If You Were to . . .

[bigeyedfish]

Spend 5 days at Disney what would your top restaurant recommendations be? This is our first (and likely only) trip. We will spend 4 days in the parks (AK, Epcot, and 2 days at MK). It will be me and 4 children (12, 10, 8, 6). We would like one table service meal per day and then QS and snacks for the remaining. Thoughts? TY!

 

[KenHutch]

Animal Kingdom Yak & Yeti
Epcot Consider Garden Grill or Askershus
Magic Kingdom Leave take the monorail and eat at Ohana
Magic Kingdom Leave take the monorail to 1900 Park Fare

This was you get some character interactions out of the way, A character meal can save 2 to 3 hours of line sitting for character, of course it pains me that you are abandoning my favorite park Hollywood where I would recommend 50's Prime Time and Sci-Fi

 

[kimieko]

I can help with Epcot! I love Garden Grill for a character meal and think you could make great memories with the kids and characters.

 

[angierae]

Garden Grill is great with kids. Chip and Dale are always up for shenanigans if your kids are playful.

 

[gharter]

AK - Yak and Yeti for TS, Satu'li Canteen or Flametree. If you want a character meal, Tusker House is very good.
EPCOT - Garden Grill is a great character meal and good food. Coral Reef is great with kids. The food in the past was ok, but sitting and watching the huge aquarium is amazing.
In World Showcase, there are so many good TS and QS options that it really depends on what type of food you like.
MK - Columbia Harbour House or Pecos Bill for QS. We like Skipper Canteen for TS. for comfort food, Liberty Tree TAvern is very good.

 

[ENJDisneyFan]

AK - Yak and Yeti or Tusker House (TS), Satuli Canteen (QS)
MK - Skipper Canteen (TS), Pecos Bills (QS)
DHS - Sci Fi (TS)
Epcot - Garden Grill or Biergarten (TS), tons of great QS and snacks in WS

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

4 days on a once in a lifetime trip. And one poster has you spending a lot of time leaving MK and coming back again?

So....

AK This would be my nice dinner. Tiffins.
DHS - Half day park at best, no need to eat there, if you even bother to go.
MK. Skipper Canteen (dinner) or Be Our Guest (Lunch... kind of a hybrid meal fancy CS really )
Epcot. Garden Grill as long as you realize it's ALL about the characters are not expecting a lot. If you want better food I would suggest Chefs de France, Spice Table, or La Hacienda


I would do three sit down meals. Alternatively you could do a character breakfast as your sit down BEFORE you go to the park and just do counter service all day.
So before Epcot you could do Cape May in the Beach Club or before MK you could do 1900 Park Fare.

With 4 kids I think telling them every day "we are now going to spend 2 hours at dinner/lunch/etc... is probably not going to be a hit... I speak from experience. By the end of day 2 our group of 4 was mad at us about all the time we were wasting in restaurants! They would probably rather take a pool break than have a nice dinner

 

[bigeyedfish]

Thank you for the suggestions! I booked a reservation for Yak & Yeti at AK.

Looking at Akershus (I Norway!) for our Epcot meal. Is breakfast, lunch, or dinner a better choice?

 

[bigeyedfish]

4 days on a once in a lifetime trip. And one poster has you spending a lot of time leaving MK and coming back again?

So....

AK This would be my nice dinner. Tiffins.
DHS - Half day park at best, no need to eat there, if you even bother to go.
MK. Skipper Canteen (dinner) or Be Our Guest (Lunch... kind of a hybrid meal fancy CS really )
Epcot. Garden Grill as long as you realize it's ALL about the characters are not expecting a lot. If you want better food I would suggest Chefs de France, Spice Table, or La Hacienda


I would do three sit down meals. Alternatively you could do a character breakfast as your sit down BEFORE you go to the park and just do counter service all day.
So before Epcot you could do Cape May in the Beach Club or before MK you could do 1900 Park Fare.

With 4 kids I think telling them every day "we are now going to spend 2 hours at dinner/lunch/etc... is probably not going to be a hit... I speak from experience. By the end of day 2 our group of 4 was mad at us about all the time we were wasting in restaurants! They would probably rather take a pool break than have a nice dinner

Yes, I was hoping for table service breakfast before park opening (we are used to an early morning schedule) or a late dinner. We are going at the very end of January so I am not counting on warm weather to swim (although it would be great as we have one full down day to either swim or visit Disney Springs). We are skipping Hollywood Studios altogether. TY! Having not been there since I was a child I am not sure what is realistic or what my priorities should be.

 

[CraigInPA]

I'd recommend trying to get a pre-park opening breakfast at Crystal Palace. It's a character buffet. You can fill up there and not worry about eating until dinner (although the kids probably would want a snack mid-day, the very shareable funnel cake from Sleepy Hollow is a great choice).

