Off site dining deals ?? help

[sanapp]

Okay we have a trip plan for me, DD7, Mom and Niece 12. My daughter is the pickies, but can still find something on every menu. We are staying offsite to save $$ (unless I get a great deal with free dining). We are booked in the Lake Buena Vista area and will have a rental car. Does anyone have some great ideas for decent and less expensive off site dining options. I would love to hear about places that you have tried and enjoyed. How is CiCis????

 

[Lucky'sMom]

We have Cici's locally, and they are a great deal. My family can eat there for only a little bit more than McDonald's. I highly recommend you try Sweet Tomatoes. They are located at the Crossroads Plaza, near Goodings. About a week or so before your trip, go on their website, www.souplantation.com, and sign-up for their email club, Club Veg. They will send you a coupon that's only good for a couple of weeks. The prices even w/o the coupon are really good and the food is excellent. It starts with a fantastic salad bar, and then they have about 6-8 delicious soups, baked potatoes, a few other hot foods, breads and dessert. It's all you can eat, and a great value.

 

[sanapp]

I forgot about Sweet Tomatoes. I have never eaten there before, but had heard about it once before when staying on I Drive. This is my first time staying in Lake Buena Vista (Palm Parkway to be exact), so I am not familiar with the area. It seems like there is many choices in the area that should accomodate us on a budget. I would just assume not go "budget", but I am paying for my Mom to go and she insists on paying for her own food and that means we will have to go a little bit more budget than normal. I already told her though that I will be paying for a few onsite meals for the entire group. We cannot go and not have a character meal at least once and my daughter loves going to Japan for tepanyaki. Was considering Benihana or another offsite option though this time just to get a different experience. I would love to hear other's thoughts on dining options for us. Thanks again.

 

[MandM-Mom]

On restaurant.com they have $25 House of blues (Downtown Disney) gift certificates for $10, use the promo code "zoo" and get it for $2.

 

[Dizneydaz]

Definitely sign up veg club at Sweet Tomatoes (Souplantation here) I get there BOGO free coupons all the time. Love Souplantation.

The code on restaurant.com for 80% is COOK. Valid until 3-31-10. Right now HoB in DTD in Florida is out of stock. You'll have to wait until next month, when they reload coupons, to order. The discount won't be 80% at the beginning of the month buy you can always find a discount code somewhere, for at least 50% off.

Check out Bahama Breeze at bahamabreeze.com and sign up for their email account. They send out coupons sometimes-the restaurant is good (same owners as Olive Garden) There's a Chevy's near WDW. We love Chevys-great tortillas. We find many of the meals sharable.

You might want to check out the entertainment book for Orlando. Currently on sale of $17.50 inc. free shipping. Coupons are good until Nov. 2010. You can check out what coupons they offer on their site entertainment.com

Do a search for coupons Orlando and you can find more deals. You can even get coupons for McD's

 

[MandM-Mom]

Definitely sign up veg club at Sweet Tomatoes (Souplantation here) I get there BOGO free coupons all the time. Love Souplantation.

The code on restaurant.com for 80% is COOK. Valid until 3-31-10. Right now HoB in DTD in Florida is out of stock. You'll have to wait until next month, when they reload coupons, to order. The discount won't be 80% at the beginning of the month buy you can always find a discount code somewhere, for at least 50% off.

Check out Bahama Breeze at bahamabreeze.com and sign up for their email account. They send out coupons sometimes-the restaurant is good (same owners as Olive Garden) There's a Chevy's near WDW. We love Chevys-great tortillas. We find many of the meals sharable.

You might want to check out the entertainment book for Orlando. Currently on sale of $17.50 inc. free shipping. Coupons are good until Nov. 2010. You can check out what coupons they offer on their site entertainment.com

Do a search for coupons Orlando and you can find more deals. You can even get coupons for McD's

Wow, glad I got my HOB on Saturday, bought some for Virginia Beach Area today with code "zoo" from my travelzoo email and got the 80% off!

 

[sanapp]

I will go check out entertainment.com. I have plenty of time to keep check restaurant.com since I am not going until October!!! Mom says that we can cook in a few nights, but come on who really wants to do that on vacation!! Any good dining options around SeaWorld would be great too.

 

[gardenergirl]

There is a regional chain called Ale House. We ate there twice I think on our last trip. They were really affordable to begin with, but had different daily specials. This was June '08. I think on Tuesdays (and maybe Thursdays) kids ate free-I'm fuzzy on the days of the week. There were 4 of us, 2 kids (not sure on the age for the kids menu-my two were probably 9 and 10) and 2 adults, and we ate great dinners with sodas (I mention this because we usually order water), I think the kids got dessert too, for under $25 and if I'm not mistaken that was with a tip. The food was good, too. It was nice to go to a "sit down" restaurant, vs. fast food-and for not much more (we usually spend $13-18 at McDonald's here at home).

