Restaurant Poll Series: Garden Grill

[Sweet Melissa]

Today the poll series spotlights its first character meal: Chip 'n' Dale's harvest feast at the Garden Grill, the rotating restaurant overlooking the Land in Epcot. For those who have been, what do you think of it? Please vote in the poll and feel free to comment if you wish to detail your opinion.

Previous Discussions
Grand Floridian Café
Boma
Kouzzina
San Angel Inn
Coral Reef

 

[OhThePain]

I voted "Yay". The food is nothing great. What makes this place worth going to is the character interaction. IMO, it is the best of all the character meals. They visit 3 or 4 times durring the meal. My girlfriend and I even had an ongoing joke with the characters throughout our meal which we still laugh about a year and a half later. It is also the most relaxing and quietest of the character meals, which is a nice bonus.

 

[asdfghjkl13]

Voted yea, the food is good and love the atmosphere!

 

[Pugmalion1]

It's a nay for me. Characters really aren't our thing, but I thought this seemed to be the most accessible meal for a first character experience. We just wanted to give it a legitimate shot. The fact that it kind of overlooks a ride is a bit of a bonus, too. Unfortunately, I found the menu to be inexcusable. Too much fried food, and everything ont he menu looked bland and uninspired. It's hard to get up about a meal when the entire menu for the day seems like it was lifted from a diner. Of all of the places I've been in WDW, I think Garden Grill is the one that is most in need of a serious revamp from the menu to the often-broken rotating floor.

 

[cheshiregoofy222]

Everyone in the family finds something they like (some find quite a few things they like), the characters are marvelous, the staff has been consistently top notch - warm and friendly, even offering substitutions for our flu-sticken daughter (though I'm sure this restaurant is not unique in that kind of accomodation), we've always lucked out with a lovely private booth, and almost best of all...they bring the food to you!! Not exactly gourmet, but we've always enjoyed it!

 

[MMrules]

We went in 2007 for lunch (right at noon). The food was great . There was some fried catfish, turkey and fresh veggies from the ride. The service was stellar and the character interaction was terrific. They came to our table at least 3 times!!! I loved it and my boys did too

 

[Sweet Melissa]

... we've always lucked out with a lovely private booth ...

What is the alternative to that? I kind of thought that the whole restaurant had booth seating.

 

[OhThePain]

What is the alternative to that? I kind of thought that the whole restaurant had booth seating.

I think the lower level of tables are all booths that fave out to LWTL. I think the upper ring of tables are just normal tables. I have never sat in the upper ring so I am not 100% sure.

 

[thej]

It gets a Yea vote from me, mostly because it is actually a quiet relaxing character meal. Food is OK on average, though I could live on the rolls, steak and blueberry "grunt" dessert... as those are quite good.

 

[Dizfan4life]

This was our best meal on our last trip and will continue to be a must do for all of our future trips. Maybe I should've voted for a "nay" just so I won't have any problems with ADR's for my future trips !

 

[cheshiregoofy222]

Seems there are tables and chairs "up top" (the top tier of the restaurant) as I remember. Could be wrong though...but we enjoy the privacy of the rather high-backed booths (though we've had some little folks peek over just the same)!

 

[mmtska]

I really enjoyed Garden Grill last year! I thought the food was very good-really enjoyed the flank steak and the salad. The character interaction was great!! I loved the way it rotated as well. Definitely would do again.

 

[kimsuenew]

In our two trips to WDW, this is hands down our "never again in a million years" place to eat. We did not like our food (none of it), in fact our very sweet waitress brought us "kiddie food" (chicken strips, fries, mac & cheese) as she noticed none of us were eating our food. We ended up getting full however that is quite pricey for chicken strips, lol!

Having said that, everyone is different and many people love it... it's somewhere you really need to try for yourself to decide!

 

[budbeerlady]

We had a great meal at Garden Grill! The food was good but the character interaction was the best ever!

We celebrated Dd's birthday there. The Disney florist helped me with the idea. We had a huge stuffed Mickey and birthday balloons brought out with the cake. Dd was so excited. It was funny to see character Mickey looking at stuffed Mickey on our table. We had a great night and everything was beyond what I could have hoped for!

 

[GatorLady]

We have had good luck at the Garden Grill. DD8 loves Chip and Dale so it is on our list every year.

We were just there in June and there have been a couple of menu changes.

Most notably, no more catfish and a dessert change. Below is from allears.net and reflects this:

"Warm Breads with Maple Butter
Harvest-inspired Farmer's Salad
Char-grilled Beef Strip Loin with Herb Sea Salt
Roasted All Natural Turkey Bresat with Cranberry-Orange Relish
Sustainable Fish of the Day with a Florida Citrus Crumb
Garden Fresh Vegetables
Smashed Potatoes
Turkey Dressing
Freshly Baked Strawberry-Rhubarb Crisp with Hand-Whipped Vanilla Bean Cream"

 

[HunnyJar]

What is the alternative to that? I kind of thought that the whole restaurant had booth seating.

I think the lower level of tables are all booths that fave out to LWTL. I think the upper ring of tables are just normal tables. I have never sat in the upper ring so I am not 100% sure.

Seems there are tables and chairs "up top" (the top tier of the restaurant) as I remember. Could be wrong though...but we enjoy the privacy of the rather high-backed booths (though we've had some little folks peek over just the same)!

We had an upper table this past February and also one other time. No problems for us, although it would have been nice to see the scenes from Living with the Land. It seemed like the other people we also saw on the upper level also had high chairs. I'm guessing that is where we wil be again next year since two of our children will be in high chairs (possibly one in a booster)..

 

[HunnyJar]

A big yea/yay! from us! We love, love this restaurant. Good food, great service and fantastic character interaction. The food has always been fresh and tasty and seriously I don't think we could have had better character interaction. Plus our last server was one of the best we have ever had in WDW.

 

[TBGOES2DISNEY]

I thought the food was very good - not great though. The characters did come around more than once. It was one of the most relaxing character meals we did. Usually character meals are very hectic. We did have to wait a while past our reservation to get into the restaurant.

The downside was that the motion made me a bit queasy. On the upper level you can't see the scenery really well, but I couldn't look at it anyway. I had to focus on what was right in front of me and that helped some of the time.

If my kids really wanted to go back, I probably would, but I'm not giving them any ideas. lol

Still, I'll vote yay.

 

[LisaxMarie]

Yay!
For at least once it your life.
It's a nice atomesphere (roating resutrant, characters, nice quick tasty food)
However, nothing that im DYING to do again.

 

[Tiger926]

Used to be a favourite, but after 2 bad trips, we cut it out. We just gave it another try 2 weeks ago, as we noticed they had changed the menu again, and it was fun!

It is pricey though, and even moreso as we had to pay the buffet surcharge. Characters were great, restaurant rotated (last 2x, it was broken), service was good, and food was good too.

We will probably go back next trip, as it was a very fun experience - back to the way we used to enjoy Garden Grill.

Tiger