Garden Grill Character Dinner or Tepan Edo?!

[ekatiel]

Our first night at Disney, we will be in Epcot. We are planning on (if we can get the ADR's) eating at Le Cellier later in the week. So, we'd either like to do Tepan Edo or the Garden Grill's character dinner for the first night. We are going next May (just booked yesterday!), and it will be our first trip to WDW. Our party consists of me, DH, ODS (who will be almost 5 at the time of the trip), YDS (who will be almost three at the time of the trip), and my mom and dad. We are hoping to do Crystal Palace for dinner mid-week and do Chef Mickey's Dinner our last night there. So we will have 2 other character meals. So, what do you guys think-- characters for the first night, or Tepan Edo??

 

[npmommie]

I can only comment on Garden Grill.......we all enjoyed this restaurant, the kids loved the character interaction and the food was very good. the kids also thought the spinning restaurant was cool.
we did not eat at tepan edo so i can't comment on that.

i am sure you all would enjoy garden grill.

 

[catne]

For the benefit of kids & adults, I'd pick Garden Grille. We really enjoyed the experience in May 2008. The chararacter interaction was great and the food was very good...all 4 adults in our party liked almost all of the food (for ex. the biscuits were nothing special, but the cornbread was fab. Two of us didn't care for the fish, but the other 2 loved it. We all liked the beef & chicken.)

If you're looking for character interaction but with less hubbub & noise, the Garden Grille is good for that (both Chef Mickey's & Crystal Palace are good, and fun places, but not a relaxing meal at all. Noisy & extremely busy. Character interaction can be extremely brief.)

 

[Tink888]

We thought the food at Garden Grill was decent and it was a very quiet and calm restuarant but since you already have two other characater meal planned, I vote for Teppen Edo. It might be a fun and different experience for the kids having the chef cook dinner right at the table.

 

[mommylo]

Hi, we just came back from our trip and did both. We booked Garden Grill for an early lunch of 11:40. The place was not crowded and we got to see the charcacters several times and it was really relaxing. The revolving restaurant was fun for the kids. We did Teppan Edo one night and my 9 year old really enjoyed it. It was something different and the service great!! I personally didn't like Chef Mickey because it was just toooo busy and hectic and we didn't get to see the charcaters as often. We also did Crystal Palace this time for an early morning breakfast (when the park had EMH) at 8:05am and that was great. We had the characters come around at least 3-4 times and the food was, IMO, better than Chef Mickey's breakfast.
If you have young kids, maybe consider doing lunches instead of dinners. I had a 6-year old autistic son and I had to book my meals at less busy times and they all worked out great. He didn't attend the Teppan Edo dinner though because I didn't think he would sit through it. He did very well with the other ones though. Good luck in your decision.

 

[Tam1067]

We thought Garden Grille was the worst meal of our trip last year. We would never return there. We've never tried Teppan Edo, but I'd go there over GG anyday.

If you're already planning on Chef Mickey's and Crystal Palace, you won't need the additional character meal.

 

[Tink3Bell]

I prefer Garden grill we had food from the land and it was very fresh and tasty.

 

[GatorLady]

Given the ages your children will be, I would choose the Garden Grill. We were there in June. The food was good and the character interaction was great! Best of our trip. My daughter is a big Chip and Dale fan so she just loved it!

As far as food goes you will get as many opinions as there are people posting, everyone has different tastes. When we first starting going with our youngest we did a lot of character meals, they were one of her absolute favorite things! We did a lot for a couple of years and next year now that she is a bit older we will probably only do two (one princess, one Chip and Dale). Soon enough she may not be as interested We figured we could go to a regular type of restaurant anytime. Character meals are such a unique Disney experience I was glad to go, she enjoyed them so very much!

Hope you have a great trip!

 

[Hopefully]

Given your children's ages, I would recommend Garden Grille. The characters help to entertain the children. I would worry with a 3 year old and the hot grill in the middle of the Teppan Edo table. Those little hands can be off and exploring in just a second, no matter how diligent you are.
I think the Garden Grille is more appropriate at this point.
Have a great trip!

 

[ekatiel]

Thanks for all the different viewpoints, guys. I didn't know that the garden grill rotated-- it sounds like the boys would really enjoy that, but I'll have to run it by Dh and my mom who both get motion sickness pretty easily. I know Dh and I have been to a rotating restaurant before, but I can't remember if he got vertigo there or not. I also didn't think about the hot grill and my little guys hands (our youngest is my mischevious one -- so, we'll definitely take that into consideration). So, has anyone with motion sickness done ok at Garden Grill?

 

[npmommie]

Thanks for all the different viewpoints, guys. I didn't know that the garden grill rotated-- it sounds like the boys would really enjoy that, but I'll have to run it by Dh and my mom who both get motion sickness pretty easily. I know Dh and I have been to a rotating restaurant before, but I can't remember if he got vertigo there or not. I also didn't think about the hot grill and my little guys hands (our youngest is my mischevious one -- so, we'll definitely take that into consideration). So, has anyone with motion sickness done ok at Garden Grill?

You won't even notice the restaurant rotates, it is so subtle. I didn't even know it or realize it until i noticed the scenery in front of our table was different, then we discovered the rotating!! LOL
have fun!!!

 

[Wild4Walt]

Have been to both - although Garden Grill was many years ago when they still had breakfast.

The food was great at both as well as the service.

I think all in all, the kids will get a bigger kick out of Garden Grill. Not to mention tall chairs at Teppan Edo near a extremely hot grill could be nerve racking with small ones.