78: Steakhouse 71 Review

In this week's episode, we review our experience at the restaurant Steakhouse 71 located in Disney's Contemporary Resort.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hey everybody, welcome to Whistle While You Work podcast.

(00:15):
This is episode 78, Steakhouse 71 review.
What's the 71 stand for?
Well it's 1971 when Disney World opened and the Contemporary Resort opened.
Yeah I think that's kind of a cool thing right?
We attributed a lot the 71 to actual the Magic Kingdom really but it also is when the Contemporary

(00:41):
opened so I wonder if that steakhouse has been there since 71.
Well it's been many different restaurants.
I mean I don't have the history of the whole restaurant but I have heard somebody give
the history.
It has been a restaurant a very long time.
The last thing before this was called The Wave which was a buffet and this is located
in the Disney's Contemporary Resort.

(01:02):
It's the one with the monorail that goes through the building.
That hotel looks like a flat top triangle.
Yeah and I think it's so cool the logo for this Steakhouse 71 they made it look like
the building.
Yeah.
But anyway but yeah it used to be The Wave which was a buffet.
Wave sounds like a 90s thing.

(01:23):
Yeah sounds like something they came up with in the 90s.
Probably and but now it's a steakhouse and we went there for lunch.
So we recently went to Disney World as a family and we were at Magic Kingdom and trying to
think about where we wanted to eat lunch knowing that we don't have a lot of places we love

(01:43):
to eat quick service wise at Magic Kingdom and so and we had we knew we were gonna have
two days at Magic Kingdom.
And so I was like hey why don't I see if I can get us into Steakhouse 71.
So day of I was able to get and this was when park crowds were at like a three like we really
got a great week that last week of February.

(02:04):
But anyway I was able to get a walk up reservation that day and so that's what we had.
We had a kind of a I think it was like a 1 32 o'clock lunch super late.
Yeah it was pretty late but we were going to be at the parks pretty late so we were
kind of pacing ourselves.
I want to talk about how we got to the rest of the.
Do you remember that experience?
I do remember that experience.
Mr. Competitive.

(02:26):
So you know the contemporary resort is right next to the Magic Kingdom.
There actually is a walking pathway where you can walk from the resort to the Magic
Kingdom very easily.
You could technically walk from the Grand Floridian or even a little bit more distantly
the Polynesian through the Grand Floridian to that but that's almost like a mile.

(02:48):
That's a really long walk.
This one seems like it's not that far.
Half to a quarter mile.
And so the turnstiles.
And so as we were walking out of the gates I said I'm just going to walk it right.
I don't want to have to wait for a monorail.
I can just walk it.
It's right there.
Right.
And so I went with.

(03:09):
Some of our most competitive children are first and fourth.
Yeah number one and number four.
Yeah.
And and we were determined and so.
And I did not want to do that.
I was tired.
We're not running.
We are walking but maybe power walking.
Yeah.
And so I took our second and third son.

(03:30):
We've got all four sons if you don't know us.
But we took the monorail and we had just barely missed one.
So I think if we hadn't missed that we would have squarely won.
But you guys.
But that was my point was it's too risky to walk all the way over there up the monorail
platform and then have to miss it and wait.

(03:53):
Right we did have air conditioning though and it did happen to be a hot day in February.
It was pretty hot that day actually.
So anyway that was how we got to Stakehouse 71 which I feel is the basement.
I feel like it might be the bottom if not the second bottom.
You've got to go down.
Yeah.
I think.
It was the basement.

(04:14):
Well you had to go down off the monorail.
It was on the ground floor.
Was it the same level as.
Okay.
Yeah.
So anyways we won.
Long story short you left that part out.
Well I did text you right when we got off the monorail and I think it was about the
time that you guys walked through the doors.
Yeah.
But we won to the restaurant.
Yes.
You definitely won to the restaurant.

(04:35):
Let it be recorded for all of everyone to hear.
So we got to this restaurant and it was just it was quiet.
It wasn't overstimulating.
It was probably maybe a little under decorated for my taste even.
But it was a nice.
Contemporary.

(04:55):
Yeah.
It was very contemporary.
Yes.
Whatever that means.
To tell you the truth I don't really know what that style means anymore.
It seems like that's always changing right based on the times.
Well and I took a video I'm looking at right now so the ceiling has these nice wood beams
on there.
Lots of white on the walls.

