The Best And Worst All-You-Can-Eat Buffets In Disney World

When you step through the gates into Disney World, you will be greeted by happy cast members with a two-finger point (because pointing one finger is rude and thus un-Disney-like), the beloved characters that made your childhood magical, and restaurants with three dollar signs on Yelp.

With premiere dining experiences like Be Our Guest's pre-set three-course meal with minimal portions for more than $60 per adult, eating at Disney is expensive with a capital E. But if you're starving from a long day of rope dropping and your dining options are at the mercy of the mouse, there is one way to get some bang for your buck: Go to a restaurant where you can stuff your face with as much food as possible in one sitting. 

Offering both traditional buffet restaurants and family-style eateries that allow guests to order as many plates from a fixed menu as they can stand, Disney has plenty of all-you-can-eat options to choose from. Just because you can eat your way into a magical food comma, it doesn't mean every buffet-style Disney restaurant is worth your money. We're going to help you differentiate between the good eateries offering bottomless plates and the bad. Based on the quality of the food and the overall atmosphere, here are the best and worst all-you-can-eat restaurants at Disney World.

Arguably Disney World's "Most Obnoxious Restaurant," the Whispering Canyon Cafe is a Disney Wilderness Lodge eatery where family-style bottomless skillets are served up by rough-and-tough servers. This restaurant's whole shtick is to give guests an all-in-good-fun hard time. However, some fans have found that the servers tend to be more mean-spirited than light-hearted in their teasing. Aside from its wait staff's bad reputation, the bottomless skillets that make Whispering Canyon an all-you-can-eat experience are also far from appetizing.

Focusing on country favorites, Whispering Canyon offers three skillet options for breakfast and lunch, with eats like homemade buttermilk biscuits, cornbread, and brisket. As for dinner, the restaurant serves up four all-you-can-eat platters packed with ribs, buttered corn, and pork belly. Unfortunately, Whispering Canyon's food is consistently served cold. But worst of all, the eatery's beef brisket is unappetizingly chewy, and its meat dishes, in general, are known for being too tough to enjoy.

At $26 to $38 for an adult refillable skillet meal, as of June 2023, Whispering Canyon Cafe is on the lower price side of the Disney buffet lineup. However, its border-line mean servers and mediocre food and atmosphere (which features a rustic theme with cheesy cartoon cowboy motifs throughout) make it one of the worst all-you-can-eat-spots at Disney.

As a restaurant that's been featured in the likes of PopSugar and Thrillist, 'Ohana has developed a reputation as a delicious spot to enjoy an all-you-can-eat breakfast and dinner. Located in The Polynesian Resort, 'Ohana's Lilo and Stitch character dining breakfast features American favorites with a slight Polynesian spin, like ham with pineapple and Mickey waffles. Later in the day, the menu offers Hawaiian-inspired eats for dinner, including grilled chicken with 'Ohana noodles and grilled teriyaki beef. 

Since the pandemic and Disney's reopening, 'Ohana's beautiful atmosphere featuring Polynesian designs and mini Stonehenge statues may have stayed the same but its food quality has gone downhill. While this Polynesian-inspired eatery used to sell large sizzling shrimp, it's recently downsized to small fishier-tasting portions. The chicken with chimichurri sauce has also received a flavor downgrade, as the meal now piles its signature sauce on top of a single chicken thigh when it previously featured grilled white meat chicken breast. 

At $45 per adult and $29 per child for breakfast and $59 and $38 respectively for dinner, as of June 2023, you'll still be paying a Disney price for this mediocre dining experience. So yeah, 'Ohana means family, and family means not letting those you love make a reservation here.

The Crystal Palace is a Magic Kingdom restaurant that has been the subject of a lot of controversial Disney discourse. With a decor influenced by Victorian greenhouses, The Crystal Palace has a beautiful atmosphere consisting of sweeping windows and luscious greenery. By featuring the opportunity to meet the Winnie the Pooh characters, this main street USA eatery is also brimming with Disney magic. However, the quality and selection of food at the breakfast, lunch, and dinner all-you-can-eat buffets are where this restaurant falls short.

