Garden Grill - honest opinions

[Lovemy3babes]

The reviews I have read aren't stellar. We ended up shortening our trip and only have about a 3/4 day to do Epcot, late arrival day. We are going to skip the WS and stick to FW only so we can get our rides on. So I thought Garden Grill would be a great way to see some characters, use our TS credit for the day and not have to leave FW. Is the food bad? How is the character interaction? Thoughts?

 

[lovebug33]

Dh and I LOVED the food. I got sick from the rotating. The server was excellent. However, it was just two adults and the character interaction was pretty bad. CHip and Dale were good, but Pluto and Mickey nearly just skipped right on over. It was very disappointing. And, it was expensive, 100 bucks for two. I just don't think I would do it again.
Edited: I should add that DH and I were hot, sticky, and a little grumpy, so that could have colored our review!

 

[kari B.]

For every Disney restaurant there will be mixed reviews. The interaction at the Garden Grill is usually good. Every time we go there, we've seen the characters more than once.

The food is not gourmet, but it is tasty. I think the key word is tasty, lol. Most restaurants at Disney have food that is "tasty" There are only a few restaurants at Disney that are consistently bad. Garden Grill isn't one of them. Go ahead and give it a try.

 

[ThreeKMom]

After reading those reviews I was hesitant to book here also. Let me say that I'm glad I didn't listen to them!

We had a great time here last November! We booked this as our first TS of the trip and my DH didn't want to go!

Our ADR was for 4:45 and we arrived exactly at 4:45 because we did the Behind The Seeds tour first, we were seated in about 5 minutes. The character interaction was excellent, Chip & Dale were very playful, I think we saw them each 2 or 3 times during our meal. Mickey stopped by twice also and made a big fuss about DD's birthday button! Pluto was there too, we hadn't seen him in the parks before.

The food was suprisingly good!! The salad was very fresh and the dressing was yummy. We didn't care for the turkey as much as the fish and steak but it was still very good. We had second helpings of the fish and 3 helpings of the steak!! DH loved the dessert, some kind of fruit cobbler (I couldn't have it because it had nuts). The brought out a cookies & cream mousse with oreo "ears" for my DD and when the waitress asked why I wasn't having dessert and I told her I couldn't have nuts she went and got the same Mickey dessert for me!

We really had a fun time here and would recommend it to anyone!

 

[grace&philipsmom]

Garden Grill is one of my kids favorites. The character interaction that we had there was fantastic! DD ended up dancing with Chip and Dale. The kids also got a kick out of the rotating restaurant. The food was fine, and the dessert was fantastic! We are planning to return there on our next trip.

 

[DisneyFamily123]

Food was very good. Loved the fish and fresh veggies. Character interaction was fun. Chip and Dale are a mess! Check out my review with pictures...

We liked Coral Reef too but... Garden Grill because Chip and Dale are there... Review of Coral Reef

 

[stcav2000]

It has been a few years since we went but it was one of my family's favorite meals. My husband is disappointed that we are not going this year. The food was very good, the service was great and I still remember the veggies were very fresh and probably the best on property. The kids liked the rotation over the Land ride and the character interaction was great. All the characters came by our table at least 3 times and spent plenty of time with us. The layout of the restauraunt made it feel as though we were the only people there.

 

[wvulion]

We've been giong to Disney World for 21 years and didn't hit the Garden Grille until our last trip because I listened to people I knew and steered clear. It was a nice atmosphere (all adults in the party btw), ample, and the characters were a fun bonus. We decided to do this because my Grandmother gave us all tickets to the Candlelight Processional as our Christmas present, and we wanted to have something akin to Christmas dinner to sort of set the mood. Imagine our surprise! I think it's all a personal preference and you just have to take a chance-sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. I personally can't stand the Mexico Pavillion Restaurant, but my sister loves it and we share DNA Have a great time and Bon Appetite!

 

[Mongomil]

We loved the Garden Grill. The food was pretty good served family style. If you found something you liked then tell them you want more of just that. When we went we got fish, skirt steak, and turkey. The wife really liked the biscuts and maple butter. The interaction for us was great. My son was actually scared of most of the characters. Mickey came up behind him and put his hand on my sons head and didnt he jump. So Mickey saw how scared he was and really took his time to work with him and get over it. And it did help alot because after that he started to really open up to Chip and Dale. So overall we had a great time there. Service was a little slow but very personable.

