Buffet meals?

[Princess Joanna]

Hi everyone where are the best places to have buffet meals? I have allways wanted to try one! what are your suggestions?

 

[queendisney]

Hi everyone where are the best places to have buffet meals? I have allways wanted to try one! what are your suggestions?

you are gonna get a whole load of different responses to this.! Do you want to know at WDW or anywhere in Orlando? We actually had a really good one at Crystal Palace but others don't like it. Other may say BOMA's at AKL but we hated it!

 

[Princess Joanna]

Just at wdw really,I was thinking about crystal palace too but wondering about what other places there are that also do buffet meals

 

[wilma-bride]

We don't really do buffets for dinner as I am quite a picky eater so much prefer to just choose from a menu. I quite like the buffet breakfast at Crystal Palace though. 'Ohana isn't a buffet but it is 'as much as you can eat' and we love the dinner there.

If I were going to do a buffet dinner, I would probably try Boma. We weren't that impressed with the breakfast there (no better or worse than any other) but dinner looks good.

If you like seafood, the Clam Bake at Cape May Cafe could be a good option for you.

 

[wayneg]

Difficult this one, 10 years ago we used to eat buffets for almost every meal, Ponderosa, Golden Corral etc but the past 3-4 years we have totally changed, we don't enjoy them anymore.
We do enjoy the family dining style meals, where you eat as much as you want off the menu, had great meals at Garden Grill, Liberty Tree Tavern, Wispering Canyon Cafe etc, much prefer these to full buffet style.

If I had to choose then I would probably go for Chef Mickeys, we did enjoy our meal there last year and have it booked again this year.
Doubt we will eat at Boma again, it seems a favourite of many but not for us.

 

[queendisney]

the reason I didn't like BOMA's at all was because they changed the menu to more southern tastes and everything seemed to have cinnamon in. When we asked the server he bought the chef out to us and he showed us what didn't have it in and it was hardly anything! Prior to that we were big fans as it wasn't smothered in it and also because it didn't have any characters.Luckily you can get the Zebra Domes in the AKL foodcourt!! CP was good because there seemed to be a lot of salads and it just had a nice and bright feeling to the place. I can put up with the characters

 

[2Tiggies]

Are you wanting characters at your buffet, or is your focus the food?

We love Crystal palace and have done breakfast, lunch and dinner there numerous times. We enjoyed Cape May breakfast (I would love to do the dinner with the Clam bake too).

Ohana is really good as well.

You will get mixed reviews on every restaurant so I usually have a look at the type of fare they serve and then make my decision from there

 

[Tony Toon]

We always do Crystal Palace buffet breakfast on our first morning and love it. Like wayneg we used to do lots of buffet meals as the family could be picky and there was usually something at a buffet for them but now tend to do more menu meals. We've had mixed views on Boma (DH and DD loved it, me not so much), Ohana's is good if your server is good but in our experience the servers have been variable, Hollywood and Vine can be very hit and miss but if you are happy to put up with lots of wee girls dressed as princesses we've always had good buffet breakfasts and meals at 1900 Park Fayre at GF. I love the strawberry soup there and we've booked a breakfast ADR there next week. also just nice to wander round and enjoy the ambience.

Mrs TT

 

[chmurf]

Boma : nice decent food, but a very loud and crowded atmosphere.
Tusker House : above average food, nice character interaction, feels more relaxed and definitely more quiet than Boma's
'Ohana : not a buffet per se, you get served at your table on a "all you can eat" basis. Good food, but sometimes really crowded and peak times may get you feel rushed.

Chef Mickey : wouldn't even send my worst enemy down there. Food is below average, and without character interaction it would be a total disgrace on the face of Disney's (my $0.02)

 

[queendisney]

If I had to choose then I would probably go for Chef Mickeys, we did enjoy our meal there last year and have it booked again this year.
Doubt we will eat at Boma again, it seems a favourite of many but not for us.

Chef Mickey : wouldn't even send my worst enemy down there. Food is below average, and without character interaction it would be a total disgrace on the face of Disney's (my $0.02)

There you go! That says it all...its all down to preference and if on the day you had a good experience with good kitchen staff!
IMO it was ok there..I would go again. Enjoyed the monorail going past while I ate my waffles!

 

[disneychic2]

We really enjoy Cape May for the evening meal. The food was varied and everything we had was great. I love sea food, so I was in heaven.

We are also people who love Boma. Will be going for the 3rd time in December. We liked Crystal Palace too. The food was pretty good, nothing to rave about, but really decent IMO. I do love LTT for dinner since it's all you can eat, but they bring it to you. Love the food there!

