I’m here to tell you about my FAVORITE character meal, and my favorite character meal HACK in Magic Kingdom!
Let’s go!
Yep, I’m talking about Crystal Palace! This Magic Kingdom restaurant is home to a delightful character buffet during breakfast, lunch, and dinner. But if you can’t decide between breakfast or lunch? You don’t have to! I recently made a trip to Crystal Palace where I got to experience TWO meals. And today, I’m bringing my full review of the experience and telling you how I did it!
Atmosphere
Crystal Palace is located on the corner of Main Street, U.S.A., and Adventureland in Magic Kingdom, and you can see the influences from both lands in its exterior architecture. On the left side, the decor is influenced by the turn of the century styles…
The check-in kiosk
…while on the right side, you’ll find a much more Adventureland-inspired jungly environment. This half is complete with green awnings and lots of foliage to help complete the transition between the two lands!
The other side of Crystal Palace
However, once you step inside, it’s all bright and welcoming! Here, Winnie the Pooh and friends are celebrating their Friendship Day, and you’re invited.
The entrance
Disney even has little topiaries of the characters you’ll meet in the restaurant!
Tigger and Piglet
Seating around the restaurant is a mix of tables, booths, and banquettes. You might find yourself seated fairly close to another party, simply so that there’s a bit more floor space for the characters to move around between tables.
Seating
Once I was seated, my server gave me the autograph card for the meal, with everyone’s signatures on it! This is a great keepsake to remember your time at Crystal Palace.
All the autographs!
And during my meal, I got to see an adorably friendly Piglet…
Piglet
…a very bouncy, flouncy Tigger…
Tigger
…Eeyore — complete with his tail…
Eeyore
…and of course, Winnie the Pooh! Sometimes, if the character rotation is moving slow, you may have to meet one of the characters in the middle of the restaurant instead of having them come to your table. That’s what happened with Pooh during my visit.
Winnie the Pooh
Now that we’ve seen the characters, it’s time to check out the eats!
Menu
The TRICK to getting to enjoy both breakfast and lunch at Crystal Palace is to make your dining reservation between 10:30AM and 11AM. When I arrived at 11AM, the buffet area was split half with breakfast items and half with lunch!
Breakfast Buffet
Kicking off things with the breakfast buffet, we have the dessert area, which is home to those iconic churro Mickey waffles.
BREAKFAST
When you get around to the regular buffet, you’ll find classics like scrambled eggs, pancakes, and regular Mickey waffles.
The classics
Of course, there’s a pastry section…
Pastries
…with plenty of jams, butters, and sauces to choose from.
Toppings
And for those who want something healthy, you’ll want to check out the fruit and veggie bar!
Fruit
For some slightly fancier options, you could try the Traditional Roast Beef Hash, the Kenlan Tofu Curry, the Denver Frittata, or the Mediterranean Frittata.
Breakfast buffet
They also had Disney’s iconic Cheesy Breakfast Potatoes — these things are a hit at any breakfast buffet.
Must have potatoes!
For savory eats, you can make your own chicken and waffles with the Crispy Fried Chicken and Mickey Waffles or put together your own shrimp and grits.
More basics
Like usual, they also had sausage and bacon on the buffet.
Waffles and bacon
That’s everything from breakfast, but let’s take a look at lunch!
Lunch Buffet
When things swapped over for lunchtime, Disney rolled out an entirely new buffet! Starting things off with the kids’ section, we’ve got chicken tenders, mac and cheese, mini beef quesadillas, and cheesy pizza bread.
Kids buffet
From there, you come to the bread section…which is PLENTIFUL. So many different carbs to choose from!
Bread
There’s also a salad bar with different kinds of lettuce…
Salad bar
…as well as salad toppings and fruit.
Salad bar
On the main buffet, we’ve got Country Fried Chicken, mashed potatoes, and collard greens.
Chicken
There’s also a selection of roasted veggies and a bowl of smoked cheddar grits.
Lunch buffet
You can either eat your Shrimp Creole on top of those grits, or you might prefer it on the basmati rice instead.
Lunch buffet
And then to round out the list, we’ve got Vegetable Chana Masala, Honey-glazed Salmon, and four-cheese macaroni and cheese. YUM!
Lunch buffet
Now it’s time to make those plates and DIG IN.
Eats
To start, I kicked my meal off with a breakfast plate! I grabbed some samples of a few items from the buffet, including the delicious cheesy potato casserole, which was fantastic as usual. The potatoes were soft with a little bit of chew with the right amount of saltiness.
Breakfast plate
Another item I had to try was the churro Mickey waffle! This was spectacular with cinnamon sugar coating on the outside. It was soft in the middle and a little crispy on the edges, but still delicious even after it cooled off.
Churro waffle!
To round out my breakfast eats, I made a bowl of shrimp and grits. The grits were fairly gritty and needed a little more butter, but were mildly cheesy. The shrimp had a nice kick to them, but this definitely wasn’t the best shrimp and grits I’ve had in Disney World.
Shrimp and Grits
After I sampled the breakfast buffet, it was time for lunch! I started out with some steamed broccoli, which was nicely salted and had a hint of spice from red pepper flakes.
Lunch plate
After that, it was time for the four-cheese macaroni and cheese, which was cheesy and creamy with a hint of garlic. It had some tang from the green onions and a savory flavor from the bacon bits.
Macaroni and cheese
For protein, I snagged the Country Fried Chicken which was nice and peppery. It was a little bit dry but crispy on the outside. Honestly, it was a smidge on the gristly side and hard to cut into. Overall overcooked and probably not the best cut of chicken.
Chicken
On the other hand, the Miso-glazed Salmon was moist and tender and melted in my mouth. It was a little sweet from the glaze with saltiness at the end. I would definitely get this again!
Salmon
So what did I think of the meal overall?
Overall
It’s important to note that I was charged for lunch, which is $61 per adult, whereas breakfast is $48 per adult. This is likely because my reservation time was 11AM, which is when the meal officially switches over (though the breakfast food stays on the buffet a bit longer).
My meal
Even with a meal that costs over $60 per person, I felt like this was a GREAT deal. Not only did I get a character experience, but I also got to eat off two different buffets. Overall, the food was pretty delicious, and the character interactions were fun!
Nosh or Not?
Visit Winnie the Pooh and friends if…
- You’re a fan of characters from the Hundred Acre Wood. The only other place you can meet these characters is over in Fantasyland, and this is a great alternative if you don’t want to wait in line.
- You have a big appetite! This is a great option to eat a lot of food for one set price, and they’ve got a variety of eats for different tastes.
- You want to get breakfast AND lunch! If you want to use my hack to get both breakfast and lunch at this restaurant by scheduling a mid-morning reservation, I would definitely recommend it.
Skip past this spot and dine elsewhere if…
- You’re on a budget. This meal isn’t exactly cheap, especially if you have a large group. So if you’d like to save some dough, this may not be for you.
- You have small appetites. To get your money’s worth, you’ll want to be able to eat a decent amount during this meal.
- You don’t enjoy character meals. Not everyone loves character meals, so if you fall into that camp, then this might not be the restaurant for you.
Character Autograph Card
That’s a wrap on my visit to Crystal Palace — thanks for coming along! Stay tuned to DFB for more restaurant reviews and food updates from Disney World.
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Have you ever been to Crystal Palace? Tell us in the comments!