We will be driving to Florida and the parks taking mid-day breaks with park hoppers. We will be there two weeks with 10-day tickets. Counting arrival and departure day we will have 5 rest days. I was a little grumpy about the extra costs since planning the trip pre-lockdown.
But, it occurred to me that with the car and the mid-day breaks we can limit our Disney dining to what is worthwhile on its own, not just what is best of what is available. What can make it worthwhile is characters, atmosphere, being iconic, being unique and good or the food itself being a good value.
My ADR day is a mere 5 weeks away do I need to get cracking.
With having a car it is a toss up. Most WDW food is mediocre, but eating off-site in Orlando traffic can be a huge time waste when youâve paid for park tickets. For your few non-park days, eating off-site is a much better option. You may want to get an app like âopen tablesâ to get Orlando dinner reservations. Depending on the time of year you come down, it may even be a must.
We are locals and only have a few WDW restaurants draw us to property.
Ale and Compass
Yak & Yetti
Home Cookin
Earl of Sandwich
City Works brunch
Kona
Topilino
Toledo
Sebatianâs
Steakhouse 71
Via Naâapli
La Hacienda San Angel (not the pyramid)
Board Walk Ice Cream
Maybe Big River, but mostly to sit on the boardwalk for drinks, not really the food.
There may be a few Iâm missing at the moment, but thats most of our list, as locals, that would go to WDW for good food. Honestly thereâs just better options in Orlando for steak, Italian, pizza, sea food, ect.
Tastes are personal. My picky eaters will go back to Polite Pig & Oliviaâs (T-Rex b4 reopening). DH thinks food quality and menus since reopening are lacking.
Agreed. Tastes are individual.
My list was from the perspective of the few WDW restaurants that would cause us to pick a WDW restaurant over a local choice, or if we were going to a park.
I appreciate the perspective. We live on Atlantic coast (near Cocoa) and are not familiar w/ Orlando area restaurants. If we were we might try other places than just Disney area food. Weâve tried finding other Orlando eateries but are always dismayed by the surrounding neighborhoods and give up.
Our last visit was about 4 weeks ago. Sunday brunch, place was less than 1/2 full (early September). Still nothing went right with our order. They were kind enough to comp our meal, but we havenât been wowâd lately, to go to Oliviaâs.
We were there last Sunday for brunch. DH didnât like it, I thought it was fine, but we waited forever to be seated. The whole outside seating was empty. They are understaffed.
Yes to this! Horrible food⌠horribly expensive too. Had brunch there, ordered skillets. Got one skillet, had to pay for two and never requested any ârefillsâ.
Mission BBQ (fast casual) near the airport. It is a chain, but very good. Their âmissionâ is to support, fire, police, military, ect. Its decorated to do that.
Delmonicoâs I-Drive (share the 1 pound lasagna)
Seasonâs 52. Admittedly, I like that one more than my wife does.
Flipperâs wood fired pizza
When we go your way to spend the day at Cocoa Beach, we like Salsaâs of Cocoa Beach. Love the day-of-the-dead theme, and the food.
I guess the better way to answer your question is decide the ADRâs you want, and to plan to get the most difficult reservations first, and the oneâs that rarely pop back up on short notice.
Home Cookinâ
Sci Fi
Yak & Yetti
California Grille
Oâhana
MK desert party
Beaches & Cream
Via Naâapoli
Space 220
Iâm not saying that i personally recommend this entire list, just that these can be the most difficult reservations to get.
Have you been to Fogo de Chao? There is one in Orlando. We had lunch there. The salad bar was amazing and the meats were delicious. We held out for the more expensive cuts of meats. Even if we went there for dinner, it would have been cheaper than Oâhana! And IMHO, the food is far superior to Oâhanaâs.
We have, there is one nearby. It is good. I always avoid places I can get a home when on vacation.
The first time I went was with a big group of friends. I did what you do in a new place is to try a tiny bit of everything. There was one meat that I particularly liked. So, I turned my sign to âMore Food.â Everyone other kind of meat was offered to me. Finally I said to the guy, âI donât want your meat, I want his.â My friends laughed at me because I made him blush
Thanks @tline35 and @stlouie for the recommendations!!! Admittedly we moved to the area in the middle of the pandemic and do not know our own area at all yet. We go back to Tijuana Flats (a chain but consistently good) for curb-side pickup & Brooklyn Pizza and Pasta does delivery; they have been good too, DH likes the Stromboli I usually order off their bambini menu. Have yet to find good pizza anywhere around here.
One pound lasagna. That sounds interesting. I do love lasagna and anyplace that has the audacity to advertise one that big probably makes a decent one. (None are as good as mine) Adding it to our offsite list.
I will take another look at the AKL places mentioned. Iâd looked at them and crossed them off the list. But, I had thought about going there on a rest day. That is switched to a resort hopping rest day.
Whispering Canyon had originally been on my to-do list, but it was tossed based on what I think it was ppehap said in a different thread.
We arenât open-to-close park people, so Iâm not worried about missing park time. In fact, I have never in my life experienced closing out a park and that is with decades of Six Flags, and one year of USF season passes. When I saw the recent Disney data that both open and close was the best time to be in the parks, I decided weâd be doing mid-day breaks. So, instead of rope-dropping and leaving around 3pm like we did at USF. Weâll leave around noon and come back at 3 or 4. My car is a touring Caddy and the seat is almost as comfy as my bed. Car time is relaxation time. I really look forward to closing out the parks.
Not related to ADRâs, but what about misc. food? For example, I saw a liner listing about 5 worthwhile Disney desserts, and I forgot to copy it to my notes. Only one I remember was the toffee cake.
