On my next visit I have a Half Board Meal Plan therefore I would like to tour the restaurants especially as the main restaurants I experienced on my last visit, Rainforest Cafe and Planet Hollywood, aren't available within the plan.
What are your best and worst restaurant experiences. I am particularly interested in hearing your experience in the following restaurants, but if you've had a exceedingly good experience or a really distressing experience in a restaurant that isn't listed, I'll still listen.
Walts - An American Restaurant
Plaza Gardens Restaurant
Silver Spur Steakhouse
Blue Lagoon Restaurant
Agrabah Cafe
Restaurant des Stars
Cafe Mickey
The Steakhouse
Annette's Diner
La Grange at Billy Bob's
Last year, me and my husband went to Disney land for our honeymoon so we chose to go to some of the more expensive and romantic restaurants. ;)
We went to Blue lagoon on our first day and we both loved it! We both had a set menu (three courses) and we enjoyed it! The food was very tasty and as we both love fish and seafood there was a lot to choose from. They also serve other dishes but I never tried those so I don't know if they are just as good.
The atmosphere at Blue Lagoon is great. It really felt like we were on holiday on a tropical island. :)
The next day we ate at the Agrabah café. When we walked in, I was surprised by all the food! I didn't expect that much to choose from. Also I expected the food to be the standard "buffet food", but it looked, smelled and tasted like real Middle Eastern food. (not that I am an expert, but I've been to Turkey and Tunisia and I recognised some of the flavours and spices).
The restaurant looks really nice as well and had a very relaxed atmosphere. We are definitely going to eat there again on our next trip! :D
Best: Cafe Mickey
Worst: Plaza Gardens
Best: Inventions & Blue Lagoon
Worst: Toad Hall
Best - Inventions! We ate there on Valentines Day this year .... AMAZING! food was fab, character interaction was amazing for our little boy .... felt relaxed unlike the previous night at Cafe Mickey where in all honesty i felt like i was on a conveor belt.
2nd best - Annettes Diner - we absolutely love the food there, always leave with stuffed tummys!
Worst - Resturant des Stars - food wasnt that nice, often cold too
Best :
Food -> California Grill
Characters -> L'Auberge de Cendrillon
Worst:
well... none really, so far I haven't had a bad experience yet, food has generally been good, the service prompt and the atmosphere terrific. :)
Lot's of these comparisons are difficult as people are comparing full service restaurants with counter service.
For counter service I think Cowboy Cookout with its barbecue flavours and Hakuna Matata with African flavours are my favourite. The thing to remember is that all of the restaurants can be closed at various times depending on how busy the parks are! Least favourite would be Cafe Hyperion.
For the full service restaurants my current favourite is Chez Remy. I have eaten here twice and have found the food, ambience and service second to none. It seems so peaceful compared with the crowded atmosphere outside! I have always enjoyed Cafe Agrabah and never had a bad meal there. Walts has been good and bad over the years as has Blue Lagoon, indeed, where you sit in Blue Lagoon can really affect the atmosphere (Ask for a table on the beach!)
The place that I return to every visit for a good value meal is Earl of Sandwich, never overcrowded and the best value food in Disney Village in my opinion, shame it is not on the plan!
The only bad experience we've had so far with restaurants was on our last trip( 23-25 Nov), on our last day we had reservations for Cafe Mickey at 2pm, when the time approached, we walked all the way from the main park to the end of Disney Village to get there as quick as we could so we wouldn't be late, only for there to be a CM on the door saying "we couldn't be given a seat as there is no kitchen", we all had odd looks on our faces - I've never known a restaurant not to have a kitchen?! - we asked him to elaborate on what he meant, and he said the whole Cafe Mickey was closed due to technical problems with the kitchen. We then asked why no one had let us know - we had reservations after all, couldn't they have let our hotel(Newport Bay) know so they could let guests know or something? He apologised for the inconvenience, fair enough, but it annoyed us so much as we wasted precious park time just because no one could be bothered to let us know! >:(
We ended up at Annette's at the end - we couldn't of asked for a more amazing meal and friendly atmosphere, we loved it! We ate at The Steakhouse the previous night and the food/service there was brilliant too. It's a shame as Cafe Mickey was on our top list of restaurants to visit, and it's completely put us off booking there again. Has anyone else had this kind of problem? Or was me and my family just really unlucky that time? Intrigued to know! :)
Best: definitely Earl of Sandwich. Speedy service everytime we've been there. Food has always been delicious. Seriously, I cannot praise it enough. I love the packaging of the sandwiches. We've considered driving all the way to Paris just for a sandwich, they are that good!
