Garden Grill

[grimley1968]

It's been some time since we've eaten at Garden Grill in The Land pavilion in EPCOT. The last two times we ate there, probably about 4 and 5 years ago, the food was good and it was nice to have a character meal with less hassle than some of the other restaurants. The rotating view was great as well.

However, the service was horrible both times. It was a little bit slow, and the servers both times had condescending attitudes towards my family. I could deal with things being a little slow at times, but the snide attitude was a little too much.

But even with that history, it's a neat enough place that we were considering trying it again during our upcoming trip to WDW. I'm posting a poll with this to get a feel for what people think of Garden Grill now.

If you've eaten there in the last couple of years, please respond to the poll, and state why you answered the way you do.

Thanks in advance!

 

[stitchlover]

I have to explain why I voted satisfactory. I would actually give the food a poor and the character interaction excellent. We went in March '07 and I felt that the service was okay, but the food was over cooked, bland and just not that great. But the character interaction was 12 on a scale of 1 to 10.

The character interaction was so good that I agreed to schedule it again for our trip in March '08. I just get to eat what I want for dinner that night since that meal is for our daughter!

 

[grimley1968]

How was the service, not counting the character interaction? Thanks.

 

[SnowWtch]

The service was great when we went last month for lunch. He kept the drinks refilled as well as our plates. The food was quite good except for the veggies which were a little salty. The character interaction was wonderful especially since it was our first character meal. We're definitely going back again. The only thing I would say negative is that it was noisy. We got there an hour early for our ADR and were seated in less than 5 minutes. We had a blast.

 

[grimley1968]

the veggies were a little salty.

I remember this as well. It's not too surprising, since it's supposed to feature quintessential American farm foods. And what do we Americans use more of than anything else to completely hide any notion of a vegetable-like taste? Salt.

But it's good to read the service was good for someone recently. In our last 2 times there, it was shocking how rude the servers were.

 

[marivaid]

We had lunch at GG in July. The character interaction was great, but the food was tasteless. Dessert was good. I'd go back solely for the characters but ask for the kid's food instead. Our server wasn't bad, more like indifferent.

 

[kathie859]

Bumping 'cause I have an ADR there in 2 weeks.....

 

[disneyquilter]

I gave it an Excellent rating because both times we have eaten there (Jan 2007 & Aug 2005), we had the best service & the best character interaction. The food was good too

I hope this helps.

 

[Densgirl]

We love this place. We've had good food and the service was incredible last time we were there in 2006. The man belonged at California Grill he was so good. I vote Excellent

 

[gigi1313]

this is one of our family's FAVORITE restaurants and the one dining experience i missed the most on our most recent trip 'cause we couldn't get ADRs when we needed/wanted them (and had to settle for Coral Reef, which was excellent, it just wasn't our FAVE, kwim?)... the service has always been top-notch, they handle my son's food allergies w/grace and make him feel special even w/all that he cannot have... it's the FIRST ADR i am planning to make for our '08 trip when my 180 day window opens!

 

[TheRatPack]

We ate there 2 weeks ago and it was really good. Very tasty food, I think I ate all the catfish on my own LOL (Oink Oink) and I loved the pastry dessert....YUMMY!!! The Turkey was good, the kids loved the chicken and mac and cheese and the potatoes were excellent too. Our waitress was very cordial and kept our glasses filled to the brim, and our platters filled with food too.

 

[JPG]

We ate at GG in August. The food was good, the service was great, and the character interaction was awesome! My Daughter especially enjoyed it.

 

[suzimar57]

we like it there - especially because out of all the foods that are brought to the table, it works out that the ones my DH doesn't like, i get to eat more of! (like the veggies, salad and fish)

 

[Pixiedust34]

We ate there in 06 and 07. The food was pretty good overall, but the service was slow in 07. There were 4 of us at the table during 8/07, and they brought three small pieces of catfish for all of us. We went through the catfish quickly and the mac & cheese for the kids quickly. It was a long time until we saw our server to request seconds. And then it was a long time until she brought seconds. She brought some extra catfish but forgot the mac & cheese when she did come. She eventually did come back with mac & cheese for the kids, but by the time we saw her with the mac & cheese we were ready for dessert.

We weren't impressed with the service overall. But the food and character interaction was good. I know that service is hit-or-miss regardless of where you eat, but that was our experience at Garden Grill.

 

[vandort]

We ate there at the end of August. We had the best service ever at WDW at this meal (and we've had a lot of meals at WDEn . I forget our waiter's name although I remember that he was from Potsdam, NY. He truly went out of his way to ensure that we had a wonderful experience. He even went outside to check if it was still raining (it had been raining very hard), which was entirely unexpected. The food was also very good and characters were great. I would encourage anyone to eat at this restaurant.

Also, we were on the free dining plan for this meal.

 

[KnJ]

I gave it a GOOD. I love the atmoshpere and the uniqueness of the restaurant. The food has been good and the character interaction excellent and personal. It is not a must do for us every trip, but every other trip.

 

[grimley1968]

Thanks for the responses everyone! I'm bumping this to get more.

So far, the response has made me want to go ahead and go back there this trip. It sounds like the service, although slow at times according to some on here, isn't with the server attitude we experienced our last couple of visits there. That was my biggest problem with it.

 

[grimley1968]

Bump

 

[mymainmouse]

We just ate at the Garden Grill on Sept. 16th. While it was not terrible it wasn't great either. The food was okay. The highlight was the potato casserole for my husband. It had a cheesy flavor kind of like Swiss Cheese and he loves Swiss Cheese. We had rolls, biscuits, mixed greens, turkey, flank steak, catfish, vegetables, and apple crisp for dessert. The kids had frost your own cupcakes. The server was nice and kept our drinks filled but the whole process seemed to take too much time. Our reservation was for 7:00 and we didn't leave until almost 9:00. We were not eating slowly either. There were also 6 of us and she never brought us out any extra food. I guess maybe you have to ask. We were also seated in a weird configuration with everyone facing out towards the front instead of across from each other which is better for talking to your family. The characters did come around alot but it didn't seem worth it to me. This was also our first meal at Disney so maybe that's why it seemed like we lost too much time. I wanted to go see things not sit waiting on a meal. I guess that was just how we felt about the whole thing. I don't think we will ever eat there again. We do have some friends who ate there in July and thought it was great. Maybe it is better when you have been at Epcot all day and are tired and need time to rest. We had just gotten to Epcot at 5 or 6 and had a lot of energy. Like I said the food was okay, the service -while nice- seemed slow, and the character interaction was good. Been there done that.

 

[mom2aredhead]

The food was OK - We liked the salad flank steak potatoes, hated the turkey and dessert.

The characters were terrfic - came around a few times and spent a good amount of time with each visit.

My service was terrible - very slow and inattentive. I could have excused it if it was really busy, but that didn't appear to be the case.

I didn't care for the atmosphere of the restaurant - I know a lot of people like it, but we did not. We were sitting on the inner or upstairs ring, so the view of "the land" was mostly "the sky" - I also found it to be noisy - not people noisy, but chairs scraping, plates clanging background noisy.

So, we've BTDT, and for characters, we'll probably go back to Chef Mickey's instead.