How's the food at Character Dining?

[Blessed_wth_Triplets]

Here is what we have ADR for: Crystal Palace, Chef Mickey's, Garden Grill, 1900 Park Fare, Hollywood and Vine

How is the food at these places. I had someone suggest we take out a CD and go to a place with better food. We just thought these would be good and help keep our busy boys entertained while we eat Any thoughts?

Karen

 

[kdibattista]

Crystal Palace bfast - always our absolute favorite meal... beautiful atmosphere, awesome food and the best character interaction around... never disappoints (and we always go at least twice each trip)

Chef Mickey's bfast - it's our second favorite... great food, great interaction and awesome energy... great way to start the day

1900 Park Fare dinner - nice dinner... not exceptional but worth it for the price and characters

Hollywood & Vine bfast - disgusting... you couldn't pay me to eat there again... horrible service, even worse food and no character interaction for us at all... I'm sure we hit it on a "bad" day but I can't bring myself to try it again.

 

[Nancyg56]

I have not been to H&V so I can't comment on that one, but I thought that the food was good at the others. With the exception of GG they are all buffets, Garden Grill is an all you care to eat family style meal. I think that the food at 100 Park Fare is the best, but again it is a personal opinion.

I believe that you know what setting is best for your kids, if they are better at a buffet with characters to amuse them, I say go for it. Happy kids at buffets beat unhappy bored kids at the best sit down dinner in my book.

 

[IMDORY]

We had a really good breakfast at H & V in December...we are going again in August b/c we liked the entire experience so much. My son has grown up on Playhouse Disney-we love it! They serve Mickey Waffles-a hit w/DS for sure. The baked goods were very good also.

Garden Grill-our favorite character meal-we do this one EVERY trip. We like the food, the cool rotating restaurant, the casual-low-key atmosphere, characters in farmer clothes (cute), great character interaction....We would go even if it wasn't a character meal.

We will be going to 1900 Park Fare dinner in August-the last time I was there was a long time ago (like 1990 I think)-so I can't comment on that.

Same thing with CP-I haven't been there since 1990 I think-I've been trying to add it to our list-but DS feels that Pooh and Friends are too "babyish" for him. Too bad, I LOVE Pooh and Friends...we'll get back there sometime in the future.

I can't believe that I've NEVER been to Chef Mickey's! We have an ADR there for our August trip too. So many good restaurants...so little time!

 

[disneymom2twins]

I would suggest getting rid of H&V and maybe going to Coral Reef. It is more of a sit down -I love buffets, but after a while it is nice to be served and the kids can be entertained by the fish.

 

[Flametamr]

Hollywood & Vine was good for us. We ate a late breakfast/Brunch and had great character interaction. We enjoyed it.

 

[Mommymcgee]

We did CP lunch and Park Fare Breakfast, the food was great at both.

IMDORY-Pooh and Tigger were also at the Park Fair Breakfast (along with Mary Poppins, Alice and Mad Hatter the day we were there). Maybe you could try that to get your Pooh fix without your son feeling like it was a baby meal.

 

[PrincessMinnie28]

I've only had breakfast at 1900 Park Fare, but I loved it! There was so much to choose from, including an omlet station. They ask you to remain at your tables (unless you are getting food) and tell you that the characters will come to you. Our ADR was for 8:10 a.m. and it wasn't very busy for most of our meal. All of the characters came by at least twice for photos... it was really great!

 

[IMDORY]

We did CP lunch and Park Fare Breakfast, the food was great at both.

IMDORY-Pooh and Tigger were also at the Park Fair Breakfast (along with Mary Poppins, Alice and Mad Hatter the day we were there). Maybe you could try that to get your Pooh fix without your son feeling like it was a baby meal.

Ooooh! And Mary Poppins is my favorite!

 

[danjoan14]

Crystal Palace gets my ! We are going to CP twice during our November trip.

 

[mamamary]

We really enjoyed Chef Mickey's and Crystal Palace. We went to H&V for dinner - it was ok - nothing great but nothing bad either. We recommend CF & CP. We only did H&V because I knew my kids would do better at a buffet than a regular table service restaurant.

