Garden Grill Character Lunch?

[poohkinandpiglet]

Anyone done this lately. I'm looking for a character meal for the day of our arrival and thought about trying Garden Grill. We've done just about all the others so I thought we'd try something different this trip.

Suggestions--comments???

Also, is the Ice Cream Social still going on? I thought I heard they discontined this.

 

[cobbler]

The ice cream social is no longer.

As for the GG, we ate there in 03 for lunch and it was great. I haven't eaten there since the new updated menu though.

We had great character interaction and a lot of fun. We will do lunch there again this year.

 

[ruttie]

we just got back.. my kids loved it make sure you are pushy and get a booth downstairs. when we first were seated we were upstairs and my kids were like we cannot see anything so they quickly moved us. The food was good teh charecters were great they intereacted really well with th kids we saw chip and dale pluto mickey and 1 other... my 5 yr old orderd the steak it was the same as teh adult steak he loved it, my 7 yr odl order chicken fingers both came with fries and we asked for mac and cheese also... I got teh steak hubbie goit teh seafood he LOVED it but it was very watery my steak was fine no complaints but i am not sure what kind it was nothing fpeciall almost looked like a flank steak... we went right at 3 and it was perfect for us filled us up for lunch and dinner.. do we like it as much as teh old Garden Grille NOPE but we are glad we went oh we werenot offered salad sooup or anything and my kids who love desert were not thrilled with it it was a fondue type desert that you dip marshmellows etc in... hop ethi shelps///

 

[poohkinandpiglet]

Thanks for the replies. We'll probably try it in October!

 

[Kaitysmom]

I didn't know they had an upstairs and downstairs... Is that new? does the restaurant still "turn?"

 

[ruttie]

restraunt still turns not really an upstairs but on fist level facing the differnet lands is series of u shaped booths that look directly at the changing lands 2 steps up behind the booths are tables so you are not actually right at the level of teh changing lands kinda like sitting to teh inside of a merry go round you have a great view of teh center mirrors etc.. on a merry go round and at he land a great view of a green wall you can look over at th echanging land but it is not as "real" for the kids.. we simply asked to change and they did no problems...

 

[Atotty]

The last time we were there, we were on the top. Can parties of 5 sit on the bottom level?

Thanks!

 

[ruttie]

i would think so we were a party of 4 2 adults abnd 2 kids and we had plenty of room for another person..

 

[Atotty]

thanks

 

[ksoehrlein]

I had been very excited to eat there after reading the updated menus, but I ended up just a little disappointed. Everything that sounded so yummy when I read about it was merely good -- not great -- when we had it in person. Even so, I was still too full for the fondue dessert, so when I say "good," I mean it; just not quite as fabulous as I had expected.

The characters were lots of fun; they had lots of energy at our 11:00 seating. Too bad the CD for our digital camera reached capacity after I took the first picture and the extra CDs were still at the hotel room!

 

[idofabric]

We had a party of 7 last week. We have gone there at least once a trip for the last 5 years or so, and sometimes 2 x's. Never again! 2 had steak, not bad, not to tought, not cooked like we asked. 2 had the fish, and it was terrible, we asked if we could get something else and the waiter said, "Well ok, I guess, but it will take at least 15 min if you really want something." 3 had the Chiopte chicken, which was very sweet. Veggies were bla, Garlic potatoes, where was the garlic!?!, very runny. Desert was frozen dense brownies, a ? lemon pound( and it was very heavy!) cake, and frozen marshmellows, strawberries and wonderfull pineapple to dip in a luke warm chocolate fondue sause. The Chocolate stuff was good.
The characters came around several times. As we were a party with out children they mostly walked by and waved on the way to other tables. Not happy about that, but ? can you do. And I can see why they did so. I personally love seeing the characters. We were on the upper level, and have never sat there before. Last Oct we had at least 6-8 of us in a lower booth.
Also the whole thing now turns much slower, we used to get all the way around at least 1 1/2 to 2 times at least, and we did not get all the way around in the 70 min we were there. Service was also bad.
I did not have a lot of luck eating anywhere at Ecopt this trip, and we usually love all the food there!
Wish WDW had not changed the menu, it was great for our family the way it was. Not "fancy" and kind of farm/fresh food. It is now more "upscale" and we hated it, since there are a ton of other places at WDW to get fancy upscale food. Till this revamp this was a place to get good plain food, with tons of veggies, and easy to eat food.
Oh, well, I do know a lot of folks that love the new menu.
Never got to go to the Ice Cream social. Alas.