Quieter dining options?

[♥♥LittleSeaRose♥♥]

OK, we are going to be in Disney for maybe a week.... and I have a pretty good idea of what some of the restaurants are like from reviews and from the restraunts section on the WDWinfo page....

My question is- what are some of the more quieter places to get something to eat for dinner? After a long day in the parks it would be nice to get some elbow room and have a chance to unwind a little bit. Is it even possible???

 

[BoosGram]

We've had dinner at the Grand Floridian Cafe 3 times and each time we've enjoyed it. The food has been delicious and it doesn't have the crazy energy of some of the other places. Plus, it's right on the monorail.

 

[Sweettears]

Narcoossee's or Yachtsman's.

 

[winterman]

The Turf Club was very quiet when we were there.

 

[greengeen]

When we ate at Yachtsman Steak House last month there was a table with five very young children seated near us, screaming and throwing food. And the parents said NOTHING to them. What were they thinking? Anyway, you can't count on any dining spot at WDW being quiet and peaceful.

 

[catheren]

I agree with the above poster, you can go to the finest WDW restaurant and have families that ignore their childrens unacceptable behavior. What's wrong with these parents??

Not sure where you are staying, but we got a pizza from the take-out window at the BW, went to the Bellevue Lounge, sat outside, had some wine and the pizza and it was wonderful!

 

[TDC Nala]

Bluezoo, Shula's, Il Mulino, Kimonos (before the karaoke starts). These restaurants are not on the dining plan and do not attract as many families as the Disney-operated restaurants. Although there is NO guarantee that you won't still be there the same time as a loud party or parties. These can be families, or conventioners out for an expense account dinner.

 

[Tara]

Citricos, Jiko, Grand Floridian Cafe, Captain's Grille, The Wave

 

[plutosgirl]

Kona Cafe, Coral Reef

 

[Sweettears]

I agree that you can run into problems at any WDW restaurant. You possibly could minimize your chances by making a later ADR. We generally eat late and rarely have experienced problems great enough to spoil the atmosphere or our diner.

 

[TDC Nala]

Kona Cafe is one of the loudest restaurants I've ever been to (due to its completely open positioning in the Polynesian lobby). And I haven't been to Coral Reef in over a year but it was full of screaming, running children. Something about having the fish tanks present apparently convinced parents that it's ok to let your kids run around the restaurant yelling.

 

[Uncleromulus]

Best chances for a "quiet" meal are at Shula's, Il Mulino, Blue Zoo, and Bistro D' Paris. Those are the most kid free spots.
Keep in mind tho that the first 3 are located in convention hotels--and as TDC Nala suggests, IF there is a convention or meeting, those places might be full of expense account diners, drinking and having a merry old time...and loud.
But those are the 4 with the best chances for relative peace and quiet.

Of the Disney "signatures" we've had pretty quiet experiences at Citricos--but we always eat at the bar, which separeates us a bit from the general rank and file.

 

[dvcdisney]

The quietest place we've dined in Disney is Narcoossee's. We even had an early dinner of 5:30pm. We were seated near other families with young children. Even though we had two children, we were more worried that the other families would be too loud. But, it was a very quiet dinner. The loudest, I believe, we heard was a laugh from the woman 6 tables down. All the children around us were so well behaved.

However, on our way out, there was a party of maybe 6-8 people (all adults) who came in and were so disturbingly loud, my 5 year old daughter asked me on the way out why they thought it was okay to be so loud.

So I agree. Some people may have different experiences than others. I was told that it was quieter later in the evening and that was not always the case for a few of the restaurants.

We've had loud experiences and quiet dining is a lot of the restaurants such as The Wave, Captain's Grille, Chefs de France, etc.

 

[choirchic]

We very much enjoyed Sanaa in the Animal Kingdom Lodge...practically had the place to ourselves. The food was nothing like we were used to, but that made it even better for us. We definitely plan to go back again!

