A Round of Fun: Dining at The Garden Grill Restaurant at Epcot

On your way to Soarin’, in the Land Pavilion, you may have noticed The Garden Grill Restaurant on the upper floor. It’s actually the only rotating restaurant in Walt Disney World! It takes about an hour for this circular restaurant to make a full rotation and on your round trip you’ll see inside the Land Pavilion, a decorative flower wall mural with a hard to find hidden mickey and a scene from the Living with the Land boat ride. Me and my boyfriend stumbled upon this eatery on a whim when we decided to dine last minute at Epcot for dinner. It was one of the few restaurants that had availability so we gave it a shot and really enjoyed it.

Food at The Garden Grill is served family style meaning that you don’t order what you’d like to eat but instead a little of everything is brought to your table. You can then ask your server for more of what you like if you want. It’s unlimited and is $35.99 per adult. This is my favorite way to dine because it’s like a buffet because you can choose what you want on your plate but better because everything is always fresh and you don’t have to get up. (Lazy ;))

Garden Grill Restaurant is also a character meal so in addition to food coming to your table, so will these guys. Two words: Farmer. Mickey. The characters were a lot of fun here and spent a generous amount of time at each table. I actually was never interested in seeing characters (rides! more rides!) until I started eating at character meals recently. It’s a fun little dining bonus for me but can be a great time saver for you if you would normally take park time out to wait for characters.

Let’s talk food. Though everything was decently tasty I’m not going to write home about it. The items on the menu from bread to dessert in the image above is what was brought to the table. You have your selection of beef, poultry and fish and sides including mashed potatoes, veggies and stuffing but they don’t offer as many options as other family style restaurants like, for example, ‘Ohana. (Note: If you haven’t eaten at ‘Ohana book your reservation before reading on. It’s my #1 Disney World restaurant.) The maple butter was kind of just butter with maple syrup on it and the salad was a wee bit bland. I stuck with the char-grilled filet of beef, mashed potatoes and the vegetables. The beef was tasty. The potatoes were super yummy but the veggies were cut really small. I did try a taste of the tilapia and it had a yummy seasoning but I’m not really into fish. The desserts were just ok. The cupcake in a cone was just that and the Harvest Skillet cake was cake with fruit and whipped cream. My boyfriend is less particular than me and liked all of the food.

 

 

 

If you dine at the Garden Grill Restaurant don’t forget to seek out this hidden Mickey. It’s on the flower wall mural on the left. It’s an odd shape, not your typical three circle mouse. Mickey is facing right.

 

 

 

 

Overall, I recommend the Garden Grill Restaurant. What it lacks in deliciousness it makes up for in atmosphere. Yay characters and I mean–hello–you’re dining inside a ride. Our server provided excellent, Disney caliber service and really put on a little show for us, making our dining experience that much more enjoyable. (Ask for Ellyn.) The rotating factor is cool too and don’t worry it’s so slow you can’t feel it.