How much time to budget for restaurants?

Hi all, for our Touring Plans I see we have to put in our own estimate of how long a certain restaurant will take–I’ve been putting in 60 minutes for table service, but is that accurate? Do some restaurants take a lot longer than others (I would think character meals might be longer)?
My main issue right now is that I have an ADR at 4 p.m. on a Saturday for Liberty Tree Tavern and I’m trying to work Fastpasses around it. It’s not a character meal, and I think it’s a buffet? So would 45 minutes do it?
Thanks!

I would say for table service 60 minutes would be the minimum. There are a few things to consider. One is how fast you’ll be seated. You won’t always be taken right to a table. The other is how the food is served. In the case of LTT dinner I believe it’s served family style at your table. Even at a buffet because you’ll be getting up and down and waiting for others at the food tables 45 minutes is still likely to feel a little rushed.

Yes, 60 min minimum for TS. As Outer1 says, lots of variables. How long takes to get seated, how quickly food gets to you, how long members of fam take for appetizers, deserts etc, how long takes to get check.

One thing I really liked/learned this trip was waitstaff can bring littles’ food ahead of rest of party. Great way to occupy 2 and 4 yrolds b4 they got too wiggly.

In future I’ll probably ask for check ahead of time, since that can also slow things up.

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I usually plan an hour and a half for buffet and family style, you can ask for the check early. For other TS maybe plan on 2 hours because of time for each dish to come out.

It is my experience that there is always a wait for a table, even if you show up early for your reservation.

Give yourself extra time so you will not stress that you have a fast pass to run for.

I budget an hour and a half. If we are done sooner, great. If the wait staff sucks and we wait for 10 minutes just to get the check, at least it isn’t messing up my plans

We are budgeting 90 minutes for TS & 45 minutes for QS. With 3 kids, it’ll be nice to not be rushed. If it were just adults, I’d probably do less.

I don’t have the “kid consideration” but I allow 30 for QS, 60 for TS, and “unlimited” for signature (it’s always a dinner at the end of the day with no planned activities to follow). I don’t do CMs, so I’m not sure how long to allow for thoses.

I always put in 75-90minutes. It is much easier to have a few extra minutes than to find yourself rushed or stressed. I also put a FPP the hour prior to meal, and another 1 hour after. Love having them clustered

Karen - budget on the high side because of your group size. Just because they know a large group has an ADR it doesn’t mean the table availability will work out exactly at the right time. We had to wait for our Ohana dinner ADR until about 20 minutes after the time. Meals where you take a photo with the character at the start (CRT, Tusker House) can take longer in my experience.

I typically plan for 90 minutes for reasons noted above (don’t always get seated immediately, don’t want to be rushed, if characters are present, then want to have time to meet all of them). If I wanted to push it, then I could lop off a lot of that time by planning ahead of time what everyone wanted to order, ordering right away, skipping dessert, asking for the check while we were finishing, etc. However, usually if my group chooses a sitdown meal, then they want a bit of a break, so my meals tend to be leisurely.

We found that we had great luck getting tables by always checking in for our ADR as early as possible. They’ll let you check in 15 minutes before your scheduled time (but no earlier.) So when we had a 1:00 ADR, I put that in as a 12:45 ADR on my TP and scheduled 90 minutes for it. We tried to show up at 12:45, would be seated around 1:00, and finished by 2:00. I have children, but that makes us faster eaters than when we are without children.

Sounds like you need a fair amount of time! You do want to enjoy your food after all. thanks!