2 comments on Disney dining recommendations

[disneysteve]

I have to respond to 2 things said during the Disney dining review podcast last week.

1. Pepper Market at Coronado Springs: After reading so many glowing reviews of this place, we finally ate there for the first time on our last trip. UGH! The food was disgusting, the service was horrendous and the prices were ridiculous. It was the most expensive meal we ate during our entire 2 week visit. I got the grilled chicken quesadilla. The pile of chicken on the grill looked delicious, and it was. The problem was they filled the tortilla with about a pound of low quality, grease-laden cheese and topped it with a teaspoon full of the chicken. I don't recall what my wife and daughter had (I posted a review back in September when we got back) but neither of them were happy with their meals. As for service, soon after we sat down, one of us dropped a fork. We could not find a server to get another. My wife finally had to go up to the front counter and get one herself. We also couldn't get our water glasses refilled. I don't remember all of the details but needless to say, we will never set foot in there again.

2. DHS Fantasmic Dining packages: Even though you can use your dining plan credits for this, as Pete corrected, you still shouldn't. When you do the Fantasmic package, you do get seats at the show, but they are the worst seats in the stadium, all the way to one side. If you really want to see the show, get there early and sit in the center sections. You'll have a much better view.

 

[polineedyan]

I had made similar comments about pepper market about a year and a half ago when we got back from coronado. Pepper Market had been billed as the best resort cs on property. Hardly.

 

[safetymom]

Glad to hear others feel the way I do.

 

[disneysteve]

I just pulled up my original post about Pepper Market:http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2265290

It might not have been our most expensive meal but it was as of the time I posted that, which was actually during our stay. I'm pretty sure it remained the most expensive, though.

Wife and I both had the quesadillas. My daughter was stuck with mac and cheese because she is vegetarian, and that was cold. I had forgotten about the service, or lack of, at the dessert counter. One CM for that whole area was totally inadequate.

I would definitely put Pepper Market in the "Cross this one off your list" category.

 

[Borgar]

Just have to put in a plug for the Fantasmic dinner package: our family did this for our last 2 drips to WDW. Yes, the seats are in the right rear of the stadium, but (1) we still had a great view of the show, since everything is so huge, and (2) we really liked being able to tour the park all evening up till showtime, rather than sitting and saving seats for 1-2 hrs.

 

[WdwforLife]

I am very disappointed to hear your experiences with Pepper Market were less than satisfactory I love Coronado Springs AND The Pepper Market! Even if I don't stay at CS I still make sure I get there and eat at PM. I've never had a bad meal there (or anywhere in WDW for that matter) but then again I am very easy to please.

Maybe you'd suggest giving PM a second chance sometime. However, I would understand if you didn't. I've certainly had bad experiences before and I wouldn't think about going back again.

 

[disneysteve]

Maybe you'd suggest giving PM a second chance sometime. However, I would understand if you didn't. I've certainly had bad experiences before and I wouldn't think about going back again.

We would not consider giving it a second chance. We've had bad experiences at restaurants and gone back again because we chalked it up to an off day or a bad server, but this wasn't one issue. The entire set up and experience was lacking. The service was awful. The food was awful. And the prices were awful. Unless I have some reason to believe that they've totally redesigned the place, it isn't somewhere we would want to eat again. I know a lot of people like it. I'm just honestly not sure why.

 

[FireDancer]

I have eaten twice at the PM and had a really good meal both times. On my trip down for marathon weekend in 2008 I actually went over to CSR to eat at PM on my arrival day even though I wasn't staying there.

Of course like most restaurants everyone will have different experiences. It might have been one bad day, it might be that their food doesn't measure up for whatever reason because person A and person B uses different criteria for selecting their meals.

As for the Fantasmic package, I have heard from almost everyone that it isn't worth it for the reasons the OP stated.

 

[DisneyKevin]

We've dined at the Pepper Market many times and never had a bad experience.

Maybe I'm mistaken...but I never considered the Pepper Market to offer "service".

I've seen people walking around cleaning tables and offering to get drink re-fills, but I've always considered anyplace where I have to walk to the counter and order my food and then carry my food to my table, to be a "self-serve", counter service kind of place.

