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With hundreds of Walt Disney World restaurants it can be tough to pick the best ones for your family vacation.
With over 1,000 visits to Disney World, our family has dined at every restaurant. Many times over!
We share the worst Disney World restaurants at Walt Disney World in Orlando. These are all table service locations (often called sit down dining). These restaurants are all on the Disney Dining Plan. These are the worst restaurants at Magic Kingdom, Disney’s Animal Kingdom, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, Epcot, Disney Springs, and Disney Resorts.
In our opinion, these are the ones you want to skip.
Worst Disney World Restaurants
Disney World has a ton of wonderful dining experiences for your vacation. There’s a few, though, that you can just skip. For various reasons (which we’ll explain), these Disney dining experiences just don’t live up to the Disney difference you’ve come to expect.
We only included Disney World restaurants that are either located in the parks or resorts, not Disney Springs. We’ll save those for another post. So, let’s get started.
‘Ohana at Disney’s Polynesian Resort
That’s right. I said it. ‘Ohana. The most popular restaurant in all of Disney World. Now, I’m not speaking of the Ohana dinner. I’m only referring to the ‘Ohana Character Breakfast.
As we recently learned, Disney is “trying out” a new/different option for the Stitch character meet & greet for this character breakfast. Rather than waiting at your table for the characters to come to you, for Stitch, you have to wait in a line to see him and get your picture. Check out our video of this character dining experience, below to learn more.
For us, this is a deal breaker. Character breakfasts at Disney World cost a lot of money and can be difficult to get on your list of reservations. You go to a character breakfast to meet with the characters….at your table. I can wait in a line for a character meet & greet in the parks. I pay (a lot) extra to have a character breakfast with the characters.
Sorry, Disney, take this “test” elsewhere.
For Disney World character breakfast, we recommend you try Cape May at Disney’s Yacht Club & Beach Club Resort, 1900 Park Fare at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort, Chef Mickey’s at Disney’s Contemporary Resort, or Tusker House at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Park. These are four of our favorite breakfast experiences with Disney Characters. All of these restaurants do require dining reservations.
Cinderella’s Royal Table at Magic Kingdom
Another eatery that you’re probably shocked to see on this list, Cinderella’s Royal Table.
This restaurant is almost impossible to get a reservation. Once you get one, after getting up at the crack of dawn and calling on every phone you own, you get about 30 seconds (total) with the princesses and have the privilege of eating sub-par food.
But hey, you do get to eat in Cinderella Castle.
For dining with the Disney Princesses, we recommend 1900 Park Fare at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort for dinner or breakfast at Akershus Royal Banquet Hall in Norway in World Showcase at Epcot. Another fun option is a quick service restaurant called Be Our Guest Restaurant in Fantasyland at Epcot. You dine inside Beast’s castle, so this is a fun opportunity to dine in a castle.
Skipper Canteen at Magic Kingdom
We were very excited for Skipper Canteen to open. A mix between a Jungle Cruise (Jungle Navigation Co. Ltd) and Adventurer’s Club theme make this one of the best themed Walt Disney World restaurants.
Unfortunately, the food leaves a LOT to be desired and it’s pretty pricey.
First off, the options for kids are EXTREMELY limited. Not good for today’s picky kid eaters.
The options include grilled fish (not fish sticks, like most kids are used to), chicken noodle soup, a flank steak (what kid do you know that eats flank steak), chicken (not nuggets or tenders), and mac and cheese. Don’t get confused, either. This is not the standard kid-tested mac and cheese that most of Disney serves.
That mac and cheese has not been touched. Yep. Three broccoli florets and a little bowl of weird tasting mac and cheese. Even I thought it tasted weird. All for the low, low price of $10.00.
As for adults, the best “meal” we had was the appetizer we ordered, S.E.A Shu Mai. “A legendary blend of Pork, Shrimp, Edamame Beans, and Spices wrapped in Gyoza Skin then steamed.” Basically, pot stickers.
Oh, yes. That’s it. While good, you can see the 5 stickers we get for $11.00.
We tried three different entrees, just to try to get a taste of more of the menu.
Dad (I) got the Perkins Thai Noodles. “Chicken, Tofu, Seasonal Vegetables, and Rice Noodles tossed in a Spicy Soy-Chili-Garlic Sauce. A favorite of our friend Pamelia Perkins, President of the Adventurers Club.” Sounds great, doesn’t it? It actually was quite tasty, but it was essentially ramen noodle soup with some chicken and tofu thrown in.
