An Ale and Compass Breakfast Review

Coffee, chocolate waffles, and freshly squeezed orange juice are just some of the ways you can start your day at Disney’s Ale and Compass restaurant. While everyone’s out packing it in at the parks, you could enjoy a leisurely breakfast without a care in the world. After all, this is your vacation.

It’s no secret that Ale and Compass is one of our favorite restaurants at Walt Disney World. We eat there several times per year, and we especially enjoy it for breakfast. As much as I always want to order those chocolate waffles, I’m on a mission to review every breakfast item at Ale and Compass.

So, for this Ale and Compass breakfast review, I’ll share a combination of several breakfasts we’ve enjoyed. Additionally, we’ll preview the Ale and Compass breakfast buffet option. To clarify, Ale and Compass offers a unique buffet that complements any entree. For one price, you get the buffet, an entree, and a beverage selection of coffee, tea, juice, or soft drinks. Let’s see what you might enjoy for breakfast!

Ale and Compass is open for breakfast daily. It is located in the lobby of Disney’s Yacht Club Resort. If you have ever visited Disney’s Yacht Club before, you might remember that Ale and Compass was formerly The Captain’s Grille. While the restaurants aren’t necessarily comparable, you can still expect a warm welcome and excellent service.

In addition to that service, we always feel this restaurant is a great value. Generally speaking, most of us expect to pay more when dining at Walt Disney World. However, the prices at Ale and Compass are reasonable, considering the portions and quality of the food. The restaurant also has an excellent selection of entrée items that are not limited to a few ingredients.

Upon arrival, you’ll receive a menu explaining how the buffet works and a list of regular menu items. Kids’ menus are also available. A separate menu was also provided with unique breakfast cocktails. All coffee drinks are made with Joffrey’s coffee.

On one visit, I ordered salted caramel-apple French toast. This was one of the few items I’ve yet to try, and I was concerned it might be too sweet.

However, this dish quickly rose to chocolate waffle status. It was like eating a grilled cheese sandwich, except it was stuffed with tender baked apples instead of cheese. The toast has a sprinkling of confectioner’s sugar and drizzling of creamy caramel sauce. My dish was perfectly executed, and I ate every single bite. This entree comes with toast and a choice of bacon or sausage. I thought the bacon provided a crispy contrast to the soft bread.

On a previous visit, Stacy ordered the Shrimp and White Cheddar Grits entree. Per the menu, this is a “poached egg, Chorizo, and charred tomato stew.”

Stacy has a rosemary allergy, so the chef sent her tomato stew and chorizo out separately. Some of the ingredients listed “variety of spices,” and no one was sure if rosemary was one of them. However, we quickly determined by the taste that the chorizo contained rosemary.

The grits were served warm and creamy with the right amount of butter. The shrimp were properly cooked, and the chorizo sausage was tasty. I’d probably skip the tomato stew part because I don’t care for tomatoes. But other than that, this was a deliciously filling dish.

Carmela ordered the same dish but without the poached egg. So, if eggs are an issue, you can still order this dish without them. On this visit, I went with an old favorite. So here are the dark chocolate waffles I’ve been talking about. Per the menu, this item consists of “dried cherry compote, espresso-mascarpone cream, chocolate shavings, and choice of sausage or bacon.”

As always, the waffles were delectable. I can’t wait to enjoy them again.

Samantha went with the American Breakfast. The menu describes this item as “two eggs-any style, served with breakfast potatoes and choice of sausage or bacon.”

She substituted the potatoes for fruit. This entree was a standard breakfast but an excellent option for less adventurous diners.

Back in September, I spent a few days at Disney’s Beach Club Villas. During my stay, I enjoyed breakfast at Ale and Compass twice. One morning, I walked around the resort and placed a mobile order for the blueberry bacon pancakes. These pancakes come with a choice of bacon or sausage and a side.

Unfortunately, I forgot to take a photo of the pancakes, but I wanted to mention they were another quality menu item. They also come in a kids’ meal size if you would like a smaller portion. (I’ve since then ordered them. Here is a photo.)

Another morning, I took a walk around Disney’s Boardwalk before breakfast. By the time I finished, I had worked up quite an appetite. So, I joined the walk-up list for Ale and Compass. This time, I went with the smoked salmon and toasted bagel sandwich. According to the menu, it consists of “herbed cream cheese, pickled red onions, vine-ripened tomatoes, and avocado with house-made chips.”

I ordered my salmon bagel without the tomatoes. As you can probably tell, this was a huge breakfast. My only complaint was that the avocado took away from the cream cheese flavor, so I removed some of it. I love avocado, but not necessarily with cream cheese. The house-made chips at Disney are excellent. Overall, I was very pleased with this meal.

On several occasions, I have ordered fresh-squeezed orange juice. If you enjoy fresh juice, this is an excellent option.

At one point, I was on a vegetarian diet and tried the breakfast protein bowl at Ale & Compass. This plant-based breakfast bowl is another sizeable meal. Per the menu, it’s a “choice of tofu scramble or plant-based eggs with plant-based sausage, quinoa, sweet potatoes, chard, kale, and pickled carrots served with carrot-ginger dressing and chocolate-avocado toast.”

You’d have difficulty convincing me they weren’t regular scrambled eggs. On a side note, these are made from a legume.

