Must-Do Restaurants for First Timers?

[farmfresh]

I'm very happy to hear your reviews on Tortilla Joes. We are planning on going to this restaurant because it will be something new and the menu looks really good. However, we are wanting to try Naples as well, I'm sorry to see that you are not a fan of this restaurant. One of our favorite restaurants when we are in WDW is Via Napoli in Epcot and the menu looks like it is similar to that so my family is insisting that we try that as well .

Well you might have better luck there than we did. We have eaten there quite a bit in the past, and found it to be fine if not great. But the last time we were seated inside and the whole place was incredibly scruffy - chipped tables, offhand staff and the food was mediocre. But things may have got better. Hope you have a great time wherever you end up!

 

[monorailrabbit]

We're also going in August and I've done exactly that (Goofy's arrival night, Storyteller's departure morning) my last two trips and it's my plan for this one too!

Did you find you had a comfortable amount of time to do Storytellers on your last day? We are a little worried about squishing this in before having to leave for LAX. I can't wait to try these!

 

[Disney_Alli]

Did you find you had a comfortable amount of time to do Storytellers on your last day? We are a little worried about squishing this in before having to leave for LAX. I can't wait to try these!

We fly black to Canada usually about 2pm and we've always had plenty of time.

ETA - Granted we've flown out of SNA every time too

 

[JLS]

I would highly recommend Cafe Orleans. It is much more reasonably priced than the Blue Bayou and, IMO, better food. You can sit out on the patio and watch all of New Orleans Square. the Blue Bayou is nice if you have always wanted to do it and never have, but it is really overpriced for mediocre food. Cool ambiance though! They used to have a lunch menu that was much more reasonable, but no more.

For the WOC package we have had good experiences with Wine Country Trattoria. Much better food than Ariel's Grotto, IMO.

 

[algae]

Here's our 2 favorites:

1. Blue Bayou with a table by the water so you can wave at all the people in the ride
2. Napa Rose and get the world's best hot chocolate if you are there in the right season

Carthay Circle is ok, but Blue Bayou has the unique atmosphere and Napa Rose has outstanding food.

 

[chrisaman]

I cannot believe no one has mentioned the Cove Bar yet. The Lobster Nachos are probably the best meal in California Adventure and they have a decent beer and drink selection. A must do for us every single trip.

 

[Cydney]

Blue Bayou is a fun experience, but I prefer to just get my Gumbo from Royal street veranda in a bread bowl. Then I can pick a spot in the park to eat. We usually go to Rancho del Zocalo by thunder mountain and my husband will get the carne asada. It is shaded and we relax there while we wait for our fast passes. This is also one of the few places in the park where there are free refills on fountain drinks.

We also love to get a seat at the Jolly Holiday Cafe, I love the caprese sandwich on focaccia. We like to go there and watch the fireworks, it is through the trees, but you miss the mad house of people in the street, then we watch the 10pm parade because there are way less people. You can see mainstreet from there as well.

If we aren't super hungry we like to get some skewers (meat and vegetable) and tiger tail from the Bengal BBQ.

California adventure we like to eat lunch at the Lucky fortune Cookery, we get the teriyaki bowl.

Snacks that we never miss out on; Churros, Mickey Beignets, Cheddar Garlic Bagel twists (by the fantasy faire), and of course the dole whips!

 

[smartlabelprint]

Opinions vary widely, as you can already see. My two cents as someone who wants delicious food first and magical experience second is to consider Carthay Circle and Goofy's Kitchen. Carthay Circle is such a beautiful venue and the food was delicious (we went this past Saturday). Goofy's Kitchen has decent food (and it's a buffet) plus good character action. I thought it offered the best value of the character meal options.

We thought the character meals at Ariel's Grotto (we had lunch there twice), Mickey's Surf's Up breakfast, and Minnie's breakfast at Plaza Inn had sub-par food (clearly, the characters are the stars there). We skipped Storyteller's as my girls don't know the woodland characters.

