We had my ds 3rd birthday party here because he loves Mickey. We dined here in June 2015. I had hopes for a wonderful dinner with fresh vegetables, but not what we got :( Most of the food, tasted pre-made (frozen and reheated). This seems to be increasingly common at Disney now, which is quite disappointing. Here's is what we were served: Macaroni/cheese (not bad, lots of sauce, topped with 3 gold fish crackers) Broccoli (boiled) Sweet potato fries (lots of cinnamon- too much for me and I love cinnamon) Cupcake cone (tasted fresh baked and was probably one of the best things served) Turkey (good, but dry) Stuffing (good/pre-made, but dry) Fish (didn't try it, hubby didn't like it and he usually loves fish, he said it had an 'off' taste) Mashed poatoes (definitely NOT fresh made) Roast beef (needed an extra set of teeth for this) Rolls (not fresh made, standard supermarket style) served with butter that was drizzled with orange blossom honey Salad (not bad, but nothing special- basically lettuce mix, topped with TWO grape tomatoes 1/2 hard boiled egg and very lightly dressed with ranch dressing) Berry cobbler (best part of the meal- not overly sweet, it was mixed berry cobbler topped with an oatmeal streusel and whipped cream) The service was good and the waiter was friendly. My son loved all the characters of course, but no one stayed more than 15-20 seconds except Chip, especially disappointing since we were celebrating his birthday. The restaurant wasn't busy. We dined at 5 pm on a Friday in June and there were empty tables. Also, since my son turned 3 that day, they made me buy his dinner (which was $25) and he ate NOTHING. The only thing he ate was 3 bites of the birthday cake I had ordered from the cake department to be delivered with the meal. Overall, I've had better food at Disney, but also worse. I would go here again (with someone who insisted), but it won't be my first choice.
We have eaten here on all three of our Disney vacations. We love everything the atmosphere, characters and the food. I can not say enough about the food, the meal changes but it is always top notch. We always talk about the wonderful quality of the food afterwards. We like the outside booths the best so you can enjoy the rotating scene.
This is by far our favorite place to eat in EPCOT. The food is good and you get plenty since its all you can eat. My kids love the atmosphere and characters. I highly recommend it to anyone.
We visited Garden Grill on October 27th, with a 4:40pm reservation. It was our only Character dining experience and I must say I am so happy this is the one I went with for our first experience. The food was fantastic. My boyfriend really liked the Tilapia and I really liked the steak. When we ordered more, since I'm not a fan of my meat being red or pink I asked if I could get the steak well done. They had no problem with that, and it came out the 2nd time perfect! We both thought the turkey and the mashed potatoes were delicious. Our son really liked his kids meal as well. I can't say enough about the food. Our waiter, excellent!! I wish I remembered his name. But he was fantastic. And the older gentleman that seated us, a true delight!The characters were great as well. We had got lucky with our Chase card meet and greet earlier in the day in that it was Mickey. My son LOVES Mickey, but when we walked into the m&g he was so starstruck to see Mickey he wouldn't go near him, or talk to him. But by the time we had supper and he saw farmer Mickey walking around he did sooo much better when Mickey (and the other characters) got to our table. This got kind of long :)But, I definitely recommend The Garden Grill. It's spendy, but, the smiles and laughs from my son and the food were totally with it to me!
There were quite a few people waiting when we arrived and I increased our wait a bit by asking for a table on the lower level, but the wait wasn't too bad and the table was worth the wait. If you enjoy Living with the Land, it's pretty cool to slowly move past the scenes in the ride as you dine. We started with the salad and the rolls. The salad was super tasty and fresh and the rolls w/maple butter were super yummy. We were then brought the traditional options...fish, turkey and beef for the adults and drumsticks, sweet potato fries, mac & cheese, and broc. for the kids. DD4 was all about the turkey, while DD6 hoarded the drumsticks and shared some of the fish with us. DH and I enjoyed the fish the most out of the 3 things on the adult platter...even had seconds of the fish! The dessert for the adults was a mixed berry buckle with fresh vanilla whipped cream, and the kids had cone shaped cupcakes with chocolate frosting. The chef had some special ones made without the decorations since we had some related food allergy risks at our table. I would assume the kids liked their dessert because they were inhaled. DH and I really enjoyed ours as well- just a really nice berry flavor. The service was wonderful...super attentive, very friendly and great at replenishing things we asked for. The character interaction here is by far the very best we've ever had at a WDW restaurant. We got about 5 separate visits from each of the 4 characters...and it was all really nice interaction. Mickey helped our girls with word searches and Dale even tried to help feed DD4 when she hit a picky point in the meal. All in all, we'd highly recommend this one and definitely return.
