Disney Hotels Restaurant Questions

[itzmehkristine]

Do you need to have room reservations at the hotel in order to eat at the restaurants? Or can you just make a reservation?
Also, between House of Blues and Storyteller's cafe, for Dinner, which would be better in your opinions?

 

[LavenderPeach]

Anyone can eat at any of the hotel restaurants. You don't need to be staying there.

I've never been to HOB but I really like Storyteller's.

 

[c&m]

In the past, we had good dinners at Storytellers. We always went on a weekend night when they had the buffet and it was always a pleasant experience.

In March 2009, when we went there, it was on a weeknight and they had no buffet, so we had to order from the menu. It was not a busy night, with many empty tables and some waitstaff with very little to do (mostly hanging with each other and chatting). We had the worst food and the worst service.

Worst food example: My fish was overdone on the outside, tasted "fishy" and was raw on the inside. Everyone's meal (our group of 7 family members) was mediocre, the food just tasted "off". You would expect decent to spectacular for the prices we paid.

Worst service example: Our waiter lied about our daughter's ravioli dish, was surly and rude when we called him on it, took away my meal and never gave me back a meal, disappeared on us all night, and no-one was available to hand us our bill, when we got so fed up with the lack of service and just gave up on the place.

There's more, but I'll stop here, because I don't want to rehash the negative experience. But you get my drift. We'll never go back to Storytellers.

 

[PinkBudgie]

We went to Storytellers once it was just ok. Last summer we went to Steakhouse 55 at the DLH and it was amazing! From the quality of the food to the service it was wonderful! I've never been to the HOB either.

 

[pixiewings71]

No you don't need to be a guest to eat at the hotel restaurants.
We've never eaten at HoB but I good friend had a horrible experience there last year and we don't plan to eat there ever now.
Storyteller's on the other hand is one of our favorite places to eat. It's soooooooo good!! I've NEVER experienced what c&m described and we've eaten there 3 or 4 times. The food has always been excellent, the service good and the atmosphere is great. The buffet isn't open all the time tho, only during the peak seasons.

 

[meehrm]

steakhouse 55 has wonderful food and awesome service.

i have never been to storytellers or HOB :: but when my husband, my daughter, and i tried to put our names down on the wait list for to eat at HOB, the hostess girl stood there reading her book and we asked if we asked how long the wait was for a table and she had just pretended like she didn't hear us. about 1 minute later after that (us still standing there waiting), she asked us if we were waiting for anything.

 

[I'm_Wishing]

On our one and only visit to the HoB we did not have a good experience so we have never gone back. That was quite a few years ago so we might try it again in the future if the mood hits us. Storytellers has always had good service even if the food is not up to its usual standard. Are you set on only those two choices?