Note: there are also lots of "signature" snacks at DLR that always make me smile and aren't as pricey as character meals. We like the cones in Carsland (though they were sold out of Churro bites this past weekend so I had a regular churro from that Cone), the hot link corndogs from Corn Dog Castle, Mickey ear ice cream bars, Dole Whip (I like the floats!), frozen lemonade (which I know you can get elsewhere but we don't splurge on random snacks at other places), and the turkey leg (DH's favorite--it's huge and delicious).

Have fun!

I agree about Minnie's breakfast. The food is underwhelming. Omelette is good but that was it.

 

[Minniekins]

Did you find you had a comfortable amount of time to do Storytellers on your last day? We are a little worried about squishing this in before having to leave for LAX. I can't wait to try these!

We fly black to Canada usually about 2pm and we've always had plenty of time.

ETA - Granted we've flown out of SNA every time too

We are going on our first DL trip in May(Wdw vets here!). We are scheduled to leave on Sat, May 14th, out of SNA at 2 p.m. Wondering how long that might leave us to have breakfast in the morning or early lunch before having to call Uber to get back to airport?
We are considering possible changing our flight(flying SouthWest), to leave out of LAX instead, with a flight of 5:55 p.m., thinking we might have more time to have a meal and hang out a bit(like downtown disney, not the parks). But, saw these comments and started wondering if we'd have to leave so early to get to LAX anyway, since it's farther away, that the extra time might not be worth it.
So, could either of you share how long ahead of your flights you left for the airports? Trying figure out the timing to get things planned and settled. It'll just be myself and my DD25. Then to decide where to eat for our last meal in Downtown Disney! TIA! Trying to stay in the Disney bubble as long as possible, lol!

 

[monorailrabbit]

We are going on our first DL trip in May(Wdw vets here!). We are scheduled to leave on Sat, May 14th, out of SNA at 2 p.m. Wondering how long that might leave us to have breakfast in the morning or early lunch before having to call Uber to get back to airport?
We are considering possible changing our flight(flying SouthWest), to leave out of LAX instead, with a flight of 5:55 p.m., thinking we might have more time to have a meal and hang out a bit(like downtown disney, not the parks). But, saw these comments and started wondering if we'd have to leave so early to get to LAX anyway, since it's farther away, that the extra time might not be worth it.
So, could either of you share how long ahead of your flights you left for the airports? Trying figure out the timing to get things planned and settled. It'll just be myself and my DD25. Then to decide where to eat for our last meal in Downtown Disney! TIA! Trying to stay in the Disney bubble as long as possible, lol!

Our flight leaves LAX at 3:25pm. We are flying SW. No idea yet what time the shuttle will want to pick us up. I'm used to MCO where you leave about 3 hours before your flight back. Assuming it will be similar? I'm going to guess if your flight is 5:55 you should have time for a bit of hanging out time

 

[Disney_Alli]

We are going on our first DL trip in May(Wdw vets here!). We are scheduled to leave on Sat, May 14th, out of SNA at 2 p.m. Wondering how long that might leave us to have breakfast in the morning or early lunch before having to call Uber to get back to airport?
We are considering possible changing our flight(flying SouthWest), to leave out of LAX instead, with a flight of 5:55 p.m., thinking we might have more time to have a meal and hang out a bit(like downtown disney, not the parks). But, saw these comments and started wondering if we'd have to leave so early to get to LAX anyway, since it's farther away, that the extra time might not be worth it.
So, could either of you share how long ahead of your flights you left for the airports? Trying figure out the timing to get things planned and settled. It'll just be myself and my DD25. Then to decide where to eat for our last meal in Downtown Disney! TIA! Trying to stay in the Disney bubble as long as possible, lol!

We usually leave around 11 or 1130 to head to the airport but I'm one of those crazy people who needs to be very early for everything. A 5pm flight at LAX I'd probably leave by 2pm at the absolute latest - honestly I'd probably leave closer to 1pm.

 

[rentayenta]

Hi all! My family (brother - 16 year old, me - 23 year old, and mom/her boyfriend - two 40+ year olds) is planning to visit Disneyland for the first time in October! This will also be the 16 year old's first Disney trip ever. I want to make the trip as magical for everyone, especially for the 16 year old.

What restaurants would you suggest as definitive restaurants for first timers? We plan on being there for four days and would like to do at least one character meal.

