IL Mulino Trattoria Menu & Review at the Swan Walt Disney World
We recently dined at Il Mulino New York Trattoria at the Swan Resort at Walt Disney World. Il Mulino is an upscale Italian restaurant that offers single portions or a selection of family style entrees for parties of four or more. Their menu has some well rounded choices of pasta and risottos, pizzas, meats, and seafood, all paired with an extensive wine selection.
We have been craving a good Italian restaurant, especially after our favorite, Enzo’s Hideaway at Disney Springs, changed management and their quality went downhill. At this time, we would say Il Mulino is the best Italian option at Walt Disney World, even though there is some definite room for improvement.
We dined around 5:30 on Saturday night, having come to the decision that we wanted to eat at Il Mulino only 15 minutes prior, and we were able to be seated without a reservation easily. That being said, I would recommend making a reservation if you know in advance that you are going to be eating here, especially if you have a large group.
We started with the best course, wine. We both enjoy pinot grigio, and Nicole ordered the Masi Pinot Grigio & Verduzzo, 2019 - which was a drier variety. Jonathan had the Tolloy, Pinot Grigio, Alto Adige, 2018 - which was more fruit forward. These were the recommendations of our waiter, Howie, who was excellent the entire evening. Every table receives a small portion eggplant pomodoro with salami, and a nice selection of focaccia and Italian breads with olive oil. While we appreciate the eggplant offering, it was nice to taste a little bit, but eggplant is a tough one with some people, so we’re surprised that they automatically send it to the table. Based on the tables around us, this eggplant was rarely touched, so I can see how this is a large source of food waste. We absolutely loved the tomato focaccia!
For our appetizer we split the “Insalata Caesar”, the classic Il Mulino caesar salad. The portion was a good split for two people and when served they supplied extra parmesan cheese and black pepper. Nicole liked the amount of dressing (as she likes to taste the lettuce), but Jonathan wished there was more (as he could drink the dressing from the bottle).
For the main entree, Nicole ordered the gnocchi bolognese and Jonathan ordered the linguine alle vongole. The gnocchi was a huge portion and a sauce connoisseur, Nicole thought the bolognese was pretty good. The linguine had a choice of red or white clam sauce, both were denoted as spicy on the menu (unusual?) but it did not have much spice, more or less a few hot pepper flakes. Jonathan picked the white clam sauce, and the linguine was cooked al dente, but honestly could have used more than 8 pieces of clam, four actual shells. Jonathan loves a good linguine with clams, but was regretting not getting a bolognese pasta dish, after tasting Nicole’s.
For dessert, we opted to split the “Le Tre Sorbetti”, a trio of sorbet selections. The flavors that particular night were lemon, blood orange, and strawberry. The plate was garnished with blackberries, blueberries, and raspberries and was overall a good size portion for two.
Click here to view the dessert menu.
The star of the evening was the COMPLIMENTARY limoncello that they serve at the conclusion of each meal. Our server came around with a large chilled bucket, and Nicole could have drank straight out of that with a ladle! It was a great gesture, especially if you haven’t tried limoncello yet and would like to try a sample. We would come here just for this and it was a nice finish to a good Italian dinner.
The other alternative for this evening was Topolino’s Terrace at the Riviera Resort, but we could not get a reservation and the pricey menu only featured two pasta dishes - Nicole was craving pasta.
Overall, our experience at Il Mulino was better than any other Italian restaurant we have dined at on Disney World property, and a great walkable option if you are staying at any of the Epcot resorts. The menu had a large variety in price and meal selections, and in our opinion, is one of the few good dining venues in the Disney boardwalk area.
