We will be going to WDW in August for 10 days. We have the QS free dining plan and I want to eat 1or 2 table dîner OOP. What are your best suggestions for affordable table diner at parks or resorts? We have 2 sons, 10 yo and 7 Yo. Anyone tried the restaurants at Fort Wilderness also? We plan to go to chip and dale song-along.
While buffets are an excellent value if on the dining plan, I find it difficult to pay OOP for them when I have older kids (aka Disney “adults”) that still eat like a kid. I’m all over character meals but we restricted ourselves (me, dd-17, & ds-12) to only one because of the cost.
Places like The Plaza in MK and Beaches & Cream at the Yacht/Beach Club are TS but on a lower cost scale. Our OOP TS meals for next week include The Plaza (d), Kona Cafe(b), Grand Floridian Cafe (d), 1900 Park Fare (b), 50’s Prime Time Cafe (d), and Be Our Guest (d).
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I’d suggest Ragland Road at DS. Good food, drinks and great entertainment…and not terribly expensive…
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I guess affordable is relative 
- if they like characters, Tusker House at AK is Donald, Daisy, Mickey & Pluto, it has a lot of unique things on the buffet.
Plaza at MK - is on the lower scale of price- I am going there in Sept.
There are soooo many places at Disney spring, with a very wide range of prices, the same at EP, so the type of food that you like would be a factor.
Beaches & Cream and Garden Grill breakfast were 2 we really enjoyed that would be decent OOP choices.
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I have heard that the buffet at Trail’s End at Ft. Wilderness is very good and a great value if paying OOP. Apparently it’s one the better priced buffets on property. If you’re already going over there for the campfire, it seems like it could be a good option!
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Beaches and Cream and ESPN are the first ones that came to mind. For more bang for your quick service buck, I would recommend breakfast and lunch at Be Our Guest, The Polite Pig and D-Luxe Burger at Disney Springs, Flame Tree BBQ and the Canteen in Pandora at Animal Kingdom. I’m sure there are more out there, but those are the first ones that came to mind.
For unique dining experiences, I would do BOG for lunch. It is really cool to eat in the West Wing and Sci Fi. They aren’t too expensive either
Affordable is relative, but I have been starting to check this out for our next trip, as we will not have the dining plan. If you are looking for a character meal, breakfast is the most affordable. We enjoy Garden Grill, which of PPO can get you onto Soarin before the park opens. Sci Fi is also a good one to pay out of pocket. BOG lunch is QS, but also kind of like TS. They bring the food to you and the restaurant is beautiful. I have also been looking at Kona or the Grand Floridian Cafe. Haven’t tried them yet, but the prices for some of the food doesn’t look to bad. Yak and Yeti in AK is yummy and they have decent prices for a theme park.
I totally spaced that BOG is quick service - but I would do that for your quick service plan. I also love The Plaza or Via Napoli for affordable table service.
I love trails end and its a great comfort food buffet. That is not too hard on the pocket. Its at fort wilderness perfect for the chip and dale sing along.
Touring plans just did a review of it.
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Some reasonably priced TS we’ve liked: Skippers/Kona/Rose&Crown/Sanaa(share bread service & share entrees).
SciFi is great but we can’t get adr this year, trying for months. Not even helping to get that on Reservation Finder.
Going to Plaza 1st time this trip, looks like good food, definitely good value.
I hear that Via Napoli is very reasonable and good pizza, from many reports.
We enjoy Trails end, and it is one of the few places you can find a baked potato in the bubble.
We tried Via Napoli the first time in April and really enjoyed it. We did a 1 topping Large with drinks and their salad, and if i remember right it was about $50 for the 3 of us minus tip.
We had no problem getting Sci Fi last year and I started planning only about 4 months in advance. I had it booked but then ended up having to cancel. This year I had it on my must do ADR list and thought I was golden booking at 180 d. Yet not great luck. I was able to get a time that doesn’t quite work with our schedule but am wondering if it is worth working it in. In the same boat as have it on Reservation finder for about a month now and no alerts.
We are going for 13 days in August with the QS plan. We have 6 TS meals planned (too many, but it is what it is). We are doing Tusker House and Garden Grill breakfasts to get our character fix. (my kids are both Disney Adults, so breakfasts are less expensive). Our favorite restaurant is Sanaa at AKL, we also have Raglan Road (this will be a first for us), Coral Reef, and Skipper Canteen.
My daughter and I share a lot of meals, my youngest still gets kids meals, so most TS restaurants aren’t too terribly expensive for us. Our two character meals are our big splurges.
I think that Via Napoli is considered a good deal for OOP. If your family would be okay with splitting a large pizza instead of getting individual ones, you could save some money.
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Thanks! All the suggestions are a big help. I was able to snag a reservation on our arrival night at Trails end: we will start our evening there and go to the C&D sing-along after. Works out great. I am even contemplating cancelling my Fantastic Package: with a prix fixe menu and a 10 yo, it comes out pretty pricey 
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Sounds like a good decision. TP recently did a review of Trail’s End!
Juby, from what I’ve heard on Chat, Fantasmic doesn’t necessarily need to have the dining package for the only good seats.
We’ve only been once to Fantasmic, so I’m no source of great info re that. But you could start another thread on Forum, or hop over to Chat for some more info on getting best seating, without the dining package.
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