Lilmsfoodie, so glad to see you posting. I have missed you these last few months.
I agree on Jiko. We had a wonderful dinner there a week before Christmas.
We also had a very good dinner at Wolfgang Puck's at Disney Marketplace. Not the Express place, but the restaurant. It was a very very good meal. Incredible mussels appetizer in a white wine broth w/fresh herbs, and it was all uphill from there. Busy night w/crowds and a 30 min. wait without priority reservations, but excellent service also.
I've had some very good meals at Epcot (Chef de France, Coral Reef) but they have not been replicated when I have eaten at those places a second time. California Grill was a zoo.
If you get to Islands of Adventure, Mythos is very good and has been good all 4 times we have eaten there. We like Emeril's restaurant at City Walk (not Tchoup Tchoup; we should have listened to LilMsFoodie before we blew so much money at Tchoup Tchoup- in one word, yuk).

I agree that Disney is not a hotbed of haute cuisine. Last year I was there for over a week for work and tried a number of different places. The 2 best meals I had were at the California Grill. One was a private dinner but one was in the main dining room and I thought everything was well-prepared. Plus the view gave it some bonus points. Jiko is attractive in that Disney/Vegas fake sort of way and our meal there was good but I would have preferred if they'd pushed the envelope a bit more and not "dumbed down" the food. Chefs de France was pleasant. I also had a fairly good meal at a steak house in either the Dolphin or the Swan (the one in back) but I can't remember the name of the place.

LilMsFoodie, love your comment about for home cooking stay home.
Reminds of the guy who goes in the place with the big sign "Mom's Home Cooking" and orders. The food is horrible, so he calls over the waitress and says, "This is terrible. I want to talk to Mom. Where is she?"
"Like the sign says," replies the waitress. "She's home cooking."

I usually recommend California Grill but I have not been there for two years now. It was always my favorite.

My husband loved Disney World although he was not an insane disney fan like you find on the DisBoards. We also liked the Wolfgang Puck's at Downtown Disney. We always sat at the bar as you could usually order there and watch the passing show of tourists and commando style Disney parents.

The steakhouse mentioned above is Shula's at the Dolphin (of course). Fairly good steak house with the football menu gimmick. This hotel and the restaurants inside are set up for meeting and convention business so be aware.

Sequess, Disney is all about artifice and artificiality of experience. That is the point. I am both attracted by the perfection of it and repulsed by the fake experience that many take for the real thing. It is what it is. A resort for families is never going to have a cutting edge restaurant, it would close.

What Disney does is let people experience a little bit of things outside their normal routine without risk. What Disney has not done is update the experience. The internet and cheap airfares have made the mass audience much more sophisticated and they need to massively upgrade their "hardware" at this point. Always in my NSHO.

LilMsFoodie

Just realized I never followed up on this. Had a great time, and really loved the Calif Grill. It was excellent in every way. Also had a great meal at Schula's. Enjoyed House of Blues,too, but not "fine dining." Thanks for the suggestions.

I want to add my recommendation for Jiko at Animal Kingdom Lodge. We had 2 wonderful meals there.

I loved Jiko but it's been two years since I was there. I've heard mundane reviews lately on Victoria's and Albert's. But lots of raves for California Grill.

I spent some time lately at Saratoga Springs Spa at Disney. No place good to eat there, that's for sure.

Quoted from above:
"We had dinner once at the VA and the food was OK - but not great - and the service/atmosphere was definitely pretentious."

The atmosphere is supposed to be Victorian. All the costumed waiters are named Albert and have name tags saying so. All the waitresses have name tags saying Victoria.

Pretentious? Yes, don't you think that's the entire point?

Am I missing something? Has anyone mentioned Arthurs 27 at the Wyndham? It is upscale. You don't have to wear a jacket but you do dress for dinner. no t-shirts, shorts, etc.,. Food is exceptional. The view is wonderful. Make reservations and ask for a table to see the fireworks at Epcot.

Or the Peabody hotel. Dinner is very nice there as well.

I've heard good things about Artist Point at Wilderness Lodge.

Le Cellier is the Canadian steakhouse at Epcot. It is pretty good; when you consider that you're within walls of a theme park it's fantastic! Likewise the Hollywood Brown Derby at MGM Studios. Neither would count as the best food in town in the "real world", but it sure is nice to be able to get off a ride in your shorts and t-shirt and have a very tasty meal (including wine) right there in the park.

It was a good suggestion to look at the menus on allearsnet.com. Also, read the reviews on the disboards.

Other than V&A which doesn't allow kids, there WILL be kids. Lots of the restaruants have un-juvenile decor, but there WILL be kids.

Also, the prices are hefty. In my opinion, if you want a decent sit down meal, you have to just suspend reality and not think about where you could have eaten at home for that price.