Does anybody else feel Disney food is just not that great?

[RAV]

As far as the dining options for children, there are many greasy and unhealthy options available, but we just work around them. Palio's, California Grill, Narcoosee's and Flying Fish offer a better selection for kids but you also pay for them. My son is not able to eat an entire adult entree but often orders appetizers like soups and salads as his meal. It is one way to avoid the mac and cheese, burgers and chicken fingers.

 

[lovin_disney]

I have to weigh in on this. In general I think the food is ok, not great. There is one exception, California Grill. Every dinner I have eaten there has been excellent. Otherwise, "fine dining" at Disney is a bit of an oxymoron.

 

[Maistre Gracey]

Originally posted by lovin_disney
I have to weigh in on this. In general I think the food is ok, not great. There is one exception, California Grill. Every dinner I have eaten there has been excellent. Otherwise, "fine dining" at Disney is a bit of an oxymoron.

lovin_disney, as an example, can you tell us the restaurants that you didn't think were all that great?
I would just like to know if your "not so great" crossed paths with my "totally great".

Thanx!

 

[maidmarion]

I don't know from experience, as I have not been to Disney since childhood and we only ate at one Disney restaurant (Crystal Palace), but here's an anecdote.

I live in Manhattan (home to most of the country's best fine dining and ethnic cuisine) and all my friends are giving me a really hard time about the fact that we're vacationing in Disney World. What a tourist trap, at our age?, etc. But, a friend of mine who works as an assistant to a chef in a very upscale Midtown restaurant, while putting me through the usual rigamarole about why it was dumb to go to WDW said, "I mean the ONLY good reason, the ONLY good reason to go there is the food!" I asked her about it and she said that their fine dining establishments hire the cream of the crop. She told me that a guy in her classes (she graduated from culinary school in Tuscany) was "scouted" by Disney and he is working somewhere (she didn't know the name of the restaurant) as a PREP COOK! She didn't think it was reason enough to go there, but she admitted to the quality of the food.

Just thought I'd mention this little tidbit, though I'll see for myself when I'm down there.

 

[married@wdw]

I can honestly say some of the best meals I've eaten in my life were at WDW -- but I can also say I've had some of my worst meals at WDW, too! CG has the best food I think I've ever had and when you talk about creativity and food, you have to mention V&A. I wish I could afford to go to these restaurants every trip! Palios is also fantastic.

I've had bad meals -- many of them in Epcot. But we gave Nine Dragons another try and were pleasantly surprised by how much we enjoyed it. We also enjoy Mitsukoshi Teppanyaki and San Angel Inn. That said, the worst meal I've ever had at WDW was at Alfredo's -- I don't understand why so many people like that place. But I don't consider any of the park restaurants as being truly upscale.

As for counter service and less expensive sitdown, I think you need to know where to go to get a good meal. Tusker House at AK has never disappointed. I love the Columbia Harbor House bread bowls with chowder or chili. The burgers at Beaches and Cream are phenomenal -- I will only get burgers here and at Pecos Bill's (for the great toppings bar). I've recently read wonderful things about Plaza Restaurant at MK and am hoping to try that in January. We were surprised at the quality and quantity of food for the price at Captain Jack's at DTD -- this was new to us in June and we loved it!

It's all about being picky and keeping your eyes peeled for that new unique place to try. We've got a list a mile long of places we love to eat at WDW. We also have a smaller list of places we're just not interested in anymore as we've disliked them at least once.

 

[Oh Kay!]

I don't think that the Disney cooking can be termed innovative or particularly imaginative. When I read the menu at Deb's site, the first thing I noticed was that dishes seemed a bit dated. There's also the sameness in food, in terms of ingredients and technique. Another gripe: Why is that Caesar salad is so ubiquitous and well cooked vegetable dishes so hard to find?

Yes, CG is nice, but it's not exactly Nobu, V&A is great but not in the same league as Le Cirque. The ethnic food served at Epcot can be described adequate at best. I grew up in NYC and have eaten widely and well; I live near Peter Lugar Steakhouse, a patisserie operated by a Master French pastry chef, and various great ethnic restaurants. None of the food at Disney can beat my non-disney food experience.

Given all that, I love eating at Disney. I love their service and theming. I don't go to Disney for a gastronomical adventure but to have fun and eating at Disney is fun. Yes, we all know of local resturants serving more interesting food, but I don't think there's anyone in this board who just can't wait to go back to their favorite disney restaurants. I think that's all due to Disney's own secret ingredient: magic.


Kay

 

[DrTomorrow]

DW and I always find dining at WDW our least pleasant part of the trip. We end up at counter service - or leaving property - for a reasonable meal.

I have no doubt that the high-end restaurants are 'good enough'. But I'm not a V&A or CG kind of guy, and PrimeTime, et al just doesn't do it for me.

That said, I find counter service does a fine job. Plus, we're staying Concierge, so we know that we can eat our fill - and more - at every meal.

 

[Oh Kay!]

Just wanted to add,

Where else is an encounter with a mouse in the dining room considered a wonderful treat, not a health code violation?

Kay

 

[eeyore0062]

No, I actually think that Disney food is very high quality, especially for a theme park, and especially for the amount of guests that must be fed daily.

We live near Disney and often go to Disney for dinner.. as well as take our out of town guests. We have never had any complaints, and neither have our guests.

I guess it is all in the expectations.

