Is Tutto Italia worth the cost?

[Euphoria027]

I am debating whether or not to include Tutto Italia in my list of upcoming ADRs. I do not limit myself on vacation when it comes to food, but I've had great Italian food before and am not sure if the sky high prices will be worth it. What do you think? Worth the cost?

Note- I will not be on the dining plan so the cost will be out of pocket.

 

[Tam1067]

Absolutely not.

We were on the deluxe dining plan when we ate there in August. It was good but not spectacular or gourmet. However there is no way I would have been happy if I'd had to pay for that meal. For 5 of us (2 on the kid plan) the tab was almost $200. The cost was about the same as some of the signature meals we had. And NO WAY is it signature quality.

 

[bicker]

No. Inattentive service. Bleh.

 

[Euphoria027]

Thanks so much for the advice!

 

[Disney Princess]

If you want a nice Italian meal, I've heard wonderful things about Il Mulino at the S/D resort. It is a quick walk/boat ride away from World Showcase and is supposed to be wonderful. My husband and I have it on our "to do" list from all the rave reviews here. It does not accept the dining plan, but since you are paying OOP, it doesn't matter anyway!

 

[oybolshoi]

Il Mulino ... at the Swan ... was wonderful. It's a little pricey and unfortunately they don't offer any discounts or accept the dining plan, but it's a great restaurant and worth the splurge.

 

[bsusanmb]

I have to disagree with you. We LOVE this restaurant. The lasagna is the best I have ever had. I hate lasagna, but this I love. Grew up in Italian family with Italian chefs...so got sick of lasagna. I love their sauce, salads, breads and desserts. However, it is WAY overpriced. I wouldn't go unless I was on dining plan.

 

[eyor44]

We have eaten here twice and completely enjoyed it both times. Once OOP and once DXDP. Lots of food, but lots of clean plates also.

 

[Disnydad]

Worst meal and service EVER for us at a WDW restaurant. In fact I just received an email today offering a full refund for our last meal there in November. We complained to their corporate office.

 

[Ginamarie]

We loved Tutto on our last trip and were sure to include it on our January trip. I actually don't see how it's significantly more expensive than other restaurants on property. In May, we spent more on the Akurshus princess breakfast than we did on our lunch at Tutto, which included drinks and two desserts. Our entrees were in the $20-$25 range, if memory serves me, which is about what we paid in other locations. We thought it was well worth the cost. We DO make this a lunch reservation rather than dinner though- I'm sure the dinner prices are a little higher.

 

[sue1013]

We tried Tutto for the 1st time last week and thought it was very good. DH and I went for lunch we had the antipasta for 2 and eggplant (both appetizers) we were so full we didn't order dessert. DH never likes the sauce at restaurants I ordered the eggplant he tried some and loved it. We were going to go back the next evening for dinner but it looked like rain so we decided not to. He made sure to tell me to plan to eat there for dinner in April.

 

[YodasMom]

Worst meal I've ever had at WDW. Sent back our entrees and reordered. Server claimed no one else in the history of the restaurant had ever done that. Chef Boyardee is better! Manager refunded our payment, and apologized for the rudeness of his server. This was in May 2009.

I, too, would recommend Il Mulino, or Portabello Yacht Club at DTD.

 

[Silver Queen]

We were not impressed with Tutto Italia. The food was good, but not exceptional, and the service was impersonal and obligatory, very much unlike service in other Disney restaurants. We were very disappointed because we were looking forward to trying Tutto. We decided that we will give them another chance sometime in the future. In the meanwhile we are really looking forward to trying Il Mulino even though they do not accept TiW or other discounts. Their reviews have been excellent.

 

[wdwtweets]

I think the menu looks awesome here! I have heard mixed reviews, though. However, I would encourage you to try it for yourself. It does look expensive but not crazy expensive.

 

[Sweet Melissa]

I didn't find it to be worth the cost or the time. I don't have outstanding memories of the service in either way, but I do remember the food being nothing special. I've eaten at all of Disney's Italian restaurants, save Il Mulino, and I don't think that any of them are as good as home cooking or even some of my local restaurants.

 

[rebster]

My husband and I are pretty relaxed people and never understood any negative reviews at any of the restaurants (we love them all). That being said, tutto was the worst meal out we have almost ever had. We still tipped well and never complained, but I would not recommend going there. Its terrible. It is the only place I couldn't see why the service was so bad (servers were just lolly gagging around), and I couldn't understand why my food came out in less than 5 minutes, and it wasn't bad food, but it wasn't good food. It just was not the usual enjoyable Disney experience on any level.

 

[disrev]

We did Tutto with the DP October 2007. We thought it was okay. When we tallied up what our bill would have been w/o DP, we agreed we would've been very disappointed with our meal.

 

[disney*mom*82]

Tutto is one of my families favorites each trip. I tried to take it out of our plans on our last trip in Sept 09, but everyone was not happy with that so we went and I was so glad we did, it was my favorite meal the whole trip. We are a party of me (vegetarian), DH, DS12, DD9, and DD2 (vegetarian). We have an ADR for our upcomming trip in March 2010 and this will be our fourth or fifth time to eat there and we expect to have just as good of a meal as we have had each time.

If you are not sure about this place, maybe try lunch, that way it is not as expensive as dinner. We always do dinner, but we also do the DDP, so we dont have to worry about OOP. But, even if it was OOP, we would eat here. You will hear good and bad about all places.

 

[TJA]

If I were paying OOP, then I'd book lunch there and try it for myself. We will be on the DxDP next trip, so I booked dinner there and cannot wait to go! We have been there once, not on the DDP, and we both ordered inexpensive entrees and did not enjoy them at all. Next trip we will order whatever we want and we'll find out if we like the food any better.

 

[phragmipedium]

I wouldn't. Service was really not great for us. My husband ordered (quite clearly) the lasagne. When it came out it didn't quite look like lasagne to me, but he tried it and I started my dish and then the more I thought about it, I thought maybe he got the wrong dish and he did also, but he said it tasted okay so he wasn't going to make a fuss. I'm not such a stickler for just asking a question and didn't feel like it was making a fuss, so when our waiter came by after my husband had had just a few bites, I asked politely if my husband's dish was the lasagne. The waiter said, "No, he asked for the casarecci, that's what that is." Um...okay. He didn't, but he said he liked it okay, so I said, "It tastes fine, but this isn't the dish on the menu that has the veal in it?" And he said no, it was just "ground meat." No offer to replace it with lasagne, no apology, nothing - just very curt like it was our fault he brought the wrong dish. I was pretty put off by it, but it was raining out and we were exhausted, and since he did like it I really didn't feel like making a big deal out of it.

We were on the dining plan and it was our anniversary trip, so they did bring us out a complimentary dessert to share, which was nice - though they did it after they'd already taken our dessert order (and been "charged" on the dining plan) for desserts that they served and we barely touched anyway. I understand the desire to rack up a bill with desserts to increase a tip, but it was just odd to assume we needed three desserts when we couldn't hardly touch the first two. It would have made more sense and been less wasteful to just bring out the complimentary one first and then offer to let us order our dining plan desserts, perhaps to go.

I had the farfalle in cream sauce. It was fine, but not memorable. Honestly I felt like the quality of food was Olive Garden-ish at best, though of course at twice the price and half the service. I definitely would not pay out of pocket for it, but it can be a good value on the dining plan especially if you are interested in some of the more expensive dishes and great service is not terribly important to you. The pasta dishes were what interested me rather than the steak/meat dishes, so for me it was just a so-so value and I would try somewhere else next time even if I were on the dining plan again.