California Grill or Flying Fish

[Haygar2]

I really thought I was done with my dining. But you know what happens when you still have 4 months.You start to question. You start watching DIS Unplugged on YouTube and you watch Pete talk about California Grill for dinner. Here is what we have:

Sunday - Cali Grill brunch (not even a question of changing/canceling this one)

Monday - Extra Morning Magic Hollywood studios (maybe eat the breakfast. At least coffee and some pastries)
1:30 Sci Fi lunch. I'm trying for more of a noon time.
7:15 Raglan Road dinner

Tuesday - 8:05 Garden Grill breakfast
7:10 Cape May dinner

Wednesday - 8:00 Be Our Guest breakfast
7:15 Yak & Yeti dinner

Thursday - 8:00 Bon Voyage breakfast
6:00 Cali Grill dinner or 7:25 Flying Fish dinner

There are 4 of us going. Myself. My husband. Our 20 year old daughter and our 16 year old son. We are celebrating so much on this trip. Our 25th wedding anniversary. Her 20th birthday and her graduation from college. And our son's 16th birthday. My husband and I have done Flying Fish. One of my favorite meals ever. However, they have since stopped doing the Lobster with Nero pasta which is what I ordered. And I love love love their pork belly appetizer. We have never done Cali Grill for dinner. And I have always wanted to try the dinner. We are obviously doing it for brunch. Which, again, I am not changing. We will go back Sunday to watch the fireworks which is why I am not trying too hard to find a time on Thursday to be there for dinner. We have a long drive ahead of us on Friday, so I know it will be an early night. I know my son would love to order sushi for the appetizer. Decisions.

 

[NYCgrrl]

Both excellent restaurants and thus difficult to make a decision.
Question for you: which of the 2 restaurants are closest to your resort and how much time does it take for your family to pack up?

 

[Haygar2]

Both excellent restaurants and thus difficult to make a decision.
Question for you: which of the 2 restaurants are closest to your resort and how much time does it take for your family to pack up?

We drive to the parks and/or dinners so that isn't an issue. Hopefully at that point we won't have that much packing to do. Lol. Most stuff should be ready to throw in the car. The kids will go b back to sleep when we leave Friday morning.

I'm so torn. I love Flying Fish. But I want to try Cali Grill for dinner. But I love Flying Fish. Lol I thought about dropping Sci Fi and Cape May just to have both. But....Ive wanted to try Sci Fi and my daughter asked for Cape May.

 

[NYCgrrl]

We drive to the parks and/or dinners so that isn't an issue. Hopefully at that point we won't have that much packing to do. Lol. Most stuff should be ready to throw in the car. The kids will go b back to sleep when we leave Friday morning.

I'm so torn. I love Flying Fish. But I want to try Cali Grill for dinner. But I love Flying Fish. Lol I thought about dropping Sci Fi and Cape May just to have both. But....Ive wanted to try Sci Fi and my daughter asked for Cape May.

Was trying to give you an solution but that's not the way.
I, too wuv FF BUT if I'd never been to CG's dinner, I'd do that this trip.
Oh and I haven't been to dinner at CG so that's what I'll do this trip.
Less compromise for us since as we are staying at BWI we'll order it via room service one night.
Nevah evah give up the CG brunch once acquired.

Enjoy yourselves and all the life celebrations.

 

[Haygar2]

Was trying to give you an solution but that's not the way.
I, too wuv FF BUT if I'd never been to CG's dinner, I'd do that this trip.
Oh and I haven't been to dinner at CG so that's what I'll do this trip.
Less compromise for us since as we are staying at BWI we'll order it via room service one night.
Nevah evah give up the CG brunch once acquired.

Enjoy yourselves and all the life celebrations.

Nope. Not touching brunch. Lol. Scares me to even click on it. We have 2 separate reservations a half an hour apart. Trying to find a ressie for 4 or one closer to the other. But if not...oh well. We will make it work.

 

[NYCgrrl]

Nope. Not touching brunch. Lol. Scares me to even click on it. We have 2 separate reservations a half an hour apart. Trying to find a ressie for 4 or one closer to the other. But if not...oh well. We will make it work.

