INTRODUCTION
1900 Park Fare is a large buffet restaurant inside the main building of Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa. This eatery is one of the several Table Service options GF. I think that 1900 Park Fare is a great place to eat if you are looking to eat outside of the parks. When we visited in September 2017, the buffet was great.
Sarah and I ate here during our September 2017 trip mostly because I wanted to give her a chance to meet Cinderella and the other characters from that movie. Sarah loves meeting the princess characters, but we are both indifferent about the other characters (Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, etc.).
ATMOSPHERE
The restaurant is open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Character meet-and-greets are the main attraction to 1900 Park Fare. For breakfast, there can be any combination of characters. You could expect characters from Alice and Wonderland, Mary Poppins, and Winnie the Pooh. For dinner, Cinderella is the star. The character meet and greets, Cast Members say, take roughly 45 minutes to complete.
1900 Park Fare is one massive seating area, flanked by smaller seating areas. Upon entering, you see seating directly in front of you and to the left. The buffet takes up the entire right side of the restaurant.
The theming is, pastels, I guess? I think the theming is meant to make you feel like you are on a carousel. This is complimented by horses and camels that could be taken directly from a carousel. These pieces are beautiful are are worth checking out.
FOOD
The Walt Disney World website classifies this restaurant as “American Cuisine”. This is slightly deceiving. The buffet at 1900 Park Fare is full of a diverse range of selections. It starts with a full salad bar, there are several appetizer stations, meats, pastas, carving station, and dessert.
Sarah and I love buffets. We also love stacking as many random, unconventional dishes on the same plate at the same time. We skipped the salad bar because we are on vacation and we don’t have time for greens.
I got chicken, Mongolian beef, shrimp, penne pasta, and carved roast beef on my first plate. The chicken was juicy and well seasoned. The Mongolian beef was overdone and chewy, but the flavor was good. The shrimp were really good, but freak Sarah out because they have the legs still on them (more shrimp for me!). The penne pasta was the worst dish that we tried. It was dry and bland. It tasted like it had been sitting in that serving dish for about an hour. The roast beef was really rare, which I love.
Sarah got green beans (nerd!), potatoes, bread, squash ravioli, chicken, and gnocchi. The green beans looked like they were good, Sarah finished them so I assume they were good. The potatoes were creamy and rich which is fantastic. The ravioli were incredibly sweet. So sweet that Sarah passed them off to me. The chicken was excellent and the gnocchi was the best part of the entire meal. The dumplings were cooked perfectly and the cream sauce was decadently rich.
Sarah and I split the dessert course so we could try one of everything. I had two servings of the strawberry soup, because it is epically good. My only complaint is that it was in such a small serving. I could have just hooked an IV with it into my arm.
We also split several of the pastries: cheesecake with fresh raspberry, cannoli, chocolate cream, and key lime pastry. I loved the key lime pastry the most and Sarah loved the cannoli the most. All of them we could have eaten for an entire meal and rolled ourselves out of the restaurant.
COST
According to the Disney World website, 1900 Park Fare is classified with “$$-$$$” which means adults should expect to pay roughly $15- $59.99, per person. Breakfast costs $20 for children and $32 for adults, which is incredibly expensive. Dinner is even more expensive, $27 for children and $45 for adults. I believe that Sarah and I ate $45 worth of food, but I am not sure any child can eat $27 worth of pizza.
For the Disney Dining Plan users, this restaurant requires one Table Service credit per person. This is a great use of a dining plan credit. To have character dining and it only cost 1 Dining Plan credit is a great value. Consider, Cinderella’s Royal Table is 2 credits and is not a buffet. Granted, 1900 Park Fare is not in Cinderella’s Castle. For the Tables in Wonderland users, 1900 Park Fare is 20% off.
WHO SHOULD EAT HERE?
The main group who will be interested in eating at 1900 Park Fare will be similar to Sarah and I. These are people who want the princess meet-and-greet. There are a plethora of options for this population of guests. Even though it is not in a park, it is still a chance for princesses like Sarah to meet their idols.
I think this is also a good place to eat for people on the Dining Plan. The value of this meal is in its price and access to exclusive experiences. If you are able to get an Advance Dining Reservation, which can be tricky, you should consider this eatery. It should, definitely, be one of your 180-day choices.
Also, if you are staying in GF you should consider eating here. It is definitely not a place you will be able to walk up and get a table, unless you are incredibly lucky, but if you are already in the resort it is a great option. It is not as expensive as the other restaurants in this pricey resort.
