Narcoossees’s NOT worth the time or the 2 TS credits……….

[MarkinNM]

From all the great reviews here on the DIS I decided we should make this our first ADR for the start of our trip and well it was the most disappointing meal we had during the entire trip! Checked in @ 7PM for 7:35PM ADR, got seated @ 8PM, hostess was not the most friendly and I was taken back by how rude she sounded to everyone entering the resturant. When we were seated, we sat for 10mins before I got up to see where the elusive yeti, ugm waiter was for the night, even after talking to the hostess it still took 10 more mins for him to come around, then he kind of slapped the menus on the table and walked away, disappeared again, ok now I am getting bugged. When he finally decided we were real people he asked if we were on the DDP I said yes and he looked like he wanted to cry. We ordered our drinks & entrees right away without asking if we wanted appetizers, which we were going to order. We ordered the Lobster dish and the Tuna dish, the Tuna was actually pretty darn good, oh the lobster, I think it was lobster, was just awful! WTH was that stuffed into the shell?? I have had lobster before and this shredded fish thing stuffed in to a lobster shell was not lobster and since when did a lobster come with 1 claw? The potato crap was burnt and crunchy and was awful! The lobster was rubbery, fishy, shredded crap with no flavor was terrible and when asked I told the waiter this and he looked insulted, then asked for our desert orders, well they were no better. What a great start to our vacation! And to top it off as usual SWA “overbooked” the flight to Orlando and was offering to refund the cost of the airfare PLUS $100 travel voucher AND to get us to Orlando by 7PM and I did not take it because of the Narcoossees ADR, should have would have …I have had better at Red Lobster................

Word to the wise STAY AWAY FROM NARCOOSSEE’S!!!!!!!!!!!

[Sammie]

I think their greatest fault is they are not consistent, I have had very good meals there and I have experienced service similar to what you had.

[shopn24seven]

Getting nervous now...we have ressies in Dec, there.
*sigh*
Were they OVERLY crowded? Shorthanded?

[MarkinNM]

Originally Posted by shopn24seven

Getting nervous now...we have ressies in Dec, there.
*sigh*
Were they OVERLY crowded? Shorthanded?

That is a great question as there were empty tables around that never got seated while we were eating, not sure but this place is supposed to be a signature resturant and not sure how they got this “rating” but Disney definitely needs to re-look at them. One meal with them was enough to decide on our future dining with them again or never again…..

[blondinkaya]

Originally Posted by shopn24seven

Getting nervous now...we have ressies in Dec, there.
*sigh*
Were they OVERLY crowded? Shorthanded?

We went to Tony's and had a fabulous dinner. I had the chicken parmigiana. It was sooooo good! But I've read many reviews here about that same exact dish from Tony's saying that it was the most disgusting meal ever had. Everyone's experience is different.

The way I see it is that sometimes restaurants are "off" and sometimes they're not. OP had a very bad meal at Narcoossee's, but others have had really good ones. Dh and I are having our anniversary meal there in Dec ... I don't want to have the same experience as OP, but I have no intention of changing the ADR.

OP, glad to hear you liked the tuna ... I'm on the fence as to whether to have that or the filet. Dh wants lobster, and it's not something we ever have, so hopefully, if we do catch the restaurant on a bad night, he won't be able to tell the difference!

[oybolshoi]

sorry to hear about your bad experience. we dined at Narcoossees a couple of years ago and while we didn't have the kind of evening you did, we just weren't all that impressed. Flying Fish and Bluezoo both do seafood so much better that we have no desire to return to Narcoossees.

[lurkernj]

We just dined here a week ago and it was awesome. Our reservation was at 5:35 when they first opened, so we didn't wait. We ordered the Surf/turf and it was excellent (enjoyed our potatos too, but they weren't burnt), as was that almond cheesecake. Our server was very accomodating as it was just myself and DS11, I didn't want to use 4 credits so we split the surf/turf and ordered a kids mac/cheese for DS side (as well as a brownie sundae for his dessert). Our server was very polite and didn't seem bothered at all by the splitting.

Funny how people have such different experiences at the same place!

