Gave Garden Grill A Second Chance-OOPS

[Goneallday]

Just back this morning. The four of us ate at GG yesterday not having read any opinions. Wish I had. It was supposed to be our big fancy "last night in Disney" treat.

Spent over $100.00 and left the place hungry and very cranky. Nothing good on the menu, portions small and not at all good, desert was stale cake and watered down chocolate syrup. What a bummer way to end an othewise great time.

 

[amarberry]

I cancelled my GG reservation yesterday. We're doing PSB instead. This review was the last straw. There have been too many horrid reviews on this board to just hope that maybe my taste is different than the reviewers. The Dis boards seem to united in the displeasure of the new GG.

 

[danjoan14]

I too have cancelled our ADR for the GG. We are going to Guilliver's at the Swan instead. All of the negative reviews have changed my mind abot going to the GG.

 

[Lives4Disney]

OH!! I am BUMMED! I have this lunch booked for our first day at WDW. I thought all my kids would enjoy it. We were there a few years ago and it was actually nasty then, but I thought with the rehab it would be improved.

Thanks for the review. Tomorrow morning I will be changing my lunch ADR.

I have two girls and a teenage son, so the PSB is out. I can't put him through that. I have Coral Reef booked for another day, and Nine Dragons as they all love that place. Now I need another Epcot lunch. I thought I was done with these Disney phone calls!!

Lives4Disney

 

[DeirdreTours]

We will certainly be skipping the GG this trip.

But, I have to ask, why have so many people on this thread tolerated bad food and bad service?

If I was served food that was as bad as you are describing, I would politely refuse it ("I'm sorry, I just can't eat this. In fact, maam, we have been shocked by the very low quality of the food we have been served and the service as well. Please take this back and send the manager over with a bill for our drinks, we would like to leave now."). And leave. Really-- Pay $100 and LEAVE HUNGRY?????

 

[LARABABE]

The old Garden Grill was pig slop on a platter. I would never go back even with a new menu involved. There are better choices out there!

 

[Goneallday]

We will certainly be skipping the GG this trip.

But, I have to ask, why have so many people on this thread tolerated bad food and bad service?

If I was served food that was as bad as you are describing, I would politely refuse it ("I'm sorry, I just can't eat this. In fact, maam, we have been shocked by the very low quality of the food we have been served and the service as well. Please take this back and send the manager over with a bill for our drinks, we would like to leave now."). And leave. Really-- Pay $100 and LEAVE HUNGRY?????

For the same reason we wait 90 minutes for a 2 minute ride, pay $2.00 for fifty cents worth of water and stand in the sun for a half hour waiting for a five minute bus ride. When you check into Disney, you check out of your common sense. That's what they count on.

 

[s&k'smom]

Wow I had not realized the GG had changed. DD and I went there two years ago for her 2nd birthday and really enjoyed it. The place was crowded, service was excellent, charactors terrific and food very nice. As a matter of fact she was gonna share off my plate but they brought her a child's dinner and did'nt even charge us. I guess we won't be going back next year. Why or why do they fix what is not broken?

 

[erikthewise]

Thank you for beating this dead horse -- our only chance of getting the old Garden Grill back is to get the word out. And I hope all your posts are half as good as this one!

The restaurant manager needs to be transferred, fired, or shot -- take your pick.

 

[Onceamonther]

Thank you for beating this dead horse -- our only chance of getting the old Garden Grill back is to get the word out. And I hope all your posts are half as good as this one!

The restaurant manager needs to be transferred, fired, or shot -- take your pick.

Let's send him to Universal!!!

 

[annej]

So sad to hear all of this. I had heard the rumblings and kept hoping they were not true. We ate there in Jan 03 and it was a definate highlight. It was on our list for our Dec. trip but will have to be removed. So sad! It was a great meal and experience. I will keep hoping that they change it back before December.

 

[Missy1961]

Great review. Thanks for posting.

And I'm very glad I read it. I ate there in 1999, and really enjoyed it. I was thinking about going this year, and now I won't.

 

[sarhenty]

I am so sorry to hear about your horrible experiences at the GG. We went there last year for the Icecream Social and we had an AMAZING time. It was my parents 30th year anniversary trip and my mom and dad said this was definitely one of the highlights of their trip. So now we are going in October and figured we would have lunch there since they canceled the Icecream Socials but after reading all these reviews, I am going to cancel. I also sent them an email letting them know that I did and why. I hope we can all do the same and then maybe we can see some changes, REAL SOON!

 

[Carapelli]

Don't mean to beat a dead horse but I had an interesting story about this.

I just got back from a four night visit where I stayed on the concierge level of one of the resorts (I won't mention which so I don't get anyone in trouble).

I asked the concierge to book us a reservation at the Garden Grill and she sort of winced. She asked if we had eaten there before and we explained that we loved it and went back every time we go down (about 4 times a year). She then asked if we had eaten there since the renovation which we did not.

She volunteered off the record that virtually all of the guests for whom she booked dinners came back and complained that the menu was bad, the service was lousy and the price had gone up. Those who went there a lot before the change had the biggest complaints. SHe advised we check it out before making a resevation.

We ate instead at Le Cellier and had a great meal. On our way to Soari, we stopped in at GG to ask about the new menu and saw that our our concierge lady was right. We would have hated the new format.

So thanks to the Disney concierges for being honest. And shame on the Garden Grill people who made the changes. They rally were clueless about what that place was all about.

 

[jcemom]

Just wanted to thank the OP for stopping me from making a big mistake. Garden Grill used to be one of our favorites as well. I knew it had changed, and I knew I wasn't crazy over the new menu. I had just about convinced myself to give it a try anyway...after all, how bad could it be? I am SO happy that you stopped me. I know we would have been terribly disappointed. I'll just have to be content with the memory of how much fun we've had there and how good the food used to be...

 

[s&k'smom]

You know what a shame about GG. I still can't get over how many negative reviews I have seen. I hope someone is listening!!!!!!!!

 

[kaceyisme]

We were really looking forward to going to GG in two weeks. We hadn't been there since our DS12 was 7 or 8 years old. Thank goodness I read this thread!! I changed our ADR to the Rose & Crown (we have never eaten there, and want to try something new).

Thanks for the heads up!

 

[MickeysMommy]

Count us as another family who used to really enjoy GG everytime we went. Now, to my utter dismay, we will not be returning to one of our former favorite restaurants. Please, Disney, bring back our old GG!!!

 

[smjj]

I sent Guest Relations a long e-mail about the Garden Grill and mentioned this post. As I was writing it I had a horrible thought, will they do the same thing to LTT?? One can only hope if we all e-mail Disney or complain in person they will do something about it....smjj

 

[MajorDaisy]

My family of 5 loved GG when we tried it for the 1st time in Jan. 03. We were all excited about going again w/ my husband's side of the family this Jan. I am so thankful for this thread. I would hate to have raved about how much they would loved this place (& they would have loved the old GG) just to have them miserably disappointed & paid through the nose for the disappointment.

This really saddens me, we really felt the magic here on our trips. Eating a fabulous meal & then going down to the ride & the kids getting excited about seeing where some of their food had been grown.

When I heard they were renovating the GG I thought, "What can they possibly improve?" How does anybody see the new menu or atmosphere & believe an improvement has been made?