Biggest ADR Letdown?

[aretha30]

50's Prime Time, we were excited to try this in August and it just didn't live up to the hype! Our waiter was just okay (there were times where he played into it and times he didn't) and the food was just okay. We would try other ADR's before we'd go back there.

 

[mom2AidanAndEli]

Seems like a common theme here is though shall avoid Ohana, ha!

Tried 'Ohana for the first time this August. One of the top two meals of our trip! Can't wait to go back. LOVED IT!

But maybe if everybody thinks it's going to be bad, the ADRs will be easier to get!

 

[Nohal]

La Hacienda. We ate there last year and it was delicious and service was good. This year they changed the way things were prepared and the service was awful. I hated even leaving a tip. Also Mama Melrose, first time for us, the food was good but the service was awful. The poor server was so flustered I think it might have been her first day.

 

[MillauFr]

Tried 'Ohana for the first time this August. One of the top two meals of our trip! Can't wait to go back. LOVED IT!

But maybe if everybody thinks it's going to be bad, the ADRs will be easier to get!

Ditto. Ohana breakfast was our favorite experience of the trip.

 

[wdw4rfam]

Akershus. Terrible food.

BOG- food just OK, not worth th hype

 

[slp87]

Mama Melrose. Yuck.

 

[BlueStarryHat]

Tutto Italia. I've had two bad meals there now. I *really* think they're using Chef Boyardee from a can.

 

[stitchfan75]

Loved Ohana dinner but the breakfast was horrid. The character interaction was great but it doesn't make up for weird tasting sausage, burned potatoes, and fake eggs.
Norway Princess Breakfast was a close 2nd. I literally felt nauseous after eating there.
We will probably never do a breakfast ADR again except for Tusker House.

 

[marchingstar]

I find these threads so interesting to read, but remember folks: if someone had bad service/food somewhere that doesn't mean that place necessarily has bad food/service all the time. I don't think I would avoid a place because it's listed on one of these threads (but I do still love reading them!).

my biggest let down was HBD last trip. we've done the F! dinner there twice now. first time I loved it--the service was great, the food was delicious, and I felt like we got a good value (even though it's the most expensive F! dinner option). second time the waiter was inattentive (at one point I dropped my fork and it took at least 10 minutes to get a new one). I ordered the duck 2 ways, and the server confirmed I was okay with a medium rare breast with crispy skin (which I was looking forward to). the breast came out with a thick layer of flabby fat, and so I complained. I had to explain to our server as well as a head server what the problem was--they both thought I was complaining that the meat was undercooked, and neither really listened to me. and finally unlike the first visit, where dessert was my choice of 3 mini desserts, last time it was "chefs choice." I don't like chocolate (unusual, I know!), and 2 of the desserts were completely chocolate. after such a great first visit, where HBD was seriously a make-or-break restaurant for us, the second time sucked. we won't be returning in November.

 

[Jadyreen1282]

The only issues we ever have at Disney restaurants are with fellow unresponsive bad parents letting their precious progeny to ruin our meals by jogging about throughout the meal. Control your kids people or I will feed then cookies and give them a free kitten.

 

[SarahInMN]

Le Cellier. Worst meal, worst service. Huge disappointment and will never go back.

 

[leebee]

Kona Cafe, October 2014. We'd eaten there several times in the past, always had a wonderful meal. Not this time. EVERYTHING was overcooked. DH's chicken was like a mouthful of cotton. Scallops were dry and chewy. We sent everything back and got soup and salad. They didn't charge us for the food, but it didn't matter. It was just bad. The waitress hinted that this chef had only been working for about 3 months and was still getting used to the pace, but I didn't care. Food really wasn't edible.

Chef Mickey's- the food is always mediocre at best, and the place is always a mess. Too many parents letting kids serve themselves from the buffet means food spilled on the buffet tables, dropped on the floor, tracked around. Smelled like a garbage pit. GROSS. Never again.

BOG lunch. So much hype over mediocre food. I had the pork for lunch and by 1am was heaving up my toenails. No proof at all that it was the pork, although it was the only thing on our table that day that I was the only one to eat- but it was all I could think of while I was actively sick for the next 12 hours. Missed DD's 21st birthday celebration at Food and Wine the next day. She and DH had a great day...me, back in the hotel, not so much.

 

[bigbabyblues]

Dinner at 1900 Park Fare. The food was terrible, the service was slow, and we ended up eating a second dinner an hour later because we were all still hungry. The one restaurant at WDW we won't go back to.

 

[Lollipop's Mom]

Chef Mickeys - the food was worse than Golden Corral (and I find that pretty darn bad). I don't understand the attraction of the food here. The desserts are cute and yummy, but the food was really bad. And I like bland foods- I am not a spicy food person -but this was awful! I was glad we were on free dining!
We also were not super impressed with the quality of food at Coral Reef - not good at all! Again - happy we were on free dining!

