Do you like the Garden Grill?

[kaymom]

Just wondering what others think of this dining experience. Not expecting perfection or anything, I just want to know if the food is good. Sounds a little different!

 

[Connerzmom]

I don't know about the food as I haven't eaten there. I'm planning to eat there on our next trip because the whole "revolving restaurant" sounds interesting! Looking forward to other's reviews.

 

[lfwhipp]

the "revolving restaurant" is a neat idea, but it moves VERY slowly, as in like an inch an hour. The food is ok, its family style meals very similar to LTT in MK, turkey, pork, beef, mashed potatoes, veggies, etc. the characters are great, thats why we go there

 

[vcgirl925]

I would advise you to find some place else. We found the food at the garden grill to be inedible! We ended up eating off the kids plate. I've warned people against it in the past and they tried it anyway and came back saying they should have listened to us. The characters are fine, but you can see them elsewhere and get better food. IE, Chef Mickeys.

 

[DisneyHolidayFan]

Garden Grill USED to be our favorite restaurant but last year (Dec. 2007), we had one of the worst meals ever there. It was so disappointing (we are definitely not picky eaters); the quality of food had indeed changed. This was shortly after they remodeled (when Soarin was added) and I don't know what happened. We are now afraid to try it again!! If you do eat there, please post how your experience was. Good Luck!!!

 

[Snork]

I have to disagree, my wife and I liked the food at Garden Grill. She is a very picky eater, but she found all the food good except for the turkey (she doesn't like turkey). She normally doesn't have sauces or gravys on her food but she liked the sauces that came with the food.

The floor rotates once every hour. I did get a little motion sick in the beginning, but when the food came I stopped staring at the walls and ate and all was good.

Also, we had the most character interaction at Garden Grill then any other character dining place we've been to (Chef Mickeys, Crystal Palace).

 

[Ducky4Disney]

We love the Garden Grill - it's one of our staples. I think it's better than LTT. The catfish is awesome! I can't figure out why they have a kids plate, the food is not that exotic as to put off a kid (well, not mine).

D4D

 

[HayGan]

the "revolving restaurant" is a neat idea, but it moves VERY slowly, as in like an inch an hour. The food is ok, its family style meals very similar to LTT in MK, turkey, pork, beef, mashed potatoes, veggies, etc. the characters are great, thats why we go there

OK - it doesn't go that slow. It makes a full rotation about once every hour.

This is one of the few restaurants that we will NOT return to. The food is like reheated Stouffers meals. It isn't inedible but it is not good either. For what they charge to eat there, I think it is a total waste!

 

[Tam1067]

We did not like our food there at all. We had dinner in 2007 and will not return. Dessert was good, but this is the only place we have completely eliminated from our list of possibilities--and we've been lots of places in WDW. No one wanted to go back there. And that's saying a lot because the characters are fun.

The food tasted bad. The atmosphere is very dated. The booth we had was very crowded. It was not a fun dining experience at all.

 

[mommymeg]

We were at the Garden Grill 2 days ago...
Service was excellent...
It rotated fast enough to notice, but not to get dizzy... wound up doing one full rotation during the coarse of our meal.
Characters were great...very interactive...we were able to see everyone twice! Which gave DH and I a chance to get our pics taken!
Food was very good in my opinion... first came a basket of bread with a tasty sweet butter... then there was a nice family sized garden salad with lots of fresh veggies...DH loved it..
Main course was served on a long plate separated into thirds... One was fried catfish on top of veggies...both were yummy!... next was Turkey on top of cornbread stuffing...again, very good...although stuffing was a bit salty..
And third was steak on roasted potatos... Steak was tender and done perfectly... potatos were very good...
Kids got a huge plate of nuggets, mac n cheese and fries... We asked for more of everything and were happily obliged...
Dessert was a cup of dirt and worms for the kids... (pudding, cookie crumble and gummi worms..)... and for the adults was a Blueberry Buckle, which was kind of like a warm Blueberry muffin with a great vanilla whipped cream on top. We were so full by the end of our meal... I enjoyed this restaurant and was glad we chose it for our last meal at Disney... would definitally recommend it!

