I am all about the planning, are you going straight from the park to dinner, or going back to the room for a chance to relax and spruce up a bit before going back out, and/or will you be going back out to the park after dinner? Something to think about, with Disney being so spread out, you must take into consideration travel time...
Here's my run down... Starting with our new favorite.
The Boathouse - Love the location, and its a really huge restaurant with indoor and outdoor seating. We have done both on several occasions, and the level of service whether inside or outside was the same... absolutely stellar from all the servers that we have had. Our favorite is dinning outside when the weather is nice, overlooking the cars/boat going by, and enjoy the water and lights, is really enjoyable. As far as the food is has been really wonderful, I love crab cakes... and they have a really nice offering lots of crab and a little filler, perfect....
Next 2 would be a tie for second place...
Narcoossee's and Yachtsman Steakhouse - They both offer great service and food, Narcoossee's is on the water with a view and for us was more of a relaxed feel, and we went from the park to dinner so pretty relaxed....so that is something to consider, while the Yachtsman has a more traditional feel, like date night... While we did not go from the park, directly to dinner there, we did a pool day, and then dressed up a bit not fancy just not park clothing.. which I am glad we did, there were some couples in dress's and even a couple of guys with ties on... DH went with a nice pull over and dressier shorts, for me a simple sundress, and the DD's one wore capris and a top, and other a simple sundress.. I will say make sure to bring something to put on a light sweater... I'm always hot and I was very cool.
So next up
California Grill - this in the past was on our top 5 fav's, DH and I had dinner here for a lot of special occasions, but since the redo its really all but fallen off our radar... the view is amazing and if lucky enough to get a table at the window really nice view and fireworks... The service our last 2 visit was not good, bordering on terrible... and the food while okay was really over priced and the portions on the proteins were very lean and really 2 tiny scallops is not jumbo scallops, and the accompaniments were just terrible, no seasoning and/or favor... Next visit we did not even make it to ordering appetizers, it took our server 15 minutes to greet us, and 20 to 25 minutes for her to bring us a cocktail, which someone else did, we just asked for the bill for the drinks, which the manager brought, and did comp us and try to get us to stay, but by this point we had been there over a hour... so went over to the poly to captain cooks for BBQ sandwiches. We are going to give it another try when some friends come to see Mickey and the gang next year.
and Finally
STK Orlando - From the start the evening was a disaster, as they gave someone else our table, then argued that its wasn't there fault... Then sat us in a door way and it was hot as you know where, It was stifling, and our friends wife was pregnant at the time I thought she was going to pass out, we got drinks and lefts... we got lucky and got in at Morimoto's, they had a large group that did not show up, so there were quite a few tables...oh and Morimoto's is in our top 10.