Best Character Meals at Disney World
Character breakfasts are a great way to start a day at Walt Disney World, and dinners a good way to end it. We’ve done character dining experiences at restaurants in all of the parks and several hotels, with mixed results. Some we’ve loved, others have felt like a rip-off. In this post, we’ll share our favorite character meals. (Updated December 1, 2023.)
Our favorite character meals make the list for a variety of reasons. In a couple of cases, we’re swayed heavily by the unique outfits of Minnie & Mickey Mouse that you can’t find elsewhere. Other meals have especially unique settings or are known for particularly good character interactions.
Finally, some have far superior cuisine choices as compared to other restaurants. When it comes to character meals, the food is pretty important to us. Some character meals have notoriously bad food, which gives the distinct impression that you’re simply paying to meet characters. That’s fine for some people, but we have qualms with it. The good news is that things are getting better!
Since reopening, Walt Disney World has very slowly been restoring character dining experiences. When these meals first returned at all, many went from being buffets to prix fixe or family-style feasts. Some came back entirely without characters, others had fur characters that greeted guests from a distance while none had face characters.
Fast-forward a few years, and things are mostly back to normal. Princess meals are back, as are buffets. A few menus have changed and prices have gone up across the board, but that’s nothing out of the ordinary. Unfortunately, there are a few very high-profile character meals that still have not returned–including a couple that previously topped this list.
We had been waiting to refresh this until those returned, but at this point, who knows whether that’ll ever happen. Accordingly, we’re updating this for Late 2023 based on our most recent experiences with character meals at Walt Disney World.
For the flip side of this post, see our companion post: Worst Character Meals at Walt Disney World. Not everyone agrees with our choices there, so be sure to read the comments for different perspectives. Some of you agreed with our choices, many of you disagreed, and a few felt it was a personal affront that we would dare list your favorites among our least favorites.
As always, we welcome respectful and constructive disagreement with any post here. We’re hardly definitive authorities, and reasonable minds may vary on a lot. Our hope is to offer a helpful resource and one perspective about these character meals–but we can only offer reviews and feedback based on our personal experiences, and of course those can differ from what you have experienced.
There is also the caveat that the very nature of buffets (which is what most character meals are) at Walt Disney World is hit-or-miss. Buffet food quality is in large part dependent upon how long your food has been sitting under the heat lamp. Nevertheless, some restaurants have objectively better food choices on their buffets, so we think it’s still possible to rank them.
Now that we’ve explained a bit of our “methodology” for choosing our list of the best character meals at Walt Disney World, let’s discuss the choices…
Breakfast à la Art at Topolino’s Terrace – The newest character meal at Walt Disney World is also the best breakfast–and close to the best character dining experience, period. The full name of this is a mouthful: Breakfast à la Art with Mickey & Friends at Topolino’s Terrace — Flavors of the Riviera.
Located on the rooftop of Disney’s Riviera Resort, Topolino’s Terrace is a great venue for a character meal. Thanks to the spectacular views, airy atmosphere, elegant design, chic character costumes, and an ambitious menu, Breakfast à la Art with Mickey & Friends definitely feels like the most upscale character meal.
Story Book Dining at Artist Point – This character meal features Snow White, Evil Queen, Dopey, and Grumpy and is located in Wilderness Lodge. Story Book Dining at Artist Point is the best character dining experience at Walt Disney World if you’re judging primarily based upon food quality.
We’ve dined here several times since it debuted, and we’ve also had a consistently high-caliber experience. Unlike many meals, Artist Point isn’t trying to turn over tables as quickly as possible, so you generally get more time with the characters. That means better interactions, photos, and just a better overall experience.
The Artist Point menu is far more ambitious and inventive than anything other character dining experience, but that’s unsurprising given that this used to be a Signature Restaurant. The prix fixe menu is mostly very good, and a great option for those wanting quality over the quantity found on a buffet. When paying out of pocket, Artist Point is a solid choice for Snow White fans.
What’s interesting to us is how polarizing Story Book Dining is. If you read the comments here, you’ll see that a lot of Walt Disney World fans are not fans of this restaurant. We strongly disagree, but feel that it’s only fair to point out that not everyone shares our rosey opinion of this restaurant.
