Garden Grill??

[mom2two]

How is the Garden Grill for dinner? It is listed as having Mickey, Pluto and Chip and Dale and served family style? Any experiences....bad or good? Any information would be so appreciated!

 

[cjlvsccm]

How is the Garden Grill for dinner? It is listed as having Mickey, Pluto and Chip and Dale and served family style? Any experiences....bad or good? Any information would be so appreciated!

We had a great meal there last Dec. The food was fresh and tasty, and the server kept up with us. It is all brought to you to serve yourself, and more of whatever you want whenever you're ready.

The characters were fun, and made several stops at each table. Chip & Dale were especially playful with us.

We barely did manage to finish the dessert, a hot apple skillet kind of thing with fresh whipped cream, and we were SO stuffed.

It was close to homestyle food, which was a nice change from the "fast food" and "fancy food" we had the rest of the week. It all got from DH & me!!

 

[mpetti]

We have eaten there several times over the years. Way back when they use to serve breakfast. The last time was in 2007 we had dinner. It was always very good. Served family style and you see a lot of the characters. They are really great with the kids. My DS (11) always remembers our first trip when he was 3 and we had breakfast and Chip drank his milk. To this day he laughs over it. I don't think you can go wrong with the Garden Grill. Enjoy.

 

[Minniefan1]

I am trying to decide if we will try the Garden Grill. Anyone have pics of the food and characters?

 

[SRUAlmn]

We ate there in Nov. of 2007 for the Candelight Processional Package and loved it. Even though we were two adults with no kids the characters came around to us about 3-4 times each (more so Chip and Dale then the big cheese - I think he came twice.) The food was REALLY good (especially the corn bread, yum!) Enjoy your time there and eat some food for us

 

[OurMsBrooks]

I don't know exactly what it is about the Garden Grill, but we always have fun when we go there. DH and I went there for breakfast on our honeymoon in 1992, and have been going back ever since. Even though the menu isn't as good as it used to be, we still like it and always have a good time.

We really like the way the restaurant revolves through Living with the Land, the character interaction is great, and it's fun to eat the food that is grown right there. The vegetables are always fresh and good. Character interaction is also always extremely good, and there is always a fun, special dessert for the kids.

I do miss the breakfast, though. They had strawberries and cream and a wonderful assortment of biscuits and breakfast foods. We weren't hungry for hours and hours, and it was wonderful tasting.

 

[tessiesevin]

The Garden Grill was one of our best character experience. (My DD who is 8)
is not the bravest when it comes to the characters. We did have the dining plan so we had one character meal per day. She made all characters very aware that she was afraid. They were very good about it. They would just pass by our table and wave at her.

At the Garden Grill Chip sat across from her and wrote on a paper "PLEASE DON'T BE AFRAID OF ME I'M AFRAID OF CATS" He actually got a smile out of her. He then went into the kitchen and came back with a glow cube for her.

 

[Abbeysmom]

We thought the food was very good. DH really loved the catfish they brought out and I thought the turkey and the stuffing was pretty good as well. The vegetables they brought out with them were really good and the rolls (sort of a yeasty roll with nuts I think) was so fresh and good! They brought out a salad first with buttermilk ranch dressing, the rolls, and then our main meal~ we asked for extra of some of the food and had no problems with being served quickly. The dessert was some sort of bread pudding with caramel on it and it was wonderful, but we couldn't eat it all and were leaving to go to MK to see Spectro so we left part of it In addition to the food, we loved the character intereaction there. Chip and Dale were great as was Pluto and farmer Mickey. Each and every time they made the rounds they picked at DD and often patted us on the back and gave us attention which is different than all the other character meals we have gone to where you get attention on the first round and are "skipped" once you have done the autograph and picture thing with the characters. Anyway, sorry to ramble, but I would highly recommend it to anyone especially if you love Chip and Dale like we do!!

 

[Disnsyncey]

I would say the characters are great there......we had to tell Pluto and Mickey that they had already seen us 2x!!

