Just Back - Dining Reviews

[Mary Chase]

Just got back from a 7 night trip to Disney ("free" dining). Here are some thoughts on our dining experiences.

Flame Tree BBQ counter service - AWESOME as usual - and birds in the eating area left us alone which was a bonus b/c my kids hate them!

Tusker House dinner - Ehhhh....just didn't think it was very good. Thinking we might try Yak & Yeti next time. Any opinions on that place?

Sci Fi Dinner Theater - pretty good - as usual. Menu is nothing fantastic - but the food was good and we go more for the experience.

Kona Cafe - DH really liked it - we both got the pan asian noodles - I guess it's just not my thing. We've gotten steaks there in the past and I liked it. I think I was just not in a great mood that day because it was cold and rainy and we'd spent a lot of the day in MK in the cold rain.

Garden Grill - The only good thing to say about our experience there was the character interaction was pretty good. Food - portions incredibly small and no one liked this place. We were hoping this would be more like LTT.

50's Prime Time Cafe - GREAT! Food was good, we had a great server - Auntie Claire - she is awesome! She made my husband eat his vegetables - it was very entertaining for us.

Liberty Tree Tavern - Delicious as always! A couple changes to the dinner I wasn't too excited about (beans are now a casserole and they served cauliflower - not my fave veggie). Also, they need to bring back the apple cobbler!! The dessert was OK - just not my favorite.

Chef Mickey's - Well, you can't go wrong here - that is for sure. I love that place! Service, Character interaction and the food is always the best buffet food in my opinion.

All in all it was a good trip - just a few bad dinings. The worst was Garden Grill - I just can't say enough how disappointing that was. I need a few new ideas to replace Tusker House and Garden Grill (all other places we went to I would do again). Looking for a 1 TS credit place and here's a list of what I've tried so far:

None of these places thrilled me:
Tony's
Crystal Palace
Coral Reef
Nine Dragons
San Angel Inn
Boma - breakfast only

We've done O'hana and may go back there - but had a bad experience and just felt the quality was going downhill a bit there.

I always like to read comments about other's dining experiences and hear what people think of places - so feel free to comment on my comments above and all suggestions are appreciated!

[wickedgin]

I'm sorry you didn't like The Garden Grill. We haven't been there for awhile (June '10) but we LOVED it. I'm glad most of your other meals were good, though, especially 50's Prime Time--I'm going there for the first time at the end of this month so it's nice to read recent positive reviews.

[ElenitaB]

Thanks for sharing your impressions and experiences. Sorry that some restaurants (including one of my favorites) didn't pan out for you.

[MississippiDisneyFreak]

Sorry you had some bad experiences, thanks for the reviews

[SBETigg]

Kona Cafe gets lots of raves, but it's not one of my favorites, either. Had a really awful meal there and I haven't gone back yet. Yak and Yeti is good, but has a very chain restaurant feel to it- and it is a Landry's restaurant (Rainforest Cafe, T. Rex), so no surprise there. I prefer to head to the Animal Kingdom Lodge and eat at Sanaa (one of our new favorites).

Other good 1 TS restaurants to try: Chefs de France, Grand Floridian Cafe, Kouzzina. If you're meat and potatoes types and you really like barbecue, you might try Whispering Canyon Cafe at the WL.

[TheVBs]

I'd love to hear more about what you didn't like at the Garden Grill. It's on our list to try.

[honeebee86]

I too am very sorry you did not enjoy Garden Grill I haven't been there in over a year but have been 4 or so times total and every time I have enjoyed it very much and the last time we went it was FANTASTIC! I will have to take DH to eat there again to see if we experience the same thing. I hope you just had an off night. Thanks for the reviews!!!!!

[Mary Chase]

I'd love to hear more about what you didn't like at the Garden Grill. It's on our list to try.

Well, we were expecting it to be similar to Liberty Tree Tavern as it is family style. And the food seemed somewhat similar to LTT when I read the menu online. They had turkey, mashed potatoes, beef, rice/veggie combo and fish (Mahi Mahi). The kids platter included a very small bowl of macaroni and cheese which my 4 year old promptly picked up and thought was his own personal serving and two chicken legs and sweet potato fries. My 4 year old was happy with the macaroni, but my 9 year old doesn't touch it and really didn't care for the chicken legs. The adult platter just seemed small. Glad we were on the free dining on this one. And it took forever to get another platter brought over. We weren't crazy about the taste at all of the meal. I'm sorry for the negative review when you are planning on going there. But a lot of people seem to be very shocked with my review - so maybe it will be okay for you and I just was there on a bad night - bad nights seem to happen at every place it seems. Hope you have a better experience than we did!

