Best Restaurants not in the Parks?

[Golden Rose]

We're heading to WDW with a group of five; four of us are adults, one of us is a squirmy three year old boy. Those of us who aren't 3 enjoy fine dining.

My mom and her SO are not planning on buying park tickets; they are planning on a golf and swimming vacation. We need dinner suggestions that don't require park tickets. (This would have been easy for me to plan if I could include all WDW, but I'm sort of at a loss for restaurants in hotels or in Downtown Disney.)

We're currently hoping to do -
Victoria and Alberts's (the one night we'll have babysitting)
Jiko
California Grill

We need at least one and maybe two more restaurants for dinner. Expensive is not a requirement, but tasty food is. Oh, and we had a bad experience last time at Citrico's, so it is currently off our list. We're looking only for sit down restaurants that take ADRs or true reservations.

 

[ROEDISNEY]

We're heading to WDW with a group of five; four of us are adults, one of us is a squirmy three year old boy. Those of us who aren't 3 enjoy fine dining.

My mom and her SO are not planning on buying park tickets; they are planning on a golf and swimming vacation. We need dinner suggestions that don't require park tickets. (This would have been easy for me to plan if I could include all WDW, but I'm sort of at a loss for restaurants in hotels or in Downtown Disney.)

We're currently hoping to do -
Victoria and Alberts's (the one night we'll have babysitting)
Jiko
California Grill

We need at least one and maybe two more restaurants for dinner. Expensive is not a requirement, but tasty food is. Oh, and we had a bad experience last time at Citrico's, so it is currently off our list. We're looking only for sit down restaurants that take ADRs or true reservations.

How about Narcoossee's? It's really good. Also Kona Cafe is nice to.

 

[justcantwait]

Loved Narcoossee's, have heard Artist Point at the Wilderness Lodge is also very good, but haven't tried it (yet!). Also enjoyed Portobello Yacht Club in DTD, but that was about 3 years ago. Can't vouch for it now. I've also heard other people had good experiences at Raglan Road at PI, although mine wasn't great. But it was right after they opened, and I'm hoping they've worked out the bugs. Food was great, service was NOT. And they often have live entertainment (Irish dancing and live bands) which should keep the 3 year old occupied. HTH

Kathy

 

[inkkognito]

I'll put in a plug for Artist Point, especially the mushroom soup which is utterly amazing! It's second only to Jiko in my ranking of WDW restaurants. I'm sorry you had a bad experience at Citricos...that's in my top three too and normally we have a lovely experience there, although our last visit wasn't quite up to par for reasons other than the food.

 

[TewEpcot]

Il Mulino
bluezoo
Artist Point
Portobello Yacht Club
Raglan Road

 

[Golden Rose]

I'm sorry you had a bad experience at Citricos...that's in my top three too and normally we have a lovely experience there, although our last visit wasn't quite up to par for reasons other than the food.

The food wasn't terrible the night we were there, but the service was the worst we had our entire vacation. We were on the Deluxe DDP, and we had lovely experiences almost every else. The service at Citrico's was slow the whole evening. Our waiter kept scowling at us, I guess for bringing in a toddler, but maybe for not ordering wine. He would go to his other tables multiple times while ignoring our table - we were out of water, ice tea, etc, most of the night. We had trouble getting food, we had trouble getting our drinks refilled, and one appetizer wasn't great and one entree was overcooked. Towards the end of the meal, our waiter vanished for about 30 minutes, and all I wanted to do was get the check because my hungry, and eventually bored, 3 year old had ended up having a meltdown and my husband had already removed him from the restaurant. I finally had to flag someone else down to go find our waiter. Truly, an awful experience. I'd have complained to a manager in most situations, but it was the last night of our vacation and I just wanted to get out of the restaurant and go find my husband and son at that point. We had heard good things about it and had been looking forward to trying it, but I doubt we'll ever go back after the night we had.