The Garden Grille at The Land in Epcot- Excellent Dinner!

[pearland1]

I wanted to let everyone in on this place for a great character experience.
We went there for dinner one night at Epcot, and the characters were amazing. We got to see Mickey, Minnie, Chip, Dale and Goofy several times. I have never seen them this many times at one time!
They must have come by the table at least 5 times each. My daughters loved it!
The food was excellent as well. We thought the price was well worth it!
We got a family platter for the two of us, a huge child's platter, bread pudding and 2 beers for about $65. Oh, and there was also this cute cupcake decorating activity for the childrens' dessert.
This was a great price, considering the amount of food, and the whole experience of the characters.
The manager even came by to see if we had missed out on any characters and if we would like to see one again...amazing!

 

[The Sweetness]

SWEETI will be there in June

 

[medicgirl911]

We also had a great experience there. We went for a late lunch and sat on the outer circle of the restaraunt, so we got to watch everything as it rotated. It was so uncrowded we felt like we were the only ones in theplace, which was a nice change from the usual crowded feeling. Minnie was not there when we went. It was a good thing though because my daughter had on the minnie dress, and Mickey made a big production of it, made motions that he was in love, kissing her hand and cheek, etc. We got to see all the characters 3 times. It was awesome! The food was better than we were expecting also. I was unsure if I would like anything from reading about the menu ahead of time, but suprisingly it was all real good, we even got some seconds on our family platter!!

 

[Lexxiefern]

Glad to read that it was good! We will be there in a week and a half - can't wait!

 

[Laurafoster]

Would like to try this on my next visit!

 

[Minniespal]

Glad you enjoyed it.

 

[OKWMom]

Thank you for the review. I am so glad to hear the food and character interaction was so good. I am taking my niece for her first WDW trip this spring and she specifically requested a dinner with Mickey. We decided to try Garden Grill because it fit better into our touring plans, but I was second guessing myself thinking Chef Mickey’s would be more fun. We had breakfast at CM last month and the character interaction was nothing like what you described. It looks like we made the right decision.

 

[mickeysgirl17]

We were actually dissapointed with the food here. I loved the characters although mickey wasn't into character much, the service was excellent and the rotation was pretty cool, but we didn't eat much. Dh had to order kids food for himself since he was starving but didn't like the adult platter at all and it wasn't a problem. Loved Chip n' Dale and Pluto. Dale sat with me when Dh and DD3 were in the bathroom and pretended to eat my DD's food and Pluto tried to grab the phone from Dh when Dh wasn't paying attention to him. He even made a sound on the phone to Dh's cousin. It was fun.

 

[loveDmouse]

I love it there. We had the best time. Food was great and the characters were too! Glad you had a great time too!

 

[IMDORY]

We were there last month-loved it, as we do every trip. It is one of our "must do" meals. Glad you had a good experience.

 

[thedish]

This is the best. We had a great meal and the kids loved Chip n Dale. They even sat down with us!

 

[cjsmom5]

Our experience here in December was not so great. Food was mediocre and luke warm. In addition it took so long to get there -- we have a picture of my son and I sitting there waiting for us to get anything -- we laugh about it now. We almost missed the 8:15pm show of Candelight Processional and we had an ADR for 5pm.

Our waiter was horrible -- sarcastic and rude. Since 1993 and many, many trips this is the only time that I have not left a tip.

The characters, though, were great. They came around numerous times.

We tried to talk with the manager before we left and she just looked at us. Perhaps it was just an isolated incident. But, we won't go back.

 

[kellyg403]

Glad you had such a great experience. We love this place and always try to do it once while we are there. For my crew, there is something on the platter that everyone will eat and can always order more of something so everyone is full. Even though my teens are considered adults, they still prefer the cupcake thing...and its never been a problem for them ordering it. I will say though, that we will always try to be on the outer rim. We sat in the inner part last Sept. and did not get much character interaction. We had to ask the waiter to bring around Mickey. But, still a meal we try not to miss!

Kelly

 

[Disney owl]

Sounds like you had a great time

 

[pearland1]

Oh and a note about the food...
I thought it was excellent, but you do have to be a fan of fresh vegetables. I thought it was amazing (I was really craving some good veggies at this point!).

The family platter we had for dinner was: fried catfish nuggets, beef flank steak, pork with a cranberry relish, then the veggies were: fresh baby carrots, snow peas, green beans, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes and cornbread stuffing. We also got biscuits and yeast rolls beforehand.

This may help when trying to decide if the food is what you'd like.

Ride the Land's ride first. I may be wrong but they raise the catfish, and grow the vegetables fresh right there in the greenhouse areas on the ride. Knowing it is so fresh is great.

 

[pearland1]

Oh yes, and the child's platter included chicken strips, macaroni and cheese and french fries.

The dessert for the adults was a vanilla bread pudding, with a rum-whipped cream and a drizzle of chocolate. (awesome)
The children get a cupcake with dishes of frosting, candies, etc. to decorate it with. They LOVED this.

 

[pearland1]

Oh, and another sidenote...Next time we go to Disney I will definitely book this reservation over Chef Mickey's or Ohana.
I felt that the character experience was so much better in quantity than we have had at the other places. I also felt the amount/type of food you get for the price was a better value. The other breakfast places are fun too, however I felt The Garden Grille's character experience was better (that is what our children are into!).

 

[torismom]

This has always been our must do until last night. It was myself, dh, dd and ds. We were seated in a timely manner and had wonderful character interaction. This was the best part of our meal.

Our waitress came by and got our drink order, brought our bread and salad back before our drinks. During the course of dinner we tried to get refills for our kids but were ignored. When our bottle of wine was gone we were ignored again. We just wanted a glass of water but it never was broght to us. When our platter of food was brought out we were given 4 chicken strips and the mac n cheese for the kids. The adult platter had 2 cold pieces of flank steak , 2 cold pieces of turkey, 2 carrotts and ample sugar snap peas and a 1/4 of a roasted sweet potato, the dressing and a bowl of potatos.(we requested no catfish) Meanwhile we had not even finished our salad. We went ahead and requested another plate of food and then we waited and waited and waited. We finished ,still could not get drink refills, waited
and waited and waited for our dessert for it to be dropped on the floor in front of us and we waited and waited and waited for more to be brought to us.

We were all so diapointed and could not believe 1.5 hours later and 105.00porrer (icluding our DDE discount) and extremely thirsty what we had just been through.

I am so glad the orginal OP had a good experience but we are done for now. I am still shocked at the 27.99 price tag for the adult's.

 

[swankybeth]

Thanks for the review, I'm looking forward to Garden Grill. It's our first night's dinner-only 4 more days to go!

 

[GoofyGirlnPrincessV]

I can't wait to try this for lunch!!! Do you know if you can skip the catfish? Not a big fan of fish..LOL