We also need to issue another ‘warning’ of sorts. On the 2024 Disney Dining Plan, Story Book Dining at Artist Point will become a 2-credit table service restaurant on the Disney Dining Plan (DDP). This makes it an objectively poor use of DDP credits. That was not the case before, when Artist Point was a 1-credit restaurant on the DDP and the #1 value as a result. That is no longer the case as of 2024–the opposite is now true due to the doubling of credits required.
Cinderella’s Royal Table – For princess lovers, Cinderella’s Royal Table is the character dining experience at Walt Disney World. Located inside Cinderella Castle at Magic Kingdom, Cinderella’s Royal Table is a rite-of-passage experience…and one that is priced accordingly! Because of that, it becomes almost impossible to assess this meal. It’s the type of thing your kids will talk about for months afterwards, and it leaves an indelible impression…with a price tag to match.
In that regard, it’s a lot like Chef Mickey’s–an iconic experience with bottomless demand that could get away with low quality at high prices. Unlike that, Cinderella’s Royal Table is surprisingly good, with cuisine that’s near fine dining caliber (probably the best food quality in Magic Kingdom, or close to it). The atmosphere is also excellent. Beyond the lavish and regal setting, it’s not as loud and chaotic as you might expect given the target audience. Whether it’s overpriced is subjective; for many young kids, eating inside a castle with royalty is a priceless experience.
Akershus Royal Banquet Hall (Dinner Only) – Located in the Norway pavilion at EPCOT, this character dining experience is housed inside a fortress-slash-castle, but it doesn’t look like a castle in the same way that Cinderella Castle does. So this is very much a “consolation prize” from that perspective.
That doesn’t mean Akershus is bad, though. Far from it. At least, at dinner. While we’d strongly recommend that princess-lovers prioritize Cinderella’s Royal Table, if you want a second in-park princess meal, Akershus is no slouch. The lunch/dinner menu is head and shoulders above the (weak) breakfast menu, and is a fantastic overall experience. It’s almost as expensive as Cinderella’s Royal Table and not nearly as memorable, but it’s still top tier.
(As with Story Book Dining at Artist Point, Akershus also now requires 2-credits on the 2024 Disney Dining Plan for lunch and dinner. Accordingly, it is also now a poor use of credits. It’s still only 1-credit for breakfast and a better value as a result…but a worse experience. So pick you poison, we guess!)
Minnie’s Seasonal Dine at Hollywood & Vine – Our meal and overall experience at Minnie’s Holiday Dine was one of our best character meals ever at Walt Disney World. More recently, we did Minnie’s Halloween Dine, and also loved that. In fact, we enjoyed both so much that we view these as potential alternatives to Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party and Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party if your priority is meeting characters at a fun seasonal event.
At both meals, the character interactions were head and shoulders above anything else we’ve been a part of at Walt Disney World. The costumes are also incredible–far better than what you’ll find at the hard ticket events, in fact. We also appreciated that the characters had fun moments together between tables for everyone to witness–this made it more of a communal experience, and more than just your typical ‘pose for a picture’ greeting.
Then there was the buffet itself, which had a wide selection of cuisine. It was definitely not in the realm of Boma or Tusker House in terms of ambitiousness, but the quality was on nearly the same level for several entree and dessert items. If you’re looking for good comfort foods, you really can’t go wrong with Minnie’s Seasonal Dines at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. The only real downside is price, but that’s no worry if you’re on the Disney Dining Plan. (It’ll be one of the top values on the 2024 DDP since it’s still only 1-credit!)
Cape May Cafe – Minnie’s Beach Bash is the character breakfast at Cape May Cafe, and it’s perfectly fitting for Disney’s Beach Club Resort. It’s also one of two nostalgia choices on this list. Cape May Cafe was one of our first character meals as adults, and we also enjoyed this breakfast on our honeymoon. (As such, we might be just a little biased and sentimental about Cape May Cafe!)
We love Cape May Cafe because it is fairly low-key and laid back by Walt Disney World character breakfast standards. Minnie’s Beach Bash has great breakfast food variety, fun costumes for characters we like. Despite being better than Chef Mickey’s or ‘Ohana, it’s never as busy as either of those, and we’ve had great success with the character experiences here.
Garden Grill Restaurant — Chip ‘n’ Dale’s Harvest Feast dinner is one of our favorite character meals for a few different reasons. First, you’ve got some great character costumes with Farmer Mickey Mouse, Chip, Dale, and Pluto.