Let me preface this review by saying, My wife, son (1 1/2) and I go to WDW once a month for the weekend. We always hit up Epcot for one of the evenings. Whenever we do, we make reservations at Garden Grill. My wife really enjoys the Mahi and Turkey Picatta. I go for the Filet. The last time we went they had a new head chef who was testing a new sauce to replace the red wine butter that accompanies the steak. It was not as good as the butter. That being said, it was still delicious. They also make a plate for our son of chicken, and mac & cheese with goldfish in it. We continue to go for the food, the fact that Mickey, Pluto, Chip and Dale are there is an added bonus. The best thing that I can say about Garden Grill is that we were just there in September and will be returning in October!
My husband and I LOVED the Garden Grill. The food is served family style which we liked, and he still talks about the delicious butter they serve with the warm bread. The veggies they serve are actually grown in the Living with the Land facility, which I thought was really neat. I enjoyed seeing the different scenes from the ride as we were eating. The best part of this restaurant are the characters. Farmer Mickey is adorable and each of the characters spent a decent amount of time at our table. Since we are two adults the characters often rush by us to get to the tables with kids so it was nice to have a little more time interacting with Mickey, Pluto and Chip and Dale.
This is a very neat experience! The restaurant revolves and you can see scenes from The Land boat ride. The food is served family style all you can eat. It is also very fresh and delicious! The strawberry shortcake was the best! It was worth it just to get pictures with Farmer Mickey!
We ate here on our first trip to WDW with the kids. The characters were extremely interactive & lots of fun! Chip & Dale played tricks on one another & made us laugh. The food was pretty good & so was the service. I liked the fact that the restaurant made a full revolving turn during the meal. I would recommend this restaurant.
My family & I had dinner at the Garden Grill on 10/23/11. It was a good experience, and the kids really got a kick out of the characters & the rotating dining experience (which takes about an hour to complete a full rotation -- slow enough that it certainly wouldn't make someone uncomfortable or ill). The food was okay, and the service was very friendly. The atmosphere was good, the food just okay, but the kids really enjoyed it ... and in our book, that's what Disney is all about with a 4 & 5 year old ... so we'd give it a 7 overall. A great place to go with little ones, but if it was just my wife & I, we'd skip it.
I really liked the Garden Grill. My wife didn't like the food as much as I did and the kids liked it as well. What you like they bring more of and what you don't like they take away. The restaurant has a good view of the land ride and the kids love to wave at the boats. I loved the steak and have never had the problems that some people have had with the food. Once agian most people eat at different countries in the World Showcase so this place gets overlooked. It is a great place to see Mickey.
We ate for the first time at the Garden Grill on our last vacation in Sept. '09. We arrived five minutes early for our ADR but still waited over 20 minutes to get seated. It was packed. Our CM, Fillipe, was very friendly but service was a bit slow because of the crowds. The salad was good, especially since it had real bacon bits in it. We all loved the rolls and the maple butter. The beef was a bit tough and I didn't care for the cabernet butter sauce. Everyone loved the cornbread dressing and the turkey. DH and I liked the cranberry dressing, it was sweet but not overly so. DH didn't care for the fish but he liked the squash (and he's the only one who eats it in our family). We all liked the potatos and the kids liked the chicken nuggest, mac & cheese. The fries looked hand-cut and liked by all. The best part of the meal came at the end, however, with the blueberry buckle w/ vanilla bean whipped cream. It was pure heaven! DH was too full from dinner and only had a bite but said it was really good and I'm one of those moms whose kids don't eat fruit in dessert. They did taste the vanilla bean whipped cream and thought it was delicious. So, I had the dessert to myself, pretty much! Sooo good, not too sweet and lots of fresh blueberries. And the whipped cream w/ it was to die for! We are definitely going back.
