REVIEW: One of Our Favorite Buffet Restaurants in EPCOT Has CHANGED!

Planning a trip to Disney World and not sure where you should eat while you’re there? Luckily, you’ve come to the right place!

Here at AllEars, we know all the ins and outs of Disney World restaurants — including where you should definitely eat, and where you should skip. We recently stopped by Garden Grill in EPCOT, one of our favorite character dining meals, because we heard about a recent menu change, and are bringing you our full review!

Background

Garden Grill is located in EPCOT’s The Land pavilion and sits above the Living With the Land attraction. It’s a character dining family-style meal that allows you to meet Mickey, Pluto, and Chip & Dale at Chip and Dale’s Farmer’s Feast.

The majority of the food served is actually from The Land Pavilion itself, which is a big part of what you see on the Living With The Land attraction!

Atmosphere

What we really love about this restaurant is how open it is and that it moves around (very slowly!) in a circle as you dine, so you get to see different parts of the Living With The Land attraction!

The characters will come around to you while you dine, so be prepared to stop your meal for a second to wave hello and take a photo if you’d like.

But enough about that, what are we eating?!

Food & Drinks

For our drink, they have POG Juice (Passionfruit, Orange, and Guava) on the menu, and it was as delicious as always! This is so refreshing and is especially great on a hot day.

As for the appetizers, the salad was SO fresh and there wasn’t a piece of wilted lettuce in sight. The vinaigrette was also delicious and added a hint of tanginess that we adored. While we enjoyed the cornbread, it did feel a little overcooked and was a little dry. This typically isn’t the case with the cornbread here, so we do feel this was just a not-so-great batch.

For the main course, we particularly enjoyed the creamy mac and cheese. It’s not even close to the best we’ve had, but it’s picky-eater friendly and we think kids will be big fans.

On the platter, the steak with the chimichurri was very fresh and bright with a great cilantro flavor to it, but the steak was cooked more medium, so if you’d like it differently, that may be something you need to request ahead of time.

The garden mix of vegetables was crunchy, fresh, and flavorful, so much so that they really tasted like they came straight from the garden! The green beans were cooked al dente and were seasoned beautifully — they were the perfect mix of crunchy and soft, and we were big fans.

The turkey and gravy were pretty standard, nothing to write home about, but it wasn’t bad at all. The real star of this meal, though, are the mashed potatoes! These are delicious — thick and creamy, and we could honestly eat an entire skillet of them!

Now, the menu change here is the dessert: the Strawberry Shortcake. They’ve had this as their dessert for a while, but this is a new version of it. Unfortunately, though, we were a little disappointed. The cake itself is dry and needs more strawberry juice, and the strawberry slices themselves are too big for the spoon, so we wish they had been diced up more.

Overall, it’s not bad, but we do think it could be improved, and if you’re looking for a really great Strawberry Shortcake, head over to Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Revue!

Magic or Tragic?

This Disney World restaurant is a must-visit if…

• You love family-style dining and have pickier eaters
• You love meeting characters
• You would love to see the behind-the-scenes of a Disney World attraction

You should skip this Disney World spot if…

• You would like more breaks in between meeting characters, because these characters stop by a lot
• You’re not a fan of character meals
• You’re looking for more unique dining options

Overall, this is still one of our favorite restaurants in EPCOT, especially for families and those who love character meals, but we’re hoping that maybe the dessert will step up its game in the near future!

We want to hear YOUR thoughts! Leave a review right here on AllEars for the restaurants you’ve been to so you can help out fellow Disney lovers planning their next trip!

In the meantime, we’ll be on the lookout for more restaurant updates from Disney World and beyond. Make sure you stay tuned to AllEars for the latest Disney news and more!

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Have you eaten at this Disney World restaurant before? Tell us in the comments.

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