[LoraJ]

Sorry you had a bad meal there. We had a wonderful experience there a few years ago. We had an 8pm ADR and about a 15 minute wait. That wasn't during free dining though. I think you should have asked for a manager on the spot if you were that dissatisfied.

[schimj]

Originally Posted by shopn24seven

Getting nervous now...we have ressies in Dec, there.
*sigh*
Were they OVERLY crowded? Shorthanded?

Don't worry...I'm sure OP is being over dramatic. I've been there several times and always had great food and service. DW & I also recently took my parents for their first trip to WDW/my father's b-day trip, and that was their favorite meal.

[ElizabethB]

Welcome to free dining!!!

I suspect (although I don't know for sure) that your waiter looked like he was going to cry because it is very likely many free diners are showing up in big groups, not ordering wine or anything beyond the free items and not tipping all that well. I think a mandatory 20% tip for those eating on the DDP is not far in the future.

As for the Maine lobster, we, too, have had one of Narcoossee's underweight and rubbery lobsters for the last time. Narcoossee's actually has the nerve to charge $59 for one of those things -- at a time when there is a surplus of lobsters on the market and bigger, better ones than Narcoossee's serves are in the grocery stores for $5.99 a pound.

One thing I can say is a wonderful experience at Narcoossee's a few years ago bears no relationship to the current state of play at that restaurant -- and things are only worse during free dining.

I feel bad because we do have a trip planned for late Oct. and with free dining going on until Dec. we are bound to run into exactly the situation you had. We are not using free dining and we are not on DDP. So, we're focusing our meals on restaurants that don't take the DDP with hopes that we will have some decent meals that way.

[TillyMarigold]

Our ADR was for the same time as yours on a Saturday night, we were seated by 7:20 (after showing up at 7:10), and the service was absolutely outstanding, far and away the best service of the trip (and nearly everywhere we went gave us great service, but Narcoossee's went above and beyond).

Our food was extremely good, the weakest dish was the halibut (which was fine if you like halibut, but nothing special) but the desserts were excellent. DH had the scallops and the Valrhona chocolate cake, I had the halibut and the key lime creme brulee. I think the highlight for DH was that we each got a press pot of tea with dessert (we got water and wine with our meals--and the water was offered without our asking, it came with the bread, and wasn't the gross WDW tap water).

There's a full review in my dining report.

[TillyMarigold]

Our ADR was for the same time as yours on a Saturday night, we were seated by 7:20 (after showing up at 7:10), and the service was absolutely outstanding, far and away the best service of the trip (and nearly everywhere we went gave us great service, but Narcoossee's went above and beyond).

Our food was extremely good, the weakest dish was the halibut (which was fine if you like halibut, but nothing special) but the desserts were excellent. DH had the scallops and the Valrhona chocolate cake, I had the halibut and the key lime creme brulee. I think the highlight for DH was that we each got a press pot of tea with dessert (we got water and wine with our meals--and the water was offered without our asking, it came with the bread, and wasn't the gross WDW tap water).

There's a full review in my dining report.

[MarkinNM]

Originally Posted by blondinkaya

Everyone's experience is different.

The way I see it is that sometimes restaurants are "off" and sometimes they're not. OP had a very bad meal at Narcoossee's, but others have had really good ones. Dh and I are having our anniversary meal there in Dec ... I don't want to have the same experience as OP, but I have no intention of changing the ADR.

OP, glad to hear you liked the tuna ... I'm on the fence as to whether to have that or the filet. Dh wants lobster, and it's not something we ever have, so hopefully, if we do catch the restaurant on a bad night, he won't be able to tell the difference!

SOOOO TRUE!

IF you do go STAY AWAY FROM THE shredded fish crud shoved into a lobster shell, PLEASE....... The Tuna was really good and glad I ordered that by my kids had to sit through that sad thing called a shellfish, that was an INSULT to a lobster......

Originally Posted by LoraJ

Sorry you had a bad meal there. We had a wonderful experience there a few years ago. We had an 8pm ADR and about a 15 minute wait. That wasn't during free dining though. I think you should have asked for a manager on the spot if you were that dissatisfied.

