Disney First-Timer Needs Help Picking Where to Eat!

[jaw55]

My husband, mom and I just booked our first ever trip to Disney World for September 2006, and are completely overwhelmed, but very excited! We are staying at CSR, but we literally just came up with the idea to go to DW in the last few days, so we missed the free dining plan. We're trying to figure out where to eat while we're there -- I've been reading all the posts and think I have a good start, but am trying to narrow the choices so that I can make ADRs where necessary. So I guess my question is... if you had to name your three favorite places to eat, what would they be and why? We are going to be there nine days and plan on venturing out of the World too, so I'll take any suggestions you have, in or out of the World!

Thanks in advance!

 

[Micca]

Welcome to the Dis Jaw You'll get lots of great ideas here at the Dis, but I would also suggest that you study the menus posted on allearsnet.com.
You'll see a listing of virtually every restaurant on property including the resorts and DTD. Our three faves would be Alfredo's, Boma for dinner, and Kona Cafe for breakfast

 

[jengelbrecht]

You are going to have so much fun! Too bad you missed out on the free dining offer.
My three picks would be Le Cellier Steakhouse for dinner in Epcot, Crystal Palace in the Magic Kingdom for dinner, and 50s Prime Time Cafe for either lunch or dinner. All three have a Disney uniqueness about them.
Can't stress enough how important it is to come up with a plan and make your ADRs SOON...as in VERY SOON! With the free dining, the restaurants will be quite booked up. Make sure you have picked out alternate restaurants and times in case you don't get your first choices.
Have a blast!

 

[Gary M]

http://www.allearsnet.com/din/dining.htm

Click on the above for WDW restaurant menus. In the World Showcase at EPCOT you have 11 countries with 11 table service restaurants and each has counter service places to eat. The parks, resorts and downtown Disney have eating places. The selection can be overwhelming and you will get all kinds of opinions.

 

[Harvest02]

Our family just got back from Disney in June, and we ate at quite a few places. I would recommend WCC at Wilderness Lodge, Sci Fi Drive Inn at MGM, and Kona Cafe at Polynesian. All very good food!

 

[luv2nascar]

We go to Chef Mickey's for breakfast every trip. I am a breakfast fan and this place rocks. It is such a loud fun atmosphere with great characters and great food.

1900 Park Fare for dinner. Awesome food - best probably at any buffet in Disney. They have prime rib and chilled strawberry soup. Mini key lime tarts. My girls love Cindy, Perla, and Suzy.

And #3 because I can only have three restaurants would be Concourse Steakhouse. Yummy steaks - nice atmosphere.

 

[3dog2kidmom]

Hi there! Based soley on our experience from one trip...

for the absolute "Disney-est" atmosphere, I would pick: Cinderella's Royal Table for dinner, Chef Mickey's for breakfast, and Sci-Fi for lunch.

for the best food I would pick Le Cellier.

 

[*NikkiBell*]

As a first timer, it is pretty much customary that you either go to the Crystal Palace in Magic Kingdom or Chef Mickey's at the Contemporary Resort for a breakfast. Otherwise, you can pick and choose from there. I would highly suggest Le Cellier, Boma, Mama Melrose's, and Earl of Sandwich.

 

[Wendi2000]

I'm sure it will be a lot easier to get ADRs for places not on the dining plan if you are going that route. Are you going to purchase the dining plan, or not?

 

[Ms.Mouse]

Welcome to the Dis Jaw You'll get lots of great ideas here at the Dis, but I would also suggest that you study the menus posted on allearsnet.com.
Yes, WELCOME!!!! I agree about the allearsnet site. If you choose your meals by those menus, when you get to WDW, you'll find that the food/menus there are very similiar, if not identical to those on the site. This site is VERY helpful to make decisions BUT I do end up making most of my reservations from the menu and my family's likes/dislikes. Here, you'll get great pictures in the restaurant forum (where it says post pictures...) BUT everyone has a different opinion(me too!!!) and it sometimes becomes overwhelming with trying to make a decision based on our opinions and there are as many bad reviews as good....

 

[Uncleromulus]

Assuming that Table service spots are on your agenda to satrt with:
Jiko
California Grill
Blue Zoo
And certainly Victoria and Alberts if $$$$ is no object.

 

[Lucy2005]

My favorites are Chef Mickey's, Crystal Palace and Biergarten.
Lucy

 

[jaw55]

Oh my goodness! I didn't expect so many responses so quickly. Thanks to all for your helpful suggestions, keep 'em coming! My TA should be calling this afternoon to get my first picks for ADRs, and I can use all the help I can get. We are not doing the dining plan. We do plan on doing table service restaurants, but probably only five or six of the days. We do want to venture out of the World for a couple days, and will likely eat outside the park on those days.