 

[DisneyHolidayFan]

We were at the Garden Grill 2 days ago...
Service was excellent...
It rotated fast enough to notice, but not to get dizzy... wound up doing one full rotation during the coarse of our meal.
Characters were great...very interactive...we were able to see everyone twice! Which gave DH and I a chance to get our pics taken!
Food was very good in my opinion... first came a basket of bread with a tasty sweet butter... then there was a nice family sized garden salad with lots of fresh veggies...DH loved it..
Main course was served on a long plate separated into thirds... One was fried catfish on top of veggies...both were yummy!... next was Turkey on top of cornbread stuffing...again, very good...although stuffing was a bit salty..
And third was steak on roasted potatos... Steak was tender and done perfectly... potatos were very good...
Kids got a huge plate of nuggets, mac n cheese and fries... We asked for more of everything and were happily obliged...
Dessert was a cup of dirt and worms for the kids... (pudding, cookie crumble and gummi worms..)... and for the adults was a Blueberry Buckle, which was kind of like a warm Blueberry muffin with a great vanilla whipped cream on top. We were so full by the end of our meal... I enjoyed this restaurant and was glad we chose it for our last meal at Disney... would definitally recommend it!

Hopefully, it has improved since our last visit. After your review, we will consider it for our next trip. I am glad that your review was based on a recent visit as sometimes food or service changes from year to year and people tend to remark due to an old experience. This can be misleading.

 

[JoePa4Ever]

We didn't particularly care for the Garden Grill - the food was bland & unappealing - average, at best. I also don't get the fascination with the rotating restaurant - I never noticed it moving during our meal, when we got ready to leave I realized it had made about a half a turn - so what? I agree with a pp about the atmosphere being dated. The characters were pretty good, but they alone are nowhere near enough to make us return.

 

[kaymom]

I am glad that someone who has been there recently liked it. I think I am just going to keep our ADR there. I don't want to leave FW (takes too much time out of our day) and we don't like seafood so the Coral Reef is out.

 

[moray26]

Wasn't the best, wasn't the worst, it was fine. Go for the experience...you don't know what you're missing if you don't try it. But if you go in the summer months, BRING A SWEATER OR SWEATSHIRT!!! My brother took me there July 2008 for my birthday and my meal was mostly ruined because my teeth wouldn't stop chattering. I swear, the A/C was cranked up to the max!!

 

[MickeyEars]

We love the Garden Grill and it's one of the ones we do each trip. My husband loves the catfish, I like the steak and the salad is extremely good. Even our two picky teenage boys love it!!! We'll be there in a few short weeks and we can't wait!!!

Carla

 

[breebella]

Characters
Food -

 

[Smiling Cheshire Cat]

You should try it if your expectations are not for a gourmet meal. The food is okay. The catfish was pretty good, the turkey and dressing was good and so were the potatoes. I didn't like the steak at all. It was not the best or worst meal I've ever had at WDW.
The characters really are the best. I think it is a small restaurant so we were able to see them several times in the amount of time it took us to eat.

 

[Queenofthecastle]

We love the Garden Grill. We enjoy a good "meat and potatoes" meal now and then. They have the best fried catfish, and we thought the flank steak was also very good! It's also one of our staples every time we visit Epcot. The character interaction was also superb...so much so that at times I wished they'd leave me alone so I could keep eating!

 

[Poohbear5]

We ate there just last week (party of 2 adults celebrating 25th annivesary).
It was a bit loud which we expected for a character meal. We enjoyed the fresh salad, hubby loved the catfish (only one bite of the fish for me). I enjoyed the flank steak and turkey, potatoes were good.

Lots of character interaction; some other character meals, we got skipped over as a party of two adults. My hubby was not thrilled about the idea of another character meal and the chaos but enjoyed this one much more than the other two we did.

They brought out an amazing chocolate cake for our annivesary celebration in addition to the regular dessert!

When we do another trip in a few years, this will be the ONLY character meal we will book.

 

[carrie6466]

I thought the food was okay, my DH and son thought it was one of the best meals of the week and my DD didn't eat much because she was too into Chip and Dale. All in all, a success for us.