Dining choices

[Miffy2003]

Hi all,

I have narrowed down my very long short list to a more manageable one for my ADRs for August (still seems too far away to make ADRs but there you go)

Never tried these before but am keen to - has anyone done any?

BlueZoo (for DH & I. Children will be in a kids club somewhere )

Californa Grill (can't believe we have still never tried it here!)

Cape May Cafe - for dinner. We loved breakfast here and I have heard great things about the dinner

Les Chefs de France - for lunch, I like the look of the 3 course set meal for $15

Coral Reef

Garden Grill

House of Blues- I was deterred by Kevin Striger's trip report but think the menu looks great so I'm hoping there have been other better experiences?

Akershus - for lunch

Wolfgang Puck Cafe

Anyone got any feedback on any of the above? I have others planned too but those are repeat visits

 

[Verity Chambers]

I can only comment on 2. The garden grille was fab, the food was delicious and characters great. however this was before the menu change so don't know now .

we loved the CG, it was so romantic and the fireworks on the balcony are just fantastic.

 

[Pootle]

August does seem a long way off Karen, but you gotta plan, right?

California Grill: Have eaten here twice and had very memorable meals both times. Going again in a few weeks too

Cape May Cafe clam bake (buffet): Have done this many times and enjoy the food (even though I'm not a 'fishy' person) but somehow buffets never feel like 'proper' dining to me. However, my friend really likes the ribs there so we go most times when I go with her. DH on the other hand, went once!

Coral Reef: It's many years ago when we went there but I read some reviews recently and they were still saying what we though back then - great views of the marine life but expensive food.

Looking forward to reading others' experiences.

 

[UKDEB]

We've eaten at all but Akershus, so this could take a while!

bluezoo We love this, although we've eaten there 3 times now, so we may not visit again for a while. The restaurant itself is beautiful and the lighting is great, but it's quite a big space. The first time we ate there we were in the far corner by the private dining room and felt a bit out of things. As you probably know, it's a seafood restaurant, but there are plenty of meat options, too. Dd and her boyfriend both had the double pork chop - not something I'd ever choose, but it was out of this world. They both still talk about it now! When I asked what Nick wanted for his birthday last year, he said, "The pork chop from bluezoo!".

California Grill We've eaten here several times over the years and it's still one of our favourites. I'm sure you've read that you now check-in downstairs (i.e. no opportunity for people to just go for drinks/watch Wishes). That suits me, but last time we went they'd removed a lot of the chairs from the bar area which meant that there were a lot of people (including us) standing around waiting to be seated. Now that really annoys me - I expect that at Ponderosa, not at one of the more expensive options on WDW property! The place is very noisy, although I would say a positive buzz rather than irritatingly loud. Just don't expect to have a romantic meal. My advice is not to make watching Wishes the focus of your evening. If you do manage it, consider it a bonus. The main attraction here is definitely the food.

Cape May Cafe Buffets aren't really my bag. I would say this one is quite good if you like that sort of thing. The food isn't spectacular, but needless to say, there's plenty of it.

Les Chefs de France As with all the Epcot restaurants, the food doesn't live up to the billing, for me. Still, having eaten at quite a few, I know what to expect, so I'm rarely disappointed. It's a lovely bright dining room - don't you always envy those sitting inside whenever you walk past?

Coral Reef Food quite good, but over-priced. The entertainment in the tank is fun, though, and I'm a firm believer in trying as many places as possible.

Need to go and get myself ready for an appointment with the dentist. I'll post more later!

 

[mushumadness]

we ate at wolf gang puck dining room last year, very arty and not very large portions, but nice atmosphere

 

[JohnnySharp2]

No mention of KFC and Chik-fil-a here I notice....

Sorry seriously not trying to spoil the thread, Joshua is not that patient when it comes to restaurants , a Turkey leg or a Hot Dog is the best we can get at the parks.
We are trying to push him more , especially with off-site places such as Ponderosa and Golden Corral - with staying in a villa we always have the option of 'takeout' especially at the likes of the Outback.

Hence I have not tried any of the restaurants here Karen, House Of Blues may be a chance for us though in August, just not worth any discomfort for Joshua mainly though.

 

[gilld]

Cape May - we really liked this one. I don't eat fish/seafood, Tony loves it. There was plenty of choice for both of us and for a buffet it was a very good standard - very good value too.

California Grill - very mediocre meal, extremely noisy, children racing around unsupervised, staff lacklustre, we wouldn't go there again - it certainly wasn't what we'd call fine dining. Watching Wishes from the deck was nice though and the views are fantastic.

Garden Grill - we liked this a lot when we went but that was before the menu change so it may be better/worse now. The revolving seating area was a novelty.

House of Blues - an okay meal - neither poor nor outstanding, but a nice setting and great music.

 

[disneyholic family]

California Grill - very mediocre meal, extremely noisy, children racing around unsupervised, staff lacklustre, we wouldn't go there again - it certainly wasn't what we'd call fine dining.

I have to agree with this. The noise hit us the moment we walked in. We should have walked right out at that point.

The staff wasn't on par with any CMs we've had anywhere.

And noisy, unsupervised children are intolerable in a McDonald's let alone a restaurant that prides itself on fine dining.

We would never go there again. There are so many WDW restaurants that we have enjoyed so much more than this one. This was the worst dining experience we have ever had at WDW.

 

[Verity Chambers]

i agree that it is kind of noisy but we still loved it. Those fireworks were amazing!

 

[KayleeUK]

Californa Grill - We have been here a couple of times and thought it was great

Cape May Cafe - for dinner. DH loves dinner here, I don't eat fish but enjoyed the restaurant.