As you see, you'll get all kinds of answers, so it's really down to what you and your family likes. Check out allears.net to view the menus and that should help. Good luck!

 

[starrysky]

We like Crystal palace breakfast and Tusker house breakfast. We don't tend to eat buffet dinners. We did try Boma but we really were not that keen on it same with Ohana.

The best advice is look at the menus and see what appeals to your family and book from there.

Like lots of the PPs have said you will get lots of opinions on every place.

 

[Princess Joanna]

Are you wanting characters at your buffet, or is your focus the food?

We love Crystal palace and have done breakfast, lunch and dinner there numerous times. We enjoyed Cape May breakfast (I would love to do the dinner with the Clam bake too).

Ohana is really good as well.

You will get mixed reviews on every restaurant so I usually have a look at the type of fare they serve and then make my decision from there

We dont really mind if their are characters there or not i just liked the idea of being able to try little bits of everything my dh is quite a picky eater so i thought it would be nice for him to at least try something a little different

 

[chmurf]

There you go! That says it all...its all down to preference and if on the day you had a good experience with good kitchen staff!

yes, and you'll notice that often when people are at odds on one restaurant like Wayne and I on Chef Mickey, they also have opposing views regarding other restaurants.

It's all a matter of taste and "reviews" should be treated with a grain of salt.

it's not that the food was awful, it's that one did not like it.
it's not that the food was great, it's that one really enjoyed it and might not enjoy it so much next time
it's not that service was great, that waiter might no longer work there, and it's not that service was terrible, that waiter might also no longer work there.

that's the hard part when choosing a restaurant for the first time : making yourself an opinion before even trying. (and that's why we feel the need to go so often, so we can try them all )

 

[queendisney]

that's the hard part when choosing a restaurant for the first time : making yourself an opinion before even trying. (and that's why we feel the need to go so often, so we can try them all )

good enough reason if ever there was one

 

[2Tiggies]

We dont really mind if their are characters there or not i just liked the idea of being able to try little bits of everything my dh is quite a picky eater so i thought it would be nice for him to at least try something a little different

We used to eat pretty much only buffet meals for this reason. It was easier for me to select suitable foods for DD and make her feel SHE had a say in it when she suffered with allergies ... and I am a pretty picky eater

 

[darthtatty]

like you, my son and husband are very picky. so its easier for us to pick buffets, I love most foods so enjoy them too.

we love Chef Mickey's- for me breakfast is the best. Dinner is ok, my husband loves it but I think its average.
Crystal palace, we enjoyed it but again I preferred breakfast.
Tusker house, have done breakfast and enjoyed it. would love to try dinner there.
we love Ohanas breakfast and dinner but its family style rather than a buffet. (a set menu of food is brought out to your table)

Theres so many places to try, peoples opinions vary on them all.
perhaps go through the food section and read a few food reports, some pictures are very detailed and they may give you an idea of the type of food they serve. Theres also lots of pictures to enjoy

 

[wayneg]

There you go! That says it all...its all down to preference and if on the day you had a good experience with good kitchen staff!
IMO it was ok there..I would go again. Enjoyed the monorail going past while I ate my waffles!

You can get 2 families sat next to each other in a restaurant and come out with totally opposing views, one might get a great server the other useless, one might find something on the menu thats their favourite meal ever the other might struggle.

We all like different things and have different experiences, we had one of our worst dining experiences in Cali Grill, from the temp sat under an aircon blower to bad server to tiny portions, disliked everything about the evening yet others love the place.

We often find going back to somewhere a totally different experience, Ohana was perfect the first time, great server, table, food everything. 2nd time bad table, bad server.

Cape May Karen struggled to find anything to eat as she doesn't eat seafood plus there were arguments in the food line, it was far too crowded for a small buffet area. Not a great experience there.

Chef Mickeys we found all 6 of us found something we enjoyed and great dessert choice, a few pics from there.

 

[chocolateMinnie]

Have tried quite a few buffet/family style meals but only at WDW

Favourite - Boma for breakfast and dinner at AKL.

Love - CP breakfast
Akershus breakfast

Like Ohana breakfast and dinner
CP lunch and dinner
Akershus lunch and dinner
Biergarten dinner

Hate 1900PF for breakfast and dinner

Going to try two new buffets in October - Cape May cafe and Captains Grille.

Used to love the breakfast buffet at Maya Grill at CSR but sadly it is long gone.

 

[Elise79]

We have mainly done breakfast buffets and the ones with the biggest selections are Chef Mickey's, Crystal Palace and Tusker House. Cape May was disappointingly small although great character interaction.

Crystal Palace dinner was Ok however OOP it is rediculously expensive - may go back if we have the DDP but otherwise no way!