stellablue
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 14, 2007
- Messages
- 1,332
On a roll so I thought I'd keep going while it's still fresh in my head!
Biergarten:
Type: Buffet
Location: Smack in the middle of Epcot's Germany in the World Showcase. You can't miss the huge banner that says "Oktoberfest!"
Time of Day: 6:55pm ADR's. It was pretty busy and they were turning away all walk-ins. Our beeper went off within 10-15 minutes (closer to 10 minutes).
Cost: $75 (buffet for two + beer flight + 20% tip)
DBF chose this restaurant because he used to live in Germany and also loves German food.
We loved the Germany area as a whole-it is so pretty and festive. The inside of the Biergarten is fantastic! It looks like a little village, the band is wonderful! When we got back, I learned that one of their band members tragically passed away the night before we were there
DBF says he remembers them dedicating a song to someone. Despite this tragedy, the band was so fun and enthusiastic. I was amazed at how much this place appeals to kids as much as adults! I figured because of the cuisine and the beer, it would be mostly adults. Kids LOVED getting right up and dancing to the band's music-it was so cute to watch them
It was a good sized restaurant and definately full of people! Very loud in there, but a fun and pleasant loud-not annoying at all. The thing with this place is they do seat you with other people, unless you happen to be a family of I think 8 people. They also do not seat you until the entire table has arrived (i.e. we waited a few minutes for the other party of two to arrive). We had a group of 4 business men, another couple, and us (couple). This was a very interesting experience. I felt a bit shy and uncomfortable at first. I am shy with strangers in general. DBF is a much more outgoing than me. The business men pretty much ignored us the whole time-which was fine with me. Don't get me wrong, they were very respectful and polite. They just acted as their own table, commented a few times as if they were the table next to us. the couple sat across from us. They seemed just as uncomfortable as I did at first-just felt pressured to try and chat and "make friends." After a little while, I think they all kind of identified the atmosphere and it was fine. They were a very nice couple and we did end up chatting a little.
Our server was fantastic!! I wish I could remember her name. It might have been Melissa? Young girl with shorter dark hair-very friendly and attentive. Anyways, I would love to have her again. She checked on us often and kept our tables clean, despite how super busy she was!
The food was surprisingly great! I didn't think I would find much to eat since I do not like sausages. The salads were terrific, liked the pretzel bread, the shnitzel was my favorite, and the bavarian cheesecake was so good! I ended up eating too much and had a tummy ache afterwards
but it was worth it.
We also shared a beer flight. We very much enjoy good beer, but we are not big drinkers and the size of the regular beer is ENORMOUS!! I would highly recommend the Beer Flight-gives you a taste of everything. My favorites were the Becks Dark and the Hoegarten.
*There was another dark beer in our flight that I loved as well-I wish I wrote down the name of it. Anyone have a list of their beers??
Taste=5
Portion size=5
Restaurant Ambiance=5
Service=5
Good for adults/a couple=4 (great for adults, but definately NOT an intimate romantic place-more fun and festive)
We would definately go here again for dinner. I did feel a bit weird with the seating, but the rest of it is worth it and I can just make DBF do all the talking 
Next time I would definately eat less and have us each order the beer flight instead of just one-I could have definately gone for more!
Next up: Day 3: DHS-Sci Fi Drive In & 50's Prime Time Cafe!
Biergarten:
Type: Buffet
Location: Smack in the middle of Epcot's Germany in the World Showcase. You can't miss the huge banner that says "Oktoberfest!"
Time of Day: 6:55pm ADR's. It was pretty busy and they were turning away all walk-ins. Our beeper went off within 10-15 minutes (closer to 10 minutes).
Cost: $75 (buffet for two + beer flight + 20% tip)
DBF chose this restaurant because he used to live in Germany and also loves German food.
We loved the Germany area as a whole-it is so pretty and festive. The inside of the Biergarten is fantastic! It looks like a little village, the band is wonderful! When we got back, I learned that one of their band members tragically passed away the night before we were there
DBF says he remembers them dedicating a song to someone. Despite this tragedy, the band was so fun and enthusiastic. I was amazed at how much this place appeals to kids as much as adults! I figured because of the cuisine and the beer, it would be mostly adults. Kids LOVED getting right up and dancing to the band's music-it was so cute to watch them It was a good sized restaurant and definately full of people! Very loud in there, but a fun and pleasant loud-not annoying at all. The thing with this place is they do seat you with other people, unless you happen to be a family of I think 8 people. They also do not seat you until the entire table has arrived (i.e. we waited a few minutes for the other party of two to arrive). We had a group of 4 business men, another couple, and us (couple). This was a very interesting experience. I felt a bit shy and uncomfortable at first. I am shy with strangers in general. DBF is a much more outgoing than me. The business men pretty much ignored us the whole time-which was fine with me. Don't get me wrong, they were very respectful and polite. They just acted as their own table, commented a few times as if they were the table next to us. the couple sat across from us. They seemed just as uncomfortable as I did at first-just felt pressured to try and chat and "make friends." After a little while, I think they all kind of identified the atmosphere and it was fine. They were a very nice couple and we did end up chatting a little.