Second, the setting itself is iconic–an EPCOT Center gem for old school fans like us. Not only is it a rotating restaurant in The Land pavilion in Epcot’s Future World, but it also offers views into the Livin’ with the Land attraction. That’s huge and would give the restaurant a lot of appeal even without characters.
Then there’s the family style dinner, serving pot roast, turkey breast, carved pork, mashed potatoes, mac & cheese, and berry short cake. Some people might lament the lack of diversity among these dishes or having fewer choices than buffets, but we feel the quality and consistency are higher here, so it’s a mostly fair trade-off.
Tusker House – When it comes to the intersection of cuisine quality and quantity, Tusker House is the best character meal at Walt Disney World. This is like “Boma-Lite” on the cuisine front for lunch and dinner, which is about the highest possible praise for character dining since Boma is the best buffet at Walt Disney World–and one of the top meals, period.
Since this is character dining that appeals primarily to families, Walt Disney World wisely offers standard options in addition to the more adventurous African foods. It’s a pretty healthy split between safe choices and ambitious ones, meaning everyone leaves happy here. This is a huge distinction as compared character meals, which are overwhelmingly unadventurous.
If that’s not enough, Tusker House also has some of the best character outfits for Donald’s Safari meals, and the value for money offered here is much better than most character meals. For all of those reasons, this ranks as our top overall character meal at Walt Disney World. Tusker House really offers something for everyone.
1900 Park Fare (Temporarily Unavailable) – For a long time, this was one of the more under-the-radar character dining experiences at Walt Disney World. Even though 1900 Park Fare is located within walking distance from Magic Kingdom at the flagship Grand Floridian Resort, it never had the same popularity as Chef Mickey’s or even ‘Ohana.
However, 1900 Park Fare really shines. The characters are top-notch, with some highly amusing and fun interactions (we normally aren’t huge on face characters, but Alice and Mad Hatter were wonderful and didn’t just blow past us). The food is also exceptional, with a robust buffet that included several high-quality and unique options. The cuisine is actually so good that I think it would’ve been “worth it” even if there were no characters at this meal–a rarity for character dining, in our experience.
Bon Voyage Adventure at Trattoria al Forno (Temporarily Unavailable) – Another of the newer character breakfasts at Walt Disney World also remains unavailable over 3 years after reopening. Our expectation and hope is that it’ll be back in 2024, especially with the Disney Dining Plan driving more demand for character meals.
This is another instance of a character breakfast living up to the hype, and Bon Voyage exceeded our expectations. The prix fixe menu features a couple of ambitious entrees that are far superior to what you’d find on a buffet, and are incredibly filling. That plus the fun interactions and nice atmosphere makes Bon Voyage a real winner–arguably the best character breakfast at Walt Disney World! (On the lunch and dinner front, we’d put it behind a couple other restaurants on this list.)
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Your Thoughts
Do you agree or disagree with our best-of list for Walt Disney World character dining? Any restaurants you’d add–or remove–from this list? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing feedback about your experiences is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
The Bon Voyage Breakfast at Trattoria al Forno is fantastic. The food is unique and tasty and the character interactions are fun! Try to get the first reservations of the day to see the “frying pan salute” and after you eat, go straight to Epcot to be there at park opening. This has become one of our favorite character dining experiences!
Relatively new WDW parks fan (that’s what having kids will do…), and new reader to your blog, but I just wanted to second how much we’ve enjoyed Minnie’s Seasonal Dine at Hollywood & Vine (evening service, not the Disney Jr. breakfast). We lucked into a reservation on our very first last-minute-planned trip to Hollywood Studios, and had such a blast that we had to return the next. The food is decent (maybe a notch above one of those steak house buffet places, and the dessert bar is great with unique and themed sweets), but the real draw is getting to meet ALL the original crew — Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, and Goofy — all in one sitting. The characters and, in particular, their “handlers” were terrific, especially with our then-shy 2 year old. And we love the location, just off center from the middle of the park. Strong recommendation for an evening meal.
I have not been to any character meals at WDW since when I was a kid in the 1990s. I assumed being in my 30s with no kids, I would not enjoy them. I was wrong. On a recent Disneyland trip, we went to Goofys Kitchen for dinner and Storytellers Cafe for breakfast. We had fun at both of them and the food was good. We had fun interactions with the Fab 5 plus other fur characters (Chip and Dale, Brother Bear etc.). We loved the unique outfits of the characters . Now I want to try all these character dinner meals at WDW especially the fur character ones as long as the food is edible. Its too bad Ohana or Cape May do not offer the characters at dinner because we usually do not have time to do the character breakfasts.
