Walt Disney World Table Service is any restaurant you sit down then someone comes and takes your order. Now there are a couple of different types of restaurant that offer table service. You can have a standard sit down meal, where a server brings your food and drinks to you. Another type is buffet service, so your drinks are brought to you but you go to a buffet and help yourself. Buffet meals at Disney World are usually eat as much as you wish. Some of the table service restaurants we tried were new so this is our first reaction to them. However there are some repeat offenders there that we have had good experiences at before, as well as a couple of restaurants that are not on Disney property. Now bring on the food.
We are starting with brunch. Now who doesn’t love brunch? We are at the Grand Floridian Café located, as you may have guessed in the Grand Floridian Hotel & Spa. This Walt Disney World table service restaurant has plenty of windows that look out over the resort. We have dined here before but this was our first time having breakfast. The service here is always brilliant and I have always enjoyed my food here. This time I ordered a dish I have been looking forward to ever since they added it to the menu in June of 2019. The Buttermilk-Fried Chicken and Waffle. The menu describes this as a ‘hand-breaded chicken breast and cherrywood-smoked bacon malted waffle with sriracha-honey drizzle. Now I have to tell you this was some of the best fried chicken I have eaten. The breading was so crisp and crunchy, it is actually made up from crunched up cornflakes. This is something I will be trying at home as it was fantastic. (I know Nigella Lawson has a recipe for this here) The waffle had bits of smoked bacon inside and was really perfectly cooked, this may well be the king of waffles. Lastly the Sriracha-Honey now what is not to love about those to words? Sticky, sweet a hint of heat, this sent this dish into a dish that will be in my dreams for a while. So I think it is obvious that I loved this meal, I didn’t however finish it. The portion size was big! I will definitely be returning to try get this again at some point. If I have to be picky and find one very small negative point, I found the biscuits that were served before our meal slightly on the dry side, they were served with a citrus honey butter so that helped their cause. That however will not stop me recommending this restaurant very highly, if you are looking to eat in a deluxe flagship resort without shelling out too much then this is the place.
From a hotel breakfast, to a lunch inside a theme park, I’m taking you to Hollywood Studios. Here you will find a dining experience called Character Dining. Character dining happens at select locations around Walt Disney World. During your meal different characters will come to you table and you can take a picture, get an autograph etc. In Hollywood Studios there is one option for character dining and that is Hollywood and Vine. Here there are two ‘sets’ of characters you can meet, for breakfast you attend Disney Junior Play and Dine here you can meet the Disney Jr characters (typically Fancy Nancy, Vampirina, Doc McStuffins, and Roadster Racer Goofy). Whilst at lunch and dinner you are at Minnie’s Seasonal Dine here you meet the fab 5 all dressed in seasonal outfits (typically Mickey & Minnie Mouse, Donald & Daisy Duck as well as Goofy). All characters are not guaranteed, however I have always had the expected characters at any character dining I have experienced.
This restaurant is a buffet style. You will order your drinks with your server and then go up to the buffet to help yourself to whatever you want. This buffet is ‘all you care to enjoy’ so you can go up multiple times. So I know that when I think of a buffet I don’t necessarily think high quality food. However there are some good options here. There is a carving station that had beef and turkey whilst we were there, a selection of different entrees and sides as well as a salad bar, bread station and dessert section. The food here was decent, not ground breaking. The season here was Holiday season in mid December so many of the options were geared towards this, turkey and stuffing, sweet potato casserole etc. There was a lemon gnocci that really was delicious. I will say with this meal you are paying for the privilege of not having to queue to meet a number of characters. So generally the food is second fiddle to the experience. There are some gems there the pretzel bread and gnocci were stand outs, but you do have to search for them. If you want to knock out a number of characters in a more relaxed and air-conditioned environment then I would say character dining is worth it. If you are not bothered about meeting characters then there is better food to be found elsewhere. The buffet will have something for everyone no matter how picky you are. A good option for Walt Disney World table service.
