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Restaurant.com is a great way to eat out at a discount. I always wait until they have one of their 80% off codes, so I can pick up a $25 certificate for only $2.
When they have one of their 80% off sales, I always seem to get asked what restaurants in and around Disney are good choices. I don’t mind answering the questions, I could talk Disney all day, but I figured since it’s such a popular question there are probably more people that are wondering the same thing.
So, here are some suggestions for you:
DISNEYLAND
To search for restaurants around Disneyland, you will want to use zip code 92802
On-Property
House of Blues is located right in Downtown Disney, and is an excellent choice. You can look at their menu to see if it would interest you and your family.
Off-Property
Fire and Ice is located at The Shops at the Anaheim GardenWalk, which is not super close, but it is walking distance. This restaurant allows you to choose your own meal, then they the cook it on a Mongolian-style grill right in front of you. They have something for everyone, hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken, veggies, seafood and more.
The dinner menu is kind of on the expensive side, so we chose to go here for a late lunch because the prices were cheaper, and we weren’t ready to take a break from the park until later in the afternoon anyway. My kids actually loved this place, there was something for everyone, and the kids had fun watching their food being cooked. You can view their menu HERE.
DISNEY WORLD RESORT
To search for restaurants around Disney World, you will want to use zip code 32830
On-Property
Disney World also has a House of Blues located right in Downtown Disney, and is a great choice. You can look at their menu to see if it would interest you and your family.
They even have restaurants with Disney Character Meals available on restaurant.com, you can choose a certificate for Garden Grove in the Walt Disney World Swan resort. I will warn you, if you haven’t done a character meal before, they can be EXPENSIVE!! So, even with the discount you will still pay a pretty penny. We spring for one character meal on each trip, and it is such a great way to interact with the characters on a one and one basis. You usually can’t find too many ways to get a discount on a character meal, so this is a great way to get one!
There are several other restaurants located in the Walt Disney World Swan Resort, but most of these do not seem kid friendly at all, so I would only use these if you are kidless or crazy!. Kimonos is restaurant and lounge that serves Sushi and Japanese cuisine. There is also Shula’s Steak House and Todd English’s bluezoo.
Off-Property
If you have a car to get you around town, then I have a couple of more restaurants to suggest. We at at both of these, and we were very pleased with the quality of food and the service.
Giordano’s serves pizza and pasta, and they have several locations listed, so you will want to check to see which one is the closest to where you are staying. The pizza here was so good! Plus, they had a guy come around and make balloon animals to entertain the kids. Check out their menu HERE.
O’Charley’s was another excellent choice, but we did have to drive about 20-25 minute to get there. They have a nice size menu that offered lots of different choices. Everyone in our family was happy with there meals here, there are 7 of us, so that’s not always an easy thing to accomplish.
Click on the box above to head to Restaurant.com, make sure to note the current discount code and don’t forget to use it when you check out. Happy eating and saving!
Do you know of any restaurants that are available on restaurant.com that are available in or around a Disney Theme Park? Leave a comment and let us know which one you like.
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Dannielle says
Do the gift cards expire? Does the two dollar discount apply to all gift cards purchased out just o one? Thanks, I’m new to this and planning a trip in october! 🙂
Christy says
@Dannielle. October is a fabulous time to go! We have been in October twice. No, the certificates do not expires. If you use their current discount code SAVE (expires 3/14/11), it will take 80% off of all the certificates you purchase. Most $25 certificates sell for $10, so your finally cost would be $2.
You can see more about restaurant.com and how it works in my post here:
https://www.thriftyandthriving.com/2011/03/get-a-25-restaurant-certificate-for-only-2-5/
If you still have some questions, let me know!
Laureen says
Where were you last week?? We just came home yesterday from disneyland,lol
wen says
WE just came back from Disneyland for 6 day 5 night trip about less than$300 per person for the whole trip included food, first class flight, transporation, 2 hotel rooms within walking distant from the park, and 3 day hopper for both parks plus more. Not bad. The park is a lot less crowd during the week day and I guess off season helps too. The weather was sunny and warm, I am missing it already.
Hollie says
oh how funny! I just came back from a 7 day trip last Saturday!! lol! I searched high & low for months before on restaurant.com but since we didn’t want to eat at HOB, we never found any we could use. We don’t rent a car so no driving for us. We were able to take advantage of the free pancake day at IHOP on 3/1 and I brought coupons to use at Cold Stone & we got a great deal on an ice cream treat!
We have done this twice now to save money on food–we order from Safeway.com aka Von’s down there–a whole grocery order with free shipping. We buy bread & turkey etc for sandwiches, sodas & snacks for the kids. We also buy a 6 pack of water bottles, plus a few gallons to refill them with. We would have instant oatmeal or cereal for breakfast. Every day I would pack up before we would head to the park, and it saved us a ton of money. I brought a collapsible cooler & some blue ice to keep things cold. Of course–this is made much easier since I have kids small enough to still bring a stroller!
We are going back in October! Yay!
Maegen says
So, are you allowed to bring water bottles into the park?
Any other food?
I’ve heard about a lot of people getting food sent to their hotel from SW/Vons, and I guess I don’t quite get it…is the idea to take this food to the park for a picnic, or to eat in your hotel?
These are probably newbie questions….we are thinking about a trip to Disney, but the last time we went was way before kids! I’ve read a bit on the Disboards, but I actually find the amount of info. there overwhelming!
What a fun topic! Thanks for doing it.
Christy says
@Maegen – Yes, you can bring your own food into the theme parks, there are some rules like they only allow soft coolers without wheels, no glass, no food that needs to be heated, etc. Bringing your own water bottles into the park is way cheaper than buying them at the theme park.
