Picking 3 out of 4 Epcot restaurants - which would you drop?

[Maren1111]

I am sweating this decision!! We've always been broke when we've gone to Disney World, so our idea of eating was to split a hamburger, stretch out the time between meals, etc. -- the handful of table service meals we've been to were the ones which Grandma treated us, once we started having children: Akershus in Epcot with the princesses; the Cinderella dinner at Grand Floridian; Sci-fi Diner; and of course Chef Mickey's!

Now we are taking the kids on a 9 day Disney vacation with free dining! It is seriously going to be about four times as much food as we are used to having at Disney. Hubby says this is going to be our one and only free dining trip; once our third child is over 3, he wants to rent a townhouse off-site. I think free dining is going to be so fabulous that we'll end up at POTR or in two connecting Pop rooms, but it does worry me, he might be right! So basically I want every single restaurant I read about & am finding it hard to choose which ones to leave behind.

We have: Me (34); DH (34); DD (6); DS (4) and DS (2). My oldest remembers the trip from a year ago but my middle child, who was a week away from turning 3, does not! We didn't do any table service meals during that trip.

And the Epcot dilemma: We have four amazing ADRs, which are Chefs De France with Remy; Le Cellier; Garden Grill; and Coral Reef. We will also be there during F&W festival and want to do some noshing. It would be best for our schedule if we dropped one of the restaurants...but which one?

 

[I Love Thumper]

I am sweating this decision!! We've always been broke when we've gone to Disney World, so our idea of eating was to split a hamburger, stretch out the time between meals, etc. -- the handful of table service meals we've been to were the ones which Grandma treated us, once we started having children: Akershus in Epcot with the princesses; the Cinderella dinner at Grand Floridian; Sci-fi Diner; and of course Chef Mickey's!

Now we are taking the kids on a 9 day Disney vacation with free dining! It is seriously going to be about four times as much food as we are used to having at Disney. Hubby says this is going to be our one and only free dining trip; once our third child is over 3, he wants to rent a townhouse off-site. I think free dining is going to be so fabulous that we'll end up at POTR or in two connecting Pop rooms, but it does worry me, he might be right! So basically I want every single restaurant I read about & am finding it hard to choose which ones to leave behind.

We have: Me (34); DH (34); DD (6); DS (4) and DS (2). My oldest remembers the trip from a year ago but my middle child, who was a week away from turning 3, does not! We didn't do any table service meals during that trip.

And the Epcot dilemma: We have four amazing ADRs, which are Chefs De France with Remy; Le Cellier; Garden Grill; and Coral Reef. We will also be there during F&W festival and want to do some noshing. It would be best for our schedule if we dropped one of the restaurants...but which one?

I would drop Chefs de France. The kids will enjoy Garden Grill and Coral Reef because they are both interesting, unique venues and the food is good. And, I think you should go to Le Cellier to treat yourselves to a truly great meal. The atmosphere is nice, but not a "show" like the others. Chefs has never impressed me...and how long do you really think you'll be able to enjoy an interaction with a robotic mouse? 60 seconds maybe? That to me wouldn't be worth the visit to Chefs.

 

[cbg1027]

I havent been to any of the other places, but I was not happy with Les Chefs de France when I ate there, so I'd drop that.

 

[VegasMike21]

Garden Grill

 

[chocovrdmicears]

Here are my thoughts...If you want your meals to be all about the kids then I would drop LeCellier. Don't get me wrong...DH and I love LeCellier..but in terms of dining "experience" it would be last on the list for the kids.
In terms of food..I would drop Garden Grill. While the character interaction was a lot of fun for our kids, the food was average at best.
Dh and I and the kiddos LOVE Coral Reef for both atmosphere and food.
Chef De France: We met Remy at lunch this past June. Our kids LOVED metting him...but we found the food to be just "o.k". I am truly glad we did it once to experience the character interaction, but with that behind us, I don't see us going again.
HTH.

 

[Kaler131]

I would keep Le Cellier....that's one of our favorites!! We liked the characters at Garden Grill but my kids were not too into the food there. My sister got motion sickness (I don't know why because it turns very slowly) and got really sick right after our lunch....

 

[takemetomickey]

We went to the Garden Grill a couple of years ago and, although the characters were fun, neither of us liked the food. That restaurant is "family style" and you get what they serve- there's no ordering a particular meal. If you have another character dinner booked, I would drop the Garden Grill.

 

[crazy4stitch]

My whole family loves Chefs de France, I haven't been to the Garden Grill so I can't speak to that one, maybe drop Coral Reef, I did get an outstanding steak there once, but usually the food is average.

 

[Dizneydaz]

When are you going to be at WDW? Reason I ask is that I was planning an ADR at Chefs de France to see Remy and someone posted this

Remy's last appearance of the night is 5:20p.m. to approx. 6pm. He also leaves for Japan September 6th so his last day is September 5th.

I checked it out and it was true (I think I found the answer on the Dining link above.)

So if Remy is why you are eating at CdF, maybe skip that one.

Of course I just did a search and it looks like Remy may be staying past Sept. 5th with a new assistant.

 

[MHSweb79]

I've never been to Chefs, so I can't comment. So I vote to drop Garden Grill. The food really wasn't very good and since it's family-style, you don't get a lot of choices if your kids are picky eaters.
I think the kids would like LeCellier if only for the desserts - get the S'Mores and the Chocolate Moose.

