Thoughts/Opinions on Story Book Dining Lately?

[jliucci]

I have a 6pm ADR for Story Book Dining the last night of our Sept/Oct trip and I am looking for anyone's recent opinions. It will be myself, DH and DD (3yo) on the dining plan. My daughter loves princesses but hasn't really watched Snow White yet. I booked this because it was new for us and looked interesting. We have already done with her Chef Mickey, Askershus, 1900 Park Fare, Ohana and Bon Voyage (we also have booked for this upcoming trip Garden Grille, Tusker House, Liberty Tree, Coral Reef and Cape May).

Did you enjoy the food? Was the experience worth the hike to the Wilderness Lodge?

Thanks

 

[mreynoldsDisney]

I have not been there but by accounts I have read the food is somewhere between average and good, the presentation and theming great, if on the dining plan it may be the best value in the park.
The lobby at Wilderness worth taking the trip for, so would not consider it an out of the way location.

Seems like a good way to end the trip to me for your last evening.

I realize I may not have told you anything you don't already know. Have a trip upcoming and only reservation I could get at Story Book is for 8:35 PM for the one night I could even get an ADR ; given the rest of our plans it is too late for us. I kind of hope there will be some negative replies as I am a little torn if we should cancel if I cannot get a better time!

 

[AKBrewer84]

We went in mid-June and honestly loved it. It was some of the best food I had the whole trip, to be honest. The atmosphere and entire theming of the meal is really special, too. I would absolutely recommend it and definitely plan on going back.

 

[Kestryl]

We went end of May. My husband and I agree that it was the best food (meal-wise) we had or whole trip. We’re not major foodies though- my husband is pretty picky but is happy with good meat, and I’ll try anything at least once. Still, we really enjoyed the food as a whole. (For perspective, he had the Royal Prime Rib Roast, and I had the Slow-braised Pork Shank.)

To be fair, I love Snow White- she was my favorite when I was 5, and I dressed up as her for Halloween two years in a row. So there is major nostalgia that affects my opinion. Meeting “Snow White” was such a bizarrely wonderful experience. And even though 5-year-old me was terrified of the Queen, she was a lot of fun to interact with.

It was definitely work the trek to WL, though I will say that I was stressed we would be late- for whatever reason, the bus from Epcot to WL didn’t show up until 35 minutes after we got to the bus line. At that point I was looking up Ubers just in case.

 

[Jacq7414]

We went end of April and enjoyed it. I really liked the food and thought the character interactions were superb. My daughter still talks about the dwarfs.

We stayed at WL though so it was NBD for us to get there.

 

[DebbieB]

We went the end of April. The appetizers weren’t great. I had the Prime Rib, it was pretty good. Desserts were awesome. Great character interaction.

 

[Jacq7414]

I realize I may not have told you anything you don't already know. Have a trip upcoming and only reservation I could get at Story Book is for 8:35 PM for the one night I could even get an ADR ; given the rest of our plans it is too late for us. I kind of hope there will be some negative replies as I am a little torn if we should cancel if I cannot get a better time!

I would see if you can get it moved up closer to your trip. We were able move back our reservation the day of because we were running late at the park.

 

[Mommymarie]

Does anyone know if the chicken and pork are boneless?

 

[Kestryl]

Does anyone know if the chicken and pork are boneless?

The pork shank had one bone straight through, and the meat just fell away with gentle prodding.

I don’t know about the chicken- from pictures it didn’t look like it had bones, but no one at my table ordered it.

 

[jwhite2004]

We went on May 31st. Food, character interactions and atmosphere were all great. They didn’t try to rush us out either. I recommend it.

I had the pork shank, and it was one of the best things I had that week.

 

[BuzzyBelle]

We ate there June 25. It’s definitely worth 1 credit. Service was average but I felt the food was pretty good. The alcoholic drinks were pretty awful; super strong and oddly flavored. I had the antidote and it was so bad our waitress brought me an enchanted apple. It wasn’t much better, but I did take a few sips of that one at least.

The apps were okay. I enjoyed the mushroom soup, but no one else in my family enjoys mushrooms. We had veggie spring rolls subbed for the shrimp which were also okay. The sausage wasn’t really our thing either.

The entrees were very nice. I had the pork shank, DH had the pasta, DD16 the chicken, and DD9 the kids prime rib. We all enjoyed them. They also brought DD3 mac and cheese for free since she was still 2.

