Here's a quick review of our recent Disney World trip dining experiences (if you're wondering, we weren't on the dining plan).
Counter Service:
Pinocchio's Village Haus -- the common "frozen pizza" description of this venue's offerings severely underrated the pizza here. It's not Pizza Hut (my personal gold standard), but it is certainly better than several national chains I could name. The decor is charming, featuring seven-dwarf-style chairs and murals of scenes from Pinocchio. Our 4 year old is still talking about how having "pizza at Pinocchio's house" was one of his favorite things on the trip.
Restaurantosaurus -- basically just fast food, but seriously spectacular chicken nuggets. Sort of like homestyle-fried small boneless chicken pieces. We assumed that all Disney chicken nuggets were the same and were therefore greatly disappointed when we went back to the Magic Kingdom the following day and ate at....
Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe -- seriously gross chicken nuggets. flattened pieces of chicken (?) with some sort of burned crumb stuff on the outside. Our 2 year old, omnivore that he is, ate them, but ewww yuck. The hot dogs were, well, hot dogs, but the inconvenient thing about Cosmic Ray's is that if different members of your party order different types of fast food you either have to stand in separate lines and meet up afterwards or (if one of you is stuck dealing entirely with the kids) you have to stand in line twice, since everything comes from different order bays. It was quite crowded even though we were at the MK on a day with almost no lines at attractions.
Yakitori House -- a pretty good deal by Disney's gouge-till-you-bleed standards. DH had a fairly generous sushi plate for $7-something; I had a teriyaki chicken/sukiyaki beef/tempura shrimp combo for about the same. Good food in a pleasant environment with nice views of the Japanese Garden.
Food Court at the Land -- another good experience. We had heard so many bad things about the variety and quality offered by Disney counter service restaurants that we were pleasantly surprised. Our party had rotisserie chicken with impressively wonderful skin-on mashed potatoes (clearly freshly made), panini with potato and bean salad, and a tofu and vegetable noodle bowl. Everything was excellent and not too crazily expensive.
Beaches and Cream -- we strolled down here and in blissful ignorance ordered and paid for a sundae at the To Go window. Shortly after accepting payment the cashier said that there would be a slight delay b/c evidently they couldn't serve the sundae to people on the the To Go side of the divider, only to those seated at the tables in the restaurant (there were no seats available when we were there), but since we had paid for it she said to have a seat outside and she'd have it ready in a minute. 10 minutes later we went in to check and were told it was in process. 10 minutes after that (at the 20 minute mark) we politely asked for our money back and were shown that it really was being prepared right then, and to just have a seat outside and they would bring it out -- we wouldn't even have to come in to pick it up. Well, at the 30 minute point the manager came out and said that even though yes, we had paid for the sundae, and yes, it had been made, we could not receive it b/c it had been ordered on the Counter Service side of the divider in the restaurant, and we would need to give him our credit card to have the order voided. We never even wanted ice cream that badly, so it ended up being quite frustrating to leave empty handed after half an hour of promises that kept being made without being fulfilled. Beware the great Table/Counter Service divide (it may look insignificant, but it's not) if you venture forth to Beaches & Cream. Not a magical Disney experience.
Table Service:
Crystal Palace -- what an incredible way to start off our trip! We had an 8:15 reservation and so were able to enjoy Main Street before breakfast without the crowds before going into the lovely turn-of-the-century style atrium restaurant. We are normally buffet avoiders, but every single item here was outstanding and cleanly presented. Even the strawberry bowl didn't contain a single berry that had even a tint of orange instead of red -- how do they do this? The kids got to meet Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore and Tigger and marched in the parade the characters led at the end of breakfast. I couldn't recommend this more highly. I never thought I really cared much for certain breakfast foods like scrambled eggs and French toast until I tried them here....amazing.
Biergarten -- good food but not worth the extreme sticker shock to us, at least at dinner. It's quite a protein fest, which is fine with us, but if you have vegetarians in your party I don't see any way this would be worth their while. There are many different meat preparations, all of which were decent. Part of our problem may be that we are not buffet people (except in extraordinary situations like the Crystal Palace), and somehow we didn't realize until we were seated that this is a buffet. Silly us. But the entertainment kept the kids riveted, so that may be a plus if you have little ones who are prone to giving you a hard time at public meals. The decor is that of a Bavarian village square at night -- sort of a German version of the Mexico pavilion and quite appealing.
House of Blues (at Downtown Disney) -- we went here the last night of our trip b/c the kids were tired and we wanted something noisy so they wouldn't stick out like sore thumbs. Our party had the jambalaya and the ribs, both of which were satisfying. The decor is impossible to describe except to say that it's blues-oriented and so detailed that you could look for a long time (including at the ceiling) and still not have noticed everything.
Rose & Crown Dining Room -- The criticism we'd heard of the mashed potatoes being obviously from instant flakes is spot-on. Aside from that the food was excellent and not too unreasonably priced for lunch table service. Our party had the bangers & mash, fish & chips, and the yorkshire pudding/sausage/wild mushroom ragout appetizer.
Shula's -- My father (a local) watched our little ones while we went here for a truly spectacular evening out together. The steaks (NY strip and ribeye) and lobster mashed potatoes could not have been better, and the service is extraordinarily attentive without being obtrusive -- I really don't like it when we get the rare evening alone together and the waiter tries to dig our life story out of us in the name of being chirpily friendly. So Shula's was perfect both in their food and service. If you have someone to watch the kids and are up for a special occasion dinner (with correspondingly high prices) we would highly recommend it.
