Garden Grill Question

[mymainmouse]

I have been reading this board for awhile now and have gotten so much useful information. I was hoping someone could give me some advice on the Garden Grill Restaurant. I made reservations there for our trip in September because it is a character dining experience but am afraid my family won't like the food. I am going with my parents and my husband and our 2 girls (5 and 10). I saw pictures of food from there and read the menu but was hoping someone could tell me if the food was good or not worth our time and to make other reservations for somewhere else. My husband is the only picky eater of the group and he has already wrinkled his nose. Thanks for any input. I have already gotten so much useful info from these boards I thought you all would be the ones to ask.

 

[AbbyPan]

hi there! I LOVE the GG! Although I think the menu changed more than once, but if its still the menu from last year, it should be great.

My favorite is the potatos and fried cat-fish, very yummy and seasoned to perfection. The veggies are pretty good too. Also, whatever you prefer to eat, that's what your server will bring more of, just let him/her know (since it is all-you-can-eat.

the other nice thing about GG is the atmosphere. I think its so cute how you end up at the complete opposite side of the restaurant by the end of your meal. Hope you can go!

 

[mymainmouse]

Thanks AbbyPan! The food sounds good to me. I just am hoping the rest of my family thinks so as well. My DH is a big steak and potatoes fan so I'm hoping he will like the flank steak. Do you remember the desserts? I think I read bread pudding or something like it and I'm not sure I even like that. Also was there alot of character interaction? Thanks for the answers!

 

[ThePhantomsGirl]

GG is my favorite and I am soooo glad they have the potatoes back! (the cheese/potato casserole) I'm not a huge veggie eater - but I LOVE GG's and always eat them all. (good thing the friend I usually go with doesn't mind...)

I love the way they do the characters. Because it's in a "round" setting - you don't get missed. The characters are great!!!

 

[AbbyPan]

Oh yes! there is sooo much character interaction- your girls will love it. Pluto is the silliest one, I think. last time our family went he was trying to stick his mouth on everyone's head (makes for great pics!)

The dessert we had was pecan pie-VERY GOOD! but I'm not sure if its changed so if anyone has been there recently, please correct me.
If its bread pudding then I'm sure its good. Have you tasted Ohana's bp? HEAVENLY!!! if its anything like that, you'll love it!

Yeah, I think your husband will def enjoy the GG. The potatoes are addicting.

 

[mymainmouse]

Thanks for all of your answers. I am sure if they have anything involving cheese and potatoes my husband will be happy. I just get nervous because I am planning this for everyone and I don't want anyone to be disappointed. We are using the Dining Plan and I also wanted to get as many character experiences in as possible. You both have made me feel a lot better! Thanks for your input!

 

[jeeperwy]

We ate there in April, and it was good. We had the flank steak (DH ate most of this, but I do remember I had a bite and it was fine), catfish, and roast turkey I believe. The salad was nice and fresh also. For dessert we had a stuffed pastry with berries on top. It was good too, but I liked some of the desserts from other restaurants better (but that is just personal taste, there was nothing wrong with anything we got.) The character interaction was good too. Chip & Dale came by several times and we saw Mickey and Pluto too.

HTH!
Kari

 

[DisneyJimbo]

We ate there a week ago, and the dessert was puff pastry with berries on top. It was very good.

For the meal, we had:
* Salad
* Bread
* Catfish
* Flank steak
* Turkey with cranberries
* Potato casserole (YUMMY!!!)
* Green beans and carrots

We had a great time and enjoyed the character interaction. The characters came around to our table twice during our meal, so we had alot of fun with them.

Enjoy!

 

[mom2aredhead]

That was my least favorite character meal on our trip last month. Goes to show the wealth of opinions here on the Dis!
The whole thing was just OK for me. The food was just OK, nothing special, and I did not like the dessert at all. I also did not care for the atmosphere. We sat in the upper portion, so our rotating view of "The Land" was only "The Sky". Being on that platform, I kind of felt like we were sitting in a hallway if that makes any sense. The characters were good (loved Mickey's overalls) and our server was nice, but for us, it was a "been there don't need to go back" dinner.

 

[makinorlando]

We ate there a week ago, and the dessert was puff pastry with berries on top. It was very good.

For the meal, we had:
* Salad
* Bread
* Catfish
* Flank steak
* Turkey with cranberries
* Potato casserole (YUMMY!!!)
* Green beans and carrots

We had a great time and enjoyed the character interaction. The characters came around to our table twice during our meal, so we had alot of fun with them.

Enjoy!

This is what we had on Mother's Day as well. I think DD got the kids menu - nuggets and mac & cheese, but she preferred eating the potatoes and green beans. She LOVES the green beans there for some reason.

I also enjoy the catfish - it's about the only place I have eaten it - DD will also eat a piece of that - it's a little more seasoned than she likes.

I had the puffed pastry for dessert as well, and to me it is one of the best desserts EVER. I had heard at one point since we had eaten there last in the fall that it had been removed, and was so SURPRISED to have it served to me for my Mother's Day treat.

