Do Meals at Signatures Take Longer?

[MamaBear58]

I'm reviewing my ADRs and have a few signatures. Aside from CRT and BOG (which I'm not sure that I consider signatures and I assume they rush you out), do they generally take longer than dinner at another restaurant, for which I understand to budget about 90 minutes? We are looking at:

Cali Grille or Citricos or Narcoossee's (opinions?)
Jiko
HBD for Fantasmic Dinner Package
Wolfgang Puck Cafe or Dining Room (opinions?)
Artist Point

The first is the only one that we'll have to be somewhere after.

Thanks.

 

[lmmantini]

I can't say it is the same with all signature restaurants, but when we ate at Cali Grill for our anniversary we had an 8:30 ressie and didn't get out of there until 11:30 p.m. We scrambled to eat dessert and get to the kids club by 12 a.m. to pick up our daughter. The meal was fantastic, but the last hour or so was stressful because we worried about picking her up in time. The service was slow when we were there.

 

[iona]

That's a really difficult question to answer! We tend to spend longer at signatures but I think that's our own style. They're more of an "event" and so we may have three courses instead of the one or two that we might have elsewhere, we may linger over our food whilst we're enjoying each other's company, etc. The waitstaff are generally very good at matching your pace though, so I'm sure that if you had somewhere to be the whole thing would be quicker.

 

[mare1203]

In general, yes, they do take longer. However, some of it depends on your meal choices as well. If you go to a signature and order a cocktail, appetizers, bottle of wine, entree, and dessert then it's going to take much longer than just ordering a glass of wine and an entree.

I would budget 90 minutes to 2 hours for a signature meal. They will not rush you.

 

[Jletendre]

We've dined at signatures since 1996 and it really has many factors

- time of meal
- how busy the restaurant is
- your meal selections
- size of your party

As noted if your going to have an appitizer, drinks, meal, dessert, after dinner cocktail it can easily take a couple hours. When we dine at CG we usually plan to be there for Wishes as well so it could be longer.

I'd put V&A on the longer end and Brown Derby on the quicker end.

Personally if I'm spending almost $100 a person I want to enjoy the experience and not rush through it.

Now we've also just had a drink and appitizer at the bars as well if you wanted to do something like that just don't expect it to be quick in the prime dining hours.

 

[MamaBear58]

Thanks for the insight. I agree that there are many factors. I was curious if these harder to get ones are slower just because they are obviously crowded.

 

[figment_jii]

In my experience, the in-park Signatures tend to be faster than the resort Signatures. Overall, I also budget between 90-120 minutes for a Signature meal when having three courses (from time to be seated to when leaving). I've never felt rushed when eating at a Signature.

Aside from CRT and BOG (which I'm not sure that I consider signatures and I assume they rush you out)

Neither CRT nor BOG are considered Signatures by most people on the Dis. I think of CRT as kind of being in a grouping of it's own. It does take two credits (so same price as a Signature on the DDP), but it's not a Signature like Narcoossee's, Artist Point, CA Grill, etc. In terms of being rushed, I guess it depends on what you mean by rushed. They do bring the food out in a fairly fast pace, but I've never felt like they wanted us to leave as soon as possible. I would say both of these (at least at dinner) take between 60-75 minutes.