Disney Character dining at The Garden Grill
Location: In Epcot’s Living with the Land; near Soarin
Dining Plan:
This is a table service restaurant. You will use 1 table service credit when you dine here. Reservations recommended.
This restaurant starts accepting reservations 180 days in advance. To book your reservation, visit Disney Dining online or call 1-407-WDW-DINE or contact your Disney Travel Agent (I recommend Destinations in Florida).
Meals offered:
Breakfast 8:00 AM – 10:30 AM
Lunch 11:30 AM – 3:00 PM
Dinner 4:00 PM – 8:30 PM
Characters:
Mickey, Pluto, Chip and Dale
Special Event:
The restaurant slowly rotates as you eat.
My recommended reservation times:
8 AM if your goal is to ride Soarin’, 2:30 PM or 4:00 PM to avoid the crowds
My experiences:
We ate here on our first trip and it had some of the best veggies I had ever tasted. Yum! On another trip we also ate there and it wasn’t as good as we remembered. We would still eat there again.
Would I do it again: Yes!
Your opinion:
If you have dined at Garden Grill, please leave your opinion in the comments section!
You might also consider booking a reservation at Donald’s Safari Breakfast and Lunch.
Learn more about Walt Disney World Dining and get suggestions for where to eat, how to use the Disney Dining Plan and more.
The first time I went to Disney we got the dining plan we ate here for dinner one night and it was the best meal. I have never had catfish or flank steak (nither had my cousin and her 8yr old daughter) We all loved it the kids weren’t crazy about the mac and cheese. But we all loved how the resturant rotated and the characters were great too. We were there for 7 nights and this was our favorite meal. I never thought I would get the dining meal again but now that I have a toddler I will def get it because of the great meal we had at this place.
I think this is probably the worst-themed restaurant at WDW. The rotating tables are so neat, but the farm themeing is so tacky. And if you have a larger party, you won’t get to rotate. I think they put the “Fab 5” here to try to redeem the place. If you want to eat with Mickey *at a theme park,* I think this is your only choice. If you want more, I’d go somewhere else.
We had the breakfast buffet at this restaurant. I was really neat to see The Land go by. The food was wonderful also. My husband liked their cheese grits so much we’ve been trying to reproduce the recipe ever since!
My favorite restaurant at Disney! We love the food, tasty and delicous with plenty of choices for everyone. This is the only place to get sweet tea at Disney (the manager insisted on it for the menu.) We like the turning platform so the scenery changes and the characters have always been fun.
we ate here in 07 and had a great time! the view was great! the food was awesome! bring on the cornbread! i think i made a meal of this! and the characters were awesome! my girls had one of the best times here!
We ate here quite a while ago when they still served breakfast. Of course the selection wasn’t a large as that of a buffet but it was delicious, and anytime a tray looked like it might be emptied soon the servers were bringing out another. Our family really enjoyed that fact of the rotating resaurant and getting to spend so much time with Chip and Dale they spent several minutes at each table.
We have been here several times and have always loved it. It is particularly enjoyable for families, because the kiddos are enthralled with the rotating restaurant and the fact that you can see the boat ride below. The menu is limited but plentiful. We had chicken, steak tips, cat fish, potatoes, corn on the cob, rolls, and more. It was way more food that we ever imagined, so go HUNGRY so that you can get your money’s worth. Seating can be limited since the restaurant is not that large, but we have never had a problem with getting seated.
We dined at The Garden Grill for the first time last year and LOVED it!!
1)The atmosphere is wonderful- you spin every so slightly, just enough so you can notice a difference on the murals on the wall but not enough to feel uncomfortable. 2)The food is excellent. I’m a foodie and this was definitely good food. The rolls, salad, main entree were all excellent. I even loved the apple crisp dessert and I’m not an apple crisp fan. :)
3)And lastly, the character experience was the BEST! Mickey, Pluto, Chip and Dale all made it to our table and Mickey, Pluto and Dale made it a second time around! It was wonderful- we will definitely go again.
Loved that the food was family style. We have always had good character experiences here. It is really neat that the restaurant is slowly rotating while you eat. When we went they had a special desert for the kids that they got to create themselves. This was a really fun place for a family to eat.
Garden GRill was by far our favorite place to eat – our son was 100% entertained. we saw the characters twice and they gave our son a ton of attention both times. the food was fantastic – by far a cut above many of the meals you get in Disney, and blew the other character meals out of the water. the variety of foods served and the family style experience satisfied everyone at our table. if there was one place i have recommended time and again to friends and family going to WDW this place is it. Get a reservation and you will be seated very quickly and bypass the crowd.
