Mystery: What restaurant from the early 2000s was this?

[DramaTurtle23]

Okay, this has been bugging me ever since I got super into Disney, but there was a great restaurant my family ate at in the early 2000s in WDW, and I would love to know what restaurant it was. I was 8 or 9 the first time I ate there for the first time, and we did go back at one point when I was 12, but my memories are still fuzzy! That would have made the restaurant operational around 2000 - 2004 at least.

I remember we went into a quite ornate hotel lobby to get there. It seemed like a NICE restaurant, but us kids were able to draw on the table (and the waiter did so too, he was the absolute best!) so it wasn't like a Victoria & Albert's level. We were able to see the Magic Kingdom fireworks from a dock right off the restaurant (I really strongly feel it was a dock and we were at water level). I think we were close because my toddler cousin was really upset at the booms. And when I was older we went back for a Thanksgiving dinner, so it offered that, but I'm sure that doesn't narrow it down.

I have thought that it was maybe what is now California Grill, but I don't think it was on the top floor of the hotel, which I know Cali Grill is...

If anyone has any thoughts about what restaurant this might have been, I will send you so much good karma!

 

[ScottOKW2K]

Okay, this has been bugging me ever since I got super into Disney, but there was a great restaurant my family ate at in the early 2000s in WDW, and I would love to know what restaurant it was. I was 8 or 9 the first time I ate there for the first time, and we did go back at one point when I was 12, but my memories are still fuzzy! That would have made the restaurant operational around 2000 - 2004 at least.

I remember we went into a quite ornate hotel lobby to get there. It seemed like a NICE restaurant, but us kids were able to draw on the table (and the waiter did so too, he was the absolute best!) so it wasn't like a Victoria & Albert's level. We were able to see the Magic Kingdom fireworks from a dock right off the restaurant (I really strongly feel it was a dock and we were at water level). I think we were close because my toddler cousin was really upset at the booms. And when I was older we went back for a Thanksgiving dinner, so it offered that, but I'm sure that doesn't narrow it down.

I have thought that it was maybe what is now California Grill, but I don't think it was on the top floor of the hotel, which I know Cali Grill is...

If anyone has any thoughts about what restaurant this might have been, I will send you so much good karma!

Sounds like you're describing Narcoossee's at the Grand Floridian.

 

[_19disnA]

The restaurant at the top of the Contemporary used to be called 'Top of the World' as I recall. We ate there a number of years ago and there used to be a dinner show with the meal. When they opened BLT next door, they took that name with them to the new location. California Grill is the current name for that restaurant. Perhaps after you had dinner you went back to ground level where the dock is located to watch the fireworks.

Contemporary is the closest hotel to MK, both GF and Polynesian are further away.

 

[DramaTurtle23]

Interesting! There was definitely no dinner show, I feel like I would have remembered that.

I had considered Narcoosee's, but that does seem like further away, and I have this memory of the big windows that I see in pictures at the California Grill. I could absolutely be wrong.

I imagine the lobby to the Grand Floridian would have been more ornate than the Contemporary at this time, so I'm leaning Narcoosee's because of that memory, but I would love confirmation if they did the drawing-on-the-table thing or were too fancy to do that.