Hypothetical for 10/7

[pjweaver]

You live close enough to go to Disney World every day; What restaurant, if any, do you eat at rather than going off property?

 

[pjweaver]

For me it would be breakfast at Kona Cafe. Price wise it's close enough to what i spend if I go out anyway and I just love that Kona coffee.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

This is a bit tough as I don't know the area that well as far as what is offsite. For example, I love sushi and love sushi at some locations on property, but I assume there are places to get comparable sushi for much cheaper offsite

Also, I would exclude any unique experiences (like I would still want to do the Hood Dee Doo review, but nothing really comparable offsite)

Ones that come to mind are Sunshine Seasons, Landscape of Flavors, The Brown Derby Lounge, and Sanaa

I love sharing apps or small plates so love lounges and sharing things like the bread service at Sanaa

 

[disneysteve]

Pecos Bill's for the chicken fajita platter
Sunshine Seasons for the hummus platter

 

[rteetz]

I feel like I would go to the poly often. I don't think I could just eat at the same restaurant there every day though.

 

[disneysteve]

I don't think I could just eat at the same restaurant there every day though.

I didn't interpret the question as a place to go every day. I just answered with places I would specifically go on property to eat if we wanted to eat out. I can't think of any restaurant anywhere that I would want to go to every day.

 

[Marc D]

For me, three buffets come to mind : Tusker House, Boma and Biergarten. We also love the family-style diners at Garden Grill and Liberty Tree Tavern. Those are our only must-do ADR when we go down to WDW. We've never been but I'm pretty sure the Skipper Canteen would make the list based on the menu and the reviews.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

For me, three buffets come to mind : Tusker House, Boma and Biergarten. We also love the family-style diners at Garden Grill and Liberty Tree Tavern. Those are our only must-do ADR when we go down to WDW. We've never been but I'm pretty sure the Skipper Canteen would make the list based on the menu and the reviews.

We really liked Skipper's Cantten - good food and fun CMs ... But it isn't cheap so not sure how often we would got there "to eat vs somewhere of campus"

 

[Irish_Mike]

Sushi Bar/Kona Cafe at the Poly

Can never go wrong with some raw fish and rice

 

[SorcererHeidi]

Even though I haven't been there yet, there are several places that intrigue ma at Disney Springs. I also love both the food and ambiance at Tangierine Cafe - could sit outside and people watch if nice weather. I also have always enjoyed the Biergarten if I'm in the mood for more and heavier food, and entertainment.

ETA: I've seen several mentions of Trail's End, especially for breakfast, and I have to agree. I've always had great "down home food" there, friendly CM', fairly reasonable prices (for WDW), and love either touring the campgrounds later on a golf cart (especially at night, in December!), or sitting on the beach, watching the beautiful sunsets, EWP, and fireworks.

 

[KingLlama]

Odyssey Restaurant

 

[disneysteve]

Odyssey Restaurant

Well if we're taking that approach, I really miss the Adventureland Verandah in MK and the Papeete Bay Verandah at the Poly.

 

[SorcererHeidi]

Well if we're taking that approach, I really miss the Adventureland Verandah in MK and the Papeete Bay Verandah at the Poly.

And for me it would be missing the fantastic breakfasts at Bonfamille's Cafe @ POFQ.

 

[KingLlama]

Well if we're taking that approach

No one should ever take my approach. With anything.

 

[Accident]

You live close enough to go to Disney World every day; What restaurant, if any, do you eat at rather than going off property?

I fall into this as I live extremely close to property. Like eating anywhere in the world, it really depends on what your in the mood for or what else your doing. When I went to AK after dark opening wekeend, I went to tiffins. When flying fish reopened, I went there just for dinner. If I want to do breakfast at disney I head over to Trail's End in ft wilderness *but depends on where I'm going next and if I'm in the mood for brunch on the weekend where they offer that*. My sister was visiting and we were going into mk so we did o'hana (for our first time) and then went into MK.

Now there have been some interesting trips in. For example I live close enough to epcot and hs that I generally have the same weather but it was dry at home and raining like crazy when I got to epcot. but MK which usually has different weather was raining but stopping soon so I hit contemporary and picked a random place to eat there (forgot the name of it on the first floor) then walked over to mk after it stopped raining..

Lately I've been trying out a new place about twice a month that I never tried on disney property so I'm getting around the place pretty quick. it does add up cost wise and disney is not really a good deal when it comes to food and what they serve even with TiW.

