Bad indications for long time FF fans

[Peter Pirate 2]

As many of you know it has been my opinion that FF was probably the lone signature to maintain their standards since the beginning of the free dining/DDP onslaught. Well, this is sadly no longer the case.

My daughter and I ate there on Monday and changes were noticable. First the menu no longer includes the 'Chef's Thunder', which was always the Chef's pick of the week from top to bottom. This is probably because they no longer have a head chef.:confused:

We sat at the kitchen bar and chatted with the only two members of the staff remaining that we know :sad2: and watched the preperation. My main observation and reason for writing was the charred NY Strip. The receipe is still the same, the price is still the same but my oh my the size is not the same. Steak after steak came out and they were these thin pieces of strip steak totally unlike what we've become accustomed to...I guess you know where I'm going and what to blame for this...

My other comment is regarding the service. FF was well known for their friendly, knowledgable, professional staff. Well I recognized noone and while the service was still friendly it was totally uneven and choppy. I sat for over five minutes with an empty beer glass - Now this may seem very trivial to some but the fact is in the past this NEVER happened.

OK our food review.

I had the scallops over wild mushroom rissoto and it was very, very good although for some reason I wasn't raving as I usually do so something was amiss.

Daughter had the blue cheese, pumpkin ravioli and it too was very good but seemed better suited (taste and texture wise) to being an appitizer, IMO.

OK that's it. FF was the last Disney restaurant I was still visiting on a regular basis but due to the steak changes has probably fallen off the list. I'm going out Saturday night and will be hitting the Palm at Hardrock for the third time in three months. I'm not happy that my dining choices have fell to these celebrity type chains but they seem to be the best bet in Orlando at the moment.

Wake up Disney!
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[Disney Planner Mama]

You're lucky! We had Christmas Eve Dinner and waited 1 hour and 40 minutes for our entrees. Cocktails came 10 minutes after appetizers, and were wrong. Only half our table was cleared of dirty dishes. We spoke to the manager at that point and she did give us a 20% discount. Then we waited 15 minutes for our bill. Finally got the bill after asking the hostess for it. Then waited another 15 minutes for our waitress to come back gave up, and handed it to the manager instead, and she ran it through.

The food was fantastic, I do have to say. I'm really hoping the service was just our waitress. The tables around us were having the same problems. The table right next to us had been sitting for 45 minutes and the waitress had not even come by yet.

[DisOrBust]

Any news on your Duck firecrackers at Jiko,lol!!

I agree completely! IMHO, most of the sig. dining has suffered. If you are paying OOP it really is a slap in the face. Our family is to the point of doing counter service and off site for "sit downs". For the first time I am also considering, gasp, staying offsite.

[dumbo71]

As many of you know it has been my opinion that FF was probably the lone signature to maintain their standards since the beginning of the free dining/DDP onslaught. Well, this is sadly no longer the case.

My daughter and I ate there on Monday and changes were noticable. First the menu no longer includes the 'Chef's Thunder', which was always the Chef's pick of the week from top to bottom. This is probably because they no longer have a head chef.:confused:

We sat at the kitchen bar and chatted with the only two members of the staff remaining that we know :sad2: and watched the preperation. My main observation and reason for writing was the charred NY Strip. The receipe is still the same, the price is still the same but my oh my the size is not the same. Steak after steak came out and they were these thin pieces of strip steak totally unlike what we've become accustomed to...I guess you know where I'm going and what to blame for this...

My other comment is regarding the service. FF was well known for their friendly, knowledgable, professional staff. Well I recognized noone and while the service was still friendly it was totally uneven and choppy. I sat for over five minutes with an empty beer glass - Now this may seem very trivial to some but the fact is in the past this NEVER happened.

OK our food review.

I had the scallops over wild mushroom rissoto and it was very, very good although for some reason I wasn't raving as I usually do so something was amiss.

Daughter had the blue cheese, pumpkin ravioli and it too was very good but seemed better suited (taste and texture wise) to being an appitizer, IMO.

OK that's it. FF was the last Disney restaurant I was still visiting on a regular basis but due to the steak changes has probably fallen off the list. I'm going out Saturday night and will be hitting the Palm at Hardrock for the third time in three months. I'm not happy that my dining choices have fell to these celebrity type chains but they seem to be the best bet in Orlando at the moment.

Wake up Disney!
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Yeah, we can all thank the DDP for that. FF was one of favorites and I was planning on dining there in May. I'll scratch that one as well and head off site.

[ufgator]

Oh no! FF is one of my favorites and I'm sorry to hear it's gone downhill. We always do out of pocket so I really dislike the DDP now.

About the Palm steakhouse - we ate there and hated it. The staff was really friendly and fun, but the food was terrible. Our lobsters were soggy and DH didn't like his meat. Our bill was more expensive than V&A' (ok if food was good), and we won't go back there ever again.