For the first meal of the day, The Crystal Palace allows guests to get their fill of standard eats like yogurt, fresh fruit, bacon, pancakes, and cereal. For lunch and dinner, it also serves pretty straightforward entrees and sides like seasonal salads, country-fried chicken with gravy, veggies, and prime rib. Nothing about the menu is particularly interesting, and the offerings are extremely bland tasting. Some guests describe the quality of the restaurant's eats as the equivalent of overpriced cafeteria food.

Despite all of that, The Crystal Palace still comes out at $45 for adults and $29 per child for breakfast and $59 per adult and $38 per child for lunch and dinner, as of June 2023. Offering some of the worst food at Disney at a hefty price, The Crystal Palace is a buffet experience you'd be better off skipping.

Chef Mickey's is a Contemporary Resort eatery that serves up all-you-can-eat buffets for breakfast and dinner. The character dining-focused experience allows guests to meet Mickey and his crew. Before you even sit down for your meal, a postcard signed by Disney World's central characters awaits you at your table. However, while Chef Mickey's takes special care to ensure guests get plenty of Mickey memorabilia and memories, the restaurant doesn't put a lot of effort into making delicious food.

Like Crystal Palace, Chef Mickey's buffets also offer your usual American favorites. For breakfast, this restaurant puts out eggs, bacon, smoked ham, and Mickey waffles. For dinner, guests can pile strip loin, pork pernil, and orange chicken on their plates. However, the food is not a simple treat to the tastebuds. Best described as cold and tasteless, Trip Advisor reviewers have described Chef Mickey's eats as "bland" and "overpriced slop."

The restaurant's decor isn't exactly great either. Using a primary color palette featuring cartoon images of Mickey, this eatery looks very outdated — especially when compared to Disney's other dining experiences. Yet, Chef Mickey's is still as expensive as most Disney eateries, costing $45 per adult and $29 per child for breakfast and $59 and $38 respectively for dinner, as of June 2023. Between its terrible food and less-than-stellar atmosphere, something at Chef Mickey's doesn't add up.

Offering an all-you-can-eat buffet for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, Hollywood & Vine is a character-dining destination inside Disney's star-studded Hollywood Studios. Featuring Disney Junior characters at breakfast and seasonally-dressed versions of Minnie and other members of the core crew at lunch and dinner, the fact that Disney doesn't advertise the interior of this restaurant on its official website should clue you into just how underwhelming it is. With a cafeteria-style interior featuring lackluster "Greetings from Hollywood” postcard wall art, the food at Hollywood & Vine is just as disappointing as this spot's theme.

At breakfast, the buffet consists of simple meals like waffles, eggs benedict, pastries, and brioche French toast with banana's foster sauce. For lunch and dinner, guests can get their fill of similar standard eats such as mushroom farro risotto, tenderloin steak, and Mississippi mud pie — though after trying these options once, you probably won't want to come back for seconds.

While there is nothing wrong with keeping the food simple, the cuisine at Hollywood & Vine is often cold, overcooked, and dry. This dreadful trio of adjectives led one Trip Advisor reviewer to go as far as to say Hollywood & Vine is a "1-star restaurant that's pretending to be Disney." Priced at $42 per adult and $27 per child for breakfast and $59 per adult and $38 per child for lunch and dinner, as of June 2023, Hollywood & Vine's horrible food and atmosphere are complemented by its terrible value.

Named for the beloved Ariel sidekick who insists "it's better down where it's wetter," Sebastian's Bistro is a family-style eatery that only serves dinner. Situated in Disney's Caribbean Resort, the decor resembles a simple yet beautiful glass beach house with a view of Disney's waterfront. However, a great view does not make up for Sebastian's Bistro's hit-or-miss Caribbean food.

While you won't find Caribbean fufu at this restaurant, you will be given rolls with guava butter and caramelized onion jam as a starter, a salad piled with key-lime dressing as a side, and the Taste of the Caribbean platter which features pork, chicken, and fish alongside vegetable curry and grilled veggies as your main. However, while the rolls and guava butter are consistently tasty, depending on the day, the meat on the platter can leave a lot to be desired. Aside from having a tendency to come to the table lukewarm, the chicken is sometimes overcooked and dry. Perhaps worst of all, these Caribbean spiced meats have been known to offer little to no flavor. Priced at $35 per adult and $19 per child, as of June 2023, Sebastian's Bistro may be one of the cheapest family-style options at Disney, but its inconsistent quality also makes it one of Disney's worst buffets.