Biggest ADR Letdown?

[matterninhburg]

Via Napoli for us. This was the reservation that I probably felt the most confident about. I'd read almost all positive reviews and I love thin crust pizza. The meal fell so flat for us. The crust wasn't crispy, it was very soft yet the bottom was charred. The kids hated their pizza. It had maybe a tablespoon of cheese and the sauce was terrible. Very disappointing.

 

[Annadesu]

Liberty Tree Tavern. Waited forever to get inside, and then we were seated near a very loud/rude family (not the staff's fault, but it certainly didn't help). The food was "meh" at best, the server was clearly waiting on too many tables at the same time (not her fault, obviously) and it just wasn't a nice experience in general. lol

 

[followthatmouse]

OUr last California Grill ADR was very disappointing. The food was sub-par and the service dismal. I was also hit in the head with trays ... twice! We used to love this place. No more.

 

[missbrooke06]

San Angel Inn. The food was disappointing and the service was slow. They accidentally put a drink on my bill that shouldn't have been and it took 20 minutes to get the new bill. It ended up as a 2 hour dinner. The restaurant was beautiful though.

 

[happymommy]

Chefs de France. Tried to eat dinner there once. After our soup, the entrees took like an hour to come out. I looked down at my steak, tried to cut into it, and said loudly to my DH that I couldn't eat it - it had been sitting under a heat lamp for what seemed to be at least a half hour. I ordered it medium rare, and it was all dried out and gross. Manager finally came over & was actually rude to us. We left without eating dinner. I'll never go back there again. It was so awful.

 

[Disneylover99]

CRT - both times
Food was mediocre and service was rushed - not enjoyable for the price of the meal.

 

[Pepper pots]

Le Cellier...Steaks were below average and so cramped I could have lifted the cutlery from the next table without getting off my seat..Once bitten..Never went back..

 

[elizabethswan]

I am so glad that it's not only me and my wife that won't ever go back to Ohana, for the price I would hope we wouldn't have to hunt down our server to bring over done shoe leather they called steak.


One good point, we discovered you can get the best part of the meal, the bread pudding, at the Tambu Lounge right next to Ohana.

we are in this club too. for us it was ohana a few years back. we looked forward to that dinner so much but there were issues with the food preparation at the time. not sure if it has improved or maybe it was a one off but we will probably not be back.

 

[emmabemmainc]

This is not an ADR, but it is a dining experience---the entire Food and Wine Festival. We went this year from 11/3-11/10 and while I was so excited to go and try many things, there were only a few things that I'd get again. I tried over 20 items and thought most were incredibly mediocre. I was bummed to say the least.

 

[goofyintoronto]

Ohana dinner - Not good at all.
Le Cellier - very overhyped. Again, food wasn't that great. Quality of the steak was just meh.

 

[mcraige]

My expectations are pretty low (its over-priced theme park food afterall), but the worst for me was the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater in 2014. The Fried Dill Pickles were so salty I couldn't eat them (and I like a lot of salt), and it had to require a significant amount of effort to make a burger that bad!

 

[lustergirl]

50'S Prime Time Cafe: food was just meh...

 

[Octoberbaby]

Not really an ADR, but for me it was the dole whip.

 

[PK Disney Dork]

Be Our Guest.

While the ambiance is great, the actual dinner menu is rather pedestrian. We were quite let down. It's almost as though the real hype and win for this place is just landing the ADR itself. The food didn't live up the hype.

Plus they seem to rush you though your meal which I am not a fan of.

 

[crabbygal902]

Brown Derby, our first signature restaurant. Nothing was bad but certainly was not worth the increase in price from regular table service.

Also, we were completely underwhelmed by Rose and Crown. Again, nothing bad...but I have no need to go back.

 

[mikejuliestl]

Im sensing a theme here...

