Where can you find Mickey & Minnie waffles in all-you-care-to-enjoy skillets that are brought to your table, bottomless milkshakes, AND a unique atmosphere in Disney World?

Maybe a buffet-style spot comes to mind, or you figure “here they go talking about another character meal.” But today we’re diving into a restaurant that is NEITHER of those. Instead, it’s a fan-favorite spot that is tucked away at a gorgeous (yet underrated) Disney World resort. Know where we’re talking about yet? Got any guesses?

It’s Whispering Canyon Cafe located at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge! This is a restaurant that serves all-you-care-to-eat skillets brought to your table, a la carte options, and a casual good time (with quite a few antics). Never heard of it? Love it but wonder just how good the food is now? Let’s take a look!

Atmosphere

Let’s start with the atmosphere, this restaurant is located in the lobby of the Wilderness Lodge. It’s an open-concept restaurant in the sense that you can see into the restaurant from the lobby and those eating at the restaurant can see into the lobby — it makes it a bit more unique than restaurants within the hotels that are closed off.

There is a desk where you can speak with Cast Members about whatever you need.

Inside the restaurant, there are standard tables and chairs and some booths. The decor certainly carries through the theming of the hotel as a whole with lots of wooden elements and western motifs.

You’ll find colorful carpeting on one side of the restaurant and large tables, making it particularly good for those who might be traveling with a slightly larger group (though there are plenty of smaller tables too).

The tables themselves are VERY bright red, with wooden details around them. When you sit down, you’ll typically be met by a cloth napkin with your utensils on top, salt and pepper, some sugar, and the menus.

Something important to note before we get into the food. Whispering Canyon Cafe is not like your ordinary table service Disney World restaurant. It’s more along the lines of what you’ll experience (atmosphere-wise, specifically in terms of interaction with your server) at 50’s Prime Time Cafe in Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

While there isn’t quite the same level of heckling as 50’s Prime Time, the servers here aren’t just going to take your order and bring your food. They’ll be serving things up with an ATTITUDE. Disney even describes it as having “colorfully named Cast Members who have a reputation for sassing customers.”

What does that mean? That means the servers are essentially playing characters here, going beyond the ordinary “what will you have with your waffles?” If you ask for ketchup, be WARNED. Servers here have been known to cause a bit of a ketchup fiasco that might result in essentially every single ketchup bottle from the entire restaurant being placed on your table.

Ask for a refill and you might be brought a variety of cups in different sizes (some HUGE and some tiny). It’s what we once called Disney’s most obnoxious restaurant.

Now, if you absolutely LOVE meals where the servers will sass you, heckle you (in a fun way), and poke fun at everyone at your table, this is YOUR place. If you’ve got a family member or friend, however, who would prefer a quiet, relaxing meal, or who doesn’t like their meal with a side performance, this might NOT be the place for you.

Basically, it is NOT for everyone and we recommend you carefully consider whether it would be the right fit for your group before deciding to go. Again, it is Disney so it’s not as though the servers here are going to be extremely rude to you or anything like that — it’s all meant to be fun! And it really can be — you make find yourself absolutely chuckling throughout your meal. But you’ll want to know your group before selecting this spot for brunch or dinner.

Alright, now let’s get to the menu!

Menu

Whispering Canyon Cafe basically serves 2 main menus — brunch and dinner. We visited during brunch time.

On the brunch menu, you’ll find their signature all-you-care-to-enjoy signature skillets. Again, these are ALL you can eat, but they’re brought to your table skillet-style so there’s no need to get up for more.

There are also items you can order a-la-carte though, including appetizers/shareable favorites…

…and main entrees. That makes this a good pick for groups where some people would LOVE an all-you-can-eat meal while others would rather just order a single entree. Here, there’s a bit of both so everyone can be happy.

There are also some side orders you can pick up.

In terms of the drinks, there are a few different things to pick from.

Those looking for an alcoholic beverage will find a limited menu of morning cocktails here. There are also some of your more standard picks, like orange juice or vegetable juice.

And there are also BOTTOMLESS milkshakes in chocolate, vanilla, or strawberry. The flavors aren’t the most unique, but hey, they’re bottomless!

Alright, now let’s look at the food we ordered!

Eats

We started things off with a “shareable favorite” — the “Jacked Up” Avocado Toast. This is a plant-based dish of Mustard Barbecue-braised Jackfruit on Multigrain Bread with Avocado Spread, Radishes, and Pickled Onion.

