Favorite restaurants and character dining?

[4Hawks]

Please share your favorite WDW restaurants (top 5?) and character dining experiences (please include whether you prefer bf, lunch, or dinner).

Thanks!!

 

[DISNEY1975]

Ive only done character breakfasts...and Ive done them all many times! Actually, never did Garden Grill but will be this time around. We always go to Akershus!

Foodwise, my favorite is 1900 Park Fare. Made to order omelettes, mickey waffles and bread pudding for breakfast! Cant get better than that!!
Characterwise - Cape May! I just love the characters dressed in their beach clothes! Also love Tusker House for the same reason! The safari outfits are adorable.
My daughter would pick Hollywood and Vine or CRT for the characters and probably Crystal Palace for the food. They have a large selection at the kids station.


For non character -
Most Epcot Restaurants or Deluxe Resort restaurants. Top for me would probably be San Angel Inn (I love Mexican food) and Les Chef de France.
Resort - Yachtsman Steakhouse and Grand Floridian Cafe. Artist Point is right up there too! So many to choose from! They are all good!!

 

[Hopefully]

Everyone has unique tastes. Every restaurant will be someone's best and the next person's worst.
Your best bet is to review the menus here on the DIS or on allears.net and see what menu items appeal to you and your party.

 

[DISNEY1975]

Everyone has unique tastes. Every restaurant will be someone's best and the next person's worst.
Your best bet is to review the menus here on the DIS or on allears.net and see what menu items appeal to you and your party.

I totally agree. Not everyone loves Mexican like I do, and believe it or not, there are some strange people out there who like seafood <gasp> !!

I posted something before going on my last trip and got wonderful recommendations for Trails End. Every one of the replies was positive, not one negative. It was the worst meal I ever had at WDW!!

 

[ChasingLeslie]

1900 PF dinner
Tusker House breakfast
Mama Melrose lunch/dinner
Crystal Palace any meal
Via Napoli lunch/dinner

 

[gingerfeathers]

A few of my favorites:

Les Chefs de France
Le Cellier
Yachtsmen Steakhouse
50s Prime Time Cafe
Tusker House (breakfast - character)

 

[GenGen22]

Crystal Palace Dinner & great character interaction.
Cape May great breakfast & Character interaction.

 

[CynBeth]

For character breakfasts we like the variety of food at Cape May and CP the best.
We also enjoy TH.

Other favorite meals are:

Boma - breakfast or dinner
WCC - breakfast
Trail's End Buffet - breakfast
LTT - lunch
BOG - dinner
Tony's - dinner
Tutto - lunch
Le Cellier - dinner
Chefs - dinner
50's PTC - dinner

 

[mommycrawford]

Trattoria Al Forno was a surprise hit, as was the Wave (both dinners.) In the parks, Tokyo Dining and Tutta Italia are Favorites. I adore Raglan Road and OHANA as well, for the experience as much as the food (I do not love meat either!)
Favorite buffet is Boma dinner.
Favorite character interactions are Akershus dinner and Garden Grill dinner because it is more relaxed and personal interactions. Crystal Palace is pleasant too, but always very cold. Tusker House is favorite character food wise, but have had some horrible servers, and the character interaction is drive by because they are always getting ready to have a parade. 1900 Park Faire has amazing character breakfast!

 

[tinkerbella16]

Garden Grill - we love dinner and really want to try breakfast here. We are breakfast people so we mainly do character breakfasts.. this is the only character dinner we really enjoy and made it a trip tradition to go on our arrival day.

Cape May Cafe - we love both breakfast and dinner. The character breakfast is great and the buffet is one of the best. The food at dinner is really good. We usually book both meals here, especially when we stay at BC, it is hard not to lol.

Crystal Palace - One of our favorites for an in-park breakfast. We are breakfast people, and this never disappoints.

Akershus - We love this place for a PPO breakfast. We really enjoy the cold buffet and the hot foods that are brought to the table. The princess interactions are great.

Non character meals that we enjoy -

Hoop Dee Doo Revue - another trip tradition! We love this dinner show for everything it offers - the food is great and the show is a lot of fun.
Via Napoli
Yak & Yeti
Kona Cafe - breakfast

 

[yankebabie]

Ohana-Dinner
Garden Grill- breakfast
Tusker House- breakfast
Cape May-dinner
Olivia's Cafe- dinner

 

[studiojmm]

Interested in non-princess character meal value or other unforgettable meal experience ideas for a party of 2, one 9 year old.

