Where To Get Your Orlando Christmas Dinner

For those heading to Central Florida for the Christmas holiday – or those who have just arrived – there is one essential question to go with your Yuletide fun: Where can we get a proper Christmas dinner?

It’s an urgent and valid question for two reasons:

1. Not everywhere will be open on Christmas Day, hence you need to book in advance in almost every instance for those who ARE taking bookings for December 25.
2. And not everywhere will offer the kind of roast-turkey-and-all-the-trimmings that we expect from our typical Yuletide dining fiesta.

It may also surprise many visitors that our festive turkey dinner is not necessarily shared by our American cousins. In fact, they tend to look at the big Thanksgiving holiday in November as their main roast extravaganza of the year (as we detailed in our Thanksgiving Day blog.

So yes, there WILL be Christmas dinner offerings in many restaurants and hotels next week, but you’ll need to be selective if you want the traditional British style.

Can we do it Ourselves?

Of course! Your villa kitchen should have everything you need to do the full meal justice, including a nice big oven for that roast bird.

In fact, you’ll probably find you have way more elbow room than usual, as the kitchen is often the most important room in the house for American designers, hence it is a real feature of most villas, with all the latest mod cons.

What you will need to do is make sure you can get the essential fresh turkey to be your dinner centrepiece.

The frozen variety will be available at most supermarkets, including the ubiquitous Publix, but not everyone will offer the fresh version, hence you will either need to order in advance or get in early in the morning.

Our top tip is to go online at Whole Foods and pre-book your turkey in advance, for collection at least two days before your pick-up date. You can find the web page for the Orlando Whole Foods on Turkey Lake Road on this link (how fitting is that?!), and even order a whole oven-ready meal, with turkey included. Just be sure to know your full villa address.

You should certainly be able to find most of the vegetables you need in any supermarket, with sprouts, potatoes, carrots and cranberries all freely available. However, you may struggle to find parsnips in many places, while what we call swede in the UK is rutabaga in America.

We Just Want the Dinner Without Cooking it Ourselves!

And that’s perfectly fine, too. You’ll probably have enough on your plates (ho, ho!) with all the theme park activity without having to worry about all the necessary preparation and cooking.

Many hotels offer a buffet choice, with a selection of roast carveries to underpin a wide range of dishes, and you don’t need to be staying there to take advantage of their fare (although you will need to book).

Among them are a quartet of Universal Orlando hotels, notably the Portofino Bay resort (Trattoria del Porto, noon-9pm), the Royal Pacific Resort (Islands Dining Room, 11am-9pm), Hard Rock Hotel (The Kitchen, 7am-2pm) and Sapphire Falls Resort (Amatista Cookhouse, 11am-9pm).

For those visiting International Drive, each of Café Tu Tu Tango (a carving station and all-you-can-eat side dishes, 10am-11pm), Mia’s Italian Kitchen (a three-course prix fixe dinner, 11am-11pm) and the swish Hilton Orlando (three-course tasting menu, noon-9pm) offer something special.

The Rosen Hotels group are also well worth keeping on an eye on, as the Rosen Centre, Rosen Plaza and Rosen Shingle Creek resorts all turn on the culinary style for special occasions and will be serving either a Christmas Brunch or Buffet that can be booked in advance.

In the Lake Buena Vista area, closest to Disney, you can also enjoy a full Christmas dinner or a multi-station brunch at the Caribe Royale Orlando, while the Hilton Orlando is featuring traditional dining in John T’s Lounge.

Pushing the Boat out for Christmas Dinner in Orlando

If there’s one special location for that big dinner splurge this year it has to be the Grande Lakes Resort, where the upscale JW Marriott hotel has a plethora of tempting dining options.

This lovely resort is set within self-contained grounds not far from the theme parks and is beautifully decorated for the festive season, and its restaurant choice includes three distinct Christmas options.

The Santa Breakfast (on Christmas Eve, 7-11am) features visits from Santa and Mrs Claus, while the Christmas Buffet runs from 12.30 to 8.30pm on Christmas Day and includes a turkey and other roast meat serving stations, a raw bar and special holiday pastries.

Finally, for that memorable dinner (5-10pm), the resort’s Sear + Sea Woodfire Grill is the place to be for a prix fixe three-course banquet featuring all the traditional favourites with a real gourmet touch.

A True Taste of Home in Orlando

There is also one highly recommended Disney Springs restaurant that always makes a real feature of the traditional dinner, and that is the Irish extravaganza of Raglan Road.

A long-time Debbie’s Villas favourite, Raglan Road offers both the full turkey platter as well as its regular menu, alongside a selection of new local craft beers and seasonal cocktails.

And, as ever, dinner at this authentic Irish pub-restaurant comes with a full array of emerald isle entertainment, starting at noon and continuing until closing time, including the resident dancers, all decked out in new costumes for the full holiday period.

But, whatever you choose, you can be certain of a great Orlando Christmas.

PS: If you’re looking for a good British knees up on Christmas Eve or Boxing Day, then the Best of British Pub & Café on Highway 27 in the heart of villa territory will be open from 9am until late with their full array of home tastes, along with some rollicking entertainment.

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