INTRODUCTION
Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn & Cafe is a large restaurant inside the Frontierland area of the Magic Kingdom Park. This large eatery is one of the many Quick Service options at MK. I think that Pecos Bill’s is a very hit or miss restaurant. When we visited in October 2016, the items were mediocre at best. When we visited in September 2017, the items we ordered were much better.
Sarah and I ate here during our September 2017 trip mostly out of convenience. Also, we had been regularly eating at the same 2 Quick Service places (Friar’s Nook and Columbia Harbor House) too repetitively. When we gave it a chance, we discovered decent Mexican food. Being that Mexican food is the most amazing food to ever exist, at least to Sarah and I, “decent” is a huge win for Pecos Bill’s.
ATMOSPHERE
The restaurant is open for lunch and dinner. There are multiple seating areas. There is an large dining hall-style area inside and a smaller, shaded dining area outside. As you may gather from the name, the eatery is themed in the classic Western style. The main problem with the inside area is that the ceilings are low and the dining room is crowded. This makes it seem incredibly busy and chaotic inside.
The problem with the outside seating area is that it is located in Central Florida. Unfortunately, that means that the weather makes it difficult to justify sitting outside for parts of the year. It can be lovely on a day that it is not either too hot or raining. But, those days can feel few and far between in Orlando.
FOOD
The Walt Disney World website classifies this restaurant as “Mexican Cuisine”. This is an apt description of the food. There are very few options, but they are what you would expect from Mexican food. The options range from tacos to burritos and from nachos to salad. I ordered the Fajita Platter and Sarah ordered the Chicken Nachos.
The real prize at Pecos Bill’s is the toppings bar. The basic premise is eat-until-you-drop toppings. There are salsas (red and green), peppers, lettuce, sour cream, guacamole, and corn. The nice thing about this toppings bar is that the toppings are unlimited. Sarah and I both love most of these toppings so we gorged ourselves sufficiently.
I think the Fajita Platter was a good choice. The amount of food was great. I thought the chicken and barbacoa beef were flavorful, but the rice and beans were bland. In the end of the day, it didn’t matter much because I doused everything in salsa. The negatives were that they only offered flour tortillas (we prefer corn) and the plate itself was tiny. This seems like a strange gripe, but it is incredibly difficult to mix toppings into a fajita platter when there is no room to mix.
Sarah thought the nachos were pretty good. The chicken was good and the toppings were great additions. The major problem is that there was a severe lack of queso. This meant that the dish ended up being more “chips and chicken” rather than nachos. The other problem was that they charge extra for a side of queso and I doubt that they would supply more for free. Classic Disney!
COST
According to the Disney World website, Peco Bill’s is classified with “$” which means adults should expect to pay roughly $14.99 and under, per person. For the Disney Dining Plan users, this restaurant requires one Quick Service credit per person. This is a great use of a dining plan credit. The food itself is roughly $20/ person with drinks. The toppings bar can add a massive amount of food for no added price. For the Tables in Wonderland users, Pecos Bill’s is not applicable.
WHO SHOULD EAT HERE?
If you like Mexican food and are capable of adding some perspective (this is amusement park food, after all!), you can be perfectly happy eating here. I think the food is good enough that it makes it one of the better Quick Service options at MK. I think the diversity of food (it isn’t mac and cheese or a burger) helps this restaurant. We all love mac and cheese, but it is good to mix it up!
I think this is also a good place to eat for people on the Dining Plan. The value of this restaurant and the size of the meal can really stretch your credit. You also may be interested in taking some of this food to go to snack on later. I think that Sarah and I could split one of these meals and be perfectly fine.