 

[MinnieMommy07]

Most people are pretty adament that ADR's are necessary for any TS restaurant.... and while I agree that you may not eat what you want where you want without one, when I was looking at the restaurant interiors pic thread... more often than not the restaurants were almost empty...

I'm not really sure what to expect either from a Disney restaurant.... compared to say a red lobster restaurant or olive garden they look pretty darn quiet......

 

[budbeerlady]

For relaxing we would go with The Wave, Sanaa, and Narccoossee's.

 

[Tricia1972]

Most people are pretty adament that ADR's are necessary for any TS restaurant.... and while I agree that you may not eat what you want where you want without one, when I was looking at the restaurant interiors pic thread... more often than not the restaurants were almost empty...

I'm not really sure what to expect either from a Disney restaurant.... compared to say a red lobster restaurant or olive garden they look pretty darn quiet......

The restaurants I've been to are usually pretty full and bustling.

I know that I've seen pictures of empty Disney restaurants too, but I think that can be deceiving on occasion. One particular series of pictures of an emtpy LeCellier always come to mind. When I looked closer at the pictures I could see that only two tables were ready to be seated. The rest either still had food on them, or were just bussed and hadn't been set yet, so you could tell that most of the tables had occupants just a few minutes before the photo was snapped.

 

[DoBug]

I would like to add Brown Derby - love it. I also agree with Citricos and the Wave - bliss

 

[mickeyluv'r]

OK, we are going to be in Disney for maybe a week.... and I have a pretty good idea of what some of the restaurants are like from reviews and from the restraunts section on the WDWinfo page....

My question is- what are some of the more quieter places to get something to eat for dinner? After a long day in the parks it would be nice to get some elbow room and have a chance to unwind a little bit. Is it even possible???

If you want quiet - a fantastic option is to have lunch (instead of dinner) outside of the parks. If you are at MK, any of the resorts on the monorail is great or WL. From Epcot or HS - there are several resorts between the two parks (though many places are only open for dinner).

Avoid Character meals, and Whispering Canyon can be quiet at lunch, but can be rather loud at dinner (depdns how much ketchup is requested! )

For us, a fun lunch option is to hit one of the quick serve resort places - the one at GF has a great view of the castle and can be very quiet at lunch.

Otherwise, another place that can be relatively quiet at dinner is the Swan/Dolphin places. (except karioke and the character meals). YC has the Captain's Grille. I've only been ot SSR and OKW once, but early dinners at both were pretty quiet. When we've dined early (5-5:30pm), we found a good number of places to be quieter than during say the 7pm time range. Lunch past 1pm is much quieter as well.

One more thing I'll throw out there...if you want a little peace - consider staying on club level as a potential option. Some folks will pile in as the lounge opens every afternoon and during fireworks, and the TV is on in the morning - but you can SO easily take food back to the peace and quiet of your balcony and afternoons in the lounge are pretty quiet. It can really take the edge off the World when coffee is just the push of a button away (and a short walk in your pj's). Compared to the food courts, the lines in the lounge are non-existant- whichis a nice break if you have crowds all the rest of the day. Depending on the deal, how many guests are in your room - and which resort - club level may not be all that bad a deal - if you use if for your alcohol and breakfast. Plus you get an extra level of service that can take the edge off certain small mishaps.

 

[plutosgirl]

Kona Cafe is one of the loudest restaurants I've ever been to (due to its completely open positioning in the Polynesian lobby). And I haven't been to Coral Reef in over a year but it was full of screaming, running children. Something about having the fish tanks present apparently convinced parents that it's ok to let your kids run around the restaurant yelling.

Looks like we had two totally different experiences

When we had dinner at Kona we were seated towards the back left corner by the windows and it was a nice quiet and wonderful dinner and then we ate at the Coral Reef and it never got loud or crazy but it was an early dinner adr so maybe that is why...I booked them both again for this trip...hope I didn't make a mistake!