I want to hear about Coral Reef

[abk96]

I made an ADR for Coral Reef to celebrate our 10th Anniversary. Has anyone celebrated an anniversary here? How was it? Can you get a special order cake delivered to this restaurant?

I want to hear it all.

Thanks.

 

[Big Daddy Incredible]

I second this request for info about Coral Reef. I have an ADR for my DW, DD5, DD4, DS2 and I on 12/5. Is there anything that I should know or ask for that will give my family that extra special Disney touch? Thank you.

 

[ainmama2001]

I've eaten at the Coral Reef and I've eaten at WDW restaurants for special occasions, but I've never done it all together! I know that if you call WDW dining, they can put in a request with your ADR to have a cake delivered to your table for an extra fee. The cake is yummy! Since it's the Coral Reef and it's kinda fancy, they may have something even nicer! Call dining and ask.

 

[Big Daddy Incredible]

bump bump bump

 

[Rella Bella]

We had lunch at the Coral Reef. It was about a year ago, so my memories may be more a bit more emotional than precise.

We were fortunate to get a table right at the Aquarium... so the fish were close enough to touch! Our DS really enjoyed watching them, and trying to guess what they were. He was especially impressed by the sharks.

All the tables face the Aquairum and are tiered so every one has a good view. The menu was quiet gormet, and the food was excellent. It was starched white table cloths and waiters in white jackets! Very, Very nice. But they were still very accommodating to our son. They had a separate kids menu. Although they may make some changes you can view the menu at: http://www.wdwinfo.com/wdwinfo/dining/menuoutput.cfm

It is the priciest restaurant we've been to at WDW, but the atmosphere was so worth it. It is an experience like no other. It was beautiful, quiet and a little dark... with a great deal of the light coming from the Aquarium. If we were celebrating I would definitly choose Coral Reef.

 

[dnbent]

I really hate to be negative but off all the restaurants we have tried The Coral Reef is the only one we would never do again. We were a group of 5 and it was 3 - 4 hours after we checked in so we were all hungry and excited. The atmosphere was great but the food truly was mediocore at best and portions were very small and very pricey.

If you are truly looking for special we would recommend the California Grill, first, Yachtman Steakhouse secord of Le Cellier also. All three of these are excellent choices with great food and atmosphere.

Good Luck,
Becky

 

[kellyanne731]

We were there almost a year ago, and absolutely loved it! We were seated on the second tier, so we had a great view of the tank without being too close. I ordered the talipia oscar, and my fiance had the fillet mignon. I don't remember all of the details, but it was a delicous, very romantic meal that we will absolutely do again when we go back.

 

[sleepydog25]

CR is definitely one of those "love it" or "hate it" restaurants. It can seem a bit pricey, but that depends on what you order and how big of an eater you are. Some of the menu items are, indeed, expensive--then again, a number of other WDW restaurants are the same: AP, V & A, and CG come to mind. All things considered, we didn't find the expense out of order with a nice restaurant in any major metropolitan area.

As for the food, once again it's all in the eye of the beholder. My wife had the grouper and I the cajun catfish, and both were delightful dishes. Since we tend to eat a salad, soup, or appetizer along with the veggies served with any entree we order, then the portions seemed plenty big to us. We were full without being stuffed, leaving us plenty of room for dessert, which in my wife's case was the Chocolate Wave--a superb concoction.

Our server was excellent, too. She never left us wanting for drink refills, promptly removed plates, and made our DD4 feel right at home, even bringing her two sauces on the side when our daughter couldn't decide which one to have on her pasta. In fact, my only complaint about CR was that the bottle of red we ordered was restaurant room temperature vice cellar room temperature, but that's a minor issue. We had good food, good service, and a good table. We'll definitely go back. aw:

 

[speakupjc]

We did appetizers and drinks here as the meals were to expensive. The appetizers were just ok.

 

[K and K's Mommy]

We've eaten here twice and liked it both times. The Chocolate Wave is one of my all time favorite desserts! I also liked their salad which was very fresh because the lettuce was from The Land. My DH really liked his entree, mine was okay.

Big Daddy Incredible - Our kids were 4 and 2 when they ate here. We got there a little early, and I asked for a table next to the aquarium. We had an early PS (probably 5:30) so we really didn't have to wait longer than our PS time. My kids were mesmerized the entire time. The waitor was really good helping them find the fish. We also got to see divers. It really is a neat atmosphere.

 

[abk96]

Thanks for all the replies. This does sound like a great restaurant to celebrate an anniversary.

 

[heidiboo]

I really hate to be negative but off all the restaurants we have tried The Coral Reef is the only one we would never do again. We were a group of 5 and it was 3 - 4 hours after we checked in so we were all hungry and excited. The atmosphere was great but the food truly was mediocore at best and portions were very small and very pricey.

If you are truly looking for special we would recommend the California Grill, first, Yachtman Steakhouse secord of Le Cellier also. All three of these are excellent choices with great food and atmosphere.

Good Luck,
Becky

I agree with Becky. We were very excited to be able to go and left very disappointed. We will not be returning. As Becky says, the portions are small and nothing special. The price for what we got was outrageous and we went at lunch time. All in all it is not something we will do again. The aquarium was a nice touch and the wait staff was very nice though. Good luck with your decision.

 

[cara loves the poly]

I have to agree also, Coral Reef was our one let down. If you are seated right at the aquarium, it would probably make a big difference. The portions are very small. Our children did not like it at all, my husband left hungry after a large bill.

 

[danny1649]

Coral Reef as part of our CP dining package,so I will hope for the best we enjoyed our experience about 10 years ago at Coral Reef.Our other CP dinner package is at Teppanyaki which we love.Wanted to do LeCellier but it was booked solid so went to Coral Reef as second choice.Have a magical time on your visit.

 

[melomouse]

We just had lunch here early October!!! A quiet soothing spot amidst the hustle-bustle!!
Here's the link to my review!

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=935050

 

[abk96]

Were the dinner portions small or just lunch? My DH is a big eater. He'll be a little disappointed if he only gets a bite or two on his plate.

 

[riu girl]

ing this up for abk96s ?

 

[OneGoofyFamily]

We went to Coral Reef last week on our trip and my family loved it. I think I loved it more than dh though. We both thought the servings were fine. We were on the meal plan though so got the Appetizer/dinner/dessert. For appetizer I had the tenderloin skewer, dh & ds had shrimp cocktail, and dd had crab cakes and we all shared. The crab cakes were excellent as well as the shrimp. I had the Oscar Talapia that was pan fried with a crab cake on top with baernaise sauce I believe. It was INCREDIBLE! My dh had some kind of Shrimp with pasta and wished he would have gotten something else - it was OK. I could hardly even eat dessert but it was so good! It was a small scoop of white chocolate ice cream, a chocolate lava cake with a little piece of chocolate sticking out of it. It was quite pretty! It would have cost about $200 if we weren't on the meal plan - of course we wouldn't have ordered all of that!