 

[MamaQuack]

Welcome to the DIS boards. I have received a lot of great advice here thru the years. We always do sit down meals - just seem to need that rest time. We only eat 2 meals a day though. Our favorite breakfast is Beach Club; our favorite lunch is Sci Fi in MGM; for dinners we like Flying Fish, Palio, or Yachtsman Steakhouse. There are many wonderful choices and I am sure you will find something for everyone.

MamaQuack

 

[heatherfeather24]

My favorites (one each for breakfast and lunch; three choices for dinner):

Breakfast: Crystal Palace -- but only if you can get a ressie before the park opens on a non EMH day (it's like having Main Street to yourself)

Lunch: Chefs de France (nice Bistro Fare in a really pleasant atmosphere)

Dinner: California Grill (excellent food, excellent service, excellent view),
Le Cellier (just cuz I love steak and they do a pretty good one), and
Marrakesh (this one is 100% about the atmosphere -- the food is good, but the atmosphere is great; I think it appeals to the part of me that generally enjoys more exotic travel than WDW).

 

[Heather]

You will have so much fun!!! Here are a few of our favorites (yes, more than 3 -- how can we pick just 3?) from the last 7 years:

Character meal: if you have little princesses, Cinderella's Royal Table in the castle is awesome. It is also hard to get. If you can't/don't want to do that, then you should also think about which characters your kids enjoy. If they are Pooh fans, Crystal Palace is lovely -- have lunch there when you've spent the entire morning in the MK, it's a relaxing break. If they are Mickey fans, Chef Mickey's is a lot of fun. It is also not in a park, so if you are taking a "down" day, it can be a great thing to do!

Lunch: Pretty much all of the Epcot eateries are tasty for lunch so I won't even go there. If you are looking for some quick counter food elsewhere, Pecos Bills at the MK has good burgers, and we are HUGE fans of the 50s Prime Time Cafe for a lunch break at MGM (portions are very large, so share and then you can have s'more for dessert!), or if you want a longer break in the day, take the boat from MK to Whispering Canyons at the Wilderness Lodge (although recent posts have me wondering what happened to the place we enjoyed so much 3 years ago). If you are near the boardwalk, Beaches & Cream is awesome.

Dinner: California Grill gets rave reviews. We personally really enjoyed Le Cellier and Chefs de France in Epcot. Boma was also very good, unless your kids are picky and won't try stuff on the adult buffet (the kids buffet was pretty bland and dry) -- it was the first restaurant our kids wanted to go back to the following year. We entertained out of town relatives at Flying Fish, on the Boardwalk, and they all seemed to enjoy. We went to Artists Point at the Wilderness Lodge WITHOUT the kids one night and it was REALLY good.

Anyone can have a single bad experience, so I'm not saying these can't be good, but we did NOT have good experiences/enjoy the food at the following:
Norway Princess Breakfast (horrible character interaction, barely any food)
O'Hana
Cape May
Commissary at MGM
1900 Park Fare
Yorkshire County Fish Shop (fast food place in Epcot, made my daughter sick)
Pizzafari at AK

Again, many people like some or all of those, just my 2 cents.

Have a wonderful time!!

 

[d96j97]

Definately Le Cellier for Dinner.

We also do Chef Mickey's every trip for Breakfast!!!

Sci Fi is a GREAT atmosphere and "pretty good" food.

One of our favorites is Cinderella's Royal Table for Dinner, however, we are skipping it this trip because the prices have drastically gone up and you have to pay the full bill at the time you book the ADR! My kids used to get a kids meal for $4.99 and now they want $24.95. That really eats into the money we have.

Anyhow, have a great time!

 

[gabriellewatson]

It is my fiance's and my first time to Disney in a little over a month. We got lucky with the free dining package, but it is totally worth the cost though!!! SERIOUSLY!! I visited AllEarsNet, and it was very, very helpful. I printed out menus and went from there!
These are the restaurants we chose for our first time ever at Disney, which is our HONEYMOON trip
I just made my ADRs yesterday evening, but we got exactly what we needed!!

Sunday (arrival day)
Lunch-CS
Dinner-TS- Liberty Tree Tavern for Goofy's Liberate Your Appetite CHML 6:25

Monday
Lunch-2TS- Cinderella's Royal Table CHML 2:10
Dinner- CS

Tuesday
Lunch- TS- 50's Prime Time Cafe 1:05
Dinner- CS

Wednesday
Lunch- TS- Coral Reef 3:20
Dinner- CS or out on the town

Thursday
Lunch- CS
Dinner- TS- Marrakesh

Friday
Lunch- CS
Dinner- free voucher/one paid Planet Hollywood

Saturday- We'll be spending at Universal Studios and around Orlando!

Sunday- We depart!