Dining disappointments?

[Eastern]

-Garden Grill was HORRIBLE! I'm not going to go on about it again...

What was horrible about it? I've eaten here about 5 times over the years and we loved it every time.

 

[ElizabethB]

CRT Lunch -- almost zero interaction with the princesses, food is only fair. We used to love it for lunch, you could order prime rib, there was a nice salad and good rolls. It's just a waste of money now, IMO.

'Ohana -- pretty much inedible, tough poor quality meats, shrimp with a sauce that we didn't care for at all.

Chefs de France -- has gone way downhill, IMO, since a few years ago when it was a must do for us. The wines are still nice, probably because DDP doesn't include wine!

Coral Reef -- has gone way downhill since the advent of the DDP; steak was tough and poor quality; it was so noisy at dinner it was hard to even have a conversation at our table.

Tony's -- tough steak, one -- count it one -- broccoli spear and three fat fries. Odd, because we had a great steak at Tony's a year ago. In August it was not good, though.

Liberty Tree Tavern -- bland food, turkey that tasted processed, mac & cheese that tasted frozen. Character interaction very good, but they're going away soon.

Narcoosee's -- steak was good, but lobster was small and tough, most certainly not worth $59

DDP has distorted the entire dining experience at WDW. Food is worse than ever and prices are way up -- presumably to make DDP users feel like they're getting a good deal by using the plan. Salmon at Artist Point was good, but $34.99. Salmon at Shula's was only $26.99, and nothing at Shula's is less than top quality.

We've given up dining at WDW except for 2TS restaurants and V&A.

 

[nahbois2000]

Mexico…

We tried it like 8 years ago and was horrible. We go every year to WDW so we passed on it for 8 years. This year we were sort of out of options for our last night and our ADR was back over in MGM.

We were just having a blast in EPCOT so we stayed there that night. Mexico was the only ADR we could land.

It was worse then 8 years back. Never will eat there again..

Food was ice cold, rock hard and the management was useless about getting any resolution to the problem. I finally had to demand a full refund of our dining credits. We used them on b-fast the next morning instead

 

[Eastern]

DDP has distorted the entire dining experience at WDW. Food is worse than ever and prices are way up -- presumably to make DDP users feel like they're getting a good deal by using the plan. Salmon at Artist Point was good, but $34.99. Salmon at Shula's was only $26.99, and nothing at Shula's is less than top quality.

We've given up dining at WDW except for 2TS restaurants and V&A.

You know, I can understand this. Disney was always 'expensive' but that was ok because they provided a quality experience in nearly all areas. Now it seems, they are trying to maximize profits while decreasing quality, not very Disney-like if you ask me.

I have read so many bad reviews of places that I have liked in the past; I can only assume it is because they are trying to cut corners in order to increase profits.

It will be interesting to see what changes have occurred since our last trip.

I will be using the DDP since we plan on eating all of our meals onsite.

 

[decker96]

Boma on our last trip. No one in our group liked it and we were all excited to try it out. I wasn't even impressed with the zebra domes. They were okay, but not worth the raves that they get, in my opinion.

 

[pilferk]

I'll probably get beat up for this one:

California Grill. TWICE.

The first time DW and I chalked it up to them having a bad night. The service was awful (and slow), the food was cold when we got it, and I had asked for a substitution...no spinach, but would have taken anything else but...which the waitress took forever to inquire about and then get "approved". When my meal finally came, I ended up with the spinach on my plate. I LOVE raw spinach...but cooked...just can't force it down.

The second time we went (2 years later), we got a completely different waitperson. Again, service was awful, and slow. The entree's were overcooked (chicken, for me) and undercooked (beef for my wife....who ordered it medium well and got it VERY rare). We had to send it back. Upon it's return, the sides were ice cold, the chicken was finally done correctly, and the beef..THE SAME PIECE SHE SENT BACK...looked like it had been microwaved into shoe leather. Tasted like it too (chewy!!). Then, to top it all off, we found hair in one of our desserts (can't remember which one). We complained to the manager, told her this was the second time we'd been disappointed by CG. She comped our meal...which was nice. But we won't go back.

 

[sherabby]

I hope no one wants to kill me for this, but I had a terrible experience at Crystal Palace. The waitress was just atrocious: she never cleared our plates, came to see how the food was, or got us refills. And we could not find her anywhere!

The food was nothing great to me either. I have eaten here in the past before and while it has never been one of my top restaurants, I usually enjoy it much more.

One tip, never do a 9:30pm reservation at CP. While there were about 10 other parties seated the same time as us, they still removed half the buffet about 10 minutes after we got there and by the time we were eating dessert, half the stuff was gone. Very disappointing. I will not be back.

We must have had the same waitress there! I didn't care for CP either and probably won't be back again! My son is 8 now and won't care to see the Pooh characters.

 

[musclemouse]

Could San Angel really be worse than any other Tex-Mex restaurant?? I'm not expecting better than average food, just regular Tex-Mex food. I think it's beautiful inside the restaurant. Though I really wanted to get into and try for the first time ever and probably won't be able to for another 2 years is Le Cellier. But I will try up until the last minute to try to get in. Oh well.