I thought about it but the water show was about to start, "that" hostess was still there, and just did not want to start our vacation complaining, we were all tired from traveling all day, so I took it as a learning and will NEVER partake of this sad little place again.....

BTW if you do go outside watch where you step as there were roaches out on the balcony and railings....................We ended up going to the dock to wait for the next boat out of there....................

Originally Posted by schimj

Don't worry...I'm sure OP is being over dramatic. I've been there several times and always had great food and service. DW & I also recently took my parents for their first trip to WDW/my father's b-day trip, and that was their favorite meal.

Overdramatic... , wish you could have been there I am serious here that we liked Pizza Planet in HS BETTER!!!!!! After working in the resturant business for over 20 years, I know what a lobster is and I have NEVER seen or tasted ANYTHING like that shredded sad piece of whatever it was......

Originally Posted by ElizabethB

Welcome to free dining!!!

I suspect (although I don't know for sure) that your waiter looked like he was going to cry because it is very likely many free diners are showing up in big groups, not ordering wine or anything beyond the free items and not tipping all that well. I think a mandatory 20% tip for those eating on the DDP is not far in the future.

As for the Maine lobster, we, too, have had one of Narcoossee's underweight and rubbery lobsters for the last time. Narcoossee's actually has the nerve to charge $59 for one of those things -- at a time when there is a surplus of lobsters on the market and bigger, better ones than Narcoossee's serves are in the grocery stores for $5.99 a pound.

One thing I can say is a wonderful experience at Narcoossee's a few years ago bears no relationship to the current state of play at that restaurant -- and things are only worse during free dining.

I feel bad because we do have a trip planned for late Oct. and with free dining going on until Dec. we are bound to run into exactly the situation you had. We are not using free dining and we are not on DDP. So, we're focusing our meals on restaurants that don't take the DDP with hopes that we will have some decent meals that way.

Thanks for your honest review and not being dramatic...., I don’t think it is the DDP or free dining, in this case as the rest of the week was filled with WONDERFUL food and servers from some pretty interesting people, the 2 that we really got to talking to was Brandon in LeCellier, GREAT interesting person & I cant remember her name but she was in Chefs De France, she was a GREAT chatter, I love that…..

We are in total agreement that Narcossees should be ashamed to serve that shredded stuff with 1 claw, FD or not, I have had better in Red Lobster for goodness sake…..

Tipping is whole different subject and the mandatory 20% thing will never fly especially in our case as the kid must have been a trainee as come to think of it we never got any bread??????………………

I am sure you will have some GREAT meals with the DDP, FD or not, have fun!!!

[ClareH37]

Thank you to the OP for posting this review, I was beginning to think I was the only other person to have had a terrible meal/service there.

I think we must have had the same waiter! We also sat at our table for a good 10 minutes before he eventually graced us with his presence, whereupon he then literally threw the menus at us and grunted in a most unpleasant way to ask if we wanted drinks, then disappeared off for another 10 minutes. It was 20 minutes before we were able to order appetisers. After appetisers we waited another 40 minutes before our mains came - we gave up trying to call him over because we didn't see him again until he served our mains, but did ask a manager who was indifferent and advised it was probably because of my gluten free meal (salmon). The restaurant was not even half full and I have never encountered such delays in ordering a gluten free meal elsewhere.

Starters were fine, but the mains were terrible - my friend had the scallops/risotto dish and it was so heavily seasoned it was inedible, I had salmon in some kind of mushroom sauce which was supposedly gluten free (I'm celiac) - I was extremely unwell after that meal, no further comment!

We were paying OOP and it was the biggest waste of money I have encountered onsite in all my years of Disney dining.

However, I do appreciate all restaurants get good and bad reviews, but based on my own personal experience I will never return there, not even if you paid me.

[TiffinyKC]

First: I am really sorry that you had a bad experience. No matter what, that just stinks.

Second: I'm now a little nervous too. I've been really looking forward to this meal and I have read enough to reconsider. I'm wondering if Yatchman's would be a better choice. Hmmm.....what to do, what to do.