Worst: I'm actually saddened to say this but: Au Chalet de Marionette. It's one of our favorite restaurants but service can be terrible. Staff don't speak English but that would be fine if they then tried to understand what you were saying. We needed cutlery for our chicken since we didn't get that with our meal, but they just shook their head and completely did not try to even help. Food is often cold, but mostly the staff are so incredibly rude.
Best: inventions, really friendly staff as well. Asked for a table with view on the castle which they tried to do as best as possible. I had higher expectations of the dessert, but overall the food was delicious.
Surprising: Hakuna Matata, big portions, and really good.
Worst: plaza, also this year they don't bring the drinks any more and you have to pick a table yourself. Weird. The day before plaza we ate inventions so the difference was way too big (but that is the price as well). We picked plaza because Walts was closed, so of course it was hard for plaza to keep up. But the food wasn't good, wasn't clean etc.
Not a big fan of Agrabah as well... but no way as bad as plaza.
During our visit in June, we had good experiences in Café Mickey (we did lunch) and Hakuna Matata (all 4 of us enjoyed it), not so great were Plaza Gardens (not worth the £££) and Casey's Corner (good, but pricey)
Best Food: California Grill
Best Character: Auberge de Cendrillon
Best Atmosphere: Blue Lagoon
Best Buffet: Inventions
I haven't had a worst yet in terms of official meals. We went for a quick burger in the studios which wasn't that nice but other than that.. no! I would deffo recommend the above options. Pricy but worth it.
Haven't had a real "bad" dinner experience in all my trips.
If I had to name one it would be the "Western Platter" meal at Billy Bobs. The chicken was dry and the ribs fatty.
But it only costs around €14 so it's kind of a steal in DLP terms. Would still go back if i was hungry and on a budget ;D
Best so far has to be "Bistrot Chéz Remy". The steak they serve is so tender, it almost melts in your mouth. The service is excellent. And the setting beautiful. It was a true "experience" to eat there. And you would almost forget you are eating in a theme park.
King Ludwig's castle surprised me in a positive way. I never liked the setting. The bar looks tacky, and the giftshop just isn't on Disney standard. But after reading so many positive reviews I gave it a go, and it was actually good. The menu is a nice variation from the burgers all other places offer. I had a Cesar salad and Charolais steak tartare (i like to live on the edge :P) and it was quite good. The 1L of Weißbier made a nice dessert :-[
For buffet style we always choose "Agrabah Café". We tend to go there on the last day of our stay when we're sick and tired of fries with everything. All you can eat Döner Kebab, Couscous and Baklava YUM!!!!
Interesting topic!
Best for me has to be Bistrot Chez Rémy. The steak is simply wonderful and the setting is great too.
My worst experience was in the Blue Lagoon. Our waiter was just really poor. Service was very slow and when we ordered two soft drinks, one of them was so full of ice that we only got around 15cl instead of 33cl and we had to call over a manager to get the rest of what is an expensive beverage.
Best restaurants: Blue Lagoon and Bistrot Chez Remy.
Worst: Agrabah Cafe - it gave me a dodgy stomach and made me unwell on my birthday. I usually have a strong stomach.
Plaza Gardens made my boyfriend unwell on our last trip.
Quote from: CitrusZing on January 04, 2015, 05:53:01 PM
Best restaurants: Blue Lagoon and Bistrot Chez Remy.
Worst: Agrabah Cafe - it gave me a dodgy stomach and made me unwell on my birthday. I usually have a strong stomach.
Plaza Gardens made my boyfriend unwell on our last trip.
How unwell was he? It's just I recently ate at the plaza gardens/reastarunt de stars I think it's called and ended up with food poisoning was extremely ill for 8 days all over Christmas. Definatley wouldn't do either again. I'm not sure wich caused it terrible experience :(
Best experience would be inventions :) fantastic setting great character interaction lovely food
Not long back & i have to say i'm surprised at the hate for Plaza Gardens. Me & my friend loved it. Loads to choose from & it was all hot so no complaints there.
For fast food the best place would be Pizzeria Bella Notte in Fantasyland, cheap & a decent sized pizza for the price.
Loved Annettes, massive portion & all the staff were so friendly.
Quote from: Mathierson24 on January 04, 2015, 10:31:10 PM
Not long back & i have to say i'm surprised at the hate for Plaza Gardens. Me & my friend loved it. Loads to choose from & it was all hot so no complaints there.
For fast food the best place would be Pizzeria Bella Notte in Fantasyland, cheap & a decent sized pizza for the price.
