Coral Reef
Upon entering this restaurant which is located on the right side of the Living Seas building which houses the aquariums along with the Crush show (which is a must see!) and the Little Mermaid ride, there are glass doors with heavy metal seahorse handles.
After entering the doors the waiting area/entrance decor is a nautical theme with curved walls resembling a sea and jellyfish lights hanging from the ceiling in various colors.
The hallway leads into the restaurant area which is one large room dimly lit with several levels of seating all looking down into an enormous fish tank which houses all types of under the sea life including sharks.
On this particular day we did a later lunch around 2:20 on Halloween day and it wasn’t very busy which was nice. We waited about 5 minutes after our advanced reservation time but we were seated in a nice booth on the first level facing the fish tanks. Sorry about the blurry photos, but when using a flash, the light would reflect from the tank. But it is a dimly lighted restaurant so no flash produces a blur with my camera.
We did wait a while until our server showed up. He seemed quite busy even though it was slow on this day. Pretty quickly he did bring some rolls and butter, nothing special, standard rolls and butter.
We started with the crab cake appetizer which was pretty good but the cakes were rather “small” though. Without the sauces and garnish they’d be lost on the plate. They were served with a tropical fruit salsa and an aioli sauce.
I ordered the Rainbow Seared Trout which was delicious especially on the bed white bean salad which was finished with grape tomatoes, arugula, bacon with a balsamic and brown butter sauce. This definitely enhanced this dish and all of the flavors blended nicely together. The fish was tender and done just right. I enjoyed this dish very much.
My daughter ordered the meaty macaroni which is on many of the kid’s menus throughout the world, but she loves this dish. Many of the restaurants use a turkey meat too which is a nice healthier alternative with sacrificing the taste;-)
This was a nice lunch escape from the park with a unique aquarium experience.