The Garden Grill, Epcot, Orlando Florida.

The Garden Grill

Located in the Land Pavilion at the Epcot theme park is with out a doubt one of our favorite restaurants to visit when we "Do Disney".  The first thing you'll notice about the restaurant is that it spins, not fast enough to make anyone sick, but it rotates through the different landscapes of the "Living with the Land" ride. You'll see the American Plains, Jungles and more.  The restaurant is also a Character Dining location, and you will get visits from Chip, Dale, Mickey and Pluto so you will definitely want to bring your camera, especially if you have little ones.

There are no traditional menus at the Garden Grill, meals are served all you can eat"Family style" where the staff brings out platter of food which include steak, fish, turkey and lots of sides.  If you want more of anything, you just ask your server and they will bring it out to you.  Much of the food is actually produced in the sustainable eco-friendly farms at Epcot.  You can finish off your meal with one of the seasonal deserts.

Overall, this is one of our "must visit" places whenever we go.  We have always gotten excellent service and very good food.  We highly recommend you get reservations in advance and after checking the Disney website it appears the grill is no longer open for lunch, hours are 4 pm-8 pm.  You'll want to plan to spend at least an hour or more here, so if you get a fast pass or have an itinerary for other shows or attractions you'll need to take that into consideration.

Also, due to the style of the restaurant (and because it's Disney), they are a little more expensive than some of the other options available in the parks.

For more reviews you can go here to see what other people are saying about The Garden Grill

Tusker House, Animal Kingdom, Orlando Florida.

The Tusker House, is located at Disney's Animal Kingdom park.  You'll find it just as you cross over the bridge when you walk into the "African land" part of the park.  As with most Disney restaurants, I HIGHLY recommend that you make reservations when you plan your trip.  Even with reservations,  some of the more popular places, you can expect to wait up to an hour to be seated.  One thing done to help occupy your wait is the offering of a character photo opportunity.

Our little family waiting to be seated

Despite waiting about 45 minutes, the Tusker House, in our opinion, was very much worth the wait.  The restaurant is in a buffet style that has a very large selection of hot and cold foods, plus a very nice dessert bar.  One of the more interesting parts of the restaurant is the "Wall of Fire", an 18 foot long rotisserie style grill that continually cooks the grilled meats that are served.  Some of these grilled selections included pork loin, roast beef, rotisserie chicken and much more.

The service was quite acceptable, our waiter was very friendly and promptly kept the drinks refilled and the empty plates off the table.  Which when it comes to buffet's is really all you can ask for.  In addition to the characters outside, the inside portion is also character dining.  Four Disney characters circulate around the room offering photo opportunities.  We were able to get our Pictures taken with Goofy, Micky, Daisy and Donald.  Having them walk around was a really big plus for us because of our little ones.  Also, they periodically have a miniature parade, and the little ones are given African noise makers and they can get up and walk around with Goofy and the other cast members

Little man with his Grandma during the parade

Price wise, it was a little steep, but you definitely get what you pay for.  All-in-all, this was a really fun dinning adventure, one that we would like to do again.

Scores:
Food: A (Outstanding selection, and really tasty)
Service: B (It's a buffet)
Portion size: N/A (Again, buffet)

Upcoming trip and reviews! (Orlando, FL)

DA is really excited, in about 2 weeks we'll be traveling to Orlando to visit the "House of Mouse".  That's right, we're going to DISNEY WORLD.  As always, we'll being doing reviews of the places we dine at and we have several reservations already lined up from across all the parks.

In no particular order we will be visiting,

1. The Tusker House in Animal Kingdom
2. The Garden Grill in Epcot
3. The Biergarten also in Epcot
4. The Crystal Palace in the Magic Kingdom
5. 50's Prime Time Cafe & Sci-FI Drive in theater both of which are in Disney's Hollywood Studios formerly known as MGM.

As you can see, we have quite a full schedule lined up. If anyone has any suggestions for other places we should try to visit, the please email us or post it in the comments sections and as always thanks for sharing us with your friends and your support!

50's Prime Time Cafe - Disney's Hollywood Studios Orlando, Florida.

User Submitted Review

50's Prime Time Cafe - Disney's Hollywood Studios

We were enjoying an impromptu trip to Disney's Hollywood Studios (formerly Disney-MGM Studios) when we decided a meal was in order. We were debating between the Sci-Fi Dine-in Theater and the 50's Prime Time Cafe, when we decided we wanted a little of Mom's home style cooking. So the Cafe it was. We did not make dinner reservations which are highly recommended for this restaurant. The hostess did let us know they served food at the bar, if we were willing to sit there. We really wanted the whole dining experience that is offered but instead opted to take seats at the bar for quicker service. The stools were comfy and our bartender/server was super nice and kept use entertained the whole time we were there. All the wait staff that came to pick up drink orders and even the bar back were joking with us and made it a pleasant dinner. The options are few but classic. Both my companion and I opted for the "Mom's Sampler" Which consisted of pot roast, meatloaf, fried chicken, mashed potatoes w/ gravy , green beans, and collard greens. All generous portions and all fantastic. We also split the blue crab salad appetizer which was fresh and crispy and had just the right amount of vinaigrette on it. We were able to savor the atmosphere of a 50's style home. There were plenty of salad options on the menu and full sized versions of each of the items on our sample plate offered with plenty of sides.

Overall it was a pleasant experience and I would recommend it to anyone who likes to dive into the fantasy aspect of Disney. The booths all have various versions of 1950's style kitchens, the servers refer to guests as kids, and don't be surprised if they tell you to get your elbows off the table and to finish your dinner if you expect to get dessert!

Thanks for the Great review!

