Jiko fan for years, but really didn't enjoy this experience

[Rebelmom67]

Jiko has been a long standing favorite with this family. We recently did a grand gathering and my husband and I treated everyone to Jiko.

Now, I hope no one cancels any reservations because of this. This is just my opinion and review of our last meal.

We were 8 adults and ordered 4 filets, 2 lamb loins and 2 braised short ribs.
The short ribs were out of this world good and melt in your mouth, the best thing on the menu. The lamb loin was devoid of lamb flavor and you only tasted the spices that had been rubbed on it. Add to that, the meat was "spongy". It was so dismally bad.

The filet was "eh". The meat was mediocre at best and there was just a very thin layer of the wine sauce on the plate. Our filets at Le Cellier and the Wave were far superior.

Our waitress was so, so bad. I can't even put into words how bad she was. One member in our party ordered the curry cauliflower soup and when she brought it out she spilled half on the table and never replaced what had been spilled!!! The amount was very small in the first place, so the half that was spilled was a big, big deal.

Drinks were not refilled, and we were just ready to go. We didn't even get desserts (we were on the DDP) because we were just so ready for this travesty to end.

I'm sure it may have just been a very off night, but it was an experience we will never forget and never want to relive.

 

[zackiedawg]

Sounds like an off night for sure, and an off waitress as well. Too bad - that would definitely be something I wouldn't want to go through at Jiko!

I dine there every trip to Disney - about 5 times a year. I can't say I've ever experienced a bad meal there - the food quality and prep has always been top notch. I've had average servers and good servers...never a bad one, but you certainly hope to get a good one.

I was there a few weeks ago, and dinner was marvelous as usual. I had the braised Short Ribs (and I agree - best dish on the menu), but with the macaroni and cheese on the side rather than the potato with the dish (just because I love the Mac N Cheese so much)...dinner mate had the filet, and happy to report it was of the high quality it should be, and the wine sauce looked pretty generous. So hopefully indeed you just hit a chef having a bad day! A bottle of Pinotage and capped off with Kenya AA coffee in a french press...it's still my favorite meal in WDW.

Hope next time, everything's back to order for you!

 

[smile4stamps]

My husband and I also did not have a good dining experience there. It was the only Signature Restaurant that we were at for less than 90 minutes. I think we were only there about an hour tops we were just wanting to be done iwth it. My hubby had the Chicken and I had the Lamb... Both were NOT good!

I've been afraid to do my review of Jiko because everyone says good things but we didn't have that experience. I will be writing more about it in my upcoming review but just wanted to share you are not the only one without a good experience.

 

[DisOrBust]

Add us to the list. Have been going here since 2001 and was our fav sig. restaurant. It was all around bad this year.

 

[PrincessTrisha]

This week I actually just switched a few things around to fit in Jiko. I won't be cancelling my ADR but I think this helped me decide on the beef short rib instead of the filet.

Thanks for the information.

IMHO, If anyone cancels an ADR based on a single "not so good" or "negative" review, I think they were unsure of that restaurant in the first place and were looking for a reason to cancel.

 

[Tinkfan10]

Jiko has been a long standing favorite with this family. We recently did a grand gathering and my husband and I treated everyone to Jiko.

Now, I hope no one cancels any reservations because of this. This is just my opinion and review of our last meal.

We were 8 adults and ordered 4 filets, 2 lamb loins and 2 braised short ribs.
The short ribs were out of this world good and melt in your mouth, the best thing on the menu. The lamb loin was devoid of lamb flavor and you only tasted the spices that had been rubbed on it. Add to that, the meat was "spongy". It was so dismally bad.

The filet was "eh". The meat was mediocre at best and there was just a very thin layer of the wine sauce on the plate. Our filets at Le Cellier and the Wave were far superior.

Our waitress was so, so bad. I can't even put into words how bad she was. One member in our party ordered the curry cauliflower soup and when she brought it out she spilled half on the table and never replaced what had been spilled!!! The amount was very small in the first place, so the half that was spilled was a big, big deal.

Drinks were not refilled, and we were just ready to go. We didn't even get desserts (we were on the DDP) because we were just so ready for this travesty to end.

I'm sure it may have just been a very off night, but it was an experience we will never forget and never want to relive.

I am so glad I was not the only one....I will be doing an extensive review soon in my honeymoon review. Our server Omar was terrible and you were right about the filet it was eh. We were always searching for omar when we needed something, the desserts were not good and the only thing we liked was the flat bread. Oh and my fav of the night....the what put me over the edge....we both had drinks and per the dining plan needed to pay for those. I gave him our room card told him we were on the plan at the beginning of the meal and cash to cover the drinks...expecting change for my $$$ as he took the book and didn't check with me as to what to do and was gone so fast that I couldn't say anything. He comes back with no change and told me he charged the room for the drinks. Um NO!!!!! so I told him I was not leaving until he brought me the change that he took upon himself to take as his tip and void my room charge. He does that and on the way out I see the manager to make sure everything was fixed and explain that of all the dining of our trip this was our only bad meal and how dare his server think that money was all for him it would have been a 30% tip. Manager checks everything okay and did nothing else.

Sorry to steal your post but wanted to let you know you were not alone.

 

[natalielongstaff]

Thats not good !

 

[wezee]

I am so glad I was not the only one....I will be doing an extensive review soon in my honeymoon review. Our server Omar was terrible and you were right about the filet it was eh. We were always searching for omar when we needed something, the desserts were not good and the only thing we liked was the flat bread. Oh and my fav of the night....the what put me over the edge....we both had drinks and per the dining plan needed to pay for those. I gave him our room card told him we were on the plan at the beginning of the meal and cash to cover the drinks...expecting change for my $$$ as he took the book and didn't check with me as to what to do and was gone so fast that I couldn't say anything. He comes back with no change and told me he charged the room for the drinks. Um NO!!!!! so I told him I was not leaving until he brought me the change that he took upon himself to take as his tip and void my room charge. He does that and on the way out I see the manager to make sure everything was fixed and explain that of all the dining of our trip this was our only bad meal and how dare his server think that money was all for him it would have been a 30% tip. Manager checks everything okay and did nothing else.

Sorry to steal your post but wanted to let you know you were not alone.

Add us to the "thumbs down club" for Jiko. We had a short dark haired stocky fellow, but I think his name was Oscar. We refused to order dessert (even tho we were on the DxDDP) because it would have given him more $$$ on his tip, that he definantly did not deserve.

And I agree.....the tables for 2 are way too close together and the mac and filet was kind of bleh. I thought maybe we just had a bad night.....but I'm reading more and more negative responses to Jiko lately.

 

[robinm1215]

Sorry to hear some of you had bad experiences at Jiko lately. I was just there in April and my meal was great as always. I had the Curry shrimp dish which is my favorite...always hard for me to try something new there. It was a little different than I remembered it from other times, but still really good. If you have the chance, ask for Tiffany as your server. She is excellent, very attentive and explains all the menu items. Will even bring you a wine sample and if you're not happy she will bring you something else. I have had her as my server twice now and I plan on asking for her again in August. Hope these were just off nights as I would hate for this restaurant to go downhill...it's one of my favorites!