Thanks everyone!

Our favorite character meal is Storyteller's at the GCH for breakfast. Must do restaurants for fire timer's: Blue Bayou, Plaza Inn, Steakhouse 55.

 

[Minniekins]

Our flight leaves LAX at 3:25pm. We are flying SW. No idea yet what time the shuttle will want to pick us up. I'm used to MCO where you leave about 3 hours before your flight back. Assuming it will be similar? I'm going to guess if your flight is 5:55 you should have time for a bit of hanging out time

Hmm, yeah we're used to MCO as well, with the three hours. I was hoping it'd be less there, but we should have maybe til 2:30 or so maybe. Time for breakfast or lunch and fun, lol!

We usually leave around 11 or 1130 to head to the airport but I'm one of those crazy people who needs to be very early for everything. A 5pm flight at LAX I'd probably leave by 2pm at the absolute latest - honestly I'd probably leave closer to 1pm.

Haha, I'm so the opposite, lol, but certainly don't want to be late to the airport! What is it, like an hour to LAX on a Saturday afternoon maybe, and the flight leaves at 5:55. I'd just have to get in my head how long we'd have and if it was worth going out of LAX at 5:55 or should just stick with 2 p.m. out of SNA, since that place is smaller and easier to get around! How early would you leave for SNA airport? I thought that was about 15, 20 min?

 

[Disney_Alli]

Hmm, yeah we're used to MCO as well, with the three hours. I was hoping it'd be less there, but we should have maybe til 2:30 or so maybe. Time for breakfast or lunch and fun, lol!



Haha, I'm so the opposite, lol, but certainly don't want to be late to the airport! What is it, like an hour to LAX on a Saturday afternoon maybe, and the flight leaves at 5:55. I'd just have to get in my head how long we'd have and if it was worth going out of LAX at 5:55 or should just stick with 2 p.m. out of SNA, since that place is smaller and easier to get around! How early would you leave for SNA airport? I thought that was about 15, 20 min?

It is about 20 minutes in the afternoon from what I remember. I think we left around 11 or so (whenever check-out time is at the Sheraton Park) but I get REALLY anxious if I feel like we're running late or cutting it close (like shaking or wringing hands starting to hyperventilate anxious) so we like to leave early. You'd probably be fine leaving at 12 but I'm pretty sure they want you checked in 90 minutes prior to flight time for us international flyers anyway.

 

[taffy]

Aside from the sit downs you really also need to eat at Earl of Sandwich in Downtown Disney. Always a must for us on every trip.

 

[Minniekins]

It is about 20 minutes in the afternoon from what I remember. I think we left around 11 or so (whenever check-out time is at the Sheraton Park) but I get REALLY anxious if I feel like we're running late or cutting it close (like shaking or wringing hands starting to hyperventilate anxious) so we like to leave early. You'd probably be fine leaving at 12 but I'm pretty sure they want you checked in 90 minutes prior to flight time for us international flyers anyway.

Okay, thanks for that heads up on the 90 min prior to flight time, that's good info to know! If we could somehow get out early that Saturday morn g, which for us is definitely hard, lol, we could still have a few hours to be out maybe. Thx again!

Aside from the sit downs you really also need to eat at Earl of Sandwich in Downtown Disney. Always a must for us on every trip.

We go to Earl's in WDW and love it, one of our fave places and we usually go twice a trip! The holiday sandwich is so yummy! Turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce - mmmmm! And they serve it all year now!

 

[Indiana Scott]

Well you might have better luck there than we did. We have eaten there quite a bit in the past, and found it to be fine if not great. But the last time we were seated inside and the whole place was incredibly scruffy - chipped tables, offhand staff and the food was mediocre. But things may have got better. Hope you have a great time wherever you end up!

It would be a great start if Tortilla Joes would just vacuum that silly carpeted ceiling. Every time we eat there I'm afraid a dust-buffalo (too big to be bunnies) is going to land on my plate.

 

[LizzyS]

Ralph Brennan's Jazz Kitchen in DTD is SO flippin' good!

If you want to go somewhere that's great and not use actual park time, I highly recommend.