I thought the desserts were well presented and tasty. Nothing mind blowing, but a nice way to finish the meal.

Overall it isn’t someplace we would visit every year, but it was fun and different; a great use of 1 credit. I wish there was a choice for the apps. None of them really appealed to us, but we still had more than enough to eat as portions were rather large. DD3 wasn’t super familiar with Snow White but loves characters so she’s happy to meet any princess and thought the queen was really cool.

 

[nyy]

Can a picky teen order chicken tenders? If not, no big deal. I just wanted to know if it could be an option.

 

[ChanMom]

I have not been there but by accounts I have read the food is somewhere between average and good, the presentation and theming great, if on the dining plan it may be the best value in the park.
The lobby at Wilderness worth taking the trip for, so would not consider it an out of the way location.

Seems like a good way to end the trip to me for your last evening.

I realize I may not have told you anything you don't already know. Have a trip upcoming and only reservation I could get at Story Book is for 8:35 PM for the one night I could even get an ADR ; given the rest of our plans it is too late for us. I kind of hope there will be some negative replies as I am a little torn if we should cancel if I cannot get a better time!

I also could only get a reservation after 8 pm. I feel like I'll probably be able to modify something earlier the day before, but I'm torn because I've read so many reviews that say how pretty it is once it gets dark. No way I'm cancelling though, I've been excited about a Snow White/Wicked Queen meal since the second I saw it.

 

[MinnieMSue]

Can a picky teen order chicken tenders? If not, no big deal. I just wanted to know if it could be an option.

Yes. Our waitress said she wanted us to enjoy our meals and that they would do anything possible to make sure we did. While my teen didn’t get chicken tenders (she wished she had in hindsight because she wasn’t a fan of the gnocchi) she could have. She did get the kids app and loved that. I honestly wished I had gotten the kids app because I really only liked the mushroom soup. The waitress did bring my daughter the adult apps and she tried the mushroom soup and loved it (darn it I was hoping to get hers too lol). She doesn’t like mushrooms. She loves shrimp but gagged at whatever they put on it. The waitress offered plain shrimp but she declined since she had the kids app. I liked the prime rib. I didn’t try her gnocchi. I got plain mashed potatoes with it instead of horseradish ones. The desserts were good though I wasn’t a fan of the cake - my teen ate that. She didn’t like the mousse apple so I ate hers too. The characters were pretty good. I had a great view of the queen from a distance and enjoyed watching her the whole meal. She was excellent. I would say it was worth the money (Not dining plan people) but probably wouldn’t repeat it. My daughter prob would like to go back. We enjoyed it but one and done for us.

 

[fairygagamother]

Although we didn’t really enjoy the food -must have been an off night- our 3 year old DGS was in heaven! As he was dressed as Dopey, he got a lot of extra attention, which may be why he still talks about it! The Queen was a little intimidating, but she doesn’t come to the tables. The setting was magic & I’m sure we’ll be back in the future.

 

[chinarider]

We are going in Sept and looking forward to trying it - for the food and experience. My question is when we think they might be changing out the seasonal offerings ( soup and anything else)- Hoping not to have the mushroom soup by the time Sept comes.

 

[sbd78]

Anyone know if there are other soups we can sub for the mushroom soup? We are not a mushroom loving family.

 

[Mango7100]

We just ate here 2 nights ago and really enjoyed it. The pork shank was excellent. The kids appetizer is very cute and big—they bring one of each app to the table per person, so our party of two adults and one kid got 3 of each app plus the kids app. I am not a mushroom fan usually, but I thought the soup was good

 

[mommycrawford]

The food is really yummy compared to a lot of Disney restaurants.

Specifically regarding a 3 year old, the only characters that come to the table are Snow white, Grumpy and Dopey, so in no way intimidating-the Queen has a permanent station by her mirror, so you can choose to see her or not. She does swoop into the dining room around tables to some fanfare, but your daughter will take cues from you as to whether that's a big deal or not.

When my DD was that age, she had not seen any of those movies either, and when we saw the Queen as the old crone in DHS (MGM then,) she said, "I want to take a picture with the old man." ...I would take a chance if you are on the dining plan. it is a good meal, and she may really love it.

 

[WawaCoffee]

This place seems to be hit-or-miss. Some people claim it was the worst meal they've had on Disney property. We are staying at Wilderness Lodge and would like to eat here on arrival day (to avoid entering any parks).. but after reading some of the reviews, we may just take a boat to the Contemporary for California Grill.