Disney World Dining

Henroid

Despite how much I would enjoy the contents of this thread to be useful to myself sometime soon, I am asking on behalf of a friend who is going with her husband to Disney World for her birthday next month.

The question is simple (and for those who have been to Disney World): What restaurants would you recommend? The only special info needed is already above. I'm also pretty sure anything else in the area outside of Disney would be open to the suggestion bin.

DrFrylock

I haven't been there in a few years but here's what I remember.

In the Downtown Disney area they have a decent Cuban sit-down restaurant that I went to a couple of times. It was busy but the food was pretty good.

In Epcot, each region of the world has basically two restaurants: a sit-down version and a take-out version (cafe style). If you want to eat at the sit-down version, you need to make reservations very early in the day. The cafe-style places are just walk-up fast food sorts of things.

I had a bad experience at the Moroccan cafe-style place. I ordered chicken, which comes on the bone; it's slathered in Saffron (well, probably Turmeric) or something. I'm eating and I notice that one of the bones is the chicken's spine. I'm not sure if that's like a Moroccan delicacy or something but I wasn't very excited about it.

jotate

The thing about WDW Dining is that the options are incredibly varied. My family went every year (sometimes twice a year) from when I was 9 to when I entered college. I've been to a lot of the restaurants and can tell you about most of them. But it really depends a lot on what they like. Not just taste-wise, but environment-wise.

Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Review at the Fort Wilderness Resort is a pretty good show. If all I was looking at is "birthday," this is the one I'd go with. It's a big dinner show and, at one point, they go around and talk to people who are having birthdays, have them stand up, and sing happy birthday. The show and food is kind of "old west" themed. It's a great show, especially if you can appreciate the occasional knee-slap humor.

More romantic restaurants exist as well, though they were never the focus of my family trips. The trouble (especially if you're going during the usual Christmas break-esque time) is reservations. A lot of the shows and more popular restaurants book up months in advance. The number to call is 407-WDW-DINE to make reservations and find out availabilities.

Other fun shows and things. The Sci-Fi Dine In at MGM is a great atmosphere. The Polynesian Resort has a Minnie and Mickey Luau that's a pretty cool show as I recall, fire eaters and such. The Coral Reef Restaurant at EPCOT is pretty fantastic as far as seafood goes. For that matter, almost every country in the World Showcase at EPCOT has an authentic restaurant, if that's something they'd be interested in.

Take a look at this site:

http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/wdw/dining/diningFinder?bhcp=1

Lots of great details. If you have any specific questions about a show/restaurant I've been to, I'd be glad to give you my opinion. It's been a few years and I'm having trouble coming up with the memories on the fly.

Improvolone

What food is prefered?
Budget?
Staying on Disney property?