The Polite Pig: Appetizers & Drinks in Disney Springs

Calling all bourbon and BBQ Lovers! The Polite Pig in Disney Springs gets rave reviews and we were excited to finally check out what the hype is all about!

For this post, I’ll be sharing our full experience as well as the location, food and drink offerings, dining atmosphere, and our final thoughts on whether you should make The Polite Pig a must-do for your Disney trip.

Location

The Polite Pig is located in Disney Springs. It is situated in the Town Center section of Disney Springs and is conveniently located just to the right as your step down from the escalators of the Lime Garage.

The Polite Pig’s Story & Menu

The Polite Pig is owned and run by Chefs James, Julie, and Brian Petrakis. They are Central Florida locals and the culinary experts behind this famous Quick-Service location. This is actually a sister restaurant to the Ravenous Pig located in Winter Park, Florida.

Known for its wood-fired smoked and grilled bbq, the restaurant also serves up fresh seasonal foods from local farms, as well as Florida craft beers, and over 60 selections of bourbon.

The full menu was posted right outside of the entrance to the restaurant. A QR code can also be scanned to have the menu pop up on your smartphone. You can also view the full menu online here.

Most of their entrees average around the $15 mark and come with a side. Their popular items are the Low & Slow Brisket, Baby Back Ribs, and Citrus Marinated Smoked Chicken. Their side items look equally delicious with the BBQ Cauliflower, Mac and Cheese, and the Sweet Potato Tots being some of their crowd favorites.

Reservations are typically not required as this is a Quick-Service location. However, if it’s a holiday or special event, you may want to call ahead and make sure that they are not at capacity.

You can also order online ahead of time here. They also offer catering services!

And if that wasn’t enough, they also have an online shop where you can purchase some of their signature sauces, rubs, T-shirts, and other merchandise here.

Polite Pig’s Atmosphere

As soon as you step in through the front doors, you’ll notice the industrial farmhouse vibe. There’s a red brick wall that lines the entire back wall of the restaurant with the words, “FARMER’S MARKET” whitewashed onto the brick.

Exposed metal piping, metal chairs, and dark bronze fixtures add to the industrial element of the space. Painted wood and shiplap in shades of green and aqua add a little bit of that farm-to-table feel. You’ll also see pops of red accent the decor, menus, signage, and artwork.

Make sure to get a good look at the floor. Look at those little pig tracks making their way across the floor of the restaurant. We thought that was a fun touch!

Here’s another view of the front entrance. The menus are displayed above the cashiers. This is where you can place your order if you chose to sit down for your meal. Once you place your order, you can find a seat in the dining section of the restaurant and a server will bring your meal out to you. They use trackers to help find where you are seated.

Soft drinks are self-serve via the beverage machine and don’t forget to load up at their sauce bar! They have 4-5 different sauces ranging from mild, tangy, and hot.

The Polite Pig’s Full Bar

Besides the amazing smoked and bbq offerings, The Polite Pig has a full bar. The bar is situated in the center of the restaurant and can be accessed from either the inside or outside.

You can pick from a wide variety of local craft beers or any of their 60+ bourbon offerings!

If you do end up sitting at the bar, take a peek underneath. You’ll find hooks to hang your bags and outlets so that you can charge your phone while you relax with a drink!

We chose to sit outside of the restaurant. There is ample seating both at the bar and on the outdoor terrace. We actually didn’t even stand in line to order either. Once we got seated outside, a server met us outside and took our order right away. That was a surprise for us!

We started with a couple of IPA’s and apple juices for the boys. 😀

The server quickly brought out our drinks, glasses of water, silverware, and extra napkins.

The silverware came wrapped in a brown paper bag type of holder, and the napkins were actually our very own roll of paper towels. Looks like the staff at the Polite Pig already know you’ll need a ton of napkins to keep all that BBQ mess under control!

If you do end up ordering the BBQ, wet wipes will also provided to help keep those sticky fingers at bay.

