How do you choose where to eat?

[AlohaPolynesian]

My mom is taking me in December as a graduation gift. She's really not a huge Disney person but LOVES trying new restaurants. Since Disney has so many fun themed restaurants, I'm thinking of upgrading the free DDP to Deluxe so that we could try a lot of new things.

However, I am leaning towards staying near EPCOT but most of the restaurants I wanted to eat at were in the MK area. Then I started thinking how it would be a lot of back and forth from our resort, and wondered if I should pick a different one?

So tell me - do you pick your restaurants based on where you are staying? What parks you'll be in on which days? Do you choose your resort based on where you want to eat?

It is stressing me out b/c I can just see my mom rolling her eyes when I say "OK we need to get on a bus to MK then hop the monorail to go get dinner!" but I really think those restaurants look more appealing! HELP!

 

[ccigliano]

I actually end up eating at EP mostly and stay at the VWL. At EP, I love Le Cellier, Tutto Italia, and Chef's De France and I recently added Nine Dragons -China to my list. However, if you are doing the deluxe plan, I'd consider some signature restaurants like California Grill (CR), Jiko (AKL), Artist Point (WL) and maybe Hoop De Revue (FW) for a hoot. I usually try to eat where I plan on ending up for the day. I may go to HS in the morning but back to EP for dinner and fireworks. You may want to eat at Jiko the day you visit AK since that one will be the hardest to get to whereas the rest are close enough to parks that you can head over after spending the day, have dinner and then back the park of your choice for fireworks. I usually schedule California Grill around Wishes so I am there for dinner then viewing Wishes from atop the CR - great view and they pipe in the music. Have a great time and don't feel you need to eat where you stay.

 

[AlohaPolynesian]

THANK YOU for the suggestion!!

 

[Nadjalu]

I have been looking at all the menus, along with the food porn thread to see things and will be choosing based on my tastes. I will say that I will try and stick to places that might be in the area of the park or resort I am at that day but will hop if needed.
I also have a niece that knows DW and their restaurants very well and we have similar tastes, so her recommendations always shoot to the top.
She didn't steer me wrong last time, so I am sure when I take her my list this time her input is valued.

 

[disneycountrygirl]

I schedule ours based on which parks we will be in - and I base the parks we will be in on the least busy days of the week for that particular park.

Sometimes it works out perfect. For instance, Animal Kingdom closes at 5 on a particular day we will be there and I booked 6:30 ressies at Jiko so we aren't even missing any park time to eat dinner.

Any of the restaurants in hotels close to Magic Kingdom (such as California Grill and Ohanas), I booked for days that we will be in the MK. I too booked CG for during Wishes so again, we get a wonderful dinner without missing anything in the parks.

My hubby really hates to leave a park to go to a remote restaurant and come back. He'd rather stay and do counter service. So it depends on how much you view the eating as an event in and of itself.

 

[Pooh&OurHunny]

I usually determine which park we would be in and make ADR for lunch. Since we had a young son who still napped we went back to our resort and then I plan ADR to any restaurants we are interested in but I do alot of the restuarant at the hotel we are staying at (like when we stayed in GF...we ate at Narcoosees 2x, Grand Floridian Cafe, 1900 Park Fare and Citricos), When we stayed at AKL (we ate Jiko 2x and Boma breakfast 3x and Boma dinner 2x). When we stayed at the Swan we ate around EPCOT (I think my husband liked that best)....we did this b/c of my son. We are staying at CR on our Dec trip and he hardly naps anymore so my ADR will be any restaruants we are all interested in but we will go to The Wave, California Grill, Ohana, Chefs de France, Flying Fish, Tusker House Breakfast Buffet, Chef Mickey Breakfast, CP (lunch), CRT breakfast, Hollywood and vine lunch(its a must for my son), maybe Yatchman's Steakhouse and Kouzzina. Hope this helps...my son loves to eat and able to sit through a good meal.

 

[MickeyNicki]

We decide on places we like and places we have not been to before...but I will say that sometimes location plays a huge role and how long we are staying too...

For a short trip I will try to do places that are in our resort or close by, like this weekend we were there for just 2 nights and stayed at the WL so our first night dinner was the Wave, breakfast at the resort CS, and departure lunch at WCC (what a mistake by the way). We are doing another short stay in Dec at the GF so our arrival meal with be GFC, departure lunch Kona and the rest will be in the monorail area.

For our long trips it doesnt matter where we go, we rely on the WDW transportation and our own car to drive to resorts and stuff.

I say eat where you want to regardless of where you are staying!

 

[missminniemouse]

We choose based on family favorites and what places are new since our last trip. For our trip this December we've got a split stay between a cabin at Fort Wilderness and OKW. On our dining list is:
The Wave
Citricos
Kouzzina
Cape May
Chefs De France
Coral Reef
Garden Grill
Sanaa
Trails End
Raglan Road
Yak & Yeti

The only problem is we have 11 restaurants and only 10 days. We tend to have a lot of restaurants in the EPCOT area or in EPCOT itself. Since we generally park hop anyway, our park touring plans tend to be very flexible. Once our ADR's are set, we work around them. I do have a list of things I'm taking into consideration when making my ADR's for this trip: taping of the Christmas parade (so we can avoid MK), MVMCP, DIS events, the day we're switching from one resort to the other, having dinner with some friends who will be there at the same time, and supposedly the Annual Condominium Meeting for DVC members will also be during that time. We've been to WDW enough that I don't necessarily plan around parades. If we see them we do, if not it's OK too. We just saw Fantasmic on our last trip, so that's another consideration I don't need to think about. I try to fit in EMH parks when I can, especially evenings at AK and EPCOT. I love the atmosphere at AK at night, especially when you ride EE in the dark. The park our family likes best is EPCOT, so they're always game to stay late there.

It all gets pretty complicated when everything is taken into account. I usually make up a chart listing the park hours, any special events for each day, EMH, and start plugging restaurants in from there. I guess for us, it really doesn't matter where we're staying. The only restaurant on our list that is based on that is Trails End. We've never gone there before and thought this would be a good chance to try it out since we'll be staying right at Fort Wilderness.

 

[Silver Queen]

We base our dinner plans on restaurants that we like or new restaurants that we'd like to try. We enjoy our TS dinners and won't compromise just because it's convenient. We always get hoppers so it's not that much of a hassle. That being said we love the Epcot restaurants as well as those in the monorail resorts. Jiko, Boma and Sanaa are also good. If your mother enjoys culinary adventures maybe she won't mind traveling to an interesting restaurant (you get to see some cool resorts too!).

 

[AlohaPolynesian]

Thanks everyone! I think I've finally made my list of where I want to eat and I took all of your advice into consideration!