If you look forward to Thanksgiving dinner every November, chances are you’d love eating at Liberty Tree Tavern in Disney’s Magic Kingdom. There, you can feast in one of six historically themed rooms as you dine on turkey with all the trimmings, brought to your table by a server clad in period clothing.
Do you think this restaurant is for you? Read our review of Liberty Tree Tavern in Disney World’s Magic Kingdom to find out!
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What is Liberty Tree Tavern?
Liberty Tree Tavern is an all-you-can-eat family style restaurant located in the Liberty Square area of Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World, Orlando, Florida. The restaurant building resembles a white colonial inn, with three sets of wide double doors stretching across a front porch.
The interior of the tavern features colonialism at its finest. A step through the door transports guests into a warmly paneled colonial kitchen, complete with enormous fireplace. Stroll around to take a look at the artifacts, authentic decor, and portraits adorning the walls, and you’ll feel like you’re back in the early years of our nation.
The Dining Room
Dining areas are divided into six rooms, each themed after a different historical figure: George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Betsy Ross, Paul Revere, or John Paul Jones. It’s fun to see how many nods to each room’s historical hero you can find.
We dined in the Thomas Jefferson room (below), where a stately grandfather clock stands alongside a cupboard of well-worn tomes. Framed architectural plans and portraits decorate the walls of this centrally located dining room.
Dining at Liberty Tree
This restaurant is one of Magic Kingdom’s seven full-service restaurants. These restaurants require an advance dining reservation, which can be made up to 60 days in advance of your first reserved day in the parks. Occasionally you may be able to find a same-day or next-day reservation for Liberty Tree Tavern, but this restaurant is very popular so it’s best to make your reservation early.
Dining reservations for Liberty Tree (or any table-service restaurant) can be made
- On the Disney Go website
- On the My Disney Experience app
- By calling Disney Dining Reservations at (407) 939-3463
Please note that although Liberty Tree Tavern offered character dining experiences in the past, this is no longer the case. Characters do not appear in this restaurant during meals.
Seating and Accessibility
Guests are seated around rectangular or round wooden tables that accommodate parties from two to eight. Meals are served family style on trays that are large enough to hold a substantial amount of food, but small enough to pass around the table.
Some areas of the restaurant are not wheelchair accessible. This includes some dining areas and the restrooms. If you need an accessible table, it is best to make note of that when you make your reservation. If you find yourself in need of a restroom during you meal and cannot do stairs, let your server know and they will assist you.
The Menu
Ordering at Liberty Tree Tavern is simple, and the offerings are identical at both lunch and dinner seatings. Guests are charged a flat rate of $39 per adult and $21 per child (plus tax and gratuity), just as is done at a buffet. The only difference is that instead of visiting a buffet to get food, all the food choices are brought to your table.
Vegetarian, Gluten Free, and Allergy Friendly options are available. There are served on different platters than the non-specialty orders, so it is possible to accommodate different allergies/eating preferences at the same table.
Beer, wine, and specialty cocktails are available for purchase, but must be consumed before leaving the restaurant.
The Patriot’s Platter
If I was to describe this option in one word, it would be “Thanksgiving.”
The first course is a simple but lovely Declaration Salad, consisting of fresh mixed spring greens tossed with carrot shreds, cucumber slices, cherry tomatoes, and shaved radish. Their house dressing is a sweet vinaigrette that gently coats the greens, enhancing the flavor.
The main course is the real star of the show. New England pot roast, oven-roasted pork, and of course roasted turkey are the centerpiece dishes of this feast. But no Thanksgiving is complete without an array of side dishes, and Liberty Tree does a fine job of providing a selection of options: mashed potatoes It’with gravy, macaroni and cheese, herbed stuffing, and a seasonal vegetable (we had sauteed green beans) to cram onto the already-full table.
It’s a lot of food, but if you run short of your favorites, just let your server know. They’ll run back to the kitchen to get another platter of anything you’d like. It’s a tempting proposition, but remember your eyes are often bigger than your belly… and there are no doggie bags!
The Tavern Keeper’s Platter (Plant-Based)
The plant-based version of our American feast also begins with the same Declaration salad as the Patriot’s Platter, but the star of the show is the Impossible brand plant-based meatloaf with mushroom gravy. The slices are thick and hearty, and the gravy adds a layer of flavor that is simply delectable. It may not have been served at the first Thanksgiving, but it is a wonderful modern-day addition that is has become a classic at this restaurant.
Alongside the plant-based meatloaf are traditional mashed potatoes and seasonal vegetables. The platter is a bit shy on variety as compared to the Patriot’s Platter, but my vegetarian daughter truly appreciated the hearty fare. She doesn’t follow a vegan diet, so she was also able to enjoy some macaroni and cheese from the Patriot’s Platter as well.