 

[tarheelmjfan]

Could San Angel really be worse than any other Tex-Mex restaurant?? I'm not expecting better than average food, just regular Tex-Mex food. I think it's beautiful inside the restaurant. Though I really wanted to get into and try for the first time ever and probably won't be able to for another 2 years is Le Cellier. But I will try up until the last minute to try to get in. Oh well.

I think the reason most people are disappointed in SAI is they expect Tex-Mex. The food is more authentic Mexican than Tex-Mex. I'm sure a few are looking for authentic Mexican & just don't like the food for whatever reason, but I suspect most complaints come from people not really wanting Mexican but Tex-Mex. IMHO, Mexican is better than Tex-Mex.

 

[Lynn5700]

We have reservations at Primetime and Coral Reef. I hope it is not horrible! I dont have high expectations for any of the meals that way if they suck they don't suck too much I hear the fish isnt good at coral reef but what about the steak or chicken?

Aww try Coral Reef. We loved it. The steak I had was flavored perfectly.

I have never really had bad service from any of the restaurants but I will say that Hollywood and Vine is nasty lol. We ate there 2 years ago and will never do it again.

Also the GFC..we had good service but the food just was not for us and I had issues with the manager before we even ate there,should have went with my gut and switched. This was our luncheon for our wedding.. I wanted to go with fancy pretty place but the food just didn't match up. Wish we would have went to Ohanas.

 

[maraki527]

We didnt care for Ohana's. I ate there a couple of years ago and it was fantastic. This past year though our service was realllllly slow. It took our waiter forever to refill a drink and then we never got asked if we wanted anything else because our server was nowhere to be found. After he came around the first time with the skewers that was it. The food was just alright too. Nothing sticks out about the flavor except the Bread pudding. That was the best thing of the night.

 

[Nutty4Disney]

We were disappointed with Boma. Waited 45 minutes past our ADR and the food was average to say the least. DD liked the prime rib, but I was disappointed in the zebra domes. I guess I expected too much. Service was good. The salmon was dry.

We loved 'Ohana. Good service and food was plentiful and well prepared. I loved the potatoes.

I was mildly disappointed in Crystal Palace this time. It was the first meal of our Dec. 07 trip and we were pretty hungry, but the food no better than the local all you can eat buffet. The character interaction was good as was the service (even if the waiter was flirting with my DD). Again my DD liked the prime rib, but the fish was dry and pretty tasteless.

 

[Clotho]

Now it seems, they are trying to maximize profits while decreasing quality, not very Disney-like if you ask me.

Actually, that is EXTREMELY Disneylike. Probably the most Disneylike thing about it. Just because they could fool us about it more in the past doesn't mean the bottom line wasn't always at the top of their list!

 

[acpalmer]

Our only disappointment in our ten day trip last year was the counter service (Cantina?) in Mexico. YUCK!! I love all types of Mexican food--real Mexican, Tex-Mex, I even like Taco Bell when I'm in the mood for it. And that was the level I was expecting. But they were no where close and I'm sorry, when you can't reach the level of a Taco Bell, you are in sorry shape. Dry, bland, cold. Ick. Shudder.

 

[BEASLYBOO]

I'm sorry, when you can't reach the level of a Taco Bell, you are in sorry shape. Shudder.

I agree!

 

[skuttle]

California Grill

The first time we ate here was for our honeymoon. It was the first night of our honeymoon, dinner was fantastic, and we watched the fireworks from the restaurant. It was the best meal of our honeymoon trip and a magical way to start our honeymoon.

A couple of years later we returned to California Grill and it just wasn't the same. We ordered the same food and it was good, but just not the same. I think our first experience was so magical due to it being the first night of our honeymoon that it'll never be the same. So I think we ruined California Grill! LOL!

 

[ready4mouse]

It's a tie between WCC and Garden Grill, both for different reasons...

GG- the food just wasn't good...it was presented poorly and there wasn't even enough on the first serving for each person to try all of the food... Being in the rotating restaurant was cool, but I don't think we'd go back ever again unless they change their menu

WCC- the food was pretty good, but our waiter bombed... it was more like work to try and keep up the energy...

 

[scrapbookworm]

San Angel Inn and Coral Reef were a disappointment. On neither menu could we find anything that even sounded like something we would want to eat. And, we ate both places on the same day! Ugh!

The worst thing I've eaten is the pork dish that is on the menu at CRT. I like interesting foods, but something was very off. Either they forgot an ingredient or they put in the wrong one. The service was spotty too, so I didn't really get the opportunity to ask for something else. I know, I know, I should have done that. But, I have a hard time being assertive. (sigh).

 

[Momof2Disneyboys]

Worst dining experience ever - Pepper Market.

 

[dzneelvr]

We gave the old Alfredo's 2 tries and it was horrible (food and service) both times. I never had to wonder why that place went away
50s Prime Time and Hollywood and Vine are the only other 2 in all our years of going to WDW that we did not care for. We've found so many wonderful places to eat and will be trying a couple new ones in June.