Oh, did I mention that bowl of $0.50 ramen noodles cost me $22.00?
My son got the “Hardy Har Char” Siu Pork. “Char Siu-marinated Pork served with Seasonal Vegetables and Jasmine Rice.” He ate 2 bites. I tried it. Kind of tasted like a seasoned and grilled sole of your shoe.
For his two bites of shoe leather pork, we had the pleasure of paying $24.00.
My wife got the “Tastes like Chicken” – Because it is! A steal at $24.00. Don’t you think?
It wasn’t bad. It wasn’t $24.00 good, either. I mean, it’s chicken. How badly can you mess it up? But it’s also just chicken (and a pretty small piece, at that).
We have been back several times since we initially wrote this review, just to give it a few more opportunities to improve. Nope, we would still keep it on our worst Disney World restaurants list.
With all of the other amazing dining opportunities at Disney World, I would skip Skipper Canteen and book another location.
Teppan Edo at Epcot
This one is a tough one for our family. Our son loves Japan, so we dine here a lot (even though it makes our worst Disney World restaurants list).
If you’ve never been to a teppanyaki restaurant…ever….in your life, you could waste a sit down dining experience at Teppan Edo. You would enjoy it.
Teppan Edo is not bad, it’s just not the best. In the world outside the Walt Disney World Resort, Teppan Edo would be an average (at best) Japanese teppanyaki restaurant. So, why am I going to pay Disney prices for this average food experience, just because in Disney World?
It is in a cool location and the decor is unique, with the tables inside little dining rooms.
It’s just a little ho-hum, for me. Oh, and the topper, for me, was that you don’t even get that amazingly awesome teppanyaki soup that you get in the outside world. I know, I know, it’s a little thing, but it’s my thing and I love it and I wanted to know why I didn’t get it! Harrumph!
We prefer to go to Tokyo Dining Room (right next to Teppan Edo). You get a beautiful view of the Epcot Forever (evening fireworks) and the food is excellent. Must better tasting than Teppan Edo.
Restaurant Marrakesh at Epcot
I find it interesting that one of my favorite Disney World restaurants (Spice Road Table) is in the same country pavilion as my least favorite Disney World Restaurant, Marrakesh.
Really, this one just boils down to the food. Unusual flavors and unusual food options that just don’t taste good. Spice Road Table has unusual flavors and food options, but they taste good.
I suppose, if you really like Middle Eastern food, this might be a top pick for you. For us, there’s just too many better options with Disney Dining like across the path to Spice Road Table.
We have a few more Worst Disney World Restaurants that made our honorable mention list. These restaurants include Mama Melrose at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, Paradiso at Disney Springs, Tony’s Town Square on Main Street USA at Magic Kingdom, Hollywood & Vine at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, Rainforest Cafe at Disney Springs and Disney’s Animal Kingdom, Grand Floridian Cafe at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort, and Boma at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge.
These are all good Disney World restaurants, but with over 100 restaurant options . . . don’t you want to pick the BEST! 😀
Best Disney World Restaurants
​We did not want to leave you without more recommendations of the best Disney World restaurants. Some of our favorite Disney World Restaurants include:
- Whispering Canyon Cafe at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge Resort for BBQ
- Sanaa at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge for View of the Savanna (with live animals)
- Coral Reef at Epcot for View of The Seas (with live marine life)
- Kona Cafe at Disney’s Polynesian Resort for Breakfast
- Liberty Tree Tavern at Magic Kingdom for Thanksgiving everyday!
- Chef Art Smith’s Homecomin for Southern Cooking
- The Boathouse for Spectacular Sunsets
- Narcoossee’s for Beautiful Views of Seven Seas Lagoon and Happily Ever After Fireworks & Great Seafood
- Planet Hollywood for Crazy Milkshakes
- Jikos at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge for Best Steak Ever!
- Olivias for Florida Keys Dining
- ‘Ohanas at Disney’s Polynesian Resort for Dinner
- Prime Time Cafe at Disney’s Hollywood Studios for a Fun Atmosphere (You eat in cars in a drive in theater setting)
- Spice Road Table in Morocco at Epcot for Great Food & View of Epcot
All of the Disney Theme Park restaurants do require admission into the park to dine at the restaurants. You will want to keep that in mind when booking your reservations.
What’s your list of worst restaurants at Walt Disney World in Florida? Did they make our list? Let us know in the comments.
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