In each response I could remember a similar terrible (okay, perhaps terrible is too strong) memory of these ADRs. We love our trips to Disney and we love our table service plans, but we dont particularly enjoy the food very much (???????). With a few exceptions (Coral Reef, Biergarten, Via Napoli) the food is relatively bland and the plates are made to get thousands of guests through there every day. Set expectations low and occasionally be pleasantly surprised.

 

[peanut520]

Akershus. Terrible food.

Breakfast was good but dinner was terrible!

Biggest let down: narcoossess followed by a tie at Cinderella's and CA grill, but I think most of the signatures are just meh for foodies.

My fish was over cooked on the outside and undercooked on the inside, dh and my parents all had over cooked lobsters. The service was pretty good overall.

Cinderella's food was just average and Was very rushed. While we will continue to go to CA grill for apps and dessert we will not go for an entire meal. I had to send my steak back twice for being over cooked and the 3rd one was like eating a salt lick.

 

[DisMJ]

Im sensing a theme here...

In each response I could remember a similar terrible (okay, perhaps terrible is too strong) memory of these ADRs. We love our trips to Disney and we love our table service plans, but we dont particularly enjoy the food very much (???????). With a few exceptions (Coral Reef, Biergarten, Via Napoli) the food is relatively bland and the plates are made to get thousands of guests through there every day. Set expectations low and occasionally be pleasantly surprised.

I think this was very evident when we were there. It felt very much like mass production. Which I get... they are pushing so many guests through each day. I just didn't notice it until we were actually there and were eating the food... we had very few "memorable" meals. We ate at BOG, Raglan Road, Chefs de France, Ohana, Kona Cafe, Akershus, Grand Floridian Cafe. Of those, if we ever went back, we would do Ohana, Raglan Road and maybe Akershus breakfast. Biggest letdown was Chefs de France, but I think that had more to do with the service. BOG was just ok.

 

[WIcruizer]

With a few exceptions (Coral Reef, Biergarten, Via Napoli) the food is relatively bland and the plates are made to get thousands of guests through there every day. Set expectations low and occasionally be pleasantly surprised.

Agree completely! In fact, I even put Biergarten and Via Napoli in that category. I think it has a lot to do with where someone is from, what restaurants they have access to on a regular basis, etc. For example, we have an excellent German restaurant close to our home. Definitely much better than Biergarten. But the food there is still "good." And we still love it because of the atmosphere.

Same thing with Via Napoli. We've been there a couple times and found it to be bland, and the pizza crust was not crisp. Probably have a dozen pizza and/or Italian places where we live that are better. Same is true for BBQ, hibachi, Chinese, steak, even a burger. Mexican? WAY better Mexican restaurants in Wisconsin of all places than the ones in WDW. Yet, we still go to La Hacienda for the atmosphere, and the food is fine.

So, I agree. All we expect is good food, we know no matter what type of food it is we can get something better back home- and for less money. Since we've gone in with attitude for many years now, we are rarely disappointed. We want to go to places that are fun, or have some magic of some kind.

 

[PghPiratesGirl]

Agree completely! In fact, I even put Biergarten and Via Napoli in that category. I think it has a lot to do with where someone is from, what restaurants they have access to on a regular basis, etc. For example, we have an excellent German restaurant close to our home. Definitely much better than Biergarten. But the food there is still "good." And we still love it because of the atmosphere.

Same thing with Via Napoli. We've been there a couple times and found it to be bland, and the pizza crust was not crisp. Probably have a dozen pizza and/or Italian places where we live that are better. Same is true for BBQ, hibachi, Chinese, steak, even a burger. Mexican? WAY better Mexican restaurants in Wisconsin of all places than the ones in WDW. Yet, we still go to La Hacienda for the atmosphere, and the food is fine.

So, I agree. All we expect is good food, we know no matter what type of food it is we can get something better back home- and for less money. Since we've gone in with attitude for many years now, we are rarely disappointed. We want to go to places that are fun, or have some magic of some kind.

Hello, fellow Wisconsinite! I live in Sun Prairie (near Madison)