Sooo glad I'm not the only one afraid of losing it, LOL.
Took a picture of the ADR and the email confirmation just in case the computer system goes wonky at WDW while we are there.
Smart you to snag 2 ressies a half hour away from each other. Great thinking outside the box.
Finally snagged an ADR for 4/7 (our arrival day) yesterday and I'm doing the happy dance. Might even sign up for the Disney Express to take our luggage from our home airport to ensure we arrive at brunch with a minimum of rushing.

Here's hoping a bit of pixie dust falls on your party when you check in at the podium and they can seat you all together.

 

[loves to dive]

I've been to both and would do CG. We enjoyed FF, the food was good but we had bad luck with our server. He just didn't seem to pay too much attention to us, which meant loooooong waits, even waited a long time for him to actually come and take our order, he had other tables around us and did fine with them. We occupied our time in the waits making up stories about the picture over our table so it was o.k. but still. We got a day of ADR at CG for FWs time, which was a mistake because it was loud and busy. We got there right when the FWs started, our poor waiter didn't even try, just dropped off the menus and told us he would get water and bread to our table and come back when it was over. It got even louder when it was over with all the people leaving and going back to their tables but settled down about 5 min. after that. Our food was excellent, our waiter incredible, our bill high but worth it. They didn't have wine flights but our waiter put one together with the chef for me, even giving me smaller poors so I could actually walk out. I wouldn't go again at FW time, we stayed inside and you could see the FWs but not hear anything but that and I've never enjoyed seeing the FWs from outside the park like that. We actually did the progressive dinner thing they offered and it ended with FWs at the CR on the top outside and we left before they ended.

 

[CartyGirls]

Flying Fish was so delicious and our favorite meal of our last trip

 

[GeorgiaHoo]

We are making the same decision for our trip next May. The plan is to definitely do the CG brunch (our favorite meal at Disney) and likely do FF for dinner instead of CG simply because we are staying at Yacht Club and it will be easier to walk over to FF than Uber to CG. That said, the CG menu looks really good so we may end up doing both.

 

[MarkinNM]

Was pondering the same 2 restaurants and then decided to go with FF as it is in the Disney Springs area, this way when we are done we can take the time and stroll around, shop, get and adult beverage or two......If you have been to FF and you want to try CG then go for it, but you will have eaten 2 times there in this trip..........

 

[Haygar2]

Was pondering the same 2 restaurants and then decided to go with FF as it is in the Disney Springs area, this way when we are done we can take the time and stroll around, shop, get and adult beverage or two......If you have been to FF and you want to try CG then go for it, but you will have eaten 2 times there in this trip..........

Thank you. I know, it's another thing I thought about. However, 2 completely different meals. I'm so conflicted. LOL. Just a quick FYI...Flying Fish is at the Boardwalk. Not at Disney Springs. I just don't want you to get there and realize that they are in 2 different locations.

 

[TheRobbs]

Flying Fish!!

 

[MarkinNM]

Thank you. I know, it's another thing I thought about. However, 2 completely different meals. I'm so conflicted. LOL. Just a quick FYI...Flying Fish is at the Boardwalk. Not at Disney Springs. I just don't want you to get there and realize that they are in 2 different locations.

Ooops typo, never been to the boardwalk area and looks lovely, go with your gut and have fun!!

 

[gharter]

Love both restaurants and have had many very meals at both.
If you haven't done dinner at CG, I would do that.
Flying Fish is very good, but I think the menu lost a step when they did the restaurant remodel and redid the menu.

 

[Pygoplites]

There's no wrong decision here; both are great!

Here's my take: You're virtually guaranteed to have a fantastic experience at CG brunch, to kick off your celebration. Endiing it with a dinner at the same venue seems like a good way to "bracket" the experience. Just like any other restaurant, there are some negative reviews of CG, but many of them are just anecdotal rather that objective ("unruly kids ruined our meal," "I hate [fill in the blank ingredient]").

But objectively, CG is a very good restaurant and uniquely "Disney." It's also one of the rare view-oriented restaurants that is actually good. Look at how many high-rise or hilltop view places are just "phoning it in" when it comes to the food and service.

Flying Fish is GREAT, but it just seems like many other big city or resort fine dining restaurants. It's the kind of place that gets 2 or 2 1/2 stars in a major metro newspaper or regional magazine. It's a pretty room with creative but still mass-appealing food, but I don't find it all that unique. From a food-only standpoint, my best meal at FF did surpass my best at CG, but that was just one time. In the aggregate, CG has been better.

Or you could just go to Jaleo instead.