The Garden Grill was our favorite restaurant!! We had reservations for when it opened (4pm). It didn’t fill up right away and the the characters spent alot of time with my children. My son was so thrilled that he couldn’t eat and Mickey kept motioning for him to eat. Plus the characters played peek a boo with my 13 month little girl. I was amazed with how friendly the characters were; plus our waitress was awesome. She even gave my 13 month old her own Mickey dessert (a scoope of cookies and creme ice cream with oreos for the ears and mickey shaped sprinkles) for free. They serve you family style which means that they put all the food on the table and you dish it out onto your plate like you would at home. We loved it and plan to try to eat there again next time!!
We always go to GG! Its one of our must-do stops b/c not only do they have really good food that doesn’t taste greasy, you can see the characters in one stop! (we hate waiting in character lines!) The servers have also been great there.
I also enjoy moving around the land. Its one of my favorite rides at EP. Educational AND fun.
We’re eating at GG in June…got a late ADR and my kids are SO excited!!
I also LOVE how quiet it feels when you are circling around the land. It almost feels private…unlike Crystal Palace!
The Garden Grill is one of our favorites, but I could see where it wouldn’t be for everyone. If you’re a “meat & taters” person, GG probably isn’t your best choice as it really does focus on fresh, seasonal veggies. Each time we’ve gone (~6 times in 5 years), we’ve had fried catfish, roast turkey w/ cranberry relish, & some sort of beef (usually grilled flank steak), all of which I thought were very tasty (& I’m from New Orleans, so we’re pretty picky about our catfish especially!) But the veggies – oh em gee! I think my favorite was roasted butternut squash (autumn), but they are all so yummy!
Oops – I didn’t even mention the character interaction! It’s one of the quietest, most intimate character experiences that WDW offers. It’s always great to see Mickey & Pluto, but the stars are really Chip & Dale. Chip & Dale are always so friendly, & if you don’t know who’s who, bone up – they LOVE it when you can correctly identify them! Remember, red nose is Dale, dark brown nose is Chip, like a chocolate chip!
Garden Grill is our must do dining in Epcot. We have eaten there several times. The food is always good & the character interaction is fabulous.
my kids called this the magic happy food ride. a great experience, and the day we went there was no line, so we had a big lunch with the characters in an uncrowded restaurant that moved. awesome memories
We have not eatten here yet, but just made and ADR for Sept. My two boys love Chip and Dale so I thought they would like this. I read the mixed reviews on it, but we are not picky eaters at all, so I fuigure I would give it a try.
my hubby and i ate there while we were still dating a few years back because it was one of the cheaper candlelight processional dining packages. both of us left with much to be desired. i eat kosher style with no shell fish or pork but because the smell of fish makes me feel sick, i tend to eat no sea food at all – the occasional tuna sandwhich is my rare foray into the realm of fish. my husband is also a picky eater, which is fine since we usually agree on what we like. well we both likes the beef they served, and most of the veggies. but you really do have to enjoy the style of food the served there or else its not going to be a good deal for you. especially for the cost you are paying.
We LOVE the Garden Grill!! We have dined there at least a half a dozen times and have never been disappointed. The character interaction is AMAZING! When we ate there in December, Chip sat at the table with us for at least 10 minutes and passed notes with my uncle about football players! Dale saw my daughter was wearing a peace sign shirt and kept flashing peace signs after that! Mickey often pulls up a chair and colors with the kids, Pluto loves when the kids talk to him about Mickey, his collar, or tickle under his ears. It is nice to eat family style, so you don’t have to worry about missing a character while you go to the buffet. We like to ride Living with the Land before eating at Garden Grill to remind the kids of where their veggies come from. We have always had great service here too! Whenever the catfish has been served, it’s been great. The veggies are so good, and the stuffing is great!!
We have been to GG three times – 1997(honeymoon), 2007(our 6 mo old daughter’s first trip and our 10th anniversary), and 2009 ( our little one was two and a half.) We are going again this year with our 4 year old princess and 13 mo old little prince. WE LOVE GG! The food has always been great and it would be hard to beat the character interactions. They come by the table 2 or 3 times and spend lots of time with the kids. Because it is not a buffet, you don’t have to worry about missing characters because you are in a food line. We had four little girls ages 2 to 8 with us and they all loved the food. We ordered seconds and thirds:)
Our experience at Garden Grill was not that great. I like that it is one of the quieter character dining experiences, but that is about all it has going for it. The food was so-so and the service was awful. We did get a lot of character interaction, so that was nice.