[Mary Chase]

Other good 1 TS restaurants to try: Chefs de France, Grand Floridian Cafe, Kouzzina. If you're meat and potatoes types and you really like barbecue, you might try Whispering Canyon Cafe at the WL.

Thanks for the suggestions! I heard that about WCC - I may have to try that! It's always just hard for us to venture far from the parks for meals as we don't like to really even take time for TS meals (although we do it when we get free dining!) I do know that it seems the better dining options seem to be at the resorts though!

[mydisneygirls]

Is agree with SBETigg....Les Chef de France was our favorite place this last trip and WCC was awesone as well and it's only a boat ride from the MK. It's worth the trip to the WL just to see the lobby and the resort itself. You won't be disappointed!!!!

[Figment1988]

Just got back
Tusker House dinner - Ehhhh....just didn't think it was very good. Thinking we might try Yak & Yeti next time. Any opinions on that place?

I've heard that Yak and Yeti has good food, and indeed, Tusker House has practically gone downhill since the inception of the character lunch. The thing was that many people came in for the Nemo package, but since this change, the atmosphere's been more... blah.

[BigFatDaddy]

We just came back from a 10 day trip on the DDP. Garden Grill was one my family loved. We thought the food was great! DD22 and DS18 love mac and cheese so our server even brought some out for them on top of all the other delicious food. Pluto, Mickey, Chip and Dale were a lot of fun. We saw Pluto at a few other spots but he was the best at Garden Grill. 50's prime time was a lot of fun also. Have to agree with Chef Mickey, we had a lot of great food and character interaction also.

[TheVBs]

Well, we were expecting it to be similar to Liberty Tree Tavern as it is family style. And the food seemed somewhat similar to LTT when I read the menu online. They had turkey, mashed potatoes, beef, rice/veggie combo and fish (Mahi Mahi). The kids platter included a very small bowl of macaroni and cheese which my 4 year old promptly picked up and thought was his own personal serving and two chicken legs and sweet potato fries. My 4 year old was happy with the macaroni, but my 9 year old doesn't touch it and really didn't care for the chicken legs. The adult platter just seemed small. Glad we were on the free dining on this one. And it took forever to get another platter brought over. We weren't crazy about the taste at all of the meal. I'm sorry for the negative review when you are planning on going there. But a lot of people seem to be very shocked with my review - so maybe it will be okay for you and I just was there on a bad night - bad nights seem to happen at every place it seems. Hope you have a better experience than we did!

Thanks for the extra info! No need to be sorry. It all helps us prepare for what to expect. We just got back from a trip in Oct. So we won't be trying Garden Grill until next time, 2013.

[Jennifer_and_Chris]

Thanks for the report! Glad to see one of our fav Flame Tree BBQ didn't disappoint. We love that place.

[January-2007]

Thanks so much for sharing!

[Gator]

Tusker House dinner - Ehhhh....just didn't think it was very good. Thinking we might try Yak & Yeti next time. Any opinions on that place?

Garden Grill - The only good thing to say about our experience there was the character interaction was pretty good. Food - portions incredibly small and no one liked this place. We were hoping this would be more like LTT.

I've been to Yak&Yeti. It was just ok. What I like to do after a day at the AK is go to Contemporary or GF for dinner. 1900 Park Faire is a great character meal with good food.

I feel the same way about Garden Grill. Had some friends rave about it - they go there every Christmas. We went and thought the character interaction was, although cramped. But the noise level in there is horrible, even compared to Cosmic Ray's. And the food was small in portion and not that great. I much prefer Liberty Tree, and wish they'd bring back the character to that place.

[gaffz70]

Too bad about garden grille, it's always one of our favorites. I have found that it is a more laid back/calm. Bar acted experience as opposed to a lot of the others that seem pretty crowded and noisy.

I'm bummed that we didn't have a good experience at prime time...our waiter was non existent, not sure I would go back.

[Crow]

my gf and I both liked Garden Grill. she learned how to tell Chip and Dale apart and i thought t food was good.
Havent been to LTT
Ive tried WCC a few times. not really impressed even though its in my fav resort

[cuteduck223]

Garden Grill is family style, all you can eat..so I'm not sure why you had a problem with portion sizes, as they would have brought you out more if you had asked for it. I think they don't bring out as much initially because of the smaller tables than some other places. I'm sorry you didn't like it. It is usually our favorite for character interaction, and its quieter, even when its full.

[iheartdisney]

Count us in as another family who likes Garden Grill. I remember my son asking for seconds and they were only happy to oblige.

We enjoyed Yak & Yeti when it first opened. Maybe we were just grateful that AK finally had another sit-down choice. But my daughter and I were there a few months ago and it was just so-so.