Weekly Top 10: The Best Restaurants at Walt Disney World

January 26, 2015, 10:35 AM · Where is your favorite place to eat at the Walt Disney World Resort? Theme Park Insider readers have been rating and reviewing the restaurants in the Disney World theme parks, and here are our top 10 highest-rated table-service restaurants in the parks. If you'd like to have your say for our weekly Top 10 lists, just visit our "Park Guides" section and click through to the parks you've visited recently to rate and review their rides, shows, restaurants, and hotels.

10. Restaurant Marrakesh
Epcot

Restaurant Marrakesh

Somewhat hidden in the back of the Moroccan pavilion in Epcot's World Showcase, Restaurant Marrakesh wins high marks from readers who like its north African cuisine and often easy-to-book tables. But if tagines, roast lamb, lemon chicken and the like aren't your favorites, you'll find more popular options on this list.

9. Chefs de France
Epcot

Chefs de France

The downstairs restaurant in World Showcase's France pavilion, Chefs de France offers a variety of French bistro fare, including a Croque Monsieur at lunch and duck, salmon and beef selections at dinner.

8. Via Napoli
Epcot

Via Napoli

Patina Group's pizza restaurant sits at the back of Epcot's Italy pavilion, baking its Neapolitan thin-crust, wood-fired pies in three ovens named for Italy's famous volcanoes: Etna, Stromboli, and Vesuvius.

7. Biergarten
Epcot

Biergarten

It is Oktoberfest every day at this buffet in World Showcase's Germany pavilion, with an oompah band and diners singing and dancing along with the performers.

6. Le Cellier Steakhouse
Epcot

Le Cellier Steakhouse

Themed the wine cellars of historic Canada hotels, Le Cellier's most popular dish might be its Cheddar Cheese Soup, available at lunch and dinner. You'll also find a selection of beef, venison, pork, chicken, salmon, and pasta.

5. Liberty Tree Tavern
Magic Kingdom

Liberty Tree Tavern

The first restaurant outside Epcot to make our list, the Magic Kingdom's Liberty Tree serves lunch to order, with pot roast, roast turkey, hamburgers, and salads, while dinner offers a fixed-price menu of roasted meats and sides, served family-style.

4. Teppan Edo
Epcot

Teppan Edo

And now, back to Epcot for this Japanese Teppanyaki-style restaurant, offering a variety of steak, chicken, shrimp and scallop combinations, as well as sushi and appetizers.

3. The Hollywood Brown Derby
Disney's Hollywood Studios

The Hollywood Brown Derby

A replica of the original (and now demolished) Brown Derby restaurant in Los Angeles, this table service restaurant is the Studios' top dining experience — and its most expensive. The Brown Derby's most famous dish was the Cobb salad (named for Bob Cobb, the original restaurant's owner), and you'll find it on the menu here as an appetizer or entree, served with the original Cobb dressing.

2. Be Our Guest
Magic Kingdom

Be Our Guest

The toughest table to book in the Disney theme parks, Be Our Guest offers three dining rooms depicted in or inspired by the Disney's Best Picture Academy Award-nominated animated classic, Beauty and the Beast. The French bistro-inspired menu includes steak, chicken, salmon, pork, and lamb at dinner and a selection of salads and sandwiches at lunch.

1. Monsieur Paul
Epcot

Monsieur Paul

Our readers' choice for the top restaurant in the Walt Disney World theme parks, Monsieur Paul is named for legendary French chef Paul Bocuse, whose family operates both of the France pavilion's table-service restaurants. The restaurant's signature dish might be its "Soupe aux truffes VGE." Created by Bocuse and named for former French President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing (the VGE in the title), the soup offers beef broth and finely diced oxtail, carrots, onions and celery, with a larger dice of mushroom pate, flavored with generous slices of black winter truffle and crowned with puff pastry.

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Replies (12)

January 26, 2015 at 11:08 AM · It's been a while but I believe I have only been to Teppan Edo. And I can say it was good food and just a fun experience. Happy to see it on the list.
January 26, 2015 at 11:25 AM · By the way, I'm planning to get to the resort restaurants on a future list, so don't worry, we're not ignoring them!
January 26, 2015 at 11:37 AM · Its interesting to note the absence of any Animal Kingdom restaurants on this list. I'm guessing that they never built any really nice dining options there because they didn't plan to keep the park open in the evening, but with Rivers of Light coming up soon, they may want to revisit that decision.
January 26, 2015 at 11:47 AM · As a German eating at the Biergarten in Epcot was great. German food just tastes really different from the usual fast food you get at the parks. Guess it is the same with the other 9 restaurants on this list, although I haven't been able to dine in them.
January 26, 2015 at 11:49 AM · Glad to hear resort restaurants will soon be reviewed Robert! Many of the best restaurants on property are either at a resort or Downtown Disney including Ohana, Fulton's Crab House, Il Mulino, Cape May Café, and Jiko.

