How Do You Decide? About This Page:

[revral]

Okay. I'm reading the menus & reviews of ts restaurants & quite frankly my head spinning. Other than a few places that I know I want try to because of what I've read/heard, I've got no clue as to where I want to eat. I've got 10 ts credits to use & 3 places I know I want to eat at. Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How do you decide when you've never been there before? Oh & suggestions are welcome.
PS. I'm not a seafood person.

[Goofy'sGal]

On my first trip, I made my ADRs based on where I planned to be, any character experiences we wanted to try and what tastes and budgets fit our family. If you know you'll be in MK for a particular evening, look at tableservice places in the parks as well as the resorts in the MK area (easy to get to by monorail or boat/bus). Same goes for Epcot. Will you be shopping in DTD? Then add a meal there. What resort are you staying at - perhaps there's a meal to be had there. Are you celebrating anything special or want to meet a particular character? Look at special restaurants, dinner shows and character meals that fit into your day. Another great tip that we're using on our upcoming trip - we like to take advantage of the early EMHs at the parks so we can get a lot done with minimal crowds. While we're there in Nov, we miss out on early EMH at AK (one of our favorite parks). I made an early ADR at Donald's Breakfastosaurus in AK so that we'll still get into the park early and have a bit of fun to start our day as well.

I don't know if that helped at all! LOL Sometimes I peruse the menus on Allears or read up on the reviews in my Passporter and wait for some place to "speak" to me! LOL We'll be returning in April and I'll actually be there for my bdy and I just can't decide where to eat that night - do I want a fun family night (probably) or a nicer fine dining experience? So even after 7 family trips, I still have a hard time deciding! Good luck and have fun planning!

[iamgrumpy]

I don't really read reviews as everything is subjective to that person's experience then you read bad ones and then good ones it does make your head spin.

I basically look at the menus of everywhere there is and go on what looks good to my tastes and go with an open mind. If its bad then i don't go back if its good i might go back if its great I will definately return again.

I plan things based on what park or plans we have and usually have at least 1 new restuarant on a trip if not more.

[AzureHaven]

All I know is I always end up second guessing myself and wondering of I should change my ADR's. For sure I am never able to eat at all the places I would like in one trip (or 8 for that matter). I usually just figure what I don't do this time I will get to next time. And I agree with previous poster, you can't really go completely by reviews. Too many variables when it comes to a dining experience.
Good luck and have fun deciding.

[Teresa]

I usually look at the days I want to be in each park, then go from there.
I try to schedule a bkst. that is close by or in the park, then I go for a late dinner based on which park has EMH that evening (my family is night owls, and we love to be in EPCOT and MK and MGM until Midnight!)

We do have a rule that every one must try something new at least once a day. That makes it easier. One of the things that I do is think about what I can't get at home. I'll do a steak house, but temper it with Norway or Morocco or something like it.

[duck addict]

I read the menus on allearsnet.com to see what is served. This is followed by fellow passporters opinions [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

[Aminspired]

For lunches I usually plan by what parks I will be in that day, evenings I usually pick my parks around where want to eat!

[coastgirl]

There are also some pictures at allearsnet, http://www.allearsnet.com/din/gall_res.htm I find that can help a little too, what looks interesting.

We had the most fun at the character meals, but we were travelling with two little kids. I found the reviews here pretty accurate; favourites are favourites usually with good reason. I was somewhat disappointed by the ethnic places in Epcot in particular, found the flavours of the places we tried a little too homogenized for my tastes, though we never had a problem with quality. My personal favourite was Boma.

Good luck--isn't it a lovely dilemma to have? [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[Karen L]

We also check the menus to make sure there will be something that appeals to everyone. We usually want to try a couple of new places each visit. Even if the reviews are bad, we'll try it if we're interested in it. Good luck planning & have a great trip! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[masonsmousermom]

I also found this site to be helpful. It has a lot of pictures of menu items.
http://www.intercot.com/infocentral/...os/default.asp

And this site is also good:
http://www.wdwfood.com/gallery/album...lbumListPage=1

I don't know if you will be traveling alone or with others, but it always helps to ask other travelers to look at the menus and/or the pictures and tell you their opinions.

There are so many good restaurants in WDW, you can't go wrong. And not doing them all gives you a reason to go back soon!

[tndisneyfam]

We are a funny bunch because we hardly try any restaurants that are new at WDW. We love our favorites so much that we cannot skip them to try something new. BUT, this Dec we are trying 1900 Park fare for the first time because DD loves Mary Poppins. We added an extra day to our original plan to do it. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Darcie

[chezp]

On our first trip together to WDW, we chose restaurants in a number of ways:

1) I wanted a couple of meals with my favourite donkey, so we booked those up.

2) We booked a meal at the main restaurant at the resort we were staying at, as we felt we had to try that out.

3) We talked about it and discussed places we fancied trying at each park, looked up menus and reviews and picked one that we thought would suit both our tastes - I need some non-meat options somewhere. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

From that, we got a few options together, although to be honest, it wasn't until we got there that we realised what a wonderful selection of restaurants awaited us. We booked quite a few meals while we were out there, although of course in those days, pre-dining plan, it was very easy to do that. What we did decide was to make more of the dining on our subsequent trips, which is what we've done ever since.

The way I'd do it is pick a table service place in each of the main parks, maybe Animal Kingdom excluded, as they're a bit light on the ground for table service restaurants [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] then pick a place at Downtown Disney and maybe one at your own resort or another resort you really want to visit.

To use up your credits, you could always include a signature restaurant that requires two credits or if you're struggling to decide, how about two restaurants at Epcot or maybe one at the Boardwalk or one of the hotels around there? There's a myriad of table service choices in the Epcot resort area and most of them are excellent.

I hope that helps - you've had some excellent advice already and if you want to know more about any specific table service restaurant, then just ask - we'd be more than happy to help! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/082502yes_prv.gif[/img]

[angiek1024]

We have alot of places that we love and it is still hard for us to decide where to eat after many trips. I definitely would look at the menus and pick which places had food that is more suitable to your tastes. Reviews are personal reviews but I tend to steer away from places that constantly receive bad reviews. Some of our favorites are based on the food alone but some are based on the food/atmosphere (like the character meals).

Some of our favorites are:

Le Cellier
Kona Cafe
Ohana's
Boma (breakfast and dinner)
Liberty Tree
Sci Fi Dine In

Good luck choosing! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[HakunaMatata]

Like Darcie, we have a hard time fitting in new restaurants, as we have so many "must-do" restaurants from the past.

New for us on the last trip were 1900 Park Fare, Sci-Fi Diner, and WCC, all of which we loved, and would visit again (but we will try to fit in some new ones!) [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/082502yes_prv.gif[/img]

Have fun choosing! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[jimmymac]

I base out ADRs on what park we're going to in that day. Usually do dinner at the parks, with 1 dinner at the resort or in the resort area. Lunch is usually on the go