This year, for the first time, we were on a package deal that included the Disney dining plan. Thus our ID cards for the week were loaded up with credits for each day for one table service meal, one quick (self) service meal, and one snack. This worked out to be a fabulous deal, equating to well over $60 a day in food and drink if you chose the more expensive options. Those table service meals are a particularly good deal. On other visits, with main courses above $25 and desserts at $6 or more, we would limit our nights out to two or three. On the dining plan you can enjoy a nice restaurant every night. Here's the roundup, in my order of preference, of where we cashed in those credits.
Boma (at the Animal Kingdom Lodge) - from South African bobotie (meat pie) to Moroccan couscous, this buffet truly does offer the "flavours of Africa" promised on the restaurant's sign. Chefs don't compromise to accommodate the all-American crowd; there are plenty of rich and exotic spices here (don't miss the sambal chili sauce with the prime rib) and lots of stuff you've never seen before, though also enough basics to keep the unadventurous happy. I was particularly fond of the curried salmon, a cornmeal and spinach casserole and a lentil and sausage soup. The dessert buffet had an impressive range, the best option being zebra-striped domes filled with vanilla and chocolate mousse. The restaurant is located within the Animal Kingdom lodge, reeking with atmosphere that's augmented by a staff drawn from Botswana, South Africa and other African nations. There's even a fine South African wine list. I loved this place the first time I visited. Since then, I've been to Africa twice, and I can attest to the authenticity as well as the quality of the food. I don't think I'd ever want to visit Walt Disney World without eating here.Coral Reef (in the Living Seas attraction at Epcot) - Not quite as adventurous a seafood menu as you'd hope for in a restaurant whose primary feature is a giant artificial coral reef stretching behind the windows at its front, but still a fine selection. Members of our party tried all three of the main fish options ... mahi mahi, halibut and tuna ... and all were proclaimed to be well prepared with nicely complementing side dishes. The fish swimming by throughout the meal put on a captivating show and lend a blue-tinged, mellow atmosphere to the room.
Whispering Canyon Cafe (at Wilderness Lodge) - Great BBQ in a Ho-Down atmosphere. Most people seem to opt for the Whispering Canyon Skillet, which is an all-you-can-eat, family style service mix of pulled pork, pork ribs, beef brisket, chicken, beans, corn on the cob and baked beans. Oh, and there was a bit of salad there, but I wouldn't go recommending this place to anyone eating light. With better service this might have edged out Coral Reef. Where their fish was good but unexceptional, Whispering Canyon could make a go as a BBQ place without the Disney trappings. And they mixed a fine margarita. But it took us more than two and a half hours to eat, during which we found ourselves waiting on important stuff like BBQ sauce or utensils while our food got cold. Thus bumping the experience to No. 3.
Mickey's Backyard BBQ (at Wilderness Lodge campground) - This rates high for the experience rather than the food. The BBQ was similar to, but simpler and less flavourful than, Whispering Canyon. The effect, I suspect, of turning out industrial quantities for a buffet. Ribs, burgers and all the basic sides are available in the buffet lines, and dessert is helping yourself to freezers full of mouse ear shaped ice creams. Adults will appreciate the open bar with all you can drink beer and wine as part of the package. Which, frankly, seemed very important after several days of toddlers' screaming. The real draw here, though, is the show. Kids will love the characters, the trick roper and the goofy cowboy/cowgirl act running proceedings, while adults will appreciate that the country western band backing them up is actually extremely good. I defy you not to dance ... even if you can only get lucky with an 8-year-old.
Tutto Italia (at the Italian pavilion in Epcot) - The atmosphere is exactly like one of those fusty old dining establishments you find in Milan and Rome; drawn straight out of the early 20th century with a menu written in for the tourist rather than the native. I've never been impressed with this kind of place in Italy, and it's even worse here at Epcot. The food is decidedly average, the service creepingly slow, the noise levels disturbingly high. We booked the place as a nod to the Italian-heavy bloodlines of our group, but we really shouldn't have bothered. I suspect all of us could have done a lot better in our own kitchens.
Boatwrights Dining Hall (in the Port Orleans Resort, Riverside) - I love proper cajun food almost as much as I love Italian. This place, like Tutto Italia, is a disappointment because it doesn't live up to its ethnic promise. Flavours and spices have been stripped out and watered down. Had you billed the place as a generic American restaurant, I'd find its menu of fish, chicken and steak to be acceptable. But if you call it cajun, I want blackened fish that makes my mouth convulse in spicy joy. Mine was mild and the fish was overcooked. The Jambalaya was rice with a variety of meats mixed in, again missing the spice melange that should define this style. An average, serviceable meal, but not worth the trouble it takes to get to and from this resort.
Chef Mickey's (in the Contemporary Resort) - The least impressive of all the food we were offered, Chef Mickey's is a buffet with a very generic selection of stuff. A few salads followed by a
few lukewarm congealing pastas (yes, it's fun that the ravioli are shaped like Mickey Mouse, but when they're not fresh and stick together in glutinous lumps, who cares). The generic buffet trio of prime rib, dried out turkey and salmon. (The latter was the best.) The dessert buffet was the best part of the meal, but given Disney's proficiency with anything majoring on sugar, this isn't a surprise. But the reality is, you don't come to this one for the food. The point of Chef Mickey's is the characters circling the tables throughout your meal. Thus, without standing in all those lines while the kids get anxious, you get private photo opportunities with Mickey, Donald, Pluto, etc. And that, frankly, is probably worth one sub-standard meal. So, to be fair, if you have kids with you then both Chef Mickey's and the Backyard BBQ need to be in the top three.This list was assembled to please the palates and preferences of a group of 10, four of them under 10 and some of them not culinary adventurers. If I had it to do over again, and had I been with adults, the bottom of the list would have been dropped for more restaurants at Epcot. There's the Morrocan place, one of my old favourites. Chefs de France, which we've always skipped in the past because it was too expensive. And the Japanese pavilion restaurant, always skipped because I never seem to be at WDW with anyone who likes Japanese as much as I do. Inside the resort hotels I'm dying to try Jika, the upscale African place just across from the Boma buffet.
Looks like I have my work cut out for me on my next visit. And for now? I'm back to fish, salad and apples, trying to counter ... before Saturday's weigh in ... the fact that all those meals came with desserts. And I enjoyed every one, whether or not it was shaped like mouse ears.
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