It’s priced at $13 and comes with 3 pieces of toast.

Let’s start with the good stuff! The avocado spread itself was savory, fresh, and creamy — a wonderful combination really. The jackfruit on top was a bit sweeter side but it also took on some of the mustard flavor, balancing things out.

The pickled onions had a VERY strong acidic, vinegar flavor. And the combination of everything was interesting and unique, with a nice balance of sweet and savory.

Now, for the not-so-good. The texture of the jackfruit was extremely mushy.  Since it was on top of already soggy toast (thanks to the avocado spread), we could see this being a problem for those who don’t love mushy textures on top of one another.

Plus, the jackfruit was also piled very high, making it almost difficult to eat. You’ll either want to take a fork and knife to this one or prepare to open up VERY wide.

Overall, if you’re looking for a plant-based option here, we think this is a good pick. It was unique and you could tell Disney had used high-quality ingredients. But if you aren’t a plant-based eater, we don’t necessarily think that you should go out of your way to give this a try given the mushy texture of the jackfruit and the more unique combination of flavors.

Next, let’s tackle the All-You-Care-To-Enjoy signature skillets. We got 3 different ones since we had various members of our team there.

We’ll start with The Lighter Side skillet. This is priced at $26 (per person) and comes with Bircher Muesli (Swiss Oatmeal), Fresh Fruit, and Yogurt with Egg White-Spinach Frittata, Turkey Bacon, Turkey Sausage, Country Potatoes, and Mickey (and Minnie!) shaped Waffles.

The Swiss oatmeal was actually very tasty. Our team member shared that they don’t normally like oatmeal, but this one was quite enjoyable. It was VERY sweet though (so keep that in mind) and slightly slimy (potentially a texture issue for some). But the nuts added a great texture to the dish as a whole.

The fruit we got was also very fresh (a nice way to start the day!)…

…and the yogurt was a fairly ordinary, sweet, strawberry-flavored yogurt.

But wait…there’s MORE!

The frittata was, unfortunately, pretty bland. Even though our team member who tried this normally LOVES egg whites, they really didn’t enjoy this part of the dish. Some salt, pepper, and other spices would have really helped the frittata out, so if you do order it just be sure to reach for the salt and pepper on your table.

The turkey sausage and bacon were nice and tasty, but slightly tough (in the way that turkey products sometimes can be). The bacon had more of a jerky texture to it, so that’s something to be prepared for.

The country potatoes were really tasty compared to the other items. The inside of these beauties was soft while the outside was wonderfully crispy.

Next up, we had the Mickey waffles. While the menu only describes them as Mickey waffles we actually got both Mickey AND Minnie — fun! The waffles were your typical Mickey waffles — soft, fluffy, and sweet. They were nothing spectacular but still fantastic! 

Overall, if you’re looking for a slightly healthier option when it comes to these skillets, this is a solid pick. But if you’re looking for things that are packed with flavor, some of the items here (particularly the frittata) just don’t deliver.

Next, it’s time for The Heritage. This is also $26 and comes with House-made Buttermilk-Cheddar Biscuits and Sausage Gravy with Scrambled Eggs, Country Potatoes, Hickory-smoked Bacon, Pork Sausage Links, and Mickey-shaped Waffles.

Overall, this skillet provides the most standard American-style breakfast with scrambled eggs, a biscuit, waffles, bacon, sausage, etc.

The bacon here was actually quite good and one of our team members who tried it said it was some of the BEST bacon they’ve had as part of a Disney breakfast. It was savory and crunchy, not greasy and fatty.

The cheddar biscuit was light and flakey, with a slight taste of cheddar — keyword: SLIGHT. If you’re looking for an overwhelmingly cheesy biscuit, this won’t quite do it for you.

The sausage gravy could have used more seasoning but, overall, it was a fine addition to the dish.

Pro tip: Dip your biscuit into the gravy as opposed to pouring it over the biscuit in case you don’t want gravy on the rest of your food.

The scrambled eggs were, unfortunately, EXTREMELY underseasoned and pretty rubbery. You’ll need that salt shaker for these.

The sausage links included didn’t have any spice to them, making them very kid-friendly. They were also pretty dense.

The potatoes were nice but they were surrounded by bell peppers. The potatoes ended up soaking up the bell pepper juice, giving them a bell pepper aftertaste. If you love bell peppers, then that won’t be a problem, but it’s something to watch out for.

