If you have been waiting for an update on Bourbon Steak by Michael Mina at the Walt Disney World Dolphin, here is where things stand.
The restaurant has been closed since a kitchen fire broke out on June 25. The smoke from that fire poured out through the building’s ventilation system and made for genuinely alarming photos that circulated on social media. The resort clarified immediately: “Pictures make it seem the fire was much larger than it was, as the ventilation system is meant to push smoke outside. No damage to hotel and only in the restaurant.” The lobby was evacuated as a precaution. Guests were let back in. Nobody was hurt.
The restaurant, though, has not reopened. And at this point we are closing in on a month since the fire, the Swan and Dolphin is telling affected guests the closure will last “for the foreseeable future while repairs are completed,” and the booking system is now pointing at a specific date.
That date is September 16.
The Reservation Window Tells the Story
Bourbon Steak’s own booking system is not accepting reservations until September 16, 2026. The restaurant website describes it as “Temporarily Closed, Reopening Soon,” which is the hopeful framing but without a specific date attached. No official reopening announcement has come from the Swan and Dolphin or from Michael Mina’s restaurant group.
What we have is September 16 as the earliest date the restaurant itself is willing to take a booking. That is the most reliable signal available, and in the absence of a formal announcement, it is where expectations should be anchored.
If September 16 holds, the closure will run about twelve weeks from the June 25 fire. Kitchen fire repairs can be significant work even when the dining room is undamaged, and a twelve-week window for a restaurant kitchen of Bourbon Steak’s scale is consistent with what serious repair and inspection timelines look like. Hold the date loosely, plan for the possibility it shifts, and watch for an official announcement if and when one comes.
What the Hotel Is Doing for Guests With Reservations
The Swan and Dolphin has been reaching out to guests who had Bourbon Steak reservations during the closure, emailing them directly to let them know the situation and offering to help rebook at other restaurants on the campus.
The notice on the Swan and Dolphin website gives you a sense of what the campus has to work with: “Dear Guests: Please be advised that our Bourbon Steak restaurant is temporarily closed. We invite you to join us at one of our other 22 outlets, including 5 signature restaurants: Celebrity Chef Todd English’s bluezoo; Il Mulino Trattoria; Kimonos, Amare or Rosa Mexicano for Coastal, Italian, Sushi, Mediterranean and Mexican cuisines. Guests may also opt for enjoyable meals at our casual, quick stop or lounge venues. We look forward to welcoming you back to Bourbon Steak soon!”
Twenty-two outlets across the Swan and Dolphin campus is a real number. The five signature restaurants give guests who were planning a special dinner something to redirect to, even if none of them is quite the same as what Bourbon Steak offers.
What the Five Signature Restaurants Are Actually Like
Since this is the kind of site that cares about this stuff, we are not going to just list them. Let us be useful about it.
Todd English’s bluezoo is the best substitute for Bourbon Steak on the campus if what you wanted was a serious dining experience with an elevated atmosphere and a price point to match. It is a seafood-focused restaurant rather than a steakhouse, but the quality and the occasion-worthiness are comparable. If your Bourbon Steak reservation was for something celebratory, bluezoo is where we would redirect.
Il Mulino Trattoria is Italian, properly done, and worth the visit on its own terms rather than as a consolation prize. Kimonos leans into sushi and becomes a karaoke experience later in the evening, which is either exactly what you want or very much not, depending on the night. Amare handles Mediterranean cuisine. Rosa Mexicano offers coastal Mexican that sits above what most resort guests expect from the category.
None of them is a Wagyu steakhouse with a whiskey program built specifically around the bourbon theme. That is what Bourbon Steak was doing and what makes it genuinely hard to replace on the Swan and Dolphin campus until it reopens.
One Year In and Already Navigating Something Like This
Bourbon Steak Orlando is twelve months old. It opened one year ago, replacing the long-running Shula’s Steak House, and had spent that year building a reputation and a following among the Disney dining community. The menu, shellfish, caviar, crab, and a range of prime and Wagyu beef cuts, positioned it as one of the more ambitious tables at Walt Disney World. Michael Mina, the James Beard Award-winning chef whose name the concept carries, brings a level of culinary credibility to the Disney resort area that is not common.
A kitchen fire a year into the run is a rough chapter for a restaurant still establishing its repeat visitor base. The good news is that “Temporarily Closed, Reopening Soon” is a very different message from permanently closed, and September 16 in the booking system suggests the team is working toward a real return date rather than letting the situation drift.
We will be watching for an official announcement. When Bourbon Steak reopens, it is going to matter to a lot of guests who had been planning a visit.
Was your Bourbon Steak reservation affected by the fire? Tell us in the comments what the hotel’s outreach was like and whether the rebooking process worked smoothly. And if you have eaten at bluezoo or any of the other Swan and Dolphin signature restaurants and want to share whether they are worth the substitution, drop that below too. People with disrupted Bourbon Steak plans genuinely need that intel right now.
