Space 220 Restaurant at EPCOT is one of the hardest reservations to get. And we finally booked this restaurant in space for tonight. Along with our daughter, read about our adventure in “real, real space” at Space 220!
Planning – Getting Space 220 Reservations
I have been wanting to try Space 220 since I heard about it in 2019. Their opening was delayed to winter of 2020, and then the pandemic hit when it was put on hold. But eventually this restaurant next to Mission Space opened in September 2021. And multiple trips to Disney World since, I have not been able to get a reservation. I’ve been trying at both Space 220 Restaurant at EPCOT | Walt Disney World Resort and the Disney World app. But after many, many tries, I’ve no luck. So, I got some help.
A friend told us about a website she paid $5 to get a reservation for this restaurant. So I wanted to give it a try. I signed-up 3 weeks out, but didn’t get a notification until a week before. And a notification is not a reservation, because you still have to book quick or miss it. After 8 notifications over 3 days, I was finally able to book a late lunch. Though I still kept getting notifications and looked for a better time. I decided dinner would be better and got an early dinner the next day. But the next day after a few more notifications, I booked dinner at 6:10PM and canceled my other reservations. After booking 3 separate times, I still got 22 more notifications up until 1.5 hours before my reservation. So, you can take the chance of getting a reservation yourself, or have way better odds.
Boarding the Space Station
After a full day exploring the International Festival of Arts today, we are ready for dinner. You can read more about this festival at: International Festival of Arts & More at EPCOT. We check in right at our reservation time, but only have to wait a few minutes before our name is called. We’re given a boarding pass to get on the space elevator to the Centauri Space Station. We ask our daughter if she is ready to go to space, and she just answers “real, real space”? “Yes, real, real space”, we reply.
We enter a room that looks like Dr. Who’s Tardis on the inside. The futuristic space elevator has circular railing in the middle with a viewport below. Once everyone is in, a cast member gives us the thumbs up to depart. The doors close and the lights dim except for blue and red lights that illuminate the room.
Looking down at the viewport, we can see us departing Earth on a track toward the space station. As we ascend, the planet below looks farther and farther away. As we get closer, a voice tells us to look up as we are approaching Centauri Space Station. Above us there is another viewport where we can see the elevator reaching the station. After our minute-long trip, the door opens. And an agent shows us the way to the Space 220 restaurant on the station.
Entering Space 220
After getting off the space elevator, we walk down a hallway to a hostess stand. On the way we see a window where it looks like cabbage is grown. Space cabbage? It does look like something you would see on a space station in a Sci-Fi movie. Once at the hostess stand, we let them know our name and they show us to our table right away. On the way, we can see the Earth out multiple large windows straight ahead. We can see a bar to the right and we head to our table on the left. Our table is one level up from the tables at the windows. However, being a little farther away, we have better views around the restaurant and into space.
Our daughter asks again, “is this real, real space”? “Yes, real, real space”, we reply. Our daughter is still a little skeptical however. So when our server arrives at the table, she asks her “are we in real, real space”? Our server simply responds, “is this your 1st time in space”? Her eyes just open wide, and says we are “in real space, for real life”! From this point on, our daughter thinks we are in real, real space. And what’s cool is if you look out the large windows at the Earth, it changes. Sometimes, you’ll see a spaceship, a satellite or some astronauts moving around. And every time she saw something new, she would point and tell us to look at it.
Space 220 Menu and Drinks
The restaurant itself is great, but what about the food? The restaurant is open for lunch and dinner with prix-fixe options. Lunch comes with an appetizer and entree for $55. And dinner comes with an appetizer, entree and dessert for $79. And though the menus have similar items, there are better choices on the dinner menu. Think filet mignon instead of a steak salad or hamburger. Also, the kids lunch and dinner are both $29 and come with an entree and dessert. So when weighing which one to choose, I decided on dinner (plus we get dessert!). To check out all of their menus, see Menu | Space 220 Restaurant (space220fla.com).
But we start off with drinks. The kids meal comes with soda, milk, apple juice or water. However, you can add a collectible space cup for $5. I wasn’t planning to buy the cup, but our server pointed one out and they are shaped like a rocket! So, we get a Shirley Temple in the rocket cup and our daughter loves it. Becky decides she wants to try a drink and orders the Nebula with Maker’s Mark, pineapple, honey and passion fruit. Her drink is good, but the drinks are pricy, so I just order a Corona beer.
Space 220 Appetizers
The appetizers on the dinner menu are the same as the lunch menu except 2 additions. And though the scallop ravioli and lobster bisque sound good, I’m hungry. Becky orders the calamari, and I order the buffalo cauliflower to share. Our daughter doesn’t get an appetizer unfortunately, but she is still content looking out the windows.
