Disney World Restaurants We Go To Again and Again. Table Service Edition
With hundreds and hundreds of restaurants to choose from at Walt Disney World, it can be hard to narrow down your choices. For tips on how to choose the best restaurants for your vacation click here. There are some restaurants that we’ve loved so much that we’ve gone back to them again and again. Here’s the list of restaurants we’ve returned to and why.
Magic Kingdom
We’ve eaten here twice, once on our honeymoon and once with our daughter on her first trip. I ate here multiple times growing up and once on a trip with my mom and sister. We love coming here because the quality of the food is incredible. Each meal I’ve eaten here I’ve dreamed about for months afterward. The atmosphere is so magical, dining in the castle is everything you’d hope it would be. The stain glass window, the cathedral ceilings, you truly feel royal eating here. I think it may be one of the first places we return to on our next trip as our daughter doesn’t remember dining here. For a full review of this restaurant click here.
We’ve dined here twice, once on our runDisney Goofy trip and on our older son’s 1st Disney World vacation. This is our favourite buffet restaurant at Disney World. The food here is not your average buffet. The dishes are full of flavour and there’s more variety than you find at most of your other buffet choices. The design of the restaurant is bright, with plenty of windows letting in natural light. The One Hundred Acre Woods characters make their way to each of the tables during your meal which adds a fun element to the meal. For a full review of the restaurant click here.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve eaten at this restaurant. As a child, I was a very peaky eater who loved spaghetti, so a meal at Tony’s meant I would have a full belly for a full day at the park. This restaurant is based on the Tony’s restaurant from Lady and the Tramp, and despite the mixed reviews, I love the food here. The tiramisu is a must. For a full review of the restaurant click here.
Epcot
Le Cellier is one of two signature restaurants found at Disney World’s Epcot. Le Cellier is located in the Canadian pavilion. It is dark and feels like you’re in the wine cellar of an old building. We dined here on our honeymoon and one other time with my sister and brother-in-law. Le Cellier is known for their steak which I can attest was delicious enough to turn this vegetarian. The bread basket is also one of my favourites, featuring breads influenced by the different areas of Canada. For a full review of the restaurant click here.
Biergarten Restaurant
We returned to this buffet style restaurant at the German pavilion on our January 2020 trip. I had been here decades before and it had left a lasting impression on me. It totally lived up to my memory of a lively, jovial meal filled with singing, dancing and laughing.
Hollywood Studios
Hollywood Brown Derby
This is the signature restaurant found at Hollywood Studios. It’s open for lunch and dinner. The restaurant is based on the restaurant found in Hollywood and has hundreds of celebrities photos covering the wall. The menu is very small, with two steak choices, a fish option and a chicken option. The service here is second to none and the cobb salad is a must! We dined here on our honeymoon and then again in 2013.
Sci-Fi Dine In Theatre
The Sci-Fi Dine In Theatre is truly and experience. At this restaurant, diners eat in 50s style cars in front of a huge screen. The screen plays bits of sci-fi movies and trailers. The menu items aren’t anything too impressive but the atmosphere is something you can only find at Disney. I dined here as a child and was thrilled to bring our family here on our last vacation.
50’s Prime Time Cafe rivals Tony’s restaurant for the restaurant I’ve frequented most. We came here quite a few times when I was a kid, we returned here on our runDisney Princess vacation in 2009 and then came as a family in 2018. What keeps bringing us back is the service. At this restaurant you are treated like family, you are served by your “aunt” or “uncle” and are expected to help out during your meal. The meals are as closed to home cooked as you’ll find at Disney World, leaving your filled up and nourished. It’s also a cheap meal, if you’re paying out of pocket.
Animal Kingdom
The only character meal at Animal Kingdom is Tusker House. It’s also the only buffet restaurant, making it a great choice for families. That’s the very reason we’ve dined here more than once. It’s the characters. We dined here on our honeymoon and then again on our son’s 1st trip. We like to do a lot of character dining on our trips so we can get meeting the characters done with while enjoying a meal. For a full review of the restaurant click here.
Rainforest Cafe
There are two rainforest cafe restaurants at Disney World and we’ve dined at both of them. They are very similar. The menu items are the same, and the Disney Springs location is slightly larger. Rainforest Cafes are not unique to Disney World but there isn’t any close to our neck of the woods, so the interactive experience here is a fun atmosphere for our family.
Resort Restaurants
1900 Park Fare. Grand Floridian Resort.
We’ve dined here 3 times over the last 10 years. We love the characters that are offered here, we love going to the Grand Floridian, we love the food here. 1900 Park Fare is open for breakfast and dinner. It’s located on the main floor of the Grand Floridian, giving you a good excuse to check out this exquisite resort. Being on the monorail, it also puts you one stop away from the Magic Kingdom. Making it a great place to begin your day. For a full review of the restaurant click here.
Chef Mickey’s. Contemporary Resort.
We’ve also visited Chef Mickey’s 3 times in the last 10 years. One of these times we even got our meals for free. Get the details on that here. This restaurant is open for breakfast, brunch, lunch and dinner. It has 5 characters and it’s a buffet restaurant. It checks off all the most sought after things on your list. The food is very good, and offers a great variety. The dessert table is open for each of the meals as well. Breakfast Dessert anyone. For a full review click here.
Olivia’s Cafe. Old Key West Resort.
This restaurant is the only table service restaurant found at Old Key West. We dined here for the first time on our babymoon in the summer of 2018. We enjoyed it so much we returned on our next trip in January 2020. The restaurant is nothing fancy. It’s got a Key West feel, with bright colours and a relaxed environment. The dinner we had here was decent but the breakfast was top notch.
Trattoria al Forno. Boardwalk Villas & Inn.
This restaurant serves breakfast and dinner only. For breakfast you get a character meal, for dinner you’ve got an open kitchen italian restaurant. Both meals are fantastic. We dined here for a romantic dinner back in 2016. We returned in 2018 as a whole family to enjoy their character breakfast with Ariel, Prince Eric, Rapunzel and Flynn Rider. I would highly recommend coming here. We will definitely be making our way back here during our next trip.
Whispering Canyon Cafe. Wilderness Lodge.
We came here for the first time on our runDisney Goofy trip. I can’t remember what led us here, but this restaurant was so fun, full of inside jokes and camaraderie that we knew we had to come back here when we had kids. The food, although plentiful, is delicious. You can choose one of the all-you-care-to-eat skillets, and eat your fill of western fare. But it’s the boisterous servers that make this place a restaurant to continue to come back to.
Over the last couple of trips, we’ve tried to veer off of the familiar and try new places. But even in this effort, we keep coming back to these places because of the amazing experiences we continue to have there. For more posts on restaurants at Disney World check these out:
Disney World Park Restaurants Staying Closed
Which Restaurants We Cancelled on our Last Disney World Vacation
Most Popular Breakfast Restaurants
Don’t Eat at Buffet Restaurants when on the Deluxe Dining Plan
