Flying Fish...Thumbs down

[Peter Pirate 2]

As a long time FF lover it pains me to write this review of what I considered the lone WDW holdout (other than V&A's) to superiority.

My daughter and I dined there on Friday. We started with the Arugala and endive salad with apples and candied walnuts. This was excellent. Sadly it's the only food item that was.

My daughter had the scallops with risotto. The scallops were OK but the rissoto, something we ALWAYS get at FF, was just BAD. It had taste and texture but it wasn't a positive. The scallops, as I said were OK, but there were only three of them and at 36.00 'that's a one expensive meat-a-ball'.

I had the Charred NY Strip. It was OK but honestly the foyot sauce was the only taste. The steak was VERY tender but void of the sauce this would be bland, bland, bland. It is very apparant that FF is no longer using the same vendor as allowed when Chef John and Chef Jens made the place SPECTACULAR (as reported that all restaurants now use the same approved vendor).

I'll end with a positive. Service...It was as good as ever, despite the fact that I didn't recognize a single employee from my heydey, they were still ALL exceptional. Kudos to the staff.

 

[suzimar57]

wow - so sorry to hear you had a bad experience there - have read a lot of glowing reviews, so it's sad a disappointment happened to you

 

[wildernesslodgelover]

OMG, my favorite thong wearing pirate and I are TOTALLY out of sync!

Remember when I posted a thumbs down to Blue Zoo? And you posted right after me and loved it. Well guess what? We dined at FF Monday night. It was our second time there and WE LOVED IT! I had the exact dish your daughter did, and it rocked my world! I am getting ready to post a review...so standby and look for it in a few minutes!

I think we need to make an ADR at one of these restaurants and have both our families dine together so we can see if we can somehow get on the same wavelength!!!!

 

[pixiechick]

Wow! We were there in January and March and everything was wonderful as usual!

Hopefully, it was just an off night in the kitchen!

 

[Peter Pirate 2]

Well, WLLover I don't know what to say?

I read your review and I have no complaint with your scallop review. I personally thought they weren't great but certainly they were good. But the risotto, oh the risotto. My fave FF food, no matter what it was served with, for years and years. All I can say is that we must have received the same stock as you (made days earlier) because it just wasn't good.

The nice people sitting at the bar next to us love FF too and the wife had the lamb chops and prounounced them great and they certainly looked great. The fellow had the steak and enjoyed it more than me but agreed that it was not particularily flavorfull. So...

You all have to know that it pains me have written this review and in fact this meal signals the end of my purchasing the DDE card. Too many good places in the area to eat at to fight the WDW inconsistancy, IMO.

RE: the ADR's, two weeks ago (Thursday) we tried for reservations at 'Ohana (totally booked) and FF (only 9:30 available) and then last Friday we tried 'Ohana (totally booked) and FF (6:20 and 9:30)...We took the 6:20 and the restaurant was half to 3/4 full and remained that way until we left at 7:45. WTH???

Well, obviously I have had the bad experience at FF that I'd been fearing and I'm bummed. I'm really happy others are still enjoying it but for me it will be while.

BTW WLLover, we ate at BlueZoo two weeks ago and it was FANTASTIC!!! This is easily my daughters fave (well, after Ruths' Chris) and we are standing at perfection in all of our visits (probably 6 or 7) at BZ.

 

[wildernesslodgelover]

Well, WLLover I don't know what to say?

I read your review and I have no complaint with your scallop review. I personally thought they weren't great but certainly they were good. But the risotto, oh the risotto. My fave FF food, no matter what it was served with, for years and years. All I can say is that we must have received the same stock as you (made days earlier) because it just wasn't good.

The nice people sitting at the bar next to us love FF too and the wife had the lamb chops and prounounced them great and they certainly looked great. The fellow had the steak and enjoyed it more than me but agreed that it was not particularily flavorfull. So...

You all have to know that it pains me have written this review and in fact this meal signals the end of my purchasing the DDE card. Too many good places in the area to eat at to fight the WDW inconsistancy, IMO.

RE: the ADR's, two weeks ago (Thursday) we tried for reservations at 'Ohana (totally booked) and FF (only 9:30 available) and then last Friday we tried 'Ohana (totally booked) and FF (6:20 and 9:30)...We took the 6:20 and the restaurant was half to 3/4 full and remained that way until we left at 7:45. WTH???

Well, obviously I have had the bad experience at FF that I'd been fearing and I'm bummed. I'm really happy others are still enjoying it but for me it will be while.

BTW WLLover, we ate at BlueZoo two weeks ago and it was FANTASTIC!!! This is easily my daughters fave (well, after Ruths' Chris) and we are standing at perfection in all of our visits (probably 6 or 7) at BZ.

Ok, well, that seals it. We WILL eat at BZ again in Sept and report back to you. That is how I felt when I posted my negative review of BZ...it hurt me to do so. I always bragged about that restaurant to friends and family, and then I had to retract.

I will say that I rarely order risotto, so maybe you have had it better elsewhere, or even other times at FF, and can compare it that way.

Hmmm, I have never dined at Ruth's Chris...might have to put that on my "to try" list.

 

[daisy112878]

My parents ate at FF two weeks ago and didn't like it either. Mom said her snapper was not flavorful at all and tasted very bland. Dad got the same as you did and felt the same as you. They said Citricos and Yatchsmen even Brown Derby was much better then FF.