 

[TJA]

I would drop Chefs or Garden Grill. Maybe consider dropping both of them and booking Tepen Edo in Japan. My kids, age 6, LOVE watching the food prep in Japan. And we all love the mushroom filet mignon and pretzel bread at LeCellier (and the cozy atmosphere is appreciated), so I would definitely keep that one. And Coral Reef is a winner for both atmosphere and food, so that's a keeper too.

If you wanted Garden Grill for the characters, I'd consider a different character meal in a different park or resort. There are lots to choose from. We didn't care for the food at Garden Grill at all. We like Crystal Palace at MK, Chef Mickeys at CR, Cape May at BC.

 

[bamamom]

Of the ones listed we have only eaten at LeCelliar and it was great, it was probably the best we had and we ate a TS everyday. It was a nice change for the kids as well from all the character dinners. They enjoyed the winding down to the evening at LeCelliar. So i would vote to keep it and drop one of the others.

 

[My2QTs]

without a doubt Id drop Coral Reef. We were there last oct. and it was the pits. the atmosphere is cool, but really, how long can you be entertained by a big fish tank?? And yes, we were right by the tank. The service was awful and the food wasn't much better. We will not be returning here....probably ever. Never been to Garden Grill. LeCellier was amazing food wise. don't know about le chef's. Just my two cents. good luck.

 

[lacrosse_lady72]

Chefs and CR are two of my favorite so I'd never drop those also they are both good places for food AND atmosphere for everyone.

It's atmosphere for your children is more important then I'd stick with Garden Grill and drop Le Cellier. If food is more important than atmosphere (unless your kids happen to like dark cellars) then I'd stay with Le Cellier and drop Garden Grill.

 

[pta-mom]

Don't drop Le Cellier...it's a great meal!!! We've gone to DW on the DDP every year since the kids were 7 & 8, & this is the ONE place they request to go back to every year!!

Coral Reef is also very good & the kids will love the tank. Ask to be seated next to the tank if available so the kids can spend their time watching the fish & divers if there at that time.

France was good but I'm not sure it will hold much entertainment value for the kids & Garden Grill has the entertainment (characters) but the food is blah. I would look at getting rid of one of these two only.

 

[kandb]

Garden Grill, maybe it was me but I found that place so dreary and food was not good at all.

 

[GOLFDISNEY72]

Garden Grill. I know you are on the plan but the Food and Wine is a lot of fun. We usually feed the kids at the resort before we go because they are picky eaters.

 

[MickeyNicki]

I would dump GG...the smells from that place make me so sick

 

[PinkPrincess4Ever]

Garden grill while characters are ok food it well YUCK as my family said

 

[Maren1111]

Okay, this helps. I'd like to keep Le Cellier, it's our only straight-up nice restaurant and one that would be out of reach of we don't do the plan again. The disadvantages are that, unlike the character meals, there is nothing at LC to keep the kids entertained and since it's a dinner reservation, they might be tired or acting up. If I knew we were doing the dining plan again, I might save Le Cellier for when our kids are even just a little bit older. On the other hand, we haven't eaten anywhere nicer than an Applebee's in a long time. I think I want to take my chances with this one and go for it.

As for Garden Grill, we have some other character meals: Cinderella's Royal Table, Playhouse Disney Play & Dine, and Ohana's breakfast. I like that Garden Grill is family-style, so that our 2-year-old gets all he wants and we don't have to wrangle a buffet-line with little ones along. Chip and Dale are great characters, for some reason they've always had good interaction with the kids when we've done autographs in the parks. And I love the look of farmer Mickey! The Land is always so peaceful that I liked that the restaurant overlooked it, but they've gone and shut it down, so I'm not sure how that affects the view. I've been set on Garden Grill from the beginning but could be willing to give it up. Our ADR also doesn't fit perfectly in our schedule so it would require us to park-hop to it; all the other Epcot restaurant ADRs are on Epcot days. It just always looked like fun. And the dining plan is so much food to me that I'm a little less concerned about whether the food will be good or not because I figure I'll be stuffed anyway. Especially at Epcot.

For Coral Reef, my husband chose that one & it would be good to honor his choice because he let me pretty much choose everything else. He didn't think Cinderella's Table was worth two credits, since we have such great memories of Akershus with our then 10-month-old girl, but he gave in on that. The only other restaurant he picked for this trip was Sanaa. You can see his interests: he likes the one with the aquarium view and the one with the African wildlife view.

So I had been planning to drop Chefs De France. The Le Cellier ressie was give to me by a DISer who had to cancel her trip (thank you!!) and seemed to hit the same note, only better, that Chefs de France did. Then I read that they're hiring people to do the Remy interaction, which would indicate that Remy would still be around. We love Ratatouille!

I don't know! It seems like it's between Chefs de France and Garden Grill; that the other two are simply better restaurants. If we kept them all, it would mean bumping something from our other ADRs: CRT, Sanaa, Ohana's breakfast, Yak & Yeti, Sci-Fi Dine-in and Playhouse Disney's P&D. There's going to be some bumping anyway: that's 11 credits worth of meals and we have 8 credits.