Epcot’s Garden Grill Restaurant

[BradyBzLyn...Mo 2,023]

From the Disney Food blog...

Review: Epcot’s Garden Grill Restaurant

Mar 25th, 2012 by AJ.

Based on a previous guest review of this restaurant, I couldn’t wait to go try it out!

Now, to be fair, it’s not as though I’d never been to the Garden Grill Restaurant before… Well, that’s not entirely true. Before this visit, I hadn’t been to the current incarnation of the restaurant. In fact, back in the 80’s, I went to The Land Grille Room, which was what the restaurant was called before its renovation into the Garden Grill Restaurant. (Check out my friend Andy’s creation of a recipe from The Land Grille Room here!

Born as the Good Turn Restaurant and then morphed into The Land Grille Room, this restaurant has had many personalities (my memories include dark red booths and full-blown sculptures of Mickey Mouse made out of butter). Today, it’s a family-style character dinner featuring Chip, Dale, Mickey, and Pluto!

Garden Grill

Atmosphere

Perhaps the most impressive attribute boasted by Garden Grill is that it’s a rotating restaurant. That’s right — you go around in circles while you’re eating!

But don’t worry; this isn’t as though you’re having dinner on the Teacups. The restaurant rotates s-l-o-w-l-y during your meal, allowing views of the different scenes from the Living With the Land ride taking place below the restaurant.

There are two seating styles in the restaurant, and…listen up — it makes a BIG difference where you sit. I know I’m picky about seating, but in this case, I strongly suggest that you request a semi-circular booth on the lower level of the restaurant.

Seating

This isn’t just for comfort’s sake (though the cushioned booths ARE more comfortable than the hard chairs at the tables). The booths give you an unobstructed view of the scenes you’re passing by from the ride below, and the high backs also drown out some of the clattering noise from around the restaurant.

That said, if you’re dining with several kiddos who will want to climb out of the booth to see the characters as they walk by, be sure to put the kids on the outside seats!

Table

Sadly, we were seated at a table. (I can promise you that I’ll be requesting a booth from now until eternity.) But how can you be upset for long when you see this cute table-setting? Clearly this is meant to remind you of a certain mouse you might have heard of?

Table Setting

But more on the characters later! First of all, let’s look at the view! The ride below travels through different outdoor scenes showing how plants grow in many different climates and weather. While you dine, you’ll rotate through scenes that include a desert, a prairie, and even a rainforest!

Views from the Rotating Restaurant

Prairie View

Rainforest View

One of my favorite scenes includes this farmhouse. I love that they included a view into the windows from the restaurant side of the “set.”

Farmhouse View

Inside Farmhouse Windows

There are even fresh strawberries and eggs being harvested (and a fire alarm on the rock??).

Farmhouse Strawberries

So there’s definitely lots to look at as you’re rotating through your meal!

Characters

But that’s not all you’ll have to steal your attention! This location has been a character meal for quite some time, now, and is the only place where you can have your photo taken with Farmer Mickey!

Mickey

But don’t forget Pluto! He’s eager to share whatever table scraps you may have!

Pluto

Of course, Chip and Dale are the hosts for this “Harvest Feast,” but that doesn’t make them any less of a troublemaking duo! When we were there, Dale got his hands on a Donald Duck beak toy and hilarity ensued.

So once you’re all tired out from the fun, it’s time to tackle the food!!!

Eats

As I mentioned above, the food here at Garden Grill is served family style. This means that you don’t really get much choice about what you eat, but you can have as much of it as you want!

Menu Cover

Check out the “organically grown” wines!

Menu - click image for larger version

We started out with what I consider to be one of the true stars of the meal — these rolls with maple butter. The butter is super-sweet, so if you’re not a fan of flavored butters, be sure to ask for some regular butter as well.

Rolls and Maple Butter

Personally, I dug right in. The rolls were soft and warm, the butter was easily spreadable, and the taste was out of this world. Granted, I’d had a long day and was very hungry, but still.

Honey Butter

The salad is a winner for many guests as well. It’s a “harvest-inspired” salad, which means you may get different ingredients depending on what’s in season. Perhaps some of the veggies are pulled directly from The Land’s hydroponic plants downstairs!

