Help Needed - Which restaurants to go to?

[raph_b]

Hi everyone,

I've planned a suprise trip to Disney for my girlfriend in September.

I've been looking around this section and can't believe the amazing selection of Disney restaurants. It also means I have no idea where to start though!

Can I please ask you all to let me know your fav 2 or 3 restaraunts, the ones we simply can't miss.

I've got about 6 weeks until my ADR booking date comes round so I need to start narrowing my choices down!

At the moment I'm thinking Le Cellieur sounds amazing (and I used to live in Canada )

One thing I have noticed - before finding this great forum, I read a lot about Victoria & Alberts, but no-one seems to mention it much on here - any reasons?

Any pointers in the right direction would be greatly appreciated!!!

Thanks everyone!!!

 

[summerlandjeff]

Where to start!!!

Our 2 favorites:
(by meal)

Breakfast:

Kona Cafe @ Poly (THE best coffee)
Pepper Market @ CSR (sit out in the courtyard or lakeside)

Lunch:
Olivia's @ OKW (try to get a window seat)
Rose & Crown @ EPCOT (4 words; fish & chips and Bass Ale )

Dinner:
LeCellier @ EPCOT (2 words; Filet Mignon! )
Raglan Road @ DTD (try the mussels believe it or not! )

Victoria & Albert's is a little on the pricey side and a jacket and tie are required, so I guess not alot of folks go for that (me included)

Enjoy!!

 

[summerlandjeff]

Where to start!!!

Our 2 favorites:
(by meal)

Breakfast:

Kona Cafe @ Poly (THE best coffee)
Pepper Market @ CSR (sit out in the courtyard or lakeside)

Lunch:
Olivia's @ OKW (try to get a window seat)
Rose & Crown @ EPCOT (4 words; fish & chips and Bass Ale )

Dinner:
LeCellier @ EPCOT (2 words; Filet Mignon! )
Raglan Road @ DTD (try the mussels believe it or not! )

Victoria & Albert's is a little on the pricey side and a jacket and tie are required, so I guess not alot of folks go for that (me included)

Enjoy!!

 

[Hopefully]

First of all welcome to the DIS There are lots of folks here to give you good advice!!
We are generally a party of 3 adults. Our favorite restaurants are in WS at Epcot. We love eating in the International restaurants. Must Do's each trip for us are Teppan Edo in Japan, Restaurant Marrekesh in Morrocco, and Le Cellier. We also have enjoyed the Rose & Crown in England, and The San Angel Inn in Mexico.
Another must do for each trip has become Jiko at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. Great atmosphere, good wine and excellent food.
Another true Disney classic that is good and lots of fun, in our opinion, is the Hoop Dee Doo Review. Down Home cooking with a Corny Wild West show. We love it.
There are many angles to planning your ADR's.
I always start by reviewing the menus here on the DIS and on allearsnet.com to see what interests us. We also use the menus to help us budget.
Next we plan which park on which day. You do not want to spend time crisscrossing the World to get to an ADR. We choose restaurants in the Park of the day, or a resort nearby. From the MK you have all of the resort restaurants of the Monorail resorts. From Epcot you have all of the Boardwalk, Swan & Dolphin, and the YC/BC resort restaurants just a short walk away.
I have used both Tour Guide Mike, and the Unofficial Guide to help with planning which park on which day. Both are helpful.
Once we know which park we will be at, we use the menus to plan where in that area do we want to eat and approximately what time.
It is a lot of planning. But to me planning is a great part of the fun.
Restaurant reviews are hard, because everyones tastes vary so widely. What one person would love, another will hate. What one person may view us unobtrusive service, another may view as unavailable server. So we rely more on the menus since we basically know our own likes and dislikes. I do watch the reviews, but I always take them with a grain of salt. Every restaurant gets both good and bad reviews. I watch for trends, however.
I hope this helps some.

 

[SmallWorld71]

Good suggestions so far.
I just wanted to chime in and ask if your girlfriend has a favorite character? If so, I think you should throw a character meal in there. Lots of fun, very Disney and not just for kids.

 

[Starr W.]

Absolutely loved Flying Fish(Boardwalk), we were just there on Saturday night. Excellent food and nice modern and you don't need to bring your jacket like V&A. Great for a dinner without my 2 sons(who were in kiddie jail aka Sandcastle club at BC).

LeCellier, Rose & Crown, Biergarten and Tangerine Cafe(Counter service) are our Epcot favorites.