[Peter Pirate 2]

Wow. Thats sad about your Palm experience, but like I said we've had three great meals in a row (some minor glitches but my steak, the 18oz Strip, was perfect). In fact it has move above Shula's in my estimation but Ruths' Chris is still batting .1000 in my book.
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[ufgator]

Maybe it was just what we ordered. I know sometimes things depend on what you order. I don't eat red meat so I don't know much about steakhouses, but that's interesting you think the Palm is better than Shulas b/c I thought Shulas is supposed to be reallly good. Of course, Shula was the best NFL coach ever (:cheer2: I'm a Dolfan).

I'm still sad about FF. :sad2:

[Peter Pirate 2]

Well, I'd be real dissappointed if I'd ordered lobster at The Palm and it wasn't PERFECT, I mean the price alone warrants that, IMO.

RE: Shula's and The Palm, we've had the three really good trips to The Palm and Shula's has aways been spotty to us. We had a great meal at Shula's NYC and the Original in Miami but our three trips to the Orlando location weren't great, which is what I expect from this type of place. Not that it wasn't good because it was but the service has always been satisfactory at best and I have always left the Orlando Shula's wishing I'd spent the money elsewhere...Not a good sign, IMO.

The FF changes really have me bummed and while it was still good and newbies will still probably love it, those of us who knew it before will mourn.
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[SharonLowe]

Wow. Thats sad about your Palm experience, but like I said we've had three great meals in a row (some minor glitches but my steak, the 18oz Strip, was perfect). In fact it has move above Shula's in my estimation but Ruths' Chris is still batting .1000 in my book.
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I'm not trying to get flamed but maybe WDW is trying to more closely follow serving size recommendations - a typical serving size of red meat should be 2-3 ounces, not over a pound!! I find that most restaurants serve way too much food so I am happy if they serve smaller portions, as long as they keep up the quality. I've never eaten at FF so I can't comment on that one but I'm always happy at Boma, Jiko, California Grill, Artist Point, and some others even since DDP (which we don't use) started. Where I have seen food getting much worse is at the character meals (all buffet or family style rather than being able to order from a menu) and some of the more casual sit-down restaurants. For example, Chef Mickey's used to be a wonderful sit-down restaurant in DTD, then it became a decent buffet at CR, and now it is a horrid buffet at CR.

[SauceBoss]

The steak size has not changed at FF. They also have a new head chef.

[Peter Pirate 2]

As of last week the steak sizes most certainly are smaller, IMO and if they have a new head chef perhaps they should inform the staff because (again) as of last Sunday night the manager told me the duties were still being shared by the sous chef's.:confused3
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[Uncleromulus]

This was an interesting review. So happens we have ADR's at the Flying Fish for Friday, May 18. I 'll be very interested to see what we find.

[Disney Planner Mama]

I just wanted to reiterate that the food when we went there was amazing. We will go there again on our next trip, and hope that the waitress we had is no longer serving there.

Now if we get service like that again, we'll cross it off our list.

[2infinityandbeyond]

We've been to FF five times, and have always (by request) had Joe or Terri as our waitperson. Joe is gone. :sad2: Terri is great. So as long as she's there when we go in July, I'll know that we'll get great service.

Does anyone else have a favorite FF server??

[TigerKat]

Does anyone else have a favorite FF server??

We've only been there once and had Joe, so sorry to hear that he's gone. He was great!

[gina2000]

This is our last trip that we'll eat at the siggie restaurants. If they don't hold up to previous trips, we'll eat offsite or counter service.

[SauceBoss]

As of last week the steak sizes most certainly are smaller, IMO and if they have a new head chef perhaps they should inform the staff because (again) as of last Sunday night the manager told me the duties were still being shared by the sous chef's.:confused3
pirate:

Not sure where you get your information from, nothing has changed. We can assure you of that. The Steak is a signature entree is has not deviated in size since day 1.

[FinallyBoughtDVC]

We've been to FF five times, and have always (by request) had Joe or Terri as our waitperson. Joe is gone. :sad2: Terri is great. So as long as she's there when we go in July, I'll know that we'll get great service.

Does anyone else have a favorite FF server??

Does anyone know if Mike is still there? He and my son get along great and my son specifically requested I call and ask for Mike to be our server for his birthday dinner.

I, too, hate the DDP - my favorite food item ever was the tuna appetizer at Jiko, which they took off the menu because, as my server told me, it's too labor intensive to do with the DDP...

I wish they'd leave the top of the line restaurants out of the plan - and let them remain the innovative, competitive, fabulous dining establishments they once were...

[Enchanted Tiki Bird]

You've all made me very nervous about dining now that the DDP is in effect. My DFi and I will be paying OOP and hope our food doesn't suffer because of DDP.