I’m really looking forward to Garden Grill next Summer. Everyone seems to rave about it, and we love Chip and Dale. We are also looking forward to the 1900 park fare breakfast. We did dinner last time and it was amazing! Those character interactions are SO much fun.
I’m really surprised to see Tusker house as the best. That was our worst dining experience EVER at Disney. Even worse than Tony’s. We must have really hit an off day, because it was terrible. The food was all cold, there was nothing for picky eaters at all….my son ate 5 chocolate chip cookies….that was all he could find that he would eat, and I didn’t find a whole lot more for myself. Even my husband, who will eat almost anything, was not impressed. The character interactions were just meh….nothing but a quick photo before they moved on. We won’t go back there, but I’m glad to hear that others have not had that experience. But be warned, if you are not an adventurous eater, I wouldn’t do this one. I know, everyone says there’s something for everyone, but there’s really not. 3 out of 4 of us left hungry.
Did you ask your waitress about other food for your child? I also have picky eaters, and told our waitress that my kids found nothing they could eat, and she asked what they WOULD eat and then brought out 3 plates of fresh and hot chicken strips and fries (which were not available on the buffet) and told us they would refill it if needed. Each time we have eaten here the food Is fresh and delicious, u def got them on a bad day!
Tusker House is good, great even, but we’ve hit 1900 Park Fare each time we’ve gone for breakfast, until our last trip. So, I think your list needs to change. It needs to include 1900 Park Fare for Dinner, and 1900 Park Fare for Breakfast. We’ve loved the breakfasts we’ve had there, and while Mary Poppins has been variable, Alice and especially the Mad Hatter, have been simply outstanding, with the Mad Hatter being one of the best face characters we’ve ever had the pleasure to interact with.
And then we went to dinner at Park Fare this June. Cinderella and Prince Charming were, heh, charming, and Lady Tremaine oozed that reserved evil, but would be the least of the characters, IMHO. The evil stepsisters, however, were absolute riots, completely over the top. Anastasia, the redhead, was great, although she was too pretty for the role. She was still just outstanding. And then there was Drizella, the black-haired sister. Easily the star of the show, she was so far over the top you needed binoculars to keep up with her. Probably the best face CM we’ve ever had the fun to deal with.
Garden Grill is another deserving entry on this list. Cape May was a great experience for our child on his first trip, but we’ve not gone back due to various scheduling conflicts. It’s worthy, but the best thing to do is schedule it on an Epcot day…our problem is we usually hit the Garden Grill instead.
I agree with Paul-the characters and experiences of 1900 Park Fare rate for both dinner AND breakfast (we finally just went for dinner last year, but have been big fans of the breakfast for years).
I love lunch at Tusker House. The character interactions are great, the food is delicious and I love all the restaurant details!
Totally agree about Tusker House! It is our favorite as well. And I am so glad to see you post about 1900 Park Fare. I’ve been waiting for a review for that as we have reservations for breakfast in December for the first time. We love character dining and have been trying to get to as many as possible while our kids can still go for the “child” price. I don’t think we’ll being going as much when we have to pay an adult price for a 10 year old.
I agree on that as well too…………………
Garden Grill for breakfast and dinner is my favorite with my four year old son. The characters will visit your table more than once if you have slow eaters and not doing the buffet is easier with a kid in tow.
I’m glad to read your 1900 Park Faire review- I’m going with my sister (who played a few villains on the Magic cruise ship in 2013, so she has a soft spot for the Evil Stepmother!) and niece for an early dinner in August, and it’ll be our first night of the trip. Great way to start! We’re also finishing up with Tusker House for breakfast and then the last morning, Cinderella’s Royal Table for breakfast.
I found the Cinderella dinner at 1900 Park Faire to be slightly disappointing. It was very crowded and not the best character interactions. While the step sisters were most entertaining, I found the experience to be just “fair”.
I also found breakfast at Cinderella’s royal table to be overrated. The character experience was ok, but the service was not so much. Limited food selection. I found our experience at Akershus in Epcot to be much more enjoyable, for the price.
Be our guest was AMAZING! Service, food, atmosphere, LOVED IT ALL!
