip”. Space 220’s menu items include things like Centauri Caesar Salad, Galactic Miso Salmon, and Spaceghetti. It’s cheeky without being confusing.
Some of my pictures look pretty dark, and while it isn’t particularly bright inside, we didn’t notice it as being particularly dark.
I’ve heard some claims that “it’s only good if you get a table by the ‘window’,” and I just don’t believe that at all. We did have pretty good seats, on the lowest level, opposite the booths by the windows, but I think most any seat offers good views.
Once you’re seated, the gimmicks are (so far as I could tell) limited to what you’ll see in the windows. We happened to arrive during daytime, with a (seemingly abrupt) change to nighttime happening at some point during the meal, so we got to see Earth both ways.
Besides Earth, you’ll see the occasionally astronaut or spaceship floating by. While I think they could do a lot more with this (maybe even just have the astronauts actively building something), I think it captures the overall ethos of the experience, which is to not go overboard, but to do what it does well. Zoe got a kick out of the astronauts and the spaceships.
The Food at Space 220
We’re not big foodies (and are vegetarians), but this is a restaurant, so we’ll have a bit to say about the food. The Space 220 menu is prix fixe. Dinner is $79 for adults and $35 for kids. Adults get one appetizer, one entree, and one dessert. Kids have a separate menu and get one entree, one dessert, and one beverage.
As you might expect, while the food is pretty clearly named, the drinks have classically opaque names. Emily went with the $17 Up All Night (technically a ‘dessert beverage’—Absolut Vanilla Vodka, Chilled Espresso, Kahula, Creme de Cacao). This was basically an espresso martini, and she enjoyed it.
I ordered a Diet Coke for $4.75. I don’t really see why a $79 prix fixe menu can’t include fountain soda, but okay.
Zoe went off the included beverage menu (soda, milk, apple juice, bottled water), instead getting the $15 Starship Lemonade. I wish I could say the first thing I noticed inside the restaurant was the view, but not, the first thing I noticed was that basically every kid had a glow cube drink. It turns out you can add the collectible cup and glow cube to the standard drinks for $8, but we weren’t paying attention to that.
The rocket ship cup with the glow cube was, indeed, a massive hit.
For appetizers, we went with the Blue Moon Cauliflower and Big Bang Burrata.
These were both good and appropriately portioned for one person (we split them, overall there was more cauliflower). I felt like the cauliflower was a bit more mealy than I’d like, but Emily liked it.
For entrees, we both got the Space Pad “Thai”. I didn’t really like it. The noodles weren’t evenly cooked and the flavors weren’t evenly distributed. We eat Thai food about once a week (not always pad thai, though…as an aside, it’s fun to note pad thai is a relatively recent invention), and I just don’t understand the need to reinvent the wheel here. This was much more of an attempt at a spicy-savory noodle dish that totally lacked any of the unique sweetness of pad thai.
Emily agrees it was a bit of an off take, but concedes that she did eat the entire portion, so it couldn’t have been too bad.
Zoe got Mission Macaroni. Just about the only bad part of being a vegetarian at Disney World is that the kids’ menus tend to be limited (this can be true for non-vegetarians, too, FWIW). In any case, there were no complaints about the macaroni.
For dessert, I got the Blue Planet (Chocolate Cheesecake, Cookie Crumbs, Vanilla Truffles, Raspberry). This was as-advertised and didn’t strike me as anything special. I wouldn’t get it again.
Emily ordered the Messier 83 (Oatmeal Financier, Orange Cream, Blueberry, Crème Fraiche Gelato, Oatmeal Streusel). She really loved it. I was hoping to get this, but since she got it I decided to diversify.
Zoe had vanilla gelato, which was exactly what you’d expect.
Overall, $29 for Zoe to have macaroni and a scoop of gelato isn’t the worst value we’ve had for meals at Disney (we have some price comparisons below). If there was a shortcoming in value, it probably came from the fact that Zoe—3 years old—is sized much more for the standard quick service macaroni you’d get around WDW than for the full table service portion. This is just true of all table service pricing, though.
The final thing I want to note about our meal time was that service was excellent. We always felt attended to by both our server and by the rest of the staff.
Is Space 220 Lunch or Dinner Worth It?
For starters, I should point out that lunch is currently priced at $55 per adult while dinner is $79. Lunch doesn’t come with dessert. Desserts average around $14, though, so dinner is still about a $10 premium.
Since I initially wrote this review, kids’ pricing went up from $29 to $35 for dinner. While this is a decent amount more than Biergarten ($27) it is still less than The Garden Grill ($40, a character meal). Spaghetti plus gelato plus chocolate milk comes to $20.50 at Via Napoli, a casual table service restaurant in the Italy pavilion. Zoe absolutely loved Space 220, so I can’t quibble at all with the kids’ pricing, and I’d go again even at the $35 price point.
As for adults, it’s a little trickier. Let’s start with the $55 lunch price, which includes an entree and appetizer. That’s only $6 more than Biergarten (all-you-can-eat buffet). It’s $7 less than The Garden Grill, and about $12 more than you’d paid for a comparable meal at Villa Napoli. So, I think within the realm of Epcot table service, Space 220 lunch is pretty properly priced.
I think the $10 premium you’re paying for dinner—that $10 on top of the cost/value of a dessert—is a little suspect, but probably still worth it.
But there’s still two more ways to look at this issue. First of all, you can make a reservation for Space 220 Lounge and spend much less just to see what it’s all about. Or you can wait in the standby queue for the bar (I don’t believe under-21s have this option).
The other issue is just whether you want to eat table service at Epcot at all. With Epcot’s dense festival calendar, there’s a good chance your visit coincides with a festival that offers a ton of unique small plate options. Of course you can enjoy one table service meal and and still enjoy plenty of festival food, but you also might feel like spending the afternoon just indulging on festival food is the way to go.
As vegetarians, this isn’t particularly a tough choice for us. Even though some festivals have relatively good vegetarian lineups, it’s almost never worth it for us to plan a whole day of waiting in 5-10 lines for the limited selection. We basically always have a table service meal at Epcot, almost always at Biergarten.
We booked Space 220 as a dinner on our arrival day. Of course flight delays could have ruined this plan, we knew that risk. But it worked out perfectly for us. We were able to check into Caribbean Beach, ride the Skyliner to Epcot, take a stroll through the World Showcase, and enjoy a nice dinner. This left us our later full day at Epcot to enjoy festival food.
And in between festival food and table service dining, you have quick service. A meal at Connections Eatery costs somewhere around $22, for example. Whether table service is “worth it” compared to quick service is probably a question you can handle for yourself.
Personally, while I’d rush back to Space 220 because it was a great experience, I’ll be looking at snagging a lounge reservation next visit. I think any spending a few minutes in any seat with a view of the windows is probably more than enough for our family.
The lounge menu is more limited, and if there were an entree on the restaurant menu that really grabbed me, I’d be open to coming back to the restaurant. As it was, though, I wasn’t impressed with my entree. I think the lounge is probably the sweet spot when it comes to the thing that Space 220 does really well—atmosphere (ironically…get it?).
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