Dining recommendations

[Skawt]

Looking for recommendations for dining at DLP. I am planning on getting the half-board plus plan. No kids so this trip so I am not planning any character meals unless there is one that has exceptional food.

Are dining reservations as impotant at DLP as they are at WDW? We will be there Dec. 19-22.

Thanks,

Scott

[Olivier]

Hi Scott,
My favourite restaurants at DLRP are:

DLP:
- Walt's (Main Steet, USA)

Disneyland Hotel:
- California Grill
- Inventions (characters buffet)

Disney's Hotel New York
- Manhattan Restaurant

Disney Village:
- Annette's Diner

You may find counter service restaurants disappointing at both parks, even if I noticed a slight improvement recently. Avoid Café Mickey (Disney Village).

Reservations are important (You can reserve at City Hall, Disneyland Park, or Studios Services, Walt Disney Studios Park, or at your hotel).
Expect large crowds on saturday 22, as euro school breaks start. C'est Noël !!!

[nathan detroit]

Hunters Lodge at the Sequoia

[StrongStyle]

I don't tend to do non-character meals, but thought the Hunters Lodge in Sequoia had a very good selection of food. Its a character meal, but Innoventions was amazing, here's a few of the buffet pics from there:

[TDR_Fan]

I liked the California Grill at the Disneyland Hotel, and Walt's at Disneyland Paris was pretty good too. One word of warning; stay away from the Blue Lagoon at all costs!

[soundtracker]

Yeah, the Blue Lagoon has been getting pretty bad word of mouth lately. It's a shame, as I ate there about eight years ago and it was fantastic! Now it seems to be populated by mice, and I don't mean character dining!

By the way, just out of curiosity, have any of you ever eaten in the Chicago Steakhouse in the Village? It's one of those places I've always fancied trying.

[TDR_Fan]

Originally Posted by soundtracker

Yeah, the Blue Lagoon has been getting pretty bad word of mouth lately. It's a shame, as I ate there about eight years ago and it was fantastic! Now it seems to be populated by mice, and I don't mean character dining!

I would have to rate the Blue Lagoon as the worst dining experience I've ever had in a Disney park by far. The service was slow and unpleasant, the food cold and bland, and the overall restaurant very dirty and dusty (including our cutlery and plates)!

[PeaJay18]

I'll second the Hunter's Lodge vote - it's nearest WDW equivalent would be Ohanas.
The Innoventions buffet was one of the best I've ever had, and the size of the place means that the character's aren't too intrusive.

A great site for DLP dining info is - http://www.dlpfoodguide.com/index.php

[nathan detroit]

Originally Posted by soundtracker

Yeah, the Blue Lagoon has been getting pretty bad word of mouth lately. It's a shame, as I ate there about eight years ago and it was fantastic! Now it seems to be populated by mice, and I don't mean character dining!

By the way, just out of curiosity, have any of you ever eaten in the Chicago Steakhouse in the Village? It's one of those places I've always fancied trying.

I dined at the Blue Lagoon in 1996 and thought it excellent. I went back a couple of years ago and thought my memory was playing tricks on me when I was served such dross. I'm glad to now know that I am not losing my marbles!

I did the Steakhouse in August. Good food, nice atmosphere (linen tablecloths and napkins and all the bread rolls you can eat!) and a nice, open space. Service was a little slow and they do limit your food choices to one page of the menu if you are using Meal Plan vouchers. However, I would recommend it to anyone who likes a nice steak and although I do not usually like seafood, the clams were excellent.

[pussnboots]

The good: Most table service places. Walt's is great. Auberge de Cendrillon was great when I ate there a few years ago, not sure about it now. Annette's is a big guilty pleasure. Blue Lagoon I've never tried, mostly because of the mixed reviews, but the food looks delish and who can resist that location.

The bad: All counter service places. Well, there's a gem here and there, mostly the Fuente del Oro, but really, it's slow, it's bland and it'll cost you an arm and a leg. And speaking of bland, everything at the Plaza Gardens (buffet) tastes like Nestle. As does the coffee, but that's a global thing with Disney.

Has anyone tried the newly improved Rendez-Vous des Stars yet?

[StrongStyle]

Originally Posted by pussnboots

Has anyone tried the newly improved Rendez-Vous des Stars yet?

Is that the one opposite Rock N Roller Coaster? If so, we ate there last week, the decor inside is pretty nice, I had the Chicken & Bacon baguette, Tara had the Croque Messuier (HUGE) and Gage had the Mickey Pizza.

Everyone seemed happy with their food

[nathan detroit]

The following is info that I collated from various websites regarding Half Board/Meal Plan at DLP for my own reference. It may come in useful...

