Monday, November 16, 2015

Disney World Reviews September 2015 Part 3



Being at Disney World for 11 days, of course there will be lots of dining experiences! For this trip we went to Hollywood and Vine, Teppan Edo, 1900 Park Fare, Tutto Italia Ristorante, Via Napoli, and Be Our Guest Restaurant. Of course we ate at several quick service places, but this review will be on just the table services we went to.

Disclaimer: I don't claim to be an expert, but I do feel like I have gone enough times to give adequate reviews. Also, these are just my personal opinions from my experiences, so please keep that in mind when reading my reviews. I would always suggest you experience these things for yourself!

We had breakfast at Hollywood and Vine for the Disney Jr. Play and Dine located inside of Hollywood Studios. This is a character buffet style meal. The characters you get to meet with are Doc McStuffins, Jake, Sofia, and Handy Mandy (I'm secretly hoping they change Handy Mandy to Miles in the near future, my kids would love that).






This is actually our second time going to the Disney Jr. Play and Dine, but our first time for breakfast. The first time we went was for lunch back in 2013. Our reservation was at 8:10am in the morning, which is WAY too early for our family. We are not morning people, but we made it! The food was good, the general breakfast food that you would expect Disney to serve. Since I am not a morning person and don't eat much for breakfast, we should have made the reservation for a little bit later, that way I would have eaten my money's worth.
My in laws were also there with us and were celebrating their anniversary, our server brought them an anniversary surprise; a cute little dessert and a card signed by all the characters that were there.
I would expect to spend at least an hour there, to give time for all the characters to come to your table, we ended up leaving before seeing Handy Mandy because my kids were getting restless sitting there for so long and already done eating. One thing I liked is every 15-20 minutes or so there would be a "dance party." Two cast members would come out and sing and dance to some Disney Jr songs. The characters would also come over and dance along with everyone.
I would highly recommend this dining experience if you have kids that love the Disney Jr shows and the characters. I definitely want to do it again, but probably for lunch!


For my birthday we went to Teppan Edo, which is located in the Japan pavilion in the World Showcase in Epcot. There are two sit down restaurants located in the Japan pavilion, Teppan Edo is a hibachi grill style.

(I had the Plum Wine for my birthday drink and it was AMAZING, we even bought a bottle or two to bring home)





While we had an awful experience at this restaurant the food was still good. The staff were all wonderful, and the cook was fun. We had an 8pm reservation and we were out all day, so my kids were VERY tired and acting out. My husband was gone with my youngest most of the dinner (you don't want to know why) so the whole situation was very stressful. With all that in mind, I still want to give an unbiased review.

I probably will not eat at this place again, not because of my kids, but because I would compare it to a local hibachi grill that we can get at home, just more expensive. This was our most expensive meal of the trip and it didn't feel any different then our local hibachi grill. They give plenty of food to make you full and the sushi was good too! They even brought me a free birthday dessert.


One dining experience I've really wanted to do was to eat at 1900 Park Fare. I've heard nothing but wonderful things about this place and I am so glad I finally got to go! It is located at the Grand Floridian Resort. We had a late breakfast (more like a brunch) at this buffet style character meal. The characters you get to meet for breakfast were Pooh, Tigger, Mary Poppins, Alice, and the Mad Hatter.

(They even have a photopass photographer take your picture in front of this beautiful backdrop before they take you into the dining room)








All of the character interacts were wonderful, especially the Mad Hatter. I was most excited to see him, I even made a top hat just for this breakfast. You can check it out here. We got to see all of the characters within a reasonable amount of time, since there are so many, I would give it at least an hour. The Mad Hatter juice blend was probably one of the best juices I ever had, it was delicious. Even though this was a buffet breakfast, it was definitely my favorite, even my husband said he would go there again! It had more than just the general breakfast foods, I got a made to order omelette which was so amazing! I do wish I ate more while I was there though, I was too concerned about the characters meeting us. Overall, it was one of the best character meals we've been too. I defiantly want to do it again.


Another dinning place we went to was Tutto Italia Ristorante. (Sorry I don't have any pictures) This is located at the Italy pavilion in the World Showcase in Epcot. We didn't have a reservation to this place, but they were able to seat us immediately. We went between lunch and dinner so there were plenty of tables available. This is actually the second time we went to this restaurant, both times without a reservation. The staff is AMAZING! All of the servers work together to make sure you have everything you need, water is always full and they give you bread while your waiting for your meal. Everything I've had here was the best Italian food I've ever had. It feels like a very fancy place between the atmosphere and the service you get, but of course, they were very accommodating with us having kids. I would recommend this place to anyone who wants Italian food. My husband LOVES Italian food while I'm not the biggest fan of it and we both loved our meals.


Speaking of Italian food, we also ate at Via Napoli, which is the other restaurant in the Italy pavilion in the World Showcase in Epcot.



This pizzeria style restaurant is AMAZING!! It has three wood burning ovens they cook in. We had at late 9:40pm reservation set for 6. When we got there, we wanted to add 3 more people to make it 9. They didn't have a problem accommodating our large party either and we didn't have to wait very long at all. This is the best pizza I've ever had and will DEFIANTLY eat here again.
Since it was such a late reservation and it was after park closing (extra magic hours were going on) there was not very many people there, so I was able to get some awesome pictures of the pavilions in the World Show case that were practically empty.


The last place that we went to eat at was the morning of our last full day. Be Our Guest Restaurant. This is located in Magic Kingdom.


Technically, Be Our Guest is considered quick service for Breakfast and lunch, but you still need a reservation to get in. We've done lunch before, but this was our first time doing breakfast. This restaurant is truly breathtaking, it's like you walked straight into the movie (which is one of my favorites I should add). I'm not a fan of how they do this quick service though. You have to make a reservation to get in, then stand in line just like a normal quick service to order. After you order, they do bring your food to your table though, so you can go find a seat right away. I didn't think that the breakfast food was that great. The cast members didn't seem very "magical" that day and the dining rooms weren't very clean. I was very disappointed in this breakfast experience (our lunch was the completely opposite) I do still want to try this place for dinner (which is a sit down service) but probably will not go back for breakfast.


Thanks for reading my reviews on our dining experiences we had for our September Disney trip. If there is anything you would like me to do a review on, please let me know!

~Alison Shane~



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