Tusker House Restaurant — Restaurant in Bay Lake

We went at 11am - this is the perfect time because we were able to have breakfast and the soon after they switched to lunch! The breakfast was good! Mickey and lion king waffles along with other breakfast food. The lunch was good. It was nice to try food that I probably wouldn’t try elsewhere. Just don’t know if we would have gotten full if we hadn’t eaten the breakfast food first. It seems others love the lunch though so don’t let this review keep you from trying it. The characters all came by our table, I thought it was a little rushed but still loved it. Definitely beats sitting in line for meet and greets. They even had a little dance thingy with all the kids in the room at the end of the meal.

Now the reason for the 3 star review is not because I didn’t enjoy the food, I knew what was on the menu before we booked the breakfast. We had a table of 13 with 4 kids, ages 2-13. When we were seated the hostess told us “few free to visit the buffet” so we put our stuff down and went to the buffet. When we came back the waitress had taken drink orders from a few of us that were already back from the buffet. She went up the rest of us and said “what do you want” very rudely. Didn’t even bother to tell us what they had to drink or shows us any menus. I assume she was upset we weren’t all at the table when she took our drink order, but we were told we were free to go to the buffet so that’s what we did. She insisted we order drinks for the few people who were still at the buffet so we just guessed what they wanted. One person asked if they have Dr Pepper and she just said “no” instead of listing the soda they did have. She overall was just NOT a friendly person. Maybe it was just a big difference because we are used to everyone being overly nice but she just seemed like we were more of a bother to her and not guests spending literally hundreds of dollars. I believe she knew she was getting the mandatory 18% tip so she didn’t bother to even pretend to like her job. When we got the checks I asked her if they offered any discounts for having a Disney debit card (because two other restaurants we already visited did offer this discount) and she said “no everyone has a Disney card we don’t give discounts away” as if it was unheard of in Disney world. A simple “no not here” would have been sufficient. It’s not her words that offended us but her attitude that came with them and her lack of enthusiasm. All of the other waitresses, waiters, and hostesses seemed happier. She made it very awkward, I’m telling you this lady did not smile even once. I get it we have bad days but she didn’t even...

Coming into this restaurant, knowing it was character dining, I was expecting much more than a rushed picture from the characters, but that's all we got. I did get a long hug from Goofy, but other than that, the other characters, Daisy, Mickey, and Donald, seemed to be in a rush to get through other tables.

I had made the reservation for the lunch buffet 2 months in advanced, and our party of 8 was seated immediately after checking in. Which by the way, should be done 15 minutes before the reservation time. The server was really nice, was willing to take our picture when the characters came to the table. He was coming to our table, making sure everything was okay, well worth the tip he got.

My favorite part of the buffet was the Mac and Cheese. It was absolutely amazing. I'm not a big fan of Mac and Cheese, but this one tasted incredible. This is a buffet, so they had a variety of foods, even for the picky eaters. There was spicy food, and non spicy food. The other food was honestly not something to brag about. The waiter mentioned a couple of things were homemade, like the Mac and Cheese and Hummus, so I'm guessing everything else they get from other restaurants- not typical for a buffett. The drinks are included in the price, except for the alcoholic drinks. We were a party of 6 adults, and 2 children. 3 of the adults got an alcoholic beverage, which included 2 beers. The total, with the included tip, came to be about $450.00. We were already expecting to pay a high price, knowing it was a character dining experience. I just wish that the characters would have sat down with us or made the experience worth the price. It felt like it would have been better to just stand through the long lines, and take a picture with the characters. It certainly would have been much cheaper. The food was worth it though, and we did end up taking a picture with the characters, although, how much can you really eat at an all you can eat buffet? After my first plate, I was full. The next 2 plates i got was just me trying to stuff my face, knowing it was the only meal of the day, considering how much we were going to spend :]

If I could go back, I wouldn't eat here, at least not for the character dining. You are better off waiting in line to take a picture with each one of the characters. Which to be honest, the waits weren't that bad. I'm sure you can find another buffer outside this park, and pay much less, for a bigger selection of foods. The children loved it though, so the experience was mostly for them, making it sort...

This place was one of favorite restaurants in Disney World. We always made sure that we had brunch here every time we visited Disney World. We have there several times over the years and our family always enjoyed the food, atmosphere and the service. And the bonus was that one got to meet Mickey and his friends in person, which was excellent!! During those times, I would have gladly given 5-stars to this place.

But this time, our experience was bad & I just can't give it more than 1-star. Here I refer to the food only. The interactions with Mickey and his friends was wonderful, but the food was horrible and the costs are ridiculously high.

We always went there for brunch & in the past there were huge varieties of food and dishes, everything all-you-can-eat. And the costs were reasonable for a character dining restaurant. But now, Disney has removed the brunch. They still give you all-you-can-eat, but you order it & the server brings it to your table, The selections were so poor that we didn't have a choice in what to order. The chicken they give you is just plain grilled chicken which didn't have any flavor. It was so insipid that we left most of it. We just ate the veggies and rice. And for that ridiculously bad tasting meal, we paid $55 per person excluding taxes & gratuity.

We ate at other high-end restaurants in Disney World and Disney Springs, but the food was great and the prices were not as high as Tusker House restaurant. We were all extremely disappointed by our experience here, and regretfully decided that we would never eat here again!!

We feel very sad giving this 1-star rating to a place we love to eat at, but unless Disney World improves the food & lowers the cost (which I doubt will ever happen), my rating...