I really like the variety of meats and I always end up asking for more catfish....the breading seasoning is just perfect! And anything that has ice cream on it for dessert is fine with me

 

[Tam1067]

Sorry to be the negative voice here, but we did not like our food at all. The characters were fun, but this meal was one of the worst meals we've had at Disney--though dessert was good. I also think the atmosphere is a bit dated.

 

[Niki Andiokno]

Sorry to be the negative voice here, but we did not like our food at all. The characters were fun, but this meal was one of the worst meals we've had at Disney--though dessert was good. I also think the atmosphere is a bit dated.

I agree. This was the worst meal we have ever had on Disney property. The turkey was dry, the catfish really tasted like the bottomfeeder it is, bread pudding was the dessert that tasted like smooshed wonder bread with cream poured over it, the flank steak was tough as leather. The only good thing was the mashed potatoes. I'm not a big spud fan, but that was the only edible thing we had that evening.

 

[sherabby]

We had a great meal the two times we have tried it. We will be back again this June. My son loves the character interactions as well. They do come around quite a few times. I will admit both times we were there though we had a slow server and we were there for well over 1 hr if not closer to 1 1/2 hours.

 

[wishtdream]

We have Chip

Dale

Pluto

Mickey

Sorry no food pics - only empty plates
We liked this meal 2 years in a row

Dale again

Pluto again

Mickey again

Chip again

The kids like the food here and so do we. It is good food simply prepared. Not gourmet not fast food, just right and you don't have to wait to order it appears almost as soon as you are seated without juggling plates at a buffet.

 

[mom2two]

Thank you for all the replies! I think we will give it a try! My DH is a meat and potatoes kind of guy and doesn't like spicy things at all. From the description of the food I think he will enjoy it and I know my kiddos will!

 

[nyck]

I have always loved the garden grill and obviously plenty of other do too because yesterday I called for reservations there for May 5,6,or 7th and they had NOTHING available at all! I have no idea why they stopped serving lunch there since they stay packed.

 

[carrie6466]

We had dinner there in November '08. We all enjoyed it.

 

[Tiger926]

Used to be one of our favs, so we've eaten here at least 4x, and it's seriously gone downhill. Our last meal in May was so horrible from the food, service, broken rotation of restaurant and confused character interaction (it wasn't even that busy), that we have cut it off of our list. The restaurant decor is very dated as well, so they need to make sure the rotation is always working, but over the past year, we have heard continuous reports of it being "broken". Either it's constantly broken because Disney doesn't want to maintain it , or, it's always broken to save money. Either way, the restaurant has slipped very far down from what it once was, and with only dinner available, I wonder how long it will be before Disney spruces this place up.

This is sad for us as it was our 1st character meal that we ever ate, Tiger

 

[bentleygirl22]

We've eaten there over ten times since 2000, when the kids were babies. The food is good, but it used to be better. Disney played with the menu around 2005, actually removing the all-you-can-eat, and removed the salad. That didn't last long. After a mini-revolt, they changed it back. Every year we toy with the idea of taking it off our list, but we always end up glad that we ate there. Last year, the meal was one of the best we had there. The absolute best part of the meal is the ultra-fresh salad, since it's grown in the greenhouse at Epcot. It takes around 30 minutes for a full rotation, and the experience usually lasts about an hour. The last hour or so each day, the characters are not as active, and rarely seen at all then. So make sure you get a early ADR.
you can see photo's of the food here

 

[wrconrad]

This was the second ADR I made for my trip in May, right after breakfast in the castle. The last two trips (3 and 14 years ago) I only had a few TS meals so I don't have a lot of personal experiences. I did make this ADR before I decided to go with a DDP, it that says anythign about my expectations.

 

[WDW08]

Despite the slightly dated decor, this has remained one of our very favorite restaurants in the World. Nearly everytime we go, the characters have us in tears of laughter and the food is fresh and delicious. It's comfort food, plain and simple. I get full just thinking about it......which is why we usually go for dinner and head straight to bed

But....I do see an update in it's future, or at least hope to see one.....