What is your favorite buffet or CS?

[Princess_Christina26]

I am trying to plan my meals for my trip with my son. It will be his first visit (my 15th visit) so I want to make it memorable for him. He is a picky eater so I am thinking more buffet and CS meals. What is your favorite???

 

[Hootch]

son's age so I'm going pretty generic.

For the younger set CP is the family favorite. My son - now nine - has outgrown it, but the there is a wide variety of food and good character interaction. We tend toward dinner but breakfast is also good. Another choice we often visit is CM. The main characters are present. The food lacks a little compared to CP but a fun atmosphere. Also Cape May. Similar characters as CM with food a little notch higher.

Ohana breakfast is good for a little bit older kids. Stitch is a bit edgier in my opinion but you still get Mickey. If you burn out on characters, Boma is a good buffet choice. There are standards for picky eaters but a little more adventurous items for others.

I'm not sure about the CS locations anymore. The menus seem to have changed a great deal int he last year. Cosmic Ray's will have the widest variety, but different food items may require different lines.

 

[GOOFYsince71]

I am trying to plan my meals for my trip with my son. It will be his first visit (my 15th visit) so I want to make it memorable for him. He is a picky eater so I am thinking more buffet and CS meals. What is your favorite???

My boys always enjoyed the buffet at Chef Mickey's at the Contemporary.
They scale down the kids area so that they can reach, and they
have a great dessert bar that will make him finish his veggies quickly to
get to the fun part of the meal!
Hope your son isn't 20 and I just told you about scaling down!!!!!

 

[KatMark]

Our all time favorite character meal is Crystal Palace for breakfast--love the puffed french toast and potato casserole. Then, of course, you have my favorite characters: Pooh, Tigger and Eeyore (and Piglet too). We've enjoyed Chef Mickey's--although not as much as the Crystal Palace. We are trying Cape May Cafe this year with Minnie, Goofy and Chip and Dale.

As for counter service, our favorite is the Columbia Harbor House at the Magic Kingdom (soup and sandwich or fish and fries), Flame Tree Barbecue at Animal Kingdom (ribs, chicken and pulled pork).

 

[Princess_Christina26]

sorry i forgot to mention my son will be 6 when we go. It will be his birthday.

 

[PrincessTiffany]

Our favorite buffet is a tie between Chef Mickey's and Crystal Palace. My kids favorite counter service is Toy Story Pizza Planet at DHS or Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe at MK. My husband's favorit CS is Flametree BBQ at AKand it's my favoite too, but I also like Pecos Bill's at MK.

 

[MickeyNicki]

Breakfast buffet is Boma, it is just amazing. Runner up is Cape May

Dinner buffet is Beirgarten, we love that place

 

[Wild4Walt]

If you go to Epcot, Garden Grill buffett( now only for Dinner I think ) was fun and the food was pretty good. This one is in the Land Pavillion. The resturant is round and rotates very slowly while you eat.

Also in the Land is Sunshine Season's ( CS ) and they have lots and lots of yummy options.

I am also a fan of the Pepper Market at CSR. It's a different experience in Food Courts. Very colorful and lots to look at.

 

[septbaby]

We really liked Boma.

However for a birthday celebration for a 6yo boy I will tell you what we did for my 6yo nephew and he LOVED it: Chef Mickey's breakfast and I think dinner would be great too.

They'll give your son a CM's placemat, a Mickey cupcake, they'll do a song in his honor. My nephew uses his placemat to eat on daily, only ate the icing off the cup cake and loved the napkin waving, monorail running overhead, rowdy atmosphere. Heck he even got to dance with Donald Duck and it seemed there was always some character nearby.

The only downside is your son may forget to eat he's having such a good time. Personally I don't think there is a better place at WDW to celebrate a bday for a 6yo boy. By the way I managed to pack in a pretty good meal into my belly while there too.

 

[jamimb]

Hands down best buffet would be Cyrstal Palace. Breakfast, lunch, or dinner we have never once been dissappointed and we normally hate buffets!

 

[septbaby]

Pooh is not necessarily the character of choice for 6yo boys, girls maybe. My nephew is all over WWE and apparently I was the last to know that is typical for his age. So the funnier more boisterous characters seem to fit better. Though I must admit he was still taken by Minnie.

