Loudest Restaurants at Walt Disney World
Although many restaurants at Walt Disney World are not exactly what people would describe as quiet, there are some restaurants that rise above the pack in terms of noise levels. Why does this matter? For some parents, dining at a restaurant where their child doesn’t have to be reminded to use an inside voice every few minutes is a blessing. For others, knowing a restaurant to avoid due to the challenges of sensory issues like noise is important. So whether you’re looking for a restaurant where you can be loud or wanting to avoid all that noise…noise…noise, we’ve got you covered with our list of the loudest restaurants at Walt Disney World.
Biergarten
The idea of Oktoberfest every day should be your first clue that this won’t be a quiet meal. Between the band playing, wooden tables and chairs doing nothing to muffle noise, and a few Zicke Zacke Zicke Zacke Hoi Hoi Hoi! thrown in, the environment, while family friendly and great for active kids, is sure to be a boisterous meal for all.
ESPN Club
Your experience with noise levels at ESPN Club will largely vary depending on when you visit. On a typical day, it’s the normal noise level for any type of sports bar. If there’s a hot-ticket sports event going on, you are guaranteed that there will be fans of whichever teams are playing who come to ESPN to cheer on their team. If you’re a sports fan, bring your team spirit. If you’re the significant other of a sports fan (and not into it yourself), pack some earplugs.
Hoop-de-Doo Musical Revue
Hootin’ and hollerin’ and all that made the west what it was, the Hoop-de-doo Musical Revue is a lot of fun for all ages. What it isn’t is quiet–and that’s part of its charm. Bring your best clappin’ hands and stompin’ feet, along with a good sense of humor. The jokes may be cornier than the cornbread, but that’s all part of the fun.
Rainforest Café
Whether you choose the location at Disney Springs or the location outside Disney’s Animal Kingdom, it really is a jungle in there. Every 15 minutes or so, the restaurant comes alive with the sounds of animals bringing the noise level far above the normal roar. There’s a lot going on in this restaurant both sound-wise and visually, so it qualifies in loud in every possible fashion.
T-Rex
Take the stylings of Rainforest Café and add dinosaurs. Oh, and maybe some sort of meteor coming to destroy life on the planet, too? For fans of dinosaurs, this combination may make you scream with delight. (Others may be inclined just to scream.) If you’ve got people with you who love to let their inner t-rex roar, this is the place to take them.
Whispering Canyon Café
Don’t let the name fool you — the only whispering here is in the restaurant’s name. Whether you’re being yelled at (but in good fun!) by your server or watching kids race horses around the restaurant, there’s always something going on to keep this place lively. Asking for a bottle of ketchup gives me flashbacks to pretty much every family Thanksgiving experience when trying to get the butter passed down the table. (Maybe that’s just how my family is?)
Have you ever visited any of these restaurants in spite of the noise? Have you ever visited any of these restaurants because you wanted the noisy experience? Got any other restaurants that are just plain loud that you think should make this list? Let us know in the comments.
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Be Our Guest (the main room), 1900 Park Fare and Chefs de France are three surprisingly loud restaurants. The ceilings are too high and all the sound just amplifies.
If you are looking at this list because you have kids, you need to think of how they will react to the noise if they have been out and about all day. My husband and I took our two year old to Biergarten for dinner after he had a nap. He was fine through most of the meal, but once the band started encouraging everyone to repeat after him, my son got really overwhelmed and started crying. Luckily, we were at the end of our meal, so I took him outside while my husband paid the check.
Oh, one restaurant whose reputation for loudness has actually stopped me from ever eating there: STK. I have no problem spending money on good food, but not when it’s accompanied by a live DJ.
On our most recent visit, we ate at Planet Hollywood for the first time. The loudness and the cheesy “DJ” practically ruined our meal. Do not go if you want a relaxing and quiet meal! If you want high energy and an almost party-like atmosphere, then it’s fine.
Also, 50’s Prime Time Cafe. Even when our server wasn’t talking to us, it was still very loud from the close together tables and the echoing noise.
Be our Guest is up at the top of our list for noise. Seconded by Rainforest Café/TRex (same owners, similar sound)
Sounds like I am having a moan at every restaurant but we did have an amazing holiday and ate some amazing meals both in and out of the Disney bubble. I was really excited to have managed to get a booking at Be Our Guest but was slightly disappointed in that after having paid before we sat down to eat we were told to go and find our own table and then had to go and find knives forks and drinks etc. We thought we would be shown to a table already laid out with what we needed – and we had expected cloth napkins rather than the paper ones we found! Sorry – going off subject – which is about the noise.
