Best character meal based on food?

[revdon64]

We've had good character meals at Tusker House, CRT, Ohana, 1900, Hollywood and Vine, and Akershus. Character experience was mostly pretty similar although the step sisters at 1900 were a lot of fun. Top foods for us were CRT dinner, Tusker breakfast and H&V lunch. Worst food for us was 1900 dinner.

 

[bumbershoot]

All the Tusker House fans are interesting. I've heard from lots of friends the food was terrible so I always stayed away. Maybe I should give them a shot if an ADR comes up.

It would be interesting to know what they disliked.

If you're adventurous, lunch (and I assume dinner) has some interesting options. If you're not, well, there's pretty tasty mac&cheese on the lower buffet area ("kid's buffet" but anyone can get food from anywhere). If you're omnivorous there were meat stations that seemed pretty basic. I generally don't eat desserts at WDW but the couple I've tried at TH have been seconds-worthy. It's the ONE restaurant where I will still willingly stuff myself and deal with the results. It's the late breakfast/early lunch I have scheduled in October the day after the 10-miler run.

If you don't like adventurous foods AND you didn't know about the more plain options, I can see that you would think the food was terrible. And, of course, if *everyone* in the group is going to go for the plain options then there might be better choices in restaurant.

 

[Dislover1991]

Yay!

Boo!!! Hoping that we'll be an exception to this when we go in November. It's our first morning and an early AM ADR too.

Thanks for the FYI about the kid parade. Hoping they'll spend time with my son. And I heard about the puffed French toast from a friend.

Same here! We have a late lunch ADR for CP and I've heard the interaction is good there despite the place being huge...hopefully we have great interactions!

 

[SFlaDisneyfans]

Only been to Tusker House twice for breakfast, but I don't remember it being any different than the other buffets. Then again, I'm not huge on breakfast. Eggs, bacon and muffins.

We ate breakfast there on this past Sunday and enjoyed it. The ham carving station with the spicy honey mustard sauce was quite good as was the bobotie (sp?). We felt it was the best food of the breakfast character meals we have done so far. The interaction was really good also.

 

[lemondog]

Tusker House!

 

[disneyfan2kids]

Ohana Breakfast... yummy!

 

[stardis]

TH lunch....going for the 3rd time later this month!

 

[Cynister]

We have done a Chef Mickey's breakfast, Tusker House lunch, & a Garden Grill dinner. Rated solely on food, I'd pick Tucker House.

At Tusker House there are a lot of food options out at the buffet. It is spread out so maybe that helps, but it seems like there's a lot to choose from. The atmosphere is relaxed once you are in & you don't feel rushed. The characters spend a decent amount of time at each table & pose for pictures. It was a lot of fun. Our experience did come with a negative side though. The outside area where you check in & wait to be seated was chaotic. The seating staff didn't seem to have a handle or good routine going with getting people into the building to eat. We waiting a hugely long time to even get called. Then you are escorted to an area where you can pose for pics with Donald. This seemed odd to us. Why isn't he inside with the rest of the characters? I understand keeping guests entertained & all but after the picture (& he won't sign autographs which was a big bummer for my DS), we were put back in a waiting line to get seated. It just didn't seem organized or have good flow.

My second choice I think would be Chef Mickey's. The buffet is average, except that there's just a ton of food all of the time, which isn't a bad thing. But for us Chef Mickey's was great for the show experience. They had the routine down-pat. You were ushered in quickly, everything was orderly, it was almost to the point where you felt like you were in an assembly line. But things ran smoothly, everyone got good character time & every 15 minutes or so there was some sort of singing & dancing with the characters. All characters signed autographs.

Lastly would be Garden Grill for me. The food was good, but it isn't a buffet, a select menu is delivered to your table instead. Therefore the selection is really limited. The atmosphere was neat. A rotating dining room provided for pretty constant entertainment as there are periods where you can see & hear the Living with the Land ride below you. In this restaurant you got tons of time with the characters though. Purely on time with the characters, this would probably be my #1 pick. I think they came around & spent time with us at least 3 times during our meal. All signed autographs.

 

[Belleandtinker]

Tusker House - we love the place. Food is definitely unique and yummy!

