Nice restaurants for 2 adults without spending too much $$$

[Fromeurope]

Hi,
My DBF and I will be staying at WDW for 2 weeks.
Last time we were there we only ate counterservices, but now I am looking for some nice sitdown-restaurants. Because 2 weeks of counterservices is a bit too much for me
I am on a diet!
Do you have some nice ideas for me?
And since this trip is going to cost us all our savings not only expensive restaurants please!

 

[CamColt]

We find the Kona Cafe at the Poly to be and excellent meal at a decent price.

ESPN is your typical bar food, which we really like, and thats fairly cheap.

For Italian, Mama Melrose have really good food and thats not too expensive either.

Enjoy your trip!

 

[Fromeurope]

Thanks Camcolt!
But can you please tell me what ESPN stands for?
Sometimes I am a WDW-newbie

 

[CamColt]

I have since reread your post, and I wanted to clarify this. Im not sure how "nice" of a restuarant you are looking for. While I wouldnt consider ESPN really fancy nice, its a good sit down meal at a cheap price.

And on to your question, Im not 100% sure but I want to say Entertainment Sports Programming Network. The E and P may be wrong.
The ESPN Club is located at the Boardwalk and its a sports bar on one side and a restaurant on the other. They have tons of tvs(even in the bathrooms) and are always showing just about every sports event imaginable. Its a lot of fun and great food.

 

[Kaycee]

Hi FromEurope! Another vote here for Kona Cafe - DH and I enjoyed a nice sit-down meal here, and it wasn't really expensive either. For less expensive meals, you'll probably do better at some of the resort restaurants rather than the restaurants in the parks. If you're staying onsite, check out the restaurants at your resort. If you're staying offsite, you can just hop on the monorail from the Magic Kingdom to get to restaurants at the monorail resorts, or walk through the international gateway to get to the Boardwalk area restaurants from Epcot.

You may want to have your sit-down meal (or meals) at lunch instead of dinner. The lunch menu is less expensive than the dinner menu at most places.

 

[Fromeurope]

I was thinking about spending about $70 all-in for each sitdown-meal, is that possible? We are with 2 adults and we only drink sodas.
Found out that that would work at Boma

 

[ducklite]

With your budget in mind there are plenty of sit down meals you could have.

Liberty Tree Tavern for lunch is wonderful (dinner is so-so and IMHO expensive for what you get)
Concourse Steakhouse
Kona Cafe
Grand Floridian Cafe
Spoodles
Bongo's
Mama Melroses
50's Prime Time
Le Cellier for lunch (maybe dinner if you chose carefully)
Beaches and Cream
Boma

Anne

 

[ScarlettO]

Try Liberty Tree Tavern(Magic Kingdom) for lunch!


Get there at 11:30 AM when they officially "open " the restaurant-cute ceremony. It's also neat how they "announce" you as you are seated. It is decorated as Colonial America style-each room is different and cozy and the food is great! Everything from Stew in a bread bowl, salads, sandwiches and hot meals. It's one of our faves-and you can eat there for $8- + a person.

 

[ScarlettO]

Originally posted by ScarlettO
Try Liberty Tree Tavern(Magic Kingdom) for lunch!


Get there at 11:30 AM when they officially "open " the restaurant-cute ceremony. It's also neat how they "announce" you as you are seated. It is decorated as Colonial America style-each room is different and cozy and the food is great! Everything from Stew in a bread bowl, salads, sandwiches and hot meals. It's one of our faves-and you can eat there for $10-15- + a person.

 

[Fromeurope]

I am looking at all the menu's at allears.com, so the planning has started

 

[laurabelle]

Outside of the parks, we really love House of Blues at Downtown Disney.

 

[Grumpy92]

A good $$ saving tip is to eat sit down lunches instead of dinners. The menus are generally the same but the prices are lower.

