Is the Primo Piatto breakfast still one of Disney World’s top quick service spots? Our Croque Madame review dives into food quality, service, and value.

Primo Piatto at Disney’s Riviera Resort consistently ranks as one of the best quick-service dining options at Walt Disney World. We recently visited Primo Piatto for breakfast. We ordered the Croque Madame, which made sense at this Disney resort hotel’s quick service.

Our expressed love for Primo Piatto can be found in many places. This Walt Disney World Resort hotel’s quick service offers excellent value and quality service. However, during our recent visit, the service failed to live up to normal excellent standards. We will describe that later in this article.

If you are unfamiliar with Disney’s Riviera Resort, it is a short ride on Disney’s Skyliner from Epcot. We enjoy taking a break from a theme park trip at Epcot to dine at Primo Piatto at Disney’s Riviera Resort. During a recent visit during breakfast hours, we enjoyed the Croque Madame at Primo Piatto.

What is a Croque Madame?

A croque madame sandwich is a classic French café menu item that elevates a basic ham and cheese sandwich into a decadent experience. This sandwich layers toasted bread with thinly sliced ham and melted Gruyere cheese, topped generously with a béchamel sauce before broiling until golden and bubbling.

Unlike its close relative, the croque monsieur, the croque madame is finished with a fried or poached egg. According to the sandwich’s backstory, the soft yolk mimics a lady’s hat while adding to the dish’s richness. As the yolk breaks, it mingles with the creamy béchamel and melty cheese, creating a luscious mix of flavors and textures. This makes a luscious, indulgent morning meal.

Primo Piatto Breakfast

We visited Primo Piatto on a slow morning. This place picks up crowd-wise at lunchtime. We ordered the Croque Madame at 10:19 a.m. on a weekday. The sandwich comes with a side. The talented cast members working the Primo Piatto breakfast hours encouraged us to order bacon as a side. He told us that calories do not count on vacation. We lacked the heart to tell them we were not on vacation.

Afterward, we sat down at our usual spot here. Then, we followed our regular dining pattern at Primo Piatto by plugging in our laptop computer. Primo Piatto offers more than its fair share of outlets for a small quick service restaurant.

At Primo Piatto, the cast members bring your order to your table after you order your food and beverage. They find you by the “Table Tracker” device given to you when you leave the initial point of sale.

At 10:46 a.m., a cast member checked on me to see about my order. We explained that we had not received it, but noticed guests around us had received their orders. Two minutes later, by Walt Disney World magic, our Croque Madame arrived at our table. The kind cast members brought us a pastry treat for the longer-than-normal wait time for Primo Piatto breakfast.

Primo Piatto Breakfast: Menu Description

The menu description for the Croque Madame reads, “Classic French Ham and Swiss with a Fried Egg served with a choice of sides. It costs $12.99. Primo Piatto does not extend annual pass or other discounts.

Despite issues with food delivery, the Croque Madame arrived at our table with almost perfect presentation, as usual for Primo Piatto breakfast. The bacon tasted like standard Walt Disney World quick-service bacon. That is not a good thing or a bad thing. We are talking bacon, right? The cast member suggested placing the bacon in the sandwich. We elected not to do that.

Still, next time, we might get fruit as a side to balance out this breakfast sandwich. Fruit almost always tastes better in Florida for those of us visiting from other areas of the world.

Croque Madame: Primo Piatto Breakfast

The Croque Madame provided good quality, with all the components working together nicely for the guests’ taste buds. Even with the sound quality, it might be a bit salty for some guests. However, one should expect that from this type of breakfast.

When cut, the yolk runs over the sandwich in just the proper fashion for this breakfast style. On this day, the bottom piece of bread was a bit tough to cut with just a fork, so we used a knife often on that portion of the Croque Madame. We enjoyed the ham with this breakfast meal. This ham is the same as the type used for the Primo Piatto Croque Monsieur, which appears on the lunch and dinner menu.

Overall, the Croque Madame tastes decadent without killing your bank account. Guests should be prepared for some messy hands as they eat it. Still, a few extra napkins will make the time and effort worth it.

Difference Between Croque Madame and Croque Monsieur

While the origins are debatable, the croque monsieur was believed to be invented by Michel Lunarca of Paris’s Le Bel Age café. As it gained popularity, the croque madame version also became fashionable. The croque monsieur, which translates generally to “crunchy mister,” features ham and either Gruyére or Emmental sandwiched between two pieces of white bread. You can top the sandwich with bechamel, a white sauce made with butter, flour, and milk, and dip it in egg for extra creaminess.

The croque madame, with a name that is essentially the feminine opposite of the croque monsieur, more often features bechamel and is topped with an egg instead of dipped in it. The sandwich partly earned the name “croque madame” because the egg represents a woman’s hat. The sandwiches are similar in flavor, but the bechamel in the croque madame creates a slightly different texture than the egg-dipped croque monsieur because it doesn’t crisp the way the egg dip does.

For more theme park dining reviews that drop at noon Eastern Time every weekday, check out MSM News. As always, eat like you mean it!

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