On our last trip to Disney World this past November, we had a chance to experience breakfast at the Garden Grill at Epcot. The Garden Grill is located on the upper floor of The Land Pavilion. The restaurant slowly rotates and provides views of the Living With The Land ride. The Garden Grill offers family-style dining and many of the fruits and vegetables served in the restaurant are grown in the Living With The Land greenhouses.

The restaurant offers character dining for breakfast, lunch and dinner. At Chip 'n' Dale's Harvest Feast, you can meet Chip, Dale, Farmer Mickey and Pluto. They come around to each table and will sign autographs and take pictures.

We made pre-rope drop reservations at the Garden Grill. Epcot was opening at 9 AM and our reservation was for 8:05 AM. Because the Frozen Ever After ride was a Tier 1 Fastpass and my kids wanted to ride both Soarin' and Test Track, we thought we could try and beat the rope drop crowd at Soarin' since we'd already be in The Land Pavilion. That way we could use our Tier 1 for Test Track on our first Epcot day and on our second Epcot day, we'd use our Fastpass for Frozen Ever After.

We were the first family to check in at The Garden Grill. Since we were a family of 6, we were seated upstairs. The lower level has semi-circular booths that face out, while the upstairs has tables and chairs.

Our server seemed to be well aware that families were trying to eat breakfast quickly before the park opened to be the first to ride Soarin'. He said he'd make sure we'd be done with plenty of time to get downstairs. This was good and bad. I felt somewhat rushed throughout the breakfast.

Before the server brought our food, we had the opportunity to take a picture with all four characters. I'm not sure this is something they do with every family or if it's just because we were the first ones there.


This was my favorite part of the experience!


After our server brought our drinks, he brought out fruit and Chip's Sticky Bun Bake. My kids loved it! My one daughter has a dairy and nut allergy and I love how accommodating they are. They brought her two boxes of Chocolate Silk and her own muffin. You can see it here in this picture as Pluto came by to visit.



One thing that I don't like about character meals at Disney World is that it seems the characters come pretty quickly. I feel like by the time I've gathered everyone's autograph books and got everyone settled, the next one comes. So, we don't really get a chance to eat.

Mickey came soon after Pluto. He took pictures with the kids before signing any autographs. As you can see, my youngest still has food in her mouth when he came by!


The nice thing about our meal at Garden Grill was that they bring the food to you. No rushing to the buffet and worrying if you'll miss the character.

After Mickey came, the server brought out the rest of our breakfast, which consisted of scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage links, tater tots, and Mickey waffles with chocolate-hazelnut sauce. Unfortunately, I didn't think to take a picture before we started eating. You can somewhat see it in this picture.



For my daughter with the dairy and nut allergy, they brought her out her own plate of food. It was similar to what we got, except the waffles weren't made with milk. I'm thinking the eggs didn't have any dairy in it, too.


Mickey came by a second time and gave my daughter a little kiss.


Next, came Chip. He took pictures with the kids but didn't sign our autograph books. I'm not sure if he just doesn't sign, or he just forgot to sign.


After Chip came by, it was about 8:40 AM. I wanted to get going soon, so we could get downstairs to Soarin'. Plus, I was getting super dizzy. While it doesn't feel like the restaurant is rotating, for some reason, it really affected me. Even at the end of the day, I was still feeling off. I was afraid we weren't going to get a chance to meet Dale since he was nowhere to be found.

Luckily, while we were waiting for the server to pick up the check, Dale came by and we got our picture!


Unfortunately, the park opened a little early. So, we weren't the very first ones down to ride Soarin'. But, we had a pretty minimal wait. Overall, we really enjoyed The Garden Grill and will definitely consider dining there again the next time we go to Disney World.