Dessert Options
No matter which platter you choose, a delicious dessert is part of the meal.
The Ooey Gooey Toffee Cake is part of the Patriot’s Platter, and it is the most talked about dish of the meal. Toffee bits are baked into generous vanilla cake slices for a sweet crunch. It’s topped off with vanilla ice cream, chocolate and caramel drizzle, and more toffee bits. And yes, even dessert is all-you-care-to-enjoy, so make sure you save plenty of room for a second helping!
Dessert on the Tavern Keeper’s Platter is Johnny Appleseed’s Warm Apple Cake. This mini cake is a cinnamon-apple indulgence made even more decadent with a caramel drizzle and dollop of whipped cream. This plant-based dessert is served warm and is an amazing bit of Americana on a plate. I wish that it was included as a choice on the Patriot’s Platter because it was that delicious.
How Does the Food Taste?
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, mostly because of the food. So that, plus the accolades we heard from practically everyone, are what inspired us to dine at Liberty Tree. I was truly looking forward to this meal, and we decided to make it the first table service meal of our trip.
I may face a lot of backlash over this, but truthfully, I didn’t enjoy my experience at Liberty Tree Tavern as much as I had expected to.
The Patriot’s Platter
The meats on the Patriot’s Platter were prepared well, and all three were tender and juicy. Where they fell short for me was the flavor. The New England pot roast was my favorite of the three because of the heartiness of the dish, but all in all it was too similar to what I make at home to be a stand-out dish.
I had high expectations for the turkey since the main draw of this restaurant is Thanksgiving dinner, but the seasoning just wasn’t there. In fact, all the meat eaters at the table had the same complaint: the turkey and pork tasted exactly the same.
The accompaniments were just okay. Again, nothing stood out to me. The vegetables and mac and cheese were prepared the way I’d make them at home, but the stuffing was disappointing to me. Stuffing is my favorite part of Thanksgiving dinner, and this was the plainest stuffing I’ve ever had.
But the biggest disappointment was the Ooey Gooey Toffee Cake. This dessert is one of the most talked-about dishes of the Liberty Tree menu, so my expectations were set pretty high. Sadly, I didn’t find it to be ooey or gooey–it was just a so-so cake topped with ice cream. Again, it was something I could have made at home easily.
The Tavern Keeper’s Platter
The two biggest differences between the Patriot’s Platter and the Tavern Keeper’s Platter are the main dishes and the desserts. In both cases, I enjoyed the Tavern Keeper’s Platter much, much more than the offerings of its counterpart.
The Impossible Meatloaf was hearty, comforting, and flavorful. It was the first time I had tried it, and I fell in love with it! The nutty, full-bodied faux meatloaf with mushroom gravy went perfectly with the mashed potatoes and stirred up all those cozy, happy Thanksgiving dinner feelings.
And as I mentioned above, Johnny Appleseed’s Warm Apple Cake was amazing! The caramelly drizzle added additional sweetness to the cinnamony, warm delight of a dessert. Bits of apple added to the autumn seasonality of the dish. What an amazing surprise at the end of the meal!
Should I Dine Here?
Keep in mind that these are my opinions, based on my taste preferences. Everybody’s experience is different, and everyone has different likes and dislikes. Based on that, here are my recommendations.
History buffs, this is a must-do for you! You’ll enjoy wandering around the restaurant to see the carefully placed artifacts highlighting significant points in the lives of the historical figures in each room. Feel free to ask questions or talk to the servers about the decor. They are always happy to share what they know!
If your family loves hearty comfort food and you don’t have the time or knowledge to cook big meals often, you may LOVE this restaurant. The all-you-care-to-enjoy factor is wonderful, especially if you have big eaters in your family. The platter presentation allows your family to pick and choose what they’d like to eat, so picky eaters can usually find something they like.
But if you’re used to an abundant, home-cooked meals with carefully prepared sides and a robust, flavorful turkey, this may not be the restaurant for you. Since I cook almost every night, this fare hit a little too close to a normal dinner for my family. While we enjoyed the vegetarian platter, the traditional Patriot’s Platter was a 5/10 for us.
All in all I’m glad we finally dined here, but I don’t think we’ll look to make these reservations again unless we visit Disney World during the holiday season.
Planning to Dine at Walt Disney World?
If you’re looking for information about the culinary offerings of Walt Disney World, be sure to check out the articles below.
- Find out what to taste at Epcot’s International Festival of the Arts
- Learn all about the food and ambiance at Coral Reef at Epcot
Have you already dined at Liberty Tree Tavern?
What was your experience like? Comment below and let us know your thoughts!
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