Our server was fantastic!! I wish I could remember her name. It might have been Melissa? Young girl with shorter dark hair-very friendly and attentive. Anyways, I would love to have her again. She checked on us often and kept our tables clean, despite how super busy she was!
The food was surprisingly great! I didn't think I would find much to eat since I do not like sausages. The salads were terrific, liked the pretzel bread, the shnitzel was my favorite, and the bavarian cheesecake was so good! I ended up eating too much and had a tummy ache afterwards
but it was worth it.We also shared a beer flight. We very much enjoy good beer, but we are not big drinkers and the size of the regular beer is ENORMOUS!! I would highly recommend the Beer Flight-gives you a taste of everything. My favorites were the Becks Dark and the Hoegarten.
*There was another dark beer in our flight that I loved as well-I wish I wrote down the name of it. Anyone have a list of their beers??
Taste=5 Portion size=5 Restaurant Ambiance=5 Service=5 Good for adults/a couple=4 (great for adults, but definately NOT an intimate romantic place-more fun and festive) We would definately go here again for dinner. I did feel a bit weird with the seating, but the rest of it is worth it and I can just make DBF do all the talking Next time I would definately eat less and have us each order the beer flight instead of just one-I could have definately gone for more!
Next up: Day 3: DHS-Sci Fi Drive In & 50's Prime Time Cafe!
I am glad we went for lunch instead of dinner though. I do think I would have felt cramped at dinner-since for us, lunch is more like intermission between park stuff and dinner is more sprawl out and relax time. The movie screen is large and they give you speakers at your car to listen. I had read a review on here that the speakers were too soft, but I disagree. They were low, but we could still here them. I liked that the movie screen was designed to be more background ambiance instead of the focus of the restaurant. We were able to chat the whole time and still glance over to the movies when we wanted to. They are short movie ads instead of full length movies, with cartoons thrown in between. The entire cycle was about 20 minutes before it repeated itself. The clips were so fun-black and white and hilarious-not scary for kids in case anyone is wondering. I didn't notice any scared kids while we were there.
. Overall, we waited at least 35 minutes for our food. We really didn't mind the wait though. We had our milkshakes and sodas to sip and the movie screen is quite entertaining. and we were definately not ignored by our server.
It took a good 10-15 minutes before our waitress came over-she did pop in once to say it was crazy busy and she would be back. The threw the napkin/silverware basket on the table and ordered DBF to "make himself useful" and set the table
We thought she was funny. DBF is a server himself, so he could relate to the super crowded restaurant. The Big Ugly Dad next to us was staring DBF down after that and complaining to his family because his waitress was late as well. His waitress finally came over to them and put on her 50's Prime Time act, but Big Ugly Dad was NOT buying it
DBF thought she was great!
All was not lost though because the helpful Dis'ers on this board let us know that Spectro actually comes right by LTT at 7:15! So, at 7:15, we were able to step outside on the porch and watch part of the parade. This was fine for us-it wasn't our favorite and we just wanted a little taste of it. You do get a pretty good view from the porch though.
DBf didn't seem to notice, but I thought this might not have been the best way to greet a table. Anyways, she showed up about 5-10 minutes later with rolls and salad. She explained that the computers were down so she would take our order, but she wasn't sure when it was going to get filled. No apologies or anything. She introduced herself finally (I won't mention her name because I didn't care for her & don't want to be rude & single her out). she rushed through the info about the family style meal-described the food and dessert and how family style worked, talked a bit about the characters making their rounds, took our drink orders, smiled quickly, and was on her way. To her defense they were very busy and DBF understood how hectic it is when the computers break-makes it very hard for the kitchen to get the orders, but I still thought she could have been a bit friendlier. Anyways, the characters hurried off abruptly because they had to go "join the Spectromagic Parade"
) and would have only given her 15% because, regardless of the crowdedness and computer problems, I think she could have been a little bit warmer and should have checked in with us. I guess I just appreciate that in a server. I think our server at the Biergarten put in twice as much efforts and attention at our table and that was a full buffet! This was the only subpar serve we experienced during our whole trip, and it wasn't that bad, just could have been better I guess.
Service=2 (sorry, I know DBF will disagree, but it wouldn't have taken much effort for her use a bit more customer service skills)
