We had a reservation to eat supper here on our first trip to WDW, back in 2016, but unfortunately I ended up getting sick that day and we had to cancel. We tried finding a spot to squeeze it in on our 2017 trip, but it just didn’t work out, so we were determined to get there on this trip.
Our Walmart trip earlier that day ran a little longer than we expected it to, so we were a few minutes late checking in for our 6:35pm reservation – but they were backed up so it wouldn’t have mattered. We didn’t have a terrible wait, they called our names around 6:50 and led us to our two-top table. The hostess showing us to our table pointed out the buffet, and let us know that we would have more than enough time to go grab a plate of food before any of the characters made their way to us, as they were all on break at that point. We were hungry, so she didn’t have to tell us twice!
My first plate, starting at the top and going clockwise: mashed potatoes, turkey and gravy, cheese, green beans, Mongolian beef, rice, baked ziti, cheese ravioli, pork and butter chicken.
They clearly don’t know what butter chicken is – this was more of a mild curry chicken – it was very good, but don’t call it what it’s not. The baked ziti pasta was surprisingly really good! Lots of cheese baked in throughout, and the pasta had a texture I liked. The beef and rice was a real standout on the plate, which shocked me a bit – usually beef like that (especially from a buffet) is tough and chewy. It was definitely cooked well done (big thumbs up from me for that!) but it was still tender and the sauce had great flavour! Honestly, I liked every single thing I tried.
I also had a bowl of their famous strawberry soup. I wasn’t sure what to expect from this, but I enjoyed it. It’s served cold (which isn’t soup in my opinion). When I was young, we had lots of local strawberries in the summer, and one of my favourite things to eat was mashed berries mixed with some heavy cream (usually unwhipped whipping cream), and then I would dip buttered toast into it. Basically, 1900 Park Fare’s Strawberry soup tastes exactly like that – which leads me to believe it’s just heavy cream and strawberries. Simple, but delicious!
We were both feeling fancy and ordered alcoholic drinks. Luke went for the Moscow Mule – Russian standard vodka, fresh lime juice and agave nectar topped with ginger beer, $11.
The drink that caught my eye was the Antioxidant Lemonade – Van Gogh Açai-Blueberry vodka, Odwalla lemonade and pomegranate juice, topped with Sprite, $9.75. We were both pleased with our selections, and I loved the little stir sticks with the hotel logo on it.
Luke’s first plate from the buffet contained, from the top and going clockwise, fried catfish, potato salad, sausage, pork and mushroom gravy, “butter chicken”, cornbread, roast beef, mashed potatoes, a single chicken nugget from the kids section (he informed me he had more, but he snacked on them as he made his way around the rest of the buffet…).
Luke’s favourites from this plate were the catfish and the pork roast, but there was nothing he didn’t like. That roast beef is way too rare for me, and Luke’s only complaint was that the juice from it made the catfish batter a little bit soggy. He also made a similar comment as I did about the “butter chicken” – terrible butter chicken, but excellent curry chicken.
Luke’s second plate: casear salad, butternut squash ravioli, Mongolian beef and rice, turkey and gravy and honey sriracha salmon.
Luke raved about that salmon, he tends to like most things sriracha-flavoured, but he also said the salmon was very well cooked. I don’t eat seafood, so I can’t tell you my opinion on it. He was also a huge fan of the butternut squash ravioli – but again, there was nothing on his plate he didn’t enjoy.
My second plate: cheese ravioli, green beans, casear salad, macaroni and marinara sauce from the kids section, baked ziti and Mongolian beef and rice.
I basically went for more of my favourites from my first plate. Of course, my eyes were much larger than my stomach (what else is new? Haha), and I was not able to finish this plate. It was all so good though!
While we ate, the characters made their way around the room. I’m always super awkward with face characters, I never know what to say to them, but these ones made it easy! The step-sisters were hilarious, and so was the Evil Step-Mother. Personally, I’ve never been a huge fan of Cinderella, she’s a little too prim and proper for me – I prefer the spunky princesses like Rapunzel or Tiana. The Cinderella we met here was exactly what I’d expect, a very polished, proper princess.
This was the first time we’ve met a male face character. The interaction was good, but nothing really memorable.
Drizella was hilarious. We had one of our “Happily Ever After” buttons sitting on the table, so she asked if we were on our Honeymoon. When we explained that we were actually on our wedding trip, and getting married the following week she got all excited and asked to see my ring, so of course I showed her. She squealed, and asked if it was vintage (which it is, it belonged to my Grandmother). Drizella then went on to tell me all about the jewels she’s going to get that currently belong to her mother.
She had the best facial expressions hahaha.
As her sister, Anastacia, approached, Drizella excitedly told her we were getting married soon, so she asked me if she could see a picture of my dress. Luke snapped these pictures while I showed her the pictures of me wearing my dress…
I know she’s supposed to be an evil step-sister, but she was actually really sweet! I liked her 🙂 The table next to us had an older lady sitting there, the grandmother of the group, and it was apparently her first trip to WDW. Anastasia came back a few times just to give grandma a hug and tell her how adorable she was – the Grandma clearly thought this was just the greatest thing, I loved watching her smile every time Anastasia came over.
The final character was the evil step-mother, Lady Tremaine. Again, she found out we were getting married soon, so she asked me why I was marrying him – was he rich? I embarassed Luke and told Lady Tremaine I was marrying him because he liked cats and had a pair of them haha. She was pretending she didn’t want to get too close to him in case he had cat hair on him.
There was a decent dessert selection as part of the buffet, but we had ate so much of the other food that we didn’t want any. Our server did bring us each a cupcake though as a congratulations, so we did each have a bite of that. We left over half of each one though, we were so full!
I’m so happy we finally made it here for a meal! I think it might be my favourite character meal at Walt Disney World – the characters were great, and the food was fantastic. It’s not a cheap option, and my Tables in Wonderland card was blacked out due to it being January 1st, but I could still use my AP discount (10% on food only). I would not hesitate to return here, and won’t even complain that much about paying full price.
Tables in Wonderland Original Cost: $150 Break Even Point Before this Meal: $130.60 Savings this Meal: $0 (blackout date) Total until Breaking Even: $130.60
Predicted food budget: $2631.67 Estimated Cost of this meal: $27.46(Pop Food Court – Breakfast) + $112.89 (1900 Park Fare) = $140.35 Actual Cost: $15.95(Pop) + 112.20 (1900 Park Fare) = $128.15 Over/Under: Under by $12.20 Remaining: $2218.58
Next meal: California Grill