 

[mousehappync]

The worst meal I have ever had at WDW was at Chef Mickey, but it was not my biggest let down. I went there knowing the reviews and was hoping for the best, I ended up getting the worst. But the biggest ADR let down I have ever had was at LeCellier.

We went to LeCellier at the peak of it's hype a few years ago. We bought into it hook, line and sinker. I read all the reviews where people were saying it was almost an out of body experience and left them in a total state of euphoria. There were endless raves about the beer cheese soup and also how incredible the Mushroom Filet Steak was the best steak that could be found on a dinner plate anywhere on this planet known as Earth. Boy was I gullible.

When we arrived we were seated almost 45 minutes past our ADR. We were placed next to the servers station and the entrance to the restroom. We asked nicely to be moved and that we would wait if necessary. We were told by the manager that we could not. The constant flow of servers next to us at the station along with the steady traffic heading to the rest rooms was a big time turn-off for us. Perhaps because of this our opinion of the food was tempered. I thought the beer cheese soup was decent, but not what I would call great. As for the mushroom steak; it was very, and yes I will use the word, very Outback in it's quality. The mushroom sauce poured over it tasted like Campbell's mushroom soup straight from the can and the risotto was no different than Minute Rice. I was never so disappointed in a restaurant ADR as that one and to this day it is still my biggest disappointment in all of WDW. Never again will I go there.

Other than being seated by the bathroom, this was our experience, too. I will add that the creme brûlée was essentially caramelized Jello butterscotch pudding. Plus a group of Disney "blue suits" were seated next to us. (what's the correct name for these folks? They were clearly doing some sort of review of the server, and they were straight up-- well, you know the word I'm searching for here.) we were seated elbow to elbow with them and they we're GRILLING the server in a way that made me extremely uncomfortable. I realize that their job was to make sure he knew his job well, but it was unbelievably turned off by it. If that's how corporate Disney approaches management-- what a poor job.

Adding to this list-- a $350 dinner at California Grill where we were served barely edible food, and coming back from taking my young son on a long and unexpected restroom break (I was on a solo trip with him) to a table full of stone cold food-- apps and entrees-- that had clearly been dumped on our table while we were gone at the Brown Derby.

 

[Jennasis]

Ohana for dinner. Great service, awful atmosphere and food.

 

[starousse]

California Grill was our worst meal of our past trip. Service was horrible, sushi was premade and ice cold. As soon as the waiter found out I was in the mood for a soda and not ordering off the wine menu, our service noticeably declined. Never again. The pizza we had at Via Napoli the next night was 100% better.

 

[cluvsdisney]

I have 2...

Le Cellier - there was so much hype and praise about this place, I thought it would be a home run and it wasn't at all. We had a bit of a wait for a table, they were so close together, our waiter was not very friendly, my steak was way under cooked, the unfriendly waiter was not very pleased about getting it corrected which took forever and it didn't even taste as good as Outback. We never went back.

Captain's Grill - this was being called a hidden gem when we went and while the service was terrific, it was the worst meal I was ever served in a restaurant. We tried their breakfast a couple of years later but we were still unimpressed and it's now off the list.

 

[DisneyHoover]

My least favorite meal was BOG dinner; my husband and I had eaten here for lunch the year prior and enjoyed it so I really wanted to try dinner there; I was a little disappointed in the quality of the food for the price and everything seemed a little rushed.

 

[SamIAm8]

My worst ever Disney let down ever was Coral Reef 4 years ago. First we showed up 25 minutes early to our ADRs and still were not seated until 30 minutes after ours. I would understand if we were there at lunch or dinner hours but our ADRs were at 3:15pm. When we were finally seated we were one of three families in the whole place. Once we were seated and ordered drinks we asked our waiter for a fish guide. It took us asking 4-5 times asking before we got one. We also asked about the plastic blue dolphins they had that hooked onto the cups. Had to ask for those 4 times too. We ordered starters. My mother is highly allergic to crab but not lobster. She asked if the lobster ravioli had crab in it. The chef had no clue because the pasta was frozen premade food. The box only said lobster and other seafood as the meat ingredients in it. So we all ordered salads or soup as a starter. They were the highlight of our meal. Then our entrees came. Four of us got New York Strip steaks. They were 35-50% fat and gristle. All of us who are steak lovers ate less than 25% of them. One person in our group got a chicken caesar salad and the chicken was slimy and smelled rotten from across the table. My mom got the Mahi-mahi and liked it as well as my little sister liking her kid's meal. Also before we went there we had gotten henna done. The waiter thought they were cool and actually rubbed his hand over the still wet henna on her arm. The twenty dollar henna tattoo was smudged really bad. Then when I talked to the manager she offered to cover my drink because after all we were on the deluxe dining plan (but none of our points). That's when I got angry. It was our last day and because their food sucked we were starving. We need those points for other food. Finally they gave us back five of them. I will not go back there unless someone in my family really wanted to.