2025 Awards: Best Dining at Disney World

2025 is wrapping up, and that means that we have lots of data to review, and lots of recommendations to make for those of you considering 2026 Walt Disney World vacations. Yesterday we looked at attraction scores, and today we’re turning our attention to one of my favorite subjects … food!

This serves as your obligatory reminder that the accuracy of these results fully depends on the number of people that are willing to fill out post-visit surveys after their Walt Disney World vacations. Make sure to submit your thoughts after your WDW vacations so that we can continue providing meaningful insights!

Overall Dining Satisfaction

Which dining locations have the highest satisfaction overall, across all parks and location types? We have almost 45,000 unique dining ratings to work with, so we can get a pretty good idea. This is almost double the number of surveys we got last year! Each of these responses rates a dining location with either a thumbs up or a thumbs down. I can pretty easily get an average of thumbs up responses to get an idea of overall satisfaction. Using that methodology and filtering to locations with at least 50 surveys, the big winners for 2025 are:

1. Pineapple Lanai – 100%
2. Le Petit Cafe – 100%
3. Dawa Bar – 100%
4. Aloha Isle – 99%
5. Festival Favorites – 99%

Interestingly, only two of the top 5 from our 2024 list (found here) repeat in 2025. And one of those repeats is our top overall winner this year – Pineapple Lanai. It also won our top spot back in 2022, and is a perennial favorite, so it’s not a big shock to see it back on top this year. If some combination of Dole Whip, pineapple juice, and/or rum sounds good to you, this is the spot to go to at the Polynesian resort.

Fresh cookies, coffee, and pastries plus alcoholic beverages. A big recipe for success at places like Les Halles for many years. But if you want that same success without the big long lines, and with more convenient seating … Le Petit Cafe is the place. Its our other repeat top-five location from last year.

Rounding out the top five are three new locations. The first is Dawa Bar. The cocktails here get a perfect score in 2025. They’re unique, they’re well-themed, and the cast members who work here are always friendly. An excellent stop during your Animal Kingdom day!

Aloha Isle pleases almost everyone that stops by to get a Dole Whip treat in Magic Kingdom. The only complaints we ever hear are about wait times and the lack of mobile order. If you don’t mind waiting for your Dole Whip, and you don’t want to boat over to the Polynesian, this is the clear choice. 698 different parties rated Aloha Isle this year in surveys, and 695 of them gave it a thumbs up. That’s good odds for a great experience.

Finally is an interesting option in spot number five – Festival Favorites over at EPCOT. The menu here is constantly changing, depending on which festival is happening. Festival food is always a crowd pleaser, which resulted in 141 out of 142 parties giving this location a thumbs up this year.

Best Dining by Restaurant Type

Best Bar or Lounge

1. Dawa Bar – 100%
2. Rose & Crown Pub – 99.2%
3. BaseLine Tap House – 98.5%
4. Tune-In Lounge  – 98.3%
5. Tambu Lounge – 98.0%

In general, bars and lounges are rated even higher than table service or quick service restaurants overall. This is the toughest category for getting into the top 5. And scores are significantly higher than they were last year! 98.0% would have been good enough for second place last year, and it’s only fifth place this year.

We’ve already discussed the top option here, since it was also the overall winner. So let’s mosey on along to Rose & Crowd Pub. It’s a great place to grab a pint (does it come in pints? it should) as you wander around World Showcase. The energy is always lively, but the service is always quick. You might not be blown away by a large selection, but what’s there is well-themed and enjoyable.

Next is BaseLine Tap House in Hollywood Studios, which is the only bar or lounge to repeat in the top 5 from last year! It has large pretzels, decent beer selections, and other drinks and cocktails. Mostly its excellent people-watching. Not only is it the only repeat from last year – that year it was the only repeat from the previous year. There’s something to be said for consistent excellence!

Tune-In Lounge is a new addition to the list this year. It’s adjacent to 50s Prime Time Cafe, and its menu has gotten quite a bit of love in recent years. The pours are usually strong here, and the decor will take you straight out of Hollywood Studios and back to the time of mid-century living rooms and drinking dens.

