When it comes to dining at Disney World hotels, you’ve got a LOT of options, including food courts, quick service restaurants, and table service restaurants.

But what if you’re staying at a hotel not owned by Disney, but still located in Disney World? Well, if you’re staying at the Renaissance Orlando Hotel & Spa, a Disney Springs area hotel, you have some good options, too, including American Kitchen Bar & Grill. We were recently invited to dine at this restaurant, so we’re here to tell you what we ate, drank, and thought!

Atmosphere

American Kitchen Bar & Grill is a casual restaurant offering American-inspired food and drinks, as well as elevated comfort food.

The restaurant also features a full bar with TVs in case you want to watch something while you’re sipping on drinks.

The restaurant itself is spacious with plenty of seating that includes tables and chairs.

But enough about the restaurant — what’s on the menu here?!

Menu

The menu features food inspired by American classics, like clothesline bacon and chicken wings as starters, salads, sandwiches, main dishes like salmon and a pork chop, and several desserts.

For beverages, you can order a variety of cocktails, wines, beers, and mocktails.

And now, onto the main event — the food!

Drinks

To drink, we picked up the Pineapple Wings Mocktail for $12. It’s made with Monin Vanilla Syrup, Pineapple Juice, and Red Bull Sugarfree. First, we loved that it included Red Bull because that makes it really unique. It also adds a nice additional flavor to the drink, which we loved, although the sugar-free after taste was kinda’ there. But the cocktail was fizzy, fun, and sweet. We would definitely order this again. Red Bull in a mocktail? It’s GENIUS.

The Toasted Coconut Espresso Martini is made with Siesta Key Coffee Rum, Siesta Key Toasted Coconut Rum, Espresso, and Kahlúa for $16. Now, THIS is how you make a great espresso martini. All the flavors are so well balanced, and the coconut adds a nice nuttiness to each sip.

It’s still a classic espresso martini, but this one feels plussed up.

Eats

Okay, so for our starter, we couldn’t resist the AK Smoked Bacon “Clothesline” for $17. You get Smoked Pastrami-Spiced Nueske’s Bacon, Hung and Torched, and served with Horseradish Mustard Aioli. Yes, PLEASE! This is an appetizer we’d call a crowd-pleaser. First, the bacon is that good quality meat. Then you have the fun presentation. It’s also just cooked perfectly. The spices come through so well, too, so it’s a flavorful piece of meat.

The sauce wasn’t as heavy as we expected, though, and we thought it was a bit too thick and more bland than we would have imagined something with horseradish in it to be. However, if you’re spice-averse, you’ll probably still be okay with it.

We also ordered the Pork Belly Bao Bun for $16, made with Braised Pork Belly, Pickled Red Cabbage, Pork Rind Dust, and Cilantro Aioli. The Bao Buns were SO loaded that they were messy, but we loved how much we got. The pork belly was tender enough that it almost melted in our mouths. Then you’ve got the cabbage that adds a nice crunch and acidity. We will note that we didn’t get a lot of cilantro from the aioli, but it was enough to add a hint of extra flavor, but we know some folks don’t like cilantro, so we’ll warn you it’s in there.

We also tried the Vegetarian Bao Bun, which had meaty trumpet mushrooms instead of pork belly, and they were the perfect filling that also offered a nice, satisfying texture. There was also some avocado in it that added a lovely creaminess, plus it also had the Pickled Red Cabbage and Cilantro Aioli. You can’t go wrong with either of these bao buns.

The Red Pepper Gouda Bisque is made with Roasted Pepper, Tomato, and Gouda for $11. This was our favorite appetizer! It’s SO creamy with tons of wonderful red pepper flavor. It’s like an elevated version of tomato bisque with a slightly more complex flavor, but it’s still just as comforting. Plus…well…CHEESE.

For our main, we ordered the Crispy Chicken Gnocchi Mac and Cheese for $22. It’s Crispy Chicken, Gnocchi, Smoked Gouda Sauce, and Sun-Dried Tomato Parmesan Foam. Y’all…where has this been all our lives? We were told this was a popular menu item, and we know why! First, it’s HUGE, so it’s shareable.

Second, it’s SUPER indulgent, like it’s so rich and you’ve got this beautiful. super crispy chicken with a thick batter on it.

Plus, there’s this gnocchi in a heavy, creamy Gouda sauce. It’s still comfort food, but it’s somehow better.

Gnocchi instead of macaroni was the right call because it’s a step up from regular mac and cheese.

Nosh or Not

This  restaurant is a must-visit if…

• You’re staying in the Disney Springs area. If you’re staying at one of the Disney Springs hotels, including the Renaissance Orlando, this is a convenient restaurant to grab a meal.
• You want a casual meal that’s still a little elevated. The food here is casual, but it’s been given a twist to make it feel just a little better than casual.
• You have picky eaters in your group. The focus here is on comfort food, and although some of it has a twist, it’s probably a spot where picky eaters can still find something they like.

You should skip this spot if…

• You’re not in the Disney Springs area. Now, if you’re staying at another Disney World hotel, you probably won’t want to make the trek over to this hotel just for a meal.
• You want a quick service meal. The food here may be comfort-themed, but this is still a table service restaurant. If you’re looking for a quick bite to eat, go somewhere else.
• You want a fancier dining experience. If you’re looking for a more signature dining experience, this isn’t really it.

Overall

We’ll admit that we were surprised by just how solid this restaurant really is. We loved how the focus was on comfort food, but it’s still a little outside of the box to make it feel a bit more special, but not so outside the box that picky eaters would hate it. We’re going to add this to our list of places we like to dine at in Disney Springs, and maybe you should, too.

In the meantime, we’ll be on the lookout for more restaurant updates from Disney World and beyond. Make sure you stay tuned to the Disney Food Blog for the latest Disney news and more!

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Have you eaten at this Disney World restaurant before? Tell us in the comments!

Disclosure: In nearly all circumstances, Disney Food Blog writers and photographers pay full price for their own travel, hotel, food, beverage, and event tickets. We do this because it’s important to us as journalists to ensure not only that we give you unbiased opinions, but also that you can trust us to do so since we’re paying our own way. On rare occasions, when we are invited by a company to attend a preview as media, and when we choose to accept that invitation, we will always make you, our readers, aware of that situation. Today, we were invited by Renaissance Orlando Resort to attend a preview of American Kitchen Bar & Grill. Note that when we attend events as media we are 1) Not required to review that event/food on any of our channels, and 2) Not required to review that event/food favorably. You can always count on DFB to give you a 100% unbiased and honest review of any event that we attend, food that we eat, or beverage that we drink. You can see more in our Disclosure Policy. Thank you for reading. — AJ