Restaurant suggestions

[Minnie824]

DH & I love trying new restaurants at WDW....we've been looking at the menus for DL (this is our first trip) and are having a hard time seeing enough to fill our 5 days. It will be DH, myself, DD10 and DD8. We like to have a nice sit down restuarant for each evening. Any you would definitely do or not do? Same for the counter service for lunch..anything stand out? Thanks!

Edited to add we're going the week of the 4th of July.

 

[limace]

When will you be going? If this summer, Carthay Circle will be open in DCA, which looks to be good (no official menu or pricing out yet, but I think it'll be expensive). I don't think the food at Blue Bayou is fabulous...it's actually pretty mediocre and overpriced IMHO...but it's probably a must-do at least once in your life for the atmosphere.

Cafe New Orleans and Carnation Cafe both get good reviews, though Carnation is closed til (the summer? not sure when).

In DCA, we like Wine Country Trattoria but you will hear mixed reviews there. Carthay Circle is coming, as I mentioned above.

Of course, just hop over to DTD for more options. The Jazz Kitchen is my favorite there. I'd avoid Rainforest and House of Blues.

Splurge and hit Steakhouse 55 and Napa Rose-NR, especially, gets nothing but fabulous reviews. (I'm kind of a foodie so spend way too much time reading about food).

For counter service, I think a lot has been upgraded since we were there two years ago. We like to share the chicken fusilli at Red Rocket's Pizza Port. DCA has some great choices, with good soup in bowls, plus the new Cone restaurant coming in Carsland sounds fun. The DL podcast crew has liked the salads at the Harbour Galley and I've also heard good things about the BLT flatbread and the apple cheddar salad at Villagehaus in Fantasyland. I also plan to try the fried green tomato sandwich at Hungry Bear .

In my experience, the table service in DL is slim pickings compared to WDW, but the counter service is generally much better.

 

[mouseymommy]

I recommend the Plaza Inn for the fried chicken. We really liked the fried green tomato sandwich at Hungry Bear with the onion rings. Troubadour Tavern was a favorite with us for the stuffed potatoes. Carnation Cafe should be open by then and the potato soup is so good! We also liked the steak sandwich a lot.

 

[pixiewings71]

For sit down in DL we like Cafe Orleans (the gumbo is very good, the Pomme Frites are a must try and the beignets are good as well), Blue Bayou (we love the atmosphere and we enjoy the food), Big Thunder Ranch BBQ (all you can eat BBQ, lunch is cheaper and still all you can eat but at dinner they add corn on the cob and sausage). For CS in DL we like Plaza Inn (DBF and I can share a chicken dinner, we do add a side salad, it's plenty of food), Pizza Port (we share with the full family, we get 3 slices of pizza, foccacia bread and a salad and split it, not sure if it's cheaper but that way we all get to enjoy something, we've also added the chicken fusili in place of a pizza slice), we also enjoy Rancho Del Zocalo, I love the cheese enchilada meal and will ask for grilled veggies in p. For breakfast in DL we love Carnation Cafe, great choices for great food.
I have not eaten at the Jolly Holiday Bakery and we have not tried the new menu at the Hungry Bear so I did not give thoughts on those.

In DCA we like Ariel's Grotto for sit down and I'm very much looking forward to trying the new Carthay restaurant when it's open. We are not big fans of WCT but we have not tried it since the menu changed. For CS we like Taste Pilots Grill a lot, really it's our go-to place, the burgers aren't spectacular but the food is good, the condiment bar is great and they have onion rings. I love onion rings so we go there a few times on our trips. We also like Luckey Fortune Cookery and we are OK with eating at Award Wieners and Rancho Cucamonga.

In DTD we enjoy a meal at RainForest Cafe and House of Blues, we LOVE a meal at Ralph Brennan's Jazz Kitchen and we tend to avoid ESPN Zone (good food but pricey and not our type of venue) and Tortilla Joe's (we have eaten there twice and had stomach issues following each visit so we won't go back if we have a choice).

At the Garden Walk we like Johnny Rockett's, PF Chang's, Cheesecake Factory, CA Pizza Kitchen & Bubba Gump, down Harbor we enjoy Joe's Crab Shack and there is a Red Robin right there as well, we also like Mimi's (a lot, we have one locally as well) and Denny's is the standard Denny's, we tend to avoid the IHOP as we found them slower and much pricier than Denny's.

