Which restaurant for dinner on IllumiNations night?

[SFMommy]

We will be eating dinner in Epcot 3 nights of our stay (we are staying at an Epcot resort). These are the 4 restaurants that we've narrowed it down to for dinner: Spice Road Table, Via Napoli, Tokyo Dining, San Angel Inn.

Which restaurant would you recommend on our IllumiNations night? So that we can easily get to a good viewing spot, the service/wait times are efficient so we don't stress out and feel rushed? We plan to have a 6:30 reservation. Does that seem like a good time?

Thanks!

 

[jon18uk]

I loved Via Napoli and I remeber managing to rush out and get an OK view of Illuminations. service was fine if I remember, but slowed down slightly as our housemate travelling with us was from same area as the waiter so got chatting!

 

[JJZMgailey]

I'd do Spice Road Table on your Illuminations night if it were me. They have a great viewing from their patio if you're seated outside. If not, you're right there close to the lagoon. Although, Tokyo Dining would be a good one too because you're right there. We really love watching Illuminations from the Japan Pavilion. That's a tough one!

 

[Hopefully]

I would choose Tokoy Dining. The view from the "balconey" outside the restaurant is good.
Have Fun

 

[figment_jii]

When are you going? IllumiNations is usually presented at 9:00 pm, but can be as late as 10:00 pm on weekends during F&W. Regardless, I do think 6:30 pm is probably enough time to be seated, dine, and get to a viewing location, but things can always go wrong (i.e., long waits, slow service, etc.). I would choose based on the food (more than anything) and then go from there (i.e. either watch from the restaurant or a viewing location nearby). For my family, we would pick Via Napoli. We've had pretty good luck with service there and most meals have taken about 75 minutes (three courses).

 

[owynn]

I recommended Chefs de France to a few friends who were going to be at Epcot for Illuminations and they had a wonderful time, sitting right by the windows. I'm not a huge San Angel Inn fan, preferring La Hacienda over it by far. Via Napoli is good, but I live in NJ and can get great Italian food anywhere. Tokyo Dining I can skip for my local Japanese place. So for me, it would be Spice Road as I can't get the food from there easily in my home town.