We love Tusker House in Animal Kingdom.
Thank you for all this awesome info! We’re planning our first Orlando trip – I’ve been to Disneyland several times, but Disneyworld is all new to me! I’m loving all the suggestions! Thanks! You blog has always been fun, but now that I’m actually COUPONING TO DISNEY myself, it’s even better!!!
This is by far my least favorite character dinner. I have eaten at all of the character dinner several times and this on is my least favorite. I don’t think the food is very good, and not worth the money if you are paying out of pocket. The last time we dined here was in December and for the Candelite Processional Dinner Package and they charged 2 dining credits to eat ther which I thought was ridiculous. Thekids character interaction is fine but if you get one of those rainbow shaped booths the kids have to sit on the outside to see the characters, if you have more than 2 kids (like we do) they don’t all get equal interaction because one of them was trapped inside the booth. i also really don’t like that floor rotates while your eating. It makes me dizzy. Not a pleasant feeling while your sitting. It wasn’t as noticable when we sat at the inside on the upper level, but when we sat on the lower level facing out it mad me really dizzy. I don’t think I will go back to this restaurant after our last dining experience there. We had horrible service because the server knew his tip was included in the bill.
I haven’t been here yet, but bought the gift certificate at restaurant.com. I cannot wait. We plan to eat here and Chef Mickey. Other than that, no character meals for us.
Becky,
Just wanted to let you know that the gift certificate on restaurant.com is for the Garden Grove at the Swan and Dolphin Hotel, not the Garden Grill in Epcot.
Love love love this place! It is one that my family must do several times a year. :D The way the characters come to your table while the restaurant is rotating makes you feel like you are the only people there. Great for character dining!
Garden Grill is my husband’s favorite! The rest of us enjoy it too. The food is some of the freshest, since much of it is made from produce and fish from the greenhouses. Portions are easy to manage because food is served family style and you can ask for more of anything you want. My daughter is not a fish eater, but she loved the fried catfish she tried here. We’ve always found the character interaction to be among the best in WDW. While there are only 4 characters, they include Chip and Dale, who are not found in lots of other places, and the restaurant is small enough that the characters usually spend a nice amount of time with each table and, in our experience, often have time to come around more than once. Mickey and Chip absolutely fawned over my 10 month old on our last trip – playing peek-a-boo with her, letting her tweak their noses, etc. Every time I plan a trip, I think maybe we should try some new restaurants… but we almost always end up back at Garden Grill sooner or later!
We really did not enjoy the food at garden grill. Selection and taste was limited in my opinion. The venue is pretty cool though but I doubt we’ll go back.
We loved the Garden Grill! Because this rest. is small the character interaction, for us, has always been wonderful. Most of the time we see the characters twice and a few we saw three times! This atmosphere is neat with the rotating rest. One of my favorite memories here was of our first time eating there. My daughter was young and didn’t like loud noises. She was upset at the lightening scene that we could hear from the ride below. Mickey came by (in his overalls) and put his hands up over his ears like she had over hers. It is still one of my favorite vacation pictures! We have always enjoyed the food too!
We love the Garden Grill! We get a 4:00 reservation. When we were there in February we were the first family to sign in so we were taken back before anyone and all the characters came out to take a big group picture with us. The food was great! The veggies are so fresh and they give you plenty of food. The characters made their way around 4 or 5 times and spent plenty of time at each table. It was great!
We ate there in January. We had 4 little girls that loved getting to meet Farmer Mickey and Minnie, Chip and Dale and Pluto. The veggies were very good. WAY too much food though! Super cool rotating :)
LOVED the food and we were there at a very uncrowded time so the characters made their way around to us 2 or 3 times. They stopped and played with the kids every time. It was great! :)
I hate to say it, but I wasn’t impressed with the selection and taste of the food at the Garden Grill. The fish and turkey were pretty bland so that left only the beef that was palatable. The veggies were good though, but not enough to fill a tummy for the price. The selection of food, especially when compared to other character dining experiences were kind of lame…only 3 choices of meats and kids got either chicken nuggets or mac n cheese. Food wise, Chef Mickey’s has a MUCH better selection and tastier food. I wouldn’t go back for the food, but I would do it again so that the kids could see Chip and Dale. If not for Chip and Dale, I think there are much better choices for character dining.