I know that is a bit more info then you asked for but sometimes it's nice to leave the parks for a meal.

 

[mouseymommy]

Oh yeah!! I forgot about Big Thunder BBQ!! It was one of our favorites!

 

[msheriffm]

I have two favorites Blue Bayou (inside pirates of the car.) the food is OK but I just love the setting and it is always cool in there.
Both of my girls love Goofy's Kitchen (near DLH) We usually eat dinner there because we don't want to waste the morning hours eating. I think the food is pretty good- buffet. The characters are great!

 

[granismith]

My favorites
Carnation cafe (closed temporarily) (Loaded baked potato soup yum!)
Ralph Brennans for lunch (everything was good)
Blue Bayou (nice quiet atmosphere, share meals because it's expensive)
Cafe Orleans (Pomme Frittes omg yum)
Goofy's Kitchen (best buffet IMHO)
Storytellers (Good food)

Recommend to avoid
Rainforest Cafe (as food and service have taken a huge dive)

Places I want to try still
Big Thunder Ranch BBQ
Steakhouse 55

have fun!

 

[tallpkb]

Troubador Tavern is an absolute MUST for us! Tho it's counter service, it's always hard for me to pick from the baked potatoes or the german sausage with sour kraut. Makes my mouth water just thinking of it!

 

[Renae De Liz]

My choices usually lead me to covet environment and atmosphere over the food quality, though everywhere is good. I look for experiences I can't find outside of the park.

I usually stay at Grand Californian, and Storyteller Cafe is always our first stop on the night we get in ( we go to the park first thing in the morning!) I love the atmosphere!

Blue Bayou. It's a must experience dining purely for the environment. Food has never been that great there, but I could sit and relax there all day long.

Goofy's Kitchen for breakfast is a lot of fun for my son (and we all love buffets).

I went to Napa Rose ONCE and it was awesome. I liked the may types of bread they give you before the meal

Rainforest Cafe in DTD is very cool. I had a tremendous macadamia covered cod once, and it was amazing. There are RC's all over the US, but they are usually in malls, so being able to enter a gigantic temple and eat in a rainforest (be ready for loudness! This is no relaxing place) and see the animatronic animals is pretty dang cool to me. Like being on the jungle cruise ride.

ALWAYS (always always) get the Dole pineapple whip outside of the Tikki hut. It's delicious and I cannot find anything similar anywhere else.

I am looking forward to trying Ariel's Grotto, as it sounds great.

 

[krispin41]

Another vote for Cafe Orleans. My DH and I had our anniversary lunch there, ate outside right by the railing so we could people watch. I had the gumbo, we split the Pomme Frittes (OMG AMAZING) and each had a Monte Cristo. And then Mickey Beignets!!

Word of warning, the Monte Cristo was HUGE, we will be splitting it for sure next time.

Love Blue Bayou for the atmosphere, and we also enjoyed the dinner buffet at Goofy's Kitchen.

 

[abbie13_15]

Another vote for jazz kitchen in downtown disney. We really enjoyed all of our meal and on Thursday nights they have dueling piano players.

 

[LisainCalifornia]

I really think one of the things that makes Disneyland different than Disney World is the whole dining thing. You really don't need to worry about it so much at Disneyland. You will not be hungry--but you also don't need to worry about filling up reservations. It is much more low maintenance than that. You walk around, get hungry, see something you might want to eat and then eat it. It really is that easy at Disneyland. It isn't amzing food or the best ever--it is just Disneyland food.

Carnation Cafe is great (our favorite) but we also like the corn dog cart or the variety of food at walk up counters located in Paradise Pier (in DCA). It ends up being cheaper than Disneyworld--since the food is more casually served. No pre-planning is required. Often the only reservations we make are for Carnation Cafe, and even those we don't have to make them.

 

[Pixiafurie]

I always think the best option for a nice sit down dinner in DL would be to just head over to DTD and choose one of those options. There, you have the awesome Ralph Brennan's Jazz Kitchen, House of Blues, Tortilla Jo's, Rainforest Cafe, etc. Unless you are doing the Blue Bayou or a character meal, I see so many counter service fare that is interesting that I don't want to waste time sitting at the DL table services. I would recommend considering your favorite type of food, finding a matching restaurant and researching from there.

 

[pixiewings71]

I do think it is a very good idea to have a reservation for dining while going 4th of July week. We have been turned away from BB, CO, CC, AG, for not having reservations.....