Ranking popular buffets for dinner

[Masonmj84]

Disney rookie here with a question for the seasoned vetrans. How would you rank these popular buffets at dinner from (1) a quality of food standpoint (from an adult perspective), and (2) a quality of overall experience standpoint (with young children)?

Chef Mickey's
1900 Park Fare
Crystal Palace
Akershus
Boma
Ohana

Also, have you noticed recent trends in quality at any of these?

 

[Aanna]

Disney rookie here with a question for the seasoned vetrans. How would you rank these popular buffets at dinner from (1) a quality of food standpoint (from an adult perspective), and (2) a quality of overall experience standpoint (with young children)?

Chef Mickey's
1900 Park Fare
Crystal Palace
Akershus
Boma
Ohana

Also, have you noticed recent trends in quality at any of these?

I haven't been to 'Ohana or Chef Mickey's, but here is my take on the others.

Adult Food Choice Perspective:
Boma - Amazing choices, excellent preparation, wonderful atmosphere
1900 Park Fare, Crystal Palace -- Tie from a food perspective. Nice selection, fresh. Atmosphere pleasant in both cases
Akershus - This used to be my favorite at Epcot before the princesses. The food is still interesting, but not as good as it used to be. Very nice atmosphere.

Kid Experience Perspective:
Akershus - Best princess interaction
Crystal Palace - More kid-friendly food choices, nice character interaction for those who like Pooh and friends
1900 Park Fare - While Cinderella was personally nice to my daughter, my kids were disappointed that the action/parade all seemed to be happening in the other room
Boma - No characters so little to really interest the kids. Still, the kid's food choices are great.

 

[scot@dvcstore]

IMO, Boma & Ohana are my favorite options.

 

[fitzpa]

Chef Mickey from an adult point of view: food is not good.
Chef Mickey from a kid point of view: Love the dessert bar and the characters.

O'hana's from an adult point of view: food is very good and well woth the $
O'hana's from a kid point of view: Thank god for the cool kid drinks

 

[Mrs K]

I agree with Aannna's opinions. I have been to Chef Mickey's and it is a kid favorite. Personally, I don't think the food is great, but the characters are fun. It was always a must do when the kids were little. O'hanna is a lot of fun. The food is good too. Lookat the menues online and see what your family likes.

 

[ElizabethG]

You missed our family favorite - Garden Grill. Good food, GREAT character interaction. It is the quietest character meal and the food is served family style at the table. That is much easier with kids.

Ohana is another must-do for us. The kids like it, but not a favorite for them.

Everyone really likes Crystal Palace. We would all rank it 3 or 4 in our personal lists.

 

[nicole0992]

My children are 7, 10 & 11. We have dined at all on your list.

1. 'Ohana....kids love the breakfast & dinner every trip.
2. Akershus....another we do every trip even my 7 year old son loves it.
3. Boma...unique offerings as well as the standard fare for picky eaters.

These are the only 3 we would eat at again. We used to do Chef Mickey's, Crystal Palace and 1900 Park Fare every trip but the price has shot up and the quality has gone way down. We will not be returning.

I would also like to recommend Garden Grill since it's not on your list. We love it there and the kids always have the best character interaction here. Give it a try!

 

[gonzalj1]

Our order of preference

Boma - excellent variety, different flavors
O'hana - good food, fun atmosphere, food is brought to you
Crystal Palace - Pooh Bear, different flavors
Chef Mickey's - so-so food, great characters.



Never did 1900 Park Faire or Akerhaus for dinner.

