Restaurants at the Parks

[Simon06]

which are the better restaurants to eat at while in the parks, or is there any near the parks?

Universal Studios, IOA, seaworld and the disney parks that doesnt break the bank, is tasty and you get enough so you dont need anything after an hour

 

[loadsapixiedust]

You will be spoilt for choice, there are loads of great places to eat and good value too. The restaurants in the parks are also excellent and not as expensive as you may think.
We have enjoyed many lovely meals at places like Chilis, Olive Garden, Golden Corral, Sizzler, Denny's, Perkins and loads of WDW restaurants.
Look out for the tourist booklets full of discount coupons for restaurants, they can save you loads.

 

[pauldickinson]

my recommendations?

MK - fast food has to be the liberty tree tavern or cosmic rays. ignore all the restaurants
AK - flame tree BBQ but Id eat elsewhere
MGM - hollywood & vine buffet for dinner at $23.99 is good value for the fantasmic dinner package. mama melroses is a bit more but even better.
EPCOT - san angel inn restataunt for lunch (main courses $13 -17) is a must do. fantastic place. coral reef super food & view but dearer
IoA - only mythos (bit pricey)
Universal - eat outside... say the hard rock cafe?
Seaworld - the seafore inn is a good cafeterai, nice place for lunch where you can watch the duelling pianists play.
Off site Id recommend Jungles Jims at the crossroads. super upmarket burger type place. Black Angus on I drive opp wet n wild does a super steak for $17.95 (the balck diamond) & they have 15% off vouchers everywhere.
Race rock is the cheapest by far of the hard rock/planet hollywood style places. a decent meal to be had..
other tips- share appetizers (not that you need them)
always if eating at a park have the restaurant mreal at lunch - its a bit lighter in scale & usually 25 -35% less in proce.
ENJOY!

 

[Simon06]

thanks for the recommendations, will give some of them a try. Are there always discount booklets for them?

 

[disneyholic family]

for offsite, I recommend Sweet Tomatoes and Olive Garden.
You can find information about both of them online (they both have websites i think).

 

[Simon06]

disneyholic family,

thanks for your recommendations, looked at sweet tomatoes site, will look for the olive garden one

 

[Shooby doo]

Added to the above: MK- tommorrowland Terrace noddle station,Ep- Sunshine season food fair,both Norway & germany do a good all you can eat buffet,unforunately we feel as far as MGM & AK are concerned you only eat inside because you have to! A good tip for the Water parks; go to Winn Dixie (there's one just off site at LBV) buy a cheap cool box ( $5) buy/make your own sandwiches & drinks-fill with ice from your hotel...... Only the water parks let you take your own food in but no glass.
Off site I would recommend: Perkins,Dennys for breakfast,Bennigans,Chicago Uno,Darryls,Outback steakhouse & if you want to be entertained whilst you eat the Kobe.
SD

 

[MARTINIUS]

Park Wise one of the best cheap options we had was at the Morocco Pavilions Café at Morocco in Epcot. The cafe there (not the restaurant) had some fantastic food that was really good value - for a quick snack try the Lamb Wraps with cous cous salad and lentil salad. Loads of other choice plus North African Pastries and Moroccan Tea.

 

[Simon06]

Shooby doo,

thanks for the info for off site, what about ponderosa and golden corral, how do they fair against dennys etc

MARTINIUS

not tried any morrocan food before but lamb wraps and cous cous, sounds very nice for a snack

 

[carolfoy]

you won't go far wrong in epcot, so much hcoice at the country takeaways and restaurants. I'd recommend columbia harbour house in magic kingdom, their tuna sandwiches are so fresh!

 

[disneyholic family]

for sit down restaurants in the parks we usually eat at the following:

MK - the plaza restaurant for lunch

MGM - 50's prime time cafe for lunch (i ate there for dinner for the first time in september and it wasn't bad - my sister came in for a few days and had never been there, so we went for dinner)

Epcot - the tangiers cafe in morocco (usually just humous and pitas)-- this is counter serve, not sit down
-- sometimes in the Land pavilion, a sandwich or something like that as a snack

AK - we just snack here....we ate at the rainforest cafe once, but hated it, so we just snack at the AK and then go someplace else for lunch once we leave the park..

in general we don't eat meals in the parks that much....we typically leave the parks by noon or 1 PM and either eat in a restaurant offsite or in our villa..

one other place we hit a lot last summer was Earl of Sandwich in DTD....my son would have eaten every meal there had we let him.....he still dreams about the tuna sandwich there....go figure...

 

[Shooby doo]

Simon, I would also recommend Morocco although we sat in as opposed to the cafe.The Golden Corral at LBV is pretty good but very busy at peak times,as far as Ponderosa we preferred the one on I-Drive compared to that at LBV.If you like Chinese then there is a good Buffet style one in LBV,think it might be Dragon Court - Point to note if you go the buffet includes Snow crab legs but if you are not going to eat any let your server know as your cost will be cheaper,only found that out when asked why we weren't eating them! To be honest though I could probably count our bad dining experiences on one hand!
You'll find plenty of coupon booklets in the foyer of your Hotel,although discounts aren't as great as they used to be the generally about cover the tip.
HTH SD

 

[hanncam]

*Magic Kingdom Table service: Cinderella's royal table
Counter service: Cosmic Ray's in Tomorrowland or the Columbia house

*Epcot Table service: Le Cellier in Canada- you cannot do ANY better!
Counter service: Pretty much anywhere in the world showcase is good.....

*Animal Kingdom really has no table service but for the counter service I recommend going to the Flame tree grill. Once you order go to your left of the grill and follow the path. Not alot of people do this and they end up just eating at a table staring at people walking on by. BUT if you follow the path you will end up at a few beautiful tables overlooking the lake and in the distance you can see Expedition Everest and it makes for a very nice lunch.

*MGM table service:50's Prime time cafe. They have a great fun atmosphere and GREAT food. My kids love going here.... For a more quiet setting the brown derby is better but more expensive. For counter service at MGM the abc commisery is really good.

*Downtown disney has Earl of sandwich for my vote. It is cheap and very good! As far as table service we ALWAYS go to the Rainforest Cafe, it is inside a volcano and is very enjoyable.

 

[Simon06]

hanncam,

thanks for the recommendations, and the tip for the view over the lake, better than watching people eat