Recommendations for a dining newbie, chime in dining experts!

[treesinger]

I'm a veteran of WDW, many trips over many years. However, we have never done much dining. Our WDW dining experience has consisted of chicken fingers, turkey legs and hot dogs. Maybe the occassional rotisserie chicken at Cosmic Ray's.

We have dined twice at 50PTC and even more times at The Land (Garden Grille?). Liked it well enough.

We are looking to diversify our Disney Dining portfolio now that, for the first time, we have the budget for it. I'd like to plan perhaps two more lunches and two more dinners that aren't outrageous. Yes, I know that "outrageous" is relative. I don't want $30 steak dinners. I'd like to stay around $75 per meal for 2 adults and 3 girls 7/5/4. I can go a little over. Character interaction isn't a must, but we aren't avoiding it. Our girls love Characters and Princesses.

Soooo. Any thoughts? Oh yeah, we are arriving 5/11 Mother's Day, one week trip. Thanks for any pointers!

Oh, and I have recieved the dining spreadsheet, but I'm still trying to decipher it. :confused24

 

[treesinger]

Dp

 

[daneenm]

We enjoyed lunch at Crystal Palace and the character interaction was great. We also loved breakfast at Kona and burgers and ice cream at Beaches and Cream. Not sure if Coral Reef is in the price range you are looking for , but FWIW, we ad a great meal there too.

-Daneen

 

[Maggi May]

Lunch buffets and sit down meals are almost always cheaper than dinner ones.

One meal that we really recently loved that we thought was a good deal was Biergarten. Good food and service and the kids in our group loved the atmosphere (live band) and got to get up and dance. Oh, and giant beers!

 

[tluvstink]

I really like Sci-Fi for lunch. The burgers, onion rings and shakes are great and I love the atmosphere

Terri

 

[treesinger]

Crystal Palace is on my radar, and Sci-Fi is a great idea! I've always wanted to go there.

The trick for me is dealing with my DW who is limited in her list of acceptable foods, and I my DD 5 is Autistic. It is still undecided if she is PDD-NOS or Aspergers. So there is still much to consider.

 

[Eeyorecutie]

Crystal Palace for breakfast and the Biergarten--the kids will enjoy dancing and listening to the live performers as well as eating the amazing food.
Ohana is good too,

 

[TruBlu]

Coral Reef is our favorite. We love the catfish over pepperjack cheese grits. It is one of the lesser priced entrees ($20.99), and it is fantastic! You could also share a chocolate wave ($7.99) with 2 people. It is very rich. The kids meals are $7.49, so I think you could keep close to your budgeted amount.

 

[karibritt01]

Have you considered DDP? Your kids are the perfect age to take full advantage of it. You could then pick dining based on menu and atmospere instead of price. Go to www.allearsnet.com for full menus of all restaurants. I did this because DH is extremely picky, and it proved my best dining resource!

 

[mousiemom]

definately stay on this thread and you will learn a lot! we went last aug. for the free dining so here is my take:
ohana/dinner-went there 3 times last yr. we love it! steak and shrimp are delicious!
kona cafe/dinner - the macadamia nut mahi to die for
le cellier/lunch - great steaks and duck
raglan road/lunch/dtd - this restaurant was so pretty and the food was great! i believe i had the crabcakes.
chef mickey for breakfast is our favorite breakfast buffett
(i didn't care for the norway breakfast w/the princesses cause the food wasn't great to me)
i love crystal palace both for lunch and dinner - very good and pretty inside
i was not impressed with the castle lunch/sorry
capt. jack's was okay/pretty view and i had the lobster and lobster is lobster
we enjoyed the 1900 park fare breakfast @ GF
i love to eat and i love to talk about food so just ask me anything.
on our trip in Jan. we are going to the restaurant in epcot-teppan edo for the sushi.
hope this helps! i almost forgot about boma @ akl shame on me. it was really good and different. i love the atmoshphere there too.
mousiemom

 

[treesinger]

Thanks for all of the great ideas! DDP isn't an option, we stay offsite. I know, shame on me. Boma should definitely be on my list. I've never heard a bad thing about it. Hopefully it isn't TOO different.

 

[BabyPiglet]

Kona Cafe and Sci Fi!

Also I suggest trying new counter services. Earl of Sandwich and Wolfgang Puck Express (in DTD) have really wonderful food.

 

[LowesChevy]

Kona Cafe
Spoodles-appetizers, flatbreads, salads are a yummy meal, little more adventurous
Mama Melrose's
Biergarten
Earl of Sandwich-hot sandwiches
Wolfgang Puck Cafe or Express-excellent pizza
Captain's Grille-for moderately priced steaks
Liberty Tree Tavern-character dinner
The Plaza-sandwiches

 

[Ariel8676]

Kona Cafe
Beirgarten
Liberty Tree
Coral Reef
Crystal palace for breakfast
These are just some of my family's favorites!!