Favorite family & budget friendly restaurants

[PoohBearFamily]

Hi all! My family is going to Orlando for the first time, family of six (four kids, 6 yrs and under) and will probably eat breakfast in our room, pack a lunchbag for midday, but we'd love to eat out for dinner (we'll have a car), or grab takeout to eat back in our hotel if we're tired. But no clue what's budget-friendly or family-friendly in the Lake buena vista area. It can be, but doesn't have to be on-site at WDW. Thanks in advance!

 

[pigletto]

Hi all! My family is going to Orlando for the first time, family of six (four kids, 6 yrs and under) and will probably eat breakfast in our room, pack a lunchbag for midday, but we'd love to eat out for dinner (we'll have a car), or grab takeout to eat back in our hotel if we're tired. But no clue what's budget-friendly or family-friendly in the Lake buena vista area. It can be, but doesn't have to be on-site at WDW. Thanks in advance!

We’ve always really liked Millers Ale House. Check out their weeknight dinner specials.
Also, if you search this topic on the Orlando Hotels and Attractions board there’s some good info I’ve seen over the years.

 

[Judique]

Hi all! My family is going to Orlando for the first time, family of six (four kids, 6 yrs and under) and will probably eat breakfast in our room, pack a lunchbag for midday, but we'd love to eat out for dinner (we'll have a car), or grab takeout to eat back in our hotel if we're tired. But no clue what's budget-friendly or family-friendly in the Lake buena vista area. It can be, but doesn't have to be on-site at WDW. Thanks in advance!

Where will you be staying? It's a huge area and you can find just about anything you want for dinner there. Staying onsite gives many options that are Disney specific. You can also stay onsite and easily access offsite dining, but if you are in the parks every day of your stay, time and convenience may come into play.

Sometimes it's just going to be easier to eat at Disney, use Disney transportation versus, returning to your Disney hotel and then getting in your car for another 2-3 hour expedition for dinner.

If you are offsite anyway and are driving your car to the parks, eating somewhere enroute back to your hotel is more accessible. Or you can more easily do takeout, order ahead and pick up to take back to the room.

You will have almost any option, depending on logistics and the time you want to spend traveling to the food you want to eat.

Disney Springs has some really nice restaurants and almost everyone eventually goes there to access more Disney shopping. If you are going to plan a table service restaurant, you may want to make reservations as many are very popular. Almost all Disney restaurants are family friendly. Many of the park restaurants are very good and might be an option for you to consider.

If you are looking for casual dining such as Olive Garden, Cracker Barrell, Outback, etc, they are pretty much similar to what you would get at home, including prices.

Just one caveat from someone who always has her car at Disney - they have real and city type traffic there, so you will spend time getting places. Plan accordingly, but plan in advance where you want to eat at least 1/2 of your dinners. That will save a lot of angst and time.

 

[dpswift]

We’ve always really liked Millers Ale House. Check out their weeknight dinner specials.
Also, if you search this topic on the Orlando Hotels and Attractions board there’s some good info I’ve seen over the years.

Agree with Millers we go at least once every time we go to Orlando.

 

[PoohBearFamily]

We’ve always really liked Millers Ale House. Check out their weeknight dinner specials.
Also, if you search this topic on the Orlando Hotels and Attractions board there’s some good info I’ve seen over the years.

Thank you for the tip!!

 

[PoohBearFamily]

Where will you be staying? It's a huge area and you can find just about anything you want for dinner there. Staying onsite gives many options that are Disney specific. You can also stay onsite and easily access offsite dining, but if you are in the parks every day of your stay, time and convenience may come into play.

Sometimes it's just going to be easier to eat at Disney, use Disney transportation versus, returning to your Disney hotel and then getting in your car for another 2-3 hour expedition for dinner.

If you are offsite anyway and are driving your car to the parks, eating somewhere enroute back to your hotel is more accessible. Or you can more easily do takeout, order ahead and pick up to take back to the room.

You will have almost any option, depending on logistics and the time you want to spend traveling to the food you want to eat.

Disney Springs has some really nice restaurants and almost everyone eventually goes there to access more Disney shopping. If you are going to plan a table service restaurant, you may want to make reservations as many are very popular. Almost all Disney restaurants are family friendly. Many of the park restaurants are very good and might be an option for you to consider.