(05:15):
We happen to be in a nice big booth.
Which I do remember one of the.
Sat all six of us.
Yeah.
All six of us.
We were all in a nice padded booth seat.
And then in the corners.
Basically horseshoe shape if I remember correctly.
And in the corners of that if you can imagine at the top they offered charging stations.
So we could have charged our phones there.

(05:37):
It was just you know one of those nice little conveniences.
They recognized that that's a feature that people need especially with all the videos
and pictures people take.
It's nice to be able to recharge your phone.
One of the things that struck me so much honestly as we walked in was just how it almost felt
how overly clean it was right.
So it just it just had that feel that vibe that hey this is this is very clean.

(06:03):
And that's despite the fact that the floor is carpeted.
Yeah.
Which was was nice because that actually helped keep down on the noise.
It wasn't super full so it wouldn't have been very noisy anyways.
That hour I wonder what it would have been like during maybe the lunch rush or dinner
time.
Right.
But I just it was a nice chill time where we were able to kind of sit back in that booth

(06:26):
and just enjoy a little bit of R&R.
Yes.
R&R.
Exactly.
So let's get to the most important thing which is the food.
Right.
So I was excited to have all six of us there because I like to try lots of different things.
I did order my own and ate my own things too.

(06:46):
But I was able to try a little bit of everybody's.
So what I think me and Henry with Owens that got appetizers and he got onion rings and
then which were giant.
I thought they were very tasty.
And then I got something that I've heard lots of good things about and that was the bacon
and eggs.
What is it called here on the menu is that what it's called.

(07:07):
I got an appetizer too.
What did you get?
What did you get?
I got a salad.
I thought that came with your.
OK.
So you got the salad the Caesar and then you also got a specialty drink which we can talk
about too.
I'm just looking up.
Yeah.
Bacon and eggs.
That's what it is.
So we talked about the onion rings being good and then they're giant.

(07:30):
There was like five or six of them, but they were really big.
And then but the bacon and eggs is maple lacquered pork belly smoked cheese grits and the perfect
egg was the egg.
Perfect.
It if people it's this it's like that's a way some people cook it.
I don't like it because the yolk was a little bit runny.
Not too runny, but it was a little runny to me.

(07:54):
The highlight of the dish and I could have just eaten more of this was the smoked cheese
grits and I've never I didn't grow up on grits.
I don't really have a lot of grits.
It's from the south.
I know my mom had grits and I just I never had a lot of grits growing up.
They were amazing.
Like the pork belly was pretty good.

(08:14):
The egg was OK to me, but that the cheese grits were so good.
That was fifteen dollars.
It was a little bit pricey for an appetizer, but you know, quality food.
So tell us about your drink you got.
The drink.
Drink.
Let's see.
Well, I'm just going to tell you about the salad I got.

(08:35):
OK, go ahead.
It's called a fork and knife Caesar salad.
OK, and that's basically because it's kind of like a wedge, but not it's like the Caesar
version of a wedge.
I'm not sure I would have really recognized that's what it was.
Otherwise, maybe I would have ordered something that's I don't really like.
Wedge salads.
I feel like that's a lazy way of making me do all of the work to prepare the meal that

(08:58):
I'm paying for.
So I'm not a huge fan, but taste wise, you know, I mean, for a Caesar salad, it was it
was pretty good.
It was pretty good.
Nice.
And then you got the sherbet punch.
That was.
That was your drink.
Orange sherbet.
Sprite house made grenadine.
Yeah.

(09:19):
And so it was I was trying to remember.
I'm like, I did not like it.
That's what I remember.
It was disappointing.
Basically, it was pretty, though.
I got a picture of it.
It's interesting because as a kid, one of the things that I always remember about like
Christmas party at at at a grandparents house or something like that was there would always

(09:39):
be this punch punch bowl and the punch bowl would have a little bit of a little bit of
typically lime sherbet or sometimes orange sherbet.
And then it would be with Sprite.
And you'd kind of ladle it out.
And it was like, I love that punch.
It was absolutely delicious.
And so that's what I was picturing.

(10:00):
I think that's what it was supposed to be.
I don't really know what it was.
Now I'll say this.
It was very pretty.
It was very pretty.
There was like layers and colors and, you know, the grenadine, you know, added a little
extra element.
It was a very Instagrammable drink.
Yeah, absolutely.
But but at the end of the day, it didn't didn't move the needle for me.

