The Polite Pig
On April 10th, The Polite Pig restaurant opened in the City Center section of Disney Springs. This smokehouse eatery is brought to us by the same folks who own the Ravenous Pig and Cask & Larder in nearby Winter Park.
Line extending out the door
This 5,000 square foot restaurant offers both inside and outside seating, a full bar, and a good variety of meal offerings.
Indoor Counter
Guests can either order at the counter and are giving a GPS puck for their food to be delivered to their table or sit at the bar and enjoy a cool drink while waiting for the food.
Open Window Smoker Area
Plenty Of Seats Inside
Great Many Options For Sauces
Now that all the pictures are done, onto the meat (pun intended) of The Polite Pig: the food and service! While I understand it was the first day and everyone needs a learning curve, I don’t know if I would ever go back. I dined with three lovely ladies at the bar to try and avoid the line out the door and, as we looked over the menu, the bartender asked if we had any questions. We asked what the difference between two of the items were and he let us know they were the same just one was on a bun and the other one was not. We all quickly decided to try a few different things, but when the food arrived, the description he had given us was all completely wrong. He quickly offered to replace it, but it was decided to not waste food.
The Southern Pig
Served with a Pickle Spear, Pulled Pork, Apple Slaw, Mustard sauce, and Duke’s Mayo and a side of Mac and Cheese.
I went with The Southern Pig and a side of Mac and Cheese thinking how can you go wrong with pulled pork? Well, it was just kind of bland. I understand that it is prepared without any sauce due to the multitude of sauce offerings they have, but even a basic pulled pork should have some flavor. The Mac and Cheese was very interesting as well. No, there was no collar adjustment on that picture — it was a bit greenish. As I learned from someone else who had just had it, they put many different kinds of cheese including cottage cheese. While it was a unique take on Mac and Cheese it was not a good take.
Brisket – coffee rub; served with slaw, Texas toast and a side of Charred Broccoli
After eating half of my sandwich, I traded for some of the brisket. It was chewy and not overly flavorful, but not bad.But the biggest disappointment was the “Texas toast.” I have had Texas toast from Orlando to Texas to California and this piece of white bread should be ashamed to even try to live up to that with its small stature and lack of any taste. I took one bite and put it down under a napkin.
Wild Salmon – maple-mustard glaze; served with slaw, Texas toast and side of Sweet Potato Tots
I didn’t have a sample of our third plate, but the review I got was “it’s okay.” Still, the biggest letdown was the time we spent sitting at the bar waiting for our check and then waiting for the bartender to process our check.
Overall, as someone who grew up with southern grandparents and where barbecues were a weekly tradition, this “modern barbecue” leaves a lot to be desired. Again, I repeat, it was day one and they still have to get used to their programing, but if given a choice for a barbecue option on Walt Disney World property, I would head to Flame Tree in Disney’s Animal Kingdom before The Polite Pig. Sometime in the not to distance future I will return for a second try and hope that it really was just the first day nerves that held back this new location from being as great as I hear the other restaurants in this brand are.