We don't HAVE to eat on property at all. We are staying off site with a kitchen. We are both vegetarians and, at home, rarely eat out at American-style restaurants. We have no qualms with packing in and carrying around a lot of food. Our home is a major city and we have lots of access to a wide variety of good ethnic food restaurants, so aren't at Disney to explore dining.

My daughter (9) is generally anti-princess with a huge exception for Rapunzel, so we will do the Trattoria Al Forno breakfast. Most days we will breakfast in our room. My daughter doesn't like eggs, so I'm better off getting some legume-based protein and whole grains into her in the morning for our overall happiness/stamina than having her eating waffles and pastries (but I could always pack a veggie sausage to supplement and avoid the hangry kid mid-morning). So, while I just booked a Cinderella's Royal Table 8:15 am, I'm not sure I'm keeping it.

As far as lunch/dinner is concerned, another wrinkle is that this kid won't eat a lot of kids menu staples: Of course nuggets, hot-dogs, and burgers are out but she also doesn't like pizza and isn't a big fan of mac & cheese. I know I'm not the only parent in this "predicament" - at home this is great and she eats well, but on the road it can be tricky.

We did just fine last time at Hollywood & Vine and Crystal Palace buffets because there are lots of options for veggies and grains on the buffets and I can get her to eat fish (yes, she recognizes the contradiction).

Feedback on Hollywood & Vine and Crystal Palace for others: We enjoyed both but wouldn't do them twice due to cost (Fantsasmics package is not eligible for Disney Visa 10% discount, BTW, so H&V was even more expensive than we expected) and desire to do something new. We were there long enough in both venues that characters came around multiple times. Character interaction was good. CP is the only place to meet Piglet (and possibly Eeyore, who is my favorite) and H&V is a nice way to meet Micky/Minnie/Donald/Daisy all at once. Two adults and child all ate plenty and were pleased. The chefs in both places were happy to answer questions. Service was adequate to very good. Characters at CP seemed to all have individual handlers with them (useful when DD forgot to get an autograph so I sent her after the handler to get it between tables). There seemed to be section handlers watching over several characters at a time at H&V. Experience is going to depend somewhat on the day. We were in a very quiet section of CP for most of our meal, but they were holding a huge section for an enormous multi-generation, extended-family party. Luckily, we were almost done when they arrived. Poor Tigger got abused by a couple of the kids in that group and had to mime a request to the parents to manage their kids (he was separated from his handler at the moment). Unfortunately, my daughter dumped a recently refilled drink over onto floor at right around the same time while I was signing the check and we had to flag down a server for more napkins/towels. We fled at that point, but I'm really glad my whole meal wasn't opposite that party.

Because we probably won't buy much other food in the park, I'm willing to splurge for a few character experiences. (For example, last time we were at Epcot for 12+ hrs, all we (3 of us) purchased was a takeout stir fried vegetables, a bean tacos, a bubble tea, a Japan-style snowcone, and a croissant - other than that we happily ate what we packed).

We are tentatively planning a Tusker House ROL reservation. We might go back to BOG - we had a nice lunch there before - it really is fun theming - and it's comparatively inexpensive for decent food and veggie options. We have a lunch reservation again and will be watching for the opportunity to swap it for dinner. But we have already done BOG, so we could just drop that and do more snacks at MK that day instead. We have a Garden Grill dinner reservation for one of our Epcot days, which I'm not 100% sure I'm keeping. We also might do the Alice and Wonderland Tea Party at 1900 Park Faire on a non-park day, but we probably won't do everything on our list, ultimately.

Anything else I should be considering?

 

[JZCubed]

Please share your favorite WDW restaurants (top 5?) and character dining experiences (please include whether you prefer bf, lunch, or dinner).

Thanks!!

Honorable Mention:
Shula's - for the Chocolate Souffle dessert.
Sanaa - animals on the Savannah
Dinner Packages - Fantasmic! (Brown Derby) & River of Lights (Tiffins)
Uniquely Disney: Coral Reef, 50's Prime Time, Sci-Fi Drive In

Top 3 for Food (we've yet to eat much at new Disney Springs places - such as Paddlefish, Boathouse, STK, Homecoming, etc.):
3.) Capa - enjoy tapas.
2.) BlueZoo - whole fish, fennel butter with bread basket, tempura string beans.
1.) Victoria & Albert - dinner is theater.

Characters:
3.) Cinderella's - the room is magical and princesses beautiful. Pre-order a chocolate slipper for dessert.
2.) Be Our Guest Dinner - to meet The Beast. Good value & location, location, location.....
1.) Cape May Breakfast - Goofy!!