I hope this helps someone making Disney dining decisions!
Counter Service:
Pinocchio's Village Haus -- the common "frozen pizza" description of this venue's offerings severely underrated the pizza here. It's not Pizza Hut (my personal gold standard), but it is certainly better than several national chains I could name. The decor is charming, featuring seven-dwarf-style chairs and murals of scenes from Pinocchio. Our 4 year old is still talking about how having "pizza at Pinocchio's house" was one of his favorite things on the trip.
Restaurantosaurus -- basically just fast food, but seriously spectacular chicken nuggets. Sort of like homestyle-fried small boneless chicken pieces. We assumed that all Disney chicken nuggets were the same and were therefore greatly disappointed when we went back to the Magic Kingdom the following day and ate at....
Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe -- seriously gross chicken nuggets. flattened pieces of chicken (?) with some sort of burned crumb stuff on the outside. Our 2 year old, omnivore that he is, ate them, but ewww yuck. The hot dogs were, well, hot dogs, but the inconvenient thing about Cosmic Ray's is that if different members of your party order different types of fast food you either have to stand in separate lines and meet up afterwards or (if one of you is stuck dealing entirely with the kids) you have to stand in line twice, since everything comes from different order bays. It was quite crowded even though we were at the MK on a day with almost no lines at attractions.
Yakitori House -- a pretty good deal by Disney's gouge-till-you-bleed standards. DH had a fairly generous sushi plate for $7-something; I had a teriyaki chicken/sukiyaki beef/tempura shrimp combo for about the same. Good food in a pleasant environment with nice views of the Japanese Garden.
Food Court at the Land -- another good experience. We had heard so many bad things about the variety and quality offered by Disney counter service restaurants that we were pleasantly surprised. Our party had rotisserie chicken with impressively wonderful skin-on mashed potatoes (clearly freshly made), panini with potato and bean salad, and a tofu and vegetable noodle bowl. Everything was excellent and not too crazily expensive.
Beaches and Cream -- we strolled down here and in blissful ignorance ordered and paid for a sundae at the To Go window. Shortly after accepting payment the cashier said that there would be a slight delay b/c evidently they couldn't serve the sundae to people on the the To Go side of the divider, only to those seated at the tables in the restaurant (there were no seats available when we were there), but since we had paid for it she said to have a seat outside and she'd have it ready in a minute. 10 minutes later we went in to check and were told it was in process. 10 minutes after that (at the 20 minute mark) we politely asked for our money back and were shown that it really was being prepared right then, and to just have a seat outside and they would bring it out -- we wouldn't even have to come in to pick it up. Well, at the 30 minute point the manager came out and said that even though yes, we had paid for the sundae, and yes, it had been made, we could not receive it b/c it had been ordered on the Counter Service side of the divider in the restaurant, and we would need to give him our credit card to have the order voided. We never even wanted ice cream that badly, so it ended up being quite frustrating to leave empty handed after half an hour of promises that kept being made without being fulfilled. Beware the great Table/Counter Service divide (it may look insignificant, but it's not) if you venture forth to Beaches & Cream. Not a magical Disney experience.
Table Service:
Crystal Palace -- what an incredible way to start off our trip! We had an 8:15 reservation and so were able to enjoy Main Street before breakfast without the crowds before going into the lovely turn-of-the-century style atrium restaurant. We are normally buffet avoiders, but every single item here was outstanding and cleanly presented. Even the strawberry bowl didn't contain a single berry that had even a tint of orange instead of red -- how do they do this? The kids got to meet Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore and Tigger and marched in the parade the characters led at the end of breakfast. I couldn't recommend this more highly. I never thought I really cared much for certain breakfast foods like scrambled eggs and French toast until I tried them here....amazing.
Biergarten -- good food but not worth the extreme sticker shock to us, at least at dinner. It's quite a protein fest, which is fine with us, but if you have vegetarians in your party I don't see any way this would be worth their while. There are many different meat preparations, all of which were decent. Part of our problem may be that we are not buffet people (except in extraordinary situations like the Crystal Palace), and somehow we didn't realize until we were seated that this is a buffet. Silly us. But the entertainment kept the kids riveted, so that may be a plus if you have little ones who are prone to giving you a hard time at public meals. The decor is that of a Bavarian village square at night -- sort of a German version of the Mexico pavilion and quite appealing.
House of Blues (at Downtown Disney) -- we went here the last night of our trip b/c the kids were tired and we wanted something noisy so they wouldn't stick out like sore thumbs. Our party had the jambalaya and the ribs, both of which were satisfying. The decor is impossible to describe except to say that it's blues-oriented and so detailed that you could look for a long time (including at the ceiling) and still not have noticed everything.
Rose & Crown Dining Room -- The criticism we'd heard of the mashed potatoes being obviously from instant flakes is spot-on. Aside from that the food was excellent and not too unreasonably priced for lunch table service. Our party had the bangers & mash, fish & chips, and the yorkshire pudding/sausage/wild mushroom ragout appetizer.
Shula's -- My father (a local) watched our little ones while we went here for a truly spectacular evening out together. The steaks (NY strip and ribeye) and lobster mashed potatoes could not have been better, and the service is extraordinarily attentive without being obtrusive -- I really don't like it when we get the rare evening alone together and the waiter tries to dig our life story out of us in the name of being chirpily friendly. So Shula's was perfect both in their food and service. If you have someone to watch the kids and are up for a special occasion dinner (with correspondingly high prices) we would highly recommend it.
I hope this helps someone making Disney dining decisions!