The calamari was battered nicely, but only had the rings with a few cherry peppers mixed in. I think the tentacles are best, and makes me think it is fresher. But it comes with 2 sauces, a spicy marinara and roasted pepper citrus aioli. We liked the aioli better surprisingly. Overall we probably wouldn’t order this appetizer again. The tempura fried cauliflower with hot sauce underneath and blue cheese dust on top was actually better. Cooked perfectly, though I asked for some extra hot sauce. I ate it all, though not a winner for Becky. But they were good portions and now we’re ready for the main course.
Space 220 Entrees
Our daughter gets the Space-ghetti with a chicken meatball. While I normally like to get seafood, I go for the filet mignon. They also have a bone-in ribeye or whole stuffed lobster you can pay extra for? It’s a prix-fixe menu, but they have entrees you can pay more for which makes no sense. And the ribeye is $20 more than the filet. So, I stick with the smaller filet. Becky really likes duck and orders the glazed duck breast. Both of these options are not on the lunch menu, though 3 of 7 main options are.
By this time, our daughter is starving and digs into the spaghetti. She seems to enjoy it, though she barely touches the chicken meatballs. Becky’s duck looks nice on the plate with an orange hoisin sauce, asparagus and fried jasmine rice. My filet looks small over creamy mashed potatoes and a burgundy wine sauce. It also comes with some carrots and haricots verts, or those fancy green beans.
Becky’s duck tastes good, but she asks for more of the orange sauce. Though cooked the way she asked, duck is fatty and some pieces are chewy and hard to eat. Though the asparagus is good and the rice has pineapple in it and peppers on top. And she seems to enjoy it. My steak is cooked perfectly, though bland without the sauce underneath. Probably should have asked for more sauce. However, the creamy mash potatoes underneath are very good as are the green beans. Normally at Disney World, the green beans are undercooked, but here they are perfect. The carrots though are still a little hard and just okay. Overall the entrees were good, though we’ve had better steak and duck elsewhere in EPCOT.
Space 220 Dessert
The Dessert choices don’t seem stellar. For instance, our daughter has a choice of a scoop of vanilla or chocolate gelato, sorbet, or the cosmic cupcake. Of course she chooses the chocolate cupcake with galactic frosting. For us, they also have gelato and sorbet, as well as a pistachio mousse with orange sorbet which sounds odd. Of the 3 remaining options, we stay away from the peanut caramel tart and go with the carrot cake and chocolate cheesecake.
Our daughter’s cosmic cupcake has colorful icing with sprinkles and stars. And she devours it, so must be good. Becky’s plant-based carrot cake comes with plant-based cream cheese, candied walnuts and pepitas. The cream cheese frosting is fine, but the cake has a strong ginger flavor which is overpowering to me. I don’t care for it, however, Becky thinks it’s good. But, my chocolate cheesecake is out of this world! Though the large pieces of chocolate on top seem to dwarf the dessert, it is a large portion. I’m not a huge chocolate dessert person, but I would order this every time. And though I enjoy it, it is a lot and I leave a few bites. After dessert, our server gives our daughter one more surprise. She gets a pack of 6 collectible trading cards with some interesting space facts as a souvenir to take home.
Leaving Space
When our server comes to bring the check, we tell her we are passholders. And though the restaurant has a passholder discount for lunch, they do not for dinner. It would’ve been nice, but we’re ready to head back to Earth. And by this time it has gotten dark, and even the Earth from the space station has turned to night. It actually slowly changed while we we’re eating our dinner which was neat to see. We say goodbye to space before heading out of the restaurant.
We head back down the hall and wait to re-board the space elevator. Once we board, we check out the viewport in the middle of the room again. Except this time we can see the elevator leaving the space station back down to Earth. When the viewport opens, we see Florida lit up at night below us. And we can see our descent until we land in EPCOT. And just like that, we are back on Earth.
Summary
Space 220 Restaurant is definitely an out-of-this-world experience in real, real space. And our daughter said it was her favorite part of our whole day. And we agree, it was a special experience being in space for over 2 hours. We enjoyed the space views out the windows even though there are reflections of bar lights and exit signs in them. We had heard about that, but our daughter could care less and we all enjoyed the changing views.
The food was also good, though I think for the price we expected more. Except the chocolate cheesecake which was excellent. But, you’re really paying for the experience, which can’t be beat. We wouldn’t come for dinner again anytime soon, but it would be interesting to try out the Space 220 Lounge. Not only is it a separate dining reservation, but they also have their own menu with less expensive food choices. For those wanting to experience Space 220 without the cost, this may be a good option. But we are glad we came for dinner and we loved Space 220 in real, real space!
Great experience