The Diamond Horseshoe Lounge is now open at Magic Kingdom, trading the venue’s family-style dinners for a limited-time menu of Old West small plates, cocktails, wine, and beer. We visited on opening day, October 4th, and ordered every small plate on the menu, priced from $12 to $22. Ordering the full menu gave us both the best and the worst new dishes we have tried at Magic Kingdom. Here’s our Diamond Horseshoe Lounge review!

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The Diamond Horseshoe has been part of Magic Kingdom since opening day, and this lounge is its latest chapter for the Liberty Square venue. Guests can now sit down in the Old West music hall for shareable plates and a drink between rides. Disney calls the lounge a limited-time pop-up, and the menu is entirely new for the lounge.

Disney has not said when the lounge will close. Because it will be open during Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party, whose final night is December 22nd, we expect it to stay open until at least then. In speaking with some Cast Members at the venue, we understand that the current plan is to keep it open through the holiday season. That likely means until the first few days of 2027, but Disney has not announced an exact date, and it could be extended should it prove to be popular.

In terms of the experience, our server conversed with some western-style lingo, welcoming us to the last friendly saloon this side of the Mississippi. While the Diamond Horseshoe sits within the Liberty Square land of Magic Kingdom, the lounge experience seeks to lean more into a western vibe. This includes background music that is more commonly found in the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad queue, a departure from the Liberty Square music that you’ll hear outside of the venue.

Before we get to the food and a look inside, let’s talk reservations.

Jessie’s Roundup temporarily took over the space from May 24th through September 8th. Before that, the venue served family-style dinners from the Liberty Tree Tavern menu. The lounge menu leans into the saloon theme with cowboy beans, a prickly pear margarita, and a huckleberry vodka cocktail.

In terms of the interior, there’s nothing really to write home about. It has been decorated for the Halloween season, which is nice, but the tables consist of a black cloth thrown over them. Table sizes vary from 4 to as many as you’d need to push together. It feels as temporary as Disney says it’ll be. When we visited, only the first floor of the space was in use. The second floor did not appear to be prepared for use.

At $22, the Charcuterie is the most expensive plate, while the corn fritters and mini hot dog platter cost $12 each. Three more plates fall between $14 and $16.

Cured beef, candied bacon, smoked pork, green chile cheese, smoked cheddar, and pickles.

We’re going to start with the most expensive dish, and, ironically enough, the worst of the bunch. In fact, I would say that the charcuterie is the worst new dish at Magic Kingdom. Not only is there zero value here, but the individual elements are not good either. The worst of the items was the “smoked pork”, pictured first below. These cubes were incredibly hard, bland, and not smoked in the slightest. Second worst was the cured beef. I wish there was a more charitable definition of the smell, but they smelled like a Halloween Horror Nights haunted house in the worst way possible.

Things improved slightly with the smoked cheddar, which did have a slightly smoked flavor. I thought the pickles were exceptional, but some in our group thought they were too sweet. The candied bacon was good, but the cook on individual strips varied wildly from barely cooked to crispy. The crispy bread and green chile cheese were just ok.

Overall, a very skippable offering, but stick with me. Things are going to get better (and in some cases, much, much better).

Glazed in Barq’s Root Beer, served with Cowboy Beans and Jalapeño Crisps.

While the charcuterie was the worst new dish at Magic Kingdom, the glazed sticky ribs were the best new food item at Magic Kingdom in quite some time. These ribs even surpass the excellent ribs that we reviewed in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge not too long ago.

The glaze here is excellent. While some were able to identify the root beer flavor, others simply enjoyed them for their sweetness. The ribs themselves were cooked to perfection. I really hope that this is a repeatable cooking style here because if the ribs come out every time like they did today, guests are in for a treat.

The meat is tender but structured. It slides off the bone without surrendering and falling right off and becoming unmanageable. Simply put, these are the best ribs at Walt Disney World right now, and it might not be close. But it doesn’t end there. The cowboy beans were also the best beans that we’ve ever had at Walt Disney World. To top it all off, the jalapeño crisps are delightful. An almost potato chip-like crunch is packed with spice that we desperately missed from other dishes.

All told, the ribs are a winner and a singular reason for a stop at the Diamond Horseshoe Lounge.

Served with warm tortilla chips.

If we’ve been to the mountaintop with the ribs, and the depths of the valley with the charcuterie, the Queso Fundido lands somewhere in the middle to lower third. The queso was good, and I thought the burnt ends were delicious, but that wasn’t the consensus at the table.

Our chips were extra salty, which brought the whole dish down, delicious burnt ends or not.

With queso fresco, lime crema, and pickled cactus salsa.

What this dish lacks in portion, it more than makes up for with quality of flavors. Everything on top of our chips was exceptionally fresh. Every individual element here was able to shine through in each bite. I would’ve loved a fourth chip to drive the per-chip price below $4.

I really liked the flavor of the chipotle chicken here, even if the texture could be described as watery. Again, a per-chip price north of $4 is a hard sell, but I’ll miss the freshness of the flavors as the extra $14 sits in my wallet.

With Red Chile Honey.

We were big fans of the Sweet Golden Corn Fritters. The consistency of these landed on the denser, or even sponge-like, side of things, but the flavor was wonderful. The batter was excellent, and the whole bite was soft and flavorful. The red chile honey was more honey than anything else, but we’re not complaining. We saved one bite for the very end to end the meal on a high note.

Wrapped in pastry, served with tortilla chips and a side of queso.

I was originally going to skip these for the review, but in the interest of completeness, we ordered them. I wish I could say “…and I’m glad I did order them”, but there’s no such happy ending here. They were fine. The queso was fine, the mini hot dogs were fine, and the pastry was fine.

It’s not for me, but perhaps younger cowpoke will enjoy this dish.

In terms of why it exists, I’m assuming the business case here was that it wasn’t necessarily filling up as overflow seating for the nearby Liberty Tree Tavern. To fill more seats, a new concept was born. Perhaps this also fills a need for guests who aren’t able to get into the Beak and Barrel, but are looking for a drink and some light bites. Through that lens, the venue will likely succeed. It will certainly be useful throughout the holiday season as guests look for a place to escape the crowds and grab a bite to eat.

Beyond that, I’m not sure that the Diamond Horseshoe Lounge makes a strong case for a longer existence. That said, I hope to find some time to come back and enjoy the ribs again.