Salad

The main courses include Turkey with lemon caper sauce and artisan bread pudding, Mahi Mahi with roasted tomato and pepper compote and fresh vegetables, and filet of beef with red wine butter and buttermilk mashed potatoes.

The turkey was good, but I wasn’t impressed with the overall flavor of the meat, sauce, and bread pudding. I would have preferred a saltier or more savory sauce over the lemon caper version.

Turkey, Mahi Mahi, and Beef

My favorite here was the beef with red wine butter and potatoes. Very flavorful and not overdone! I’m used to meat being overdone at family-style meals, so this was a nice surprise. I just wish we’d had more. By the time our server got around to bringing us a second serving, we were ready to leave the restaurant.

Beef and Potatoes

The mahi mahi was flaky and fresh. It didn’t taste at all fishy, and was quite refreshing with the veggies.

Mahi-Mahi

Dessert at the Grill is a fresh fruit cobbler, which can change seasonally. Ours included a variety of berries, including raspberries and blueberries.

While I’m usually not a huge fan of “bready” cobblers, this was delicious!

Berry Cobbler

The one minus in this dish is that I wish it had been served with ice cream instead of just whipped cream (though the whipped cream was delicious and added a lot of good flavor).

Inside of Berry Cobbler

Our server also dropped off one of the kids’ red velvet ladybug desserts! This included cream cheese frosting decorations!! Yum…

Red Velvet Ladybug Kids' Dessert

Overall

I think Garden Grill has a LOT going for it. As a character meal and a rotating restaurant, your kids will be in heaven, let’s be honest. And the views of the ride scenes below is very cool for those of us who grew up going to The Land when we were kids.

I also always enjoy character meals that don’t force me to head to a buffet constantly, potentially missing my time with the characters.

The food isn’t spectacular, but it’s better than average for a family style restaurant (or even in comparison to many buffet restaurants). We were very pleased with the special touches made to the menu to make it stand out as a bit more high end than one would expect (red wine butter? nice touch!).

The cost at around $35 for adults and $17 for kids may sound high outside of Disney World, but it’s actually pretty moderate for a restaurant inside the big purple gates — especially when it’s a character meal that’s all-you-care-to-eat. Plus, it’s ROTATING!! Come on. Your inner kid HAS to love that.

http://www.disneyfoo...ill-restaurant/

[DaveInTN 3,247]

I had no idea that place was a character meal. Never paid any attention to it.

[mouseketab.....Carol 1,261]

Yum!!! It sounds like the kids dessert has changed, for some reason I remember worms and dirt the last time we ate there.

[alexwyattmommy 181]

It was a build your own mess for the kids last time we were there. And it was catfish on the menu. That catfish was soooo good.

I'm not thinking we will be back this time around. The kids are already too old for character meals and without the catfish, they won't go.

[mouseketab.....Carol 1,261]

It was a build your own mess for the kids last time we were there. And it was catfish on the menu. That catfish was soooo good.

I'm not thinking we will be back this time around. The kids are already too old for character meals and without the catfish, they won't go.

Too old for character meals!!!! NEVER!!!! I'm old, and I'm not too old for character meals!!!

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

Too old for character meals!!!! NEVER!!!! I'm old, and I'm not too old for character meals!!!

Me neither, and I'm older than Carol!

[Retired & Tired (Judy) 90]

One is never too old for Disney characters. We will have to try this on our next trip.

[J&J Adventuring..Julia 22]

I remember eating there when it was non character. They had the best Chicken Fajitas. We are planning on trying this in June or October.

[BradyBzLyn...Mo 2,023]

Please do report back what you find. This is another place we've never tried because the reviews have been all over the place.

Love to get some first-hand FIEND-back.

And photos of course...

[alexwyattmommy 181]

:rofl2: Yes, they think they are too old.

Me, I want to do breakfast and dinner at the Grand Floridian. I need to see Alice and the step sisters. Preferably on the same day, but DH doesn't want to spend that kind of $$ on buffets.

[we3peas 12]

We ate here when DD was young. I liked it because we went at a slow time and there were no screaming kids! It was a very relaxing meal and she still got to see the characters too, but we were able to eat where most of the other places the focus is really on the meet and greet.