Tom and I are pretty big foodies, so during our Disney World holiday we decided to go for the Disney Dining Plan. We had the Quick Service version free with our hotel, but decided to upgrade to the regular one so we could get some table service meals included too. As a head's up, I actually love the Disney Dining Plan, and we definitely got our moneys worth on the trip, but it is a lot of food, as you'll see in this post!
We visited 11 table service restaurants during our trip (not including Victoria & Albert's, which won't be included in this ranking), and I've decided to rank them from worst to best, so if you're not sure where to make reservations for on your next trip this could help you out!
If I'm honest, there were a couple I was a little disappointed with, but because we were on the dining plan I didn't mind so much. It's definitely going to help in the future to make sure that if we are ever paying out of pocket, we don't end up at a restaurant we're disappointed with.
ALSO, I don't have photos for a couple of the restaurants we visited, just because I completely forgot! This was our holiday so I wasn't constantly thinking about photos, however I will still be ranking these restaurants.
So, on with the ranking!
This was the first table service restaurant we ate at on our holiday, and it was probably our least favourite of all of them. The food was ok, nothing inedible but just average. It was typical American junk food and I had better American junk food at some quick service locations! I also found a hair in my brownie here...not the best. For atmosphere, this restaurant would be higher up, because it is a fun
experience, but overall I probably wouldn't head back.
We had the classic character breakfast at Crystal Palace in the Magic Kingdom and if I'm totally honest, I only really made this reservation as a back up just in case we couldn't get some of our early morning shots that I had wanted to get on our first day. Luckily we had them all already, so I kind of wish we hadn't gone here. It's pretty much just your average breakfast buffet, the food is nothing to write home about. And although you're never too old for Disney, I feel like we were a little old for the character meets at this. It was very much for children and Tom and I aren't a huge fan of character meets anyway. Luckily we weren't paying because the price for this buffet is INSANE if you're paying out of pocket and we basically only had a plate of food each.
The food at Yak & Yeti was actually very good - huge portion sizes, as per, but the food was generally delicious. The only reason this is so low is because other restaurants were way better and also the service here was a little poor. Other than that, a good, solid restaurant. The chicken tikka masala was amazing (I only dipped into the sauce because I'm veggie!).
I actually really loved the food here! Some really delicious Mexican food in very generous portions. You also get a basket of tortilla chips to nibble on throughout the meal (try not to fill yourself up!). This restaurant also has a wonderful view of the Illuminations Fireworks, except I definitely booked our table too early so we didn't see them while eating anyway *facepalm*. I went for the fish tacos here and they were absolutely amazing!
Now, everybody raved about Ohana to me as a must-book restaurant on our trip, and although we did enjoy it, I would say it's not quite as good as everyone made out. The food was good but the portions here were overly big. That bowl in the photo above was for just two of us! Madness!
I will say that the cocktails are delicious and the famous pineapple bread pudding was worth booking the table for. Just make sure you turn up hungry, because you're gonna get a lot of food!
Now, this one was probably my biggest disappointment from the trip, just because I was looking forward to it so much. I booked California Grill for our final dinner and it was actually my favourite restaurant last time I visited! It's a signature restaurant, so two table service credits per person, and the experience we had just didn't live up to it. The biggest pull here is being able to watch the Magic Kingdom Fireworks from the restaurant, which was probably its only redeeming quality. To me, it just wasn't signature restaurant standard.
The service was very poor and slow - it took our waiter 20 minutes to take just our drinks order - and when the fireworks were about to start, we were told that the food would come out after the show so we could watch them, but the plates came out about a minute into the show! This meant that by the time the fireworks were done the food was cold. The food itself was also big, messy and just average. Compared to the other signature restaurants we visited, the standard was nowhere near.
For our final night, I wanted something so special and it just wasn't good enough really. I feel like this restaurant has become a bit too commercialised and busy and it just can't cope with the amount of people, which is such a shame as the standard used to be excellent. This would be lower if the fireworks weren't so good...
There are a fair few Italian restaurants in Disney World, but Via Napoli had the highest ratings so I chose this one. I can definitely see why! The food and service here were both outstanding and they served some of the best pizza I've tasted. It's classic Italian dishes, so you really can't go wrong here, even if you have picky eaters. The waiter was absolutely lovely and chatted to us the whole meal. I'd definitely recommend booking a table here.
It's notoriously hard to get a reservation here, but I was determined! Luckily we managed to snag one for dinner and by the time we visited they had changed from an a la carte menu to a three course fixed menu. I think there is definitely a lot of hype around this restaurant, mainly because you get to dine in the Beast's castle and meet the Beast, both of which are big pulls. I was afraid the food would suffer because of this but I was actually very impressed. I enjoyed all three courses and the atmosphere was wonderful. I think this is definitely a Disney Dining Bucket List location, but also once you've eaten here I don't think there's a pull to go back again and again.
Before I knew that Tom was going to propose to me here, I booked us breakfast at the Grand Floridian, as it's my favourite hotel and I wanted the chance to explore! We actually were there for the brunch menu, so there were options to have both normal lunch items and breakfast style items. Everything here was absolutely gorgeous and was probably the best breakfast we ate on the whole trip. The French toast was amazing!
This was the final signature restaurant we visited and 100% my favourite. Everything was outstanding and ironically, this was the only signature on our list that I'd actually heard negative things about! However, the food was amazing, the service was fantastic and I was so impressed. The food actually felt signature, well presented and well thought out. I would 100% come back here for our special meal next time rather than California Grill. You also get to dine along the Boardwalk, one of my favourite places in Disney.
Another place I'd actually visited before, I loved Teppan Edo the last time I visited and it definitely didn't disappoint on our return. Tom has always wanted to dine at a teppan yaki style restaurant so I made sure we dined here. If you don't know what that is, the chef basically cooks the whole meal on the table in front of you, so you get the entertainment of the cooking, as well as a delicious meal.
The food was absolutely incredible and every moment from start to finish was perfect. This was the only place that we tipped over what was recommended because we were so impressed by it. If you visit one place on your Disney holiday, definitely make it Teppan Edo! It was absolutely brilliant!
I hope you enjoyed reading my ranking of all the Disney World restaurants we visited! I'd love to know in the comments if you've visited any of these places before and if you had similar or different experiences to me! x
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