The Must Do: Where To Eat With Kids?

[danielle782001]

We have never been to DL...Our kids will be 6 and 7 for our first trip there...What places must we eat requiring reservations and quick services as well?

 

[spacemermaid]

If you've never been to Disneyland, and it'll also be your kids' first time, I'd say a character meal is a must-do! There are several to choose from: Goofy's Kitchen (breakfast & dinner), Minnie & Friends breakfast, Ariel's Grotto (breakfast, lunch & dinner), Storyteller's (only breakfast has Characters, though there is also a dinner buffet), and the new Mickey & Stitch (don't recall the official name as it's new, but Mickey & Stitch are the featured Characters) breakfast. Though, theoretically, one could get in for a meal without a PS, to avoid a long wait, a PS is definitely suggested.

For non-Character meals, Carnation Cafe' (on Main Street) is a classic, that's been there since the beginning, and serves "comfort food" done very, very well. I'd consider it a must-do; be sure to try the baked potato soup...it's a favorite!

There's also Blue Bayou (inside the Pirates of the Caribbean ride) which everyone should try at least once, though it's kind of expensive. The seating area is made to look like a New Orleans veranda at night, with paper lanterns and candlelight at the tables, and the seating area is right next to where the Pirates boats float by.

Have fun on your trip!!!

 

[Mommy2PrincessAbby]

Definately do a character meal. We love the princess meal at Ariel's Grotto, and while it was crazy busy, we met the most characters at Minnie's at Plaza Inn.

Also, Rainforest Cafe in DTD is a must do as far as my dd is concerned... we don't have one by us, so we always go to the one there!

~Lisa

 

[3TinksAndAnEeyore]

My DDs' favorites have all been mentioned: Character meal, Rainforest Cafe, and Blue Bayou (BB is my favorite!). This time we happened upon Carnation Cafe with their PB&J "paint palettes". Both girls had as much fun playing with their food as eating it!

 

[danielle782001]

The Blue Bayou sounds so cool...had no idea it was inside the ride!!

 

[PHXscuba]

During three days at DLR in October, we ate a lot of places. My extremely brief reviews (follow-up questions allowed) **We ate cold breakfast in our hotel room because it would be wasted on my 4 kids.**

Goofy's Kitchen: Everyone loved the food (adults and kids in our larger group of 15) and the character interaction. All of the character meals are pricey; but you can get 10 percent off with an AP, AAA, or a similar discount with pre-paid vouchers.

Hungry Bear Restaurant: OK food, great atmosphere along the river -- there are cats roaming around too!

Pizza Port -- OK pizza; I've heard the pasta is really good but haven't tasted it.

Taste Pilots Grill (DCA) -- Great burgers and such.

Whitewater Snacks (just outside DCA in the Grand Californian) -- nice change of pace after two days of park food. Many options -- cold from the deli case, made to order, etc.

Carnation Cafe -- Great soup as mentioned, my two youngest loved the PBJ palette.

Tomorrowland Terrace -- chosen for convenience, not the food. Just OK, typical park food.

Our favorite goodies: churros, Tigger Tails (in Pooh Corner), chocolate/caramel covered apples, funnel cake from New Orleans Square, Mickey bars, anything from Marceline's in DTD. We ate well.

The kids meals don't have much variety at most of the counter-service places (usually chicken nuggets or "Power Pack": string cheese, yogurt, apple slices, and fish crackers), which is part of why we did pizza one night as well as Whitewater Snacks.

PHXscuba

 

[spacemermaid]

The Blue Bayou sounds so cool...had no idea it was inside the ride!!

That settles it, then! You'll have to eat there on your trip!

The chicken fusilli pasta at the Pizza Port IS so yummy! And the portions are HUGE!

 

[Sherry E]

Here is our character meal photo/information thread, which may help you decide if you would enjoy trying one:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2234435

What was the Lilo and Stitch Aloha Breakfast at the PPH is now called something like Surf's Up with Mickey and Friends, and is the only character meal with Mickey in DLR, but still includes Lilo and Stitch. It is brand new as of a couple of weeks ago. My longtime favorite of the character meals is Goofy's Kitchen because of the variety and quality of food, but I am interested in trying the Mickey meal. Also. Minnie & Friends is very popular among the DIS-ers here.

 

[pigletforever]

WE have done Minnies and Goofy's. The character interaction was better at Minnie's but the food was better at Goofys.

 

[danielle782001]

Are the character meals ONLY breakfast? Because it looks that way as I read it.

Also, the Blue Bayou menu does not look very kid friendly, for my kids anyway ...Only thing listes is pot roast...Are there other choices?