Les Chefs de France - We had dinner here last trip and really enjoyed it

 

[TinkTatoo]

We have Cape May and Garden Grill on our list and our "solo" meal when the kids are in a kids club is Le Cieller. Looks like some good choices there and I'll be interested to hear how you get on.

 

[Kevin Stringer]

They all sound fine to me Miffy, except the House of Poos.
It may be we just hit it on a particularly bad night. All restaurants have them.

Agreed the California Grill can be noisy, but I've always enjoyed the buzz around the place. Children mis-behaving could ruin a meal anywhere, luckily we've never experienced this here.

Deb and Matt took us to Blue Zoo on our last trip and we thoroughly enjoyed this restaurant.

As for the rest - we've done them all with the exception of Cape May and Wolfgang Puck and enjoyed them all to varying degrees.
As Deb says, it's great to try different places. And always worth going to get your own view. Eveyone seems to dislike The Chinese restaurant in Epcot, but we had a very enjoyable lunch there one day.

Kev

 

[Amyrlin]

I have never watched the fireworks from CG, I have avoided it as it seems that the angle would be wrong, as it s more from the side than straight on, how do they look?

 

[Mumof2]

We were quite disappointed with Coral Reef. We much preferred Shark's Underwater Grill over at Sea World.

DD and I had a great lunch at Ackerhaus. Ariel's interaction with my daughter was amazing!

 

[UKDEB]

Back again after an aborted attempt at root canal. Ended up having a hemi-section (don't ask!) and spent an hour in the dentist's chair this morning. Have been feeling a bit sorry for myself ever since.

Anyhoo, back to the reviews...

Garden Grill We ate here several years ago for lunch. It was 'family style' character meal. Is it still? It made a nice change and Harriet was still young enough to enjoy the character interaction. Ditto Matt.

House of Blues We've eaten at HoB twice. We enjoyed it both times - I would say on a par with many others around WDW. I was majorly impressed at the server's response to my request for a margarita. "What tequila would you like? 30-30, Agavero, Cabo Wabo, Casa Noble, Casta, Cazadores, Chihuahua, Corralejo, Corazon, D' Reyes, Damiana, Don Eduardo, Don Julio, Dona Carlota, El Charro, El Jimador, El Tesoro, Herencia de Plata, Herradura, Jose Cuervo, Mi Viejo, Patron, Porfidio, Puerto Vallarta, Real de Penjamo, Sauza?" I think the correct response is, "Yes, please!". I've always fancied doing the gospel brunch.

Wolfgang Puck's For a while this was our favourite restaurant at WDW, but, like so many others, we've grown out of it. It's very popular and gets a bit too busy for comfort at times. We kept meaning to try the upstairs dining room (fine dining), but never got around to it.

I don't think you'll go far wrong with any of your choices as long as your expectations are right. I like to judge for myself, which means trying them! We tried Alfredo's for the first time this trip. Thanks to the reviews on these boards, together with my experience of WDW park restaurants, I was expecting it to be crap and I wasn't disappointed!

 

[gilld]

I have never watched the fireworks from CG, I have avoided it as it seems that the angle would be wrong, as it s more from the side than straight on, how do they look?

They were 100 times better - and with the soundtrack piped in the effect was fantastic. Shame about the restaurant though.

 

[florida sun]

Karen

Up until now I have only eaten at The House Of Blues from your list and we loved it, the atmosphere was great, the music fantastic and the food was pretty good as well.

 

[disneyholic family]

I have never watched the fireworks from CG, I have avoided it as it seems that the angle would be wrong, as it s more from the side than straight on, how do they look?

we didn't like the view of the fireworks at all....we also stayed in a 14th floor suite of the CR and had a view of the MK and the fireworks....
we didn't like the view of the fireworks from the restaurant or the suite...

in fact we hated it (and we're big fans of Wishes)....the angle was totally wrong.....you completely lose the effect...

 

[Miffy2003]

Thanks Guys! That's really helpful.

Deb - I hope you are feeling better now (but I'm not asking!)

Ended up having a hemi-section (don't ask!)

and yes GG is still a characater meal, family style

Kev, I so delicately avoided that phrase

the House of Poos

Again the CG gets rave reviews and some not so rave reviews. We never seem to make it here, keep saying we will will and for one reason or another we do something else instead.

Jakki - I love Le Cellier Great choice


Johnny - we may do ChikFila but I wouldn't make a reservation for it

Thank you all so much for your help Its always great to read what others thought about restaurants. In fact, last year we tried Nine Dragons based on feedback here (I had heard it was dreadful but quite a few people posted to say they'd had a good meal here), and we had a really pleasant meal there

 

[Frances999]

Some excellent choices, Karen!

We absolutely love Les Chefs de France - in fact it is probably my second favourite EPCOT restaurant (after Bistro de Paris!). The lunchtime menu is great and I have always found the service and CMs to be excellent. There are two main dining areas - a larger one overlooking the main WS area and then a slightly smaller one overlooking the France pavillion - which we prefer - the view is wonderful and the smaller size makes it queiter too. At lunchtime, the onion soup is a must-have and definitely stay for the desserts - they are truly divine, especially the crepes.

I have always enjoyed California Grill but never been overwhelmed by it. For the prices, I much prefer some of the GF restaurants which serve better food and offer a nicer atmosphere. We don't really care for the Wishes view from here.

I've heard nothing but negative reviews about Coral Reef so we have never given it a try to form our own opinion. With the abundance of fine dining available at EPCOT, we are never short of ideas! I would be interested to hear your review, though.

We ate at Wolfgang after Cirque du Soleil and found the food wonderful. There are great views over the DTD lagoon as well and they serve delicious sushi!