Suggestions:
Concourse Steakhouse, Konas, GF Cafe, The Plaza, WC, Beaches & Cream, Boatwrights, Boma, Olivias, Mama Melrose.

Buffets: Trails End, Cape May

 

[tkyes]

I agree with others, try a big lunch instead of dinner.

Also, consider sharing your entree. Disney is great about that and no one ever bats an eyelash. DH and I usually order an appetizer and share an entree. We always have plenty to eat and sometimes can even find room for dessert. I don't like leaving a restaurant overly stuffed!


Here are some of my reviews for DH and I on our last trip -

Sit Down Restaurants

ESPN Zone - Boardwalk - While the ESPN Zone wasn’t our first choice we decided to eat here so we could watch what turned out to be an incredibly horrible football game. We didn’t arrive as early as we would have liked so we had to stand in line, but the line moved fairly quickly. DH had the hot roast beef sandwich and I had the grilled chicken sandwich with swiss cheese. Our food was standard sports bar fare, but we have no complaints. I had a mudslide and DH had a couple of beers in the process of watching the game. Later in the evening we also shared the apple brown betty with ice cream (an extra $1 for the ice cream). It came out nice and warm and was very good. We will return to ESPN if we want to watch a game, but I think we would eat someplace else on the Boardwalk if there wasn’t a game. If you don’t count drinks our meal with entrees and dessert was around $23.00


Brown Derby / MGM - We had a PS reservation for lunch at 1:00 at the Brown Derby. We were ready to eat a bit early though and really needed a break. We walked into the restaurant around 10:45 or so and asked them if we could change our PS. The said just to come back at lunch time and they would get us seated. We returned at 11:30 and put our names down for lunch. I think we waited about 10 minutes. We loved the interior of this restaurant. It was our first time and we both thought it was really fun. I started out with portobello mushroom, Laura Chenel's chèvre cheese ravioli with tomato-fennel sauce and basil and DH had a cup of tortilla soup. Both were very good (we share well)! We then shared the Grilled 10 oz. NY Strip Steak marinated in Ale with chimichurri and boniato mashed potatoes. Our waiter was nice enough to let them know that we were sharing our entree and it came out already split in half for us. Neither one of us had any problems finishing our halves, it was soooo good! The flavor on the steak was wonderful! We had to finish off with a piece of grapefruit cake since I had heard how amazing it was. I think because the cake was so hyped up, it disappointed me a little. We both liked it and don’t get me wrong, we finished it, but neither one of us thought it was fantastic. We left very happy and very full! Total for lunch with DH’s beer was $44.00


Coral Reef / Epcot - We ate here on our honeymoon 4 1/2 years ago and decided we were long overdue for a return trip. Both of us were craving the lobster bisque so that’s what we started out with. I don’t even want to know the nutritional information on this soup, on vacation, all rules are out the window. We then shared a grilled mahi mahi on a bed of garlic mashed potatoes. The potatoes were full of garlic and very good. The fish was a little bland, without the potatoes it would have been too bland and needed some seasoning. We passed on dessert today. Still one of our favorite restaurants we will definitely be back to watch the fish and enjoy a great lunch. Total for lunch with no beverages was $31.00



Spoodles / Boardwalk - We have only eaten breakfast and Spoodles and we enjoyed that so much that we decided to try dinner. We walked through Epcot and made our way to Spoodles for a 5:00 PS. We started out with the roasted garlic and four cheese flatbread - it was sooo good! I don’t know exactly what kind of cheeses are on that, but it’s a great combination. We also added chicken to the flatbread. DH had a soup of the day, but I don’t recall exactly what it was. It was a tomato base with sausage and vegetables. Whatever it was, was very good. We then split the Orecchiette Pasta - "Little ear" shaped pasta with chicken, spinach, pepperoncini peppers, olives, tomatoes and peas tossed in a light chicken broth with feta cheese. We added shrimp to it as well for an additional cost. DH liked this more than I did. He rated the soup and flatbread higher, but still thought it was good. I didn’t eat a lot of mine. It was a little spicy and I didn’t care for the taste of the chicken. We will definitely be returning to Spoodles for dinner again, we’ll just try something different. Our total for dinner with 2 glasses of wine and no dessert was $52.00


