Garden Grill or Coral Reef

[mdoc]

I'm planning a late lunch at one of these two restaurants on our Epcot day. My kids are 14, 11 and 8. They like characters but a character meal is not a must-do for them. In about 20 trips to WDW we've only done two character meals (Chef Mickey 6 years ago and Crystal Palace last month), and at both of them I thought the character interaction was sorely lacking. None of my kids is into seafood, but my understanding is that there are plenty of non-seafood entrees at Coral Reef. So, with that background, would you choose Garden Grill or Coral Reef? Which has the better food? Which has the better atmosphere? Is there a particular time to make an ADR to get the most out of the lunch experience? Finally, can someone tell me how the "family style" at Garden Grill works?

 

[Tam1067]

We did both last trip and liked Coral Reef much more. Garden Grill has nice character interaction, but we thought the food was just okay. We had a booth and could hardly fit the platters plus our dishes (there were 5 of us) as well. So we're doing Coral Reef again on this trip and skipping Garden Grill. It's not that it's bad; we just didn't love it and so we don't seen a need to return.

 

[buzzrelly]

We ate at both places in 2006 and we much preferred the Coral Reef. It has the cool fish tanks for entertainment and the food was much, much better. We didn't like the food at the Garden Grill at all. I would suggest you look at the menus for both and see which your family would prefer.

 

[Treacle44]

Although costlier, Coral Reef is much better than Garden Grill. They do do non seafood options, I had the pork chop, they also do chicken, steak, they're just the ones I remember. Even one of the kids choices was roast chicken and mash, my dd loved it.

I'd go with that

 

[tinkandpan]

Coral Reef would be it for us as well. I really can't stand the food at the Garden Grill, it is really blah. The character interaction was really great there but you couldn't pay me to eat that food again- i think they raided the local Golden Coral/

 

[Disneyof3]

Coral Reef would be for us again too. We have done both but this past March we did GG and it is a revolving restaurant and DH got sick on it. Both foods are good but DH said never again to GG. The kids were so excited with the fish tank at CR that it occupied them the whole time during dinner.

 

[hickchick]

We vote for Coral Reef as well. We have been there twice and have loved it. Great food selections and the view of the aquarium!