Average prices offsite dining family of 4

[coinneach]

Originally Posted by chrisxal

Sign up on resturant websites they very often send you coupons for free starter or dessert, Chilis offer 2 dine for $20 this includes 6oz steak, Applebys also do a 2 dine for, I think it is $25 but I'm sure someone will come along to correct me, lots of resturants do kids eat free, if you want a decent blow out Red Lobster have a 4 course set menu for $16.99 their unlimited free biscuits (warm cheese scones) are too die for, we normally ask for our desserts to go as there is so much food we take the desserts home for later.

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Agree with above. Sign up to the email club of restaurants you like as the savings are considerable.
We have 4 go to restaurants. Denny's offer 20% off, Perkins BOGOF every Wednesday, Longhorn free starter or dessert and Logans Roadhouse 20% off from Thursday to Sunday.
Very rarely do we have a meal out without some kind of discount applied.

[Shooby doo]

We normally budget around £100/day for 2 of us:
Breakfast $15
Lunch $20
Dinner $30
Now most days we won't do breakfast or just eat in the room, lunch is generally about that price apart from somewhere like Polite Pig that will be more. We will also have some Dinners that will be more than the $30 but it evens itself out over the holiday. For instance Olive Garden often do a Bogof entree, so for us that's 2 days of meals & all in including soup & salad under $45!
I've said before that I don't think any of the Disney Restaurants are worth the money, not saying they aren't good just not worth it, in 3 weeks I think the only Table service we will do (Disneywise) will be Chef Art's.
SD

[Lisbon]

It really does depend on how often and where you eat.
We normally only eat out once a day ( lunch or dinner )
I would say average $30 per person per day would be roughly it
Rob

[Jennywren]

There are 2 of us and we have quite big appetites at home but we find portions in the US are huge.
We tend to breakfast out every other day mainly at Perkins, Bob Evans or Cracker Barrel, on these days we couldn't begin to eat lunch as well, so tend to have a mid afternoon ice cream sundae or a cake./muffin. The remaining days we have a light breakfast of cereal and/or toast in the villa. If we eat lunch out we then can't manage a dinner out as well.
Dinners we either share a starter or don't bother and just have a main, we never have room for dessert. We eat out most nights at places like Red Lobster, Bonefish, Longhorns, Applebees, Olive Garden etc. We also keep some cold meats and salad in the fridge for evenings we are too tired to go out to eat and just want to chill. We also think Perkins offer some great main meals as well and are a lot cheaper and less formal. Sometimes we pick up a chinese take away or a pizza on our way home, we challenge ourselves never to eat a burger while we are away.
I tend to budget around $120 dollars a day for all our spending, Breakfasts around $25, lunch $35 - 40, Dinner $50, plus tips. and this covers supermarket shops as well.
I take a small pack in a ziploc bag of cleaning materials with me a scourer, rubber gloves, mini bottle of washing up liquid ( I decant some into a travel size shampoo bottle), a few dishwasher tablets, J cloths, bin bags etc to get us started.
Don't forget if you can't eat all the food a restaurant serves you they will offer you a box to take the leftovers home, they are usually quite offended if you don't want to do this as they think there is something wrong with the food if you don't want all you have paid for. Some restaurants will even offer you a second serving of the same meal for a reduced price to take home with you for another night, which can also help the budget although we have never done this.
Anyway hope this helps and have a great time.

[NewtoOrlando]

We're a family of 4 and the kids are now 15 & 13, they're pretty boring when it comes to food choices, as is DH, so we tend to stick to places like Chilli's, Cheesecake Factory, Buffalo Wild Wings, Outback, Dennys, Rock & Brews, and get the odd take out for back in the villa from Chick-fil-a and Wendys. Will also go to Publix and get fried chicken, and get a made up salad, bread and potato salad etc. Will also go to Panda Express when at Universal, the kids will go to Hot Dog hall of fame or Burger King, we're not fine diners at all.

I quite often will have an appetiser instead of a main, not to save money but because the portion sizes are too big for me. The Publix chicken is lovely and if we dont eat it all then I will cut it up & put it into rolls the next day for lunch.

I sign up for restaurants before we go so get discounts, like a free flatbread appetiser, money off, 2 for 1 etc and places like Chill's often do a meal deal for $25 or similar. We never go without, and sometimes eat next to nothing and survive on cereal bars during the day as we're so full up. Fruit is expensive though! I always bring cereal bars from home, Brunch bars, go aheads, and packs of mini biscuits like mini marylands, chocolate fingers etc as handy to have in your room/bag for a quick snack that doesn't cost $5 each lol.

[Scarla]

Originally Posted by Jennywren

Don't forget if you can't eat all the food a restaurant serves you they will offer you a box to take the leftovers home, they are usually quite offended if you don't want to do this as they think there is something wrong with the food if you don't want all you have paid for. Some restaurants will even offer you a second serving of the same meal for a reduced price to take home with you for another night, which can also help the budget although we have never done this.
Anyway hope this helps and have a great time.

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Wow, i didn't realize they did this, seems i have a lot to learn. Thanks for the tip

[Scarla]

Thanks for the replies & tips everyone, you've certainly given me a better idea of where to go & tips to save a few dollars here & there

[Scarla]

Originally Posted by Shkyler

Four of us too will be 11 and 8 when we go, my daughter eats very little but my son is a monster. I’m budgeting about $150 a day and if I go over I can pull back the next day kind of thing. Not including snacks in the parks because that could easily be another $50

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Sounds similar to what I've been thinking. if anything, i think i might be over-estimating at the minute, but I'd rather that than get a shock when we get there
Our last & only ever trip was on-site with DDP so we didn't really venture anywhere else & i think i'm a little overwhelmed with the choice

[babbymint]

Changes in exchange rate can make a big difference too - when we last went it was something like £1-$1.25 ish now it’s nearly £1-$1.40

[coinneach]

Another option could be the eat and play card which gives you discounts for a number of restaurants and shops which can be worthwhile.
We bought ours from travel republic which cost £12.