Coral Reef or not??

[Feelslikeadream]

We have Coral Reef planned for our last dinner at WDW and Illuminations to follow. I am getting a bit worried, I have read some bad reveiws about CR.

I thought it would be a nice way to end our trip.
Any suggestions?

Would you dine there or somewhere else? Illuminations is our chosen night show for our last night there. No spectro that night. No Fantasmic.

Willing to look into it, if it's really bad. Obviously I am going with atmosphere due to never being there. I have also heard some good reviews.

Just getting nervous!!!

Would love some feedback!!!

 

[Aimeedyan]

Like every restaurant at WDW, it's hit and miss. Lots of people have good experiences and lots of people have bad. No one can promise you that you will have a good experience or good service.

We had an okay experience. Service was really bad (though not as bad as LeCellier which was a nightmare!!) but we thought most of the food was good. The atmosphere was like a preschool playhouse and VERY loud. Everything echoed. We also had a bit of a wait, which was okay. We still made it in plenty of time for Illuminations (we gave ourselves 2 hours and had 30 minutes left when we finished).

it was nothing to write home about, we also did it on our last night thinking it would be a nice way to end things. Since there is no 100% guarantee that anyplace will be great, we don't regret our choice.

If the menu appeals to you and you think your family will enjoy the atmosphere, then I'd go.

Edited to add: We had a 630 reservation, not 7pm. We had quite a wait and didn't finish until 830. Sorry!

 

[hobbester]

We ate there last week. Out of 9 people, 8 liked what they ate. It was loud, but neat to see the fish and the divers in the water while we ate.

 

[Stacerita]

We liked Coral Reef and then did Illuminations after. We enjoyed our meal there. The food was good, service was good as well. Atmosphere was really nice, but it was loud. We had an early seating so that might be why there were so many noisy kids there. I would go back though.

 

[Bashful in TN]

My husband and I ate there on 9/24. It was my favorite meal of our trip. It was noisy, but we had wonderful service, the food was tasty (I can't stop thinking about the lobster soup) and it was fun watching the fish and several divers swim by in the tank.

 

[paintnolish]

We ate there in Aug. Great service, no wait, seated next to aquarium, not noisy, and the food was good, esp the desserts. Chocolate wave was yummy!

 

[PrincessPaczki]

Hi
My family enjoyed the CR. It was extra special when they took us down and seated us right beside the window to the aquarium. The food was really delicious and the desserts were outstanding. You will enjoy yourself.

 

[angel's momma]

My husband and I ate there on 9/24. It was my favorite meal of our trip. It was noisy, but we had wonderful service, the food was tasty (I can't stop thinking about the lobster soup) and it was fun watching the fish and several divers swim by in the tank.

We had lunch there 10/1.

It was our favorite meal too, and I totally agree about the soup!

The Chocolate Wave is wondeful too.

 

[jands]

We ate there on 9/30. Had quite a wait to get in. The place is incredibly beautiful and wasn't all that noisy. I had the salad and the shrimp pasta with vegetables. The salad was good but the shrimp pasta was just ok. The shrimp was cooked perfectly, but it was all pretty blah, not much flavor. My husband had the soup and the catfish. He normally doesn't eat fish, but cleaned his plate and said it was very good. My son had a pizza - didn't eat too much of it, but that was no fault of the restaurant - he had too much of a day at that point. He did eat a couple pieces of it back at the hotel. I have to say that the chocolate wave was a bit of a let down for me after reading all the great things that people said about it. All in all - the Coral Reef was good, but I think my expectations were too high going in.

 

[familydisney]

We just got back from our week's trip to WDW and were mostly disappointed with the dining, even though we had eaten at most of these restaurants in Jan. and couldn't wait to get back. The first night's ADR was at CR and it was the one DH wanted most to cancel due to bad reviews. Well, let's just say that due to missing a connector, we arrived at WDW 3 hours late and missed our ADR! At first we thought we'd have to do counter service and do a breakfast later but on a whim, we swung by CR 2 hour after our ADR and just asked if there were any openings as we had missed ours. They told us they do their best to accomodate reservations, even if they are WAY late, so they seated us within 5 minutes. We had consistent service for a busy restaurant, good food (I love that soup!!) and my kids still pointed out every time the turtles swam by.
By the end of the week, we agreed it was our best overall experience. It is loud, but the aquarium produces a calming feeling. I'd give it a try. We're glad we did.

 

[eblack0409]

We love coral reef.....it's a must do on every trip for us!

