questions about Garden Grill in Epcot

[Ros4]

I have heard the top floor slowly rotates. Does the first floor as well? If not can you request the top floor. My kids would think thats neat. How is the food? and Character interaction?

 

[OhThePain]

I'm pretty sure the entire restaurant rotates. (I'm not 100% sure since the last time I was there a couple of years ago, the restaurant was not rotating). The food is nothing great but it is good enough. The character interaction is some of the best you will find in WDW. The restaurant is not too big so it is possible to see the characters 2-4 times. It also happens to be the most relaxed of the character meals.

 

[disneyfav4ever]

I think it's the entire restaurant that rotates.

 

[Ros4]

Thank you !

 

[FlightlessDuck]

The entire restaurant rotates.

As for how it is...

I am in the minority, I think, but I absolutely loath the place. While the vegetables and beef were halfway decent, most of the other food was just bad. Especially the stuffing. The top floor is cramped and cluttered, and the characters have a tendency of not staying long. Our service wasn't that great, either.

 

[Tiger926]

The entire restaurant rotates.

As for how it is...

I am in the minority, I think, but I absolutely loath the place. While the vegetables and beef were halfway decent, most of the other food was just bad. Especially the stuffing. The top floor is cramped and cluttered, and the characters have a tendency of not staying long. Our service wasn't that great, either.

When was the last time you dined there?

We just dined last month, after a few years hiatus, as it had gone way downhill - broken restaurant rotation(2 years in a row), horrible food, bad service and bad character interaction (forgot our table).

We tried it again last month, as kids love Chip and Dale, and we were pleasantly surprised! New menu is good (although salad was gross with corn in it, and way too much dressing), but other food was good, characters were great, and service was too!

Won't be going back for awhile though, as it's gotten very expensive, especially with surcharge/upcharge. We pay cash as we have TIW card. We've BTDT with every character meal on property, so for us it's no big deal, but now that this one has improved itself, I would recommend it to others as it has a good selection of characters, and it's never crowded.

Tiger

 

[LoveMMC]

We went last week-

Whole restaurant slowly rotated which was cool.

Best character interaction with Dale. He was AWESOME. He sat at our table and coloured with my daughter. She loved it. All the others were great too- so much better than Chef Mickey's interaction.

We did not like the food at all but were so happy watching DD interact with the characters. The food was fresh - just not our type of food.

 

[MartDM]

I think the food is good; a cut above a lot of the buffet fare they offer at character meals.

Every time we've been the restaurant is clean and tidy.

And, as PP stated, the character interaction is the best in WDW; many lengthy visits from the characters during your meal and they really seem to make an effort to interact with the kids, rather than just posing for a pic & running off to the next table.

 

[Tiger926]

I'm going to be the voice of opposition here, and say that I don't think the character interaction is the best at WDW. We've been to every single character meal, multiple times, and there are other character meals that are exceptional with characters, or, just as good as Garden Grill. It is very good though, as you get to usually see the characters multiple times, as the restaurant is usually not too busy.

I don't want people to pay the price (it's higher than most), and have such high expectations of the characters, and they disappoint. We used to go to Garden Grill each and everytime we were at Disney, so that's a lot! But, we stopped going the last few years, due to subpar character interactions: forgotten tables, rushed characters and confusing rotations, that saw some characters way too many times, and other characters not at all.

Based on my experience of a few weeks ago, it has definitely improved though, as I stated above.

YMMV, Tiger

 

[RMulieri]

The whole restaurant rotates slowly.We love the food and the character interaction is fabulous.We have yet to be disappointed here and we do eat here almost every trip

 

[gerows]

We had a great time last August. As people have indicated, the Character interation here is one of, if not, the best in WDW. We saw most of them 2 times during the meal and they stayed pretty long playing around with the kids. I love the desert too.