If you are looking for casual dining such as Olive Garden, Cracker Barrell, Outback, etc, they are pretty much similar to what you would get at home, including prices.

Just one caveat from someone who always has her car at Disney - they have real and city type traffic there, so you will spend time getting places. Plan accordingly, but plan in advance where you want to eat at least 1/2 of your dinners. That will save a lot of angst and time.

Were still undecided on where we will stay, off site or on-site. I'll keep those tips in mind! This is all great advice, thank you!!

 

[PoohBearFamily]

Agree with Millers we go at least once every time we go to Orlando.

Ok it's on my list now!

 

[Jimsig]

I know Chili's has a free rewards club you can join. Each time you go you can get a free non-alcoholic drink or bottomless chips and salsa. They will also email you with special deals from time to time such as a free kids meal, or a free app, or a free desert with the purchase of an adult entree. I'm not sure if it's only one free kids meal per order or one free kids meal with each adult entree as I only have one child. Unfortunately you can not stack the deals. Also a place like Chili's includes the drink in the price of a kids meal and they are usually only like $6-$7 so it helps to make it affordable.

 

[HeatherC]

We like Fords Garage. Their salads are excellent. Not too pricey either. You can also eat outside there which is nice nowadays.

 

[PoohBearFamily]

I know Chili's has a free rewards club you can join. Each time you go you can get a free non-alcoholic drink or bottomless chips and salsa. They will also email you with special deals from time to time such as a free kids meal, or a free app, or a free desert with the purchase of an adult entree. I'm not sure if it's only one free kids meal per order or one free kids meal with each adult entree as I only have one child. Unfortunately you can not stack the deals. Also a place like Chili's includes the drink in the price of a kids meal and they are usually only like $6-$7 so it helps to make it affordable.

I didn't know about the free kids meal - that's so cool! Thanks for the tip

 

[PoohBearFamily]

We like Fords Garage. Their salads are excellent. Not too pricey either. You can also eat outside there which is nice nowadays.

We love salads, thanks for the tip.

 

[Jimsig]

I didn't know about the free kids meal - that's so cool! Thanks for the tip

Unfortunately it's not all the time for the free kids meal but it's nice when it shows up in your email.

 

[bearzabout]

Some of my favs are Chick Fil A, the subs and soups at Wawas, Qkenan (love their cheese empanadas), Sofritos Latin Cafe, the cooked chickens at Publix, gyros from King O Falafel, ice cream and dole whips from Twistee Treat / Ginthers, Blaze Pizza, Earl of Sandwich, Zoes Kitchen and Fuddruckers. Portillos is opening a chicago hot dog place off Palm Parkway in June.

 

[PoohBearFamily]

Some of my favs are Chick Fil A, the subs and soups at Wawas, Qkenan (love their cheese empanadas), Sofritos Latin Cafe, the cooked chickens at Publix, gyros from King O Falafel, ice cream and dole whips from Twistee Treat / Ginthers, Blaze Pizza, Earl of Sandwich, Zoes Kitchen and Fuddruckers. Portillos is opening a chicago hot dog place off Palm Parkway in June.

Yum these all sound like great options! Thank you!!

 

[_19disnA]

Over the years we have stayed both onsite at Disney as well as offsite. We always rented a car so driving around was no big deal. The entire area attracts a lot of tourists so we always found places to eat along the various main roads in the area. Traffic was really no worse then any of our other vacations destinations. None of the restaurants were that far away or took long to get to as I recall. We never planned ahead of time where to eat since there are plenty of options and since we were on vacation, the idea of planning out the days isn't our style. Eating offsite will tend to be less expensive since part of what you pay for at Disney is the 'atmosphere' that doesn't make the food any better.

 

[PoohBearFamily]

Over the years we have stayed both onsite at Disney as well as offsite. We always rented a car so driving around was no big deal. The entire area attracts a lot of tourists so we always found places to eat along the various main roads in the area. Traffic was really no worse then any of our other vacations destinations. None of the restaurants were that far away or took long to get to as I recall. We never planned ahead of time where to eat since there are plenty of options and since we were on vacation, the idea of planning out the days isn't our style. Eating offsite will tend to be less expensive since part of what you pay for at Disney is the 'atmosphere' that doesn't make the food any better.

