Describe the worst dining experince in Orlando..

[donalduck]

I am glad I am not that only one who thinks this. I still I am not sure why they still haven't closed the doors because of the garbage that they call food.

Oh yes the music in there I don't remember the food, maybe that is a good thing

 

[Dimplenose]

I guess it's just your luck, because I've had lovely meals at places people have mentioned in this thread as being their worst!

That is so true.

 

[strawberry blonde]

Offsite - Ci-Ci's Pizza
Terrible food, terrible atmosphere and left feeling in need of shower. Most of the tables around us were full of really big (and I'm not exactly small myself ) people, and I mean entire families of them, that had a lookout for when they brought new pizzas out. It was then a race between them and tghe family next to them as to who would get there first. Most of the time one of them went up and just took everything that was there and brought it back for the rest of the family.
In the end we decided that the food really wasn't worth fighting for so just sat back and enjoyed the show

You beat me to it Kenny. We tend to have nice meals most nights and then a few cheap ones ( more shopping money ). I'd read brilliant reviews about Ci-Ci Pizza so I dragged the family there. Their faces were priceless . Hated everything about the place. A motorway cafe would have been better. Never again!!

 

[Elise79]

For us it was the California Grill.
Our Adr was on the last night of our holiday, was the only night we could get. We had originally wanted to book our wedding meal there but were told they didnt take wedding bookings. Imagine our surprise when we got there and there was a wedding party there. Although to be honest if didnt bother us as we'd already had our wedding meal at Citricos and it was amazing.xx
the whole restaurant was in chaos, it was so noisy with kids running about everywhere. yes i expect children as WDW but at a high priced restaurant thought it may have been more civilised.
we had to wait ages to be seated, over an hour-about 1hour 15/25.
our server was so slow and basically miserable, when she finally came to see us about 25mins after being seated she told us if we wanted desserts we'd have to order them now as the kitchen would we closed when we'd want to order them.
now youd think our ADR time was late but it was about 7pm.

I think we spent over 4 hours at our meal-the server was so slow. Im not sure why we stuck it out we are very patient people and i guess nothing really phases us. Although our 4 year old was nearly asleep at the table.
Another thing- I hated watching wishes from there. There was no music and it was weird watching them from the distance in silence. I felt it spoiled the end of the holiday for us.
Food wise it was ok, we're not fussy eaters but did find it difficult to find anything we liked. I wasnt impressed with the food, it was ok but was expecting so much more.
we had fun drawing on the paper table cloths they had- from what i remember we wrote the times of everything on there eg ADR, seated, drinks, main meal, desserts etc wished i took a pic so i could remember the times-although i think i wrote them in my Diary.
No tip for her

we stay at the Contemporary so its a shame for us. Husband never wants to go back- As he says "they had their chance"

We have eaten at CG twice and both times had great servers and both times thay have piped the music in for wishes.

I do agree with Wayne that some of their portions could be bigger

In May we had a not so great meal at the Grand Floridian Cafe - our server was being poor - I had ordered a pin a colada and as I was thirsty I also ordered a glass of iced water. Well the Pina colada arrived, our starters arrived and we ate them and it wasn't till she came to clear I then asked for it again.

Waited and waited and our entrees arrived then finally my water after asking again! At this point her tip was going down then both our steaks were over cooked and she popped over to ask if everything was ok - we explained that our steaks were over cooked but we didn't want to wait for them to be recooked as DD was getting restless. She said she would tell her manager. She returned 5 mins later and said the manager was comping our dinners. We didn't want that we just wanted them to know so the kitchen could be told. Anyway she got her full tip for sorting it out so quickly

Won't be eating there again in a hurry though

 

[snookhams]

Planet hollywood with out a doubt was horrible it was packed so packed that in the time we were there the waiting staff knocked at least 5/6 of the ornaments (the one with a globe for a head of the tables as they passed) and broke them, the noise was out of this world as a wedding reception was going on upstairs and the food was not that great, although our server did make us laugh, we still remind DH of this when we are in a restaurant, he asked DH what he would like to drink ' a budweiser' was his reply, now I know we are from Essex but he asked DH about 5 times *** he didn't understand and then finally said 'you want a bucket of water'!!!!!!! so that is now his preferred drink when eating out.