 

[tinkerpea]

See I know that nearly everybo slates chef mickey lol BUT we tried it last trip after our boys aged 7,7,10 at the time was after something they had not done,
Anyways we had stayed away because of the bad reviews for dinner and we are gutted we had not done it before!
Boys enjoyed this meal and the character interaction so much that they have begged to go back in October this yr and next May!
We found the food to be really good "yet I'm somebody who sends food back regularly at restaurants when I'm not at least 99% happy with it"
Desserts was great, carvery section was good! And mainly atmosphere set us right up for our trip as we went in our 1st full day.

Tusker house is another that's brilliant, we found this by accident a few yrs ago, we was walking buy and had missed breakfast it was around 10.30 and we did not even realise it was a character place lol, anyways we got seated after our pic with Donald and got the juice which is fab then we ate and ate and ate lol! Characters are great here and come around again & again even when they know they have seen you already.
This has been a must have for the last 5 years now.

 

[redman96]

We did a few character meals on our trip in 2010 and my favourite was Tusker House. The theme was neat and I loved the selection of food. The jungle juice is awesome too

All hail the Jungle Juice! So good!!!

 

[DreamerWDW]

My vote is for Akershus, Tusker House, and 1900 Park Fare.

 

[Disney_Princess83]

Tusker House for food quality, food options and character interaction It's our favourite character meal

 

[DoctorWhoGirl]

I just snagged an early ADR for Tusker House breakfast for our trip next month - glad to see that most people enjoyed it. DH will be happy for a better buffet than CM. We enjoyed our breakfast at CM last year, but it was because of the character interactions for our boys, not so much for the food. To us buffet food is never anything to get excited about.

 

[Disney_Princess83]

I just snagged an early ADR for Tusker House breakfast for our trip next month - glad to see that most people enjoyed it. DH will be happy for a better buffet than CM. We enjoyed our breakfast at CM last year, but it was because of the character interactions for our boys, not so much for the food. To us buffet food is never anything to get excited about.

We like Tusker because it has the regular breakfast choices (cereal, Mickey Waffles, bacon, sausages ect) but also more unusual choices.

 

[Debkearsch]

Ohana breakfast, hands down! But we've not yet tried dinner there, so that could change!

 

[Princess Katherine]

1900 Park Fare!

Katie

 

[DWillowBay]

For us, Tusker House is the hands down winner for food quality, variety and character interaction. That Brazen Daisy Duck even motioned for my husband to call her!! Hmmmpf!! No other restaurant provided that! We love it there! Also love 1900 Park Fare for dinner! Those sisters....ya gotta love 'em.

 

[AndreaA]

Another person here who is surprised at the Chef Mickey's hate.

I'd eaten at CRT and Crystal Palace, but never Chef Mickey's until last year with our boys. Our boys absolutely LOVED the character interaction. They were ecstatic when the gang came around, got plenty of pictures and autographs and were out there dancing with them. And these are two boys who had been very reticent at Tusker House earlier in the trip.

My husband and I are both very picky eaters and know good food, and we were perfectly satisfied with the food there. I mean, it's a buffet. Pretty basic/standard stuff, but the carving stations were good, the potatoes (which we are PARTICULARLY picky about and make at home with cream, sour cream, an entire stick of butter and cheese) were excellent and the desserts were great. My husband, who is NOT really the "Disney" type and not into all the singing/dancing/parades at meals, was just blown away by how much fun our boys had and how full of joy they were during this meal.

We had both breakfast and lunch (different days) at Crystal Palace since one of our sons is a Pooh fanatic, and we preferred the breakfast.

Tusker House was good, but the character interaction didn't blow me away. Definitely wouldn't classify it as being better than CM or CP.

 

[bumbershoot]

Tusker House was good, but the character interaction didn't blow me away. Definitely wouldn't classify it as being better than CM or CP.

Ah, but the question was the best character meal for the food.



Though I don't recall being wowed by CM. But that was very likely based on our exact situation. One child in our family, and we were right next to an extended family with several loud and boisterous children, and the family "got" each character before us. Each child and then the group and then parts of the group in different ways interacted with each character before us, and a few times they spent so much time with the character that they had to go backstage before saying hi to us. (we were the last stop before they disappeared) That really really REALLY felt rotten. Trust me, we would love to have a passel of kids, but we don't, and we don't appreciate being forgotten about because our one child doesn't make a big noisy fuss and run and slam into the characters (before it was their time I might add).

Add that to the food being pretty lousy and/or bland in our opinion, and we have no need to head back to CM.