Frontera Cocina and Chef Art Smith's Homecomin' opinions

[Amy M]

I am looking for opinions about dining at Frontera Cocina and Chef Art Smith's Homecomin' at Disney Springs. They both get good ratings on touring plans, but I was wondering if anyone had any experiences to share? We will be dining with kids, ages 10 and 8. Thanks!

 

[Shellyb84]

We've eaten at Frontera 3-4 times and Homecomin once - they were both great, no bad experiences. Service was a little slow sometimes at Frontera but nothing terrible.

 

[EdmondD]

We really enjoyed Homecomin' - the kids' menu chicken tenders were amazing! The shrimp cocktail and fried green tomatoes were both really, really good. No complaints at all.

 

[KenHutch]

We thought Homecomin was average but I do love the deviled eggs there.

 

[ncc1701]

We enjoyed Homecomin' . We did both lunch and dinner ( same menu). The menu at Fontera didn't appeal to us but I have heard good things about it on various unofficial Disney sites. My suggestion is go for the one that appeals to your group the most.

 

[Pakey]

We ate at Frontera Cocina a few weeks ago and I was disappointed. The place was packed and noisy, service was slow and the food was underwhelming. Least favorite dinner of the week. We did think the atomic guacamole was good.

 

[OKW Lover]

We've done both. FC is certainly a good meal. But Art Smith's is a better meal in our opinion. Love the food there.

 

[tlovesdis]

We ate at Frontera back in February and loved it! We had gone to DS and my niece wanted Mexican so we looked online and this popped up so we went. The food was so good!

We will be trying Homecoming next year when we go and I can't wait!

 

[baler31]

We have done both and prefer Homecomin. Both were on our maybe list as we dined during opening week but Homecomin has excelled on several return trips while service at FC has been mostly miss. We will return to FC one more time before crossing off our list.

 

[cedricandsophie]

We were just at Frontera last week. Great food and service.

 

[clayfolks]

I am the exception here, for the most part. We really wanted to like Homecoming, but were very underwhelmed. We ordered, literally, every app on the menu. We loved the deviled eggs and the homemade crackers. We liked the chicken biscuit. Everything else was just okay.

 

[Amy M]

How would you say Frontera compares to the two Mexican restaurants in the Mexico pavilion @ Epcot?

 

[disneydiz]

How would you say Frontera compares to the two Mexican restaurants in the Mexico pavilion @ Epcot?

Frontera is a higher-end "gourmet Mexican" restaurant. Nothing like EPCOT. (I prefer Homecoming - they have a grouper sandwich that is just incredible.) Frontera's signature margarita - which is outstanding and probably the best margarita available anywhere. Look at the menu and see which one appeals to you.

 

[Cynthiab]

How would you say Frontera compares to the two Mexican restaurants in the Mexico pavilion @ Epcot?

I would eat at the restaurant inside the Mexico pavilion before Frontera Cucina again. I’ve been to a Rick Bayless restaurant in Chicago so maybe my expectations were too high but the food was bland and the service was horrible.

 

[RyMickey]

We’ve also found both to be just average. Homecoming gets raves here and while it wasn’t bad by any means, we found it average on our two visits - although their jasper board cheese plate really is fantastic.

We went to Frontera Cocina for lunch and I think the day before we went they changed their lunch menu to have next-to-nothing on it. I think they’ve maybe since changed back to offering the full menu all day. Because of that, our options were limited and while what we had was fine, we weren’t over the moon about it. We’d give it another chance as I always feel like you need to give a place two times to impress you, but we weren’t in love with it — we’ve enjoyed our meals at La Hacienda de San Angel in Mexico more.

To us, there are just so many great food options in Disney Springs - Boathouse, Morimoto, D-Luxe Burger, Blaze Pizza, The Polite Pig, Wolfgang Puck Express - that we’re not rushing back to Homecoming and Frontera Concina.

 

[Amy M]

We’ve also found both to be just average. Homecoming gets raves here and while it wasn’t bad by any means, we found it average on our two visits - although their jasper board cheese plate really is fantastic.

We went to Frontera Cocina for lunch and I think the day before we went they changed their lunch menu to have next-to-nothing on it. I think they’ve maybe since changed back to offering the full menu all day. Because of that, our options were limited and while what we had was fine, we weren’t over the moon about it. We’d give it another chance as I always feel like you need to give a place two times to impress you, but we weren’t in love with it — we’ve enjoyed our meals at La Hacienda de San Angel in Mexico more.

To us, there are just so many great food options in Disney Springs - Boathouse, Morimoto, D-Luxe Burger, Blaze Pizza, The Polite Pig, Wolfgang Puck Express - that we’re not rushing back to Homecoming and Frontera Concina.

So would you rank Raglan Road above either of these two as well?

 

[RyMickey]

So would you rank Raglan Road above either of these two as well?

We actually haven't eaten at Raglan Road! It's been on our list for years, but has always gotten pushed for some new addition the past few years so I can't help you out there.

I don't think either Homecoming or Frontera Cocina are bad. I don't think were you to choose either of them that you'd walk out going, "That was awful." I just think they're simply average for what they serve and because there are so many very good-to-great options at Disney Springs, we just will likely not return in the near future. Like I said before, I do think we didn't get a good "sample" at Frontera Cocina because of their experimentation with a limited menu at lunch, but Homecoming just disappointed because of the pedigree and the serving of rather average food.

 

[disneyvoice]

We haven't tried Frontera yet but Homecomin' is one of our very favorite restaurants on WDW property. Neither of us are big into Southern cooking but we were very impressed with Homecomin'. We actually sat and the bar for several hours on one of our off-park days and had a few drinks and shared some appetizers and fried chicken. We get a much more relaxed vibe at Homecoming' than at any other restaurant on WDW property. We never felt rushed at all and we notice that people sitting in the regular dining room section didn't seem to rushed either. Now I will say that I don't think most Southern cooking is "Wow!" kind of food - in general I need something with a good variety of spices to impress me enough to say "Wow!" But Homecomin' is very well done comfort food which makes it a stand out because it is so different from other restaurants on property.