Has the food quality at Disney gone down lately?

[brunette8706]

Hello Disers!

I keep hearing food quality at a lot of Disney restaurants have diminished greatly. Especially at Ohana, Trails End, the Spirit of Aloha, BOMA and numerous other places. We have recently eaten at these places within the last year and can definitely tell it has declined. We will be at Disney over July 4th holiday and were about to make reservations at Ohana but the reviews were less than stellar so we decided not to eat there.

What is your experience with quality and your overall experience with the Disney standard? Or does the Disney standard even still exist?

Thank you!

 

[randumb0]

I still like Boma as I frequently eat there every few months and haven't been disappointed. My last meal was at Sanaa and it was excellent. I can't say the same for Ohana

 

[PavlovPluto]

We agree that Trail's end has declined. At one point we thought it was the best fried chicken, on our last trip we thought it was just OK. The ribs were like rubber. We'll never go out of our way to go there again. It's too bad, because we had some nice memories there from the past.

 

[brunette8706]

We agree that Trail's end has declined. At one point we thought it was the best fried chicken, on our last trip we thought it was just OK. The ribs were like rubber. We'll never go out of our way to go there again. It's too bad, because we had some nice memories there from the past.

Oh my gosh! My husband has said the same exact thing about the chicken.

 

[brunette8706]

I still like Boma as I frequently eat there every few months and haven't been disappointed. My last meal was at Sanaa and it was excellent. I can't say the same for Ohana

Good to know. We love BOMA! We just have not been there in a while.

 

[starrysky]

We ate at Ghana a couple of years ago and it was terrible then. I was so excited as everyone raves about it. They need to overhaul that menu badly and rethink how they cook and serve the food. Terrible taste and rude service.

 

[Wakey]

What they seem to be doing constantly is not only putting prices up way beyond inflation, but shaving off the quality ingredients and more expensive food items. Examples going back to 2016 off the top of my head:

1. Narcoosees surf and turf deal disappearing, now paid add on for lobster tails.
2. More expensive items such as guacamole disappearing off QS toppings bars.
3. Allegedly the fish at Yorkshire County being changed to Tilapia. 99% of people from Yorkshire have never heard of tilapia which is a quarter the price of cod and haddock which it must be if it’s Yorkshire fish and chips.
4. Make your own pasta recently disappearing from food courts.
5. General reports of diminishing meat and steak quality.
6. The pot meals at Sanaa, removing meat options for the deal.

It goes on and on.

Now some of it could be justified to keep prices the same, but putting up prices well above inflation AND doing all this stuff?

I just hope they never mess with the chicken pot pie at Harbour House, but I’m expecting an instruction to go out that the chicken is reduced 25% shortly, if it hasn’t already.

 

[vacationer1954]

I keep hearing food quality at a lot of Disney restaurants have diminished greatly.

I've been hearing the same thing since it was actually true in the late 1990s/early 2000s. (The full service restaurants were incredible for a while in the mid-1990s.) Since then, though, food quality has been pretty consistent, across all restaurants, with the exception of counter service which has improved a lot.

 

[Christine]

Well, to be honest, 'Ohana declined sharply a long time ago. My first trip there was probably in the early 1990s and I think it may have been at it's prime then. We haven't gone back, but the complaints about the food there probably started 10 years ago.

My first trip to Boma was not long after it opened, I think and I went twice. My last trip there was in 2018. I still enjoyed it but I don't think it was as good.

 

[sotoalf]

This question has been asked repeatedly over the years, OP. Every person has a different idea of when the Golden Age of Disney Dining took place. All agree the '70s and '80s were mostly awful; all agree the improvement began in the mid '90s. When it collapsed or leveled off no one can say. I'd say it's as consistent as it's ever been, especially if like my family you avoid park restaurants. Fast food, however, is, comparatively speaking, phenomenally better than thirty years ago, but that's because we Americans expect more than chicken fingers and hot dogs.

 

[Dakota731]

No. Everyone had us scared for our trip last year and we had a large group and everyone loved the food. We ate at 14 different restaurants and the only one no of us liked was Tusker House. Those are pretty good odds in my opinion!

 

[monarchsfan16]

I found Boma (dinner) to be better when we ate there in April of this year than when I ate there in January of 2010. Both my husband (who had never been there before) and I were pleasantly surprised.

 

[TiggerTrigger]

I don't think it's necessarily a "lately" sort of thing. I think Disney is just notoriously inconsistent. I went to Boma for the first time in 2010 and was disappointed in the quality. I know a few others who went around the same time as our trip who felt the normal offerings were missing and meat quality was poor compared to previous visits. Subsequent visits have been everything from decent to disappointing. We've had other meals, like Sanaa, which have been consistently good for every visit. Our bad 'Ohana visit in 2017 wasn't a matter of bad food, but horrible service and most of the complaints I've seen there note that the issue is a rushed experience vs. bad food. Ultimately, the majority of the places we've gone to multiple times have had ups and downs. I know some people speak of the 80s and 90s, but I can think of good and bad meals from back then too. I mean, we had gross food at Coral Reef back in 1998 and I still don't want to go back...same goes for an 80s visit to Marrakesh. Some is also subjective. I know people who love places like Tusker and LTT, but I've tried both twice and have yet to be anything but disappointed. Ultimately, there may be a decline, but I've decided that it's time I stop putting so much emphasis on dining.

 

[MarkinNM]

Food decline, I dont know but will find out this August but I do know that everyone is a harsh food critic after Gordon Ramsay and his outlandish, at times childish behavior, has become the norm, everybody is a food critic these days. I read some of the reviews and people start from the beginning and look just to complain, like one said they waited forever to get seated then said it was like 10 min.........spots on the silverware, booking FP+ so close to food ADR's then get all upset when it takes a bit longer to get out, etc....wow, yea the food is expensive but restaurants can be pricey in general. Sit back people, relax enjoy it as you are in Disney..............................

 

[Disneylover99]

I haven’t noticed the food quality going down.

 

[Farro]

I can't imagine with all the new offerings at Disney Springs how anyone can claim that the food quality/dining options has gone down at Disney.

I would go as far to say that with all these new restaurants, this is one of the better times for Disney dining!

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

If it's managed by Disney yes the food quality has been steadily declining. I blame the DDP but who knows. Try to stick to restaurants with real professional management (AKA not Disney where the only quality that counts is the ability to squeeze more profit out of a location) In addition, since the managed restaurants negotiate with Disney I think they get more reimbursement on the DDP.


Disney Springs is generally good (AKA not managed by Disney) There are also some EPCOT restaurants.

 

[gharter]

I don't know that the food quality has really decreased at all restaurants.
I would agree that there are some restaurants where the food is not as good as it used to be. I find its more that many of the more interesting options are no longer available. This I would put the blame directly on the DDP. Many people who normally would not frequent some of the more upscale restaurants, now do (in itself not a bad thing). Ii've read many complaints about the size of portions there and food options offered. I believe,, because of this, Disney has changed many of the menus, making them more homogenous and appearing to be less in quality.
As examples, I would offer Jiko, Tiffins, Skipper Canteen. All originally offered many unique items that are no longer available, and many items that don't fit the theme are now on the menu.

 

[skuttle]

Disney dining started going downhill when the dining plan was introduced years ago.

 

[JealousBacchus]

Certainly nothing has been sudden.... Disney World food has been going downhill for at least a decade....