Our Sebastian’s Bistro Restaurant Review at Caribbean Beach Resort in Walt Disney World – (read our complete Caribbean Resort Review here).

Sebastian’s Bistro is a casual dining experience that serves Latin-inspired and Caribbean-inspired dishes. This restaurant is located right next door to the Banana Cabana near the Old Porte Royale, Centertown Market, and the Fuentes del Morro pool.

Location

This tropical style restaurant – with a subtle hint of Disney’s classic “The Little Mermaid” – is an expected addition to Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort, a Moderate Level resort on the Walt Disney World Property.

Theme

The outside of this building is very much beach theme, which we love! You’ll find Sebastian the crab featured in some of the signs and menu cover design, although as we discuss below, not enough for most true Disney movie fans. But one pleasant surprise… you can hear him singing some Caribbean-style tunes while you enjoy your meal!

Latin and Caribbean Inspired Food

If Latin or Caribbean food is one of your favorite flavors, then you’ll probably like the menu as it has seafood-based plates and tropical flavored desserts and drinks. 

Our Full Review of Sebastian’s Bistro

We hope our Sebastian’s Bistro Restaurant Review at Caribbean Beach Resort doesn’t leave a bad pre-taste in your planning, but it did disappointed us on a few levels. We really wanted to love this place, and counted down to its opening in late 2018. Most all super Disney fans like us waited a long time for a Little Mermaid theme restaurant, and of course we expected great Caribbean-style dishes. We do intend to give it another try, but this was unfortunately our least favorite dining experience ever that we have had at Walt Disney World. Even with a reservation, the two of us waited over forty minutes for our table. It seemed very haphazard in service, which is rare for WDW to seem so unprepared for the dinner crowd.

Although it was still fairly new when we went, it had been open long enough that it seemed odd that the service was far less than stellar. Sadly, the waiters and waitresses seemed overwhelmed with busing tables instead of being able to concentrate on their guests. We were nearly finished with our meals before our drinks were refilled. There were other issues going on around us that evening, which to be fair, could happen on any given night in any restaurant inside or outside of Walt Disney World. But honestly, we were quite disappointed with how the manager responded to the whole situation in a rather indifferent manner. Everyone’s concerns were not handled in normal Disney fashion.

Unfortunately the food was not particularly fantastic that night either. The rolls were very good, and the spreads that came with them were fantastic. However, we can’t comfortably say that the other dishes were really worth the prices we paid. The empanadas were tough and didn’t have much flavor let alone a Caribbean flare. The shrimp and grits were okay, but definitely could have been better. The shrimp was not tough, but there were only a few and they came with no side dish aside from the thin layer of grits with a handful of corn kernels mixed in. Because the portions were small and left us still a little hungry, we didn’t feel quite satisfied with the meal, especially given the cost of each dish. 

We did reserve a table ahead of time, and considering it’s on the smaller side as far as WDW restaurants go that is how we recommend you eat there as well, or your wait might be very long. It is a table service restaurant and the prices are a bit on the high side in comparison to many other WDW restaurants.

We hope for a better experience if we ever try it again. We think these issues can be chocked up to the occasional bumps that come along with having only recently opened and not being open full time at that. Given our experience it would be difficult for us to whole-heartedly recommend eating at Sebastian’s Bistro – particularly if you aren’t already staying at Caribbean Beach. We would encourage you to visit Sebastian’s Bistro for yourself if it is a restaurant that you’d really love to try. Maybe just go in with a little lower expectation than you might normally have for a Moderate Level table service dining establishment.

Head over here to read more about our experience at Sebastian’s Bistro Restaurant and the entire Caribbean Beach Resort, which has now been fully refurbished (article updated to reflect this information early 2020).