Now with that said, off property even the limited places between home and disney property is far cheaper and usually much better food. For example if I'm in the mood for sushi, i'm going to a dozen places and disney has nothing on the list but I would stop at poly for a quick sushi lunch as I'm heading into MK. Steak I would probably got to charley's steak house on 192 but the steaks inside gaylord palms restaurant are amazing (and makes disney look cheap). if I'm in the mood to travel a little further away, I have 4 rivers on my list now that the disunplugged team mentioned that wasn't even on my radar as it wasn't nearby before. It also depends on time of day, I can take back roads into disney and completely miss I4 or 192 as a parking lot so sometimes it's just easier to go into disney if I don't eat in my own town (which has some great places to eat also).

Disney is not the best deal for a meal so I generally find myself when out with others eating at disney or just don't want to cook and then head out to a park so I'll grab something somewhere on property.. (or do dinner and a movie at springs).

 

[Aerin75]

I really like Grand Floridian for the atmosphere as much as the food (we've had really good luck with both), but I think if I lived close to Disney, I'd quickly up my percentage of restaurants on property where I've eaten!

 

[disneysteve]

I think if I lived close to Disney, I'd quickly up my percentage of restaurants on property where I've eaten!

Personally, I don't think that at all. We purposely don't eat at many onsite restaurants now because we just don't think they're worth it. If we lived in the area, I don't think that would change.

Now there are a bunch of offsite restaurants that I'd like to try, like the places on Restaurant Row, for example. If we lived there, I can definitely see us hitting up those places.

 

[loves to dive]

I wouldn't eat at any of them every day cause I like to mix up my meals but I'd eat at Brown Derby often, love the Cobb Salad. I'd eat at Skipper's Canteen often, love the atmosphere and the food. I'd stop at the new lounge at AK (can't remember the name) a lot, loved the small plates and the drinks and the atmosphere there. Spice Roads would be a go to place, again love the small plates and love the med. food. I'd actually probably eat at all three of the Morocco places often. Haven't tried it yet but Flying Fish would most likely be on the list cause I like to dress up and play grown up every once in awhile. All of this is assuming I made the equivalent to my current salary so could afford to live there and pay the prices. What I make here wouldn't go far there but here you can get a fairly nice 3 bedroom house for between $150,000 and $200,000 according to how close to town you get.

 

[Aerin75]

Personally, I don't think that at all. We purposely don't eat at many onsite restaurants now because we just don't think they're worth it. If we lived in the area, I don't think that would change.

Now there are a bunch of offsite restaurants that I'd like to try, like the places on Restaurant Row, for example. If we lived there, I can definitely see us hitting up those places.

I think I'd just like to try each at least once. I definitely agree they aren't worth the price in general, and so far they've been "vacation" meals for us. It would change if we lived there, but it my take a while for the newness to wear off.

 

[Accident]

but I think if I lived close to Disney, I'd quickly up my percentage of restaurants on property where I've eaten!

Personally, I don't think that at all. We purposely don't eat at many onsite restaurants now because we just don't think they're worth it. If we lived in the area, I don't think that would change.

Now there are a bunch of offsite restaurants that I'd like to try, like the places on Restaurant Row, for example. If we lived there, I can definitely see us hitting up those places.

I think I'd just like to try each at least once. I definitely agree they aren't worth the price in general, and so far they've been "vacation" meals for us. It would change if we lived there, but it my take a while for the newness to wear off.

The newness wears off pretty fast and steve hit the nail on the head. First is the cost vs quality, once you start to venture out more you don't really want to eat at most of disney. Second is the time it takes, you have to get to the place from home and chances are your at least 20 minutes away + time to get around property so we'll add in 15 minutes there. dinner time when the highways are backed up and its much more time than that to get over there. It's just not worth the time and that's assuming you even got an ADR to get into where you want to eat, you still have those struggles to get in in the first place..

Last is you'll just discover the amazing options available outside of disney both in price and quality. Sure there is tons of horrible places but there is a lot of gems.. heading 20-40 minutes just because you want to eat out doesn't happen to much around here, you generally need a reason to be out that far. But 5-10 minutes away and an amazing better than most of the disney meal and it'll start to remove how much you want to be at disney just to dine.. Look at disunplugged, who eats out at places has changed in the last 6 months and it takes a very special place to get everyone there.

You'll still eat at disney but it'll be for other reasons. I do counterservices at springs a lot because i'm heading to the movies. I have an ADR for tomorrow for a great dinner and we're going to send off MSEP in style, but we're going to mk to send off MSEP and not just eat.. If we can financially handle a better place here and there, we'll check out the new places around springs. In a couple weeks we'll be eating at property a lot because my parents are around and htey love the food at property compared to what they have available at home and we're getting settled in.