Grand Floridian Cafe — Restaurant in Bay Lake

We were able to get a late reservation for this place after using the Grand Floridian for our base of operations this day. The reservation was originally set for 8:40 pm, but we managed to squeak in about 45 minutes earlier upon request.

As with all Disney operations right now, there is plenty of social distancing, sanitizing, mask wearing and other things. This was the first time that I'd actually seen temperatures taken prior to entry however.

We passed the entry test and were seated. We managed to pull up our touchless menu on the phone, as all locations seem to be doing. Once our selections were made, the waitress brought an endless supply of wheat bread rolls with a very tasty honey butter. This could have been the meal itself and it would be easy to fill up on these.

The selections made were a Miso Salmon, some Lobster Thermidor burgers, some Buttermilk Fried Chicken and a New York Strip steak.

The burgers were hamburgers with a Lobster Thermidor sauce with chunks of lobster in it. It also had a topping of a parmesan cake that started crispy and softened as the hamburger was enjoyed. It was enjoyable, according to the guests who had it, as this was the second time for one of them.

The New York Strip steak was ordered as a medium, but actually showed up as a medium well. A bit too far done for the guests taste, but nevertheless she ate most of it.

The Salmon was ordered as medium rare and showed up as such, but it was still sufficient for enjoying it. The meat flaked off with a fork as it was eaten. As a side, he got a double portion of rice, preferring that over the green beans.

Finally, the fried chicken. This is a very thin piece of chicken and fried to an extra crispy texture. The flavor overall was good, but a thicker piece of meat would have probably been desirable. It is served with a vinaigrette sauce on it, which gives it a bit of a sour herb flavor. It could probably be served with more simply to help soften the crisp up.

As a food adventure, I am always looking for new experiences, and this helped to satisfy that craving. The food was good, the location is fun and the service was good. The prices were not exorbitant, either. This helped to finish the meal very satisfactorily.

Update: We returned to the cafe for a breakfast this time as a precursor to a day in the park. We started with homemade biscuits with an assortment of butters and jellies, including an orange marmalade type of butter which was very light. We threw in the Steak and Eggs and an order of Eggs Lobster Benedict, which was completely new to us.

All of the food was good, as could be expected. Of course, the prices at this restaurant are not what could be considered a bargain, but if you are looking for a special meal at a beautiful spot, this may be the...

I had such a weird experience when I came last week. First, the overflow lot you have to park in if you only have dining reservations has a doorbell you have to ring to get the gate to come up. When I pressed it, it shocked me! Like enough to make a sound and it hurt. I told hotel staff and I hope they’re looking into it. Our server was new and he was amazing. Very friendly and kind. I ordered Mickey waffles for my son (kind of a requirement) and I noticed they were completely raw inside. No biggie, I work in food. It happens. An amazing food runner came and gave us a new set. He asked me to cut into it to make sure they were done. They were not. He comes back and the third set of Mickey waffles are so raw inside, batter spurts out when I put my knife in it. We are laughing at this point. They leave and come back with round 4 of Mickey waffles. They had to get them from 1900 park fare. Cut into them and they were fine. We were in good spirits so we didn’t make a fuss and reassured the server and the food runner who seemed like they were taking it seriously and wanted to make sure we had what we needed. All this time, the restaurant was dead. There were probably 6-7 tables outside of us. Not a single manager came over. Not even a table touch from someone other than our server and the food runner. Our drinks were comped which was nice and I tipped the server well because he deserved it and I hope the food runner is tipped out as well. Walking out, we got a generic “have a nice day!” From a manager. As a restaurant manager myself, just a single check in or table touch after having 3 SETS of COMPLETELY raw Mickey waffles served to my toddler would have been great. Food was great (outside of our 3 SETS of completely raw Mickey waffles), service (from the server and the food runner, not the management) and was excellent. For paying $80-90 on breakfast, I’d expect not to get literally shocked, not to be served multiple sets of raw Mickey waffles, and for management to care a little more. Again, loved our server and the food runner. They were...

Last night, my family and another family we frequent Disney with had a 6:45 reservation at Grand Floridian Cafe. The 4 adults decided to get a drink at the Enchanted Rose before our dinner reservation. The wait to get in the Enchanted Rose took a bit longer than we expected. However, our waitress told us that she would call the restaurant and let them know we were just finishing up and would be down a few minutes late. She did this for another party sitting near us that had the same concerns. Meanwhile, we sent our 4 teenage kids to the Grand Floridian Cafe to check in. Our teenage kids are well behaved, no strangers to Disney or the many many restaurants we all frequently dine at. ( We are AP and DVC). My son checks in with a woman at the checkin booth and is told to have a seat until the rest of your party arrives. Fine. No problem. When the 4 adults come downstairs and walk up to confirm our party is complete we were not met with smiles but in fact it was shockingly the opposite. A cast member named Danny, in a suit so I assumed he was of some managerial status, informed us that no one from our party had checked in. Danny then informed us we would be waiting an additional 20 minutes + because no one from our party had checked in. All 4 kids assured us that they had indeed checked in but Danny refused to acknowledged this. Basically calling them liars. His arrogance and dismissive behavior made the situation worse. He also claimed that no one from the Enchanted Rose had called on our behalf. He never bothered asking the other staff about a phone call. I was upset because of Danny’s dismissive attitude with regard to the phone call the Enchanted Rose was happy to make and further upset by how we were treated by Danny with regard to the 4 kids checking in, one of which is 18 years old. These kids were not lying. Danny was just in a really arrogant awful mood. Not a good...