Another style of restaurant experience that is offered as Walt Disney World table service is ‘Family Style’ dining. This is where your meal is brought to you and set in the centre of the table and you help yourself to what you would like. You can usually eat as much as you like and can ask for more of any part of it. We dined at Liberty Tree Tavern in the evening for their dinner service. Liberty Tree Tavern is located in Liberty Square in the Magic Kingdom and is a colonial style inn serving up traditional New England food. For their dinner service the menu is a set menu and is essentially a Thanksgiving meal. To start there is dinner rolls and the Declaration Salad. The bread was lovely and soft and served warm. The salad was crisp and consisted of, for us, plenty of lettuce, some red onion, a little cucumber and two cherry tomatoes. This salad did not have a huge amount of flavour and I wanted more from this. The entrée is the Patriot’s Platter, for this if you are in a group of three or more this is served up in the centre. If you are dining solo or in a couple then it is plated up and then you get the gravy and mac and cheese in the centre. You can of course ask for more of anything you may wish. The platter consists of roasted turkey breast, pot roast and roast pork. The sides are seasonal vegetables, herb stuffing, mac and cheese with a jug of gravy to pour yourself. This was a fairly standard meal, it was all well cooked the mac and cheese was creamy and the gravy was very enjoyable. For me I found this meal although well cooked not fantastically seasoned. I wanted a bit more from this meal. If you have people in your party that maybe prefer food on that slightly blander side then this might be a good option for you. For me I’m not sure I’ll be going back although I did enjoy the dessert. Speaking of dessert how can you not be tempted when you see something called Ooey Gooey Toffee Cake this was a vanilla toffee cake topped with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce. I would say the cake was definitely ooey and gooey you could be forgiven for calling this a blondie. The ice cream was good and the cake was good however we didn’t finish it. However a meal has to have more than a good dessert, this was not my favourite meal I’ve ever had however it was fine. For me when I’m on holiday, or in life, I am not looking for food that is ‘fine’. I know plenty of people who have this restaurant on their ‘must do’ list so if you like the look if the menu, why not try it out?
Next on the list of Walt Disney World table service is Cape May Café. This is a buffet style restaurant situated in the Beach Club Resort. During breakfast this is a character meal called Minnie’s Beach Bash. At Minnie’s Beach Bash you have the opportunity to meet Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy and Dairy Duck. In my opinion I would choose a breakfast buffet over a lunch or dinner one. I feel the choices are better and breakfast options fare better. You can choose from pastry and waffles to fresh fruit and cereals, sausages and bacon or an omelette freshly made from the omelette station. This is not the first time I have had breakfast here. That in itself should tell you that this is a good breakfast option. I like that fact you can have a bit of whatever you want and everything I have had here I have enjoyed. The pastry section was plentiful and there were so many choices. The fact you can pour your own breakfast syrup is a win in my book. This is a fun family meal with a great atmosphere. The fact it is in a resort rather than a theme park means it is not overcrowded. In fact we met every character multiple times and saw some great interactions between character and families at nearby tables. As with every buffet restaurant if you have allergies or intolerances to certain foods then a chef will come out and walk you round the buffet explaining what you can safely eat. I really do recommend Cape May Café as a great option for a good breakfast. I love a good breakfast to set you up for a day exploring the magic of Walt Disney World.
From the Beach Club I’m taking you back to the Grand Floridian and this time to a new bar called the Enchanted Rose. This bar is themed around Beauty and the Beast, when I say themed it is a loose theme with a couple of cocktails and a few decorative touches. After 5pm you can get some lounge food. We have not experienced the food here we did however sample a couple of drinks. I had an espresso martini that really packed a punch; definitely a grown up drink that I really enjoyed. Taking time to relax in a beautiful surrounding is important during your holiday. You can often get swept up in the excitement of Disney World and go go go however this is a great place to take a break. It definitely feels a bit more grown up and so if I were a family with young children maybe I’d choose somewhere else. That’s the great thing about Walt Disney World there are places and things for everyone to do.
Another breakfast offering to consider is Breakfast a la Art at Topolino’s Terrace – Flavors of the Riviera. This is located in the brand new Disney’s Riviera Resort. This restaurant and resort opened on 16th December 2019. We had our breakfast here on the 19th so this really is a new restaurant. This is a prix fixe so it is a set price and you choose your entrée. The speciality drinks or alcohol are extra on top of this. You get shared pastries fro the table and these come in the cutest paint pot themed dish and everyone has a butter knife that looks like a small paintbrush! There is certainly some Disney magic floating around this restaurant.
