Top 5 Best Character Dining Experiences

[StraightToDumbo]

(Poll Results)
5. Garden Grill
4. Chef Mickey's
3. Ohana
2. Crystal Palace
1. Tusker House

My initial impression on this conversation is that grown men without kids should probably call the bullpen for this discussion. As a father, food is ALWAYS secondary when it comes to the kids. They'll get mac n' cheese and nuggets EVERYWHERE. Environment and characters are the name of the game here.

Having said that, I voted for all of the top 5, and I'd say Ohana and Tusker House are great for the unique food offerings, but as far as that "kid environment", you can't beat Chef Mickey's. For unique ENVIRONMENT and change-of-pace food, Garden Grill is great.

 

[mcd2745]

My list isn't very different from yours...


5. Cape May Cafe
4. CRT
3. Chef Mickey's
2. Crystal Palace
1. Tusker House

 

[StraightToDumbo]

My list isn't very different from yours...

4. CRT

I too like a little torture every now and again

 

[mcd2745]

I know, I know...but, at the end of the day, it's still the Castle.

 

[rteetz]

1. Tusker House
2. Ohana
3. Crystal Palace
4. 1900 Park Fare (for breakfast)
5. Cape May Cafe

 

[tubiemom]

My top 5
5Hollywood and Vine
4 Be our guest dinner
3 Tusker House
2 Garden Grill
1 Norway (with the princesses)

We like garden grill and both times have had really good food (2015 & 2017). It is one of my husband's favorite places on property. The characters here have always been amazing. My kids have special needs and we LOVE that it is not a buffet and the food comes to us. The characters last time spent a lot of time at our table and my youngest who started the meal afraid of the characters ended giving them a high five because they took time and let her warm up. It was magical. I liked the food there better then Liberty Tree.

I still think about that meal at Akershus often and dream of going back. This is my dad's favorite place to eat on property.

Tusker house was good and the characters made sure to include my kiddos in the parade even though they couldn't walk around. It was magical. The chef was great with food allergies.

I have eaten at Hollywood and Vine before and after kids and have not had a bad meal.

 

[bwbuddy5]

In a related poll...

https://www.disboards.com/threads/poll-cinderellas-royal-table-vs-norways-akershus.3620276/

 

[Mobbane]

I haven't been to all of these but I have to agree with Craig on the Garden Grill. The food is not adventurous but its solid and geared toward kids (think whole pan of cinnamon rolls). The family style serving and whole rotating restaurant gimmick makes this a favorite of me and my kids. Last time I was there the characters came by our table about half a dozen times as well. At Chef Mickey's and Ohana's we got one pass.

 

[TiggerTrigger]

I found the "best" results kind of funny, since our worst character meal food experiences took place at Chef Mickey's dinner, Tusker breakfast and 'Ohana breakfast. The reality- character meals also tend to be inconsistent. I also think you have to look at these from meal to meal vs the restaurant as a whole. Certain spots are fine for breakfast, but are a miss for lunch and dinner. You couldn't pay me to go to Hollywood & Vine for lunch or dinner, but breakfast was decent.

Our top 5:

5. Garden Grill dinner (opinion might change if we ever get to try breakfast)
4. Cape May breakfast
3. CRT breakfast
2. 1900 Park Fare breakfast
1. Crystal Palace breakfast

 

[StraightToDumbo]

Of all the character meals we've done, and we've done them all, my kids remember Garden Grill more than ANY other one (with CM a close second). I don't know what it is, but they just love the rotating vibe I guess.

 

[mrzrich]

I think a big part of the appeal to Garden Grill for me is the fact that I don't have to get up to the buffet. It makes for a much more relaxed meal. I will say that what Steve said about going at an "off time" for Tusker, is true for most of these places. Going at an off time makes for a less chaotic experience

 

[pjweaver]

I think a big part of the appeal to Garden Grill for me is the fact that I don't have to get up to the buffet. It makes for a much more relaxed meal. I will say that what Steve said about going at an "off time" for Tusker, is true for most of these places. Going at an off time makes for a less chaotic experience

Garden Grill will be my #1 because of food, food served to me, perhaps the best character interactions on property, and it not being as popular so easy to get in to.

 

[Lesverts]

My favourite overall has been tusker house. 1900 park fare was great for characters. Though the best I've ever done is the Star Wars breakfast at sci fi but that was a one off thing. I am trying to go to all of the character meals but Hollywood and vine is hard to bring myself to consider.

 

[Elizabeth Smith]

Did anyone else find Pete incredibly sassy on this episode of Best and Worst? He had me laughing so hard teasing Craig about the characters in their special outfits.

I haven't been to WDW in years, but Crystal Palace is really memorable and Tusker House is too. I was not surprised at all that they topped the list!

 

[MBurns]

We have only done 2 Character dinners (being this was our 1st trip to WDW) and both are on the list, we did Tusker House on our 1st day at WDW for dinner and Ohana our last day for breakfast. Having never been to WDW before our Mach trip we did not know what to expect on our 1st Character dinner and we had a great time the characters came by our table a couple of times and we had a great time interacting with them, and the food at Tusker House is one things my family keeps talking about even today from our trip. Ohana was a great experience also, great atmosphere and character experiences, my DD 12 had Lilo and Stitch sign her Stitch Mickey ears, even though the food is just ok, the POG and sweet break was the best...I think we drank 5 pitchers of the POG!

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Tusker House is definitely our favorite - but we also really liked Garden Grill. I was surprised how poorly Pete thought of the food there as we rather liked it. I did find it a bit on the salty side (we like salt though so it didn't bother us but I could see others not liking that) - but thought it was all warm and fresh and decent options and the kids plate was good too. Was it fancy gourmet food? No, but it tasted like real food and was plenty of it, the character interaction was great, and the kids loved how the restaurant rotated

We do character breakfasts a lot and have also had really good ones at Akershus and Cinderella's royal Table. I know the later gets bagged on a bit but we thought the food was really quite good and our server brought out lots of extra portions of food so we got try a bunch of things and left stuffed. Price point makes it hard to do all the time, but we really enjoyed our one time three

 

[pjweaver]

I'm so glad they will do one best of and one worst of instead of calling the lowest vote getters the worst. I think I get why Pete dislikes Garden Grill... a diabetic having breakfast there may as well call the ambulance before sitting down. Not to mention dinner doesn't have anything special, just that processed Disney turkey I dream about.
We get ADRs for GG and TH for before rope drop for pictures and to watch the running of the pilots cram Soarin'. Tusker deffinatly has better food (though I wish they'd bring back Krispy Kremes) but watching Chip n Dale sword fight with rolled up menus while Micky stole our potato barrels a threw them at the chipmunks to break it up was the best character interaction I have ever seen. Just like Tusker House at the end of breakfast, GG characters have free time once Soarin opens and everyone leaves.

 

[GreatLakes]

Tusker House hands down for me. It isn't even close. Thinking about all of the character meals I've done Tusker House is the only one the could charge the same amount of money, remove the characters, and I'd still happily pay to eat there. That really should be the goal of every character meal but so far all the rest fail miserably in that regard.

 

[Ghostridethedolewhip]

Cape May should definetly be on there.

 

[SorcererHeidi]

Cape May should definetly be on there.

Totally agree! As Pete said - especially breakfast (and no characters @ dinner). But even dinner I've found to be delicious, and I don't eat seafood!