If you want drinks served with a backscratcher, or inside of a pineapple, Tambu Lounge is the place for you. Located next to Ohana, you can enjoy your Lapu Lapu along with some food from the kitchen next door. It’s always crowded, so pack your patience and you’ll have a good time.

One big note – since I narrowed down to locations with 50 or more surveys, we filtered out another spectacular option: Territory Lounge at Wilderness Lodge, which scored 100% on its 42 ratings. It’s another excellent space with top-notch cast members, unique drinks, and REALLY good food from the kitchen at Artist Point.

Best Counter Service

1. Pineapple Lanai – 100%
2. Le Petit Cafe – 100%
3. Aloha Isle – 99.6%
4. Festival Favorites – 99.3%
5. Creature Comforts – 99.2%

We’ve already talked about our top four counter service options since they made it into the top five overall. All four are solid Disney dining choices, even if it means going out of your way.

The 5th option is found in Animal Kingdom, and it’s the Starbucks of that park. So what have we learned here? People like Dole Whips, coffee, and festival food.

If you care more about “real food” than ice cream or desserts, maybe you should think about your life choices. But not even Le Petit Cafe will really help you out. For a full meal, the list becomes:

1. Kusafiri Coffee Shop and Bakery – 99% (this is where you’ll find the displaced Harambe Market menu items at lunch and dinner, plus tots at breakfast!)
2. Primo Piatto – 98.0%
3. Satu’li Canteen – 97.9%
4. The Polite Pig – 97.8%
5. Mr. Kamal’s – 97.5%

Three out of that top five are found in Animal Kingdom!

Best Table Service

1. Hoop Dee Doo Musical Revue – 98.9%
2. Topolino’s Terrace – 97.3%
3. Flying Fish – 96.2%
4. Boma – 95.8%
5. Raglan Road – 95.7%

Interestingly, only two table service dining locations repeat in the top 5 compared to last year. Raglan Road is always popular, and for good reason. Lots of solid menu options, and built-in entertainment. But it “slipped” from the top spot in 2023 to second place in 2024 and fifth place this year.

The other repeat is Topolino’s Terrace, which has significantly improved its scores in each of the past two years. The character breakfast here is always excellent, and enough time has passed now since the decision to not allow multiple entrees that people aren’t just thumbs-down-ing out of annoyance. Dinner prices keep going up, but the scores say that visitors don’t mind. Breakfast here scores much higher than dinner (99.2%).

New in the top spot this year is Hoop Dee Doo Musical Revue! I know this spot has a bunch of die-hard fans, and it’s well deserving of its top spot. The entire experience is worth the price and effort (it IS an effort thanks to its out-of-the-way location at Fort Wilderness). And where else in Walt Disney World can you get unlimited sangria?!

Flying Fish has seen a huge resurgence in scores in the second half of the year. As recently as October, it was “only” scoring 93.4%, but a whole flurry of thumbs up have vaulted it into 3rd place. If you’re wanting a fancy-ish, high-quality meal on the BoardWalk, it’s undoubtedly the place to go.

We’ve also got the reappearance of what used to be a reliable top-three contender, Boma. It shockingly got totally knocked out of the top five last year thanks to a bunch of logistics issues that meant long waits and empty food trays. It seems like they must have addressed most of the problems, as evidenced by the rebounding scores.

Best Dining Options in Each Park

Are you headed to a park and just wondering which bars, counter service spots, or table service locations have the highest satisfaction there? I can help with that!

Animal Kingdom

1. Dawa Bar (Bar or Lounge) – 100%
2. Creature Comforts (Counter Service – Starbucks) – 99.2%
3. Kusafiri Coffee Shop and Bakery (Counter Service) – 99.0%
4. Pongu Pongu (Counter Service) – 98.4%
5. Tamu Tamu Refreshments (Counter Service) – 98.4%

Animal Kingdom’s dining locations all rate very high. There aren’t many of them (compared to other parks), but overall they have the highest average satisfaction of any park. So what is there is generally high-quality.