 

[Orsba]

We just got back yesterday and Coral Reef was our first ADR of the trip. It was just my wife and I and we got seated right next to the aquarium windows. Brandon was our server and he set a bar for service that was unmatched the rest of our trip. We were on the dining plan and this was one of only two times we left an additional tip on top of what was included.
I had the lobster soup and my wife had the seafood souffle. The soup was great and we both liked the souffle, but didn't love it. My wife wished she had gotten the soup; it was that good. For our entrees, I got the seared ahi tuna and she got the shrimp pasta. I thought my entree was terrific, especially the wasabi mashed potatoes. I thought her pasta was dry, but she really enjoyed it. There were lots of shrimp in it and they were good; I just thought it could have used a little sauce of some kind. For dessert, she had the chocolate wave and I had the butterscotch creme brulee. We kept sharing with each other - both desserts were fantastic.
The restaurant wasn't noticeably noisier than any other WDW restaurant in my opinion. There were oohs and aahs when a shark or sea turtle went by, and the divers attracted a lot of attention too, but it wasn't like Chef Mickey's in terms of noise level.
Overall, Coral Reef is now on my "must do" list and my wife agrees. Just FYI, our reservation was at 4:30 on a Saturday (early, but that's all they had).

 

[3DisneyBuggs]

We ate there last week for lunch. We had about a 15 minute wait to be seated. We sat on the lower level not next to the tank. We had a great view of the fish and divers. The restaurant was freezing and our service was slow. Dh ordered the shrimp cocktail but had to ask for ckcktail sauce as it doesn;t come with any. I ordered the beef with polenta, which was cold. I sent it back after a while because our waiter was missing. The new one was a bit warmer. The kids ordered the veggie plate which wasn;t touched. 45 minutes after our appetizers, we got our entrees. Beef for DH whch was ok. Grilled chicken caesar for me. The chicken was very good and i enjoyed the salad. But we were tired of sitting and freezing. Dessert was good, I had brulee and DH had chocolate wave. The kids had pizza and sundaes. I don;t think I would return though.

 

[Tiger926]

We've eaten at almost all TS restaurants and this was one of our last ones to try this summer, and we were disappointed as well. Very loud as mentioned and extremely chaotic due to the way they have to put tables together (families were yelling to each other across the tables as that is how the second level is set up), washroom were a disaster, restaurant is very dark, terrible service (I asked for apple juice for my DD3 and I, and the waiter brought it with ice - I asked him to return it and bring it back without ice as we can't drink the water, and he responded very rudely to me!) and they served our steaks in a bowl! Yup, in a bowl - very weird.

The atmosphere is ok, but we probably aren't going to eat there again and we spend a minimum of 2 weeks per year in WDW - much better restaurants to eat at in our opinion, but we are glad that we tried it out for ourselves.

Tiger

 

[frannn]

We normally stick to the character and family friendlier places (yes, I know they're all family friendly). Since we got the free dining, we wanted to try some of the fancier places that didn't require 2 credits each. We were lucky enough to eat here for dinner and Le Cellier for lunch, both for the first time. Both were wonderful experiences, in spite of the fact that DD4 was cranky during the entire CR meal. I believe our reservations were about 7:15, and we waited about 15 minutes. Our server was great, the food was very good. I had the lobster soup and steak for an entree. I don't recall DH's appy, but he also had steak. We both had the chocolate wave. We were not near the tanks, but still had a nice view of them. I think a good deal of our enjoyment of the meal was due to us being used to a Chef Mickey's atmosphere. The food was excellent, but I think my favorite was Boma (also for the first time). I don't think I'd go back to CR unless we were using the DP, and it was 1 credit.

 

[Donna]

Cora Reef noisy? In all my times eating there, i've never noticed any noise at all. Last time was early august, we were there for lunch. The restaurant was about 3/4 filled, very quiet and peaceful. This was probably one of our best meals for the entire trip. Our waitress was very attentive to our party of 10 (on dining plan). We all agreed our meals were delicious. What i like about coral reef is even though it's a seafood restaurant, i've had some of the best chicken and steak on property here. I highly recommend it to anyone not sure.
I guess it's like anything else at disney though, hit or miss and some people are pickier than others too. Our entire week's stay, we didn't have one bad meal though and never felt like we were treated any different being on DDP.

 

[BlindTyldak]

Coral Reef always seems noiser at dinner over lunch. I've lost count of how many times I've eaten there (several per trip) and have never had bad service (more often it's been the best of any restaurant) or bad food. I've had adequate service a couple of times, and *sobs* all my favorite entree items are now off the menu, but nothing that would keep me from going back.

 

[magicmouse2]

We had dinner at Coral Reef last week and it was really good. I ordered seafood souffle which was really tasty, DH had crab claws, DD had shrim cocktail which was bland, DS and DD had lobster bsque which DS loved. Entrees were steak whic hwas great, I had Mahi, Mahi which was really nice and a change from steak, DD had Mac n cheese which she left. Dessert was better than Kona cafe - chocholate wave cake. Kids make your own Sundae was great too. Sdervice was a hoot - we had Bill who entertained the kids by winding them up the whole meal and making them laugh. We tipped extra for this. We were seated on the second tier in a booth for 5. We could see the tank and the divers which was nice.