Coral Reef??

[bfamily5]

We spent 10 days in the world..we had the dining plan and thanks to the DIS I made all my adr's with much research. This is the only place I really regretted. We did O'hana's, WCC, Beirgarten, SCI fi...all of the fun ones and this one was the loudest! There were babies screaming and kids running. It was madness. It really ruined it for us. I don't even remember if we cared for the food or not..I couldn't wait to get out of there! It was a real juxtapostition with the quiet calmness of the tanks. We have 3 kids and have been in Mcdonalds with less noise/caos!

 

[ILuvTinkerbelle]

My oldest son said he wanted to eat at Ohana again so I said ok, I will make the France meal for lunch and then go to Ohana for dinner, we were going to CR for lunch....but he was like BUT I want to see the fish tank....turns out Ohana is hard to get anyway so we are going to give it a try anyway...I have a 2 year old so the noise will probably won't bother us

I was thinking as it is our 15th anniversary trip that I might have the diver hold a sign up....also getting us right next to the tank....does anyone know how you arrange that and how much it costs?

 

[avamadison]

We love CR and make it a part of each trip. Yes, the wait can be long, even with a ressie, but we find it worth it. The kids get a kick out of it!

 

[MyTwoPrincesses]

We ate at Coral Reef for lunch on Monday. We had no wait - our buzzer went off literally 1 minute after we received it. We sat right near the tank - in a booth in the main area.

The food was good. I had the shrimp/saffron rissotto appetizer in entree size and it was very good but the ristotto was a bit too salty. The shrimp were delicious and flavorful. As noted the risotto was a bit too salty but it was too salty in the way chinese food is too salty. If that makes sense... I ate all of it and the sweet, warm grape tomatoes garnishing the dish cut the saltiness. DH had the lobster bisque (Yum!) and the mahi mahi, which he really enjoyed. I tasted it and it was very good. We had the Wave for dessert and it was fantastic. My kids really enjoyed the pizza. The service was great too.

 

[ILuvTinkerbelle]

We ate at Coral Reef for lunch on Monday. We had no wait - our buzzer went off literally 1 minute after we received it. We sat right near the tank - in a booth in the main area.

The food was good. I had the shrimp/saffron rissotto appetizer in entree size and it was very good but the ristotto was a bit too salty. The shrimp were delicious and flavorful. As noted the risotto was a bit too salty but it was too salty in the way chinese food is too salty. If that makes sense... I ate all of it and the sweet, warm grape tomatoes garnishing the dish cut the saltiness. DH had the lobster bisque (Yum!) and the mahi mahi, which he really enjoyed. I tasted it and it was very good. We had the Wave for dessert and it was fantastic. My kids really enjoyed the pizza. The service was great too.

Were you on the dining plan? If so they let you make an appetizer into an entree? That sounds delish! If they did let you that would be awesome!

 

[MyTwoPrincesses]

Were you on the dining plan? If so they let you make an appetizer into an entree? That sounds delish! If they did let you that would be awesome!

Yes, I was on DDP. The waiter actually mentioned it before I ordered. The appetizer as an entree included a decent amount of risotto and six good sized shrimp. I enjoyed it and would get it again. It was definitely salty - I like salty food though - so I could see some people not liking this dish. But for me, it was very tasty and I would definitely order it again. IIRC the price for the dish was ~ $22 for an entree and about half that for the appetizer size.

 

[ILuvTinkerbelle]

Thanks! I also like salty food....so does that mean most appetizers could be made into entrees? Good to know! Wonder if they do that at other restaurants!

 

[skier_pete]

We went last year...while the menu is limited (only about 8 choices) I had the Mahi-Mahi and thought it was excellent. My DW had the Steak and thought it was very good.

I always find it interesting on these threads how people claim how good the quality "used to be", but DW and I ate at Coral Reef in 2000 - at the time the restaurant was constantly being trashed for being overpriced and poor quality for what you get. My how times have changed! (That's sarcasm folks!)

I will admit 9 years ago it was a quiet dining experience, and now it is very loud. The wait was also very long for us, but I had originally asked for a lower level table...after we waited 45 minutes, I changed the request and we were seated pretty quickly, though way up in the top level, which kind of sucked. This trip I booked an early dinner ADR, hoping that we will see a shorter wait. I admit it is the restaurant I am probably least looking forward too, but I still plan on enjoying a good meal.

 

[jodywgirl]

We have had several good meals at the Coral Reef and the tank is really cool.

 

[ILuvTinkerbelle]

I also read on another board that you can have the diver bring down a sign for free AND if you email them pictures they will print up special menus also for free if you are celebrating! I am toally going to do this for dh for our anniversary! Hopefully the info about it being FREE was correct! LOL

 

[texasteacher35]

I also read on another board that you can have the diver bring down a sign for free AND if you email them pictures they will print up special menus also for free if you are celebrating! I am toally going to do this for dh for our anniversary! Hopefully the info about it being FREE was correct! LOL

They don't do that any more! I called and contacted the manager of the Coral Reef and they stopped doing that. We had that done 2 years ago and it was awesome! I wish they still did it, though! It was really fun!

 

[ILuvTinkerbelle]

I knew it was too good to be true! The post I saw WAS from 2007 and lets face it alot has changed since then. Oh well! Thanks for the info, I won't waste time calling now!

 

[TDC Nala]

I also read on another board that you can have the diver bring down a sign for free AND if you email them pictures they will print up special menus also for free if you are celebrating! I am toally going to do this for dh for our anniversary! Hopefully the info about it being FREE was correct! LOL

As mentioned above, this service has been discontinued. They stopped it in January 2009. It proved impossible to keep up with the demand, and the manager who coordinated it transferred to another restaurant.

I forgot about the children - screaming, running, parents lifting kids up to sit on the berm in front of the tank for photos (if your table is in front of the tank, you are going to end up in a lot of other people's family photos). Do not look for a sedate meal here. The place is like a cave and the sounds reverberate.

 

[ILuvTinkerbelle]

Well with 3 kids of our own we are hardly sedate at this point in our lives~! Thanks for the heads up though! I am hoping we can get next to the tank....I think we have one of the first ressies of the day and I plan to get there early to secure our spot!