A bunch of other locations also show up as much above average or above average, including Satu’li Canteen, Harambe Market, Eight Spoon Cafe, Mr. Kamal’s, Yak & Yeti Local Food Cafes, Tusker House Restaurant, Yak & Yeti Restaurant, and Nomad Lounge. That’s a long list. If you visit Animal Kingdom, you have an abundance of excellent locations to choose from.

EPCOT

1. Festival Favorites (Counter Service) – 99.3%
2. Rose & Crown Pub (Bar or Lounge) – 99.2%
3. La Cava del Tequila (Bar or Lounge) – 97.6%
4. Choza de Margarita (Bar or Lounge) – 97.1%
5. Les Halles Boulangerie-Patisserie (Counter Service) – 96.5%

This is the year of alcohol and quick food at EPCOT! Last year was much heavier on table service than what we’re seeing this year.

We already talked about the top two on this list, and the next two bring us firmly to Mexico. And, specifically, to a lot of tequila. La Cava del Tequila and Choza de Margarita are both incredibly popular, and so it’s good to see them scoring so high. And Les Halles is another long line location with lots of sandwiches and pastries.

Many, many other locations also come in scoring above average, like: Refreshment Outpost, Refreshment Port, La Artisan des Glaces, Kringla Bakeri og Kafe, Connections Cafe & Eatery, Sommerfest, Yorkshire County Fish Shop, La Cantina de San Angel, Garden Grill, Teppan Edo, Biergarten, Takumi-Tei, Shiki-Sai, Via Napoli, and La Creperie de Paris.

Hollywood Studios

1. BaseLine Tap House (Bar or Lounge) – 98.5%
2. Tune-In Lounge (Bar or Lounge) – 98.3%
3. The Hollywood Brown Derby Lounge (Bar & Lounge) – 97.1%
4. The Trolley Car Cafe (Counter Service) – 96.3%
5. Ronto Roasters (Counter Service) – 96.0%

Interestingly, overall scores are much higher at Hollywood Studios (in the top 5) than they have been in recent years. But that may mean that people are starting to only visit well-regarded locations. Once again, there are no table service restaurants in the top five. Your best bet is a drink with snacks or a quick meal with more food acquired outside of the park!

Magic Kingdom

1. Aloha Isle (Counter Service) – 99.6%
2. Sunshine Tree Terrace (Counter Service) – 98.1%
3. Storybook Treats (Counter Service) – 95.9%
4. Main Street Bakery (Counter Service) – 95.8%
5. Plaza Ice Cream Parlor (Counter Service) – 95.4%

Want ice cream at Magic Kingdom? You’re in luck. Lots of good options. Want some candy treats, coffee or pastries? You’ll also get along fine. “Real food” is harder. Your only above-average options, other than the above, are: Liberty Square Market, Auntie Gravity’s Galactic Goodies, Gaston’s Tavern, Sleepy Hollow Refreshments, Columbia Harbour House, Liberty Tree Tavern, and Jungle Navigation Co. Skipper Canteen.

What Does This Mean For You?

1. A lot of the food and beverages that people enjoy while on WDW vacations don’t come from stereotypical counter service or table service restaurants. Instead, they’re treats like Dole whip, or special beverages served by attentive cast members. So if you can’t get reservations at all of the popular reservations, don’t fret.
2. In general, table service restaurants come with higher price points, and therefore higher expectations. You’ll find the most high-quality table service locations in EPCOT, Disney Springs and at resorts. Counter service performs better in the other parks.
3. If you want the largest selection of dining locations that score above average, look no further than EPCOT, which has 14 different spots. Compare that to the … five at Hollywood Studios and ten at Magic Kingdom. Even better is a resort-hopping day, which gives you 21 different options – 6 of them easily accessible by the Skyliner and 5 on the monorail loop.

Did any of the 2025 winners surprise you? Would you have ranked anything differently? Is there a dining experience you’re most looking forward to experiencing in 2025? Let me know in the comments!