Restaurant Reviews

Money saving tip:  Call the Disney Travel Company at either 1-877-939-3732 (this only works in the US) or 1-800-828-0228 and press 3 once the message starts, you'll then be sent to the WDW-DINE queue and have to answer more questions.

This page contains mini-reviews of some of the WDW restaurants.  If you'd like to submit a review of a restaurant, email it to me and I will post it on this page.

SNACK YOUR WAY AROUND THE WORLD - Quick snacks from foreign places - Click here to hop to that page.

Menus  

Priority seating arrangements can be made up to 120 days in advance for Epcot (except Bistro de Paris which is 30 days), Disney MGM Studios, Animal Kingdom, and Resort restaurants.  Magic Kingdom restaurants can only be called 60 days in advance.  Word of warning.  The Once Upon a Time Breakfast at Cinderella's Castle fills up fast!  If you plan on attending this one, be sure to call for your priority seating arrangement at 7:00 a.m., exactly 60 days prior.

EPCOT RESTAURANTS

Garden Grill Character Lunch – The Land – Future World – Epcot

Garden Grill Lunch - The Land - As of October 6, 2008, Epcot's Garden Grill is no longer serving lunch.

Highly Recommended – Excellent American home-style food

Our party of 7 ate lunch here while visiting in September 2000. I’d made a Priority Seating months in advance; it probably wasn’t necessary as the restaurant wasn’t crowded, but it is really a good idea when a character meal is a "must do." We arrived at 11:30 and were seated almost immediately.

This restaurant rotates very slowly around a portion of the path that the "Living with the Land" ride takes, so the scenery changes gradually while you dine. The characters we encountered were Farmer Mickey, Farmer Minnie, Farmer Chip and Farmer Dale. If you can do a meal like this at an off-peak time as we did, the characters will spend more time with you. They all came around several times. Chip spent quite a few minutes interacting with our kids, including running to an empty table to grab a cloth napkin, which he used to wipe the sauce off my daughter’s cheek!

This restaurant features "all you can eat family style dining" – lunch and dinner are served from large skillets, with children’s meals served in smaller skillets. The lunch and dinner menus are the same, but I think the dinner price for adults is just a little bit more than the lunch price. We started with a small loaf of warm Sunflower Bread and Sweetened Butter. We had all ordered lemonade, although beer and wine are available for an additional charge. Part way through the meal our server dropped off pitchers of lemonade at each table that we could help ourselves from. The big adult skillet included large portions of Roasted Rotisserie Chicken, Farm Raised Catfish, Hickory-Smoked Steak, Roasted Potatoes, Corn Bread Stuffing and Garden Vegetables. If we wanted more of anything, another skillet would be brought (we found the single skillet to be just right for two adults). The kids’ skillets came with macaroni & cheese and fries or chicken tenders and fries. They even had a complementary "under 3 combo" for our 10-month-old that was an even smaller portion of macaroni & cheese with fruit. Deserts are also included; the kids’ meals came with Butterfly Cookies (round sugar cookies cut in half to make the wings, licorice antennas and frosting bodies dotted with tiny sour candies). Grownups were given strawberry shortcake, family style with coffee.  This review is courtesy of Cindy from Massachusetts.

Germany - Biergarten - This is a buffet, with a dinner show.  The show takes place every hour for 30 minutes.  You are welcome to stay for more than one show.  There is a band that involves the audience in a number of different ways - the boys and I got up and did the Chicken Dance at one point!  It was a lot of fun - I highly recommend it.  You are seated at large communal tables, so get an opportunity to talk with other vacationers.  This would work very well with a large group.  The buffet offers several types of sausage, frankfurters, chicken cooked in several different ways, beef marinated in wine, spatzael (tiny dumplings), gravy, several types of potato salad, rolls, etc.  Beverages and desserts are not included.  The show only takes place at dinner time, but they do offer some form of entertainment at lunchtime, such as yodelers. 

Japan - Teppanyaki -  You are seated at a table for twelve that surrounds a hot cooking surface, where the chef prepares your food, similar to the Benihana chain of restaurants.  First a waitress in traditional Geisha costume takes your order.  The chef then arrives with the raw ingredients for each meal being served at your table.  You are seated in a room with 4 such tables, and can see into other rooms just like yours.  Each chef performs differently, so no matter which table you watch, you will see a different "show".  The boys can't wait to come back to this restaurant.  They really liked the food here, as well as the show. 

China - Lotus Blossom Cafe - I tried the red-bean ice cream here.  If you like vanilla ice cream with red candies in it, give it a try.  This is a fast-food restaurant where you can get quite an affordable dinner.  Outdoor seating is available.  Prices are around $7/plate for typical Chinese style take-out dinners.

Canada - Le Cellier - This restaurant used to be cafeteria style.  It is now a regular restaurant, which is decorated to resemble a wine cellar.  They serve a tasty Canadian Cheddar Cheese soup here.  I also ordered the Maple Butterfinger Mousse, which was wonderful.  It came with two different sauces, which really gave each bite a different flavor.  Click here for their Menu.  

