Restaurant recs for food snob with small children?

[Mmw37]

Hello wise ones!
My family and I - DH, DS1 (4), and DS2 (9 mo) - will be taking our second trip (DS2's first) in Jan 2016. My husband and I both have significant restaurant experience and cook most of our meals from scratch now as a hobby. We won't do any quick service meals for dinners and probably not many for lunch either, so we need a lot of ideas. We don't need white tablecloths at every meal, but like to eat good food whenever possible.

Last (short) visit, we enjoyed Citrico's for dinner and Brown Derby for lunch. We didn't care for Kona. Crystal Palace was impressive for what I expected would be a kid-oriented buffet, and we will want a few character meals again. Probably at breakfast/lunch. Any other foodies with small kids? Our older son is a fairly adventurous eater (he loves sushi and grilled cheese equally) and is reasonably well-behaved in sit-down restaurants. Who knows with the baby. We aren't the type of family who tries to spend 14 hours in the park each day, and a nice dinner is a great way for us to unwind each night before bed. We also probably won't leave them with a sitter on vacation at this age, but may consider next time. I haven't decided on a resort yet, but am leaning POR or WL. All suggestions welcome! Thank you!

 

[100acreHiker]

All of us (me, DH, and our two young sons) loved Le Cellier. I was surprised how much I liked Be Our Guest for dinner (didn't care for lunch). Additionally, La Hacienda (sit down restaurant on the water) was very good, as well. We did California Grill and it was pretty good, but not as great as I was expecting, and they messed up a few aspects of our meals, but it's still worth a try as it has great atmosphere and an overall creative vibe. Our kids found something to eat and something new to try at all of these places, though one of our kids is a more adventurous eater than the other and often orders from the adult menu. Have fun!

 

[Disney Khaleesi]

We really liked Be Our Guest on our last trip-the Beat is typically at dinner. Raglan Road in DTD is great, and if you stay at POR, you can take the boat to Downtown Disney.

As for character meals, 1900 Park Faire is good, as is Garden Grill. If your son loves sushi, I've heard good things about Tokyo Dining.

 

[sug78]

Try Boma- I'm a foodie & I love that place...my kids love it as well

 

[amomma23]

I second Boma and Raglan Road. Raglan has one of the best kids menus with a lot of choices.

 

[RamrodinTonight]

My son has always loved Flying Fish. It is one of the places we go back to every time. They have a fantastic cocktail menu too if that is something you like.

 

[GreatLakes]

Boma for sure. You will get to try a lot of African dishes but there is still the standard kids fare for the young ones. Tusker House is much the same. The food is similar but different enough to make it worth a trip even if you ate at Boma. It is also a character meal now so that is a bonus for the kids.

 

[wdwbride2005]

Hello wise ones!
My family and I - DH, DS1 (4), and DS2 (9 mo) - will be taking our second trip (DS2's first) in Jan 2016. My husband and I both have significant restaurant experience and cook most of our meals from scratch now as a hobby. We won't do any quick service meals for dinners and probably not many for lunch either, so we need a lot of ideas. We don't need white tablecloths at every meal, but like to eat good food whenever possible.

Last (short) visit, we enjoyed Citrico's for dinner and Brown Derby for lunch. We didn't care for Kona. Crystal Palace was impressive for what I expected would be a kid-oriented buffet, and we will want a few character meals again. Probably at breakfast/lunch. Any other foodies with small kids? Our older son is a fairly adventurous eater (he loves sushi and grilled cheese equally) and is reasonably well-behaved in sit-down restaurants. Who knows with the baby. We aren't the type of family who tries to spend 14 hours in the park each day, and a nice dinner is a great way for us to unwind each night before bed. We also probably won't leave them with a sitter on vacation at this age, but may consider next time. I haven't decided on a resort yet, but am leaning POR or WL. All suggestions welcome! Thank you!

Going with small children is no problem-it's Disney so kids are everywhere. We're foodies as well and these are some of our favorites for dinner:
Yachtsman Steakhouse
California Grill
Narcoosse's
Flying Fish
Blue Zoo
The Wave can be good-service has been hit or miss
Be Our Guest

Nice lunch as well:
Captain's Grill
Coral Reef
The pizza restaurant in EPCOT -via Napoli I think it's called
Grand Floridian Cafe for any meal-casual but good.

 

[MsMagical]

I don't know if I'm a foodie but I appreciate good food prepared well. Some of our favorites include:

Boma - Unique food here.

Sanaa - Also unique food here.

Artist Point - At WL, delicious food and wine.

Biergarten - This is a buffet with german food. I grew up on german food and I have an appreciation for good meats and anything with paprika in it. There is a small selection of "kids foods" but my kids generally eat the sausages, warm potato salad, steamed veggies and mac and cheese on the adult side.

1900 Park Fare - In my opinion, this is hands down, the best characer buffet in WDW for both breakfast and dinner. Breakfast has Alice, Mad Hatter, Mary Poppins (possibly one more I am forgetting). Dinner has Cinderella, Step-mother and sisters, and Prince Charming.

