Is The Garden Grill Gross?

[kahluacream]

I'm second-guessing my ADR for this restaurant... Can anyone help by letting me know about your recent experiences here?

My party will consist of me, DH, vegetarian grandma, and kids (4 & 6). I initially chose this restaurant because we would be in Epcot for Illuminations, the kids would enjoy the characters, and the menu seemed better for children than the ones with the standard new kids' menu choices.

I've been reading some really mixed reviews lately, though. Is it that bad? This will be the last night of our trip, and I really don't want to end on a sour note.

Thanks for your help!

 

[danielle782001]

We had lunch (believe the dinner menu is the same) there in December and had a very positive experience! Does Grandma eat fish? We really liked the catfish... I know others have said otherwise BUT we enjoyed it. It was very fresh. Speaking of fresh, the veggies are VERY fresh. Grandma will love those. The kids should like the chicken fingers, fries, mac n' cheese, and make-your-own cupcakes, as well as the character interaction. My kids loved the characters... Mickey, Pluto, Chip! It is not fancy by any strech but good for families. We had a great time and we hope you do too!!!!

 

[GoochiGirl]

I have taken my kids there for lunch before. I thought the food was good and the experience was wonderful. We had an early luch there so it was very quiet and empty.

 

[Tink2312]

We had dinner there last December as part of the CP and it was a great meal. The food was tasty and fresh, the character interaction was the best we've had at WDW and liked the fact the restaurant revolves around scenes from Living with the Land.
I don't know about other bad reviews but we thought it was awesome- highly recommend it!

 

[MICKEEP]

Ate there last November. The Character interaction is the absolute best at this place. Thats the good part. The food is just OK. But I found the restaurant to be very dirty. I won't get into detail to avoid grossing everyone out.

 

[G's mommy]

We ate there for dinner this past May. The food is good, nothing fantastic but the characters do come around quite a bit. My son loves this place, so we normally end up here at least every other trip. We're planning on going back in December with CP package.

 

[kahluacream]

I was feeling pretty good about my ADR here after reading Danielle, GoochiGirl, and Tink's reply... That's kind of cool that the restaurant revolves, didn't know that. Hope it's not too fast as I have motion sickness???

The cleanliness comment from MICKEEP has me a little scared. I don't think I want to know!

Anyone else with recent experiences at Garden Grill???

Thanks so much!

 

[Snow_White]

I was feeling pretty good about my ADR here after reading Danielle, GoochiGirl, and Tink's reply... That's kind of cool that the restaurant revolves, didn't know that. Hope it's not too fast as I have motion sickness???

The cleanliness comment from MICKEEP has me a little scared. I don't think I want to know!

Anyone else with recent experiences at Garden Grill???

Thanks so much!

I have some problems with motion sickness, but it rotates really really slow. You will barely notice you are moving, other than the fact that the view changes every so often. It's a nice restaurant with great character involvement. I've never noticed it (or any WDW restaurant now that I think about it) to be dirty.

 

[flexsmom]

A few years ago they used to have the afternoon "Ice Cream Social" there - it was an awesome break for my DD & I since we had had a late breakfast and had dinner booked - we did a 3pm ice cream treat with Chip & Dale! I wish they would bring that back!

Sorry I'm kind of OT - haven't eaten a regular meal there and just being sentimental!

 

[eeyoresnr]

Every time we go on Living with the Land I have wanted to eat at the Garden Grill. So this year we are doing the character meal for lunch and are very excited about it. It never looks real busy so we are hoping for extra attention

 

[daandcb]

This is one of our must eat at places. We first went two years ago and had a great meal, went again last year and again had a great meal. I ate it all, and I do not care for turkey or catfish....yet you would never have known it! And the veggies were delicious!! The character interaction was great and the movement is barely noticable....I say barely as when i was pregnant the first trip i felt the movement. It was the first place that I thought of when trying to decide where to eat on this upcoming trip. Oh and I never thought of it being dirty either.

 

[bentleygirl22]

No Way !!! Its one of our Favorites!!!!!!!1
Its our kids favorite place.... mine too

 

[StarLight StarBright]

The Garden Grill was our favorite character meal last year, and I have an ADR here for Nov. The Characters are great, and I thought the food was good! Give it a try!

 

[tinkandpan]

Character interaction here is the best to be had. We all really disliked the food but we are not big on all our food served on one big plate. Our service was really really slow. Since the character interaction was so good though- we had a good experience.

 

[danielle782001]

I was feeling pretty good about my ADR here after reading Danielle, GoochiGirl, and Tink's reply... That's kind of cool that the restaurant revolves, didn't know that. Hope it's not too fast as I have motion sickness???

The cleanliness comment from MICKEEP has me a little scared. I don't think I want to know!

Anyone else with recent experiences at Garden Grill???

Thanks so much!

Don't worry. It goes so slow that my hubby didn't know we were moving until half way through our meal. And I too have BAD motion sickness issues and I didn't feel a thing

 

[danielle782001]

Ate there last November. The Character interaction is the absolute best at this place. Thats the good part. The food is just OK. But I found the restaurant to be very dirty. I won't get into detail to avoid grossing everyone out.

We did not have the same experience with the dirt. Maybe you hit it on a bad day. Although there is no excuse any day. Sorry to see you had that problem. It should never be dirty. Thankfully it was clean the day we were there!

 

[Pumbaa_]

While I don't think GG is THE best meal on property, it is somewhere we like to go for a good meal.

Mu hubby loves the catfish. I like the rotating restaurant. It is very slow! Our meal usually takes one rotation. We like to sit in the booths on the outside, I think it is a better view than then the upper, inner ring seating.

We have had our BEST ever character interaction here on the night we had the worst service ever. We had a server who had just finished her training and this was her first night of service. She forgot us. For a long time. But Pluto came to the rescue! He tracked her down, dragged her to our table and showed her we had nothing! No drink no food nothing!

She went to get our drinks and Pluto went about his visiting. When Pluto came back, we had drinks but alas, we were forgotten again and had no food. Pluto hopped up on the seat and started pounding on the railing to get our servers attention. He had us in stitches. He also went to the little girl at the next booth and got her leftover cupcake decorations to share with us

So while our service was really bad that night, it will be for us one of our best meal memories ever.

 

[happygirl]

the food to me is okay nothing great, but to me it's the best character interaction in all of Disney

 

[disneynewbeemom]

We are going there in October. The food does not overly excite me, so hopefully the character interaction will be good. We are a party of 7 and are hoping to sit downstairs. Are there biggish tables downstairs?

 

[sotoalf]

Ate there last November. The Character interaction is the absolute best at this place. Thats the good part. The food is just OK. But I found the restaurant to be very dirty. I won't get into detail to avoid grossing everyone out.

No, by all means, tell us.