Remember that restaurant reviews are a matter of personal preference and opinion. I mean - if every review is telling you that the food is terrible or that it's dirty, then I wouldn't go there. But it's all based on mixed reviews. I'll give an example... I'm from NY, which means I'm snooty about bagels and pizza. I just went down to OCMD and my friend's GF said I "HAD" to try this bagel place. It's the closes to NY you can get, she exclaimed. It wasn't very good, but that's because I've been eating the best bagels in the world for so long. These were good, but not on the same level as NY bagels. Another example - there was a thread not too long ago about biscuits with gravy. As a NYer, I may think that the biscuits with gravy are the best at Disney!!! But someone from, say, Louisiana may find it disgusting.
Anyway - Coral Reef is one of the older restaurants at Disney. It has a reputation as a "Disney classic." I don't know - the food just doesn't do it for me. My dad loves it because the tank, but it's not a restaurant I'd fight for. The seafood is okay and the steak you could get anywhere. The biggest turnoff for me was the lava cake. Now - a lava cake should be a soft, spongy cake and when you cut into it, a chocolate syrup should pour out. It's very hard to make - you either cook it perfectly, undercook it and have a cake that's too soft, or overcook it and have little to no "lava." My sister ordered it and had it perfectly cooked. My mom's was undercooked and mine was overcooked. This isn't the Goldilocks. You expect some consistency at a Disney restaurant.
Just to further show that you can have a bad experience - we didn't like Chefs de France. Our food was cold, it was very close quarters and our server seems a bit rude. BUT - it was Christmas Eve and it was incredibly busy. Maybe we just had a bad experience - because many people seem to LOVE it.