Private Barrel Bourbon Flight

With the beautiful bar and the plethora of bourbon offerings, we couldn’t help but try some out for ourselves. We ordered the Private Barrel Flight which included three different types of bourbon; Elijah Craig, Wellers 107, and Blanton’s Private Barrel.

Our flight also came out with a mason jar full of ice. Bourbon is supposed to be sampled at room temperature first, then again after dropping in an ice cube or two. The cooling of the bourbon opens up other flavor notes in the liquor.

It’s also a nice way to cleanse your palette before trying out the next selection.

We enjoyed all of the samplings. My favorite was Elijah Craig. The caramel and butterscotch flavors made this nice and smooth. This would make a wonderful nightcap!

My husband really enjoyed the Weller’s 107 and the Blanton’s. These were more traditional style bourbons, which he tends to prefer.

The Polite Pig’s Appetizers

As we were enjoying our IPA’s and bourbon, we ended up just ordering an appetizer and a few bites for the boys.

Even though The Polite Pig is known for its BBQ and smoked meats, we decided to keep it light and share a few bites and snacks instead.

We do have plans to make it back and try out the BBQ for dinner one night. We’ll keep you posted on all of our thoughts whenever we do return.

Hop Salt Pretzel

After looking over all of the yummy options, we ordered the Hop Salt Pretzel. This is located on the appetizer section of the menu.

It comes with an IPA mustard and beer cheese fondue! Ummm, YES, please!!

This pretzel is huge and even comes out on its very own sheet tray! The pretzel was warm and doughy. The outside was nice and crusty and the inside had just the right amount of doughiness.

The Hop Salt made this very interesting. It is definitely a unique flavor but we really enjoyed it. We think it paired really well with the yeasty flavors of the pretzel.

My favorite part, of course, was the cheese! It is a beer fondue cheese-I mean, what’s not to love? There was a smokiness to fondue that was excellent with the hop salt flavor.

The IPA Mustard was equally as good! It was grainy and had a bit of a horseradish kick.

The pretzel was huge and we easily shared it between the four of us. For $9 we thought this was a pretty good value. We loved it so much that we added it to our list of favorite pretzels in all of Walt Disney World.

If you’re a pretzel lover like us, you can see our full list of favorites here.

Chicken Tenders and BBQ Fries

Nate ordered the chicken fingers from the kid’s section of the menu. It came with a side of carrots, ranch dipping sauce, and apple juice for $9. The children’s size comes with two large chicken strips. While I appreciated the carrots, I think my kiddo would have preferred the waffle fries. You can upgrade the carrots to fries for an additional $2, but I didn’t realize that until later.

My boys thought that the chicken fingers were yummy and I thought they were pretty tasty myself. They have a crispy skin with a nice seasoning. The chicken was moist and tender.

The kid’s servings were pretty small. This worked out fine because we just popped in for drinks and appetizers anyway. If we were there for a meal though, I have a feeling my kids would have left feeling hungry.

Tommy likes to keep his food super simple. He went with a side order of the waffle fries. These come seasoned with the Polite Pig signature rub. They had a lot of flavor, but if you don’t like bold seasoning, you might want to order these sans the rub.

The fries were fresh, crisp and served up nice and HOT! We all enjoyed them.

Is The Polite Pig on Your Disney Bucket List?

We always enjoy our time down at Disney Springs. The Polite Pig has been on our bucket list for a while and we were excited to be able to finally try it out. We loved the casual atmosphere, the friendly staff, and the yummy bourbon and appetizers. Our IPA’s were perfectly chilled and was just what we needed on a hot Florida afternoon.

We can’t wait to make it back when we are a little hungrier and try out some of the smoked BBQ and sandwiches. The appetizers that we did share, were very good and I’d recommend that Hop Salt Pretzel to anyone!

If you’ve been to The Polite Pig, let us know your experience below. We’d love to hear your thoughts and they help out our other readers as well.

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