Chefs de France - The lunch menu has more choices that appealed to me, but I really enjoyed my dinner (I chose an appetizer) of large seared scallops on a bed of crunchy rice, accompanied by a glass of house wine.  By ordering an appetizer, I was able to save room for dessert.  The warm upside down caramelized apple tart with vanilla ice cream was scrumptious.  We were seated just as the Tapestry of Nations Parade came by and we had a fairly good view from our table close to the windows.  During dessert, we watched a Living Statue perform.

The Coral Reef - Future World - What a view!  One entire wall of the restaurant is an aquarium, with many different types of fish, and dolphins.  Sometimes you will see divers in the tank.  The main selections here are seafood, and the prices are high.  If you want the atmosphere without the price, go in the afternoon and order dessert.  The boys and I ate lunch here for about $11.  They ordered kids meals, and I got a salad. (I also got a 10% Magic Kingdom Club discount, which was available at that time).

Ice Station Cool - Future World - NOT a Restaurant, but a cool place to get free Coke.  They have samples of Coca-Cola, as it is served in different countries.  You can drink as many, and as much as you like.  Watch out for the Beverly, which is from Italy.  It tastes awful!  It's really fun to watch other people try it though.

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Magic Kingdom Restaurants

Cinderella's Royal Table - We've eaten here for the Character Breakfast, lunch, and dessert.  This is my favorite restaurant.  The food is wonderful, as is the atmosphere.  You really feel like you're dining in a castle.  One of us ordered a Chocolate Brownie Mousse.  The waiter brought it with three forks.  It was yummy, but so rich, we couldn't even finish it between the three of us.  For lunch, I got Major Domo's favorite pie.  This was a puff pastry filled with mashed potatoes, topped with shaved beef marinated in burgundy, lightly covered with gravy, summer squash, and a little cheese.  I ate every bite on my plate.  The kids got a kick out of decapitating the Mickey Mouse-shaped butter to spread on their rolls.  The straws in their glasses were Mickey Mouse-shaped, and they brought them home as souvenirs.  The Character Breakfast featured Cinderella, The Fairy Godmother, and several other princesses:  Belle, Jasmine, Snow White.  Sometimes Peter Pan and Prince Charming appear, although not during our visit.  The meal is pre-plated.  They bring you a basket of muffins and rolls, a large bowl of cut fruit, juice, coffee, and milk for the kids.  You can order either the cold (healthy) breakfast (cold cereal), or you get the hot food:  Scrambled eggs, bacon, a deep-fried cheese Danish, and home fries.  For the kids up to age 11, they bring scrambled eggs, sausage, and a waffle.  You can get refills of anything!  

Casey's Corner Restaurant - This is counter-service, offering hot dogs, Coke products, curly fries (yummy), and brownies.  We always stop here at least once per trip.  You can sit outside on Main Street, and people watch, or you can sit inside.  They have a large-screen TV inside.  Also, outside, on the side away from Main Street, there is a piano.  If you are lucky, a pianist will be playing.  

Tony's Town Square Restaurant - This Italian restaurant has a Lady & The Tramp theme.  There are lots of pictures of the canine couple all around the restaurant and lobby area, as well as a fountain of Lady and Tramp in the center of the restaurant.  There are two different seating areas, one inside, and one in an enclosed sunroom, from which you can look out at busy Main Street.  The menu here is all Italian specialties, including, of course, a plate of spaghetti and meatballs, just like Lady and Tramp shared in the movie.  They bring Italian rolls to the table with salsa for dipping.  This was very tasty.  When I asked for the dessert menu, they brought out a dessert tray.  Of course after seeing the desserts paraded in front of me, I just had to have one.  I chose the chocolate mousse parfait, which was very rich and chocolaty.  The kids pizzas are Mickey Mouse-shaped.

                 
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 DISNEY-MGM STUDIOS   

Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater Restaurant - We've eaten here twice.  You are seated in a dark restaurant, in old-fashioned cars, facing a drive-in movie screen.  The screen shows movie trailers for sci-fi movies, and cartoons.  The waiters are all on roller blades.  Really cool!  Lots of fun.  Food is only so-so though and not cheap.

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ANIMAL KINGDOM

Pizzafari - This counter-service restaurant has 5 rooms all with different themes.  We sat in the butterfly room.  As the name suggests, the main fare is pizza.  In the morning, a breakfast pizza is available, which is pizza dough topped with scrambled eggs and cheese.  You can have sausage on it as well.  I enjoyed mine, as did Jon, but Jay didn't like it.  Kids really like this restaurant due to the theming and bright colors.