Unfortunately, it was dark, so the picture quality wasn’t great.

The rest of the protein bowl was good. The sweet potatoes, carrots, and greens complemented each other. Underneath was a base of quinoa, which tasted like quinoa. In addition, the plant-based sausage was similar to Italian sausage. However, I have found that these breakfast sausages are usually more dry.

Speaking of plant-based protein, Primo Piatto at the Riviera has lemon ricotta pancakes that you can order with plant-based sausage. They are some of the best pancakes I’ve had. However, they are not vegetarian or vegan since they contain eggs and dairy.

Related: Primo Piatto Review at Disney’s Riviera

In addition, the breakfast protein bowl came with chocolate avocado toast. I have a good deal of experience with avocados and love how their buttery flavor takes on chocolate. It might seem contradictory with its bright green color, but these items work well together.

Below is an order of an allergy-friendly meal my son enjoyed on another visit. This was supposed to be blueberry pancakes with bacon and sausage. However, the chef modified the dish for my son’s food allergies by swapping the pancakes for allergy-friendly waffles.

In our case, they substitute the pancakes with the allergy-free waffle mix. We usually end up with a side of both types of meat. Disney’s chefs are more than willing to customize a meal with other offerings. For example, you might enjoy fruit or an order of breakfast potatoes.

On a previous visit, I ordered the open-faced skirt steak sandwich. Unfortunately, this item is not part of the current menu.

As for my breakfast sandwich, it was the most expensive menu item at the time, making it a great value with the accompanying buffet.

Other items on the Ale and Compass breakfast menu include the following:

• Country Ham and Cheddar Omelet (with arugula and seasonal fruit)
• Breakfast Flatbread (with sunny–side egg, Applewood-smoked bacon, ham, provolone, and arugula)
• Crab Cake Benedict (poached eggs benedict, jumbo lump crab cakes, and arugula with lemon-herb hollandaise)

For kids’ meals, the following items are available:

• Mini Parker House Egg, Ham, and Cheddar Sandwich
• Mickey-shaped Waffles
• Scrambled Egg
• Fruit Plate
• Blueberry Pancakes

Preview the current menu with prices here on Disney’s site.

Not only do we dine at Ale and Compass for breakfast, but we also enjoy lunch and dinner. Their dinner menu features refined classics alongside hearty items like seafood pot pie, short ribs, and lobster bisque.

Related: Lunch and Dinner at Ale and Compass

Ale and Compass Breakfast Buffet

Before we wrap things up, let’s look at the breakfast buffet option at Ale and Compass. The buffet is meant to accompany an entree.

Per the menu, the Ale and Compass buffet offers “seasonal fruit, assorted yogurt parfaits, assorted breakfast pastries, house-made granola, cheddar biscuits with country gravy, and warm cinnamon rolls.” These are the items we found on the buffet during our last visit.

Here, we look at the various pastries. Unfortunately, we didn’t see the Parker House Rolls that were previously part of the buffet. However, you can still order them here during dinner or next door at Ale and Compass Lounge.

This is homemade sliced bread.

Assorted muffins were available.

Plain croissants are also available.

Here, we have overnight oats.

Next door to the oats, there was a vanilla and strawberry yogurt parfait.

Then we see fresh fruit and granola.

I ended up trying one of these cheddar biscuits.

Of course, I topped it with sausage gravy.

Here are the warm cinnamon rolls.

Additionally, there were a few individually wrapped apples in a basket at the end of the buffet.

Overall, we’ve enjoyed every breakfast at Ale and Compass. It’s hard to go wrong here. If you’re looking for multiple breakfast locations to enjoy, you might like our list of the best breakfasts at Walt Disney World. Again, there are several good options.

For instance, you might consider breakfast at Grand Floridian Cafe when you plan to visit Magic Kingdom. We love the chicken and waffles here! Or you might love the breakfast buffet at Boma, Flavors of Africa, the morning you visit Disney’s Animal Kingdom. It’s located at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge.

As far as characters go, we love the character breakfast at Topolino’s Terrace, Flavors of the Riviera. It ranks toward the top of our guide to the best character breakfasts at Walt Disney World.

If you want to dine at Ale and Compass for breakfast, I recommend making a reservation on your Epcot or Hollywood Studios park day. You can enjoy a leisurely breakfast or brunch and then walk to either park.

For more information about the Yacht Club, you might enjoy our resort guide to Disney’s Yacht Club. Or you might enjoy the following individual articles:

• Disney’s Yacht Club Review
• Crew’s Cup Lounge at Disney’s Yacht Club
• The Gift Shop at Disney’s Yacht Club
• Everything You Need to Know About Stormalong Bay

More Planning

Resorts Gal specializes in Disney World Resorts, Characters, and Dining. Explore our resources, including our Disney World Resorts Guide. It provides an overview of everything you need to know about the Disney Resort Hotels. For dining, our Disney World Dining Guide is an excellent place to start. Our Disney World Transportation Guide is a wonderful resource for planning your routes. It’s one of our most popular resources. If you plan to meet characters in the parks, we have an updated list of Disney World Characters. It includes every available character meet-and-greet in the parks and where to find rare characters throughout the year. Lastly, our Disney Parks Guide provides a complete overview of all four theme parks and water parks.