Garden Grill ?

[minnie4me]

Looking for some new places to eat on our next trip...wondering if the Garden Grill is worth the money ? $30 seems a bit high since we are paying oop, but if the food is good it wouldn't be so bad. Is it true sit down family style or a buffet ?

 

[krisnchris]

It was my DH's favorite food for TS. It is family-style; they replenish if needed. Our waitress was terrible - my DS's 5th b-day (the actual day) and I had to ASK for singing (I had already told her it was his b-day), and she then said how terrible her voice was. Geez, I don't care, neither did my DS. But the server next to us was great; just depends. I suppose I could've said something to the mgr but I'm pretty laid back and don't even think of those things.

The food was great and the characters came around more than once and were really good. I'd do it. But up to you and how you spend on vacation!

 

[minnie4me]

I forgot it is Character dining, who are they ?

 

[disneygirlmass]

I have heard the food is good at the Garden Grill, but if you are going more so to see the characters, there are much better character restaurants with good food to eat at in Disney. One of the must eats I would say is Chef Mickey's, and another great place to eat, especially for birthdays (though not character style) is Whispering Canyone. I've eaten there six times, and it's always a hilarious dinner, the waiters and waitresses put on a great show.

 

[krisnchris]

It was Mickey, Minnie, Chip, Dale, Pluto (I think?) They were in farming clothes. They were cute, especially Chip and Dale. They don't like to have their names mixed up!!

 

[miss_nik_nik]

We have always been a fan of GG. Because it is a small restaurant, the characters have more time to spend at each table. we had each of the characters for at least 5 minutes, some even came around twice! it's GREAT in that aspect. as for the food, we really enjoyed it. if you only want more of a certain thing, they are glad to give you a plate of that. the waitstaff is very kind and will make any adjustments for you as needed. they will even give french fries if you ask

 

[daisy2jae]

We ate there for the first time about a month ago. First opinion when sitting down....What the heck were we thinking we're going to be picking up a quick service meal after this! After a few minutes we realized we were totally wrong! Chip, Dale, Mickey, and Pluto visited while in farmer clothes. It was family style and the dessert was wonderful! We had a great server and the kids loved that we were moving (we only noticed the moving when we looked at the floor and you could see the difference in flooring) The moving never bothered us once! Our server told us that some of the veggies served were grown right there at the park. He told us about the boat ride below us and we took the kids on it after dinner. The kids still talk about it. Shocked us that we never checked it out before. We'll for sure go back!

 

[pixarmom]

We love Garden Grill and highly recommend it! Garden Grill has been our family's arrival night tradition for the past 10 years, and it's our boys' favorite restaurant at WDW. (Their second favorite is now California Grill.) Our boys range in age from pre-school to pre-teen. Our two most recent visits to Garden Grill have been in March and July of this year.

As previous posters mentioned, the characters are Mickey, Chip, Dale and Pluto and the service is family style. We love not having to juggle plates at a buffet - especially for dinner at the end of a busy day with three boys! The atmosphere at Garden Grill is far more low key than other character meals we've tried. Our boys love how the restaurant rotates through scenes in the Land ride, and we always request a semi-circle booth on the lower level. It literally blocks out the rest of the restaurant, so it's just us, the characters and the rotating scenes right in front of our table - about as relaxing as a character meal can get! And the characters take a very long time interacting with our boys at the table - we usually see each character at least twice during a 1-hour dinner. We've also been to Chef Mickey's several times, but we find the atmosphere, food and character interaction much better at Garden Grill. (Although as previous posters mentioned, the characters have farmer attire at Garden Grill, so if traditional garb is important to you, that's just something to note.)

We think the food is great. They start with a very fresh salad and great rolls, and then they bring a nice variety of meats, veggies, potatoes, and mac and cheese, chicken legs and fries for the kids. In our experience, it's always been very fresh. Before our last trip in July, we would have rated the food as "good." But in July, we thought the food quality had improved significantly. So now, we'll go for both the tradition, the character interaction and the food! We're looking forward to it on our arrival night in February!

Good luck with your planning, OP!

