Best Character Dinner

[tlynk]

I've only done character dinners at Disneyland and at Cinderella's Castle. Which restaurant has the best quality food at WDW for a character dinner (other than Cindy's). We are more interested in the quality of the food, but thought it would be fun to wrap up our trip with characters added into the mix. Thank you!

 

[StEpHandMiKe<3Disney]

I really love the characters and food at Crystal Palace. We usually so many character meals, but our last trip, we were very disappointed with Chef Mickey's. The food was not very good at all. We also eat at Akershus too and the food is good, but just unusual.... is that makes sense. Hope this helps.

 

[mkleinbe]

1900 Park gets mixed reviews, but my family actually loves the food there. The prime rib and horseradish sauce is sooo yum. I love all the teeny little desserts too. The characters are super fun too. Anastasia and Drizella crack me up! We did Crystal Palace for lunch and liked the food there too. We HATED the food at Akershus for dinner. I don't care how great the character interaction is there, you'll not get me back for dinner there.

Edit: We did Chef Mickey's for breakfast and won't be trying it for dinner if they goofed up breakfast that badly. Again though, with all restaurants you're going to get good and bad reviews all around. I make it a point to try places I want to for myself and form my own opinion. But really, you should try 1900 Park for dinner. That prime rib is just soooo darn good!

 

[Pooh&OurHunny]

all the character dinner meals we went (Chef Mickey, LTT and 1900 Park Fare)...food quality is not great. Character Experience is wonderful but food was so so but Chef Mickey food was horrible.
My husband would tell people, you go to the character meals for the experience not for the food and if you want better food then do other meals.

 

[Fantasmiss]

Our favourite is Chef Mickey (and CRT), and my husband also loves Crystal Palace.

 

[tlynk]

This is a very tough decision! Thank you everyone for your input!

 

[TinkandGoofy'sMom]

The only character dinner we've done is 1900 Park Fare, we usually do the characters meals for breakfast. We loved the atmosphere of 1900 Park Fare, the food was good and the characters were great. The step-sisters really make the experience!

 

[sunshineNJ]

The Crystal Palace is our favorite and we have never been dissapointed with it. I could make a meal on their salads alone. The only other character meal we have done is the Ohana breakfast. It was good food but it seemed to take a long time for the characters to get to your table. I am thinking about trying 1900 Park Fare for upcoming Aug trip.

 

[RichmondTiggerFan]

Two of my favorites that have not been mentioned:

1. Garden Grill at Epcot: This is a 'family-style' meal, where they bring the food to you (you can ask for seconds). The food is usually a salad, turkey & flank steak, mashed potatoes, vegetables, and a dessert. I think that the flank steak is excellent (I usually request more steak in place of the turkey). Everything else is good, too.

The characters are Mickey, Pluto, Chip, and Dale. BTW, this is only character meal with Chip & Dale.

2. Garden Grove at the Swan. (Caveat: This restaurant does not accept the DDP)
This is a rotating buffet, where they serve different foods on different nights (It rotates between Mediterranean, Southern BBQ, and seafood). I can only speak for the seafood buffet on Monday/Friday nights, but I've found it to be excellent and different than most other WDW character buffets. They have (among other things): Crab legs, peel & eat shrimp, and seafood risotto made to order. Also, they have a lot of different desserts that you don't find at other WDW character buffets & they have the best Caesar salad anywhere.

On Monday & Friday nights, the characters are Timon & Rafiki, other nights, the characters are Goofy & Pluto. BTW. This is the only place to have a character meal with Timon & Rafiki.

 

[pixarmom]

I'll second Richmondtigger fan's suggestion for Garden Grill! Garden Grill is our boys' favorite restaurant at WDW and our arrival night tradition. We have three boys (now ages pre-school to pre-teen) and it's been our oldest son's favorite since he was old enough to express his preferences.

For a while (2009-early 2010), we thought the food quality decreased to "good" (not great) but continued to enjoy the outstanding character interaction. But our most recent experience (July of 2010) was great all around - we thought the food improved significantly and the character interaction was still outstanding. The salad, bread, flank steak and mahi mahi were particularly good last time. Our kids love the characters, the mashed potatoes, the bread, the mac and cheese (although they do need to eat a few veggies!) and the rotating views of the Land ride. We also prefer the family style dining to the buffets - we still get a variety of items for both the adults and the kids, but we can stay in our semi-circle booth while the characters come to us. And we don't have to juggle plates with three kids.

Have a great trip!!

 

[Disney Crazy Debbie]

We love CP and the Garden Grill, but I have been disappointed with the CRT for dinner. We usually do lunch, which is much better.

 

[danielle782001]

We love that is family-style. The food is fresh but NOT FANCY! They bring tons of extra of what ever you want.

Character interaction is amazing. We have been three times and we saw characters twice each visit! Mickey, Pluto, Chip and Dale are the regulars.

We like sitting in the bottom level because you really feel like you are alone there. You cannot see other tables just a view of the top of the Living With The Land attraction.