I am sad San Angel Inn in the Mexico pavilion at Epcot never seems to make any of these lists or get any attention on this site. Both the theming and food are some of the absolute best WDW has to offer and it is a mandatory stop each time my wife and I visit.

As far as those restaurants that did make the cut, perhaps I am just a spoiled New Yorker who lives a short 30 minute ride by train or car from Manhattan, but I find many of them to be simply average or disappointing. Teppan Edo in particular confuses me. While the food is decent enough, up here hibachi restaurants are a dime a dozen, offer way more food and cost about a 1/2-2/3 of what Teppan Edo runs. Maybe hibachi is more of a novelty to people from other parts of the country? I was blown away by Be Our Guest's theming but the food (wife and I shared the shrimp/scallop casserole and the steak) were disappointing given our high expectations. Via Napoli and Chefs de France, while better than Be Our Guest in terms of food quality, were also nothing memorable and not readily available here at home. I know we're in the minority on this one, but we actually prefer the Italian food at Mama Melrose at DHS to Via Napoli as it is actually closer to the traditional New York style we are accustomed to.

I am looking to trying Monsieur Paul, Brown Derby, and Le Cellier in the future after reading this list and reading the site for many years. That may be the best part about Disney restaurants; you have your favorites that you visit each time but there's always exciting ones to try for the first time on each trip!

January 26, 2015 at 11:55 AM · Don, the Animal Kingdom actually does have a really fantastic lunch buffet in the Africa section of the park called Tusker house. It is a combination of African, Middle Eastern and Indian dishes all set in the ambiance of an African marketplace. While the menu is not for everyone, if you have an adventurous palate check it out on your next visit for some very unique flavors and tastes. I personally recommend the chicken curry, African seafood stew, and couscous.
January 26, 2015 at 12:18 PM · Will: I agree about Tusker House. We used to eat there every trip. I liked it better before they changed it to character dining, but the food is still good. That said, I don't think it's quite good enough to make the top 10 list. That's just my opinion though.

January 26, 2015 at 12:28 PM · Regarding the inclusion of Teppan Edo on the list, my wife and I prefer Tokyo Dining, which is located in the same building. The food there is wonderful and the atmosphere is great. When we were there a couple of months ago, our waitress added a nice personal touch to our experience. She brought a small booklet that she had prepared herself which talked about her home town in Japan and what it was like to live there. This gave us a chance to get to know her a little bit better and greatly enriched our time there. I don't know if she was the only waitress there who did this, but it was a wonderful idea.
January 27, 2015 at 6:19 AM · I've also found the service across the Japan pavilion to be excellent, Don. My wife and I chatted up the cast member at the sake bar in the back of the Mitsukoshi store about her home town- Osaka. I was a little surprised she wasn't more guarded in discussing Universal Studios Japan... but I guess that park doesn't really count as 'the competition' being thousands of miles away.
I'm also a little sad AK didn't get any love. Yak and Yeti's tofu is awesome, even by theme park standards.
January 27, 2015 at 9:56 AM · No character dining restaurants here. This means it is unlikely I will visit.

I visited a few of these restaurant before like The Brown Derby and Marrakesh, and recently visited Be My Guest.

I will say that despite the wonderful characters, the Tusker House and 1900 Park Fare had mediocre food. Cinderella's Royal Table and Akersus had average food. Be My Guest was exceptional (although I skipped the photo op with The Beast with the long queue at the end of the meal).

Sci-Fi Dining was both cheaper and a great experience. The food was above average for American fast food fare.

January 27, 2015 at 10:30 AM · I like most of the restaurants you have listed, but for the most part, they are simply not in the same league with The Flying Fish at the Boardwalk. Their regular dining experience is a treat, but the chef's tasting is unbelievable. Highly recommended!
January 27, 2015 at 4:48 PM · The spot I would have like to see included is the 50's Prime Time Diner. I just love that place.

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