The characters are wonderful. We were one of the first seated for lunch that day, and had so much time with them - especially Dale who is DDs all time favorite.

It is one of our top four at WDW.

 

[amykathleen2005]

That was my least favorite character meal on our trip last month. Goes to show the wealth of opinions here on the Dis!
The whole thing was just OK for me. The food was just OK, nothing special, and I did not like the dessert at all. I also did not care for the atmosphere. We sat in the upper portion, so our rotating view of "The Land" was only "The Sky". Being on that platform, I kind of felt like we were sitting in a hallway if that makes any sense. The characters were good (loved Mickey's overalls) and our server was nice, but for us, it was a "been there don't need to go back" dinner.

I agree with the food part. It really was not all that great in my opinon. There are much better options for character dining. The bread was as hard as a rock and the rest of the food was just okay, nothing great. We were seated on the lower portion but did not like it as well. We started off facing the Land boat ride, which was okay. But by the time we were almost finished up we were directly in front of the "opening" of the restaurant. Everyone waiting in line and walking around the pavilion was looking at us as they past and I felt like an animal in the zoo behind a tiny glass wall....jmo.

 

[breebella]

My girls and i went here last Aug. They were 4 & 13 at the time. I'm afraid I didn't enjoy it all that much. I can't complain about the characters, each of them came around several times so we got lots of terrific pictures. Goofy even sat at our table and colored with my little one. It was the most character time we have ever experienced at any character dining. What we didn't like was the food. We just didn't like anything about it. I think we ate the turkey and maybe potatoes, but that's it. I left hungry. It food wasn't worth the price, but the amount of character time we had was priceless!

 

[mymainmouse]

Thanks so much for all of the answers and opinions. I guess we will just try it and see how it goes. I am hoping it will be worth it just to see Chip and Dale. Our reservations there are for the first night so hopefully it will go well. I don't want to start the trip off on a bad note. Our other reservations are for The Crystal Palace, Chef Mickey's, Tony's, and Le Cellier. I hope they are all good. Like I said in an early post I am doing most of the planning and I don't want to disappoint anyone. It sounds like most of you liked it so I think we should be in good shape.

 

[tinkandpan]

I thought the character interaction was the best around- we saw them numerous times. I thought the food was awful - but I hate family skillets of food where things are all thrown on a plate- my family called it our trough lunch. THe service was super slow as well.

We had:
Filet, the cheesy potato thing, turkey, fried catfish, veggies, mac n cheese, chicken fingersn and fries. Dessert was the flakey berry thing with cream and a cupcake for the kids.

We won't be going back.

 

[Pixiedust34]

We ate there last Sept. Here is a picture of the food:

The chicken fingers, macaroni & cheese, and fries were brought out for the kids.

The catfish and the veggies were excellent! The rest of the food was OK, though I thought the turkey was a little dry. But on the whole, I thought it was a good meal and enjoyed it. The kids were given cupcakes to decorate for dessert and we also had the puffed pastry with berries, which was very good!

Overall, we did like the Garden Grill and we're returning there to celebrate ds' birthday this year.

 

[mymainmouse]

Thanks for the picture of the food Pixiedust34. It all looks pretty good to me. Is that what they brought for your whole family or was that after you served yourselves? Am I right in thinking that they will bring an amount of food based on the number of people in your group?

 

[Pixiedust34]

Thanks for the picture of the food Pixiedust34. It all looks pretty good to me. Is that what they brought for your whole family or was that after you served yourselves? Am I right in thinking that they will bring an amount of food based on the number of people in your group?

It was just me and the kids, and they brought out the platters for us to serve ourselves family style. We did eat some of the bread before I took the picture, but everything else in the picture was as-is when it arrived at our table. I imagine they'd bring more food for more people. We were told that if we needed more of anything that we could ask for it, and we did get an extra serving of the macaroni and cheese. The service was good. Our server was prompt with drink refills and brought us the extra mac & cheese shortly after we asked for it. Another nice thing they did was bring my ds (an "adult" at age 10) a cupcake dessert that was from the kid's menu. We didn't ask for the cupcake--the server brought two (one for each kid) and the puffed pastry adult dessert.

I didn't post this before

because I think they might have changed the dessert since our visit, but here's what we ate. The kids loved their cupcakes, and the adult dessert was yummy!

 

[mousiemom]

We also have an ADR for the GG for our Sept. trip. We are looking forward to it! We were there memorial day weekend and when we rode Soarin we looked over there and we saw the characters and my dh can't wait to go. The food looks really good too! We are going there for lunch one day.
Have fun!
Mousiemom

 

[madison66]

.

 

[mymainmouse]

Thanks guys, I appreciate any input. I am glad to hear they will bring cupcakes for a 10 year old too. I am sure my daughter would say it was okay if her sister(5) got one and she didn't -but secretly she would be disappointed. This board is so nice. Thanks for all the quick answers.