What Restaurants with a three year old?

[k8Davies]

Hello

Right I am nearly at my ADR window (Very exciting).

My issue is that I've been to Disney before and eaten in some fab restaurants the California Grill is my Fave, but this is the first time I'll be going with a little one (Well technically that's not true on our last trip we had the little one in tow but he wasn't even one so we had jar food for him and he was in his stroller/high chair so couldn't cause too much mischief). Also we've always traveled in a large party and this time it will just be the three of us, so fewer people to keep him entertained while eating.

So I really wanted some advice on what is a must do - currently on my list I definitely have the Crystal Palace Breakfast (Get in before park opening) but apart from that no firm plans; and also advise on what restaurant are best to be avoid with a very, very active and curious little one

we'll be on site for 14 days so need a few ideas

 

[Jerusalem Gal]

Chef Mickey's!

 

[Yahweh]

Character meals-
Garden Grill, Tusker House, etc...

Non-Character Meals-
Sanaa (dining with an exotic bird watching you through the window, and giraffes and other wildlife walking in the background is fun at what ever age). If you get there at 5:00 you'd much more likely be able to get a table by the window.
Il Mulino New York Trattoria- at the Swan was great with the kids...our waiter had them laughing through out the entire meal. Bluzoo as well. We were pleasantly surprised!
Coral Reef- has the fish tank, food can be hit or miss. Was good the last time we were there.
Raglan Road- Lot's going on to look at, the dancers get the kids to dance with them. The food has always been good when we have gone.
Via Napoli- Share a Pizza Have a great meal, as a very low price disney-wise.
Rainforest Cafe/T-Rex- Not our thing, but if you are willing to sacrifice food quality for spectacle than that another option


I wouldn't completely discount restaurants like the California Grill, It seems to me that out of all the signature restaurants, it has one of the highest percentage of kids there.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

But don't do a late California Grill meal unless you are very sure your kid can handle late east coast time.

 

[Candycane83]

I'm planning on going with my will be 2 and a half old DS in December (his first trip!) and have a bunch of character dining planned- Tusker House, H&V (Minnie's Seasonal Dine), Crystal Palace, and Garden Grill. I figured it would be a nice break and we won't have to wait for characters in line as much. If in case he becomes afraid of characters, then I would probably cancel after the first one... (fingers crossed he'll love them) I have Sanaa, Coral Reef and Ohana in the plans too.

 

[mkla2015]

We find buffets work well with our kids. We are finally at ages where they can sit and wait a little while for food with no fuss but when they were 2-3 yrs old, we did mostly buffets to avoid waiting for food.

All of the character meals at Disney are a little loud so no need to worry about your kid being silent, they get to stand up to meet the characters and take pics, some have times to dance, parade, etc. All of this helps to keep the attention of active/curious little ones.

Are there any characters that your little one likes? H&V has Disney Jr characters for breakfast- they were a hit with my kids a couple yrs ago. Food wise, we really enjoy Tusker House and Ohana for breakfast.

 

[Jadyreen1282]

Whispering Canyon and MBBBQ.

 

[Hopefully]

Biergarden in Epcot

 

[ebradley23]

We've hit all of these when my son was nearly 3 - 4. *next to his favorites

Epcot
Biergarten*
Chef de France* (but my kid eats anything and loved getting escargot - probably not most kids' fav)
The Garden Grill*
La Hacienda de San Angel

MK
BOG*
The Crystal Palace*
50's Prime Time (he was too young to get the schtick)
Hollywood & Vine*
Sci-Fi** (he really loved this one)

AK
Tusker House*
Yak & Yeti

Resort
Boma*
Chef Mickey's*
Mickey's Backyard BBQ*
Kona Cafe
'Ohana*
Whispering Canyon**(he loved carrying ketchup from table to table so much that other tables would call him over to help them. He thought it was the funniest thing to do)

Not once have I ever felt we shouldn't take our son to a specific restaurant. They have all been geared toward keeping kids occupied either with activities, characters or decor. There were some he enjoyed more than others, but there hasn't been one that he disliked. Pick your favs and throw in some character meals is my recommendation.