We had a really bad experience at the Garden Grill, we were celebrating my Dads 65th birthday and he chose the Garden Grill as he thought it would appeal to the 5 children we had with us, we made our ADR's arrived in plenty of time to be told that we would not be seated for at least 2 hours as there was a wedding receiption, we decided to go off and did the living with the land etc, came back to be told that still at least 2 hours, by this time 3 of the children were asleep, so we decided to leave, really can't remember were we ate in the end. Dad did complain at Guest relations on the way out, they apologiesed and said someone would contact us, we did not think they would but the next day a really lovely lady rang us and apologiesed asked if she could book us a table somewhere else and we would get 50% of the bill, so we opted for the Crystal palace a couple of days later when it was my sons 8th birthday. We were spoilt rotten and they made it so special so must have passed on our dissapointment about the garden grill but this was so much better.

On our first trip with our son some 16 years ago, whilst in Cocoa Beach we went to IHOP and there was just us and one other couple in there, when our heavily pregnant waitress and the manager got into a real shouting match, he was following her around shouting really loudly etc, in the end they forgot that we were all there, so left what we thought was the rough cost of the meal plus a bit extra incase we had underestimated and we left around the same time as the other family, and they didn't even realise that we were leaving they were going at it so much.

 

[willibobs]

offsite -
ihop on international drive
food was luke warm

First and only time I have ever done the IHOP thing. Waitress anouyed me to start with by explaining how much water and energy was used in providing us free tap water, so I was on a downer to start with. After ordering 5 waters, we ordered the meal and it was awful, chips/fries had been re-heated so many times they were just fingers of grease, complained but they were not much better. In the end I paid the bill and put line through the tip part to which they commented that tips were the norm in USA, to which I replied "For rubbish food and rubbish service?" and left.

 

[Dollyrar]

I'm so sorry that you nice people had such bad experiences at these meals, but I have to say that I am finding this thread hilarious!!

I can't think of any specifically bad meals that we've ever eaten whilst in Florida, so I feel very lucky.

Keep them coming!

 

[stba2006]

We've had bad service at the Sci-Fi Dine In, the waitress was in a major hurry, we didn't dare order a dessert Then when we were outside (in the smoking area) we saw her rush out the back door, obviously she had been due to finish and we were holding her up

But considering all the places we've eaten I think it's pretty good

We had bad service there too. We went there at the beginning of our hol and thought it was great, so on the last morning we made a reservation there before settingoff back home.
The waitress was really rude, spending most of her time gossiping and bad mouthing a previous customer to another waitress and completley ignoring us when we waited 20 mins to try and get her attention for drinks.
We didn't tip her as much as we normally do (and in my opinion she was lucky we tipped her at all ) and she tutted when she picked up the money.
Not the end to our hol we had hoped for but luckily our holiday wasn't tainted as everything else had been perfect......... and breath (i've been waiting over 2 years to get that experience off my chest )

 

[2Tiggies]

I'm so sorry that you nice people had such bad experiences at these meals, but I have to say that I am finding this thread hilarious!!

I can't think of any specifically bad meals that we've ever eaten whilst in Florida, so I feel very lucky.

Keep them coming!

I'm in the camp of the blessed too Worst we've had is "okay" but nothing seriously bad. We eat pretty much all our meals onsite though and it does help. You can have a bad experience anywhere but I do think it eliminates the odds of bad service to a certain extent.

 

[dazzling]

deleted

 

[paulfoel]

We didn't have any bad experiences last trip, apart from the server at Tusker House. She was so bad, I had to ask another server where ours was after waiting for her to come back after twenty minutes to pick the bill/kttw card up

I would have done a runner !!!

 

[paulfoel]

Golden Corrall is where a server stole my wifes bag with my camera and lenses. While we were waiting for the police I saw him carry a Tesco carrier bag to his car (there were two in the bag).
I followed him back inside and asked him to come outside. When he refused, I quietly told him if he didn't I would drag him out and smash his face into the wall.

He started crying and begged me not to tell the manager. We went outside to his car and gave me everything back. I went looking for him last year for the hell of it but he has moved to a different location.

David

Never mess with a Welshman! Cymru am Byth.