 

[jenjersnap]

Food quality ranking (top to bottom):

Boma (lots of interesting choices)
'Ohana (we've had bad meals here but when it's an on night, it's great)
Crystal Palace (our favorite dinner character meal, by far)
Akershus (seems like most people don't like the food here, but we do like the last vestiges of Norwegian-ness left!)
1900 Park Fare (choices are not nearly as extensive as CP)
Chef Mickey's (even fewer choices than 1900PF and what they have, aside from the parmesan mashed potatoes, is atrocious)

Kid's enjoyment:

'Ohana (more than any characters, my kids love the ukelele songs, coconut races and limboing)
Chef Mickey's (the original characters, napkin twirling ... kids love it)
Crystal Palace (there's dancing and everyone loves Tigger)
Akershus (it's like a castle!)
1900 Park Fare (the stepsisters and Lady Tremayne are funny to me but my kids don't exactly get it, for some reason)
Boma (no distractions make for some impatience to eat and get out. Even less relaxing than character meals - which is saying a lot!)

 

[aubriee]

I'd rank them:
Boma- best food and the only one on your list that I must go to every trip

Crystal Palace-decent food, great character interaction and love how light and airy the restaurant feels

1900 Park Fare-decent food and decent character interaction, love the GF location

Chef Mickey's-OK food, decent character interaction

Ohana-not a character meal and not really a buffet, just an all you can eat restaraunt. Love their bread pudding dessert, but not a fan of the rest of the meal. Meats are very dry and shrimp not deveined.

Akershus-good character interaction, but not a fan of the food or service (never could get my glass refilled and felt very rushed by the server-brought the dessert plate when we weren't even half through eating our entrees).

 

[TheBacklot]

everyone always forgets Trail's End. but I kinda like it that way

 

[ibela]

Disney rookie here with a question for the seasoned vetrans. How would you rank these popular buffets at dinner from (1) a quality of food standpoint (from an adult perspective), and (2) a quality of overall experience standpoint (with young children)?

Chef Mickey's
1900 Park Fare
Crystal Palace
Akershus
Boma
Ohana

Also, have you noticed recent trends in quality at any of these?

I've been to all of the above with 2 young children (now ages 2 and 5).
Adult ranking:
Boma (1st time great, 2nd time just eh)
Ohana (went for dinner)
Crystal Palace
Akershus
Chef Mickey's
1900 Park Fare


Child's ranking:
Akershus
1900 Park Fare
Crystal Palace
Chef Mickey's
Ohana
Boma

Next trip we're trying Hollywood & Vine lunch for the first time and trying Chef Mickey's dinner for the first time (been to breakfast before). We're also doing Akershus (must see the princesses) and Crystal Palace (the only one everyone equally enjoys).

 

[Masonmj84]

the loose consensus is something like:

1. Boma
2. Ohana
3. Crystal Palace
4. 1900 Park Fare
5. Akershus
6. Chef Mickey's

I keep hearing words like "awful" and "horrendus" to describe Chef Mickey's. My question is, awful and horrendus as compared to what?

I've eaten at very few, if any, high end buffets in my life. Most of my buffet experiences have been at $10 places like Golden Corral or Ponderosa. How does the food at Chef Mickey's compare to these? For that matter, how does the food at any of the above compare to these?

(I guess I'm drawn to Chef Mickey's for the same reason as a lot of other first time Disney goers. It's the only place where you can see the Fab Five at dinner and seems like a great way get the kids in a Disney state of mind to start the vacation. Obviously, Disney understands that thousands of other people are thinking the same way.)

 

[BEASLYBOO]

Boma!

The only buffet we still enjoy after all these years, the others.... Done!

As far as Character interaction:

Tuskerhouse Character Breakfast, food good and fresh, Donald's the star!

 

[danielle.st]

I love Crystal Palace, as did my whole family. e've been for both breakfast and dinner and loved both.
I have been to Akershus for lunch and really enjoyed it, my family didn't hate it but didn't like it enough to want to go back.
I wasn't crazy about 1900 Park Fare. The strawberry soup and dessrts were awesome, but I wasn't crazy about the rest of the food and our seats were lousy for dinner. We did breakfast there and thought it not great (POP food court was better), although the seats were better.
I tried Chef Mickey for both breakfast and dinner and cared for neither. The kids liked both but even they liked other places better (Crystal Palace, Cape May breakfast).
I hated Garden Grill's food. I am not really a meat eater and the vegetarian dish was disgusting. My family are meat eaters and they weren't all that crazy about it either.
We love other buffets, like Tusker House (breakfast and dinner we have tried) and Biergarten (especially for the atmosphere at dinner, lunch was boring) and the afore mentioned breakfast at Cape May.
I have not been to Ohana, Boma

 

[danielle.st]

the loose consensus is something like:

1. Boma
2. Ohana
3. Crystal Palace
4. 1900 Park Fare
5. Akershus
6. Chef Mickey's

I keep hearing words like "awful" and "horrendus" to describe Chef Mickey's. My question is, awful and horrendus as compared to what?