Half Board Meal Plans offer up to a 15% saving in a variety of restaurants in the whole Resort.They are pre-paid meal vouchers valid at a variety of restaurants throughout the Resort for packages bought at a Disney® Hotel* for arrivals starting 10th November 2006. They're designed to help you budget your stay with savings of up to 15%, and give you the peace of mind that everything is pre-paid.
Book Half Board Meal Plans by calling us at (33 1) 6030 6053 **

Half Board Plus entitles you to eat at : -

<U>Hotels

• </U>
• Hunter's Grill (Disney's Sequoia Lodge)
• *Beaver Creek Tavern (Disney's Sequoia Lodge)
• Cape Cod (Disney's Newport Bay Club)
• *Yacht Club (Disney's Newport Bay Club)
• Parkside Diner (Disney's Hotel New York, Lunch only)
• *Manhattan Restaurant (Disney's Hotel New York)
• La Cantina (Disney's Hotel Santa Fe)
• Chuck Wagon Cafe (Disney's Hotel Cheyenne)
• Crockett's Tavern (Disney's Davy Crockett Ranch)
• *California Grill (Disneyland Hotel)
• *Inventions (Disneyland Hotel)

<U>Main Street

• </U>
• Plaza Gardens Restaurant (Disneyland Park)
• *Walt's - An American Restaurant (Disneyland Park)

<U>Frontier Land

• </U>
• Silver Spur Steakhouse (Disneyland Park)
• The Lucky Nugget Saloon (Disneyland Park)

<U>Adventure Land

• </U>
• *Blue Lagoon Restaurant (Disneyland Park)

<U>Fantasy Land

• </U>
• Auberge de Cendrillon (Disneyland Park)

Discovery Land

• (None)

Village

• Annette's Diner (Disney Village)
• The Steakhouse (Disney Village)
• La Grange at Billy Bob's (Disney Village)
• *Café Mickey (Disney Village)
• *Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show (Disney Village)

<U>Studios

• </U>
• Rendez-Vous des Stars (Walt Disney Studios Park)

* You can also upgrade your Half Board Standard or Half Board Plus by exchanging your coupon at face value and eat at these gourmet restaurants:


Your Half Boards include... 1 starter, 1 main course, 1 dessert or 1 all-you-can-eat Buffet and 1 non-alcoholic beverage (soda 33 cl or water 50 cl) per adult. 1 main course, 1 dessert or 1 all-you-can-eat Buffet and 1 beverage (25 cl) per child.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Basically, these vouchers are accepted in any Disney Restaurant on the resort including BBWWS (ie any except mcDonalds, Rainforest and Planet Hollywood). Any restaurant not listed as a Half Board restaurant will still accept the vouchers at face value (24 euros for adults and 10 euros for kids).

In my experience, this was a great way to budget and to be disciplined enough to have at least one decent meal a day. Beacause of these vouchers, we only resorted to a Counter Service restaurant once in our entire stay (and that was an emergency!).

There is a drawback. These vouchers are still quite new and not all CMs quite understand the concept yet. The best bet is to wave your vouchers in front of every CM's face at the restaurant to make sure they know how you are paying. Show them as soon as you enter the restaurant and then show your waiter before he takes your order. Several times our waiter had to disappear to clarify with some unseen entity how they worked. Some restaurants will take the voucher straight from you as you are seated (Lucky Nugget) while others will present you with a full bill and leave it up to you to calculate how much cash to pay (if you have ordered extra drinks etc).The latter happened at The Steakhouse and Cafe Mickey but I asked the waiters to recalculate it and they came back with the vouchers deducted on a hand-written note.

On the whole, I would heartily recommend going with this option and take the opportunity to try something new. We would probably never have visited The Steakhouse or Lucky Nugget without them!

[Skawt]

Called today to add on the half-board option and was told that I cannot make advance reservations, have to reserve when we check-in. Is that correct?

Thanks

[nathan detroit]

No, this is not correct. I have phoned in advance of arriving to make dinner reservations in the past. The number to call for reservations for the UK is on my previous post. Of course, you are not in the UK so it may prove a little harder.
To be honest, if you have problems like this, I would think that you shouldn't have any problem booking all your meals on arrival. Apart from dinner on our first night, this is exactly what we did on our last visit (which was high season) and we got where we wanted when we wanted.

EDIT - Sorry, the meal reservations hotline number for DLP is + 33 (0) 1 60 30 40 50

[Malin]

Originally Posted by TDR_Fan

I would have to rate the Blue Lagoon as the worst dining experience I've ever had in a Disney park by far. The service was slow and unpleasant, the food cold and bland, and the overall restaurant very dirty and dusty (including our cutlery and plates)!

I ate here on Thursday and agree 100% with you. Certainly not worth the money you pay here and I will be avoiding this location when I next visit. Service was good and friendly and I did tip well when it came to that and the desert was very good, but rest of it I would certainly not like to repeat again. Now Walts on the other hand was a great experience and I highly recomend it.