The best Magic Kingdom restaurants are the best places to eat with kids if you know where to look! Don't wait till you're starving to plan for Disney dining, use this list to make notes for a fun day in the parks.
Planning your dining strategy for a trip to Disney World can feel so overwhelming and complicated.
But honestly? All you need is the list of the best Magic Kingdom restaurants and understand how they can fit into a fun schedule for a day in the park.
If you need the best places to eat at Magic Kingdom with kids, I'm sharing our family's go-to restaurants for every visit we've made for the last 10 years.
I hope this helps relieve some of the confusion and overwhelm you're feeling about where to get started.
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Quick Service vs. Table Service
When looking for the best places to eat in Magic Kingdom, the first thing to ask yourself is whether you want a sit-down table service restaurant or faster quick service restaurant.
There are pros and cons to both and each restaurant style fills a very specific vacation need.
The Best Quick Service Restaurants
Since the table service and quick service restaurants are so different, I created a separate list for our favorite quick service restaurants because they are too hard to compare to the experience of a table service:
Best Table Service in Magic Kingdom
This post is meant to compare the best table service restaurants in Magic Kingdom so we can focus on an apples to apples comparison.
When deciding which is the best place to eat, these are the things I consider for my family, in this order:
- Price: Is the menu a la carte or is it a prix fixe where pay per person no matter what we order? When traveling with young kids, we absolutely prefer a la carte.
- Location: Where is the restaurant compared to our other plans for the day? I like to avoid hauling our feet all the way across the park just for a single to-do.
- Food: Almost every Disney restaurant has something delicious for us to eat. We've never experienced a truly bad meal, but some rise above and are better than the rest. I glance over the menus in advance and try to imagine what my kids will order and go from there.
With those criteria factors in mind, here is our list of the best Magic Kingdom restaurants in order of our preference:
1. Tony's Town Square
We've dined at Tony's Town Square almost every Disney trip we've made in 10 years.
We love everything about it: the location, the price, the food.
But our most recent visit was the best ever because we finally got to experience the addition of adult beverages to the menu.
That cold glass of white wine saved my sanity at the end of a crazy busy park day!
But the food was phenomenal during that visit, too.
I'm not sure if we were all super hungry or if the Italian food just hit the spot especially well. The wonderful service didn't hurt either.
For all the details you need to know before you book it and to see what we ordered, be sure to read our Tony's Town Square restaurant review here:
2. The Crystal Palace
While Tony's wins for food, The Crystal Palace wins for best character dining in Magic Kingdom.
Be sure to pop over and read my full review of The Crystal Palace to get tips about planning a visit and how we use this restaurant for my favorite Disney vacation planning tip ever.
But if you're looking for a great way to get some character photos without standing in line at a meet & greet station, you can double up with some adorable Winnie the Pooh photos and a delicious meal at the same time:
3. Jungle Skipper Canteen
I firmly believe that a Disney vacation should be fun for the whole family, not just the kids. Yes, this means that the parents get to have a few things they truly enjoy, too.
If you're tired of hamburgers and pizza and other theme park food, be sure to schedule a visit to the Jungle Cruise's Skipper Canteen restaurant.
The unique menu items and fun decor are unlike anything else you'll see in Magic Kingdom.
But will your kids enjoy the restaurant, too?
Remember, I said the whole family. Kids AND adults. Be sure to read my Skipper Canteen review here for all the details:
4. Is the Be Our Guest Restaurant Worth It?
Lastly, can I really talk about the best Magic Kingdom restaurants without mentioning the infamous Be Our Guest??
This Beauty & The Beast themed restaurant has definitely had mixed reviews over the years.
I had the opportunity to visit a couple times during runDisney weekends with my girlfriends.
A lot has changed at the restaurant since then and at this point I would say that I would not recommend that you add this restaurant to your schedule.
Does that surprise you?
You can read my full reasoning in my Be Our Guest review here:
More Disney Dining Tips
Looking to eat well on your next Disney trip? Don't miss all my best Disney dining advice here:
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