Hollywood and Vine was also a favorite stop for dinner. We ate there during Christmas season and enjoyed the whole experience. Great food and dessert choices.
And loving anything Pooh, Crytal Palace is a plus in my book too!
Our family visited May 2018. We celebrated my birthday dinner at cape May and was so very disappointed and shocked that the food was Just terrible that we asked our waitress if they would consider giving our dining credits back. We went for the crab legs. They were cold so that makes them hard to eat. There was several other issues and areas of improvement that could be worked on… the next night we went to beaches and cream the ice cream soda shop by the pool. Now that food was 100 time better and cost 50% less. But I highly recommended reservations
Agree with Tusker House being high on the list. It is an often overlooked character experience among many Disney fans. I believe Cinderellas Royal Table has to make any list as well. Yes, the food is meh. The price is astronomical. And the reservation hard to get. With that said, there is no better experience than to share a meal with 5-6 Disney princesses in the castle surrounded by stained glass. That is why it should be on any must do list at least once.
Totally agree with you about Turkey House (Boma’s is stellar) and Cape May. Our ‘kids’ are adults and they loved it too. We are looking forward to trying Park Fare 1900 and Minnie’s Seasonal on the upcoming trip in December.
We tried Garden Grill on our last trip. I think it’s worth mentioning that a couple of people in my party felt a little “off” after dining there because of the movement of the restaurant (I won’t go as far as to say “nauseous” but the rotating nature definitely affected them!) I know it’s an extremely slow movement, but for people with a little bit of motion sensitivity, it might not be wise to mix that with a meal. I feel like the rotating aspect is often glossed over or said as only a positive feature (it’s a cool concept!), but it alone was the reason we probably won’t go back.
I agree I think Tucker house is awesome as a matter of fact its my favorite and I have done all but the cape may one. It wasn’t just the characters but the food to me was head and shoulders above every other character meal. The Hollywood and vine to me wasn’t as good food wise as I had hoped the food was kind of meh to me but the characters and Christmas theme was fun just wish the food had been better that night
As vegetarians, Tusker House is by far our favorite character meal at WDW. We did Minnie’s Seasonal Dine on Christmas Eve and that was great. Garden Grill doesn’t work as well for us but I can appreciate the scenery for sure.
We enjoyed both breakfast and dinner at 1900 Park Faire a few years apart. Mad Hatter, Cinderella, her step sisters and stepmother were funny. Charming was a bit dim, but the others chatted happily while they mistook my tiny journal as an autograph pad. Food was great, too. We also prefer breakfast over dinner at Ohana though we won’t do it any more since it’s pricey and we have met the characters lots of times. Dinner there was too much work, delegging the shrimp ourselves while trying to feed our shrimp hungry kiddo. Looking forward to trying Tusker House for the first time this December, for dinner, with 3 more fussy eaters in our group (my parents and sister).
We went to Tusker for breakfast last year and tried to book it for December but could only get dinner. Now that you’re comparing it to Boma, I’m more excited for dinner! Plus we just missed Pandora last year so probably a good idea to get over there early in the day anyway.
Yes, if you like supper at Boma you will like supper at Tusker House. We ate a really late lunch there several years ago before dinner also added characters and the food was great. Tons of variety and even basic stuff like mini corndogs on the kids section that I had to have. Dessert was our only disappointment. They’re known for their bread pudding (which we don’t like) but the rest of the desserts were just kind of tasteless & lackluster.
We had a very late seating for Minnie’s Seasonal dine back in October and it was by far the best character interactions we have ever had. We are a youngish couple with no kids, but the characters spent a lot of time with us. Albeit, the restaurant was pretty empty so they didn’t have too many other tables. Daisy sat with us twice, Donald came around for multiple dance numbers with us, and goofy and my husband had a pretend duel. Food was decent, but characters were amazing!
I wholeheartedly agree with Garden Grill and Tusker House (pro-tip: eat at the last breakfast seating and you get both breakfast and lunch foods). I haven’t tried the other two, though we really enjoyed 1900PF for dinner (when small, Cinderella was my daughter’s favorite. Prince Charming was awesome with my dauther, and the Tremaine’s were a hoot.)
My favorite would be the Star Wars breakfast they did for a couple years at Sci-Fi during StarWars weekend. Expensive, but great food, characters, and entertainment.