Lunch at Whispering Canyon - NEVER Again!!

[bytheblood]

Whispering Canyon Cafe - Lunch


Pros:
Seated Quickly
Cornbread

Cons:
Poor Service
Mediocre Food
Long Long Wait for Everything


Tuesday, December 11, 2007
2:00 PM


We had lunch here for the first time, which will also be the last. The decorations in the resort were worth seeing, but this was our absolute worst dining experience in all of Disney dining experiences.

The service was AWFUL!!! It took 15 minutes for our waitress to come to the table and get a drink order. It took another 20 minutes to get that tea on our table. Anytime we needed refills, it took 10 - 15 minutes each time. I am not exaggerating.

We ordered 1 skillet, 1 pulled pork sandwich, Kids mac & cheese and 1 chicken sandwich. None of us were real crazy about the food. The cornbread in the skillet was good, however. My sister enjoyed the skillet, but said all of the meats taste pretty close to the same. Chicken and beef were interchangeable I guess.

We spent a total of 2.75 hours in this restaurant AFTER being seated while we waited and waited and waited for drinks, appetizers, dessert and dinner.

Our server was not attentive at all and her attitude kind of stunk. I am not talking about the play attitude that comes with the restaurant, I mean she had a real attitude.

At one point, she sat at the table across from us chatting with those people for more than 15 minutes. We were waiting on refills and our food. Might explain why the food was just warm.

Overall, I give it a C-- for this experience.

Scores
Cleanliness: B
Food: C+
Characters: NA
Service: F
Wait: F

[BriarRosie]

I would have wanted to see a manager at the 1.5 hour mark. I hope you did talk to one after your meal.

[Tippy 6]

We also had lunch at Whispering Canyon at the end of May. It was the worst service we had in our whole 2 week stay at Disney. I agree that the food was just okay. We did not wait as long as you did but it took forever for our waiting to get us anything we asked for. We will not be going back there either. My husband thought it was because there was 6 of us so the tip was already in the check.

[monic]

We ate at Whispering Canyon once and the server was rude, my son wanted the ribs which came on the skillet and I was trying to explain that to him (which I should have explained how this meal worked before we sat down) but the server was VERY impatient and said OK 3 skillets like he couldn't be bothered. No fun at all placed the napkins down gently on the table etc. Rushed us out in my opinion. We all had a terrible time and the food is just ok. Everyone knows you go there for the fun!! We won't go back and it was our worst experience.

[rdsx28]

We had Thanksgiving meal there last year. AWFUL is all I can say. I will never go back there either they literally threw Turkey and fixings in a skillet . YUCK and we also waited forever for refills and for dessert the only offering was pumpkin pie. My daughter as well as myself hate pumpkin pie no alternatives offered. Horrible!

[bytheblood]

I read more terrible reviews about this place than I do anything else in WDW. I am sorry to all who had a cruddy experience like we did.

[Pumbaa_]

I am sorry to hear al the poor experiences. Hope reviews get better, it is too nice a location to be that bad!

[mskayjay]

I really am sorry to hear about this but I have to ask....just what would it have taken to get you to go find a manager and express your dissatisfaction with what your family was going through? I would not have wasted that amount of time on a mediocre meal without speaking up. Sometimes you HAVE TO be pissy!

[Kparks]

We also had lunch at Whispering Canyon at the end of May. It was the worst service we had in our whole 2 week stay at Disney. I agree that the food was just okay. We did not wait as long as you did but it took forever for our waiting to get us anything we asked for. We will not be going back there either. My husband thought it was because there was 6 of us so the tip was already in the check.

We have ADR for supper in October. I am wondering if I should change my ADR's or if it is too late. I thought from some other posts that the food looked mediocre, but thought the fun would make up for it. Any thoughts????

[amyeileen]

We ate dinner here last week and loved it. 4 adults and 2 kids had the skillet, my 6 and 8 year olds had something off the kids menus. All of us greatly enjoyed the food, especially the cornbread. I thought the salad and pork were extra good as well. Our server was a lot of fun. The kids loved the hobby horse races. My girls, who are normally very shy, had great fun taking bottles of ketchup to other tables. (If you ask for ketchup, the waiter will loudly yell "Who's got the ketchup?" and then lots of diners will run over to your table with their ketchup.) This was one of our favorite meals, and actually, one of the few that I would consider repeating next time.

[Minniespal]

Shocking ~ When I saw her sitting at the next table, I would have went looking for a Manager.

[aprilgail2]

Shocking ~ When I saw her sitting at the next table, I would have went looking for a Manager.

