Gasparilla Island Grill — Restaurant in Bay Lake

Being locals, we decided to come in to the Gasparilla Grill for a quick lunch. This is an insiders tip because it is the one location in the Grand Floridian Resort for which you don't need a reservation. As such, it allows you into the resort to eat. From there, you could simply leave, or you could explore the resort and even take a bus or monorail to the park.

The restaurant itself is what would be considered a quick-serve. The name implies the food is quick, however, which is not entirely accurate. It is grilled as you order it, so it might take awhile. Our was ready in about 20-25 minutes, which wasn't too bad. At the time, the restaurant was only about 1/3 full, but this was pre-Holiday, which likely changed things.

All orders had to be done on the Disney Parks app and paid with that. There were no operating cash registers. All self-serve options such as drinks were also off limits, with staff being required to get drinks and refills for customers.

As it was, the food was good and reasonable. I had the Chicken and Brie sandwich with the pub chips while my wife had the Hot Italian sandwich. I sampled hers and would say that next time I'm more likely to get that as well, or to simply try something else. There were also a number of baked dessert items which we just run out of room for, so maybe someday I'll learn to portion my meal to save room for dessert.

Update: 03/16/21 After a long day in the parks, we were looking forward to unwinding, sitting down and unmasking at the Grand Floridian Resort. We had been to the Gasparilla Island Grill before - and not that long ago, but my how things have changed since then.

At that time, it was a dine-in location. You could place your order from inside, get your food and find a table. Now, Disney employees guard the door as if the President was inside, checking to make sure you have a good reason to go in - primarily to see if you've completed the mobile order online. If not, you're going to be disappointed.

As mentioned, it now requires the Disney Experience Mobile Order to start your order. We completed this while still in the parks, riding the monorail. Once the monorail got close, we submitted the final "I'm here, start my order" button. It seems like that should be enough to reduce the wait time, but we still managed to cool our heels for about 45 minutes while we waited for our order to arrive. We weren't the only ones, either. The food wasn't the only thing getting hot at the Grill.

If you intend to eat here, especially when the parks are crowded, make sure to complete your order WELL in advance of needing it. Heck, you might even think about completing it before you're hungry, just so you can have it in time to stave off the hunger pains. I recommend a 30-45 minute lead time on these orders. Ours weren't exotic or numerous, but they were apparently very time consuming.

Once they came, of course they were delicious, but considering the wait time, it might have made more sense to get into the Grand Floridian Cafe or Narcoossee's. Or maybe even the hotel shop...

I love this restaurant until recently, when they changed their rules so that, instead of bringing me the food, they had me wait at the counter for it. And I'm not happy. I don't mind getting the food myself and in fact prefer it, but the problem is, the restaurant isn't designed for that, so they don't have enough space for customers to wait for food. So the area is always crowded, and there's no space for lines, so nobody knows whose turn it is to get the food, and everybody just pushes forward. Furthermore, to get one plate of sandwich with fries, I have to go to one counter for sandwich, then wait at another line for fries, then a third to pay. So it has gotten really annoying, but even worse is that it takes forever, being that people have to wait in several lines to just get one order. So there is a big crowd waiting to order, while the checkout lines are empty and the restaurant is empty. That means the restaurant is losing business. It used to be full, especially during dinner times. The last time I went, I simply got a Mickey cream puff (so good!) instead of a sandwich because at least I don't have to wait. But to get the cream puff, I had to cut across the line just to reach the cabinet, that's how small the area is. I know why they did it, to reduce the labor of bringing customer food. So instead, they have a guy standing at the door holding the menu, which is ridiculous, because that can be done with a sign, and they guy can spend his time bringing food to the customers and solving all the problems. The restaurant isn't big, it only takes one guy to bring out the food. Or they can consider how the food courts at the Contemporary and the Polynesian nearby do it. Neither one make the customers crowd at the counter to wait. The Animal Kingdom Lodge food court does have people wait in line at the counter, but they have lots of space and roped areas for lines, so that everything is done in an orderly manner and there's not a problem. The Gasparilla used to serve a generous portion of fries, but since the change, they serve the fries in a tiny paper box that holds about half of what they used to serve. You can also order stuff on the Disney app, but the problem for me is, the caprese sandwich, my favorite and one of their featured items, isn't on the app menu. Probably an oversight, so I can't just order on the phone either. So you see, I'm totally out of luck. Having said that, the Gasparilla is still serving excellent food that isn't overpriced, the restaurant is beautiful, and the workers are friendly. It's perfect, just like the Grand Floridian itself, except for the ridiculous recent change. Being that guests there pay $1000+ per night, I think it is embarrassing that the Grand is making the guests crowd at the narrow counter. I hope they will soon see the large drop in business and fix their self...

prefacing this by saying that the staff is usually really friendly and i must’ve just had an outlier situation, and i review a lot of places and most of them here at disneyworld have been really great

i went to one lady and ordered food for me and my sister (who has a gluten allergy), the lady was kind of rude and stony but i was like whatever maybe she’s having a rough day.. even though she was smiling and laughing with the family in front of me in line.. so i ordered our food (gluten free flatbread, and a hot cafe mocha, and a diet coke for my sister and an uncrustable for me) but she cut me off when i ordered the coffee to ask if it was all one order (???)

we got to our table and i realized didn’t input my drink (the coffee), so i went back up to a different lady who was laughing with the first lady (until i got there), then she got kind of straight faced.. i was pretty nice and just said “oh i don’t see the coffee on my receipt sorry” and she asked me twice what i ordered (i assume she wasn’t listening the first time?) then started talking to the first lady in another language about the order and they were kind of looking at me funny.. i felt really bad like i was inconveniencing them somehow

so she asked me, “do you want this before or with your food?” and i said with my food because i was just gonna drink it while my sister ate, she kind of grumbled and i was like okay.. so i paid etc and went and sat back down

my sister’s food came after a while (which is standard because she has an allergy) but no coffee, so my sister went up to the first lady (i was like in tears feeling so guilty about this coffee LOL).. and the woman was rude to my sister too, and it seemed like a big huff to walk over to the coffee station to ask the woman there to make the coffee (which she did, she was nice)..

i was really wanting to leave at this point because i felt like a huge inconvenience just to get like 1 hot cafe mocha but me and my sister stayed and ate, when we left the two ladies still seemed really grumpy when they saw us .. at least the food was okay even tho it was...