DINING SUGGESTIONS FOR NEWBIES traveling the end of August

[angelambowers]

Traveling to WDW for first time at the end of August. Staying at WL villas, renting a car, Deluxe Dining Plan, will be there for 11 nights and 9 days.... Excited already! DH, myself and 2 daughters ages 9 and 13. With the exception of my youngest (who orders cheese pizza or spaghetti wherever we go) we all really enjoy a fine meal out and fun settings are always great too!

Looking for recommendations on "Can't miss restaurants" while there. Breakfast, lunch or dinner! Characters aren't as big of a deal for my girls so we don't necessarily have to take in a character meal. Hoop-De-Doo Review sounds amazing though and I'm going to definitely reserve a good seat at that show. My top picks so far after doing lots of internet research would be: Le Cellier, Prime Time Diner, Sci-Fi Dine In, at our resort Whispering Canyon & Artist's Point, California Grill for dinner/fireworks, Ohana's (breakfast or dinner?), Kat Kora's restaurant, maybe Rainforest (not for the food-because my girls love it), Coral Reef? (more mixed reviews than most), The Brown Derby... That's about it. I see that the Crystal Palace character breakfast and Ohana breakfasts are supposed to be tasty also. Any suggestions or feedback on restaurants I have listed would be appreciated!

As a side note, this is our first time so I haven't a clue as to the layout of the WL villas. I cannot find any map w/room #'s online anywhere. I know you cannot request specific rooms but I would like to request in a certain area and am not sure how to go about it. Maybe a range of room #'s could help me in this. It would be ideal if our 1 bedroom villa was at the end of the villas, the very closest to the WL itself so we would only have a short walk to the WL for restaurant and pool access and also a shorter walk to the parking lot. I would like to end up on the side of the villa's that is facing the rear of the resort where the villa pool is, in the direction of the lake! The opposite side of the parking lot!

Thanks for helping out a newbie!

 

[mousiemom]

stay here on the disboards and you will learn so much!!! we are all disney freaks and go all the time so we are the pros. here are my favorite restaurants: the year we had AP, we went to disney 6 times and most of those were on the free dining so we got to experience a lot of the restaurants.
-the (2) ts - Cali Grill, Narcooseess, and Citricos
-we love to go chef mickey for breakfast/dinner. our dd is 10 now but we all still love this place.
-Ohana/dinner
-Kona
-Crystal Palace - lunch/dinner
-The Wave
-Raglan Road/dtd
-Le Cellier/it's good but had just as good @ kona and wave
-coral reef was cool for the whole aquarium experience
-we really like cape may @ the beach club - breakfast/dinner - it's so pretty by the water
-yak/yeti is great @ ak and the cs is good too.
you have a lot of nights so you can have fun with a lot of them
_everybody's all time favorite counter service is wolfgang puck's express (dtd) - it is the most bang for your buck cs and everything is really good there.

favorite cs:
MK - pecos bills and columbia harbor house
Epcot - French Bakery in France and Mexico
AK - yak/yeti
HS - starring rolls
Also looked at the food porn pictures! There great!

 

[Kymm1111]

Artist Point is awesome, whispering canyon is good fun and food. If you are staying in the Villas of Wilderness Lodge all the villas are housed in the second building. It is not sprawled out like some of the resorts. Our favorite mode of transportation is the boat to Magic Kingdom. We will also take the boat to Contemporary and then catch the monorail to Epcot. We LOVE wilderness, it's one of our home resorts.

 

[DHar]

liberty tree tavern is fun and good food...family style
coral reef is good food and atmosphere
teppan edo is good food and fun..they cook at your table

we hit those 3 every trip

 

[w0rM]

I loved Tokyo Dining on my last trip. Whispering Canyon and Kona were great too. I think I'm most looking forward to my first meal at the Califonia Grill on top of the Contemporary during my next trip.

 

[Jerseyguy's Wife]

We love 'Ohana for breakfast mostly because our boys are HUGE Stitch fans and it's fun. Be aware that it is also noisy. We also love it for dinner. There are no dancing characters, but it is noisy, too because of the kids running around with brooms and coconuts. This is one of our favorite places. We hit it for breakfast or dinner (sometimes both) every trip.
My husband and I liked Cali Grill, but haven't been there in a couple of years. Narcoosee's is our "go to" restaurant when we have a "celebration" where we have to bring the kids. We also have done our anniversary there. We like it. I will admit, however, that the last time we were there, it wasn't so impressive.
I personally HATE Cinderella's Royal table. It sucked all ways round, and I will never spend the $$ to eat there again.
If you opt to do a character meal, I suggest the Cinderella dinner at 1900 Park Fare. It is a buffet, but it's pretty good as far as buffets go and there is some really cool character interaction (even for older girls such as yours).
I really enjoy my dinners at the Yachtsman Steakhouse. Le Cellier used to be a favorite of ours, but the last time we went, it was far less than stellar. The steaks were not cooked to the right temps, we had to wait forever, our server was short with us, and our sides were next to nonexistent. I am all for reasonable sized sides, but DH had a whopping 3 bites of potatoes (if he took small bites).
The places that surprised me the most were Sanaa at Kidani and the Boma dinner buffet at Jambo. I didn't expect to like either one. We have gone to Boma every time since the first time.
Beaches and Cream makes us happy as we usually pay oop. It's fun and casual and relatively inexpensive.
Good luck and have a great trip!