FF = Flying Fish?

[soupy11]

Yes, the Flying Fish - Boardwalk.

[hmp2z]

This is our last trip that we'll eat at the siggie restaurants. If they don't hold up to previous trips, we'll eat offsite or counter service.

We felt the same disappointment on our recent trips. The only 2 signature restaurants that haven't let us down are V&A's and California Grill (possibly because we go there for the sushi, not the other things).

We decided that on our next trip, we will probably do Boma once, V&A's once, and CA Grill twice. We're going with a shorter trip, also (only 4 nights). We used to go mainly for the food, and without that to look forward to, we'll just vacation elsewhere instead of one long WDW trip.

Cheers!
Heather W

[raidermatt]

Not sure where you get your information from, nothing has changed. We can assure you of that. The Steak is a signature entree is has not deviated in size since day 1.

And the head chef? Is there one, or are the staff not informed?


Hey Pete, apparently you were looking through the wrong end of the binoculars at all those steaks! ;)

[ReggieB]

You're lucky! We had Christmas Eve Dinner and waited 1 hour and 40 minutes for our entrees. Cocktails came 10 minutes after appetizers, and were wrong. Only half our table was cleared of dirty dishes. We spoke to the manager at that point and she did give us a 20% discount. Then we waited 15 minutes for our bill. Finally got the bill after asking the hostess for it. Then waited another 15 minutes for our waitress to come back gave up, and handed it to the manager instead, and she ran it through.

The food was fantastic, I do have to say. I'm really hoping the service was just our waitress. The tables around us were having the same problems. The table right next to us had been sitting for 45 minutes and the waitress had not even come by yet.

It's funny, that's almost exactly the same experience my DH and I had....in 1999. We have never been back there since. When we complained the manager was like "well the foods fine isn't it?" Which I didn't think was exactly the point. Our server was clearly out of his depth. I've seen loads of great reviews for FF since, and assumed we just had hit a bad day. Was thinking of going back, couldn't possibly have the same manager and server after 7 years. I have no desire to repeat that night, so it's a shame it's going downhill and consistently. I think I shall keep steering clear.

[shovan]

I have to say we had a totally different experience than the OP. We dined at FF on 1/25. We had 4 adults and every one of us was thrilled with the meal! (Although none of us ordered steak.) Our server was Chris and he did a rather good job. He was very informative, knowledgeable, friendly and helpful. If I were to try to find any faults, my only gripe would be that the dishes could have been cleared sooner. I will have a review on my report later. (WHO DAT Review)
BTW we used the DDE not the DDP, don't know if this could be the difference.
We would definitely return to FF

[kelleigh1]

... but Ruths' Chris is still batting .1000 in my book.

OT: This made me laugh because it sounds like you meant it as a compliment, but if you meant "batting a thousand", then that should be 1.000. Your number means they're only batting a hundred. In the baseball analogy, it's not the zero's that make it a thousand, but the decimal.

[Enchanted Tiki Bird]

OT: This made me laugh because it sounds like you meant it as a compliment, but if you meant "batting a thousand", then that should be 1.000. Your number means they're only batting a hundred. In the baseball analogy, it's not the zero's that make it a thousand, but the decimal.

Actually .1000 is a tenth.

[lillygator]

what a shame to hear this about FF.

[kelleigh1]

Actually .1000 is a tenth.

Yes, but in baseball terminology, it means you're batting a hundred.

[Enchanted Tiki Bird]

Yes, but in baseball terminology, it means you're batting a hundred.

Oh. :confused3

[Peter Pirate 2]

And I meant a thousand and was simply typing without thinking and of course not proofing.:eek:

Don't get me wrong the food is still very good and the servers were friendly. It just isn't 'the same' as it was and this is the first time I've said this. Oh, and FF has been my favorite restaurant for probably 5 years so this isn't something I want to write.
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[DVC Sadie]

Wow. Thats sad about your Palm experience, but like I said we've had three great meals in a row (some minor glitches but my steak, the 18oz Strip, was perfect). In fact it has move above Shula's in my estimation but Ruths' Chris is still batting .1000 in my book.
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ITA! You can't beat Ruths Chris for excellent (everytime) steak.

I absolutely hate what WDW has done with their quality of food and menu changes in the last couple of years. What is truly sad is that the food ordered from room service is now better than the restaurants.

[HACAM]

I know this is not related to Disney, but just wondering where the Palms is and Shula's? We are heading to WDW in May, not on the DDP, just staying at POR, we will have our vehicle. Would be interested in some good restaurants off site. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks H.

[Peter Pirate 2]

The Palm is at the Hard Rock Hotel at Universal. Shula's is at the Dolphin hotel at WDW. Bon apetit.
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