 

[Uncleromulus]

This is all very interesting--WE were FF on Friday night as well!! At 6:00 and we had a seat right at the Chefs counter exactly where the chef was doing the Potato Snapper AND mixing the rissoto ingredients. It could be the ingredients themselves were old, but we saw the chef mixing it fresh every 20 minutes or so, from several bowls containing the various ingredients.
So who knows?
Sorry Pirate that you had a bad meal--ours was pretty good and I'll do a review soon. Meanwhile--that's one reason why I don't order the scallops any more--at ANY WDW restaurant. Too few for the money. I could eat a double portion of what comes with the scallop enteree these days.

 

[Peter Pirate 2]

We were the second to the last couple from the wall (me and my 14 year old daughter) seated at 6:20...I am very sad that I didn't know you were there. I would have joyfully bought you a beer (from that absolutely terrible beer selection they now have).

 

[Dana49]

"Pete," sorry about the bad meal. I'll be watching the reviews to make sure that it's only a "one time" incident. Thanks for the review.

 

[shovan]

As a long time FF lover it pains me to write this review of what I considered the lone WDW holdout (other than V&A's) to superiority.

My daughter and I dined there on Friday. We started with the Arugala and endive salad with apples and candied walnuts. This was excellent. Sadly it's the only food item that was.

My daughter had the scallops with risotto. The scallops were OK but the rissoto, something we ALWAYS get at FF, was just BAD. It had taste and texture but it wasn't a positive. The scallops, as I said were OK, but there were only three of them and at 36.00 'that's a one expensive meat-a-ball'.

I had the Charred NY Strip. It was OK but honestly the foyot sauce was the only taste. The steak was VERY tender but void of the sauce this would be bland, bland, bland. It is very apparant that FF is no longer using the same vendor as allowed when Chef John and Chef Jens made the place SPECTACULAR (as reported that all restaurants now use the same approved vendor).

I'll end with a positive. Service...It was as good as ever, despite the fact that I didn't recognize a single employee from my heydey, they were still ALL exceptional. Kudos to the staff.

Good review! Sorry to hear of the bad experience! Can you tell me, when did this vendor change take place?

 

[Peter Pirate 2]

Good review! Sorry to hear of the bad experience! Can you tell me, when did this vendor change take place?

Not exactly, I'm getting old it seems and everything runs together.

About two years ago I was chatting with one of the chef's whom I knew quite well and he was lamenting the "changes coming" presumably due to the expansion of the dining plans. This chef moved onto another restautrant but about that time there were many complaints about menu changes and quality, etc. here on the DIS. Another chef I knew then abrutly left. After talking to a sous chef under him (whom I know very well) I found out he (the head chef) was disallusioned with the changes and "lack of autonomy" he now had...This was my clue that the big vendor change had taken place. Sure enough, after this all Signature menu's started looking just a bit more like each other and less like their original intentions.

So there you have the basics of how I surmized these changes and a time frame from probably just over two years ago to the present that have taken place. No specific date or named source but it seems like simple addition to me...I can't prove I'm right and I will admit that possibly these changes did not come to pass and my assumtions are just coincidence or fairy tales...But I don't think so.

 

[wannabprincess]

I have to agree about the scallops, the risotto was just disgusting, and all three of us got them. Needless to say we ate all the dessert.

 

[mmmears]

I am so sorry to hear this. FF was our favorite dinner on multiple trips. Hopefully, this is more of an aberration instead of a commonplace occurance.

We dont use the DDP, but I suspect that it is evil and is causing all sorts of trouble with the restaurants at WDW!

 

[Uncleromulus]

Pirate--sorry that we din't know you were there!! And other than that Heffeweizen, the beer list IS pretty sad. Remember when the actually had Flying Fish beer/ale??

 

[shovan]

Not exactly, I'm getting old it seems and everything runs together.

About two years ago I was chatting with one of the chef's whom I knew quite well and he was lamenting the "changes coming" presumably due to the expansion of the dining plans. This chef moved onto another restautrant but about that time there were many complaints about menu changes and quality, etc. here on the DIS. Another chef I knew then abrutly left. After talking to a sous chef under him (whom I know very well) I found out he (the head chef) was disallusioned with the changes and "lack of autonomy" he now had...This was my clue that the big vendor change had taken place. Sure enough, after this all Signature menu's started looking just a bit more like each other and less like their original intentions.

So there you have the basics of how I surmized these changes and a time frame from probably just over two years ago to the present that have taken place. No specific date or named source but it seems like simple addition to me...I can't prove I'm right and I will admit that possibly these changes did not come to pass and my assumtions are just coincidence or fairy tales...But I don't think so.

Thanks, I appreciate the insight. Hopefully, since our 1st visit to FF was in Jan '07, we won't notice changes to the quality or offerings.

We have noticed the similarities in the menu's at the signature restaurants. But you can't judge diversity in WDW dining by me. When I find a dish I love, like a tuna tartare apptz., I then feel the need to check that out at every place we eat!

 

[Peter Pirate 2]

Pirate--sorry that we din't know you were there!! And other than that Heffeweizen, the beer list IS pretty sad. Remember when the actually had Flying Fish beer/ale??

LOL! The Heffeweizen is what I had!