Thoughts on Garden Grill please

[princess jasmine 76]

We had dinner there once about 3 years ago. The character interaction was good, the food not so much. Perhaps we just hit a bad night but everything seemed very salty to me, and the rest of my party agreed. The cobbler for dessert was VERY good though. I'm glad we gave it a try, but for the $, I wouldn't choose to go back. I also vote to look for Chip and Dale meet and greets. Character meet and greets are easy to locate with the app. I just looked at mine and today they meet at the Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios

 

[rg35]

We went last year for lunch. It was my first time there. The food is family style, and it's totally fine.

I mean, look at the menu. It's turkey breast with gravy, pot roast, sausage and peppers + sides served family style. It's extremely hard to screw those up, but nobody should really go into it expecting a flavor explosion. We all really really liked the fruit shortcake dessert.

The character interactions were A++. It wasn't crowded at all during lunch (despite it being early July, so summer crowds), the characters stop by multiple times and aren't in a rush to get to the next table.

The pricing of these all you can eat character interaction meals can never be evaluated based on the food alone - plus - even if you eat a normal amount of food, you are partially paying to offset for the family that will eat 4 platters worth of everything and all the waste that is built in to family style and buffet style meals.

 

[sullyfam]

We did dinner there our last trip and it was a one and done for us. We sat upstairs and the rotating restaurant was cool and everything but definitely nothing over the top in terms of entertainment. The food was just OK and my husband did not care for the way the meat was prepared. It was on the rare side. It's family style and you get what you get so check the offerings and make sure your family would be happy with the selection. The one cool thing is that they use vegetables from the living with the land ride which is right below the restaurant. If you do decide to eat there, definitely do the ride either before or after as it's a cool tie in. For the price (and yes you have to factor in the whole experience including characters) it just did not add up for us. We were glad to have done it and our kids always like meeting the characters, but it's not on our list to do again any time soon.

 

[seshat0120]

My sister and I ate here for dinner on our arrival day in December and we thoroughly enjoyed it. The food was so yummy and the character interaction was great. i think we saw all the characters at least twice.

The only "issue" I had was the rotating. It's not fast at all but is fast enough that when I came back from the restroom I'd "lost" my table. *LOL*

 

[kelliejason]

My wife has wanted to go there forever. She went as a kid and had a whole tray of drinks spilled on her, but has still wanted to go back for the 17 years we have been together. Maybe on our next trip in November. ADR's haven't opened up yet. Thanks to all for the reviews.

 

[Clarissa McDaniel]

We absolutely love Garden Grill! It is a must-do every trip for us. The character interactions are fantastic. The food is tasty and plentiful. The atmosphere is also really neat. We've had amazing servers at Garden Grill as well.

 

[helenm29]

LOVE GG! we have been there many times with our children at different ages and they loved it! my husband and I have a reservation for a Character breakfast on my birthday (yes, two old folks) in September. I love, love, love their brunch goodies and their fried chicken!

 

[rosiebean]

We went with a large party to GG for breakfast last year and it was very disappointing. The food was average, to be kind. The character interaction was sorely lacking...mostly because we were a large party in a long booth, and it was *extremely difficult* to get out from behind the booth and interact with the characters. Add to that, the characters didn't seem to want to interact with us beyond posing for photos. Added to *that*, it was also busy, with wait staff trying to navigate around characters and diners in rather narrow aisles. Our experience would have been better if the food was great OR if the character interaction was great. But since both were rather lackluster, we won't be back anytime soon.

That said, you're going with a much smaller party, which will make character interaction easier giving your seating options...and we may have hit the place on a bad day. GG has a ton of fans, so it's not as bad as we experienced. And if your son wants to see Chip and Dale, it's a great option to do so.

We did enjoy the rotating restaurant and viewing The Land from 'behind' as we turned.

 

[MrsDuck]

My favorite character meal - love the atmosphere and food. Character interaction is WONDERFUL plus rotating thru Living with the Land is neat.

 

[Dayzy]

We did breakfast there last month and my family loved it. We got an 8 am and saw each character 3-4 times. My family liked the food. My daughter had to order a second helping of eggs because she thought they were so delicious. The bets part is that by 8:40 we were done and able to walk onto Soarin' twice

 

[RangerPooh]

We've always had good experiences at Garden Grill for dinner. The character interaction was always good and the food tasty. We prefer GG over Chef Mickey's.

 

[Spridell]

Had breakfast there twice was very good. In the hour we were there characters came around twice

 

[PrincessArlena'sDad]

As PP said, PPO breakfast = access to Soarin before rope drop crowd hits. That plus GREAT character interaction makes it worth it, to us.