 

[fav_is_tink]

Worst dining experience ever.......June 2008 Rose & Crown Epcot!!!!! Yes, I'm embarassed to say that our UK representation in the World was our worst experience throughout

We took my parents there on our first night in WDW, the reason we chose here was my cousin was a cast member here the year before and my parents were interested to see what the food was like cause she had raved about it

Well we had to wait 40 mins past our ADR time, our server was so rude obviously having a very off day, and the food was poor ....poor taste, poor portions and very pricey imo for what you got!
Needless to say we won't be back

 

[Tony Toon]

I don't remember the bad meals - can't say there have been any so bad. There have been some occasions when the service has been not so good. Le Cellier at Easter is the most recent example. Food was good but so rushed - our main course was put on the table before we had finished the starter the server having moved things around to make room for the extra plates! AND this was our special occasion anniversary dinner. We had dressed for the occasion but were back out of the door in just over an hour. We will never return - not just because of that one server - but felt that the ambience of Le Cellier did not justify the high prices, unlike our favourite for special occasions where we have never had a bad experience with either food or service and with a special atmosphere - California Grill! Oh well you can't please everybody all of the time they say.

On the subject of tipping, I believe poor service is often a result of the very poor reputation we Brits have as low or often no tippers among restaurant staff (they even have a special name for us did you know?) who rely on tips to make up a liveable wage.

 

[wayneg]

back out of the door in just over an hour. We will never return - not just because of that one server - but felt that the ambience of Le Cellier did not justify the high prices, unlike our favourite for special occasions where we have never had a bad experience with either food or service and with a special atmosphere - California Grill! Oh well you can't please everybody all of the time they say.

Everyone wants different things from a meal. Some servers are good some are bad. Its all down to the experience on the day, go back another day it could be better or it could be worse.
For us around 1 hour is perfect for a meal but we have 2 courses and don't drink alcohol with meals. The next table might want 2 hours. We loved the surroundings in LeCellier but didn't in Cali Grill, I would have been happier giving 2 credits in Le Cellier than in Cali Grill (The actual difference in cost between the 2 was minimal if we had paid, I think it was $135 & $160)

I have just about given up reading reviews now, try places for myself if I like the look of the menu. Tutto Itallia was another that got slated before our trip last year and it was one of our favourites.

 

[RDP]

One of the worst meals we've had was at Le Cellier on our last trip! I know everyone raves about this place.

We arrived and waited about 45 min, there were tons of people arriving after us with later reservations and only waited a few minutes, we asked the check in server after we'd been there around 25min and she told us to wait and it wouldn't be long (she didn't even check the system) we asked about 40min later and her attitude was terrible.
When we finally sat down we waited 15 min to be served and didn't even get any bread.... DH steak was terrible and if we hadn't been on the DP we would of walked out.

This was by far the worst service and meal we've had in Orlando, maybe we were expecting too much as we had been trying to get a ressie there for the last couple of trips.

I agree, we had a bad experience there. Our DS3 was served 'Pink' chicken, we sent it back, the waitress brought it back (the same pice of chicken) saying she hoped it was more to our likeing ( I said yes - COOKED!)

 

[RDP]

Had a good meal, but a bad experience at V&A. Waiter felt the need to leave a card that pointed out how to tip! when he brought the bill. i would haved tiped 20% , but after this tiped 15%. He checked the tip when he came back and left the table without saying anything! (the meal for 2 came to $360)

 

[PamOKW.]

We've had really good dining experiences both on & off site - but on our last trip we were disappointed with Bennigans just off the Crossroads.

We'd eaten there years ago and had good meal & service. But when we went there last year it was awful - the place was very run down with an offensive smell as you entered the dining area.Needless to say we left without ordering !

 

[paulfoel]

I don't remember the bad meals - can't say there have been any so bad. There have been some occasions when the service has been not so good. Le Cellier at Easter is the most recent example. Food was good but so rushed - our main course was put on the table before we had finished the starter the server having moved things around to make room for the extra plates! AND this was our special occasion anniversary dinner. We had dressed for the occasion but were back out of the door in just over an hour. We will never return - not just because of that one server - but felt that the ambience of Le Cellier did not justify the high prices, unlike our favourite for special occasions where we have never had a bad experience with either food or service and with a special atmosphere - California Grill! Oh well you can't please everybody all of the time they say.

On the subject of tipping, I believe poor service is often a result of the very poor reputation we Brits have as low or often no tippers among restaurant staff (they even have a special name for us did you know?) who rely on tips to make up a liveable wage.

Wots the special name?

 

[kevin harrison]

I have posted this before, but we were told by a good friend over there that a lot of servers do not like serving Brits because many do not tip.

This is understandable, if your tips supplement your income and you spend hours of your day serving Brits who leave not a penny, who ever good the service, is it a surprise when eventually you become demoralised?

You have two tables - one Brits, one Americans - you know that if you do a good job looking after them, you will be tipped, who would you look after?

I know in an ideal world you would treat both tables equally, but lets not be naive.