(10:22):
Well, I don't think any of the kids got appetizers.
So I think let's wrap that up.
But tell us about your your main dish.
What did you get there?
So what I ordered was I ordered the prime rib sandwich.
Right.
I like a good steak sandwich.
I think that's that's pretty tasty.

(10:42):
This one sounded extra good.
You know, shaved prime rib with some caramelized onions, you know, a nice aioli on their provolone
cheese, you know, some arugula.
It looks like a ciabatta.
Is that what it was on?
But it was basically on a ciabatta bun.
And it was really good.

(11:02):
I thought it was I thought it was great.
You know, the beef, right?
The shaved.
The the roast beef, basically.
It was delicious.
Yeah.
And that the aioli tied it all together really, really well.
So you and I both went against the waiter's recommendation.

(11:26):
You know, we kind of were like, hey, it's the first time.
What's good here?
One of our children did go with it.
And that was their burger.
Their stack burger.
Yeah.
And again, we were there at lunchtime.
So I don't I don't know.
We didn't.
There's obviously more on.
This is unlike a lot of lunch dinner menus at Disney World, where sometimes lunch dinner

(11:47):
is the same at restaurants.
This is not this is these are two different menus.
Yeah.
But we got he got the what's it called?
I'm trying to pull it up.
The stack burger.
Oh, the stack burger.
Yeah.
Stignature bend of beef and pork belly had American cheese.

(12:08):
There was a lemon aioli, some red onion, pickles, all on a brioche bun.
You know, I thought the bun was pretty excellent.
It was an enormous burger.
It was huge.
And it happened to be luckily we we went back to our we were at the Polynesian.
So we just hopped on the monorail and got took the Polynesian.

(12:29):
So it was so big that I remember that this particular child took half of it home and
ate the rest of it the next day.
But I tasted everybody's food because that's how I am.
So you do.
That's what I do.
How can I give a review and be a quality travel agent if I don't tell people what it tastes

(12:51):
like?
Listen, when it comes time to tax time, right?
We are making sure we categorize our expenses for research and development purposes.
Your tasting qualifies.
Yes.
I mean, I mean, we are joking, but at the same time, I do want to be a firsthand experience
to other people.
So burger definitely recommend.

(13:13):
I think it came with I felt like it came with waffle fries and it seemed like the kids enjoyed
that as well.
Another one of our kids got I feel like he got a steak with chimichurri.
I'm pretty sure that's what Jack got.
That was the steak frites.
Oh, yeah.
Yep.
This regular old hanger steak.

(13:33):
This is the one that had the waffle fries.
The other one had garlic parmesan fries.
Oh, gotcha.
These are had waffle fries, you know, a good chimichurri and like a truffle aioli.
Yeah.
You know, he enjoyed it.
And this is a kid that has traditionally not found a lot of things to eat at restaurants.

(13:54):
Right.
Yes.
And that was a big deal.
So I thought that was one of it was twenty six dollars.
It was a big deal.
And I said, OK, if you're going to eat it.
Yeah.
So, yeah, twenty six dollars is not inexpensive.
But in my mind, you know, obviously you're in the Disney frame of mind, but I'm like,
OK, we're not at Magic Kingdom eating something that's not very good or good quality.

(14:17):
There's not a lot of that going on that going around.
We're in a nice, comfortable environment.
This is quality protein.
He's getting in him.
Plus, I know that we get a discount.
I think we got 10, maybe 15 percent.
I think it was 10 percent.
But let's be honest, twenty six dollars for lunch for one entree.
That's a little ridiculous.

(14:37):
Yeah.
That's a little high.
I think he ate it all, though, except the bite that I made him.
You know, I don't I don't remember.
And so I'm going to just go with you're right.
He ate it all.
OK.
And then before we get to mine, I feel like what did we'll get?

(14:58):
It will get.
I guess I got to pull up the picture.
I think he got a sandwich.
Was it the grilled chicken sandwich?
I got a grilled cheese.
He got a grilled cheese and didn't I think they could have added pork or something to
it and he didn't.
You see it on their own on the dinner dinner menu.
That's not going to show.

(15:19):
Yeah, there is.
I don't think this is what he got.
I think he he got the gourmet grilled cheese.
He just got it without the pork belly.
He didn't like it.
Yeah, that was only only seventeen dollars.
That's a lot of money for a grilled cheese sandwich.
I feel like we should have gotten a discount on that because it didn't have the pork on
it.