Breakfast is also a lot cheaper than lunch/dinner, as OP is not on the DDP.

 

[Shoshana]

We didn't enjoy our experience at all. The quality of the food was okay but it tasted very bland. The service was terrible and even stellar character interactions wouldn't have made up for it. We won't go back for a long time.

 

[sharadoc]

You can see Chip and Dale for free at the Campfire Singalong at Fort Wilderness.

I like the breakfast at Garden Grill. Not so crazy about their dinner food.

Unless it's changed, at the Campfire you see one OR the other, they go out to meet and do it separately so you have to choose.

We loved Garden Grill for lunch. The food was fantastic, much better than we expected. My son loves Chip and Dale too and he loved the interaction. You can usually find them somewhere in Epcot too. Check out Kenny the Pirate's website for character locations and times.

 

[jillyb]

My DD and I ate there for the first time in August last year. We were there for lunch. It was about 11:45 and we pretty much had the place to ourselves. Our server was very nice and attentive, the character interaction was great and we really liked the food. Characters came by multiple times. Even though we liked the food, it was just too much food for us. I would go back again in a heartbeat!

 

[JadeDarkstar]

LOVE GG! we have been there many times with our children at different ages and they loved it! my husband and I have a reservation for a Character breakfast on my birthday (yes, two old folks) in September. I love, love, love their brunch goodies and their fried chicken!

whens the brunch start and can i still get the breakfast offerings? id love chicken and waffles and the sticky buns (yummmm) i just don't want the full lunch bar when I know the breakfast looks super yummy we were looking at 10 am reservation.

 

[acpalmer]

whens the brunch start and can i still get the breakfast offerings? id love chicken and waffles and the sticky buns (yummmm) i just don't want the full lunch bar when I know the breakfast looks super yummy we were looking at 10 am reservation.

It's not a buffet--it's served family style at your table. It's possible that you could get a reservation time where the first set of food you get is the breakfast and then it switches over to you getting lunch, but it's not all set out for you. I also don't think they serve fried chicken. I wonder if the poster you quoted is thinking of Garden Grove in the Swan?

We have only done the PPO breakfast, but we had a great time, left stuffed, and rode Soarin' before the park had officially opened. It was definitely worth it for us for that.

 

[TheRustyScupper]

Our Ratings of Garden Grill: (*rev 03/16/2017*)
. . . food price value: B
. . . food quality: C
. . . food quantity per serving: A
. . . food prep speed: B
. . . food selection: C
. . . seating quantity: C
. . . seating comfort: B
. . . eatery atmosphere: B
. . . eatery convenience: B
. . . staff friendliness: B
. . . staff attentiveness: B
. . . character interaction: A
.
Our Recommendations:
. . . appys:... Living-with-the-Land Harvest-inspired Farmer’s Salad
. . . entrée:.. Turkey Breast with Lemon Caper Sauce
. . . dessert:. Skillet Cake with Vanilla Bean Whipped Cream
.
NOTE1: The eatery revolves within The Land pavilion and portions of spin include farm
scenes from the boat ride. The food is plentiful, but quality merely average. You pay for
the characters and not the food or food quality. Food is served family style and there is
always more, as it is All You Care To Enjoy. Characters include Mickey, Pluto, Chip-n-Dale.
As the eatery is one of the smaller character locales, the character interaction is GREAT.
.
NOTE2: The lower deck tables have one-side seats which can make talking among the
table diners tough, especially if you have six-to-eight people, which takes about 12-feet
in linear distance. This means that you cannot easily stand to interact with characters.
The upper has standard tables that seat people facing each other and you can stand and
interact. I recommend upper tier for characters; lower for viewing the river-ride scenery.
There is little chance of motion sickness, as the eatery moves so slowly. If you do have
a concern, the upper level happens rarely..
.
NOTE3: I would definitely do the dinner, and the lunch, when the lunch is offered. These
are not bad options for Future World dining. But, the new breakfast seems so much like
a rip-off due to its HIGH, HIGH price.[/

 

[CeruleanMoon]

How popular is this place? Is this one of the restaurants that sells out 6 months in advance? I was thinking of doing this for lunch mostly because:

1) I went here in 1983 and my 10 year old self thought a turning restaurant was the coolest thing EVER. Now my son is 10 and I'm hoping he'll love it too.

2) Their food sounds like exactly the kind of plain, basic stuff that my son will actually eat!

What does "family style" mean exactly? The menu is set and they just bring big bowls of everything to your table?