When we have been there in the past, we have bought food from the grocery store, because our hotel had a kitchen, we were able to fix a couple of simple meals at the hotel. I even packed a package of spaghetti and a can of spaghetti sauce so i wouldn’t have to buy it there. Crazy, huh? I’ll do anything to save a buck!
I have had friends who stayed in a hotel within walking distance, so they would head back to the hotel everyday for lunch, and so the kids could take a nap.
I prefer to bring my own food into the park, for a couple of reasons:
1. You can only take so much park food before you get tired of it.
2. It’s expensive to buy the food there, it really add ups quickly.
I have lots of posts (and more in the works) for doing Disney on a Budget, you can see most of them here:
https://www.thriftyandthriving.com/?s=disney+on+a+budget
Gwen says
This past Feb 2011 was our 3rd trip to Disney Land. Christy, we used your House of Blues tip (bought at 80% off and got 3 for $2 a piece) and had lunch there everyday! The coupon said you may only use one cert every 30 days but I called before we left and the mgr said we could use the coupon 3 times a day if we wanted to. Great food at a great price! Thank you, thank you for the tip 🙂
We have been wanting to go to Lego Land but the cost of a family of 5 to go would just be so expensive. Plus, we’d have to rent a car. I know you can shuttle in but either way seemed kind of pricey. Any thoughts on how to do Lego Land on the cheap?
Thanks again for all the posts! DL is our favorite place and we try to go every year. The only way this is possible is to do it with all the advice given above. Thanks ladies.
Lindy says
I will chime in on Lego Land. We went in 2006 (but I think the info should still be relevant). Our family of 5 went to Disneyland (stayed at Disney hotel) and didn’t have a car. We booked a trip for 5 to Legoland as part of our package deal including transportation. Our kids were 4, 6, and 8 at the time. I don’t remember what the cost of doing the transportation was but here is why I would NEVER do that again! We got picked up at our hotel at a set time by a bus that took us to a central tour place where we had to wait (way too long, at least an hour) and get shuffled to the right bus (instead of those going to San Diego Zoo or Sea World, etc) We finally got on the bus and it FINALLY got going (time waiting to get to Legoland moves very slowly so the additional delay was excruciating). We got to the park after the park opened (it was off season so it wasn’t busy) and we had to get back on the bus at 5PM to go back to the hotel. The park was open later but because we had booked transportation we HAD to go back at 5:00. It was a pain because it was an awkward time, too early to eat and finish dinner and get on the bus and it was too late to wait for dinner back at our hotel (oops, we didn’t plan well). Also driving back to Anaheim in 5 o’clock traffic was brutal, stop and go. It would have been much more fun and cheaper to rent a car for one day, get there when the park opened, enjoy the park till it closed (if we chose) and then go get dinner at one of the lovely family restaurants (that we looked longingly at from the bus window) and drive back AFTER rush hour traffic. That’s my 2 cents!!
Gwen says
Thank you Lindy, I will definitely be renting a car if we decide to go. Very much appreciate the advice :). I have seen Lego Land coupons for Southern Cal residents but nothing else. We may just have to pay full price for entrance tickets! Can’t believe I just said full price. We book our hotel/air and hopper passes to Disney Land separately and have found that doing everything separate is a lot cheaper. We have Best Western points and air miles to use so it only makes sense for us. If I could only get a BOGO for the Lego Land tickets….hmmm. We shall see.
Thanks again,
Gwen
Christy says
Gwen – I agree with Lindy about getting a rental car.
You can usually find coupons for Legoland inside the free Lego club magazine. You can sign up here: https://club1.lego.com/en-US/subscription/default.aspx?SkuId=9052b50e-271e-46d2-9abb-e1950f8cc438&step=1&CountryId=US
I know the last issue had one to get a free child’s ticket when you buy an adult ticket. I think we may still have the issue (if I didn’t recycle it). I can send it to you. If I do find it, I will email you.
Maegen says
Christy,
Thanks so much for the scoop.
I’ve read your other Disney posts, and I will definitely be looking forward to future ones! My little one wants to go just for the Star Wars/Jedi thing. I think it would be the happiest day of his life if he got to battle Darth Vader!
Gwen says
Christy, Thank you!! We have been in the Brick Builders Lego Club for 5 yrs plus and I have never looked inside the magazines for coupons. I have a ton of those laying around the house.
Just yesterday I bought the Entertainment Book from Wallgreens for $15. They have a coupon in this Sunday’s paper for $20 off. Anyway, the Entertainment Book had coupons for Lego Land in there as well. 25% off the family (up to 6) for one day admission or $5 off each ticket (up to 6) for a one day admission.
Thanks again!
Tara says
Does anyone have any recommendations from the available restaurants at restaurant.com?
Christy says
@Tara Where are you located?
Corey says
We are headed to Disneyland in May for the first time as a family. Many of you are talking about bringing in your own food in a cooler, where do you keep the cooler all day? That is not something I want to haul around all day and we likely won’t have a stroller with us to tote it on. Same goes for the water bottle and snacks too, if you bring them in a backpack to do you have to haul a heavy backpack all day? I would love to save money on food but I am just not sure on the details….Remeber this is our first time, so I really am clueless 🙂
mbf says
@Corey: If you don’t have a stroller, there are lockers available to rent, both inside the parks and out. There is actually a picnic area by the trams where you can eat your food and stash your cooler. There are also lockers just outside the entrance to both parks, on Main Street in Disneyland, and should be some on Buena Vista Street at DCA. There are 3 sizes of lockers, I want to say $7/10/15? Still, for a family or 4 or more, the money you save just by bringing your own water bottles will pay for the lockers. Plus, you save time by not having to go off-site to get jackets, food, etc. I rented a locker on Leap Day just so I could roam freely and not have to leave the park for the entire 24 hours!