With the opening of his beloved Disneyland, Walt Disney radically changed the experience of going to an amusement park. Florida’s vast Walt Disney World upped the ante with multiple parks, hotels, shopping districts and more, and changed the notion of what it means to go on vacation.
Many visitors, however, gobble up the same nondescript fast food typically found at traditional amusement parks. Not that there’s anything wrong with hamburgers or chicken tenders. But you are missing out on some extraordinary restaurants at the resort and the opportunity to make your vacation more memorable.
But, as with everything else in the gigantic complex, there are plenty of dining options. Between the hotels, theme parks, water parks, Disney Springs and the Boardwalk area, there are more than 400 restaurants. How could anyone narrow down so many restaurants to a more manageable list of the best options? That is a difficult task. As theme park fans, we spend a lot of time at Disney World. But we’ve barely made a dent in trying all the restaurants.
That’s why we enlist the expert help of Lyn Dowling, a Florida resident, a veteran restaurant critic for Florida Today and a frequent visitor to Walt Disney World. After countless meals and reflections, you’ve narrowed down the resort’s huge collection of restaurants and selected your best options to share with us.
Please note that reservations are highly recommended for table service restaurants, whether they are in Disney Springs, the parks, hotels, or elsewhere. It’s especially true for most of our top picks, which are generally quite popular and in high demand. Reservations can be made up to six months in advance. Get the information you’ll need to make advance reservations at Disney World restaurants.
Sometimes (usually out of season), Disney offers limited-time deals that include hotel and park ticket packages with free meals. Are they good deals? They can be. Learn more about free Disney World dinners.
Whether you’re planning a fancy meal, wanting to grab a quick bite to eat before traveling to Mars at Mission: SPACE at Epcot, or anything else during your visit to Disney World, you are sure to find restaurants to please your taste buds as well as your wallet with these selections.
Disney World’s 11 Best Table-Service Restaurants
Let’s start our culinary tour with the best table service restaurants in the resort. These include all theme parks and hotels, but not Disney Springs (which has so many places to eat, it has its own category below). Because they generally cost more money and take longer, as customers tend to stay longer, you will likely want to limit your meals to table service. But with these selections, a tasty treat awaits.
Top picks include California Grill at Disney’s Contemporary Resort, Flying Fish at Disney’s Boardwalk, and Be Our Guest at New Fantasyland at Magic Kingdom. The full list of Disney World’s best table service restaurants includes all the satisfying spots.
None of the restaurants on the list offer opportunities to meet Mickey Mouse or his friends. But character dining is a very popular option at the resort. Learn more about Disney World Character Dining.
None of the selections are buffets, which are not, exactly, table-service restaurants. (They are not quick service either). However, Disney World has great buffets and they can be great options. The best buffet, in our opinion, is Boma – Flavors of Africa at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge.
Boma offers all-you-can-eat food that can be surprisingly exotic and incredibly delicious. It includes African specialties as well as less adventurous American dishes. It’s one of our favorite restaurants anywhere , let alone Disney World. The cost is high ($ 30 to $ 60 per adult).
Disney World’s 11 Best Quick-Service Restaurants
At Disney World’s quick-service restaurants, customers order their food at a cashier or counter and bring their meals to a table. Fast doesn’t necessarily mean conventional fast food fare (although there is plenty of that available if that’s what you and your group are looking for). In fact, some of the quick-service selections offer surprisingly creative dishes.
Satu’li Canteen, Pandora’s restaurant – The World of Avatar at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, for example, offers scones, bean bowls, and an out-of-this-world blueberry cream cheese mousse dessert. Other restaurants include Katsura Grill at Epcot’s Japan Pavilion and Columbia Harbor House on Liberty Square in Magic Kingdom. The comprehensive roundup of the resort’s best quick-service restaurants will give you plenty of options for your next visit.
To help make quick-service meals even faster, you can use Disney World’s mobile ordering feature. Allows guests to pre-order meals using the My Disney Experience app on mobile devices.
Top 10 Disney Springs Restaurants
Disney World doubled the size of the old Downtown Disney and renamed it Disney Springs in 2015. Now it’s so huge in its own right and has so many places to dine that we’ve created a separate list that focuses on its best restaurants.
The list includes both table service and quick service restaurants. Options include Raglan Road for its wonderful Irish food and libations, Enzo’s Hideaway for its fresh atmosphere and Italian cuisine, and Morimoto Asia Street Food for its chicken ramen, octopus fritters and other tempting delicacies.
Disney World’s 10 Best Snacks and Desserts
When people go on vacation, they tend to throw their healthy eating aspirations to the wind. Unsurprisingly, Disney World has plenty of tempting treats for you to temporarily ditch your diet (and indulge your taste buds).
Among the best options are the chocolate croissants at Epcot’s Les Halles Boulangerie & Patisserie, the popular Mickey ice cream bars (available at several locations), and (of course) the Dole Whip pineapple whip at Adventureland in the Magic Kingdom. The full list of Disney World’s best sandwiches and desserts has many more options.
