As the parent of a fussy eater, I can understand the fear that grips parents as they prepare to make their Disney dining reservations.
“What if we can’t get booked in the place that serves the only thing on the menu he will eat? Or what if they change the menu?”
But try not to worry. Disney World, as you’d expect, is chock-full of family-friendly restaurants. Almost all the eateries have kids’ menus – and even if they don’t serve your little one’s favourite food, they will often do something they will eat (even if that’s just fries). Given that most of us won’t be staying longer than a fortnight, your child will survive, even if what they’re living off isn’t the most nutritious. And all that delicious food may even broaden their horizons a little. If not, it’s a lot easier to ask your kids “do you want to try some?” and watch them turn their noses up when it’s food you haven’t spent hours cooking.
Most places will find a plate of chips for your child, if they won’t eat anything else, but we found a few restaurants that were fries-free – the otherwise excellent Living Seas was one of those. Disney children’s menus are making an admirable effort to be a little more healthy – which is really great for parents whose kids will eat most things… but because that doesn’t apply to every child, we think it’s important they remain flexible.
If your child is celebrating a birthday, be sure to inform the restaurant of this – especially if you’re doing character dining. Restaurants can vary in terms of the level of fuss they put on but we have seen in some excellent birthdays at Chef Mickey’s, which is located in Disney’s Contemporary Resort, where staff will sing and bring you a little cupcake.
Disney operates a slightly complex policy on dining for under-threes: basically, your child can share what is classed as a “quick service” meal (so not formal dining) from your plate and can eat from a buffet for free, but if you order anything specifically for them, you would pay for that.
Although menus state the children’s options are for under-nines only, most venues will allow older children (and, indeed adults) to order from the children’s menu – you just need to check with their policy on that before you order.
Anyway, here are five dining destinations we think your kids will love:
Akershus Royal Banquet Hall
Possibly the first question your kids will ask is where can you go to eat alongside Disney characters. Character dining is a big thrill for children (not to mention adults), as it holds the tantalising prospect of fist-bumps with Tigger or a photo with Belle as she glides around the tables. There are several great venues for character dining, including Chef Mickey’s and The Crystal Palace but one of our favourites is the Akershus, in Epcot’s Norway pavilion. In our view, it works for kids because it offers a family-style menu, meaning there are lots of options for any fussy little Disney diners. At breakfast, you’ll find pastries, scrambled eggs, waffles, fruit, bacon and sausages, as well as some vegan alternatives. At lunch and dinner, we found meatballs, salmon, macaroni cheese and mashed potatoes, with veggies including red cabbage and beans. The staff were really helpful and happy to discuss alternative options and food allergies. And the princesses (we saw Belle, Jasmine and Ariel) were lovely and happy to pose for photographs. Aurora, Tiana, Cinderella and Snow White often make an appearance too. Character dining is not cheap – our top tip, if you want to do it with little ones, is to go for breakfast… in our experience they will be more alert and are likely to eat a bit more!
Space 220
This fabulous Epcot dining experience only touched down in 2021 but it’s already become a firm favourite among Disney fans, thanks to that winning Disney combination of take-your-breath-away theming and superb quality. You step into a lift (or rocket) and watch yourself “blast off” away from Planet Earth and up to your dining experience. Once up there, you sit alongside a window that stretches the length of the room, where you can watch planets and spacecraft float by – a feature children absolutely love. This experience is pricey, but it makes for a fantastic treat. For an adult, the price of three courses is just shy of $80, not including drinks. There is a great range of tasty food for small space explorers, including fried chicken, salmon and burgers with space fries.
Rainforest Cafe AND T-Rex
These two restaurants are both run by Landry’s Inc, a Houston-based company and we really like them for different reasons. You can find the Rainforest Cafe at two sites at Walt Disney World (the Animal Kingdom and Disney Springs) and it’s also, incidentally, in the Disney Village in Paris. Both restaurants are themed to the max – we probably prefer the atmosphere at Rainforest, where you’re surrounded by leafy jungle and the animatronic wildlife to match, as well as a simmering volcano and regular tropical storms, which seem to bring the gorillas and elephants to life. But, on our last visit to Disney, we had the best service of the whole holiday at Disney World at T-Rex, where the waitress was lovely with our young family. T-Rex, as you’d expect, has a prehistoric theme with animatronic dinosaurs. Both have hugely family-friendly menus and loads of choice. You can also ask to sit near the entrance if you’re worried your child might find the thunder/ dinosaurs a little overwhelming.
Columbia Harbour House
This New England-themed lunch/ light dining venue doesn’t have an extensive menu for children but we think what they do serve works. We’ve noticed Disney has run a little short of tasty casual dining options in recent years, with some fabulous snack and formal dining venues but little in between. Harbour House, located in the Magic Kingdom’s Liberty Square, is still going strong though. You can sit both indoors and in a nice, shaded outside area where – if you time it right – you can catch the afternoon parade. Children can choose from options like salmon and chicken strips, as well as fries or green beans and there are strawberry yoghurts for dessert. You’ll find other decent light dining options in the Magic Kingdom at Casey’s Corner on Main Street (hot dogs), Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Cafe in Tomorrowland (chicken strips and macaroni cheese) and Pinocchio Village Haus (pizza, breadsticks and sandwiches).
Paddlefish
Located in Disney Springs, this restaurant – situated within a steamboat (don’t worry, it doesn’t go sailing off anywhere) offers a good balance between appetising food for adults and sufficient options for children. Again, it’s on the pricey side but, provided you don’t go for the filet mignon, it is possible to pick more budget-friendly options from the menu. There is also a decent selection for children – hot dogs, cheeseburgers, chicken fingers with fries and chicken linguine.
I should say that my son was pressing me to add the Rose and Crown from Epcot’s UK pavilion to this list. I have resisted, mainly because its menu is so limited… and its starter options of Coronation salad with a “madras dressing” or a Scotch egg might well make you question my sanity. But he wants it on here because it has fish and chips on the menu… quite a rarity, as you’ll imagine, in Florida. It’s not as good as the fish supper you’d get from your favourite UK takeaway (of course not) but you can sit outside on the decking next to the lake at Epcot, which is lovely. So if you and your kids are fans of fish and chips (and ours clearly is), it might be worth a shout.
