Paddlefish Restaurant Disney Springs Offers Quality Dining in an Iconic Setting.

Walt Disney World provides guests with some of the best table-service options around the Orlando area. With so many dining options and the emphasis on experiencing the world-class Walt Disney World theme parks, some resort hotels and Disney Springs restaurants get overlooked. For example, the Paddlefish Restaurant needs to receive notice in Disney Springs. The restaurant features an iconic steamboat design. The large steamboat is easy to notice when walking around Disney Springs. Within this steamboat’s exterior, Paddlefish serves a wide variety of quality table service dining options.

Paddlefish Restaurant invited us out for a meal. Our primary objective involved trying the lunch menu. The lunch menu offers many signature items at Paddlefish, like Filet Mignon, Whole Maine Lobster, Snow Crab, Vegetarian Pasta, and Crab Topped Fries.

Our original objective for lunch revolved around a lunch promotion with the Muffuletta Sandwich. Since the Mardi Gras food festival at Universal Orlando dominates so much of our time that we decided to go a different route.  We decided to try one of the unique starters, the Sausage & Peppers.

The Sausage & Peppers do not resemble your traditional appetizer. For $15, guests receive a well-presented plate of “Crispy chourico, shishitos, sweet chili aioli.” Chouricois a sausage used primarily in Portugal that shares characteristics with the more popular chorizo sausage. This appetizer shows creativity and willingness to venture away from standard theme park resort offerings. The peppers contain some spicy heat. However, unless you allow the peppers to remain on your tongue for a long time, the heat factor will not scare away most guests.

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The preparation level for this reaches a high level for this combination. The bread accompanying the sausage and peppers provided a nice crunch and fit well with the rest of the components. Some guests will not enjoy the greasy nature of this combination. However, one should expect that with sausage and peppers based on the preparation style. Overall, this makes a unique starter for any meal here at Paddlefish Restaurant.

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For our entrees, Xavier ordered the Blackened Catfish Sandwich. This costs $18 with fries. If you grew up in a significant catfish-producing state, you might become a snob about catfish. Since one group member grew up in one of those states, they reviewed this sandwich before. In short, this sandwich makes a very worthy lunch option for your day at Disney Springs. A common concern voiced about catfish being too “fishy” does not occur here at Paddlefish. The breading matches well with the flaky fish inside this sandwich. 

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Another entree we ordered would be the Lobster Roll. Lobster rolls can be very divisive. Chef Steven Richard came out to speak with us about the restaurant and the food. One of us sucked him into a more extended discussion about lobster roll styles served in the United States' northeast area. Chef Richard stated that at Paddlefish, they prepare a classic lobster roll.

The lobster roll comes prepared on a classic New England split roll. Though the roll failed to match the style of having a lobster roll on the beaches in Maine, the quality was very high. As Chef Richard said when we dined here, great effort goes into acquiring the right products for their menu items. The brioche-style bun receives a light coating of butter and is toasted to support the entree overall.

The Lobster Roll costs $33 and comes with chips. This price may seem high to some. Still, that price aligns with a good representation of a Maine lobster roll. The lobster tasted fresh without an excessive layer of condiments.  Chef Richard said they use some mayonnaise and some celery to enhance the lobster. This lobster roll style allows the lobster to shine.

Though we were concerned about whether the roll would hold up after the first bite, the brioche bun did well. The container for the lobster roll helped. This provides a nice texture and solid representation of a Maine lobster roll. If you are looking for a heavily seasoned lobster roll or more condiments in the lobster mix for your roll, there may be better choices for you. We found that this staple of seafood restaurants measures up nicely.

To conclude our lunch, we decided to order dessert. One of us has enjoyed desserts here before. Thus, we ordered the Key Lime Pie for $11. This large slice of pie features a key lime base, torched meringue, and a graham cracker crust. The portion size of the pie for table service dining measures up nicely since plenty of desserts at Disney Springs cost more than this and offer less quality. 

Though one of us did not like the torched meringue flavor, Xavier approved. We all agreed that the meringue overall tasted excellent. We had questions, at first, if the meringue matched the key lime base correctly. Nevertheless, the more we ate it, the more we felt the combination worked well. The preparation and presentation of the meringue exceeded standard expectations.

The essential lime portion provided the right level of sweetness to this dessert. The refreshing key lime paired well with the meringue and crust. The only negative of this dessert involved the crust. Perhaps we were picky, but the crust provided a medium for the other components. We would have liked a more robust graham cracker flavor from the crust. However, this failed to detract from another example of a good dessert at Paddlefish.

As you might be able to tell, we enjoyed our lunch. We want to thank Paddlefish for having us out to try their lunch menu. If you plan a trip to Disney Springs, the Paddlefish Restaurant will be hard to miss. As with all Walt Disney World table service restaurants, reservations are recommended. Like several other restaurants at Disney Springs, for more information about menus consult their direct website and ignore the Walt Disney World version that gets updated infrequently. As always, eat like you mean it!

Jon Self

Jon Self is an avid theme park fan who has the high privilege to serve as a pastor at an American Baptist Church (fbcmacomb.com). You can follow him at @pastorjonself on Twitter. Jon writes for various theme park sources such as piratesandprincesses.net and universalfamilyvacations.com. He also writes for faithelement.net.