Buongiorno: Breakfast at Topolino’s Terrace (REVIEW)

For our final meal at Walt Disney World, we had early morning reservations at Topolino’s Terrace, which was our only character meal on this trip and we were excited to try a restaurant we had only heard rave reviews about.

Reservations weren’t too difficult to snag here, but we did book 180+ days out. I’m sure some of the ease was due to the fact that many did not know the opening date for the restaurant – or didn’t want to traverse out to the Riviera Resort for breakfast.

Heading to the top floor of the Riviera Resort (via East Elevators; we stayed on the West side), the view was incredible right as we got off the elevator despite the fact that it was rainy that morning. We knew there was an outdoor terrace, and wasn’t sure if it would be accessible due to the weather, but it did quickly clear up by the end of breakfast!

To start off the meal, each table is assigned two servers – one to take drinks and the other for meal selection – so you definitely feel well taken care of right from the get go. The speciality juice, Riviera Sunshine, is the same as Jungle Juice at Animal Kingdom Lodge and POG Juice at Polynesian Resort. Still delicious!

The bread basket, or paint bucket, was delicious and was accompanied by honey butter, strawberry jam, and a hazelnut chocolate spread option. The butter knifes were the same as the artist brush at Animator’s Palate on the Disney Cruise, which were super cute! The “wheat stalk” was a little bit hard, but the other pastries were flaky and delicious, especially with the spreads.

With seven members of the family, we made a concerted effort to each order something different and to try most of the menu – and that was a smart choice. Each dish was delicious and better than ALL of the other character dining locations. The food + character experience was well worth the price ($41/adult; $24/child).

As explained by the server, the sour cream waffles, which is not for taste but for texture, were light and fluffy and a delicious counterpart to the blueberry pancakes found at Primo Piatto.

More generic, and probably not the best choice for Topolino’s Terrace, is the 2 Eggs – Any Style platter, which had your basic roasted potatoes and breakfast meat option.

The next image, Spiced Sausage Hash, was my choice for the morning and the combination was decadent. There is an english muffin hidden under all of the potatoes, pearl onions, poached egg, and choron sauce and it soaks up all of the yummy egg goodness once you get to the bottom. Highly recommend this dish!!

Next up is the Quiche Gruyere, which was slightly smaller than anticipated, but the sides made up for the small entree. The salad was an interesting choice for a breakfast dish, but there were no complaints in its pairing.

Perfectly folded, the wild mushroom scramble was packed with ingredients, but we didn’t read the ingredients carefully and was surprised by the plant-based sausage.

Probably what you’d expect from a Smoked Salmon sandwich! Nothing particularly interesting to write home about.

And lastly, the kids meal, which was plated beautifully and came with the option for two sides. The paint palette was a nice touch, but the baby Minnie was tempted by the sauces being so close.

If you’re not here for the food and just the character meet & greet, this is the BEST bang for your buck. We had a character stopping by our table every 5-minutes or so, which definitely made enjoying the meal difficult with a little one who just had to get down each time a character stopped by, but also allowed for us to have at least 2 interactions with each character during our 40-minute breakfast.

With the increased number of visits, you didn’t feel stressed out that you weren’t going to see a certain character before you’ve finished eating and had multiple opportunities to get the perfect picture. The characters were also great about approaching the young ones and crouching down to their level.

One drawback was the loud character introductions about every 10-minutes, so if you’re looking for a calm breakfast, this is not it! They would do a short intro and dance number for:

• Mickey the Painter
• Minnie the Poet
• Donald the Sculptor
• Daisy the Dancer

And then also a brief celebration song/dance every so often. There were times that it seemed a little too chaotic, but with how quickly they are able to turn a table around, it makes sense!

After wrapping up breakfast, we took a quick peak out on the terrace and had an incredible view of the Caribbean Beach Resort and the Skyliner system.

For a final thought, we will definitely be eating at Topolino’s Terrace again and think that the combination of food and character face-time is superb. One drawback is how inconvenient it is to get to the restaurant if you’re not staying at Riviera, but greater sacrifices have been made for good food and a great experience!!