Trying to keep with the garden theme of his birthday I reserved dinner at the Garden Grill. I had eaten here several times with my family when I was younger and while I enjoyed it I wouldn’t necessarily have chosen it over some of the other more appealing EPCOT restaurants if it hadn’t been for GardenGuy, he had asked to eat here.
Garden Grill 7:20pm
Disney845:
Oatmeal bread with butter
Salad with ranch dressing
Mashed Potatoes
Clockwise from top: flank steak with mushroom sauce, broccoli and carrots, catfish, turkey, and stuffing in the middle
Apple bread pudding with caramel sauce
Unsweet Ice Tea
GardenGuy:
same
Total: 2 TS Credits
Food: salad/bread/dessert: 7, main meal: 3
Atmosphere: 9
Service: 5
Comments:
When we checked in there were a TON of people milling about waiting to be seated and we were given our pager and told we would be seated in less than 25 minutes. It was almost 8pm before we were seated. We saw the cast members at the podium firmly shooing away non-diners who were trying to get the character’s attention for their kids from outside the restaurant.
The character interaction was AMAZING. We saw each of the characters twice (Pluto, Chip, Dale, and Mickey). GardenGuy really like the rotating views. We were seated on the lower section, which has much better views of the Land scenes. Also our half circle booth seemed very private which was nice. A very nice woman from the family seated next to us offered to take our pictures with the characters when they came around so we would both be in the pic together as opposed to normally we each take a pic by ourselves with the character, and we reciprocated for her so that her whole family was in the pic together.
The salad and bread as well as the dessert were very good. The main meal….not so great. The turkey was so dry it was hard, the steak was chewy, the veggies-broccoli (which I hate anyway) and carrots, which I normally really like, were just about raw!, the stuffing was dry, it was just a disaster. We did ask for more turkey and a side of the gravy that came on the steak. The second helping of turkey was very moist and the gravy alleviated the problem for the stuffing. Sticking with my newfound vacation decision to branch out and try seafood I have never eaten before, I tried the catfish, which wasn’t bad at all.
Strangely when we were first seated we had a waitress, but she disappeared halfway through our meal and a waiter took over. The characters were quick around the restaurant and we definitely didn’t dawdle eating, but they were slow bringing out the food, and by the time we were through, Illuminations had already started.