Downtown Disney locations: House of Blues and Raglan Road

Character dining: Crystal Palace(MK) for dinner(salmon and flan were to die for)
Cape May(Beach Club) for Breakfast, it was very good.

DH likes Mama Melrose at MGM, I had the wood grilled chicken pasta which I thought was very good.

 

[KatMark]

Here are our favorites:

Magic Kingdom:
Table Service: Crystal Palace Buffet (breakfast with Winnie the Pooh) and Plaza Restaurant (great sandwiches, chocolate shakes and sundaes)
Counter Service: Columbia Harbour House and Pinocchio Village Haus

Epcot:
Table Service: LeCellier (cannot say enough about the filet and mashed potatos...I get hungry every time I think about them) and Biergarten Buffet in Germany
Counter Service: Sunshine Seasons and Yorkshire County Fish Shop

Hollywood Studios:
Table Service: Mama Melrose
Counter Service: None--but if we have to, we go to Backlot Express

Animal Kingdom:
Table Service: Have never done one (we have a Rainforest Cafe here and it does not impress us)
Counter Service: Flame Tree Barbecue


As for Victoria & Albert's, we have never done it. My DH's theory is this: "I'm on vacation and unless I can go in shorts and a t-shirt or causal pants and a polo shirt, I'm not eating there. I'm on vacation. I can dress up in Chicago and go out to a fancy dinner where the selection is much better." I have to say I agree with him. I certainly don't want to be putting on a dress in 100 degree with the humidity temperatures!

 

[roselark]

Boma! It is my one true must do!

My DH loves Biergarten and we really enjoyed Rose & Crown and Coral Reef (great steak!).

 

[jimmytammy]

Breakfast
Chef Mickeys or Whispering Canyon Cafe, Trails End(honorable mention)

Dinner
Ohana, Liberty Tree Tavern, Whispering Canyon Cafe, Le Cellier, 50s PTC, Biergarten

Sorry, hard to name 2 or 3

Best advice, dont try to pack to many meals in one day(misery sets in quick)
One meal a day at WDW plus snacking equals a great day! And Im a big eater!

 

[cndnchicky]

Le Cellier!!!! That is my absolute favorite at Disney. The food is just amazing. If you time it right, you can enjoy the IllumiNations fireworks right afterwards. You walk out of the restaurant and your right there!!!!Hope this helps!!!

 

[dvcdisney]

The restaurants that we have to do each vacation is the following:

Dinners:

Le Cellier
Ohana's
Nine Dragons
Coral Reef
Cape May Cafe
Hollywood and Vine
Spoodles

For Breakfast (only eaten a few times for breakfast). But found the Yacht Club Galley really good. Although, I don't like the dinners there. (However, I think it has changed now to Captain Grille's.

The only thing I was very surprised about was Beaches n Cream. I was very exciting to try it on our last visit (Oct 07) because we noticed that they were not as busy. However, we still ended up waiting 30 mins - the restaurant is too small. I heard such a great review of it and was excited to try it finally. I was very very disappointed. The food was not good, my sundae was not pretty at all. It was dripping off the glass container and the brownie was very tough. I guess I'm glad I tried it, that way, I never need to try again.
We love the other restaurants as well, but these are our favourites.

 

[Pakey]

You did not state if you were doing dining plan or not. We are an all adult group, never do the dining plan so we are not restricted to where we can eat.

Favorite places for dinner, in order:
1. Victoria & Albert's. Nothing else compares. It's worth dressing for it. It's also worth the 2.5 hours spent dining.
2. Bistro de Paris at Epcot. Also, not on the dining plan. Excellent food and service here. Very quiet, romantic, small place. They do not accept ADR's at the 6 month mark though.
3. JIKO. Another good adult type of place. Dark interior, very romantic. Interesting menu choices, great wine selections.
4. CA Grill. Eclectic menu which is always fun. Can be a bit noisy there, especially if there are some larger groups. We just ate there again last week and although the place was packed, noise level was less than usual.

Favorite places for lunch, in order:
1. Brown Derby. It's also good for dinner but it's nice having something a little more upscale available for lunch, especially at a park with some poor food selections.
2. Coral Reef. It's usually not as noisy for lunch, especially if you book early. The food was better this time than prior trip.
3. Yak N Yeti. New place for us, really enjoyed being able to get a lighter lunch.

Breakfast. We never do. We don't get up that early.