Coral Reef, Epcot, Orlando FL

Dinner Adventures is back from Disney! We had a lot of fun on our trip and got to see and do some pretty cool things. For one thing it was the first of four Star Wars Weekend held at Disney's Hollywood Studios, which is great for anyone who likes Star Wars or movies, and it's always nice to get away with family and friends. On our last day at the parks, we had the opportunity to review the Coral Reef restaurant at Epcot during lunch time. Their Lunch and Dinner menu's have a decent selection of "Surf and Turf" meal choices.

To start with, the ambiance is quite amazing, Almost the entire far wall of the restaurant is part of the huge 5.7 million gallon saltwater aquarium in The Seas with Nemo attraction. Throughout the meal, you could watch as Sea Turtles, Sharks, Rays and many different types of fish swim by the windows. The lighting is very subdued and with the view of the "seascape" it leads to a very relaxing atmosphere, although with the glass wall, it does seem to be a bit louder than you'd might expect. The ambiance was done quite well, as you might expect from Disney, and both my Wife and I enjoyed how relaxing they were able to make it.

We started our meal with the "Appetizer for Two" which came with 2 smaller sized crab cakes, that I thought had a little bit of kick to them, but were enjoyable. It also came with 4 pieces of fried shrimp, that quite frankly were average, there wasn't really anything special to them, but there wasn't anything wrong with the shrimp either. The last part of the appetizer was an amazing Creamy Lobster soup. I can't begin to describe how great the soup tasted, it was rich and creamy with just the right amount of lobster flavor and tarragon. The server was able to provide a recipe card for the soup that we could take home with us. One thing that I was unaware of before today is that Disney has many of their recipes available on a post card sized paper that they will give out upon request. For recipes that they don't have printed out they will give you a recipe request form, that you can either put down a mailing or email address and Disney will send you the recipe.

For the main course, my wife ordered the Grilled Mahi Mahi with the coconut-lime sauce and was able to switch out the Jasmine rice for some "smashed potatoes". I ordered the Seared Scottish Salmon on a Lemon and Pea Risotto with Bay Scallops. The Mahi Mahi was cooked perfectly, and the coconut-lime flavor went great with the potatoes. The wife was very satisfied with her meal. My meal didn't go quite as well as my wife's. The salmon was over seared on the bottom portion, almost to the point of being burnt, and a big portion of the Risotto tasted almost underdone. I was able to cut off the over cooked portion, and enjoy the rest of it. The risotto I wasn't able to finish, it had a great flavor and sauce and the scallops were cooked wonderfully, but the actually risotto part was just not that good. I pointed out these things to the server, and she made several offers to replace the salmon, or even get me a different entree which I declined to do, mostly because it had been a long day at the parks and we were ready to go back home. I should also add that her management also offered to comp us a dessert, but again we declined because of fatigue. However, that they had even made the offer went a very long way in our book. But in the future, if we chose to dine here again, I probably won't be ordering the salmon. I also can't recommend that anyone else order it either. The Mahi Mahi on the other hand, would definitely be on an "order again" list.

The last thing I want to talk about, is the service at the Coral Reef, overall I was impressed with the staff. We had our lunch reservations set for just after 2pm. We happened to show up a bit early, and they were able to seat us around 1:45, and we had a booth almost right next to the aquarium window. The service started out a bit slower. We felt we were waiting longer than necessary for our drinks and food orders. Despite the overall initial speed, our server was very friendly and made a great impression on us by offering to help "fix" our meal.

All in all, we were happy with our choice to eat at the Coral Reef, and we would defiantly go back, and we would recommend it to others. Just get something other than the Salmon.


Grades
Food-
Mine: C-


Wife's: A+


Appetizer:A
Overall: B+

Portion Size: A
Service: B+

A quick announcement.

We are excited to announce that we will be traveling to Orlando, Florida over the weekend to go to some of the Disney theme parks. We plan to review the Coral Reef restaurant at the Epcot theme park and many of the other dinning options that are available. We will be staying on property at the Disney All-Star Sports Resort and will be going to Hollywood Studios for the Star Wars Weekends, Animal Kingdom, Downtown Disney and as mentioned before Epcot.

We may not have complete Internet access while we are at that parks but we will try to do some mobile write ups. If not then we will definitely do the updates on Monday.

Chili's in Orlando, Fl

Went to Orlando for a meeting, and went to Chili's for lunch with one of the Supervisors from work. This Chili's was located off of S Semoran Blvd. We got seated right away and the Waitress came out and took our drink orders. Very quickly I should add. Despite being about 1:30 in the afternoon, the restaurant was not very crowded.

When waitress came back, she had gotten the wrong drink order, which is not a big deal as mistakes can happen. She appolgized and brought the right drink out a few moments later. After she fixed the drink mistake, she then took our meal orders and our food came out fairly quickly. Both of our meals were served with no mistakes, which was a nice change from some of my previous experiances with other Chili's. Over all the service level was pretty average.

As for the food ratings, well it was ok. I probably won't order the Grilled Ham & Swiss sandwich again, or at least it would not be my first choice. For me, the sandwich either needed, more ham, or less bread, it just didn't seem to have equal parts. Although the taste was not bad at all it just wasn't something that I would eat on a regular basis.

All in all this "adventure" wasn't anything special, nothing really great, and nothing really terrible. Personally I find most of Chili's food to be ok, with no significant difference between different locations. At this kind of "chain" establishment it is the service that can make or break a meal, and this time they were able to make it work out all right.

Grades
Taste: B
Portion Size: B-
Service: B

Recommendations: I would go back to this location if I'm ever in the Orlando Airport area again.