I am thinking meals as Garden Grill or Ohana will appeal as they can eat the adult food if they choose to.
Be Our Guest have kids steak
Sci Fi looks fun
What are your tips for dining with this age?
What time do you book your adr’s.
How do you space the meals
what was hit with your boys and what didn’t go well
Mexico was one my son really liked the kids menu at that age plus the restaurant inside by the Pyramid (San Angel Inn Restaurante) is a cool environment. Garden Grill is another excellent choice. Coral Reef is another possible as it has the giant aquariums which is fun to watch while you eat. We only did Coral this year though and my son is off the kid’s menu so it’s more a recommendation on environment than food. Sci-Fi is a fun environment. Food’s not wonderful, but the atmosphere makes up for it. Biergarten is another we like - the band is fun and will bring kids down for some activities plus it’s a buffet so you have flexibility on what the boys eat.
We tended to do a lot of breakfasts and then dinners many days where we could just do a snack or a lite quick lunch to tide us over on this past trip. If you’re doing a sit down lunch, I’d do a late dinner to balance it out. In general scheduling “off hours” might reduce your wait. Last trip we had pretty good luck with that plan except for Biergarten where we had a dinner around 4:30 and had a long wait to be seated which I didn’t really expect.
My son was 8 1/2 when we were there this past summer. We did Hoop de Doo, which was a hit. He got taken up on stage to participate in the show, which was an amazing experience for him. Beaches and Cream is always a favorite for our kids around that age also. The ice cream desserts are phenomenal. We did O’hana for breakfast, and he enjoyed that. We tend to eat all our meals a little early when in Disney, to avoid peak hours (and our kids are always hungry). So we try to book our sit down meals between 5-5:30. Our kids are accustomed to eating dinner at 6, so in case we have a wait to be seated, this tends to work well for us. Also, since all the menus are online, I made sure there was something that our kids would like before I booked a certain restaurant (we have picky eaters).
My older son was almost 8 on this past trip. We did Plaza, Beaches and Cream, Kona, 50s Prime Time, Crystal Palace (pre-rope drop), and Wispering Canyon Cafe. All were a hit! (Kona was more for the adults and becaus I wanted to see Poly). I would recommend sticking to times kids eat at home, with lots of snacks and drinks in between to ward off the crankies. We allays had cut up fruit and veggies in our park have a healthy option on hard.
Biergarten was a surprise hit with my DS. Probably the all you can eat hotdogs.
We ate TS at Hoop-De-Doo, Tappan Edo, Chef Mickey’s (breakfast) and Skipper’s Canteen on our last trip with DS7.5. He loved them all, and surprisingly ate a very “grownup” kids’ meal at Skipper’s (steak, which was delicious). He’s very picky but we chose carefully and he actually ate at each meal. (Especially important when you’re paying for the kid regardless, like at Hoop-De-Doo and Chef Mickey’s!)
Trepan Edo is my sons first choice. I try to choose buffets so we both have lots of choice. I can say that our lunch at Akerhaus did not impress. He scowled when the princesses tried to talk to him. Made for some great pics 