Loved Annettes, massive portion & all the staff were so friendly.
Glad you had a great time :)
I'll have to try Annette's because so many have said its great there!
I don't hate plaza gardens far from it I actually enjoyed the food and it was hot on my visit also. I'm not sure where I got the food poisoning from but it must of been whilst in Disneyland the doctors said the incubation period for the type I had was 2-5days after eating and it was 3 days after Symptoms started.
It may not have been the food itself being uncooked ect but because they are buffet style it would only take somebody to touch the food with the bacteria on their hands and then someone to injest it to become ill. So I won't blame any reastarunt for that.
Hope you enjoyed all the Christmas celebrations as much as we did :)
We didn't HATE Plaza Gardens, it was just very average as far as we were concerned, and wasn't average price. I'd read a few places how amazing it was, so was a bit disappointed.
Looking forward to trying Annette's when we visit in October though
I wasn't a member on this forum before I went last month so I went to the places having no expectations.
Was impressed by all as I said.
Quote from: littlebitofpixiedust on January 04, 2015, 09:54:32 PM
How unwell was he? It's just I recently ate at the plaza gardens/reastarunt de stars I think it's called and ended up with food poisoning was extremely ill for 8 days all over Christmas. Definatley wouldn't do either again. I'm not sure wich caused it terrible experience :(
Best experience would be inventions :) fantastic setting great character interaction lovely food
Thankfully he wasn't that bad. More dodgy stomach that food poisoning. The worrying thing was it was on our last day, we were worried that if we couldn't get home that day it would cost us rather a lot of money. Tesco Diarrhoea relief tablets saved the day though!
On a more positive and less yucky note, I can't wait to go to Inventions for dinner on the 11th of January. We paid to eat breakfast in there on one trip, but I've never had dinner in there. If the breakfast was anything to go buy, dinner should be amazing.
Quote from: CitrusZing on January 06, 2015, 12:35:22 PM
Quote from: littlebitofpixiedust on January 04, 2015, 09:54:32 PM
How unwell was he? It's just I recently ate at the plaza gardens/reastarunt de stars I think it's called and ended up with food poisoning was extremely ill for 8 days all over Christmas. Definatley wouldn't do either again. I'm not sure wich caused it terrible experience :(
Best experience would be inventions :) fantastic setting great character interaction lovely food
Thankfully he wasn't that bad. More dodgy stomach that food poisoning. The worrying thing was it was on our last day, we were worried that if we couldn't get home that day it would cost us rather a lot of money. Tesco Diarrhoea relief tablets saved the day though!
On a more positive and less yucky note, I can't wait to go to Inventions for dinner on the 11th of January. We paid to eat breakfast in there on one trip, but I've never had dinner in there. If the breakfast was anything to go buy, dinner should be amazing.
Luckily you went prepared! Not nice at all! I originally thought I had a bug but went doctors as I was quite poorly Christmas day at the hosp and boxing day and got my results. Defiantly going to be a little more cautious from now on.
Inventions breakfast and dinner I couldn't fault the selection is brilliant :) I was lucky enough to stay in the DLH once and I loved it. We actually ate at 2pm on our December visit earliest we've ever ate there but it was fully booked every evening. And it was fantastic at one point our table had the white rabbit, trigger and the penguin from Mary poppins all dancing round together it was so much fun the kids loved it. I recorded it. Make sure you have your camera ready!
Worst: Cafe Mickey. I am pretty sure that my daughter got food poisoning there. We had dinner with another family that popped in for the day from Paris (in other words, my kids and her kids spent no time together except for that particular meal, and didn't eat any other meal together that day or the day before). Early the next morning, my youngest daughter woke up at 6am vomiting, and shortly thereafter I got a call from my friend, whose son--the only kid out of the four who had eaten the same thing as my puking little girl--was also throwing up. We followed up with the restaurant and were told to make a report at the DLP first aid station, which I did. But clearly the lady didn't believe me and I'd be shocked if anything happened other than that report being thrown in the garbage as soon as we left.
I can't say that we have had a "best" dining experience at DLP. We actually live in France and the food at DLP and WDS is embarrassingly bad! This is France, home of some of the best food in the world: Disneyland Paris SHOULD have food that is better than any other Disney park anywhere.
But it's not. The last time I was at WDS I took the kids for a quick burger at the "Brown Derby"--and the counter guy accidentally spit on my fries (it was a "say it, don't spray it" situation--yuck!) right in front of me. Ewwww.
