Advice for eating off property with large group - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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I have only stayed at Disney World on property before, but for our next trip, we are staying at the Sheraton Vistana Villas in November.
I was wondering what would be good placed to eat off property, but that is still relatively close (within maybe 30 minutes). I am worried about making ADRs (due to staying off property).
Closest to the Sheraton Vistana are:
Carrabas
Bahama Breeze
Outback Steakhouse
Red Lobster
Within 30 minutes you'll be able to find:
Longhorn Steakhouse
Olive Garden
Macaroni Grill
Chili's
Applebee's
Friendly's (its a chain from New England)
Cracker Barrel
Golden Corral
You are also within just minutes of Downtown Disney not every place requires or takes ADRs but even being offsite you should be able to make an adr for your group and you can do so online depending on how many people (14 or less can be made online) otherwise just dial up Disney and they should be able to help you.
There you have choices like:
Bongos
House of Blues
Raglan Road
Wolfgang Pucks
Paradiso37
But one thing regardless of where you choose to go is that with a large group if a restaurant doesn't take reservations these areas are very busy with other tourists and some locals who dine in the area so wait times can be long but if you dine at off times instead of say having dinner at 6-7pm try getting there at 4:45-5:15pm take your time ordering and having your meal and you might find less wait time.
Another option is to look at Restaurants and Restaurant Reservations | OpenTable where you can reserve tables at some restaurants (I have seen Paradiso37 on there, raglan road on there, other local places as well).
The one place my mother and I found here when we moved that we absolutely love is a place called BJ's Brewhouse its probably a good 15 minutes or so from the Vistana Hotel but they have everything under the sun and they can seat very large parties.
BJ's brewhouse Directions:
From the vistana take SR 535 to the Intersection with SR 536 (World Center Drive) make a left hand turn and get onto SR 417 going North. Go 1 exit and get off on John Young Parkway. Make a right at the end of the highway. Go to the 5th Traffic light on your right is ABC liquors. Make a right hand turn follow that road around and turn right into the shopping plaza with Party City. BJ's Brewhouse is a separate building in the front of the shopping plaza.
The traffic lights go pretty quick its probably only 2-3 miles from the highway.
Hope this helps. If you have more questions or want to know where a specific restaurant is located let me know I am only 12 minutes from WDW and am in the area often!
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We've done several large family dinners with DH's family at Buca di Beppo. It's family style Italian and they take reservations. They have some special table options and small private rooms that are just for large groups.
We had Thanksgiving dinner at the location at the Florida Mall. Buca di Beppo Italian Restaurant - Select a location We weren't a large group but it was a good solution for our mix of vegetarians, meat lovers and chicken-only eaters.
They do take reservations. I made our Thanksgiving ressies online.
I don't know if you are specifically looking for a TS restaurant, but if not, I would definitely recommend Sweet Tomatoes. It is a buffet restaurant with really delicious, fresh food. (HUGE salad bar, soup bar, pasta bar, bread/pizza/muffins, baked potato bar, dessert station, etc.) I thought it might be good for a larger group so that way there are many options and everyone can eat at their leisure, not having to wait forever for a huge order to come out. There are two pretty close to WDW, one is on I-Drive, but the closest one is right across from Disney property in the same shopping area as Red Lobster, Friday's, Fuddruckers, etc. (I can't think what the center's specific name is, but it is literally right across the street from the WDW property entrance where all the DTD "non-Disney" hotels are.) It's right by a mini golf course.
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I don't know if you are specifically looking for a TS restaurant, but if not, I would definitely recommend Sweet Tomatoes. It is a buffet restaurant with really delicious, fresh food. (HUGE salad bar, soup bar, pasta bar, bread/pizza/muffins, baked potato bar, dessert station, etc.) I thought it might be good for a larger group so that way there are many options and everyone can eat at their leisure, not having to wait forever for a huge order to come out. There are two pretty close to WDW, one is on I-Drive, but the closest one is right across from Disney property in the same shopping area as Red Lobster, Friday's, Fuddruckers, etc. (I can't think what the center's specific name is, but it is literally right across the street from the WDW property entrance where all the DTD "non-Disney" hotels are.) It's right by a mini golf course.
I was just searching online to find the locations for those.
We don't have them here in MN but ate at the one by Downdown Disney with DB, DSIL and DN in Nov. If I found the right place online it's in a shopping center called "The Crossroads" at Apopka Vineland Dr. http://www.sweettomatoes.com/locatio...ke_Buena_Vista
Yummy food and even my husband, who "must have meat" with his meal was happy.
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Last edited by Carousel96; 02-24-2011 at 11:14 AM..
Thank you, I have always wanted to try Buca di Beppo AND we do need reservations for Thanksgiving, and 2 people are vegetarians in our group.....
And, Sweet Tomatoes sounds awesome. I am sure we will try it!
Thank you so much!
I didn't even notice your trip dates.
Last year (2010) Buca offered a traditional turkey dinner in addition to their usual Italian menu. They even had plastic wishbones so that all the kids could have one.
I'm glad we made plans for turkey day. My SIL had called Sweet Tomatoes to see if they'd be open on Thanksgiving. Although they assured her on the telephone that they would be open, we went for dinner on Wed. night and saw a sign on the door saying that they would be closed on Thanksgiving. Hopefully they'll be a bit more on the ball this coming fall.
Don't forget Chevy's Fresh Mex at the Crossroads. If you like Mexican food, you'll like Chevy's.
For quick food-court style food, head for the Orlando Premium Outlets and enter their food court. Five Guys Burgers and all the standard mall food court places are there, and there is a Disney outlet store right outside the food court for cheaper shopping than on-site.
But mainly, don't worry about your ADRs. Call to make them at your 180-day window, as you do when you stay on-site, and you'll get most of them. The only drawback to staying off-site is that you have to call back each day to make your ADRs, instead of making them all at once as you do when staying on-site. In other words, you call 180 days from the first day of your trip, then you call 180 days form the second day of your trip, and so on, till you have ADRs for each day of the trip.
But mainly, don't worry about your ADRs. Call to make them at your 180-day window, as you do when you stay on-site, and you'll get most of them. The only drawback to staying off-site is that you have to call back each day to make your ADRs, instead of making them all at once as you do when staying on-site. In other words, you call 180 days from the first day of your trip, then you call 180 days form the second day of your trip, and so on, till you have ADRs for each day of the trip.
We stayed off-property last time and had no problem making ADRs at the 180-day mark. Granted, we went at a slower time and weren't a large group, but I was even able to book CRT without any problems. And I booked one meal with 15 people at CP for DS's birthday (we had to be at multiple tables). I would definitely try to book any ADRs that you want...you might be surprised what you can get.
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