I've eaten at very few, if any, high end buffets in my life. Most of my buffet experiences have been at $10 places like Golden Corral or Ponderosa. How does the food at Chef Mickey's compare to these? For that matter, how does the food at any of the above compare to these?

(I guess I'm drawn to Chef Mickey's for the same reason as a lot of other first time Disney goers. It's the only place where you can see the Fab Five at dinner and seems like a great way get the kids in a Disney state of mind to start the vacation. Obviously, Disney understands that thousands of other people are thinking the same way.)

I think CM is fairly comparable to our Ponderosa's. The desserts may be a touch better. But I think many of the other buffets are much better than Ponderosa, which makes CM stand out as not so great to me. And I also really disliked the atmosphere in CM. It felt chaotic and stressful and wasn't cute looking. All of the other buffets had cute or interesting theming and felt less chaotic. CM felt and looked like an extremely busy cafeteria.

 

[ibela]

I think CM is fairly comparable to our Ponderosa's. The desserts may be a touch better. But I think many of the other buffets are much better than Ponderosa, which makes CM stand out as not so great to me. And I also really disliked the atmosphere in CM. It felt chaotic and stressful and wasn't cute looking. All of the other buffets had cute or interesting theming and felt less chaotic. CM felt and looked like an extremely busy cafeteria.

Kinda what she said! I've never been to Ponderosa's but I've been to Golden Corral and I'd say quality wise they're about the same except it's about $35 instead of $10 and you have Mickey characters which come around too fast. The first time we went, there was a 9yr old-ish girl at the next table and at one point she said "they're not even letting me eat" . For us, we just take our time (it's hard to speed through with 2 young children!) so we often sit long enough to see the characters 2x. They sped Mickey by the table super fast and a few of us complained there was no time for pictures (my son had his head turned, I tried to take a 2nd one but Mickey was gone in that split second it took to move the camera away from my face to see the shot, good thing we don't carry autograph books!!) so they brought him back out. If we're there long enough to see characters 2x, we only take pictures the first time but the kids still give the characters a hug the 2nd time.

Even at bad buffets, there should be something to fill up on (salad, chicken nuggets, whatever) so we've never left hungry. For fine dining experiences, I've accepted the fact that I'll do that at home. In Disney, it's about the kids. I can get a nice steak & lobster dinner at home but I can't find Cinderella or Winnie the Pooh anywhere.

ETA: With the rising prices of the dining plan, not sure what we'll do next year.

 

[pmaurer74]

Adult and food quality

Boma
Akershus
1900 Park Fare
Ohana
Chef Mickey's
Crystal Palace (awful experience)

For Children:

Akershus (for girls)
Chef Mickey's
1900 Park Fare
Ohana (breakfast)
Boma
Crystal Palace

we really loved the Tusker House Breakfast it ranked up there with 1900 Park fare breakfast

 

[Faline]

My order from 1st to last would be:

Boma
Ohana-
Crystal Palace
1900 Park Faire
Askerhaus
Chef Mickeys

 

[JennyDrake]

[I'm childless by choice and a Hard Core Foodie, so bear that in mind...

Chef Mickey's - sub par food
1900 Park Fare - better than most buffests food, more limited selection
Crystal Palace - does not *do* it for me even though multiple tries. LOUD.
Akershus - used to be original and top notch. Used to be.
Boma - OH YEAH!!!!
Ohana - Meat is cooked very well done. I've only experienced poor service.

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