Yakitori House
Smaller meals featuring sushi rolls, teriyaki chicken, and other Japanese specialties sound great. I’ve been disappointed in the quality or portion size occasionally, and pleased at other times.
Yorkshire County Fish Shop
Fish and chips are the specialty here, and they make a decent walking lunch. You can also enjoy a quiet lunch or dinner by taking them down to the nearby patios that overlook the lagoon. Most of my British friends think the fish and chips here are awful, but I have to admit that I like it, so don’t come if you are looking for authentic (or healthy) food.
Table-Service Dining in Hollywood Studios
While Epcot may lead the way with international cuisine, the Hollywood Studios eateries bring entertainment to the table in new and innovative ways. They do have character meals, but the greater hits are the fun, kitschy dining options that either lend some Hollywood glamour or take you back to a simpler time. The counter-service meals are no exception, also providing some of the better dining atmospheres in all the parks.
50’s Prime Time Café
Cuisine Type: American
Serving Style: À la carte
Breakfast: Not open
Lunch: $ $
Dinner: $ $
: Yes
Location: Echo Lake
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
One of my favorite restaurants in all of Walt Disney World, this is a Must Do! dining experience. Sit at your family’s kitchen nook table, complete with black-and-white TVs showing old clips. “Mom,” your server, makes sure you clean your plate and brings low-key entertainment to a pleasant level. Their fare of American classics (I recommend the fried chicken or meatloaf ) is well prepared, and with the tongue-in-cheek sassy service, you can’t miss. This is a nice alternative to a character meal if you want fun but are tired of having Chip and Dale interrupt your meal every five minutes. Come only if you’re up for fun and can take a joke.
The Hollywood Brown Derby
Cuisine Type: American
Serving Style: À la carte
Breakfast: Not open
Lunch: $ $
Dinner: $ $ $
: Yes—2
Location: Hollywood Boulevard (naturally!)
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★
While the selection in this re-created Hollywood power-player dining spot is very good and everything seems to be made well, there’s little reason not to go with the classic Cobb salad. It was invented at the original Hollywood Brown Derby restaurant, and they make an excellent one here, too. The decor, complete with caricatures of the stars, is very swish and cool, so it can be a nice date restaurant as well. I have never been disappointed here.
Hollywood & Vine
Cuisine Type: American
Serving Style: Buffet
Breakfast: $ $
Lunch: $ $
Dinner: $ $
: Yes
Location: Hollywood Boulevard
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ☆
Disney channel characters play host for breakfast and lunch at this buffet eatery. The setting is Art Deco Hollywood. Breakfast is a standard American buffet, while the lunch and dinner buffets focus on barbecue, salmon, and other meat-centered entrées. At dinner, they add flank steak, mussels, and peel-and-eat shrimp to the buffet, and it’s usually busier because there are no characters present.
Mama Melrose’s Ristorante Italiano
Cuisine Type: Italian
Serving Style: À la carte
Breakfast: Not open
Lunch: $
Dinner: $ $
: Yes
Location: Studio Backlot
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
I expected to find a predictable Italian menu, filled with red sauce–covered pastas and garlic bread as far as the eye could see. Instead, I was treated to some light entrées and tangy appetizers that were filling but not heavy. The atmosphere is cheesy and there’s no entertainment, but the food is good, the service excellent, and the value reasonable for the price paid. Recommended appetizers include the spicy calamari or the mozzarella-and-tomato salad. For entrées, you can’t go wrong with any of the selection of flatbread pizzas or the chicken Parmesan, if you want a little taste of old Italy.
Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater
Cuisine Type: American
Serving Style: À la carte
Breakfast: Not open
Lunch: $
Dinner: $ $
: Yes
Location: Studio Backlot
Rating: ★ ★ ☆ ☆
You may not initially realize it when you enter the restaurant, but you are supposed to feel like you’re backstage of a show set. When you enter the dining area, you realize that you are being transported to a drive-in movie lot where it’s constantly night. Under a starry sky (or so the ceiling is painted to appear), you sit at tables that resemble’50s-era automobiles, with two rows (front seats and back seats of the car) of seating that can handle three little ones or two adults per row comfortably. Stick to the standard burger fare, which is somewhat superior to the counter-service variety. The real treat here, however, is getting a milkshake for dessert. This is a really fun dining experience for kids, though most adults find it to be a disappointment when they see what they paid for a burger meal.
Counter-Service Dining and Snacks in Hollywood Studios
The best choices are the ABC Commissary and the Sunset Ranch Market, for ambiance, food selection, and quality.
ABC Commissary
As counter-service areas go, this is the best indoor seating choice. This dining hall is made to look like an actual movie-lot cafeteria. The interior is more upscale than most counter-service eateries, and the formerly diverse menu selection still packs some international zing added to the burgers and fries, with a Cuban sandwich, a noodle dish, and a curry entrée. It is also a place to get a real breakfast.
Backlot Express
This is just another basic burger place in a less-than-remarkable atmosphere. The food is fine, but you have better choices elsewhere.
