Saturday, June 10, 2017

The Garden Grill Breakfast - Epcot

This morning, my daughters and I had breakfast at The Garden Grill in The Land Pavilion at Epcot.


Four years ago, we had dinner at The Garden Grill, but did not enjoy it enough to return.  You can read my dinner review here.


The Garden Grill features an all-you-care-to-enjoy, family-style character dining experience for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  The restaurant rotates, offering views of Living with the Land as you dine.  The allergy-friendly menu I was given covers gluten/wheat, milk, and peanut/tree nut allergies. 


Right after we were seated, we were visited by Mickey, Pluto, and Chip.  Dale stopped by after we were done eating.  My daughters do not like character meals, because in their minds, they are too old at age 12 for pictures with characters, so I let them take a few pictures of me instead.


My Chip 'n' Dale's Harvest Feast started with the house juice blend of orange, passion fruit and guava, but there were other complimentary beverages to choose from.


While I ate an Udi's blueberry muffin, my gluten-eating daughters dug into their Chip's sticky bun bake, the part of our breakfast they enjoyed the most.  My muffin was heated well, but it would have been much better with some butter, but I was not able to find our server before I was done eating it.


We were all disappointed in the fruit.  For the price we paid for our breakfast this morning, I expected something better than a bowl full of melons we don't eat, topped with blueberries and some pretty sad looking strawberries.  One of my daughters commented that it was the worst fruit ever.  The strawberries seemed very old, and I have never enjoyed fruit with added sugar.


I was brought my own breakfast skilled with scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, hash brown-style potato barrels, and gluten free Mickey waffles.


The potato barrels were good, but they needed some salt, which was nowhere to be found on our table.  I also enjoyed the eggs and sausage, which I dipped in syrup, because bacon and sausage should always be dipped in syrup.  Trust me, if you have not eaten your breakfast meats this way, give it a try, but I warn you, there is no going back once you have gone over to the syrup side.


The menu at The Garden Grill advertises thick-slice bacon, which was definitely not what we got.  Don't get me wrong, I love bacon in any form, but was disappointed I did not get thick-sliced.  The Mickey waffles were perfectly light and crispy, and I am pretty sure they were made with Namaste Waffle & Pancake Mix, which I much prefer to the waffles made with Bob's Red Mill on Disney property.


I also liked the warm chocolate hazelnut drizzle served with our waffles.  I would have loved some fresh strawberries, minus the sugar, to eat on top of my waffles with the chocolate sauce.


Overall, we had a good dining experience at The Garden Grill, but I plan on canceling the reservations I made for breakfast there in November.  My daughters, who for pricing purposes count as adults, did not eat anything close to $32.00 worth of food, and they do not enjoy character dining.

Our favorite character meal is still Tusker House in Disney's Animal Kingdom, which in my opinion, has the best food, atmosphere, and characters.  For a buffet breakfast, my top pick is Boma at Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge, which is less expensive, because there are no characters.

You can read more about The Garden Grill, view their menus, and make advance dining reservations on Disney's website here.

What are your favorite character meals at Disney World?



2 comments:

  1. In light of this experience (and my personal allergy issues which further exclude the waffles and pork), can you recommend another food place for Epcot days? Amanda Y.

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    1. Amanda, for what meal? It might be easier to message me on my Facebook page, which has the same name as this blog.

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