 

[Nala83]

There are other options. Go to the Allears website and you can view menus for all of the dining spots. (Sorry...I don't have enough posts yet to post the link. Perhaps someone else will add it.)

 

[Sherry E]

Are the character meals ONLY breakfast? Because it looks that way as I read it.

Also, the Blue Bayou menu does not look very kid friendly, for my kids anyway ...Only thing listes is pot roast...Are there other choices?

As for character meals, Goofy's Kitchen in the DLH has a huge dinner buffet as well as a huge breakfast/brunch buffet. Ariel's Grotto in DCA is not buffet, but they serve breakfast, lunch and dinner. Those are the only two options for character dinners.

Storytellers Cafe in the GCH goes back to being a 'regular,' non-character restaurant for lunch and dinner, as does the PCH Grill in the PPH which now houses the Surfs Up with Mickey breakfast. Minnie and Friends at the plaza Inn in DL is breakfast/brunch only, then Plaza Inn operates as a regular restaurant the rest of the day.

 

[danielle782001]

There are other options. Go to the Allears website and you can view menus for all of the dining spots. (Sorry...I don't have enough posts yet to post the link. Perhaps someone else will add it.)

http://allears.net/dlr/din/menu/men_bayk.htm

 

[pixiewings71]

our family did not enjoy Goofy's Kitchen at all, we were very disappointed with the character interaction and we did not love the food. We did love Minnie & Friends, tons of characters and we enjoyed the food very much. I think our favorite character meal is Ariel's Grotto hands down, for lunch or dinner, it's just delish and the Princesses coming to your table is a definite plus.
We enjoy Hungry Bear but we love Taste Pilot's Grill in DCA, the Wild Bleu Yonder burger is sooooooooooo good.......I get mine with onion rings.
We like Pizza Port, the pizza is good, slices are huge, the salads are good too, we normally get 1 salad, 1 pasta and 2 slices of pizza and share it. You can also order full size pizza at Pizza Port, you just have to ask and they will do one special for you. Oh I love the Foccacia bread they have too, YUM!
Blue Bayou is definitely a good choice, it's so neat to eat there at lunch, you go in from the sun and sit outside on a patio in the dark, very cool! The food is good but it's pricey, just know that going in and you'll be fine.
Carnation Cafe & Cafe Orleans are both good, the Pomme Frites at CO are yum, the Loaded Baked Potato Soup at CC is yum. French Market has some good options too, it's counter service so no PS needed.

I'm sure I'm forgetting something I wanted to say, if I remember I'll be back.

 

[danielle782001]

Keep sharing

 

[Sherry E]

Did you look at the character meal photo thread I posted the link for? Anything jump out at you yet? Unfortunately, I don't think anyone has posted any photos of the new Surf's Up with Mickey meal at the PPH (which used to be the Lilo and Stitch Aloha Breakfast) yet, but because Mickey is there, I am sure it is very popular. When I ate at Goofy's Kitchen on the 19th, some of the CMs there were telling us how swamped the PCH Grill has been with people clamoring to see Mickey since that meal opened.

Just to clarify about the character meals a little more -

Goofy's Kitchen, whether it be for breakfast/brunch or dinner, is an all you can eat, serve yourself, buffet - tons of selections. I personally have never been a fan of the dinner buffet - but truthfully, I didn't give it enough of a chance. I only tried the dinner buffet one or two times (I thought it was once but a friend reminded me we ate there another time for dinner!), and neither time was I very hungry so nothing really appealed to me. Also, just because of my own preferences, I like breakfast offerings better than dinner. And breakfast is cheaper than dinner! However, there are lots of people who strongly prefer the dinner buffet - even some who did not like Goofy's at all at breakfast but enjoyed it for dinner very much. So I think it is just up to the individual person what they like. I have been eating the breakfast buffet at Goofy's since 1992, and the characters have varied over the years, but when we were there 2 weeks ago, we saw 8 characters in the restaurant and took photos with 6 of them. (Also, the food was even better than it had been on my last few visits.) There was Max, Goofy, Chip, Dale, Belle and Mulan, and then working the other side of the restaurant were Pluto and another Princess (I forget who it was). Often times, Jasmine, Aladdin, Baloo, Aurora and the Prince, Alice and the Mad Hatter are there in the morning, too, and people report seeing Captain Hook, Minnie, the Genie and other fun types at night.