(15:39):
And then do you remember one of our kids ordered from the kids menu?
So then Colin ordered he just wanted a plain cheeseburger from the kids menu from the kids
menu.
And there was there was some confusion with this order.
Yes.
And what happened?
All of our food came out.
Henry ordered the stack burger.
Yeah.
Plain.
Yeah.
Colin ordered a kid's cheeseburger plain.

(16:00):
Right.
And so what came out?
Do you remember what came out first?
I think it was the regular big burger.
Right.
No, it was the kids cheeseburger.
Okay.
And so and so Henry's big expensive burger like wasn't anywhere to be found.
Right.
And so then we had to kind of wait for the waitress to come back.
I feel like she didn't charge us for that one that didn't that didn't come out with

(16:24):
the restaurant because it was like a good 10 minutes.
The rest of us were pretty well into our meal.
Yeah.
Basically, I was done by the time his burger came.
And you know, because it was a regular old big burger.
Right.
So anyway, stuff like that happens.
I'm not quite sure if it didn't get written down or what happened there.
But or it could have been back in the kitchen.

(16:44):
But to mine, I think mine's the last one.
I ordered the salmon, the goguchan glazed salmon.
What did you call me?
I don't know.
With rice and stir fry vegetables.
And it was very good.
Again, it was it was so big.

(17:06):
And I kind of that the bacon and eggs, I knew it was going to be a lot.
It was probably not enough for like to be like your main meal.
But it did fill me up quite a bit to where I when I had this big piece of salmon, I couldn't
finish it.
So like our one child that took home his burger, I was able to take home the salmon.
And the day after, I actually ate it for the next day rather than when you're eating pulled

(17:31):
pork, pulled pork nachos by the pool.
I was having my salmon.
Those were delicious.
I know they are delicious.
One day we're just going to do an episode on pulled pork nachos.
Can we talk 25 minutes about that?
No, I can't.
You just want to eat it.
So anyway, my salmon was yummy.

(17:53):
It was a beautiful presentation on our whistle while you work podcast Instagram page.
I'll post pictures of it because I can't do it justice with my description, but it was
very good.
So what about dessert?
Did you see other people's dessert there?
We didn't get it because we were pretty full.
No, I didn't see other people's desserts.

(18:14):
By the time we were finished, we were like the only people left in the restaurant.
Right.
Because now it's like 2.30 in the afternoon or something, right?
Yeah.
The restaurant for lunch is 11.30 to 2.00 and dinner's not till 5.00.
So it's kind of one of those.
And I think that's again why it's a nice clean restaurant is they have solid time where it's

(18:35):
closed, they can clean it and whatever.
But I did see these desserts and there was part of me that's like, oh, I want that.
But they have the steakhouse 71 signature chocolate cake.
Fifteen.
That's why I asked if you saw it.
Fifteen layers of Jack Daniel's infused decadent chocolate cake, chocolate mousse and raspberries.

(19:00):
Maybe I did see that.
That sounds delicious.
Thirteen dollars.
I don't drink.
I don't want alcohol in my desserts particularly, so that was maybe one of the reasons why we
didn't get it.
But it looked super impressive.
It was, I mean, fifteen layers.
It was very big and very tall.
Yeah.

(19:20):
Yeah.
I'm trying to remember.
I'm thinking back, squinting my eyes as if that's going to help me remember back.
It doesn't, but I can picture something like that in my mind.
Oh my goodness.
So what are your other memories of the restaurant?
So I think the other thing that I really appreciated was you go down this ramp from the lobby of

(19:44):
the contemporary to this restaurant.
There's a good sized ramp and there's black and white pictures along the walls.
Do you remember those as we got went into the restaurant?
No.
You don't remember the chocolate cake.
You don't remember these pictures.
No.
Well, the amazing-
Maybe I was so hungry that I was very tunnel vision focused.

(20:04):
Probably as we went through the tunnel.
But no, they have pictures of 1971, like of things getting built, of the resort, of, you
know, Roy Disney.
We're going to have to go back and look at that now.
That sounds interesting.
Yeah.
And I want to say there might have even been a picture of Walt.

(20:24):
I mean, Walt was out there before, you know, things got too involved.
So anyway, if you are a history buff or you just appreciate, you know, things like that,
check out the pictures as you walk down.
So you're in the main lobby.
Y'all were sitting up there, super relaxed.
I kept telling kids to go wash their hands.

