Dining: MK and DTD

The dining craziness ends after today! Wahoo! After we plan the last few meals, we are done with the “solid plans” we need for the trip. The rest of the time, we can just post about things we find out about WDW, things we want to do, etc. The books should have been delivered to Dirk/Laura yesterday. I am assuming that your WDW DVD will be coming in a few weeks.

I made all the reservations for breakfast, which is great! We got times for everything we wanted, except Kouzzina, which is a bit early. However, we will have to walk or ride a boat over to the restaurant (once we exit the bus that will take us from POFQ to Hollywood Studios), so we will probably be a bit late, anyway. I found out that you can show up for a reservation up to two hours late and it will still be honored!

Anyway, onto the last few choices for dining reservations—the Magic Kingdom (and surrounding resorts) and Downtown Disney.

Magic Kingdom and Surrounding Resorts (two lunches, one dinner)—

MK: Liberty Tree Tavern, Tony’s Town Square Restaurant, The Plaza

Resorts: Whispering Canyon Café, Ohana (dinner only) Grand Floridian Café, 1900 Park Fare (dinner only), Chef Mickey’s (dinner only), The Wave. Since there are so many, I will post pictures of what I have. However, I will link to the menus and describe each restaurant.

Magic Kingdom

Liberty Tree Tavern—we ate here for lunch last year and really liked it. I found the recipe for one of their desserts and have made it a few times (Ooey Gooey Toffee Cake) because it was so good. This is standard American food in a colonial setting. Lunch. Dinner Pictures.

Tony’s Town Square Restaurant—this place generally gets mixed reviews. The people who like it really like it, the people who hate it, hate it. It seems to be standard Italian food. The  restaurant is Lady and the Tramp themed. Lunch. Dinner. Dessert.

The Plaza—this is a small sandwich place on Main Street. We ate here last year as well. The sandwiches were okay, but Evan really liked the tomato soup and I liked the cheesecake. However, I can make tomato soup and cheesecake myself.  Menu. Pictures. 

Nearby Resorts

Whispering Canyon Café—at this restaurant you can order a al carte or get the all you can eat skillet. Milkshakes are bottomless, and the waiters play tricks on you. For example, when I order my Diet Coke, they will probably bring me this ridiculously large jar full. Lunch. Dinner. Dessert. Pictures below.

Ohana (dinner only)—I would love to eat here, actually, but I am not married to the idea. I have heard great things about the food, which may be why it can sometimes be difficult to get reservations. The meal is served family style, all you can eat. The meat is brought to your table on skewers. Menu and Pictures.

Grand Floridian Café—this is a quiet restaurant at  the Grand Floridian Resort. It seems to server decent food. I haven’t heard great things or bad things. If something on the menu appeals to you, I say we go for it! Lunch. Dinner. Dessert. Pictures.

1900 Park Fare (dinner only)—This is a traditional buffet that features Cinderella, Prince Charming, the stepmother and the stepsisters. I have heard they are hilarious! However, the food, based on reviews, seems to be just okay. Nothing spectacular, but not bad.  

Chef Mickey’s (dinner only)-- reviews seem to be similar to 1900 Park Fare. Nothing great, but not bad. This is a traditional buffet. They seem to have similar food to 1900 Park Fare as well.

The Wave—once again, this place gets good reviews, but the menu to me is ‘’eh”. I don’t know if there are too many unfamiliar words or if I have this notion of pretentiousness because of the way it serves organic and healthy food. Not that those concepts are bad, but are they trying too hard? That being said, I would eat here because of the good reviews. Lunch. Dinner. Dessert. Pictures.

 Downtown Disney (one lunch, one dinner)-- Raglan Road, Wolfgang Puck Café, Cap’n Jacks, Planet Hollywood

Side Note: If only one of these sounds good, we could choose a lunch from one of the previous resort restaurants—although we would probably go straight back to the hotel to catch the Magical Express (as opposed to being able to do a bit of snack shopping at Downtown Disney before we leave). We will be at Downtown Disney the evening prior, so that doesn’t seem to be too big of a deal. 

Raglan Road—we ate here last year and LOVED it! The Dalkey Duo appetizer was great, I loved my fish and chips, and the desserts were awesome (we just ran out of room because of the Dalkey Duo, we couldn’t stop eating those little sausages!) Lunch. Dinner. Pictures

Wolfgang Puck Cafe—gets generally good reviews, and the menu seems diverse. Lunch. Dinner. Pictures.

I really haven’t heard much about Cap’n Jacks and Planet Hollywood, so I will just post menus.

Cap’n Jacks—Lunch/Dinner. Dessert

Planet Hollywood — Menu (open for lunch and dinner, just found out). 

Dining: Breakfasts Poll on Right--->

Just so you all know, I was able to make our reservations for Sci-Fi and Yak and Yeti. Funny story: when I first started describing Yak and Yeti to Evan last year, he didn't want to eat there. He hadn't seen "Yak and Yeti" in print, and thought that I was saying "Yakkin' Yeti", like a Yeti was vomiting or something. He didnt' want to eat there because of the name. Then he saw "Yak and Yeti" in print, and we were able to make reservations.

Is it just me, or is eating out for breakfast the best? I really like breakfast food, but I like sleeping more—hence the reasons why I don’t eat breakfasts until I am at work. However, WDW is a completely different story. Breakfasts are worth getting up for, especially when there are fun people to meet. Additionally, we have to worry less about what park we will be in that day. We can catch transport to the restaurant and then transport to the park. It worked out well for us last year.

