Is The Cake Bake Shop Worth the Price?
Even before it officially opened at the BoardWalk in 2024, The Cake Bake Shop restaurant made headlines for its prices. With bowls of soup going for $17, chicken tenders for $25, cake slices for $22, and kids’ meals starting at $14, the prices are certainly steep–even by Disney World standards. Are these high prices justified? Let’s take a look at lunch at The Cake Bake Shop.
The Ambiance
The first thing you’ll notice about the restaurant is its ornate decor. It’s easy to see why The Cake Bake Shop is a popular spot for a girls’ outing. From the twinkling lights on the sign outside to the chandeliers and floral arrangements, The Cake Bake Shop is beautiful. The large carousel that slowly rotates in the middle of the restaurant is especially impressive. In addition to the flowers, diners can spot Buttercream the Unicorn and Chantilly the ballerina (The Cake Bake Shop’s own characters) sitting atop the carousel.
At the moment, the floral arrangements have shades of pink and cream for springtime, but the decor changes seasonally, and the restaurant gets all decked out for the holidays.
The Food
Entrées
For lunch, you can get the Choose Two for $27, which gives you two half portions of a sandwich, soup, or salad. I chose the chicken salade croissant and chicken velvet soup. The croissant sandwich was very good and fresh, and I liked the hint of sweetness in the chicken salad from the sliced grapes. However, for me the highlight was the chicken velvet soupe. It was very creamy, almost buttery, and reminded me of the filling of a chicken pot pie, minus the vegetables.
My husband got the classic burger, which came with pommes frites. It was a good, solid burger, and the fries were nice and crispy. At $28, this burger doesn’t cost that much more than a burger you would find at other table service restaurants on property, such as the cheddar burger at Ale & Compass ($25) or the Stack Burger at Steakhouse 71 ($24), unless you’re adding cheddar cheese to The Cake Bake Shop’s classic burger, which is an extra $3.
Kid’s Meal
My son ordered the buttered cavatappi noodles for $14. True to the name, the pasta was very buttery and creamy with just a hint of saltiness from the Parmesan cheese. It was actually quite a large portion for a kid’s meal and came with a drink and a side of mixed berries that was topped with glitter. It was the perfect plain dish for a picky 3-year-old who would quibble with a little garnish of parsley.
Dessert
It’s hard to leave The Cake Bake Shop without at least trying the cake. I ordered the Pixie Fetti® birthday cake ($22), which is vanilla confetti cake with a hint of almond that is topped with vanilla almond buttercream and confetti. The frosting was “Princess Pink” as described, and the cake was probably equal parts pastel confetti sprinkles and edible glitter. The almond flavor was very subtle like a more grown-up twist on a traditionally sugary sweet funfetti cake. In fact, this cake was not overly sweet at all.
Overall Thoughts
I was pretty sure that The Cake Bake Shop would be a one-and-done given the prices (note that there are no DVC or annual passholder discounts here), but the quality of food was better than I expected. While I’m not exactly in a rush to go back, I would be open to going again and trying some other menu items. I actually felt like the food was better than the cake.
While the Pixie Fetti® birthday cake was pleasant, I could think of a lot of other cakes on Disney World property that are just as good if not better and half the price or even less. I had previously tried the Millionaire Cake (Valrhona French chocolate cake filled with Callebaut Belgian chocolate ganache, homemade salted caramel sauce, vanilla buttercream, and homemade butter shortbread cookies) from The Cake Bake Shop Bakery, and while good, it couldn’t really justify the $22 price tag either despite the shareable size. Just as an example, the cake slices at Gideon’s Bakehouse are just as large and half the price at $11 per slice and with arguably better or more memorable flavors.
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