Any tips for cheap dinning outside the park?

[bristolm2000]

My husband and I will be traveling with our 3 children ages 8, 11, and 12 to Disney soon. We have always gotten the Dinning plan and stayed onsite. We are trying to save money this time so we have rented a house. I would love advice on affordable, but fun places in Orlando to eat without the big price tag. I don't think there are any places inside the park affordable, but if you know of any please let me know. We are also using our car to commute. Any advice to save money parking or getting to the parks? Thank you so much in advance!

 

[eliza61]

First we probably need to ask what you think of as affordable. The budget board can pop up varying answers. For example for some folks "affordable" means packing lunch and bringing it with them. For me affordable is probably along the lines of "chain" restaurants.

Now right outside of Downtown disney is a shopping plaza called "the crossroads". Next to the Goodings grocery store is a pizza joint, I can't remember the name but it was good pizza at darn good prices.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

If you are renting a house, why not just prepare your own meals there? You can eat breakfast and dinner there and pack lunches for the parks.

 

[BBandDisney]

Dining.

 

[MSSANDRA]

There are lots of way to save money on food. AT WDW, we really don't try to do that, but on most all of our other trips we do. As someone said, eat at least a big breakfast at the house.It may mean getting up a bit earlier, but so worth it and will keep you going for a while. We almost always cook at our beach condo and one thing we do is breakfast casseroles, you put them together the night before and stick it in the oven to bake while you get ready. Pancake and sausage are easy, bake some frozen biscuits while you get ready and fill with ham and cheese or whatever and eat on the way!
For lunch in the parks, share and drink water. For dinner you will find all the chains just outside the parks. Again, don't over order and drink water. DH and I recently did a 5 day road trip and we shared all but one or two meals. Plenty to share and room for a dessert treat later back at the resort. I would also consider take out back at the resort. Again, share, no tips, or drinks. If you want to cook, consider a crock pot and the liners and put something on to cook that morning. Add salad and dinner is ready in minutes of getting back to the resort....much quicker and cheaper.

 

[PrincessBrittany06]

Try steak and shake its right off property near the downtown disney entrance onto wdw property

Great food with great low prices!

 

[Narnia_girl]

I did a google search for "where locals eat orlando" and came up with several hits. That might be worth a try for you.

 

[marlynnp]

I think all church services in the area are free. (you can just pretend to put money in the collection plate) I'm not sure who has the loudest bells though

 

[PurpleLaurie55]

I have been looking up this information for our trip in December. I found a Sweet Tomatoes restaurant not too far away, signed up for their email club, and plan on bringing the coupons they send out weekly with us . We *love* Sweet Tomatoes, and don't have any near us, so this is a fun, special treat!

 

[SamSam]

Depending on where your 'house' is located, there are lots of restaurants on Hwy 192 (just south of AK). Here's a map so you can see where Hwy 192 is in relation to WDW.

 

[rdsx28]

We recently ate at The Lone Star right off Disney property. It's a steakhouse and the food was reasonably priced and very good. They have a web site so check it out. I also utilized Restaurants.com this year. We ate at BB Kings near Universal and it was very good. Also ate at O'Charleys and it was pretty good as well. You may find some restaurants you like on there. We also found a buffet The Wood Fire Grill which offered and excellent breakfast. It was 6.99/kids &7.99 for adults including drinks. They also have coupons available in those Orlando visitor books. Very clean, great service and good, fresh food.

 

[a1970model]

We rented a condo in Windsor Hills for our trip last month and we mainly ate breakfast and dinners there (lunches were at the parks). We visited Target after we arrived and spent about $70 for meal items. Breakfasts consisted of bacon, egg, and cheese bagels and cereal (one morning). We did visit Captain Cook's at the Poly one morning for Tonga Toast. For dinner, we did frozen pizzas one night and some frozen P.F. Chang's and rice a couple of times. I was greatly surprised how good they were. We did splurge one evening at the T-Rex Restaurant (not cheap) in Downtown Disney and met some local friends at Cracker Barrel one night. We mainly kept our eating out to lunches, to include Be Our Guest, Yak & Yeti's quick service, the Three Broomsticks (at Universal), and eating around the world at Epcot.