 

[mmtska]

I really liked the Garden Grill. I went with DH in 2009 and it was yummy! We had really good character interaction-except for Chip....IDK where he was! The rotation was so slight I didn't really notice. I'd go again.

 

[doclegler]

We are going back after a great visit last year. My 3 boys all loved the food and the characters are absolutely wonderful!
I think you might really enjoy it, but its always a personal decision. Try it and see how you feel.

 

[RMulieri]

We love the food and the character interaction!

 

[tina.tina]

I don't know how to post pictures but I have the cutest pictures of Pluto & DD fighting over the misting fans. She had hers on & he turned it toward him. She turned it back to her. He turned it back to him. This went on until I dug out our other one & gave it to Pluto. Then, he turned both of them toward him & stood there with both arms in the air with both fans blowing on him. It was so cute!!! I agree that the set up of the restaurant is really good for privacy & you don't feel like you're in a crowded restaurant.

I don't usually like fish & I loved the fish there. It really was one of our best meals and I was worried after reading reviews.

PS- Chef Mickey's really wasn't very good food but the characters were good. DS was afraid that every character wanted his drink after Goofy pretended to take a drink the first night.

 

[southern_belle21]

Okay this is very close to being one of my very fav character meals of all time! I've been several times, with and without children, and every single time I've gone the character interaction has ALWAYS been wonderful!!! They usually come around several times too! Even when we haven't had kids and it's just been myself and my DH, or a party of 4 adults! We LOVE IT! The food to me is great too! Always very fresh and they bring out more of anything you want. My fav part though, (me personally) is that it's inside The Land! I LOVE IT! I don't know why lol. I love that it rotates so you get different scenery too. This is always a fav

 

[pixarmom]

Our family of five is picky - all for different reasons. My husband, for example, is generally resistant to chain restaurants and wants fresh, good quality menu items. Our oldest son (a pre-teen) likes things like stuffed portobello mushrooms (and I'm talking stuffed with spinach), scallops, clam chowder, etc. Our middle son (also a pre-teen) is all about mac and cheese and chicken nuggets - always from the kids' menu. Our youngest son is somewhere in between.

We ALL enjoy Garden Grill. There is something for everyone. The character interaction is some of the best at WDW. GG is our arrival night tradition, and we've been there three times in the past year. The food ranges from good to really good to great - just depends on the night and the menu (which changes a bit occasionally.) But it's always good and we always enjoy it - so it remains our arrival night tradition!

Have a great trip, OP!

 

[megthewonderful]

We always enjoy the Garden Grill. I think the character interaction is great and the meal doesn't feel as fast paced as other character meals. We usually make a point to go there during each of our vacations, but this year we chose breakfast at Ohana for our character meal to try something different.

 

[kimbo0569]

I've eaten here twice with my family and both times, had alot of fun! The food was good, even for my husband who is very picky. He said he would even go back. The character interaction was fantastic as well. I say give it a shot!

 

[kecmouse]

The food and character interatction was great here!! The service was by far the worst we had experienced on property though... When we got our food it was not from our server and our server came to us in the beginning but never came back for about 35 minutes... We joked that he must have been dressed up as Mickey or something and then changed back quickly When our waiter did come after 35 minutes he seemed frazzled overall it was just a strange dining experience and I don't think we would eat here again. Do keep in mind that it gets extremely loud in the restaurant because you pass certain section of the attraction "living with the land". This means you might here a wierd animal sound for about 3 minutes straight. Check out my Trip report below if you want to see pictures and my official review.

 

[Lovemy3babes]

Thanks everyone! I think we'll give it a try. I really appreciate your honest opinions!!

 

[tr-ray]

We tried this restaurant for the first time in December 2010 since we wanted a character meal with Mickey and had heard such bad things about Chef Mickey's.

We had later reservations for dinner - 6:45ish - but it was fairly busy due to free dining. It took longer than we wanted to be seated, especially travelling with two small children - but when we finally did get seated and ate, the food was great.

Everything tasted fresh & delicious, and our server was very good with getting us more of each item when we requested it.

The characters were also great - each spent about 5 minutes with my DD and my nephew, giving us plenty of time for them to give hugs and take pix/video, etc.

Can't wait to go here again!