Our waiter sat down at our table with us- its part of the whole theme of the restaurant. We had an awesome time there- chicken was very good! People I was with loved the ribs! The kids all had a great time, the waiter was rude and playful as he is supposed to be since that is the whole theme! Our napkins were tossed in the air, the straws were thrown at us! My daughter ordered a large Coke and he said "oh- are you thristy??" she said yes and he brought her a LARGE coke- the largest coke I have ever seen LOL- I think there were 2 liters in that "glass" the straw was three feet long! One of the kids wanted a desert off the adult menu and he brought it to her at no extra charge! The kids were cracking up when we started to order and he started with me and one of the kids said "I want chicken" and he said "hey-I am not up to you yet, keep your pants on"....

[neworleans_ray]

We ate here January 2007, four adults and had a fantastic time. We had evening reservations and the food and service was great. We are going back October 2008 and have reservations for breakfast this time.

[noahdove]

I'm hoping that we have the experience that aprilgail2 had...and not the others as this will be our last TS at Disney..

[MandM-Mom]

We love WCC, we had a very fun server last August and we all liked the bbq skillet and fixins. I hope we are not going to be disappointed with our dinner this August.

[pixiedust1125]

We ate at the WWC in May and loved it-it was hands down everyones favorate meal of the trip. Our server was fun and very helpful and the food we thought was amazing-I have such a craving for the skillet right now mmm

[VAN]

We ate there a couple of years ago ... don't recall much "fun" but found the food and service good. We went away with a good impression of WC.

I think with most of the restaurant reviews, satisfaction comes down to the server. The food can be the greatest in the world, but if I have to constantly be on the look-out for someone to refill my water glass, etc., it spoils the whole meal.

Not sure what the problem is - with the sheer # of diners at any of the TS restaurants, you would think these servers would be paid quite well (via tipping) and would be happy to be there. Based on poor reviews, it appears that they have quite a number of unhappy servers!!

[Pat329]

I'd like to see the place and the food looks absolutely incredible but my DH and myself are more observers than participators. Any chance of asking for the 'don't bother us' section like at the Prime Time?

[bytheblood]

I'd like to see the place and the food looks absolutely incredible but my DH and myself are more observers than participators. Any chance of asking for the 'don't bother us' section like at the Prime Time?


I don't know if they have one of those. But if you ask for Debbie as your waitress, you will not be bothered. :rolleyes: As a matter of fact, she will forget you are there.


The skillet was the best thing on the menu and the WL is beautiful.

The entire restaurant is loud and rowdy, so I am not sure you can escape the noise.

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As for those that mentioned me not asking for the manager.......

I did not post my trip report here, but I did not ask for a manager because we had so much tension on this trip and there was so much other VERY UNwanted drama going on, that the last thing I wanted was any more drama or issues. At this point, it was best to just eat and if somebody was going to complain, it would not be me. ;)

[minijeanie]

I am so surprised to hear these bad reviews... I have eaten at this restaurant 4 times and all in all we had great service and food was good.

Entertainment wonderful. I truly enjoy this restaurant. Right in the middle of the lobby of WL and you get such a great view.

Guess they had bad servers and that can ruin everything for you........

[Im_with_Dopey]

:thumbsup2 We ate lunch here Dec. o7' for the first time and had a great time. We had the best waitress.She kept calling us "princess". 11 of us in all, my daughter (21)ordered a pulled pork sandwich but didnt really like it so she wasn't eating, she was asked what was wrong with the food, so she said she didnt really like it, and she asked her what else she would like.She brought her out a chicken sandwich and didnt charge for the pork. Skillet it awesome. Our three Grandkids 2, 4 and 5 did the hobby horse, and our waitress had the kids and their moms and aunts get up front and sing rudolph into the mike for everyone.

[TPCShauna]

Anyone been here for breakfast? How's the food/fun then?

[CinderellyCinderelly]

This place is hit or miss. I was advised not to go here but it seemed like a fun time and something different than we're used to. However, this was definitely a miss. I won't go into details but it was just bad - sometimes you can get away with bad food if the service is good or vice versa, but both were poor. I got FLAMED for my opinions on it, but really, when someone says don't go here - DON'T GO HERE!

[ringow]

We ate there for dinner in March. The food, specifically the skillet, was not good, with the exception of dessert. Would not go again. Many other places so much better.

[_queenie_]

We have ADR for supper in October. I am wondering if I should change my ADR's or if it is too late. I thought from some other posts that the food looked mediocre, but thought the fun would make up for it. Any thoughts????

How big's your party? If it's reasonably small I think you could change pretty easily, we make all of our lunch resevations with the concierge when we get to the hotel.

If you're still interested in the WCC experience, I'd go at breakfast. The food's still not the greatest, but a bad breakfast isn't nearly as dissapointing as a bad supper.

[bytheblood]

I also had the pulled pork sandwich. That night I had the worst heartburn I had ever had in my life. We are staying at the WL in Dec 09 and have decided there is no way we will dine there this next time.

[aprilgail2]

We ate there for dinner in March. The food, specifically the skillet, was not good, with the exception of dessert. Would not go again. Many other places so much better.

All 6 of us had the skillet for dinner 2 weeks ago and it was wonderful! We all loved it.