We did not eat at Earl of Sandwich in Downtown Disney this trip, but it has great prices and food.

 

[nboicepardee]

I have been looking up this information for our trip in December. I found a Sweet Tomatoes restaurant not too far away, signed up for their email club, and plan on bringing the coupons they send out weekly with us . We *love* Sweet Tomatoes, and don't have any near us, so this is a fun, special treat!

Sounds yummy! Thank you for this tip!

 

[mrsklamc]

Our favorite is Giordano's pizza...there is an extensive thread on the best offsite restaurants on the "Orlando Hotels & Attractions" board.

 

[Luvchefmic]

I have to agree with if you have a house and a car go normal food shopping like when you're home have breakfast at the house bring water gatorade sandwiches
whatever to the parks There are also a ton of regular fast food places to the right and to the left of the Crossroads that others have mentioned

Burger king Chik-fil-A Taco Bell you name it its there Uno Pizza Wendys etc

Pick up those coupon booklets you find everywhere and you'll find buffet specials

Have fun, but no way to save that daily parking fee unless someone has an AP

 

[BridgetBordeaux]

Up and down 192 is just about every franchise brand of food that has ever existed. From McDonalds to Subway to Pizza places to Applebees/Olive Gardens to Chinese buffets to buffets like Ponderosa. Some have a kids menu which helps keep the cost down. As you know........skip the soda if possible and your family will save about 10 dollars each meal once you factor in the tax and tip savings.

 

[Princess Leia]

Cici's pizza is a popular choice with my family. It has a good choice of pizza and pasta with desserts and refillable drinks. It was very good value. My children are disappointed as I've told them we're not going this time as we have disney dining.

 

[akayek31]

When I was doing a 17 day trip to Disney and US/IOA back in 2009 I signed up for every restaurant that I could think of that had clubs as they call it. You get a welcome coupon, a birthday coupon, and an anniversary coupon. They are sometimes buy one get one meals but mostly appetizers now. I love sweet tomatoes as they send me weekly buy one get one coupons. We also ate at Margarittaville where my son gets the volcano nachos that were so big he ate on them for 3 days and they only cost $10. We love Earl of Sandwich, TGIF (appy and entree for $10), Cracker Barrel (I have worked there for 11 yrs so I get 35% off meals and gifts when we go), Longhorns by the big orange gift shop has the best house salad and it is very filling (plus a coupon club), here is a website that has coupons for Orlando restaurants http://www.orlandocoupons.com. If that link does not work look up on disboards Orlando restaurant coupons. It is from 2009 but the coupons are updated. There is one for Nascargrille that is 20% off your bill but keep in mind if you eat at citywalk you have to pay to park. This one has a free Cici pizza buffet http://www.orlandofloridacoupons.com/internet-coupons.htm

 

[snarlingcoyote]

DH and I usually plug in a cuisine into Yelp and go. We've had some v. good Cuban and Brazilian food that way. There's a chain restaurant called Bahama Breeze that's in the parking lot in front of Super Target that's also really good - we always do that the first or second night we're at WDW. (We eat and then buy our groceries.) There's a Cracker Barrel close by as well (they have a no-carb/low carb menu) so we eat there at least once.

Unfortunately, our list of "must do" restaurants AT WDW keeps growing. It now includes Sci-Fi, Marrakesh and Boma, so every year it seems we've less time to explore out of park food. . .

Speaking of that - Sci-Fi isn't that expensive and it's a fun experience inside HS.

 

[mikethedigiartist]

So basically reiterating what others have said -- depending on which side of property you are on either find restaurants on US 192 or East and West of the Crossroads Plaza aka Apopka Vineland Road. Some that I have personally tried:

US 192: Taco Bell, Wendy's, Pizza Hut

Apopka Vineland Road: Pizza Hut, Chick-fil-a, Chili's

All those we're decent and the pizza runs were done by myself and brother as we left the rest of the family to shower and chill at the hotel. There are a couple back roads you can use I you are comfortable that make these food runs a lot quicker too.