Favorite Disney World restaurants with elementary aged kids?

Last time we went to Disney (2 years ago), my kids were 8 and 14. I did not think they would be into the characters or character meals, but they surprised me. Go to at least one for the experience. We ate at the Whispering Canyon Cafe the first night. The kids loved it. The wait staff was hilarious and kept the kids laughing the whole dinner. We also enjoyed the Coral Reef in Epcot. We had a table right agains the glass and fish and scuba divers would swim right up to us. It was by far the best atmosphere of all the restaurants. My teen loved Ohana and so did my 8 year old. It's family style dining but they accomodated my picky eater. There were fun games for the young one to play during dinner. We did not care for Sci Fi Dine In Theater - boring. Also Mama Melroses was pretty boring as well. My young one's favorite restaurant was Chef Mickey's. He wanted to go back every day. It's a character meal and the children's buffet was a big hit. We are going back in join and doing a breakfast and a dinner at Chef Mickey's.

Walt Disney World has a wonderful array of sit-down style restaurants to choose from, all with fantastic food! One important thing to consider before making dining reservations at Disney is the dining experience that you are looking for. Would your family enjoy a fancy, sophisticated meal or a casual, fun meal? Also, you need to look at your time frame. It says you are visiting in a few weeks, which will be around Easter...the parks are going to be busy and it will be hard to get dining reservations to the more popular restaurants. I would recommend calling as soon as possible to ensure that you have everything set before you head down.

That being said, some of my favorite signature restaurants are Le Cellier (for its wonderful steak), California Grill (for the view of the Magic Kingdom), and The Hollywood Brown Derby (for being inside the theme park, and having a great cob salad!).

For your family, since the children do have quite an age range, I would suggest visiting some of the more casual sit-down restaurants. Here is a small list of restaurants that I think your family may enjoy:

Sci-Fi Dine in Theater (Studios)- Great for lunch, layed out as a old drive in theater

Prime Time Cafe or Hollywood and Vine (Studios)

Rose and Crown (EPCOT)- Fun atmosphere, great fish and chips, also great viewing for fireworks

Rainforest Cafe or TRex (Downtown)- The kids will love the themeing here, lots of fun

Overall, I would really suggest any of the restaurants at Downtown Disney or EPCOT, I would stay away from Magic Kingdom, as it is all character dining. Hope this helps, and have a great time!

Le Cellier in Canada (Epcot) is a delicious and awesome steakhouse. It looks like an underground cellar. My favorite

We also love Fulton's Crab House. It is a seafood restaurant in Downtown Disney. It isn't covered under the dining plan anymore, though. (not sure if you have that)

And of course, not specifically Disney, but Rain Forest Cafe is a lot of fun. Two locations. Animal Kingdom and Downtown Disney

I second the beer garden at Epcot - Epcot by far has the best food of all the parks, and I think the only one with actual drinks. Plus I think Epcot is the most fun anyway for your ages.

We hated the Pasta place in Disney Hollywood - I forget the name of that park - its with the Toy Story ride, Mama somethings, and when you eat there, you get the preferred seating for the fireworks show. It was very generic/cafeteria tasting.

The other buffet we really liked was at the Animal Kindgom, it was the character breakfast, but had unique food at least.

I live in Florida and we are seasonal pass holders, we eat there alot with kids.

We like the Beer Garden in Germany, its a buffet, so lots of choices and they have live entertainment every hour. Epcot

Also, character dining is fun at any age... The crystal palace, also a buffet, (i like buffets so the kids have choices) plus the characters hit each tables. Magic Kingdom

Anotherrestaurantaruant is the Sci Fi Diner at Hollywood studios, you sit in a car and watch old drive in movies. A crowd pleaser for all. Its mainly burgers and shakes. Very neat.

When I was a kid we went to Disney everyweekend for a year! If your looking for the experience get reservations inside the castle we were able to see the fire work show from in there amazing! But somethin ur kids will love is rain forest cafe it's set up like a rain forest with robotic animals like moneys life size elephants birds etc and they have masove fish tanks in there really realy cool

we ate at the Marrakesh restaurant in Epcot...belly dancing and really different food....my kids enjoyed it, youngest is 9 oldest is 19