I did have CP and CM's booked for our trip this yr, but had to cancel the trip. So at 7 or 8 I'll be dragging him to CP because I want to eat there and he'll have to deal with it.

 

[NJ Mets fan]

On our trip there last week we went to 3 character meals. The best food wise was 1900 Park Fare at the GF but since it's has characters from Cinderella it probably would not be best for your son. The food here was really good for a buffet as were the desserts. 4 of the 5 characters made it to our table
We also ate at Crystal Palace for dinner for the 2nd year in a row and will skip this the next time around. The food is so-so and we had to wait for two of the characters to come to our table probably 15-20 minutes after we were done with our food. We paid for the characters so we were not leaving until all made it to the table especially since the last one to come was Pooh!
We had breakfast at Cape May in the BC and would compare it to Chef Mickey which we dined at last year. The difference is Minnie being the main character here along with Goofy, Chip and Dale. Your son would probably enjoy Chef Mickey more but probably tougher to get a reservation.
Last year other character meals we did were Liberty Tree Tavern at MK which was good, Garden Grill in Epcot which we did not like at all and the Norway restaurant with the princesses (don't ask me to spell it!). My girls loved the princesses but the menus was not to their liking.

As far as CS, at Epcot I highly recommend the Sunshine Season restaurant at the Land. There is a good variety here and if you are on the meal plan, very good desserts. We hit this one every time we come.
At MK, I recommend Columbia Harbor House.
At AK, we usually eat at the Flame Tree BBQ but this year we ate at the Asian resturant which is right near the Yak and Yeti. The food was enjoyable.
If you want sample menu's for all restaurants check out allears.net/menu/menus.htm

 

[TigerKat]

We are not buffet people, however, one buffet that we've been to that I can recommend is Biergarten. We're trying BOMA(breakfast) on our next trip as we've heard wonderful things about it!!

 

[shane&jakesmom]

My kids love Chef Mickey's, Crystal Palace and Ohana(breakfast).

 

[Laneychris]

We love Chef Mickey's and Crystal Palace.

 

[NJ Mets fan]

We are not buffet people, however, one buffet that we've been to that I can recommend is Biergarten.

I forgot to mention the Biergarten. We love it also. If you are not a fan of sausage and German food, you may not like it. No characters but if you time it right you are entertained by a German band which plays maybe 6 times a day.

 

[dreamin_disney]

We really liked Boma.

However for a birthday celebration for a 6yo boy I will tell you what we did for my 6yo nephew and he LOVED it: Chef Mickey's breakfast and I think dinner would be great too.

They'll give your son a CM's placemat, a Mickey cupcake, they'll do a song in his honor. My nephew uses his placemat to eat on daily, only ate the icing off the cup cake and loved the napkin waving, monorail running overhead, rowdy atmosphere. Heck he even got to dance with Donald Duck and it seemed there was always some character nearby.

The only downside is your son may forget to eat he's having such a good time. Personally I don't think there is a better place at WDW to celebrate a bday for a 6yo boy. By the way I managed to pack in a pretty good meal into my belly while there too.

Is there an extra charge for the b-day placemat and cupcake? When i made my ressies I mentioned that This was dd b-day gift. She said she was going to put that on the ressie. Didnt ask if there was something special that they would do.-to early in the morning booking fall special-lol!

 

[septbaby]

Is there an extra charge for the b-day placemat and cupcake? When i made my ressies I mentioned that This was dd b-day gift. She said she was going to put that on the ressie. Didnt ask if there was something special that they would do.-to early in the morning booking fall special-lol!

No, those things were just done for him. He loved it and we loved his reaction. I didn't make any special bday arrangements for him during our trip, just listed his bday in the record. He was turning 6. I'm sure you could nudge them if it's "missed" during your visit. One other thing, at CM's they take a group photo, optional purchase. They add a bday burst to the bottom of the photo to mark the occassion. I did buy the package and thought the Birthday burst was a nice add to mark the occassion. I think CM's or his first Mickey siting in Fantasyland were the highlights of the trip. I don't think I've ever seen him happier and all of our CM photos seem to show that.