PassPorter.com Feature Article
Original article at: http://www.passporter.com/articles/fultons-crab-house-review.html

Fulton's Crab House: A Walt Disney World Dining Review

by Cheryl Pendry, PassPorter Featured Columnist
Last modified 05-09-2013

For as long as I can remember, I.ve wanted to try Fulton's Crab House at Downtown Disney for dinner.

So what's been stopping me? Well, being honest, the price of the menu at dinner. We've eaten there a couple of times for lunch, but every time I look at the dinner menu, I just get sticker stock to be frank! When I heard that Fulton's was finally joining the Disney Dining Plan, I knew this was the opportunity I'd been waiting for, so on our most recent trip, we made it there.

I do like the way they do the check-in here, as if you have a reservation, then you’re taken straight on to the boat, while everyone without reservations was given a pager and asked to wait outside. We were seated immediately, and when we got to our table, we could see why, as the place wasn’t overly busy, surprising as it was a Saturday night.

I always think that if you have a great server, you’re much more likely to have a great meal, and our server was absolutely superb, ensuring our water was always filled, happily chatting away to us, but never doing that at the expense of her other customers.

The first thing that’s brought out here is their amazing crab Boursin cheese spread with crackers, which we’d enjoyed so much during our lunch here a couple of years ago. Once again, it was a complete bun fight between the two of us as to who would get the most, as we both absolutely adore this stuff. While dinner here is certainly not a cheap meal, the fact that they do serve this up is a definite plus point, as it can almost act as an appetizer for your meal. They will also happily bring more out if you need it.

We were on the Deluxe Dining Plan, so after the Boursin, it was time for our appetizer. As the speciality here is seafood, I felt I had to start with the lobster bisque, although I will confess that I was a bit concerned about it, as sometimes I find the flavors can be overwhelming and too creamy. However, here I’m delighted to report they use a tomato base, so there are no such issues.

There weren’t many non-fish options for appetizers, but my husband managed to find one, a plain Caesar salad, which he enjoyed.

Now as the name of the restaurant is Fulton’s Crab House, we couldn’t have anything else for our entrée, except crab! Of course, then the next question is which type of crab would you like? The menu had Pacific Northwest Dungeness crab, snow crab legs, Alaskan King crab, as well as Louis Fulton’s ultimate crab and lobster experience, which comes with an eye-watering two, whole pound-and-a-quarter Maine lobsters, Alaskan snow crab, and Pacific Northwest Dungeness crab. You really have to be hungry to try that, and we weren’t, as we'd had a relatively large lunch.

Despite the fact that our appetites weren’t at their best, we were still both determined to have crab, and opted for the Alaskan King crab, a whole pound of the stuff, steamed! Flown in daily, the crabmeat was superb, although getting into it was more than half the battle. Even though we’d been taught how to do it on our Alaskan cruise with Disney, I still had problems getting to grips with mine.

The one thing I will say about eating crab is that it’s quite a rich food, and full as I was after doing my best to fight my way through it, I had to have something for dessert, just to cleanse my palate. I ended up with a scoop of mango sorbet, which was exactly what I wanted.

We were pleasantly surprised at the pace of our meal here. We never felt rushed, with every course having a suitable amount of time between it, so we were amazed that we were all done within an hour-and-a-half. I guess it just goes to show that time does fly when you’re having fun!

As for the price of the meal, my major concern beforehand, how did we do? Well, bearing in mind that our entrées were amongst the most expensive on the menu, I was pleasantly surprised at how much it would’ve cost, had we not had the Deluxe Dining Plan. It came to a total of $165 for the two of us, but the entrées alone were $116!

Would I eat at Fulton's for dinner again? I certainly would, if I was on the Dining Plan, but I'm not sure that, good as the meal was, I can justify spending that amount of money on just one meal. It's certainly nice as a one-off treat, but maybe if we're paying out of pocket, we'll stick with the much more reasonably priced lunch in the future.

About the Author: Cheryl is the author of the e-book, PassPorter's Walt Disney World for British Holidaymakers, and is the co-author of PassPorter's Disney Vacation Club Guide: For Members and Members-To-Be. Cheryl and husband Mark live in England and love to travel, particularly to Disney, and they have travelled around the world, taking in a number of Disney cruises, Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Aulani in Hawai'i, Disneyland Paris, Tokyo Disney and Hong Kong Disneyland on the way. Click here to view more of Cheryl's articles!

This article originally appeared in the PassPorter newsletter -- subscribe to our popular newsletter today for free at http://www.passporter.com/news.htm


Updated 05-09-2013

Check for a more updated version at http://www.passporter.com/articles/fultons-crab-house-review.html