Dinosaur Gertie’s Ice Cream of Extinction
Ice cream sold from the belly of a dinosaur makes this a popular stop on hot Florida afternoons.
Studios Catering Co. Flatbread Grill
This covered, open-air dining area has some good Mediterranean choices, like gyros and some Indian entrées, but the highlight is its proximity to the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids movie set playground. The food is okay and a nice distraction from more burgers, and it’s nice to let the kids loose on the playground after lunch or during a parent soda break.
Starring Rolls Cafe
While this is a fine place to grab a light sandwich, it shines more as a popular breakfast destination for its coffee and pastries. Try some extravagant cupcakes and muffins for a special treat.
HIDDEN MAGIC!
Where will you be discovered dining at Hollywood Studios? There are so many choices! Here are my favorites:
• Character Meal: Hollywood & Vine This is perhaps the best character meal for the very youngest of guests, and it has good food, to boot.
• Table Service: 50’s Prime Time Café This is one of my five favorite meals in all of Walt Disney World. It’s fun and comfortably filling.
• Counter Service: Sunset Ranch Market The people watching and the variety of food options make it a great fair-weather choice.
• Snack: Toluca Turkey Leg This is a meal in itself. Who cares what you look like lumbering down the street with a big stick of meat in hand?
Sunset Ranch Market
This outdoor food court has an array of choices, including burgers and McDonald’s fries, Toluca turkey legs, pizza, sandwiches, fresh fruit, and more. The picnic tables (some covered, some not) make for a nice al fresco dining spot. People watching on Sunset Boulevard is fun, and the location is great if you want lunch or a snack while you wait for your FASTPASS at the Hollywood Tower of Terror or Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster to come due.
If you’re on the Disney Dining Plan, the following counter-service restaurants listed on the plan are part of the market: Catalina Eddy’s and Rosie’s All American Café.
Toluca Legs Turkey Co.
These monstrous smoked turkey legs are full meals for most people. You’ll see lots of guests walking around with these gigantic drumsticks, and it’s hard not to want one. They’re so popular that they have made their way to other parks, but Hollywood Studios is where they find their true home. They’re messy, tasty, fun, and probably not that good for you, but who really diets on vacation?
Toy Story Pizza Planet
Pizza is standard, nothing special. Seating is very limited and all outdoors. The only plus here is the adjacent arcade, but did you spend $60 on a park ticket for the kids to play video games?
Table-Service Dining in Animal Kingdom
Dining at this newest of the parks is limited but growing. With still only two table-service restaurants, most of your choices are of the fast-food variety. But where they may lack in these options, they make up for it by having some of the best counter-service dining in all the parks.
Rainforest Café
Cuisine Type: American
Serving Style: À la carte
Breakfast: Not open
Lunch: $
Dinner: $ $
: No
Location: Park entrance
Rating: ★ ★ ☆ ☆
One of two Rainforest Café restaurants in Walt Disney World, this one matches the decor and food offered at all stops of the national chain. Certainly appropriate due to the park setting, it serves up standard fare with a distracting atmosphere custom-tailored to families.
Yak and Yeti
Cuisine Type: Asian (varied)
Serving Style: À la carte
Breakfast: $ $
Lunch: $ $
Dinner: $ $
: Yes
Location: Asia
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ☆
Opened in late 2007, Yak and Yeti’s cuisine brings a selection of foods from several different Asian nations. Grilled selections, wok stir-fries, noodle bowls, and specialties that include duck and seafood bring a fantastic array of choices that are well executed in a scenic setting.
A bar seating area is great for adult-only couples who want to get in and out quickly.
Tusker House
Cuisine Type: American
Serving Style: Buffet
Breakfast: $ $
Lunch: $ $
Dinner: $ $
: Yes
Location: Africa
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
This former counter-service dining area has been converted to a buffet restaurant, complete with a character breakfast. The Donald Duck Breakfast Safari is basically the old Breakfastosaurus that was moved from the DinoLand, U.S.A., area. Food at all three meals has both basic American along with a good array of interesting, flavorful, and healthy alternatives that are African- and Indian-inspired.
Counter-Service Dining and Snacks in Animal Kingdom
The Animal Kingdom started out small, but the dining options are growing, and it has some of the more innovative meal options. Look here for some of the best Asian cuisine and some truly good barbecue.
Dawa Bar
Okay, it’s not a snack, but if you need a cocktail to make the day go by more easily, this is your one stop. They have a full bar. (I recommend the Rum Runner.)
Flame Tree Barbeque
This is perhaps the top counter-service meal in all of Walt Disney World, for two reasons. First, the barbecue is really quite good, with ribs, chicken, and pulled-pork sandwiches that are better than any fast-food barbecue I have ever had. Second, there are the scenic outdoor seating areas. There’s a web of outdoor verandas, each surrounded by jungle-like growth, providing some seclusion, shade from the sun, and great river views. After sitting in packed, loud dining halls for the better part of your trip, isn’t it nice to get seating with a view that’s worthy of a far more expensive meal?
