A magical lunch! (Crystal Palace)

Member Name: Daisy

Product:	Crystal Palace
Date:	03/07/01 (146 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: see text

Disadvantages: none

Crystal Palace is situated in Disney’s Magic Kingdom and is one of their largest table service restaurants. The restaurant takes it’s name and design from a similar structure which once stood in New York. The place is huge, but not overwhelmingly so as the tables are scattered amongst the various parts of the ‘indoor garden’. Complete with an abundance of fresh flowers and hanging baskets.

As you enter you are greeted by 4 huge topiaries of Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Piglet and Eeyore. This gives an indication that this is the home of one of the famous Disney character meals, featuring the aforementioned characters. Although we had been to Disney many times before we had never eaten here. However our visit this coincided with our daughter’s seventh birthday, and I decided that a lunchtime trip here would make the day extra special. I booked the table some time in advance as the restaurant is very popular.

On arrival at the restaurant we were shown to our table which was covered in shiny Mickey shapes to make our table look special for her birthday. The place is very well designed with adults seated to the inside and children to the outside for maximum interaction with the characters. They make sure that you see each character at least once and my two kids had a fantastic time meeting them (so did I of course).

Of course this is a restaurant and we were here for lunch so what was the food like? Basically this is an all-you-can-eat buffet but the quality of the food was very good with dishes ranging from pasta, chicken., soup, carved meats, salads etc. Children could either eat from the main buffet or choose from a child’s buffet featuring the usual selection of pizza, chicken nuggets etc (my daughter thought she was in heaven!) When you are finished with all this there is then the ice-cream sundae buffet and the desert buffet, which included chocolate cake, apple crumble and many other traditional puds. Ove
rall I was impressed with both the quality and quantity of food provided . The lunchtime menu is currently priced at $15.95 per adult (about £12 at current exchange rates ) and $9.95 for children (about £7), but I felt this was a reasonable price to pay for the character interaction, the looks of sheer delight on my kid’s faces and of course the food.

Incidentally, because it was my daughter’s birthday some staff sang happy birthday to her, presented her with a cake complete with candle and also a birthday card ‘signed’ by Pooh, Tigger, Piglet and Eeyore. There was no extra charge for this and I’ve never seen such a huge grin on her face.

I would definitely make a return visit to Crystal Palace, I just wish such places were open when it was my seventh birthday many moons ago!

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