Rainforest Cafe - This is a non-Disney owned chain of restaurants.  Inside, it looks like a tropical rainforest, with about 5 different rooms, each with a different animal theme.  You can see into the different rooms, so it doesn't really matter where you are seated.  They have gorillas, and birds, and elephants that move and make sounds.  Every 20 minutes, a storm erupts, with mist, water, thunder and lightening.  If the restaurant is really busy, consider sitting at the bar.  You are seated underneath a "mushroom" canopy.  The bar itself has water bubbling all over the place, and the chairs look like the lower halves of various animals, such as zebras, and each one has a tail.  We went into this restaurant at 3:00 in the afternoon, with no priority seating arrangements.  We were told there would be a 30-40 minute wait.  We browsed in the gift shop for 10 minutes and I was just about to suggest we sit at the bar, which had stools available, when they called our name.  The food here has interesting names.  The waffle fries are especially delicious, as are the Mojo Bones (barbecued ribs).  The Leaping Lizard drink was quite delicious as well.  It was a slushy tropical drink that really took effect as soon as I walked out into the heat of the day.  This restaurant is especially cold.  It feels great at first to cool off, but you can soon become quite chilled if you are dressed in something sleeveless.  I suggest carrying a light sweater if you plan on dining here.  By the time I left here, my fingers and toes were numb with cold, and it was about 100 degrees outside.  They have a website where you can check out their menu:  www.rainforestcafe.com.

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RESORT RESTAURANTS

Fort Wilderness - Pioneer Hall - Hoop Dee Doo Review Dinner Show - The best fried chicken I ever ate!  They'll bring you as many buckets of fried chicken and barbecued ribs as you want, as well as bread, corn, beer, wine, or soda, and strawberry shortcake.  Hard drinks can be ordered, but do not come with the meal.  The boys and I did not even ask for refills on our drinks, they just brought them.  This is all served during a hokey, but hilarious western style show (with hee-haw like humor and costumes).  They involve the audience at times.    The kids (ages 11 and 14) really got a kick out of this show, and insisted we go back, so we  went again in 2000.  We brought a group with us and everyone enjoyed the show!  Our waiter noticed that one of the kids at our table wasn't eating, so he brought him two slices of pizza.  Jokingly, someone at our table asked if we could get shrimp too.  A few minutes later, the waiter plunked down a bucket of shrimp on our table!  All in all, a good show and a great meal.  We'll be back.

The Yacht Club - The Yacht Club Galley - This restaurant has a nautical theme.  We ate breakfast here several times.  Once we got the buffet, which was quite extensive.  Another time, we ordered from the menu.  I ordered coffee and the boys ordered hot chocolate.  The waitress brought a full pot of each.  The restaurant was more than 1/2 empty on both occasions, so priority seating arrangements don't seem to be necessary.  

The Beach Club - Beaches and Cream - You will probably have to wait a short time for a table here; we did.  We lunched there.  It is a busy spot, right beside the arcade, and next to the pool.  It is decorated like an old-fashioned ice cream parlor.  Ice cream is the specialty here, with such dishes as The Kitchen Sink (which consists of 8 scoops of ice cream, and several different sauces).  You can also get burgers, hot dogs, and fries here.

Polynesian Resort - O'hana's - This large, friendly restaurant serves a family style meal.  Everyone is your cousin, and the kids will be invited to play games during dinner, including hula-hooping and a coconut race.  A strolling musician entertains between games.  There is a lazy Susan in the center of each table, and the food is placed there.  You turn this to reach all the dishes.  Skewers of meat are brought to your table, which consists of grilled turkey, sausage, beef, and large shrimp.  The set price for dinner does not include beverages.  Beware, the tropical drinks run about $8 each, but they do come with a keepsake glass parrot-topped stirrer.

Polynesian Resort - Kona Café - I simply had to try the Tonga Toast I've heard so many people rave about.  It is a large slice of sourdough bread stuffed with banana, fried, and coated with cinnamon and sugar.  It was so sweet you can eat it without maple syrup.  I tried it both ways.  It is also served with your choice of breakfast meat.  Yummy! 

Polynesian Resort - Captain Cook's - This is a 24-hour counter-service restaurant that offers seating both indoors and out.  The ducks that hang around outside are adorable and will come right up to you looking for handouts.  This is a great place to stop on your way out to the parks for a quick bite, or after a day at the parks.  We stopped here a number of times during out stay for breakfast sandwiches or Danish, and for ham and cheese sandwiches for lunch.  They also serve hot lunches, such as chicken teriyaki sandwiches.   They also sold refillable mugs here. 

DOWNTOWN DISNEY

Rainforest Cafe - See description above under Animal Kingdom.  The one at Downtown Disney can be seen long before you arrive, as the entrance looks like a volcano, which erupts with smoke every few minutes.  Really cool!  Each one has a large gift shop attached, and tropical fish tanks throughout.  Check out their menus at their website:  www.rainforestcafe.com

Fulton's Crab House - to make a priority seating arrangement at this restaurant, you must call (407) 934-BOAT up to 30 days in advance.

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This is a link to the PS Planning Guide website for calculating how many days until you can make a Priority Seating arrangement: http://pscalculator.net/