That sounds like a good plan too. We likely won't be planning every dinner before going. Maybe about half of them. Honestly we'll likely only do one Disney dinner ADR!

 

[MrsPete]

I'm going to suggest a different tact:

Forget packing lunches into the parks -- it's not easy to carry lunch around the parks, and sandwiches that've been in a pack for hours aren't exactly yummy. Especially with kids, a mid-day sit-down break in the air conditioning will be valuable /will recharge their batteries and will allow you to enjoy the parks longer. You'll feel like you've had a real mid-day break. Look through the menus on AllEars.net and find a place where you can go with kids' meals and/or shared meals for lunch. If carefully chosen, you can do this for the same cost as the dinner meal you're considering.

Then have your sandwiches, salads, etc. in the room. It'll make for an easy evening with the kids, and it'll come out about the same cost in the long run.

 

[PoohBearFamily]

I'm going to suggest a different tact:

Forget packing lunches into the parks -- it's not easy to carry lunch around the parks, and sandwiches that've been in a pack for hours aren't exactly yummy. Especially with kids, a mid-day sit-down break in the air conditioning will be valuable /will recharge their batteries and will allow you to enjoy the parks longer. You'll feel like you've had a real mid-day break. Look through the menus on AllEars.net and find a place where you can go with kids' meals and/or shared meals for lunch. If carefully chosen, you can do this for the same cost as the dinner meal you're considering.

Then have your sandwiches, salads, etc. in the room. It'll make for an easy evening with the kids, and it'll come out about the same cost in the long run.

This is insightful. I think s real midday break sounds really nice actually. Thanks for your advice!!

 

[Disneyfan754321]

Join landrys club, its $25 to join and then you get a $25 credit and $25 for your birthday credit. ( I used my DH birthday because it was before our trip) we went to trex cafe @ disney springs and had a $50 credit.
Also prior to the trip I bought landrys giftcards from samsclub they were $75 for $90 worth of cards. We still had money left to eat at rainforest cafe at AK. The other perk is club members wait at the front of the line with out a reservation.
https://www.disboards.com/threads/give-me-the-low-down-on-landrys-select-club.3261447/
Adult meals are expensive at both of these restaurants but they are huge portions. At rainforst @AK a cheeseburger meal was $19 so my DH and I shared the kids had kid meals.

 

[DisneyTexan]

Join landrys club, its $25 to join and then you get a $25 credit and $25 for your birthday credit. ( I used my DH birthday because it was before our trip) we went to trex cafe @ disney springs and had a $50 credit.
Also prior to the trip I bought landrys giftcards from samsclub they were $75 for $90 worth of cards. We still had money left to eat at rainforest cafe at AK. The other perk is club members wait at the front of the line with out a reservation.

The same applies at Yak and Yeti restaurant at Animal Kingdom -- it is also owned by Landrys.

I'm going to suggest a different tact:

Forget packing lunches into the parks -- it's not easy to carry lunch around the parks, and sandwiches that've been in a pack for hours aren't exactly yummy. Especially with kids, a mid-day sit-down break in the air conditioning will be valuable /will recharge their batteries and will allow you to enjoy the parks longer. You'll feel like you've had a real mid-day break. Look through the menus on AllEars.net and find a place where you can go with kids' meals and/or shared meals for lunch. If carefully chosen, you can do this for the same cost as the dinner meal you're considering.

Then have your sandwiches, salads, etc. in the room. It'll make for an easy evening with the kids, and it'll come out about the same cost in the long run.

I completely agree! We have done this for years, and it is really nice to have an air-conditioned break mid-day, and then to wind-down the day with a "home cooked" meal.

We’ve always really liked Millers Ale House. Check out their weeknight dinner specials.

Thank you for this information! For some reason my husband jumped on this idea when I mentioned it. We will be staying at Saratoga Springs in May, and will be arriving a couple hours before check-in. Normally we go to Disney Springs, but it could be a hassle due to the long walk instead of a boat ride, and the temperature check. Instead we'll just go to Millers Ale House in Lake Buena Vista and wait for our check-in notification!