Here is a link to one page of Disneynerd420’s TR, with recent, extensive photos of the Goofy’s buffet – just scroll all the way down the page and see all the great photos. Even though these are breakfast photos and not dinner, you will get an idea of how extensive the dinner buffet will be (I don’t know of any recent TRs with a lot of photos of the other character buffets, or I would post those too):

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2268157&page=23

Storytellers Cafe Critter Breakfast also has an all you can eat, serve yourself, buffet at breakfast. I recommend the buffet because the off-the-menu items are outrageously expensive for what they are and the buffet makes more sense. This buffet is much, much smaller than Goofy's, with fewer choices, but some folks prefer it over all the other character meals because of the laid-back, low key atmosphere (whereas Goofy’s is more high octane fun and Minnie & Friends can be a bit chaotic, form what folks say). I have done this meal 3 times, and I am not a big fan of the food at the Critter Breakfast and neither was my friend, who had never eaten at Storytellers OR at Goofy's before, until this year. She preferred Goofy's by a mile, even though she had to shell out a lot of $$$ for it. However, many people love the food at Storytellers - so again, it is all personal opinion and taste. I think 3 times was enough for me, unless someone I am with just has to go there! Storytellers Cafe is a nice, earthy kind of restaurant that lends itself well to the woodsy/jungly characters who visit there. Chip and Dale are always there. Koda and Kenai from Brother Bear are always there. Terk from Tarzan is usually there. Meeko from Pocahontas is sometimes there. People have reported seeing Baloo (rarely) and a Brer character or two, once in a blue moon.

Minnie & Friends seems to have the most characters on premises of all of the character meals - sometimes they overlap 'shifts,' so you might get a bonanza of characters all at one time. And it is cheaper than Goofy’s and the new Surf’s Up with Mickey meal, which is a big plus! This is not the typical all you can eat buffet set-up. This is served 'buffeteria style,' but you can go back for seconds. I have not tried this one yet because there have consistently been mixed reviews on the food quality. While there are tons of characters (Chip, Dale, Captain Hook, Fairy Godmother, Pooh, Tigger, sometimes Eeyore and Piglet, Max, and many, many more), I have repeatedly heard that the food is often cold or just bland and not up to par, even though everyone agrees the character interaction is great. But the folks who love Minnie & Friends LOVE it and say the food is great. Only you can decide what you like! I still intend to try it eventually, just for the characters if nothing else.

I have not eaten at the Ariel's Grotto Princess meal for breakfast, lunch or dinner - simply because I have no interest in Princesses! But people consistently rave about the menu there and how good the food is - and it seems to be unique in contrast to any other character meal. Plus, if you have little ones who love Princesses, this is the place to go to be sure to see them (even though there are usually at least 2 Princesses at Goofy's, it is not guaranteed they will be there, so Ariel's is the go-to place for definite Princess meetings).

The early reports on the Surf’s Up with Mickey meal is that it is buffet only (no more menu orders), and aside from Mickey, Daisy Duck is there, Surfer Goofy, Minnie and sometimes Pluto are there, as well as Lilo and Stitch, or any combination of the above. There are a few unique food items with Polynesian or Latin influence mixed in with the regular breakfast fare. I look forward to trying this one – hopefully whenever I make my next trip to DLR.

 

[danielle782001]

We have boys that have ordered me to stay away from meals with princesses...We like character meals but hoping to avoid having all breakfast sit-down meals...Also DH does not like lunch or dinner buffets...He likes buffet breakfast and menus at lunch and dinner...

I am trying to plan within these "rules"

 

[Sherry E]

We have boys that have ordered me to stay away from meals with princesses...We like character meals but hoping to avoid having all breakfast sit-down meals...Also DH does not like lunch or dinner buffets...He likes buffet breakfast and menus at lunch and dinner...

I am trying to plan within these "rules"

Show your husband the link to Disneynerd420's pictures of the breakfast buffet, and see how that goes over!

 

[danielle782001]

Show your husband the link to Disneynerd420's pictures of the breakfast buffet, and see how that goes over!

Thanks...I will

 

[333laura]

We just did Blue Bayou for dinner, and although we loved the atmosphere, I wouldn't do it for dinner again, esp. with kids. The kids' menu was VERY limited (pot roast, mac & cheese, grilled chicken breast and maybe one other thing). And I did ask whether they could make anything from a lunch-type menu (grilled cheese, for example), but they were not able to accommodate us.

We had a great time at Goofy's Kitchen, and we all enjoyed the food (esp. the Mickey waffles). The only thing I would do differently there is that I would have a quick breakfast elsewhere and then schedule Goofy's for early afternoon so you can do several fast passes first and *then* go relax over lunch/brunch. We scheduled for 9:50 a.m., and I felt like we were missing out on prime ride/attraction opportunities. Kind of a "hindsight is 20/20" experience.