Brownies and Zucchini

Full Disclosure:  I paid for this meal with my own money and I was in no way reimbursed for this blog post.  The opinions are completely my own.

After a full day at the Animal Kingdom, we headed back over to EPCOT to go to the Garden Grill for dinner.

Going into dinner I didn’t really know what to expect.  I had read good reviews about Garden Grill, but hadn’t really looked into the menu much further.  Well, and at that point in the day my brain (and stomach) was just screaming FOOD and it didn’t really care what that was.

Ok, I did know that the restaurant rotates.  That was a pretty cool aspect.  It was kinda weird and made me a little dizzy when I concentrated on it too long, but it was fun and different to not have the same walls to look at throughout dinner.

Garden Grill is a family style restaurant – meaning you don’t choose what dish you want, it is all served to you on a platter to share.  If you like something, then you can get more of it for no extra charge.  This sounded perfect!  How could I not like at least one of the three entree’s?

(There are hidden Mickey’s EVERYWHERE at Disney)

Here is the food selection we got:

Rolls with butter – delicious. But really, how can you go wrong with warm bread?

Salad – this salad was good too!  It was full of crunchy lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, bacon bits, hard boiled eggs…..ummm, I think there was some carrots and cheese in there too.  And croutons.  It was definitely not a wimpy side salad.

Sustainable Fish of the Day (Tilapia) with Florida Citrus Crumb and Garden Fresh Vegetables – This I actually thought was really good! It was probably my favorite entree. It was very crispy and light tasting.

Roasted All Natural Turkey Breast with Cranberry Orange Relish and Turkey Dressing – Meh.  I’m not a huge fan of turkey.  It was just ok.

Char-Grilled Roast Strip Lion with Herb Sea Salt and Smashed Potatoes – This was definitely better than the turkey – but not as good as the fish.  It was definitely done well, and I liked the herbed salt for sure.

Oh, and did I mention that this is also a character meal?  Mickey and friends (Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Chip and Dale were there when we went) come and visit your table while you are eating!

Can’t forget about dessert!

Freshly baked Apple-Currant Crisp with Warm Caramel and Whipped Vanilla Bean Cream – I’m not a huge fan of apple crisp, but it definitely seemed warm and fresh.  The whipped vanilla bean cream was a nice touch too – nice to see that it wasn’t just generic whipped cream from a can.

Oh, and I also got a birthday dessert! Because when you are in WDW, your birthday lasts all week! (especially if you wear a pin that says so. 😉 ) Complete with Mickey sprinkles!  It was delicious – better than the cupcake I had the night before.

Overall the food was good, and we had a fun time.  It was interesting not having to pick which foods you wanted off of a menu.  It was a lot of fun to have the characters around as well. It is really interesting to me how some kids run right up to them and loooooove them, and others are SO scared that they won’t even go near them.

Taste: A, it was a good, solid meal.  There definitely was something for everyone as well.  The Husband actually liked the beef and smashed potatoes the most. Also, it was a LOT of food.  We did end up getting more fish and beef, but we were definitely stuffed by the end.
Cost: B, the cost is a flat fee (kind of like a buffet) since you don’t choose which menu items you want, so I guess if you end up not liking the things, you are kind of out of luck.  I think it was about $80 for the two of us which seems high, but you have to take into account that you are in WDW and everything is priced higher than it should be.  So, for what we got, I would say the amount we paid was pretty reasonable.

Would I go there again? Definitely.  I actually kind of liked the fact that after a long day at the parks, I didn’t have to choose what I wanted to eat.  Also, the characters can be a fun way to end the day – just be aware that since it is a character meal, that there will most likely be lots of kids.  This isn’t a big deal when you are actually eating, but waiting to be seated was a little bit annoying with lots of clearly tired and cranky kids.

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Filed under: Restaurant Review, Travel Tagged: | disney, Garden Grill, restaurant review, travel