Where to Eat (and Drink): Epcot's Rose and Crown

May 26, 2015, 8:17 AM · Food often reflects the culture that produced it — this seems to be the case with English food, which has as little color as northern England after the 10-month winter. What the Rose and Crown English Pub at Epcot proves is that the greys and brown of English cuisines can be damn tasty.

To start, we decided to try to be at least a bit adventurous — by our standards, anyway. The Scotch Egg is a fried hard-boiled egg wrapped in english sausage and served with a golden mustard sauce. The egg offers a base of filling protein while the sausage provides the flavor and the light golden batter takes care of the texture. The result is a filling, surprisingly shareable and absolutely delicious appetizer that offers a snack to go with your beer before the entree arrives.

Scotch egg

Right, the beer. It wouldn’t be a pub without it and as an avid-beer-consumer myself I was impressed with what R&C had to offer. Over the course of a week we tried every pub blend the restaurant sold and didn’t find one we didn’t like. I was a particular fan of the shandy which features a half Bass ale/half sprite mixture, while one of my traveling companions fancied the Half & Half, a half Harp and half Guinness mixture.

If you’re looking for something a little darker, the Black & Tan (half Bass and half Guinness) might be your cup of tea. There are no bitter IPAs to be found here, but I prefer something a bit smoother in the swampy Orlando air anyway. R&C also features a pair of half-cider mixtures which are great if you’re not big on beer — you can also order any of these beers as you would at any other bar, but what’s the fun in that?

Our main course was a platter of Bangers and Mash which the three of us shared. It’s probably better served as a shareable meal for two, but we were saving room for the beer, obviously. The sausage was delicious and well cooked — not chewy in the slightest, and it’s exceedingly difficult to mess up mashed potatoes if you know what you’re doing in the kitchen. The real star of the show, though, was the gravy. I’ve never been partial to gravy previously, but this isn’t like the gravy I’ve had in the past.

Bangers and mash

It’s a bit thinner than what I’m used to having with turkey and it’s certainly much darker. The flavor is robust but doesn’t overpower the sausage; instead it provides a perfect marriage between the sausage, onions and mashed potatoes. I was tempted to ask for another round of scotch eggs to dip into it, but my pride (and my wallet) won out.

We didn’t try dessert, opting for a second beer instead, which seemed the logical choice for a warm afternoon in Orlando. The cost of the meal was fairly priced, as far as theme park food is concerned, particularly because we shared the entree and appetizer. The pub also offers several specialty drinks which come in souvenir cups. My girlfriend tried the Welsh Dragon, which is listed as: “Peach Schnapps, Melon Liqueur, Crème de Menthe, Orange Juice, and Pineapple Juice served in a Souvenir Cup.”

It tasted fine, but was too sickly sweet for my liking. Still, the flavor was nice and it was certainly refreshing. If you’re sensitive to sweet flavors, I’d say opt for something a little more...beer-y. For a (sort of) reasonable price, delicious food (and drinks) and a great view of the lagoon, the Rose and Crown is a great restaurant in a theme park filled with them.

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Replies (4)

May 26, 2015 at 9:07 AM · The covered patio at R & C is also a great spot for watching IllumiNations while you eat!
May 26, 2015 at 9:57 AM · Britisch pubfood is (most of the time) of a surprising high standard (for what it is). The stuff at Epcot's UK pavilion isn't.
May 26, 2015 at 1:14 PM · We've been to England several times and have spent plenty of pounds (and gained several pounds along the way) eating in pubs. While I agree that the food in Rose and Crown is not as good as what we found in the vast majority of pubs in Britain, it is still a pretty good Americanized approximation. We eat there every time we go to Epcot, if just to make comments to each other about what is the same as a British pub and what is different.
May 28, 2015 at 12:37 PM · You would (quite rightly) be kicked out of any pub in the UK or Ireland for attempting to order a "Black and Tan". Surprised and saddened by this level of cultural ignorance by Disney, I must say.

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