Also....as long as I'm standing and waiting for my food....I've always sort of directed them as to what I want. If I wanted less cheese and more chicken....I'd tell them thats what I wanted.

I'm sorry that you had a bad experience.

I think we expected different things.

 

[UrsulasShadow]

I've had two very good experiences at the Pepper Market, both with the food quality and the service. The prices are high, this is true, but at the time I went I found that it was still a pretty good value.

I know that all dining reviews are very subjective, and also that the experience I had last year or the year before may not be the experience I have next year. I would not base my dining plans on one person's experience...but I understand that once you have a bad experience, you may never wish to return to a place to give it a second chance.

 

[happy2go2wdwmom]

We just returned from a 5 night stay at CSR. Only bought food from the PM one time and that was a late night "to go" Marguerita pizza order, which only took about 10 minutes for them to make. It was really delicious and stil hot when DS and I nearly devoured most of it in our room---DH reheated it in the morning in our microwave and enjoyed it as well. It was not pricey as pizzas go and was a nice special CSR treat. Also, I love the theming of PM and esp. Rix.

 

[disneysteve]

Maybe I'm mistaken...but I never considered the Pepper Market to offer "service".

I think we expected different things.

Hi Kevin. I love the podcast and I agreed with your entire list of recommendations, both good and bad, except for this one.

Perhaps our expectations were inflated by all the great reviews I've read on the DIS but I don't think that was the problem.

When I say service, I don't mean I expected table service type of attention but the server who took our drink order and brought our drinks never returned to our table to see if we needed anything or wanted refills. I think expecting that was reasonable.

I was also referring to the service at each of the counters. As I said in the other thread, they had one CM at the dessert counter and there were plenty of guests waiting to be served. It just didn't seem to me to be well organized to service guests. I also seem to recall my wife having some issue getting her food. I had ordered first while she was still checking out the options. Then she ordered but several guests who ordered after her got served before her. And as I mentioned, my daughter's food was cold when served.

I don't want to beat a dead horse here. Just sharing our experience.

 

[DisneyKevin]

Hi Kevin. I love the podcast and I agreed with your entire list of recommendations, both good and bad, except for this one.

Perhaps our expectations were inflated by all the great reviews I've read on the DIS but I don't think that was the problem.

When I say service, I don't mean I expected table service type of attention but the server who took our drink order and brought our drinks never returned to our table to see if we needed anything or wanted refills. I think expecting that was reasonable.

I was also referring to the service at each of the counters. As I said in the other thread, they had one CM at the dessert counter and there were plenty of guests waiting to be served. It just didn't seem to me to be well organized to service guests. I also seem to recall my wife having some issue getting her food. I had ordered first while she was still checking out the options. Then she ordered but several guests who ordered after her got served before her. And as I mentioned, my daughter's food was cold when served.

I don't want to beat a dead horse here. Just sharing our experience.

I understand completely.

People tell me Ohana is the best place on earth and....well....you know how I feel about Ohana.

 

[MomofKatie]

I am not a PM fan, either. I think, for me, it is the 10% gratuity charge tacked on to the bill. For what??!! We got absolutely nothing for the $$ we paid.

If the location makes me stand in a (rather long) line to order and receive my food, makes me pay pretty high prices even for WDW for that food, makes me stand around looking for a table that isn't littered with dirty dishes, doesn't have ANY CMs out refilling drinks, checking to see if we need anything, etc- why do they charge an extra fee? And we had no luck in getting them to take off the extra 10%, even after complaining.

If we had had the same experience at any other CS location, we probably would have shrugged and thought, well, that's what you get when you don't pay extra for service- but we were charged extra for it, and never got it.

 

[disneydreamgirl]

We've only eaten at PM on the DDP, so my opinion might have been different if I had paid out of my pocket while there. Our experience was good, although we had an overzealous waitress which was a little uncomfortable as we were all tired after just arriving and due to an extremely early flight. The second time we ate there was quite good as well...no problem with the food choices or their temperature - all six of us liked it. It was extremely quiet, though so that may have been a help in our case. We'll eat there again on our upcoming trip and hope that it keeps working out for us!