 

[aussietravellers]

We went to Garden Grill a few nights ago. We used to be big GG fans and it is has been a must do for us. The meal the other night has us wondering if we will return. The food was ok, turkey was very moist and tender as was the meat, the fish tasted like fishy soap (not that I have eaten soap before ) but the main disappointment was the characters

We have had the most fabulous character interaction there in the past. Chip and Dale are my DS's favourites, in particular Chip. But this particular night it was extremely disappointing. At one point we were actually laughing because it seemed like the characters were working in slow motion Mickey was the worst. His wave was soooo sllllloooooowwwww and he was completely walking and moving in slow motion. It was really bizarre. We were even watching him at other tables and he was the same, completely void of personality and totally slow, very slow movements. At times we were watching him walking around the top level and he was walking and kept banging into the wall. I wonder if he had been having a couple of cocktails out the back Anyway, all of the characters that night were not really their usual vibrant selves. They were all a bit flat and not very interactive and not just with us, we were watching them with everybody.

So we will probably give it a go again, they may have just all been having a bad night.

 

[gerberdaisy1234]

I know this is repeating some things that have already been said...
GG is our FAVORITE. Since they no longer do lunch we booked the earliest dinner last trip. 4:00 We checked in early. We were the first family seated so we got to take a picture of all the characters at one time. They came back around several times.

We love this resturant for several reasons:
1. It has some of our favorite characters, Mickey, Chip, Dale, and Pluto.
2. Time spent with characters. If you want fun interaction with characters Chip and Dale are some of the best. They will play with you and make you feel like your family is the only family there.
3. The table. We have always sat a a table on the lower level overlooking the Living with the Land ride. The resturant SLOWLY rotates. You feel like you are the only ones there (except for the brief while that your table faces the lobby area). Between the changing scenes and the characters- perfect.
4. The food. The food is delicious and plentiful. They bring you more of whatever you desire and will cook meat to your liking.
5. The service. Our servers have always been the best.
6. Living with the Land. It was at the Garden Grill that we first learned about Living with the Land ride. We went on after our first visit to GG and immediately back on a second time. Unfortunately, it was closed in January when we were there.(It is now one of our favorites)

If we only do one table service meal it would be Garden Grill. I book 4:00 again and hope to be the first family seated again. I hope that Living with the Land will be open.

 

[thej]

The food is pretty good, tho the turkey has been dry for us. The steak and dessert is excellent, with the salad and bread close behind.

This is a must stop for us as DS is a Chip-n-Dale fanatic. They are the only Characters he will get near for the most part, and this is the best place to see them.

 

[Ariel on Land]

Yup- this one is a must do for us as well. LOVE the characters and love that it's "all you can eat" without having to get up and go to a buffet!

 

[HollVoll]

We have always been a fan of GG. Because it is a small restaurant, the characters have more time to spend at each table. we had each of the characters for at least 5 minutes, some even came around twice! it's GREAT in that aspect. as for the food, we really enjoyed it. if you only want more of a certain thing, they are glad to give you a plate of that. the waitstaff is very kind and will make any adjustments for you as needed. they will even give french fries if you ask

Ditto. Our experience there has been super. This is our third year in a row for a week during free dining and it is the ONLY place we've gone to all 3 years. Do check the menu as it IS limited and may not please picky eaters, but the past two years we have REALLY enjoyed it as it is fresh with some variety. The characters we've had are Chip and Dale and Farmer Mickey and Pluto. We have always had them come by at LEAST twice with time to hug, sign autographs, and play a bit. My boys love the rotating restaurant.

 

[Megsmachine]

We went this past January. The server was great and the characters were wonderful. Well...we (dh and I) actually started to get a little annoyed because they ended up coming to our table 5 times EACH!!

All the above being said, the food was A-W-F-U-L. Dh and I ended up eating the kids food instead. We would never go there again because of how awful the food was. We had a 6pm ADR too, it wasn't like it was late.

 

[Claire&TheBoys]

We tried the GG for the first time this past May and I loved it! It was the only character meal we did that trip and I specifically booked it because it was not a buffet. I was traveling with my sons by myself and knew it would be tough to manage the two of them, plus myself, at a buffet.

I thought the salad was fabulous, as did my oldest son. My boys weren't thrilled with the children's offerings - they liked the chicken legs OK, but they are mutants who do not like mac-n-cheese at all, nor sweet potatoes. I thought the mac-n-cheese was terrific, and so were the sweet potato fries they were served. They did like their dessert - my oldest was celebrating his birthday, and they brought his dessert with a candle in it.

I loved the steak, the fish was quite good (I'm not much of a fish eater, so that's a high compliment from me), and the turkey was pretty good too. I loved the cobbler dessert, also.

All in all, although it was pretty expensive, I enjoyed the meal a lot. The characters were attentive and fun, despite my youngest trying to pull all their tails.

I'd like to go there again on our next trip!