We're going back in June and hubs is already planning on eating there again! Hope it's as good as he remembers....It has been a while, so I'm going on what I/we remember. Maybe someone has been recently and could comment.

 

[Derby4me]

I purchased 2 HOB coupons on restaurants.com for my May trip. However, after I purchased them I noticed that it states that only one coupon can be used per month. Do you think they really check this? Are they really going to know if I use 2 coupons within the same week? I'm not sure we would even go there twice on our trip...just want to be sure I don't if I can't use both coupons. Thanks!

Sarah

 

[Dizneydaz]

I don't know but it's my understanding that when you give them the certificate they take it and call restaurant.com to verify that it's still valid (not been used, past the expiration date-doesn't apply here in Calif. ) I think at that time they'll be able to verify if you've used one within the month.

I know they have a policy of refunding money if for example the restaurant goes out of business before you use it. (I have one of those but don't know if it's worth it for the under $1 I paid). You could return one of them (explain why if needed-bought 2 for your vacation....) then you could buy another one using a different name and email-DH, DM, or ??? Then you'll have 2 just in case.

You have plenty of time since you aren't going until May. They should reload the coupons again soon.

 

[njsweetP]

There is a regional chain called Ale House. We ate there twice I think on our last trip. They were really affordable to begin with, but had different daily specials. This was June '08. I think on Tuesdays (and maybe Thursdays) kids ate free-I'm fuzzy on the days of the week. There were 4 of us, 2 kids (not sure on the age for the kids menu-my two were probably 9 and 10) and 2 adults, and we ate great dinners with sodas (I mention this because we usually order water), I think the kids got dessert too, for under $25 and if I'm not mistaken that was with a tip. The food was good, too. It was nice to go to a "sit down" restaurant, vs. fast food-and for not much more (we usually spend $13-18 at McDonald's here at home).

We're going back in June and hubs is already planning on eating there again! Hope it's as good as he remembers....It has been a while, so I'm going on what I/we remember. Maybe someone has been recently and could comment.

Yup, Miller's Orlando Ale House! This is our favorite spot to eat. Big portions, good prices and the food is really good!!! We make it a point to get
there at least 2 x a trip!

 

[willowsnn3]

Okay we have a trip plan for me, DD7, Mom and Niece 12. My daughter is the pickies, but can still find something on every menu. We are staying offsite to save $$ (unless I get a great deal with free dining). We are booked in the Lake Buena Vista area and will have a rental car. Does anyone have some great ideas for decent and less expensive off site dining options. I would love to hear about places that you have tried and enjoyed. How is CiCis????

Where is Cicis located close to Downtown Disney???

 

[SandrA9810]

If you can't read, northwest side is Ale house, shoney's, chili's
southwest side is qdoba, subway, ihop, and a Chinese buffet
south east side (in a couple different plazas) is olive garden, denny's, cici, kobe (japanese) and some other stuff I've never been to.
crossroads, buffalo wild wings, chevy, friday, red lobster, mc d's, taco bell,

at DTD there's a few good eats, earl of sandwich, wolf gang puck express, and some others.

 

[sanapp]

Wow thanks for the great map. I am staying right on Palm Parkway, so this map is perfect for me. There must be a Perkins not far either. I usually make a trip to Perkins whenwe are in Florida too. I am going to check out Millers Orlando Ale House too. I really appreciate all of your ideas. I have plenty of time to keep checking restaurant.com, so I will check monthly. Thanks again.

 

[Straitlover]

Yes, there is a Perkins. I ate there on my trip last fall. I believe it's in the same shopping center where the Goodings is, right across frm where Hotel Plaza Blvd runs into Apopka Vineland. I remember it's across the parking lot from the Uno pizza place. It was pretty tasty!

 

[buzz2400]

We always stay around Palm Parkway (when staying offsite) and frequent the eateries. There are many, many places to eat. There is a subway, mcd's burger king, olive garden, cici's, pizza hut, ihop just to name a few. There are also a lot of places where you sit down to eat. Everything is in one area. You will not have any trouble finding something to eat.

 

[sanapp]

I wasn't worried about finding something to eat, but don't care for fast food at all and didn't want to pay as if we were on site for off site food. After being in the park all day I would just assume be waited on in a sit down eatery or a buffet and just get the meal over with I guess, but no fast food. I guess I would do Subway, but that is it.

 

[SandrA9810]

subway and qdoba are kinda like fast food only better (and you have to go inside).

fridays, buffalo wild wings, unos, ihop, denny's, olive garden, ale house better food and better prices than sit down in some of the parks.

I'd say do some outside dinning on days when you visit Animal Kingdom, or Studios without seeing a fantasmic show. None of the dining options are that great there.