Overall, if you’re looking for a safe, traditional breakfast, you’ll find this to be pretty good with some interesting additions! If you want a lighter meal though, this would likely be too much to really enjoy.

Finally, we get to The Carnivore. Again, this bottomless skillet is $26. It comes with House-made Cornbread with Honey Butter, Maple-Chipotle Barbecued Slow-smoked Pork Ribs, Oak-smoked Beef Brisket, Barbecued Pulled Pork, Citrus-Herb Chicken, Country Potatoes, Buttered Corn, and Charred Carrots.

The carrots were great — we really loved these! They were slightly sweet and cooked to be soft but not mushy. 

The potatoes were essentially the same as the ones in the other skillets, nice and crunchy on the outside but soft on the inside.

The Citrus-Herb Chicken leg was nice and (finally!) well seasoned. Is it incredibly special? Will it blow your mind? Probably not, but it’s a safe option and it wasn’t dry, which we really appreciated.

The ribs, on the other hand, were absolutely DELICIOUS. They were so nice and smoky and the meat just fell off of the bone. There wasn’t any sauce served with them, but we actually didn’t feel like a sauce was necessary because the seasoning was packed with more than enough flavor!

The pulled pork was pretty good too. It was very smoky and (thankfully) wasn’t dry.

The brisket ends, however, takes the prize as having the BEST flavor when it comes to the barbecue here! YUM!

It was super fatty (so that’s just something to keep in mind), but we loved that because it just melted away in the mouth. It was also seasoned nicely.

The corn served with this dish was buttery and salty. It was seasoned fairly well — nothing overly special but pretty good!

Oh, and we can’t forget about the cornbread! We LOVED this! It was very soft and flakey, and the honey butter was a wonderful addition.

Overall, this skillet was delicious. We think it would be a great pick if you want something heavy that’ll really fill you up, or if you love meat and bbq.

Finally, we ended our meal with something sweet thanks to the Chef! These are not on the menu, but we were very kindly provided with chocolate cupcakes and lemon tarts by the Chef.

Both were delicious and light. The lemon tart was fantastically tart and delicious, but felt like it had really been made with a lot of care — like the lemon tart a grandma would have made for you.

The cupcake was moist and delivered a strong chocolate flavor, which paired nicely with the cream cheese icing on top. It was pretty sweet, but if you’ve got a sweet tooth we think you’ll really like it.

And with that we’ve reached the end of our meal — let’s go through some final thoughts!

Nosh or Not

Make a point to visit Whispering Canyon Cafe if:

• You love bbq — the Carnivore Skillet in particular is a highlight for those who LOVE meat and all things bbq!
• You are looking for a restaurant that’s more than just the food — the atmosphere here really is part of the fun. Our server made sure we had what we needed and kept those jokes coming!
• You are traveling with a group that wants a little bit of everything — maybe some people in the group would love an all-you-can-eat meal while others don’t think it’s worth the value for them. Here you can get the best of both worlds and order whatever fits your desires.

SKIP Whispering Canyon Cafe if:

• You are looking for a totally quiet meal or don’t like when servers play a character — again, part of the draw here is the atmosphere, but if you don’t think you’ll enjoy that then you’ll want to steer clear.
• You are looking for a fancy dining experience — this is definitely more of a casual restaurant with a laid-back atmosphere so don’t expect to put your pinky up (unless it’s part of a joke).
• You are looking for unique food items that’ll totally BLOW you away — while we really found the Carnivore Skillet to be delicious and liked some of the other items too, the menu isn’t exactly full of the most incredibly unique food, and we did find that some of our food wasn’t as well seasoned as we would have hoped. If you want something more on the unique side, places like Boma or Tusker House Restaurant may be more along the lines of what you’d like.

Overall

Overall, we really enjoyed our experience here. Compared to other all-you-can-eat breakfasts, the skillets here (at just $26 per person) are a great deal! And the experience is fun without being as overwhelming as, say, a character meal full of screaming children.

Do we think this restaurant is PERFECT? Not really. Some of the food was great, while other dishes could be offputting from a textural standpoint or simply weren’t seasoned well (or at all).

And while the atmosphere is meant to be fun, if a server gets a little too into the experience, it might not be the best place for everyone. Again, take a close look at the group you’ll be traveling with to see if this is really the best place for them. If they can handle some sass, then it might be the way to go!

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Are you a fan of Whispering Canyon Cafe? Tell us in the comments.