The Buzz Lightyear pizza place has pizza that I am pretty sure I recognize from the el cheapo bulk section at Auchan--but served practically cold. You can get higher quality frozen pizza in France at Picard, for approximately 3 euros for an entire frozen pizza. The 15-ish euros at BL is a huge ripoff even by theme park standards!
Even Auberge de Cendrillon--where I realize you are paying primarily for pictures with princesses and OH MY GOD my little girls were ECSTATIC and it was wonderful--has horrifically bad food. Again, the food they served the kids (pasta) is basically what you can get at Auchan or Carrefour in the refrigerated section. Which is fine, I do feed my kids that stuff at home. But not for DLP prices!
I know that I sound like a total grinch who cannot be satisfied, but that's just not true. I understand that at a theme park, restaurants have to turn out a lot of food quickly--it's basically an assembly line. That's kind of unavoidable. But I've visited both Disneyland in Anaheim and Walt Disney World, and the food there is not only less expensive, it is less uniformly terrible. I LOVE Disneyland Paris and my kids think that it is heaven! But if a visitor asks me where to eat when they go there, if they have anything other than a one-day ticket, I would advise them to either go to Planet Hollywood (which is not exactly gourmet, but the quality is head and shoulders above the Disney-owned restaurants) or if they have the time and the inclination, to snack (at most) at DLP and then get on the RER and go elsewhere for dinner.
It really shouldn't be this way. This is France!!!!
Best: Cafe Mickey
Worst: Plaza Gardens
I prefer Cafe Mickey to Auberge and Inventions. Annette's is also a personal favourite but I love a good burger. Chez Remy is good for young children but as adults it closed far too early so we were eating at like 4pm rather than our usual 9pm.
I can't help feeling that the burgers they serve in the park are related to the Quick burger fastfood chain restaurants.
If you've ever eten at a Quick you'll probably know what I mean.
Personally I really like buffet style restaurants like Plaza Gardens and Agrabah Cafe. As opossite to some of the reactions I've read here, I think these buffet style restaurants serve a nice array of food, always in good quality.
As a burger fan, I never skip a trip to DLP without visiting Annette's Diner. Do they sell the best burgers in the world? No, but it's a big step up from most fast food chains and the interior is just great.
I also really liked Walt's Gourmet Burger at Walt's, until I learned they put foie gras on it. Why do they still serve this product?
Last but not least, The Blue Lagoon. When it comes to interior, Blue Lagoon might be a winner, but I surely think that the food is being overhyped. My wife is a fan of steaks, but she didn't think it was that great. I'm more of a burger lover, so my opinion is of non existence here. ;)
I think the reason I disliked Plaza Gardens was because it was crazy busy and that made it unpleasant - I'm never a buffet fan though, its all too cold and I like my food piping hot (I'm known as asbestos mouth as I drink tea and coffee as soon as the kettles boiled).
Best restaurant was Cafe Mickey hands down! We had had a week of rugby scrums to see characters so we tried here and while it was expensive and the food wasn't the best in the world the price was totally worth it for the character interaction and the amount of characters we saw.
The worst was Toad Hall. The queues were massive. It was extremely slow and other guests were extremely rude. Like to the point where I asked a lady who looked like she was ready to leave if she was going, she said yes so i stood waiting for her to get her things together and the second she got up another lady sat at the table even though it was very obvious that I was waiting. We ended up walking out and not eating there at all due to the behaviour in the place!
My personal favourites are the pizzeria bella notte and casey's. I have not really had a "bad" meal but on my very first trip in August '98 I visited cafe hyperion in discoveryland - it was very hot and I ended up eating outside and getting attacked by wasps so that was a bit unpleasant but the food was okay although the doughnut which I had as dessert was horrible.
I must say I have never had any problems at Toad Hall -yes it does get very busy and is quite small (especially if the weather is bad and you can't sit outside) but I have never had any issues with the staff, maybe I've just got lucky.
TTFN
I don't really have a "best" experience: I enjoy almost all restaurants. The worst was definitely during our Halloween-stay a week ago when my wife received almost frozen pasta at Colonel Hathi's Pizza Place and upon requesting warm(er) pasta ended up having quite the lengthy argument with the woman at the counter.