The servers are hugely knowledgeable and the service was some of the best we experienced during this trip. At breakfast you can meet classic characters of Mickey, Minnie Donald and Daisy they are all dressed as a different type of artist. Mickey is a painter, Minnie – a poet, Donald as a sculptor and Daisy as a dancer. Now the menu has some really interesting selections from fruit plate to steak and polenta, via croissant au jambon or smoked salmon. I ordered the sour cream waffle served with roasted apple, raspberries, Chantilly cream, orange-maple syrup and I chose sausage as the accompaniment. This was a delicious breakfast the waffle was soft and fluffy inside and the roasted apples and raspberries has enough tartness to cut through the waffle. Orange-maple syrup those three words should conjure up the magic it had. I actually added a little of this to my coffee and it was great so if you find yourself there definitely try that out. There were savoury options if you don’t want sweeter things in the morning. This restaurant really impressed me the service was fantastic and the food was phenomenal, this after being open for 3 days it felt that this was established and a well oiled machine. I will definitely be back to experience the dinner service here. If you want a breakfast where you can remain at your table and meet character rather than running back and forth to a buffet then you can’t go wrong with Topolino’s Terrace. Fun fact Topolino is the Italian name for Mickey Mouse. A great addition fro the Walt Disney World table service arsenal.
This trip to Disney we wanted to focus on the festive offering around the resort. One of the offerings at Epcot that is most popular is the Candlelight Processional. The candlelight processional features a celebrity narrator, for the one we attended it was Gina Davies. It also features a 50-piece orchestra and a mass choir. The narrator tells the nativity story and the music that goes with this was truly beautiful. This was one of my favourite experiences of this trip. The queue to get into the candlelight processional is huge and there are two ways to guarantee you get a seat and see it one is to queue and queue for a long time even then you have to be far enough towards the front to get in. The other way is to book a dining package. This means you book and prepay for a meal at one of the Walt Disney World table service restaurants participating and you have a guaranteed seat. Now the seating is not reserved so you can sit where you want. There was a long queue for the package seating so those who wanted to be right up front had to queue early also. We chose to dine at Trattoria al Forno this Italian restaurant is situated on the Boardwalk. Included in the package is a three-course meal I decided to start with Calamari Fritti, this is deep fried calamari served with lemon aioli, balsamic glaze and crispy pepperoncini. This was really good the glaze added a great amount of tang and the batter was crisp. The portion was ginormous this could have fed three people as an appetiser. For my main I chose the Pettini di Mare this was seared scallops with mushrooms and ravioli. This was not my favourite meal. The scallops were a little hit and miss. I had one perfect one and then a couple that were either under or over done. For my palate the freshness of the scallop and the earthiness of the mushrooms didn’t blend quite as well as I wanted them to. The pasta texture was perfect however. For dessert I decided upon Zeppoli this is described as almond sugar coated fried dough with dipping sauces. The sauces it came with were chocolate, caramel and pistachio. These were good, not masses of flavour, but the texture was really pleasing. They came presented in a paper bag and I would happily walk around Italy with a bag of these. Overall the atmosphere in this restaurant felt a little dated and a little sterile. I would have loved this to feel like a family run trattoria with super friendly service and fun atmosphere I think that would improve the experience here. For that reason I’m not sure I will hurry back to Trattoria al Forno but I would visit their pizza window.
The final Disney table service restaurant that we tried was The Boathouse in Disney Springs. The Boathouse is on the fine and signature dining lists at Disney world. If you were on the Disney Dining Plan a meal here would cost each of you two table service credits. We were sat in the middle near the piano were there was a live pianist who played a huge variety of melodies. We decided to get only one course here. You automatically get brought dinner rolls served warm and sticky with a glaze. This was some great bread. I chose to get Coconut Fried Shrimp, served with fresh cut fries and an orange-chilli sauce. I really enjoyed this the shrimp was so juicy inside very crisp coconut breading. I would happily have this again it was a really great meal. Because we only had one course this would not be a good use of two dining credits. The menu here is massive there is something for most people. It is geared towards seafood and steak. There is a raw bar that we saw many people ordering oysters from. If you are interested check out the menu see what you would order and price it up. If you are on the Disney dining plan make sure you can get your moneys worth, it may be an idea to pay out of pocket if you were only going to have entrees for example. I would recommend visiting The Boathouse it’s a great experience and the food really was very good.
That’s the Walt Disney World table service food we managed to eat this time round. We had a lot of fun exploring new and familiar menus and experience all the different restaurants. I hope you found this interesting and want to try some of these places yourself. Next time I’m sharing everything we tackled at the Epcot International Festival of the Holidays. So keep your eyes peeled for that one. Hungry for more? Check out what else we ate during or Disney World December 2019 Trip or why not take a look at my roundup of our June 2019 Disney World Trip.