San Angel Inn - We really like this restuarant. It's night-time theming is cool and our food has always been good (and the margaritas are some of the best). I guess I wouldn't call it "traditional" mexican but I would call it good food.

Raglan Road - this place is delicous but during the show times it can be VERY loud near the stage so I might ask to sit away from the stage with a baby.

Besides these, I'd look into Il Mulino, bluezoo, and Kimonos at the Swan and Dolphin.

As a quick side note - for "quick service" that is delicious, try the bakery in France. We eat here at least 3 times every visit. And the Fountain at the Dolphin has good food but the service is hit or miss and you have to pay OOP since they don't room charge.

A couple of places I would personally avoid: Ohana (this is popular but the food is not really that great and our service has been subpar for the last couple years), Kona (which you already discovered) and Coral Reef (food is mediocre, at best, and the service is consistently terrible - like I gave this 5 tries before I said never again).

 

[rwdavis2]

We had great success taking our 4 and 7 year old to California Grill a long time ago. The place is naturally a bit noisy and the servers at the time were smart enough to pay a little attention to the kids. It took 2 hours but we had a great meal. It all depends on if the kids can easily be kept occupied for that long.

 

[DisneyDiana]

Boma for breakfast or dinner, Sanaa for lunch or dinner, Tusker House for breakfast

We are foodies, DS is super picky. We are all happy with our meals at the listed restaurants.

 

[ELSA711]

Try Boma- I'm a foodie & I love that place...my kids love it as well

Let me ask Boma better for breakfast or dinner?
We have both booked but should drop one of them.
Kids insisting on Tusker House for characters.

 

[Eliserose]

We love California Grill, LeCelier, Narcoosses and Flying Fish. Be Our Guest was just ok-nice to see in the castle, but we weren't thrilled with food, just average. We also liked Via Napoli and breakfast at The Wave.

 

[TDC Nala]

There's no foodie character meals. The closest may be Tusker House. For family dining, California Grill, Sanaa, Brown Derby, maybe the Wave.

 

[GreatLakes]

Let me ask Boma better for breakfast or dinner?
We have both booked but should drop one of them.
Kids insisting on Tusker House for characters.

It depends on how much and what kind of breakfast you eat. We just have a small breakfast, usually a banana and bagel, so have no desire to pay for a huge breakfast buffet with a bunch of stuff we don't really eat. We also feel that while most Disney buffets are priced higher then they probably should be their breakfast buffets are extreme when you consider that breakfast is supposed to be an inexpensive meal. At least it is for us based on how we eat.

Add in that the food at breakfast isn't really unique to Boma while much of the dinner is and I would do dinner over breakfast any time.

YMMV.

 

[shortnsassy730]

Boma's breakfast just can't be beat on property! Tusker House is by far my favorite character meal. We actually like to get a 10:30 reservation to get a small taste of breakfast and then full lunch. They have lots of great choices. My personal favorite restaurant of all the Signatures is Artist Point at the Wilderness Lodge. Some other faves for me are Sanaa, Raglan Road, Narcoosees, Via Napoli, Jiko and surprisingly Wolf Gang Puck's Express QS location at DTD. My niece is a foodie and she really loved Raglan Road because there were a lot more choices on the kid's menu.

 

[kollerbear]

Going to echo the recommendation for Raglan Road, esp. for lunch. (Great value, but can be very loud for dinner.) Also Sanaa. Via Napoli is also very tasty, good food with good ingredients. For more value, I also appreciated Mama Melrose--not as nice as HBD, but less expensive and a cut above the other table services in HS. I really enjoyed Be Our Guest for lunch but knew it was going to be lower quality than a table service meal. I think Columbia Harbor House is also pretty good for counter service--MK can be a tough place to get good food. The baked potato and baked sweet potato snacks served in Liberty Square are also a great "real food" snack alternative.

 

[Nancyg56]

Let me ask Boma better for breakfast or dinner?
We have both booked but should drop one of them.
Kids insisting on Tusker House for characters.

Since your kids want Tusker House I would suggest an early morning ADR there, and a dinner ADR at Boma. I think that would give you a bit of both experiences.

I enjoy Narcoossees and Flying Fish. I must say that the jury is always out on 'Ohana, but my family likes it. The kids may enjoy it.

 

[shaycamp21]

We are also foodies with teens and a little one who are all adventurous eaters. The signatures we have enjoyed are Flying Fish, Narcoosee's and LeCellier (2nd time was better than 1st). Regular a la carte table service that were surprisingly good were Olivia's (was worth the trip to OKW) and Yak and Yeti. Buffets that we have enjoyed include Boma (both breakfast and lunch), Tusker House and 1900 Park Fare. For QS you cannot beat the food at WPE.

 

[Mmw37]

you guys rock, thanks! I'll look all of these up this week and start making reservations