Since we're talking about best and worst restaurant experiences here, I'd like to refer back to an article by Disneyland Paris, which was published in June: http://disneylandparis-news.com/en/food-beverages-things-are-changing-back-in-the-kitchens-at-disneyland-paris/ (http://disneylandparis-news.com/en/food-beverages-things-are-changing-back-in-the-kitchens-at-disneyland-paris/)
In this article I noticed the following quote:
QuoteWith time the teams want to set up "signature" products for the buffets in each of the restaurants, in order to differentiate them from one another. The key word is once again variety, and the products will change various times a week. There will be less fried food, more fresh products, seafood and salad bars. Change is in the air and quality is always the objective. Faouzi also hopes to improve the experience in the restaurants, with animation and interaction, a carving board to slice freshly roasted meats, cold cuts, woks and pasta cookers, open kitchens: in short, elements that turn catering into a real show. "In the coming two years we are going to push our current food offer to a totally different level" Faouzi Miloud concludes with a smile, visibly very enthusiastic and determined to turn this ambitious project into a reality.
This is all sounds very promosing, cause there's still room for a lot of improvement when it comes to dining at Disneyland Paris.
Has anyone already noticed one of those improvements?
Quote from: Remco K. on October 28, 2015, 10:31:28 AM
Has anyone already noticed one of those improvements?
I read there are some changes in Plaza Gardens. We'll be in the restaurant on 2nd of December and will report after that. Can't wait to see the chocolate fontain.
Best without an inch of doubt in my mind, Inventions.
Thankfully haven't had a worst yet!
Quote from: Remco K. on October 21, 2015, 08:22:29 PM
Personally I really like buffet style restaurants like Plaza Gardens and Agrabah Cafe. As opossite to some of the reactions I've read here, I think these buffet style restaurants serve a nice array of food, always in good quality.
As a burger fan, I never skip a trip to DLP without visiting Annette's Diner. Do they sell the best burgers in the world? No, but it's a big step up from most fast food chains and the interior is just great.
I also really liked Walt's Gourmet Burger at Walt's, until I learned they put foie gras on it. Why do they still serve this product?
Last but not least, The Blue Lagoon. When it comes to interior, Blue Lagoon might be a winner, but I surely think that the food is being overhyped. My wife is a fan of steaks, but she didn't think it was that great. I'm more of a burger lover, so my opinion is of non existence here. ;)
Had to reply, not sure why that's in Walts Gourmet burger I didn't even know what it was. Until of course I opened up the bun and I had to ask and then I was told I simply took it out and ate the burger! Still French law maybe different I know it's banned in many places. The king ludwigs burger is yummy! So if your a burger fan try.
I'm eager to try Annette's on our next visit when we tried on our last the que was so long we never did fingers crossed not so busy on our upcoming trip as I hear such great things.
Last week we ate at: Hunters Grill, Auberge De Cendrillon, Hakuna Matata, Bistrot Chez Remy, Colonel Hathi's, Restaurant en Coulisse, Café Mickey and Chalet au Marionette. We'd not eaten at all of them before and can't say that any were particularly bad. Chez Remy was possibly our favourite
Decided to give Plaza Gardens one more try last week... Wished we hadn't! Food was nice but the atmosphere and service is just terrible. Choose your drink at the door and wait nearly an hour (and three requests) for them to arrive. No chance of a refill. Moved from our first table as we had too many bags...! Queues were enormous and the server behind the desserts counter told my husband one square of cake per person when he'd gone up for a selection for all four of us.
Crammed in like sardines, everyone looking miserable, couldn't wait to get out of there!
Was at Sequoia Lodge for me birthday in September with my five kids. As they are all hungry teenagers, we went for Premium half board....and had mostly excellent experiences. Our first night was at Inventions and was our overall favourite. The restaurant is well- themed, with great views (despite the current scaffolding woes) and the food on the buffet line was fresh and tasty. The shrimp and crab were excellent and there was lots of choice. Our waitress was lovely and quite attentive. But the best thing was the character interactions. We met 10 characters!!! It was so fun and not rushed at all. We got cute photos and autographs from each.cand all this despite the fact we were an "all adult" table (ages 17 up to my 50 years!). Everyone waited for the characters to come to their table, so there was no pushing or fussing. Really, I can't stand the typical crowded crush of the in-park meet and greets. If you can stand the cost, I HIGHLY recommend splurging on a dinner buffet at Inventions. It was the high point of our trip. Not that the Auberge de Cendrillon was bad...but the food was not as good and there were only six characters on offer...and they were a bit more rushed, as the Princesses are so sought after by the children. Which is cute, of course !
We also ate at Hunter's Lodge at our hotel. It was a nice buffet. Perfectly nice for a calm evening after a long day out.
My kids loved the spicy fries at Hakuna Matata,too. Fun snack!
The best by far was Inventions! I loved it! Food was great and characters had time for everyone. Spent ages in there and didn't feel at all rushed.
Auberge de Cendrillon was the worse - but probably because the food wasn't to our taste. Not really nice at all.