This was one of our all time favorite meals. I was rather intriqued by the fact that the place rotated around a ride(which we did after we ate). The food was wonderful, the service was wonderful and the characters were awesome. One of the places I will do again when I go to disney by myself in March of 2010.
My daughter & I ate here by luck one night. We just came off of Soarin & decided to get a bite to eat & we knew you needed reservations here but took a chance & asked for a table for 2 & in 10 mins we were seated. The service was good, food was good & the characters managed to make their rounds to our table. Compared to other places this was OK.
We had 2 children and 4 adults in our party and none of us enjoyed the food! The turkey was dry and flavorless, the so called steak was chewy, dry and tough. The potatoes had little to no flavor, the cranberry relish had a weird aftertaste. The stuffing was passable but with no main dish to eat what is the point? and the veggies might have been good if they were hot. All the food was cold like the veggies. We didn't try the catfish because none of us are catfish eaters. The kids had Mac and cheese and chicken. Out of desperation, my sister tried the mac and cheese and she said that wasn't even good. My kids didn't do more than pick at it so I guess she was right. I do have to say the character interaction was great, the decorate your own cupcake was a hit with the kids and the waitress was good. She did ask us if we wanted anymore of anything and when she saw that the only thing we were asking for more of was salad she said to us "well at least the salad is good". Perhaps it was a bad night, but we will not be going back to pay all that money for salad and passable stuffing.
I love this restaurant. I have been going here since I was a little kid and I have never been disappointed. It has always had great food. It is a fixed menu but it is easy for eveyone to find something they will enjoy and they keep it comming until you are stuffed. The restaurant rotates and shows you the scenes from the land ride as the characters come around and visit the tables for pictures. Its definitely 1 of my top 3 Epcot restaurants.
Excellent service, good food. Great character interaction, without hectic atmosphere & noise of most character buffets. (Food is served family style, brought to your table.) Nice to be able to get a beer/wine with meal. Relaxing & enjoyable watching "the Land" ride as restaurant slowly revolves.
This is without a doubt my favorite character meal. We had ADR's at 6:00 pm and were at the hospital with my youngest daughter during that time. We made it to Epcot at 8:00 and went straight to the Garden Grill to see if they could take us. They said that they closed at 8, but after hearing our story decided to let us in anyway. The characters spent so much time at the table, they even came around several times. Chip took our bowl of catfish and ran away! lol, but he came back. Dale sat down and colored with my daughter. The food was awesome and the dessert was amazing. My kids loved decorating their own cupcakes. This is a must for every trip for our family!
We ate here our first night in Disney, January 29th. We were a Grand Gathering of 9 people (4 adults, 5 kids ages: 15, 12, 12 , 10, 6). We waited a long time for our table approx 45 min. and we were seated at 2 booths right next to each other, kids in one adults in the other. Our waitress was very sweet and quick with the refills of food and drink. I was a little disappointed that the restaurant was not revolving like it was supposed to, which I heard was really neat because it gave you different views of your surroundings. The waitress said she thought it had been broken for a few days at least. The food was good, flank steak with a cabernet sauce, turkey, and pork. The cheesey potatoes were delicious and the dinner rolls and cornbread were yummy. The kids as in other restaurants can order chicken fingers and fries instead of the regular food. The food is served family style which means they bring platters of food to your table for everyone to share and the server refills as necessary or as you request. The characters, Mickey, Chip, Dale, Pluto were very attentive and entertaing. The kids especially like the decorate your own cupcakes for dessert.
I love this place! The character meal is awesome. You always get lots of quality time with the critters. Even picky eaters can find something to eat here too. Any meal at the Garden Grill is relaxing because it is so quiet and laid back.
I've been to the Garden Grill several times with my family, including some picky eaters, and loved it every time. The food is excellent and the staff is more than happy to bring out more of your favorites. In my experience the characters spend a little more time at your table than at other character meals. And there are crayons at the table to entertain the children (and adults) while you wait for your food.
In my opinion this is the best character meal on property. The way the tables are arranged you have complete privacy with each character and get to enjoy a nice QUIET meal, which is what sets it apart. This is also an ideal place for picky eaters and the food is excellent. And don't forget the whole restaurant rotates giving you changing scenery while you eat. This is our favorite sit down meal at WDW.