 

[Ambehnke]

Tusker, Ohana, Chef Mickey's, BOG, CRT, and Minnie's Dine were my son's favorite last year when he was 3!

 

[piccolopat]

Without knowing your child, it's hard to say. Some kids do great in any restaurant and can sit still (and be relatively quiet) for a couple of hours. We were lucky in that our DD was in this category. Other kids will want to run wild and have a grand old time no matter what the parent tries to do. You might try taking your child to a variety of places locally so you can get a better idea of what his tolerances are. Is he an adventurous eater or very picky? Can he sit still for an hour or so without a lot of fuss? Since you are familiar with at least some of the restaurants, it might help you narrow down what will work for your family. You might also consider off peak eating times so the restaurants are less busy and the staff can serve you a bit faster.

 

[AeroKU]

Hollywood and Vine breakfast was a huge hit for our 3, 5 and 7 year old, with all the Disney Jr. characters.

 

[LindySpirit]

I agree with the buffet suggestion. My three year old absolutely loved Tusker and Crystal Palace.

 

[DizzyDis]

We found that buffets were excellent with our LOs (4yo and 18 mo) both in terms of variety and lack of wait to get food. Our little guy was mesmerized by characters so we got to enjoy our meal too. Our favorite character meals were Crystal Palace breakfast, Disney Jr lunch (especially if your kid will like to dance and play with characters) and Ohana breakfast.

One other thing I will mention is we found our kids were exhausted come dinner time, so our breakfasts and lunches were much more successful as TS and then we could rush through a QS dinner and put them to bed early. I was shocked at how much Disney tired them out, and they were not fun for anyone to be around at that point!

We found some great QS options for later in the day including at the resort QS, Yak and Yetu CS and Columbia Harbour House. We also went to some other resort QS for variety (Contemporary), and to look around at other places!

 

[KT0191]

I'll be going with just me and my DS3 in September and I have: Tusker, CRT, BOG, Via Napoli, Hollywood and Vine Fantasmic lunch (really recommend this...dont have to wait as long in line and get great seats) and Ohana. I've already taken him to a few of these when he was 1 and 2 and he loved them!

 

[disneyfav4ever]

Our DD will be three this trip as well. We're doing lots of character meals, buffets, and then we're trying Coral Reef, Sanaa, Kona, and hopefully Be Our Guest.

 

[k8Davies]

Thanks for all the great advice and it seems like the Buffets are the most popular choice to head to with a little one.

Also like @DizzyDis idea of doing most of the booking early in the day and using the QS for Dinner especially in the first few days as we'll have to deal with the Jet lag as well.

Although might get a California Grill booking for later on in the trip to co-inside with the Fireworks, then I can judge in the days leading up if he'd be okay. As cranky tired little one might not be the best dining companion lol..

Already decided what I'm doing on my first night as I won't be getting to hotel until around 8pm, I am definitely going to make use of the boardwalk pizza window yummy

 

[DizzyDis]

My pleasure! And we definitely had some dinner reservations later in the trip which we said we could decide midway through whether we would keep or not. What we would often do was get QS dinner for kids, put them to bed, then DH or I would go down and get something yummy for us (very quietly!) and eat dinner (and sometimes wine...) out on the balcony. While doing that, we would go over our plans for the next day (with only changes to FP at that point) and look at the plan 2 days out and decide if we wanted to make any dining reservation changes. That gave us the 24 hours we needed to make sure we didn't pay any fees.

I am sure you will have a wonderful trip!!

 

[Hobbes]

Although might get a California Grill booking for later on in the trip to co-inside with the Fireworks, then I can judge in the days leading up if he'd be okay. As cranky tired little one might not be the best dining companion lol..

Did you know you can eat earlier at CG and get a voucher/receipt to come back later that evening specifically to watch the fireworks-we saw several people doing that with their rugrats. I'm sure someoen on here can tell you exactly what you do to arrange this! That way if he's grumpy you will be in and out fairly quickly and not have him having a paddy whilst you're trying to eat!

 

[k8Davies]

Did you know you can eat earlier at CG and get a voucher/receipt to come back later that evening

OMG did not know you could do this, sounds really handy might give it a go as that means we're not eating to late for him but still get the fireworks experience.

So definitely interested if anyone has any more info about this