Re the Sci-FI, I would disagree. Yes, it’s loud, but it’s strategically so. My wife and I had no trouble having a conversation at regular volume while the kids sat ahead of us in the front part of the car grooving on the hilariously old school videos, which were not so loud as to distract us if we wanted to talk.
Last week we went to Le Cellier for the first time. Although it was mainly couples dining there were some families. We had a false preconcept that this would be a nice place to go for a romantic meal albeit is in a Theme Park – mainly due to the price of the food. We thought that large groups and families may favour the cheaper choices and were surprised at how noisy it was. I am not saying that groups should frequent Le Celier, the food is amazing – it was my fault for assuming (and assume makes an ass or u and me). Anyway we were squeezed onto a table between two other couples and spent the evening having to hear their conversations and, knowing that they could hear us, kept our conversation to a minimum. I was emailed a survey by Disney after our meal and commented that although the food was fantastic, the tables were far too close together. Not sure if it will have any influence on anything though!
We had the same experience 3 years ago. Were uncomfortably close to two other tables. The food was fine, but not worth going back for that cramped experience.
“I was emailed a survey by Disney after our meal and commented that although the food was fantastic, the tables were far too close together. Not sure if it will have any influence on anything though!”
– Totally agree. I hope that works – they should pay attention to such comments if they have any traction.
Not judging those that use Disney Dining, (its not my thing personally) but I have found that the introduction of Disney Dining has made the signature restaurants more crowded with families with young children. My theory, which was confirmed by converstions with WDW restaurant wait staff, is that most families with small children would not pick a place like Le Cellier/California Grill for dinner if they had to pay a la carte, but if they only have to use two “dining credits” many folks will give it a try from a value proposition. The wait staff I spoke to also noted a correlation in the reduction in appropriate dress of the guests for the signature restaurants after the introduction of Disney Dining.
Yes I noticed the dress of guests in Le Cellier – we had dressed up for the occasion but many hadn’t!
Whispering canyon wasn’t too bad the time we went for breakfast. I definitely agree with T-Rex cafe. That meteor shower is LOUD and must have happened at least every 15 minutes. Thankfully I love dinosaurs so it’s all good. and I agree with the other poster about sci if theater. Pretty loud (and dark) in there!
The worst for me is Chef Mickey’s. I just can’t do it because of the noise level.
I would also like to mention that California Grill can be much noisier than you might expect for a signature restaurant. My husband and I planned to have the last meal of our honeymoon there during the fireworks and were a bit surprised at the noise level. We have nothing against kids and certainly expect to see them in Disney restaurants. But there were a lot more families there than we had anticipated and something about the way the sound reverberates in the restaurant meant that we didn’t exactly have the romantic meal we envisioned.
I swear it’s coincidence that both these places are at the same resort. I don’t have a particular hatred of the Contemporary 🙂
How Ragland Road is not on this list is beyond me.
I’d add to the list of “loud for a reason” restaurants, in addition to Raglan Road:
50’s Prime Time Diner
Sci-Fi Dine-in
Any character meal (should be obvious)
Teppan Edo
The first two times I went to Raglan Road, it was surprisingly quiet — I know people love to go for the music and dancing and all, but I prefer to go when there’s no music or dancing because it’s fairly quiet compared with other restaurants around property. (Plus the food’s good… can’t go wrong with that.)
By the same token, ESPN Club isn’t that loud when there’s no big game. My wife and I went for the Indians’ wild card game against Tampa Bay in October 2013, no one else there cared about that game, and it was pretty quiet.
What I love about all of these restaurants is that they are loud for a *reason.* Each of them is a unique (to a more limited extent for Rainforest Cafe and ESPN Zone). I’d add Beaches and Cream to this list.
What I do not like are restaurants that presume to be quiet and intimate, but oftentimes aren’t. While I absolutely adore Narcoossee’s, it can be pretty loud inside. I think part of this has to do with the current fashion of squeezing the dining floor for every table they possibly can. This contributes to the bigger issue of hearing the other tables’ conversations (which can be rather explicit at times!) or worrying about your own conversation carrying through the dining room.
Via Napoli was deafening. The cavernous space is one large room with no sound-proofing to dull the shrieking babies or rowdy drunks. Fortunately, the pizza was worth the noise, and a good bargain to boot.