 

[mi*vida*loca]

AK - Tusker House (my favorite breakfast and character meal!!)
MK - BOG lunch and CRT lunch on different days if you have kids into the princesses.
Epcot - Via Napoli or Garden Grill (if you do Tusker House skip Garden Grill)

With only four park days I would try to meet some characters during meal time so you don't have to do character lines.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

Spend 5 days at Disney what would your top restaurant recommendations be? This is our first (and likely only) trip. We will spend 4 days in the parks (AK, Epcot, and 2 days at MK). It will be me and 4 children (12, 10, 8, 6). We would like one table service meal per day and then QS and snacks for the remaining. Thoughts? TY!

AK - Tusker House, arguably the best character meal on property, great food and great characters!
EP - Spice Road Table (simply for good food) or Akershus (good food and a fun princess meal)
MK - Skipper's Canteen or Liberty Tree and BOG

 

[Dean Marino]

Given those children.... I would suggest getting DDP. Having gotten this? Check the supported TS locations .

 

[Eve & Wall-e]

Table Service:
MK: BOG
EP: Biergarten
HS: Sci-Fi
AK: Tusker House (my favorite!)

 

[VAfamily1998]

I also have 4 children--about that same age spread too!

We did a short trip in 2012 when they were those exact same ages, and we went to

Hoop de doo Review
Garden Grill in Epcot (our kids are BIG Chip and Dale fans!)
50's prime time cafe (but that's in HS which you did not indicate you were going to)

Hoop de doo was a HUGE hit with my kids at that age! Garden Grill was also very good. 50s prime time was kind of a miss, because weS actually really like the "antics" and jokes from the server, and our server didn't do too much of that.

Other restaurants our family enjoys together are
Biergarten in Epcot
Sci Fi drive in in Hollywood Studios (I know, you aren't going there!)
San Angel Inn in Epcot
Skippers Canteen in the Magic Kingdom

 

[Amelia :)]

Always makes me laugh when people say they are taking a “first and only” or “once in a life-time” trip you are only lying to yourself!

 

[SJSloan]

With 4 kids I would go for character meals for the most part.

AK - Tusker Hours - breakfast is our favorite you can't really go wrong
EP - Garden Grill - breakfast
MK - 'Ohana breakfast (character) and dinner, Be Our Guest (quick service), 1900 Park Fare (dinner)

 

[Jadyreen1282]

Always makes me laugh when people say they are taking a “first and only” or “once in a life-time” trip you are only lying to yourself!

Yep. Dillusional. First and only trip was in 1977, 78, 79....2018....

 

[mco65]

MK: If its once in a lifetime, might as well eat at the Castle with Cinderella...
AK: Tusher House, Yak and Yeti
EP: Askerus, Via Napoli
HS: 50s Prime

 

[ShannonMB]

hehe, I chuckled also when I saw "first (and probably only) trip", as when my daughter was 6 (my only), I had the same plan. She'll be 18 in a couple months and I think we've been maybe 11 times since that first delicious, truly life-changing trip! She and I are going back for one last hurrah before she graduates high school, just the 2 of us for Spring Break this year and I'm just as excited about this one (if not more-so) as any of the others!

Whether this is your first and only or first of many, here are my thoughts on where to go with that group of kids (I'm assuming a mix of boys and girls):

Magic Kingdom: Crystal Palace lunch or dinner (I would say BOG, but honestly it is a pretty long meal for littles. Not sure how hard it is to book these days but I've run in to settling for really late times a couple times and it just wasn't worth it. Definitely do try to go for a counter service lunch if you can - which you also need reservations for!) The food at Crystal Palace for lunch and dinner is kid-approved and plentiful. They aren't winning any culinary awards but there is a huge selection and lots of tasty desserts. Pooh, Piglet, Tigger and Eeyore are always adorable.

Animal Kingdom: Tusker House breakfast (I love, love Yak and Yeti table service, but for me, the theming is pretty lost on the kids. I am an adventurous eater and love the lunch and dinner at Tusker House, but the breakfast is a little more kid-friendly IMO unless your kids are adventurous too!) Tusker House is really a great character meal with Mickey, Donald, Daisy, and maybe one more I'm forgetting.

EPCOT: Maybe go with a non-character meal here - great theming at Biergarten if the menu appeals to you guys! We always have enjoyed Coral Reef for a wow-factor too. We are trying Garden Grill, the rotating restaurant with Chip and Dale and a couple other characters this trip for the first time and I'm excited! We still love a character meal or 2 every trip even though DD is almost an adult!

You really won't go wrong, it's going to be such an experience and I'm so excited for your family!! I would book my meals a little earlier than you think, because the first couple trips I booked everything a little later thinking we would need MORE, MORE, MORE park time before dinner, and we ended up exhausted and hungry.

Enjoy planning!!!