Walt Disney World has no shortage of dining locations or variety of food. With the most popular of their dining plans, the Magic Your Way Plus Dining package (often called the “Disney Dining Plan”) offering each guest a quick service meal credit for each night of their stay, I am often asked for restaurant recommendations.

Here are my top recommendations for counter service locations at Walt Disney World:

photo by the Restaurant Fairy

Magic Kingdom: Columbia Harbour House

Located in Liberty Square just down from the Haunted Mansion, Columbia Harbour House offers a great alternative to your typical theme park fare. You’ll find a delicious tuna sandwich (my favorite!), fish, fried shrimp, hummus, a BLT salad, chowder and other favorites. For a nice, quiet location to eat, go upstairs to find a table. If you can get one near a window, you’ll enjoy some fairly picturesque views of the Magic Kingdom!

Honorable Mention: Pecos Bills in Frontier Land – home of my favorite Magic Kingdom counter service meal, the chicken wrap!

photo by Around the Mouse

Epcot: Tangerine Cafe

I consider the Tangerine Cafe to be the best theme park counter service option available! Located in the Morocco pavilion in Epcot’s World Showcase, this little gem of a restaurant has terrific Moroccan and Middle Eastern food. The portions are huge, not to mention delicious. The top recommendation is the Shawarma Lamb Platter. Don’t like lamb? The Shawarma chicken platter is good as well. The desserts here are divine as well. To make your experience here even better, check the Times Guide to see if the group Mo’Rockin will be performing around your meal time. If so, look for a table outside where you can enjoy the show while you eat!

Honorable Mention: Sunshine Seasons downstairs in the Land Pavilion. With the huge variety of offerings, there is sure to be something here to please everyone in your group.

photo by DisneyDreams.net

Disney’s Hollywood Studios: Starring Rolls Cafe

Counter service options at Disney’s Holywood Studios are not as impressive as options at other locations. Starring Rolls Cafe is a tiny bakery/sandwich shop tucked away on the corner of Sunset and Hollywood Boulevards. It’s easy to miss, but definitely worth a stop! Serving fresh sandwiches, sushi, pastries and some quite decadent desserts, they often run out of food by late afternoon so don’t wait too long to stop by! Everything I have tried here has been delicious. Make sure you have a chocolate butterfinger cupcake for me while you are there. The only drawback is it’s very limited seating.

Honorable Mention: Toy Story Pizza Planet grabs honorable mention not for fantastic food, or even variety on it’s menu, but because it’s a popular one for the kids. Just like the Pizza Planet in the movies you’ll find arcade games and lots of fun. Sometimes Mom and Dad just need somewhere to sit and rest for a bit and let the kids burn off some of that extra energy and this is a great air conditioned spot for that!

photo by Disney Shawn

Disney’s Animal Kingdom: Anandapur Local Cafes

Animal Kingdom has a couple of great counter service options so I had a bit of a hard time picking my favorite! The Anadapur Local Cafes won out because of the fact that it is the same food as served around the corner at the Yak and Yeti table service restaurant…but it’s priced about 30% less! Offering generous portions of Asian food and plenty of outdoor (mostly shaded) seating, this is a great way to get table service quality food for less or without burning a table service credit!

Honorable Mention: Flame Tree Barbecue. Ask me on a different day and Flame Tree could easily take the top spot at Animal Kingdom. The food is good and the location is quiet and beautiful (my husband heads up an award winning competitive barbecue team and this one gets his stamp of approval too!).

photo by Visit Mickey

Downtown Disney: Wolfgang Puck Express

If you are looking for the best bang for your buck on the dining plan, this is it! I’d consider Wolfgang Puck Express at the Downtown Disney marketplace probably the top counter service location in all of Walt Disney World. It’s borderline table service. You order at the counter but your food is brought out to you. Fresh salads, sandwiches and gourmet pizzas make up the menu. I highly recommend the barbecue chicken pizza! My family teases me that dining at Walt Disney World for me becomes “the creme brulee extravaganza” because if it’s on the menu, I’m probably going to order it! This is one of the only counter service restaurants to have my favorite dessert, and it doesn’t disappoint! The drawback here is that seating is very limited so you may want to send someone out to scout for a table while the rest of your party places your order.

Honorable Mention: Earl of Sandwich – sandwiches and salads and wraps, oh my!

So there you have it, my top recommendations for counter service restaurants at Walt Disney World! You’ll find more than just hot dogs, hamburgers and chicken nuggets at all of them!

Did your favorite make the list?

Stay tuned for my top table service recommendations as well!

See ya real soon!

Lori Hardegree
lori@magicalmemoriestravel.com
@DisneyMomATL