Maya Grill Review - July 12, 2011

[wdwdancerwannabe]

We arrived at CSR on July 12 I had intentionally not made a dining reservation for this first evening. The family knew that we could either go to the resort quick service restauarant (Pepper Market) - or go to the 'nice' restaurant on property: "Maya Grill" - but either way - we were paying for it OOP (out of pocket) as this first night was not a DDP (Disney Dining Plan) night.

Family = DH (Jeff), DS:4 and DD:10 - and myself - we decided to go ahead and have a nice sit down meal at Maya Grill.



We were seated immediately and there were very few people in the restaurant.


I had a to have Margarita on my first day in Disney! !
I can't remember the name of the margarita that i had - but it was one of their house specials - and had a bit of BASIL! yes, BASIL in it.. it was actually very good - fruity - but not too sweet

We ordered an appetizer:

Pulled Pork Empanada served with Jicama Slaw.

I ordered a mahi mahi with a pineapple mango salsa.. sounded DELICIOUS!!!


Jeff ordered a traditional steak with "vegetables".


Torrie's kids meal was beef tips with corn and fries.


Can't remember what Cayden had.

They brought out some interesting bread/breadsticks with an herb/oil dipping sauce.

The appetizer was $9 --- for two little Epenada's. I didn't care for them at all.... and the Jicama slaw was terribly bitter.

Jeff said that the steak was 'fine', but the 'corn mush' was not what he was expecting for his "vegetable". He thought that Torrie's kids meal looked like something he would have wanted. (You will discover very quickly that my husband and kids are NOT adventurous eaters!)

My fish was VERY dry with NO flavor. The "pineapple salsa" was primarily all red onions... i think i found one little sliver of a pineapple piece.... very disappointing.

And - for this OOP meal?? $102 + tip. and if you're not familiar with Disney Dining -- they are sure to tell you what a 15% tip is and what a 18% tip amount would be. So -- yes... over $15 tip for this very bland - and for lack of better words - gross -- meal.

As we left the restaurant - we passed the Pepper Market - wishing we would have just eaten there - the aroma was much more pleasing -- and the out of pocket expense would have been more satisfying as well.

Although our first meal at Disney did not set the tone for our magical trip ahead, we knew that there were MANY restaurants in our near future that we could not wait to get to.

 

[KatMark]

We arrived at CSR on July 12 I had intentionally not made a dining reservation for this first evening. The family knew that we could either go to the resort quick service restauarant (Pepper Market) - or go to the 'nice' restaurant on property: "Maya Grill" - but either way - we were paying for it OOP (out of pocket) as this first night was not a DDP (Disney Dining Plan) night.

Family = DH (Jeff), DS:4 and DD:10 - and myself - we decided to go ahead and have a nice sit down meal at Maya Grill.



We were seated immediately and there were very few people in the restaurant.


I had a to have Margarita on my first day in Disney! !
I can't remember the name of the margarita that i had - but it was one of their house specials - and had a bit of BASIL! yes, BASIL in it.. it was actually very good - fruity - but not too sweet

We ordered an appetizer:

Pulled Pork Empanada served with Jicama Slaw.

I ordered a mahi mahi with a pineapple mango salsa.. sounded DELICIOUS!!!


Jeff ordered a traditional steak with "vegetables".


Torrie's kids meal was beef tips with corn and fries.


Can't remember what Cayden had.

They brought out some interesting bread/breadsticks with an herb/oil dipping sauce.

The appetizer was $9 --- for two little Epenada's. I didn't care for them at all.... and the Jicama slaw was terribly bitter.

Jeff said that the steak was 'fine', but the 'corn mush' was not what he was expecting for his "vegetable". He thought that Torrie's kids meal looked like something he would have wanted. (You will discover very quickly that my husband and kids are NOT adventurous eaters!)

My fish was VERY dry with NO flavor. The "pineapple salsa" was primarily all red onions... i think i found one little sliver of a pineapple piece.... very disappointing.

And - for this OOP meal?? $102 + tip. and if you're not familiar with Disney Dining -- they are sure to tell you what a 15% tip is and what a 18% tip amount would be. So -- yes... over $15 tip for this very bland - and for lack of better words - gross -- meal.

As we left the restaurant - we passed the Pepper Market - wishing we would have just eaten there - the aroma was much more pleasing -- and the out of pocket expense would have been more satisfying as well.

Although our first meal at Disney did not set the tone for our magical trip ahead, we knew that there were MANY restaurants in our near future that we could not wait to get to.

Sorry your meal at Maya Grill was disappointing. We have stayed at CSR nine times and only eaten breakfast at the Maya Grill once and never dinner. We have read so many mixed reviews of it. We have two good DIS friends who stay elsewhere, but travel to the CSR every trip for meals at Maya Grill. But I'm glad the first meal, although it did not set the tone for the rest of your meals, didn't spoil things for you.

 

[MickeyNicki]

What a bummer...we have had first night dinners that were a bust too, we figure we just get the bad meal out of the way and look forward to better ones

 

[kylmac]

I thought that only happened to us! Glad it did not ruin your trip-you have a great attitude! Like you when I see the (high) bill and the food was not so good I vow to never eat there again!
Elizabeth

 

[vettegirl]

Thanks for the review. It's feedback like yours that has never made us want to eat there. I do like the Pepper Market breakfast though.

 

[DaymanX]

We had one of the best meals at Maya Grill on the first night of our honeymoon, and probably the single worst meal of our trip at Maya Grill near the end of our trip.

I think it really depends on which chef is working. I'm vegan (my wife is not), so I talked to the chef both visits (and it was someone different each time). First chef did a wonderful job on both of our meals, second chef and server were awful.

The only other thing I can think of is that we were there at the very start of a dinner shift the first night, and hit in the middle of a dinner rush the second time.

I love that bread and dipping sauce though!

 

[iloveeeyore]

Thank you for sharing your review. We are breaking our rule of trying all the dining options at our resort for this upcoming trip. We enjoy Disney Dining too much to risk "wasting" one of our precious dinners at Maya. Your review confirmed my intuition about this one.

 

[Disney owl]

Thanks for letting us know
Hope the meals got better for you

 

[cymbaldiva]

That's a shame to hear. I've only dined at the Maya Grill once - it was for dinner and the only complaint from the table was that my BFF's daughter didn't like that the cheese was served on the chips for her appetizer (it's a kid thing I guess - I hated to see those nachos go! ) Other than that it was truly a good meal.

I hate reading that folks cancel an ADR based on someone's bad review - I do feel that all things are subjective and of course YMMV.

Hope you enjoyed the rest of your dining experiences.