Best Restaurants On Property

If you had to pick 3 restaurants for us to eat at during our trip in October, where would it be? 1 in a park, 1 in a resort, and 1 at Disney Springs.

Talk about a loaded question!

OK here goes...

For a resort restaurant, go with California Grill at the Contemporary. Fireworks views, great food, and a walk up bar for when reservations are tough to come by.

At Disney Springs, I give the nod to Chef Art Smith's Homecomin. Fun vibe but still upscale with to-die-for staples like fried chicken, biscuits, and house-made moonshine cocktails. Second choice would have to be Paddlefish. Great views, unique setting, rooftop bar, raw bar, and awesome seafood and steaks.

For theme park restaurants, the premiere option is Tiffins at Animal Kingdom without question. But the spot is known as much for it's lounge bar than anything else and with so many great "not just a burger and fries" quick service options throughout the park like Flame Tree BBQ and Satuli Canteen, it's hard to recommend devoting the time and money to Tiffins. Epcot restaurants are great but with Food and Wine going on, there's no reason to devote time to them either. For fine dining, that leaves us with Be Our Guest - an impossible dinner reservation that could be visited at lunch if Beauty and the Beast is important to you - or Hollywood Brown Derby at Hollywood Studios.

I would lean more towards the "fun" restaurants in the theme parks, since there's no need for anything "fancy" in between fireworks and roller coasters. Consider somewhere like Skipper's Canteen at Magic Kingdom and 50's Prime Time Cafe or Sci-Fi Dine In Theater at Hollywood Studios. For an in-park character meal, we always opt to meet Mickey and the gang at Garden Grill at Epcot's The Land pavilion.

And if you need to get reservations to these places at the last minute, use Touring Plans' reservation finder.