We will need to choose 7 breakfasts at WDW. Seven! Because we are eating at so many signatures (which takes two dining credits), and breakfast takes time, we won’t eat breakfast at a restaurant on the day we go to Universal. We will be in the Magic Kingdom the day before, so we can get a few things categorizes as “snacks” at the bakery on Main Street—or we can get snacks at the resort food court. Some possibilities are:

MK Bakery—muffins, danishes, fruit salad,  cinnamon rolls

POFQ—beignets, bagel, cereal,  milk, juice, fruit

I think that we should be able to make a decent breakfast from those items. The rest of the days, we will have breakfast at a restaurant. As stated before, we need to choose seven. They can be in any combination. If we want 7 character breakfasts, we will do it. If we only want two, that is fine too.

Breakfast food is breakfast food, so I will only post a few pictures of what I found.  If you have seen one breakfast buffet you have seen them all. We all know what bacon looks like. As such, I will give you pictures of any food I can find, outline any specialty items on the buffet, characters, etc.

Character Meals:

The great thing about character meals is that many of them take place inside the parks. Character meals start before the park opens—meaning they let you in the park early and you can get awesome pictures without crowds! With character meals, there are a few “regulars” and characters that rotate. For example, Alice, the Mad Hatter and Mary Poppins are always at the 1900 Park Fare breakfast. However, there are always 1-2 more the differ depending on the day.

Ohana, Polynesian Resort—Lilo/Stitch/etc.— Stitch is hilarious, and I have heard this breakfast is good. However, I am not dying to go here (unless it is for dinner, which is basically a meal of 3+ kinds of meat and Asian noodles). We can always see Stitch in Tomorrowland, where he is usually signing autographs and playing pranks on Buzz Lightyear. The characters dress in Hawaiian shirts. The specialty here is basket of bread they serve with the meal. This meal is served family style. They bring a platter to each table and you get your food from there.

 Tusker House, Animal Kingdom—Mickey/Goofy/Donald/etc.— We ate here last year, and the ham was so good. The characters dress in Safari gear. The meal consists of traditional breakfast foods as well as a few African offerings. Choosing this meal would allow us to enter Animal Kingdom an hour before opening. Buffet meal.  

Crystal Palace, Magic Kingdom—Pooh, Tigger, Piglet, Eeyore—This place looks beautiful, and you meet Eeyore, who is my favorite (next to Donald). This place serves traditional foods and allows you into the park early for your reservation. Its specialty item is “puffed French Toast”, which is essentially cream cheese filled French toast. Characters are naked. Traditional Buffet.

1900 Park Fare, Grand Floridian—Alice, Mad Hatter, Mary Poppins, etc— I hear that the Mad Hatter puts on a real show for the guests, which sounds like fun. Characters are dressed in their traditional clothes. I think Mary Poppins is usually in her white “carousel sequence” dress. The specialty here is the chilled strawberry soup. Buffet.

Akershus, Epcot—assorted princesses— Eating here would get us into Epcot early. The specialty here is the cheesy breakfast potatoes (which are really good) and the cold buffet (with Norwegian and American offerings). While the cold buffet is a traditional buffet, the hot items (eggs, potatoes, sausage and bacon) are served family style. 

Chef Mickey’s, Contemporary Resort—Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Chip and Dale?—This is a place where Chip and Dale MAY appear. It seems to be hit or miss. The characters wear chef hats and jackets. I have heard that breakfast here is the same as everywhere else, except you can get brownies and soft-serve ice cream as breakfast items. It is a tradition for many families because it is bright and colorful. The décor doesn’t seem too special or unique. However, I am game if others are, as I would like to check out the contemporary. Buffet. 

Cape May Café, Beach Club Resort-- Mickey, Minnie, Donald, etc— This is a traditional buffet. As far as I know, there are no specialty items. Characters appears in beach gear (flipper shoes, bathing suits, etc). 

I am of the mentality to choose breakfasts that will showcase different characters. For example, since we will see the same people at Tusker House, Chef Mickey’s and Cape May—we would probably only want to choose one of those three.  

Possible Non-Character Breakfasts

Here are some places that we could go for non-character breakfasts. I tried to choose places at resorts close to the parks. We went to Kouzzina and Kona Café last year and liked both. 

Kouzzina, Boardwalk Resort— The chicken sausage here was amazing. And I dream about the waffles I had! Menu

Kona Café, Polynesian Resort— This place has a specialty called the “Tonga Toast”. Two thick sourdough slices, bananas in the middle, dipped and cinnamon sugar and served with strawberry sauce. What many people do is order the Tonga toast and have their partner order something else. They share both meals, since the Tonga Toast is so sweet. Menu. 

The Wave, Contemporary Resort— I have heard good reviews of this place, although I can’t find pictures at the moment. I think I would rather go to Kouzinna. We are on vacation. I don’t need—or want—multigrain anything. Menu.

Boma, Animal Kingdom Lodge—This is one of the best breakfast buffets at WDW—or so people say. They also have African inspired dishes, but this gets better reviews than Tusker House. Menu. 

Captain’s Grille, Yacht Club Resort— There is a buffet here, but you can also order a la carte. I haven’t heard much about this place. I just chose it for its proximity to the parks. Menu.