HIDDEN MAGIC!
With not a lot of choices in Animal Kingdom, what should you do?
• Character Meal: Donald Duck’s Breakfast Safari This replaces the Donald’s Breakfastosaurus that was a hit in the DinoLand, U.S.A., area of the park.
• Table Service: Yak and Yeti The new Asian-themed table-service restaurant is a welcome addition to the dining selection here. Don’t let the name turn you off!
• Counter Service: Flame Tree Barbeque The outdoor seating is the backdrop to memories that you won’t forget easily. The Yak and Yeti counter service is a close second, so choose based on what you want to eat.
• Snack: Kusafiri Coffee Shop This can be one of the nicer, light breakfasts that you have in a vacation filled with overeating.
Harambe Fruit Market
Fruit here seems always to be of the best quality, both the freshly cut fruit salad varieties as well as bananas, apples, and oranges.
Yak and Yeti Counter
While the sit-down restaurant attached to this is exceptional, the counter has some very good and exotic choices that break the monotony of burgers and fries. Served in the iconic Chinese restaurant takeout containers, they used to be infamous here for filling containers almost entirely with rice and just a touch of the entrée selection. Servings are much more generous of late, making it a great choice for a quick (and portable) lunch.
Kusafiri Coffee Shop
Here you can order coffee and a pastry at the window.
Pizzafari
The pizza is standard, but some indoor seating could make this a good lunch choice on a hot day.
Restaurantosaurus
Simply blah burgers and fries in a busy setting. But the dig-site camp decor of the dining area is kind of fun, although noisy.
Dining at the Water Parks
Dining here is strictly available to fill a need. You don’t want to have to make the hour-long round-trip by bus to your resort just to eat at a food court, so they have the bare basics here. Adult beverages can be had as well, but at a rather steep price.
Summary
So there it is, dining in the parks in a nutshell. Quite a large shell, isn’t it? The key is to remember that with the few exceptions of destination dining that you may want to try, let your location drive where you dine. Have a few favorite dining options picked out for the parks you’re visiting, but schedule ahead for a few of those special dining experiences that might well make the vacation more memorable than you ever imagined.
Chapter 15
Other Dining Options at Walt Disney World
In This Chapter
• Taste the choices at the BoardWalk
• Get a sampling of the food at Downtown Disney
• Figure out what is good for kids
You now know about the food in the parks, as well as the restaurants at the resorts. But sometimes you’re hungry, are bored with the choices in your hotel, and don’t feel like trudging to the parks for a meal. A little nightlife couldn’t hurt, could it?
Not a problem. Disney has some remedies for your nighttime blues, and they go by the name of BoardWalk and Downtown Disney. These largely nighttime diversions run the gamut of whatever shopping and dining needs you may have, as you will see in Chapter 22. But what food is really available here? Let’s dig in!
Dining at Downtown Disney
Downtown Disney has a lot of restaurants, from good national chains to unique one-off restaurants, where you can get a nice range of foods. Certainly if you’re planning to hit the shopping of the Westside or going to see Cirque du Soleil, you should think of having dinner at any one of the fine area establishments.
DID YOU KNOW?
Not all of the restaurants at Downtown Disney are part of the Disney Dining Plan, so be sure you plan accordingly. Others participate, but for a limited menu. Check the Disney Dining Plan brochure online, or check each restaurant’s page at www.disneyworld.com.
Bongos Cuban Café
Cuisine Type: Cuban
Serving Style: À la carte
Breakfast: Not open
Lunch: $ $
Dinner: $ $ $
: No
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ☆
This large whitewashed restaurant does a good job of combining a nightclub atmosphere with a higher-end restaurant. The Miami Beach–styled suave atmosphere makes for a great romantic or adult group setting in this Gloria Estefan–owned restaurant. The food is authentic Cuban fare, and if you’re in a Miami Vice mood, the bar can be a great starting point for a night on the town. For lunch, I recommend the Club Cubano sandwich, and at dinner, all of the chicken selections are quite good, especially the Chicharrones de Pollo.
Cap’n Jack’s Restaurant
Cuisine Type: American
Serving Style: À la carte
Breakfast: Not open
Lunch: $ $
Dinner: $ $ $
: Yes
Rating: ★ ☆ ☆ ☆
This restaurant has been here forever, dating back to the days of Lake Buena Vista Village (what they called it when there was little here but convenience shopping). The menu is American, but not seafood, as the name might make you think.
You can barely get out of here for under $20 for lunch and $30 for dinner. For that, you could get a more interesting meal elsewhere just a walk away, so I’m not a big fan. It’s not that they don’t serve perfectly good food; it’s just that you can get more with your money at many of the nearby choices. Consider this a good choice for a family that wants to stick to more traditional American dining.
It is sad, really, as many longtime Walt Disney World visitors have fond memories of this stalwart. But great memories of old don’t make for good meals of today.
Fulton’s Crab House
Cuisine Type: Seafood
Serving Style: À la carte
Breakfast: Not open
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Walt Disney World, 2012 Edition Page 18