 

[daandcb]

Our favorite is the Garden Grille....we always had great food, and great character interaction. They were very accomidating with my husbands dietary needs too. Plus you can't go wrong with decorate your own cupcake dessert for the kids! Hollywood & Vine is okay. The food was good(lunch)....not great but the atmosphere made up for it. My boys really enjoyed that one. Chef Mickey was okay but not one that we would go back to this trip. It was the only place that I felt crowded. The character interaction was okay - we had better at the Garden Grille and H&V.

We're trying Crystal Palace for the first time this upcoming trip and we've never done the Park Fare. We love the character meals.

 

[MickeyNicki]

CP is awesome for breakfast or dinner, we love this place and never had a bad experience.

Donalds breakfast was great, the food was plentiful and the characters are fun.

Princess Breakfast character experience was amazing, my nieces were in 7th Heaven! The food was very good.

1900 Park Faire breakfast, I will never go there again...not even for dinner because the place is jammed packed and super noisy...the characters stopped by for all of 5 seconds, the service was eh and the food was awful.

Chef Mickeys dinner, the characters were great but the food was terrible. The only thing we liked was the prime rib and the mashed potatoes...everything else was awful.

Our favorite is Cape May breakfast..this place is not that busy so you get tons of time with the characters...they "talk" with you, play games on the paper table cloths, the food is awesome, they have the largest selection of fresh fruit

H&V dinner, the worst place I have ever eaten at anywhere. THe food was not edible, the service was MIA and there were dirty tables all around us that no one cleared and since our server was never around we just piled our dishes on the other tables.

 

[aubriee]

Love Crystal Palace, 1900 Park Faire and Chef Mickey's. Garden Grill is OK. I'd dump Hollywood and Vine though--DISGUSTING!!!!

 

[Blessed_wth_Triplets]

Thanks for the info. Is Sci-Fi much better than Hollywood and Vine. I just figured as long as the food is okay...my kids would LOVE it..I heard they do a dance too?? I hope that's true.

I had reservation at Coral Reef but cancelled. The CM said that it's more quiet and dark/adults...kids wouldn't do all that great. hmm...

Karen

 

[Tink3Belle]

I agree with the first poster. Sometimes the characters get so involved the kids don't end up eating. You may want to delete 1 or 2 it can get overwhelming. Just my opinion. Maybe try whispering canyon or o'hana's they have games kids can play during meals.

 

[blushbluebride]

I also have adr at Garden grill (dinner), Captin Jacks (dinner ne one like this place??), Spoodles (dinner), and Chef Mickeys (breakfest). I dont have kids but am a big kid at heart. Also I have never been to Disney and am going for my Disneymoon and want to have the best experiance I can!

 

[twinspluscade]

Here is what we have ADR for: Crystal Palace, Chef Mickey's, Garden Grill, 1900 Park Fare, Hollywood and Vine

How is the food at these places. I had someone suggest we take out a CD and go to a place with better food. We just thought these would be good and help keep our busy boys entertained while we eat Any thoughts?

Karen

If your triplets are age 5 or under, DON'T cancel the Hollywood and Vine! It's the neatest character meal for the pre-school crowd. The characters are very interactive, and the kids can get up and dance with them (it's the only character meal where kids can get up and dance, I believe). The food--at least for dinner--was just "so so" in my opinion. But the character interaction was so worth it!

Crystal Palace for dinner was very good food, I thought. The desserts were awesome (that's always the best part, right ).

We haven't eaten at the other two; we're trying Garden Grille and Chef Mickey's for our next trip.

I think the character meals are great, and they sure did keep my kids (4,4, almost 3) entertained when they went! I personally wouldn't book Coral Reef, but I have very active kids who don't like to sit long. I think especially when you are outnumbered by the little ones (like you and your dh are), it's best to pick the restaurants where the kids will be content. It's no fun trying to keep three bored pre-schoolers happy in a "non-frolicky" restaurant!