My 180 d point is in 6 days and I can not decide where to book dinner for our Epcot evening. Family of 5, fairly adventurous eaters. Mostly all introverts so am trying to avoid overpacked, loud restaurants. Last visit, everyone (except me) felt WS was a miss. We were there during F&W and sampled our way around the world but it wasn’t that relaxing, so this time I thought it would be better to book a sit down meal.
Earlier in the day, we will be at HS for RD and eat at lunch SciFi. We may then leave for a break or go right to EPCOT. My main goal is for us to see illuminations but I wasn’t specifically looking for restaurants with illuminations views. We may prefer to watch it outside.
I asked my son what his choice of restaurant would be and he said TE. But we have a hibachi restaurant in town, so I’m wondering if we would be better off at TD. We love sushi.
Other considerations are VN (seems loud and crowded?), SR, CR…
BG seems so festive but I’m worried that the food will be only mediocre. Pics of plates of food didn’t look overly appetizing to me.
TIA for any input!
If you want something a little different with a more relaxed atmosphere I would recommend Spice Road Table. We’ve been several times and have never been disappointed. We usually sit outside and get a selection of appetizers to share, so everyone can just eat what they fancy. Our daughter (age 4) loves it, and will eat everything on the appetizer menu. 
So many TLA (Two Letter Acronyms)! 
My favorite place at Epcot is Le Cellier, if you can get it. Steak, pretzel bread, cheese soup, cold beer, POUTINE. Man, I love that place.
^ Agreed, Spice Road Table is great. If you want dinner AND a show (belly dancers, live music!) check out Restaurant Marrakesh, deep in Morocco, behind the shops. It feels like a hidden gem, the couscous is legit fantastic, roasted chicken, mint tea. A very memorable and different Disney experience.
We’ve only been to Marrakesh, not spice road table. But we liked the menu and it wasn’t crowded (lunch).
We liked Nine dragons, but that was jam packed, very loud, tables on top of each other etc. we’d go back but maybe not a good fit for you?
Hm. Glad you liked Nine Dragons. I generally tell people to avoid it.
IMHO, it wasn’t bad, but it was just like every other traditional “fast food Chinese place” we’ve been to outside of WDW. The food wasn’t special. Guess I have to try it again now.
Also, when we went, the place was practically empty. So if you say it was busy … well, another reason I should go back.
My 17yr old son “made” us go there for dinner after a 2pm lunch and dessert at beaches & cream. He got a meal. The rest of us shared or had apps. But we all agreed we liked it and would go back on a non gluttonous day
Are the foods in Morocco similar to Tuskegee house? We plan to eat there the day before.
Tusker House. Darn autocorrect!
That’s good to know. Thanks for the info. I’m leaning towared Marrakesh. Any last thoughts on Via Napoli?
We loved it. But it can be loud and crowded. Went twice in a week. Only got pizza and apps. Haven’t been, but I’ve heard tutto Italia is also great, especially for the non pizza Italian entrees. I’m guessing maybe a little less chaotic atmosphere?
I don’t get it, maybe because I live in a large Italian nationality area. We have the best pizza in NJ as well as NY and PA some better then others and I can not speak of or on Chicago. If there weren’t 20 pizza places in a 10 mile radius of my house I would be surprised. I can’t imagine going to Disney and eating pizza unless I had small children who were picky eaters. When my family and friends come to visit they all want to go to our boardwalk for pizza. With so many food choices in Epcot why pizza? Also could be asked why Nine Dragons? I’m not judging others I just don’t see the appeal.
Well, if the cuisine is spectacular, or … like … “how they do it in Italy” or “traditional Chinese” style, I’d see the appeal. But yeah, my memory of Nine Dragons was “this is just Americanized stuff”, so it wasn’t special.
As long as whatever the restaurant chooses to do is special or at least very good … it has an appeal.
Haven’t tried Disney pizza, as I’ve been warned away from it since 2011. So I’ve been slowly trying all the other stuff that people say is very, very good.
Edit: Correction - I did try Pizza Planet. It was “ok” and not worth the time/cost. I’m hoping PizzaRizzo is better, but … I’ll let AJ Wolfe give us her review.
I get what you mean. We have several great brick oven pizzerias nearby. But Via Napoli gets a lot of praise. I think I’m having such a difficult time deciding because
- I don’t know for sure what we will bein the mood for in 6 months, maybe everyone will be in the mood for pizza but I kind of doubt it.
- The Epcot food seems even a bit higher priced then even other WDW restaurants?
- Since we have only a few meals during our short stay I want each one to be the best possible!
I could just have solid QS options ready like Tangerine Cafe or Sunshine Seasons.
What about Rose and Crown? That could be a crowd pleaser and we could potentially watch illuminations from there. Maybe the winner?!
The prices with 5 of us makes me have difficulty justifying. I know my boys will want to order a $70 steak each. We live in Maine and with the Canadian influence nearby, we have some pretty awesome poutine on a regular basis! I think I may try that one someday on a grown up only trip.
The thing about Pizza is that there are so many varieties and topping options that one seems to never grow tired of it, and it seems to be universally loved (for the most part) by all.
I mean, for frequent consumption, we get Little Caesars Hot-N-Ready pepperoni. But when I feel like splurging a little, I’ll get deep dish or three-meat, etc.
But a BBQ Chicken deep dish from Jet’s is just an incredible experience that isn’t terribly expensive.
Then there is Chicago-Style from Giordano’s.
Or maybe Buddy’s
And then there is the best pizza I’ve ever had from Pizza Papali’s.
Every one of these gives a different experience/taste. Love them all, but in completely different ways.
And of course, there are tons of pizza places I’ve eaten at that are good, even if not terribly unique.
I plan to try Via Napoli’s next time we’re there. I expect I’ll like it a lot. Just can’t go wrong with pizza!
I would like to try Rose and Crown, but would need more time. I’m thinking of going for our 25th anniversary in 5 years and getting DDDP this way we could try many other dinning places. TS lunch and dinner instead of midday breaks sounds fine to me, along with SoA and HDDR.