 

[lovespugs]

I just wanted to add that your perception of the food at WDW may have a lot to do with where you're dining. DH and I ate exclusively in the parks, both sit down and counter service, on our first three trips. We never really had any bad meals, but we weren't really that impressed by anything either (with Brown Derby being the notable exception). However, on our most recent trip we ate all of our evening meals either at resort restaurants or Downtown Disney. What a difference that made! I can now say we've had some excellent meals at WDW and found many restaurants that we will look forward to returning to on our upcoming trips.

 

[hookedup]

I will also add to this that I think considering the mass numbers that Disney feeds on a daily basis they do a fairly decent job. We have had some good meals and a few great meals during our many visits. We have also had some meals that are quite forgettable. The only complaint I have is how you can't help but feel like part of a herd when you are being served in mass quantity by someone whose job it is to "move 'em in and move 'em out!"
That being said I still love to "dine around the world!"

 

[franw]

It is my opinion that Disney has improved the quality of the food at WDW a hundredfold since it first opened. While some of the fast food is typical mediocre fare, some of it is quite good. Some of the better restaurants are excellent and we have even seen an improvement in restaurants that we used to avoid. Eating out at WDW is a huge part of our vacation experience. I don't understand why they can't improve the quality of food at places like Cinderella's Royal Table (even if it is geared mostly as a character experience) but you can find salads and fruit everywhere now and their bakery products are quite good. I expect to pay resort prices when I travel and don't find the cost of eating out disproportionate to eating out in major tourist areas. There's a few bucks tied up in that real estate and it must be daunting to try to cater to the eating habits of such a huge, diverse group of people. We have had some of our best meals at places where others say they would never go back and we have had some of our worst meals at places people rave about. It isn't much different from our experiences at home and on the road. Only there's a whole lot more selection at WDW than anywhere else I have ever been.

 

[Ron from Michigan]

I think the food at WDW is excellent and very good for the money. It's the whole atmosphere at WDW that makes your meals very good as well as the food. Jiko's, Calif. Grill, Spoodles etc. are all very good restaurants.

 

[NancyIL]

Penny - I love your New York analogy! I agree that burgers and hotdogs at WDW are nothing special, but I've enjoyed many meals at WDW. I had an outstanding meal at Chefs de France, and I've enjoyed very good meals at Le Cellier and Brown Derby. I purposely avoid eating at Alfredo's, San Angel Inn, and Nine Dragons, because we already eat plenty of Italian, Mexican, and Chinese at home. I also liked the character breakfasts at the Crystal Palace and Cinderella's Royal Table. Maybe I'm just not that picky.

 

[eeyore0062]

Our favorite meals were at Narcoosee's, 50's Prime Time Cafe (both lunch and dinner), Nine Dragons (dinner), Le Cellier (dinner), Fulton's (dinner), Cape May Cafe (dinner) and 1900 Park Faire (breakfast), 'Ohana (dinner), Captain Jack's (dinner) and Kona Cafe (dinner).

Our least were at Whispering Canyon, Boatwrights and Liberty Tree Tavern.

So, you can see what is wonderful to some is not to others. Everyone has different tastes and preferences, but it really isn't fair to lump all of WDW restaurants in together when making a general statement about the quality of the food.

Overall, the quality is high, and it just depends on your tastes!

 

[Gary M]

Much of this discussion is based on "fine dining" , but how about the pizza. I am from fly over country, but still know the pizza at WDW is not good. The only decent pizza that we have eaten was at Wolfgang Pucks. We have not eaten pizza at WDW for 2 or 3 years , because of the horrible pizza we had in the past at Disney. Maybe it has improved lately, but it had a long way to go.

Why is it so difficult to prepare good pizza at WDW?

 

[mitros]

I agree with a lot of other folks. First of all, you can't really compare a restaurant in your home town, as far as cost goes. You are, after all, at a resort, you will always pay a little more. We find most restaurants to be pretty good. We also suspect that Disney takes bad chefs and moves them around to different restaurants instead of firing them. We have had instances where a favorite place suddenly turns bad, and a formerly bad place turns good. And this has been happening ever since we started going to WDW in 1988. Since moving to within 86 miles of the resort, and go a lot more often, we find that this is still true.

 

[MikeWazowski]

I would never say that food in WDW is not great! From the counter-service restaurants to the Sit-Down restaurants, I can not remember one bad meal or snack or anything that did not taste good.

I have eaten a burger's, pizza, taco's nacho's, hot dog's, pretzels, prime rib, chicken, sandwiches. filet mignon, and much much more, like almost everyone who goes to wdw and I am always satisfied.

BUT(I'm sure everyone was waiting the for the BUT), I would say the price's are high, mostly because disney CAN make them higher then normal price's. I don't mind paying these higher prices because the food is alway's good.

Also it's not only disney who make the price's high, it is basically every amusement park in the US (Canada) because they know that they have you trapped.

I just got back from Hershey Park and I payed $9 for a Burger and Fry. So teh price wars are every where. But, was it good? YES

So either bite the bullet and buy food in WDW or make PB&J sandwiches. It's up to you

 

[franw]

I must admit that we have never found pizza at WDW that comes close to being good. The pizza at the CBR is horrible and the little take out window on the Boardwalk is equally bad. If anyone knows of any decent pizza at WDW, please let us know! We usually end up at Pizzeria Uno if we are desperate for a pizza fix.

 

[Peter Pirate]

I don't honestly believe there is good pizza in the entire State of Florida (I've lived here for 22 years now) and none of it matches the pizzas I grew up on in Michigan...