(20:45):
I don't think anyone ever listened to me.
But anyway-
I don't remember that either.
How are we even doing this review?
I don't remember any of this.
So you walk down this tunnel where these cool black and white pictures are.
And then that's where the hostess stand is.
That's where you actually talk to the people and stuff.

(21:10):
Exactly.
At the hostess stand, you talk to the hostess.
I know it's just groundbreaking stuff.
You know, bottom line for me, it was a, I thought it was a good experience.
The food was good.
I enjoyed being there.
I would go back.
Yeah.
And I, again, it's, it definitely, I would say two hours minimum.

(21:33):
If you're at Magic Kingdom and you're like, how long is this going to take for us to go
and have this meal and come back?
Two hours minimum.
We had extended evening hours.
We knew that we had that park till midnight.
So we were like-
We were actually, we actually intended to go back to the resort and take a little break
in the middle of the day anyway.

(21:53):
So that worked out really well for us.
Yeah.
That's where we were able to put our leftovers and all the things.
But I still think it's worth it compared to, you know, if we would have ended up at Paco's
Bill, which I think we ended up getting that later one night.
I got some of you did not shows there.
Randy's like, no, I'm not eating that, but I'm not eating that.
Where did I go?

(22:14):
I went somewhere.
I got something.
I think you got something from that, the bacon stick on a stick or whatever.
Oh yeah.
That's right.
I went across and did a little carton.
Westford hoe.
Yeah.
Bacon on a stick.
That was delicious.
Oh my gosh.
We've gotten all three of us here, but yes, I think compared to us having a burger at

(22:35):
Cosmic Rays or something, this was a good experience for us.
I would go back.
Would you?
I guess.
Yeah, I'd absolutely go back.
They have breakfast and dinner.
So would you want to try a different time of day?
Oh, I think I'd like to try breakfast sometime, honestly, you know, because that's one of
those things that my opinion is actually kind of hard to do.

(22:57):
The few breakfasts that tend to be available and around tend to be buffet breakfasts.
That doesn't interest me a whole lot, but they serve some good old fashioned breakfasts.
You get American breakfast, two eggs, breakfast potatoes, choice of bacon, sausage.
Bacon and cheddar grits.

(23:18):
Seasonal pancakes.
Really inspired pancakes with your choice of bacon, sausage or chicken sausage, which
I don't think is sausage, but that's an interesting way to put this together.
Yeah, it's sausage.
There's pork sausage.
There's beef sausage.
Why not chicken?
Because that's chicken.
You know, anyways.
For breakfast, though, the bacon and cheddar grits are only six dollars.

(23:42):
It's a side, but that would be exciting.
But you're right.
If Eggs Benedict is your sort of thing, they have a Floridian Eggs Benedict.
You know, two poached eggs with and a crab cake with hollandaise on toasted English muffins.
So this is to me is a little bit.
It reminds me a little Grand Floridian, like that type of breakfasts, not a buffet, not

(24:04):
Ohana where it's all you care to enjoy.
Yeah, I think I think there's there's something in the middle, which is great because again,
it's at a resort.
That's what you need to have a good dining option at a resort that can serve you for
all three meals.
Right.
So it's a deluxe resort at that.
Yeah, for sure.
Oh, man.
Yeah, I feel like lately when we've reviewed, like I guess we did.

(24:29):
Was ice cream place, beaches and cream.
It was kind of like, you know, but like I can result.
I don't know.
I could say with resolute resolution resultly.
I don't know.
You might have to resounding resounding.
I would go back to steakhouse 71.
It's just this is like our last episode about extended evening hours.

(24:50):
I feel like we're in those extended evening hours and now our brains are like, I think
you're finished today.
No more cheese crits for you.
Cutting you off.
You can't even remember the chocolate cake.
I can't remember the chocolate cake.
It was pretty there was like a there was a table in front of us.
Maybe I'm just nosy, but there's a table in front of us.

(25:12):
And they had like it was like a birthday celebration, I think.
And they they had that chocolate cake.
Well, I'm just going to have to go back and see it for myself.
OK, maybe pay attention to the pictures on the wall or I definitely want to see that.
Yeah, that would be fun.
All right, guys.
Well, thanks for hanging with us.
We would definitely recommend it and maybe we'll try it again and let you know how breakfast

(25:36):
or another one of the meals is.
But we hope you guys have a great, great day.