Cítricos — Restaurant in Bay Lake

First of all, the food is excellent. So my review is unfortunately skewed by the strange service we received.

We were hungry and really looking forward to this meal since it was our last night at Disney celebrating our mothers’ birthdays. We had a reservation for 6:45 and we arrived 2 minutes prior and checked in. After receiving a text confirming we were there, we were scooted aside as more people were checking in. The front desk at the restaurant seemed overwhelmed and without a managing presence that I could see. At 7:04 I checked in with the host stand again as I think it’s a little strange with radio silence from the people running the host stand if it’s more than fifteen minutes past a table’s reservation. The woman was quick to say that my question was valid and recorded and that they’d seat us as soon as the tables were cleared. Two minutes later I received a text saying the table was ready. Then there was another line for hosts to seat the texted patrons. So we waited another 10 minutes to be sat.

Once we were sat nothing was acknowledged about the wait. Our server, Dan, took another five minutes to notice we were there and filled our water glasses and asked about drinks. The rest of our party ordered drinks and my mother asked for Prosecco and some bread for the table, as we were starving. Bread arrived and we waited on the drinks. At least fifteen minutes went by until our server came back to our table, mind you he was doing cartwheels with the tables around us, and announced that the restaurant had no more Prosecco with a shrug. He didn’t bring the other drinks, didn’t water us, didn’t offer an alternative. So rightfully the two ladies at our table became irate, pointing out that he’s been helping other tables and didn’t have the decency or wherewithal to at least touch our table and say that things were in the works. We hadn’t even ordered our meal yet.

Clearly frazzled, he took our food order and went back to the bar to find some kind of substitution for the Prosecco and expedite that process along with our meal. Our water glasses were basically empty so, unconventional as it was, my mother got up and grabbed the water pitchers which were conveniently close to our table and poured us waters. She then noticed that all the pitchers were empty and waved them around to our server mentioning that they were empty. A floor manager and the CDC were in the vicinity and were clearly not impressed by this show from a guest and made confused faces as to what the situation was. We were then seen as the problem table.

From there, drinks landed on the table and a substitute for the Prosecco was found. The CDC and floor manager came to the table and dropped off first courses, trying to smooth over and calm our tempers. The rest of the meal went by without a hitch. We were waited on and given exemplary treatment. Dan even put candles on the dessert plates for our mothers.

The problem stemmed from being treated like we were lesser people right from the beginning. The table next to us ordered a bottle of wine and seemed affluent and were given a lot of attention; we had cocktails and used our Disney dining plans. Although not expected, I think the substitute for the Prosecco shouldn’t have been charged, especially since we had such a long wait.

All in all, if we hadn’t had truly excellent experiences at other Disney restaurants and theme parks, maybe I would’ve had fewer...

Cítricos was fun! I was expecting to like it as much as I did! This review was from a couple years ago during the pandemic so the service & atmosphere was not top tier. However, the food was delicious! We have a big family so we shared a lot of different dishes. For appetizers we had the hamachi crudo, the duck tagliatelle, & the pork belly. I am a sucker for hamachi and this was delicious! It was also a good portion for a raw fish dish which made it shareable for the others at the table. One of my favorite dishes. The duck was cooked through a bit more than we would’ve liked due to the smoking but the flavors were delicious. My sister loves duck & she enjoyed this dish. To me it didn’t need the pasta but I could see why others loved it. Pork belly with almost a hash brown type sweet potato & plantain croquette & salsa verde. This is really a sleeper dish. It isn’t super large in terms of sharing but the flavors are impeccable. Definitely recommend. For entrees we had the tilefish & short rib with a side of their signature truffle Mac n cheese. I thought the tilefish with chorizo risotto was delicious. It’s always nice to see a fish dish in Florida that’s not grouper, mahi, or snapper on the menu. My husband had the short rib & he really enjoyed it. The guava sauce was too sweet for me but perfect for him. Everyone at the table enjoyed the Mac & cheese and could see why it’s a signature. In my opinion it was too much cream & needed more truffle but they liked it. For desserts we tried the torte, the flan, and the blackberry tart. I love chocolate desserts but I did not like the torte. It’s pretty but primarily hard chocolate petals that hurt your mouth and very little cake or filling. I wouldn’t get it again. My husband loved the brûléed flan & he is a flan connoisseur so that’s saying something. Don’t sleep on the blackberry tart surprisingly that was the favorite of the night! Lemon Bavarian & blackberry mousse with meringue. It’s hard to explain but the flavors complimented each other beautifully. Would get it again. They also served us some beautiful & delicious artisan chocolates for a birthday. Nice touch! Downsides were the service was not the best & the decor is outdated & plain not really any theming even though they’ve been renovated. However, we would...

Had dinner here on 3/2/16 to celebrate my parent's 31st anniversary. It was a fairly us night and many tables were full, but we were escorted back to the private room next to the Chef's kitchen, which was an incredible supreme for my parents and all of us.aunt it was some of the Disney magic, but they went out of their way to make us feel very special!

They had a personalized menu for my parents and Malek, our server, was so attentive and knowledgable. He is a well seasoned Disney cast member that has opened every signature restaurant in Disney since coming in the 80s. He was fun to talk to and get to know....how often so you get to know your server?

The food? It was fantastic! My husband had the pork porterhouse, which he said was one of the most amazing meal he ever had. He is not a mustard fan, but trusted Malek and tried the pork with homemade mustard. Now folks, we now have a mustard fan on out hands! I had the filet beef, which was so tender and delicious with excellent flavor. Everyone had something different and I wish I would have taken a list of the meals (there were 7 of us). We were all pleased!

Now....the desserts! Save room because you will want one! Since we were in the dinning plan dessert was included and we all tried something different. However, you could easily share they huge desserts will several people. Our favorites? The chocolate cake was rich and decadent and comes with a handmade chocolate lattice, which is a dessert in itself! The creme Brule was huge and so yummy. (Can you tell we all tried one another dessert?).

At the end the manager, chef and dessert chef came around to visit with us, which was a nice touch. It made us all feel so special!

We look forward to returning to Citrico's the next time we are at Disney! I am sure it will be difficult to request the private room as I am sure it is usually a very high demand area...we just lucked out! We do plan on making a reservation early to dine with Malek again!

Do yourself a favor, spend the extra money to dine here. You will not be...