Plaza Restaurant / Magic Kingdom - We just shared a club sandwich minus the mayonnaise and that was it. We passed on ice cream and decided to stop in candy store on our way out instead. The club sandwich is good although it could have used a slice of cheese. We love the plaza because it’s a nice place to sit down and you don’t have to make a PS for it, so it’s flexible. Our total for just our club sandwich was $11.00



Beaches and Cream / Beach Club - This was a last minute addition to our plans. We were wiped out from our day in the park and needed an evening off. I told DH the plans were up to him. His perfect evening in WDW? Beaches and Cream followed by mini golfing! We walked right into Beaches and Cream around 5:15. We each had hamburgers, DH a cheeseburger actually and we shared a malt. Burgers, fries and ice cream were delicious as always! We never dislike a meal at Beaches and Cream. Total for dinner and malt (just water to drink) was $20.00

 

[Fromeurope]

Tkyes,
when I read all of this I sure get hungry
For other people splitting meals would be a good idea, but my DBF eats so much, he finishes my entrees as well.
So that's why we need a kind of generous budget for our sitdownmeals

 

[iloveeeyore]

Definitely do Boma. It's an awesome value. So is 'Ohana, which is the same cost as Boma, also all-you-can-eat, but served family style instead of buffet.

My personal favorite is Restaurant Marrakesh in Morocco Pavilion. Yummy, TONS of food, moderately priced..and there's a belly dancer! Tangierine Cafe, also in Morocco, offers great counter service at a terrific value. Friends of mine are there this week and loved Tangierine Cafe so much they ate both lunch and dinner there! And they are still raving about Boma. Didn't have time for 'Ohana on their 4-day trip.

 

[WDWAurora]

We love the plaza because it’s a nice place to sit down and you don’t have to make a PS for it, so it’s flexible

Most of the time you do need a PS for Plaza....you must have lucked out! We've been many times and been turned away when we tried to make PS when we first arrived. I wouldn't plan to walk in here. There are plenty of places you can luck into and not have to make PS just because you arrive at the right time, but this restaurant really doesn't have much seating, so it is advisable, if not required.

 

[Fromeurope]

We will definately go to Boma, because we're staying some nights in AKL as well. On a previous trip I had dinner at Coral Reef and loved it overthere, so we will add that restaurant to our list for sure. My DBF has never been there.

 

[slimplaw]

Whispering Canyon Cafe at WL would be a good meal for you. I would also suggest eating at Trail's End buffet at Fort Wilderness. For the 2 of you, dinner here would be under $40 total. It is all you can eat. I also would suggest the 2 Morroccan restaurants, however my favorite is Tangerine Cafe. My BIL and SIL love San Angel Inn at the Mexico pavilion. I have never tried but will some day. We did like Mama Melrose's in MGM, but also liked Primetime 50's restaurant. At AK, Tusker House is very good counter service.

 

[MAGICinMYHEART]

You may want to take a little boat ride over to Ft. Wilderness Campground for one one the best deals at WDW.
Trail's End Buffet Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground Price: $15.99 Adult; or lunch over at Wilderness Lodge's, Whispering Canyon Cafe:
Try Our Famous All-You-Care-To-Eat Canyon Skillet
Featuring smoked pork ribs, oven-roasted chicken and pork sausage, served with baked beans, corn on the cob, coleslaw, Yukon gold mashed potatoes and fresh baked corn bread, served Family Style $13.99 per person

 

[tkyes]

WDWAurora - I guess we must luck out, I've never thought about it. We've eaten there 3 times and never had to wait more than 10 minutes. Now that I've mentioned that though we'll get turned away next time lol!!