Boardwalk Restaurants

[cd&kids]

Would love to hear from those of you who have tried the various restaurants here. We've tried none, but they all look good! Flying Fish looks especially good, but it's seems a little pricey.
Any and all comments welcome. Thanks!

 

[Kirsten77]

I have eaten at all the Boardwalk restaurants and I would skip the microbrew place, sorry can't remember the name. I also didn't care for the ESPN restaurant, I think the problem was the food amount was huge, it made me sick to look at, I've never had that problem before! Flying Fish is really good. The service was excellent, we sat at the bar, we had ressies for way later, but it was raining and cold and we didn't want to stay in Epcot. It was great that they squeezed us in, and the servers were very attentive. Yes it is expensive, but it was really good.

 

[CoolDisneyCat]

I have eaten at every restaurant on the Boardwalk and my favorite is Spoodles with Flying Fish a close second. Both have excellent food and great service. Spoodles serves a great breakfast, too.

 

[eeyoreiscool]

We would pass on Big River Grille. The food was ok but the prices seemed high compared with what we could have gotten elsewhere.

 

[bicker]

Disney is really good at pricing their options pretty-much close to what they're worth, so, especially in the BoardWalk area, you can rely on the menu prices to give you some idea of how good the restaurant is.

 

[ndelaware]

We have been to Spoodles for dinner our last two trips. The food was good as was the service.

 

[madalex]

Flying Fish is wonderful, one of the best places at WDW.

Big River Brewery is one of my favorite places at WDW. The food is very good and the beers are great. I have not found it to be priced better or worse than other WDW restaurants.

I do not like ESPN. The food is simply not very good. However, if you go there to soak in the sports atmosphere, it can be a fun place.

 

[madalex]

Disney is really good at pricing their options pretty-much close to what they're worth, so, especially in the BoardWalk area, you can rely on the menu prices to give you some idea of how good the restaurant is.

If only that were true. I had a pulled pork sandwich at Flame Tree Barbecue at AK which was cheaper and better than the same sandwich at the ESPN Club.

 

[Laurajean1014]

Disney is really good at pricing their options pretty-much close to what they're worth, so, especially in the BoardWalk area, you can rely on the menu prices to give you some idea of how good the restaurant is.

I agree.

CA Grill, Jiko, Spoodles, Citrico's, San Angel Inn are the best and are priced, accordingly.

However, Olivia's is a terrific meal with the cheapest sit down prices on property (a WDW smaphu).

 

[madalex]

CA Grill, Jiko, Spoodles, Citrico's, San Angel Inn are the best and are priced, accordingly.

I won't disagree about which restaurants are the "best" at WDW as that is a fairly personal matter (although for me, San Angel Inn and Spoodles are not even close in terms of food quality and dining experience to CA Grill, Jiko, Citrico's and a few others on property).

However, dining experience aside, Spoodles and San Angel Inn are at a completely different price point than CA Grill, Jiko and Citrico's. Disney identifies the first two as costing $15 - $29/person, while it identifies the other three as costing $30 - $75/person.

Thus, it appears the "worth" of a restaurant to a particular diner is not always tied to the cost of eating there.

 

[bicker]

On average, diners find California Grill, Jiko and Citricos to be far better than Spoodles and San Angel Inn, and so the difference in price make sense.

 

[beachblanket]

I have eaten at every restaurant on the Boardwalk and my favorite is Spoodles with Flying Fish a close second. Both have excellent food and great service. Spoodles serves a great breakfast, too.

I agree 100% with the above. The sleeper sit down breakfast of all of WDW is the one at Spoodles - creative, excellently prepared and graciously served. The restaurant is also usually quiet in the morning, which makes a meal there at that time a wonderfully relaxing way to start the day.

Flying Fish is also good, although in my opinion a wee bit overpriced for what you get (compared to other Orlando seafood spots), and our experience with service there has been so-so, great on some visits, terrible on others.

The places to definitely avoid are Big River Brewery and ESPN. The former is nothing more than a repackaged version of Applebees, with the only benefit being a small number of outdoor tables on the Boardwalk (that's nice, but the experience is diminished by the generic, uncreative menu). As for ESPN, it's is ground zero for bad food and beer in a noisy environment. It also seems to attract a local Gen Y bar crowd, not exactly the gang everyone wants to hang with while on vacation.

 

[madalex]

The places to definitely avoid are Big River Brewery and ESPN. The former is nothing more than a repackaged version of Applebees, with the only benefit being a small number of outdoor tables on the Boardwalk (that's nice, but the experience is diminished by the generic, uncreative menu). As for ESPN, it's is ground zero for bad food and beer in a noisy environment. It also seems to attract a local Gen Y bar crowd, not exactly the gang everyone wants to hang with while on vacation.

I am in general agreement as to ESPN Club, but completely disagree on Big River Grille. I have eaten there a dozen times over the years and the food has always been very good. It's not wildly creative gourmet food, but that is not what they are trying to do. It is fairly straightforward "pub food" (I guess is what you would call it), but the execution is done quite well. Their beers are also very good and are a nice change of pace from the more generic beers available everywhere else at WDW.

Reasonable minds can differ, I guess.

 

[webray]

Depends on what you are used to as far as dining goes.

Flying Fish is excellent. One of the top restaurants on disney property and definately worth a shot.

ESPN club..ugh, even if you have had bad "pub" food, this place is worse. The place smells like a toilet.

Spoodles, we usually go there for breakfast, it isn't too bad.

Big River Grill and Brewing. We enjoy this place. We have tried quite a few things on the menu and all have been good, burgers, pasta, appetizers, etc. All quite good. The beers are quite good also. You can dine inside or outside, great place to enjoy a snack and people watch on the afternoon from one of the outside tables if the weather is nice.

Boardwalk Bakery..never really been impressed with the items there. I am used to mom/pop type bakeries..good homestyle baking, pies, cakes, etc. You just don't get it here.

Enjoy!

 

[dischick4778]

Big River Grill and Spoodles are my personal favorites. Spoodles has a great seafood stew and awesome Sangria. I also really enjoy their appetizers.

 

[Forever42]

Spoodles used to be our favorite, but as I've been saying elsewhere, we've just discovered Big River Grille and that's quickly risen to one of our favorite restaurants in all of Disney, even. The food quality and selections are excellent, and the beer is actually fantastic and priced very well. We completely avoid places like Applebees, TGI Fridays, etc, but this restaurant doesn't smack of "chain."

I think people should give it another try. We'll be going back the first weekend we're not visiting family, and I can't wait.

 

[Ron from Michigan]

We have eaten at Spoodles many times and always enjoyed it. We ate at Flying Fish for the first time this past December and we just loved it. I had the Potato Crusted Red Snapper and it was fantastic, my favorite meal of the whole trip.

 

[pinkminnie]

Wow! Where did all those ESPN haters come from? IMHO ESPN is a good and affordable place to eat. They have a tuna sandwich that is awesome. It is the one thing that I have on every trip we do to Disney. The hot wings are really good and we have never had a bad meal there. My two DS's love the kids menu (pb & J is my youngest son's fave) and we have never had a hard time with the crowds or people being too rowdy (and we aren't drinkers).

 

[LVSWL]

Love,Love,Love the Flying Fish!