Assuming pretty much everything opens back up by next year...

[SweetieinVT]

What are the best sit down restaurants at WDW for a family with tweens and teens?

 

[yorkieteacher]

Sci Fi Dine In for sure! Skipper's Canteen if they are not picky eaters. Via Napoli or Rose and Crown at Epcot. Yak and Yeti at Animal Kingdom. And they may still like Be Our Guest, the Beast's castle is amazing! Many like Tusker House, but we didn't care for it.

 

[ENJDisneyFan]

My kids (14 and 12) favorites are California Grill and Topolino's (yes, they have expensive taste LOL). They also like Skipper Canteen, Homecomin, Beaches and Cream, and Sci Fi.

 

[OKW Lover]

Good suggestions above. I'd add something a bit off the beaten path, Hoop De Doo Review! Fun for the whole family.

 

[BrianL]

I'm gonna go out on a limb and predict Space 220 will be amazing! Keep an eye open when they start taking reservations, though we do not know when that will be.

Of existing places, I recommned Be Our Guest, Skipper Canteen, Biergarten (I think teen boys would like it even without the beer), and Primetime Cafe or Sci-Fi Dine In. I used to really like Tusker House, but not as much recently, and it is a character meal. Garden Grill is also a character meal, but the food is excellent!

 

[CynBeth]

AKL - Boma breakfast or dinner
WL - Whispering Canyon Cafe breakfast
BC - Cape May Cafe breakfast
AK - Tusker House breakfast and Rainforest Cafe lunch
MK - Crystal Palace breakfast and Tony’s or Be Our Guest dinner
Epcot - Coral Reef, Chefs de France, and Tutto Italia
DHS - 50’s PTC.

 

[Lilylogan]

I miss AKL and Boma! We were booked there for spring 2020 and i had like 3 adrs for Boma.

 

[MudQueen22]

I think this largely depends on your teens and tweens. Some still enjoy the characters. The high school girls in our area still like Disney. It's not uncommon to see them wearing mouse ears for some special dress-up day, or a mickey or princess t-shirt.
My own daughter (middle school) doesn't want anything that would verge on baby-ish, but she did let me make her a matching headband, face mask, and scrunchie from Minnie Mouse fabric to wear to school. She got lots of compliments on it.
My daughter would absolutely still enjoy a meal at Garden Grill or Tusker House, but Akershus might be pushing it. Crystal Palace would be a definite no. lol
She enjoyed Via Napoli, and she indulged me by going to the Be Our Guest for lunch. I think there might have been an eyeroll.

This is my observation as someone who has taught fifth through twelfth grades over the course of my career: middle schoolers are the most sensitive about being infantilized. They are in the throws of puberty; they want to be older, but they don't know how to navigate things. They do know that they want to be regarded as more than a "little kid." Somewhere around tenth grade, they become nostalgic about the innocence of their childhood years, and they are comfortable enough with their development to admit that the Mouse and his associates have a place in their entertainment world.

 

[SwanVT2]

Sci fi dine in HS
Sanaa AKL get a window seat for animal view
Biergarten awesome buffet and good show
The Plaza MK for banana split with meal

 

[tinkerhon]

What are the best sit down restaurants at WDW for a family with tweens and teens?

Sci-Fi and Beaches and Cream !

 

[MarkS2112]

Sci Fi
via Napoli
Skipper Canteen
Be Our Guest West Wing
Teppan Edo
Yak and Yeti
T Rex for some reason my college age kids love it

 

[DLgal]

My teens like Garden Grill (breakfast), Homecoming, Via Napoli, Beaches and Cream, and Big River Grill.

 

[SweetieinVT]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. Keep them coming.

 

[Blondie58]

I would like to suggest everything be open by June 1st, 2021. Dreaming.........................................

 

[sandrews0608]

Depending on the kids I would suggest:
Boma - breakfast
Whispering Canyon - any meal
Raglan Road - dinner
Tepan Edo - lunch or dinner
Sci Fi - lunch
Yak & Yeti - lunch or dinner
Polite Pig - lunch

 

[AmyA]

I have 2 daughters, currently 25 and 20. Over the years we have been lucky enough to eat at most of the restaurants in the parks, DS, and many of the restaurants in the resorts. The ones that are still regularly brought up in conversation from their teen years are (in order):

1) Sunday brunch at Cali Grill - agree with PP who mentioned kids with expensive taste!!
2) Garden Grill - Our family tradition on arrival night when they were kids was to take the full monorail loop… Resorts, MK and Epcot. We’d then ride Spaceship Earth, eat at GG, and watch Illuminations
3) BoG dinner
4) Boma
5) Biergarten
6) annnddd.....Teppan Edo - this one makes me laugh because you can get teppanyaki just about anywhere in the US, but they love love love it at WDW