Is Garden Grill Worth It?

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I feel that this particular restaurant for many at Disney World is hit or miss and the reasons for this theory are numerous. We have eaten there three times before and to be honest this was a restaurant that we agreed was one we would like to keep in our rotation but not one to do every trip to Disney. We like to try new restaurants when we go every year. Well in June of 2017 we were planning a very large vacation with my parents and my best friend's family. We had 10 people going to Disney World together. A large party right? A large party at Disney should be a nightmare but that was not the case with Disney. So it should not be surprising that Disney handled our party easily. 6 adults and 4 children. The children's ages were in the range of 5 through 8. Two boys and two girls. My husband and I had the two boys, at the time their ages were 8 and 5. My best friend and her husband had the two girls, at the time their ages were 6 and 7.

It was their first trip to Disney World and we knew that there were a few restaurants that we had to try because of the characters. We were trying to maximize their character take home by doing a lot of character dining. We always try to hit some of the usual restaurants with our favorite characters. Crystal Palace with Winnie the Pooh and Friends. O'hana with Stitch and Company. Hollywood and Vine to Play and Dine with Disney Jr. Friends. A normal one that is not on our routine because we have boys is Akershus but we did breakfast with the Princesses for the little Princesses we had with us. We hit as many characters as we possibly could during this trip.

However, this particular character dining experience really takes the cake for us. We had ended up with a bit of a late reservation but living in Central Time Zone having an 8:05 reservation was not a big deal to us as it was 7:05 to our brains still. The restaurant was still taking people in on their reservations but around 8:30 I noticed that fewer and few new guests were coming through to be seated.

Now I didn't think this was weird after all IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth starts at 9 pm. While I enjoy the evening show that Epcot offers  We saw Chip and Dale and had great fun with them and of course, they were soon followed by Mickey and Pluto. In such a short amount of time, we had already seen all four characters. Now usually you would think that this would be the end of it. We would eat our food and be on our way. Well with 10 people four of which were children who got excited every time the characters came by it took a bit to get them to sit still and eat but the characters interact with each and every one of them every time they passed by. Taps on the head. Kisses. Selfies with parents.

Is the food to die for? In my opinion, I think it's good food. Is it the OH MY GOD IT'S THE BEST FOOD I HAVE EVER EATEN kind of food? No, it isn't but you know what it's good food. It's filling food and the only thing I missed that they did not have on the menu when we were there are the sweet potato fries. I could eat my weight in those things not that I would encourage that. I wouldn't but I will say I miss those fries and Disney if you see this post and you have not brought them back by the time I go again please hear my plea and add them back to Garden Grill.

What I highly encourage for this particular restaurant is the character interaction. So if you are looking for a restaurant with excellent character interaction this is a restaurant I highly recommend. I do recommend if your little ones can wait for a slightly later dinner time that a late reservation time around 8:00 pm is a good choice. The characters can stay around longer. And if they end of gaggling as the night starts to end then things I have to say get pretty interesting. Chip and Dale 'fighting' over who talked more or who was the silliest was the highlight of the kids' night. Or seeing Mickey give Pluto a scratch behind the ear was a magical moment for the kids. It is not often that you get to see two characters interact together.

This moment was one that we all enjoyed even if Dale tried to take off with my child's chair... with my child still in it. The kids all thought that was funny. Everyone has their own opinions of this restaurant. As I stated at the very beginning of this post that this restaurant is hit or miss with some people. For us, it was a hit and we do plan on doing this restaurant again.