I'm really sorry you didn't enjoy your meal...and of course everyone has their likes and dislikes, but I think you kinda set yourself up for the disappointment....and perhaps your belief before the food arrived that you were being scammed didn't help matters any. I know when I'm angry like that often the person/object I'm angry at can't do anything right no matter how hard they try, lol.
The upcharge has been reported on DIS, though I wouldn't say it's one of those tips that is general knowledge, but then this restaurant is not generally spoken of much either. Originally they didn't allow the feast because of the appetizer that was included.....I can only surmise that enough people complained about being excluded that they came up with a way to include it. Disney only reimburses them based on entree/dessert/drink....so they should of course either charge for it or not allow it, otherwise they'd be giving it away. They told you about the upcharge before you finished ordering, so it's not like they were hiding it. If you didn't want to pay the upcharge, you could have ordered any of the other items separately. It's not like you had to order the feast in order to get a particular item....it's no special foods, just a combo of all of them. I think the scam would be not telling there was an upcharge so that you could make an informed choice....but you were told and agreed to it. The fact that one CM on the phone said it wasn't allowed......well we all know that if you call again and another CM will tell you differently and third will tell you something else too. I would suggest that you write to Disney management for a final policy answer, but again, you agreed to it even though you did not have to, so I'm sorry but I disagree with you about it being wrong.
And as for being charged gratuity on the upcharge.....of course you would be, just as you would have been charged the price and gratuity on it had you ordered it separately as an appetizer. And that's really what they told you that you would be doing....they weren't able to give you the feast on the dining plan because of the appetizer, so they compromised and had you pay for the part of the feast that wasn't allowed on your dining plan...and charged you gratuity on it as well. It sounds correct to me. What if you had ordered the $43 feast and the Jasmina Salad as an extra appetizer ($6.95) would you have felt that you should have been charged for that salad and a gratuity on it? I'm sure you would agree that you should. I do sort of see what you're saying that somehow they should have discounted the feast because you technically didn't get everything in it (since you paid for the appetizer separately). But I'm sure that's simply not an option in a computer run restaurant. In fact, I'd say they didn't even think of it that way....they simply input what you are to be charged for and the computer calculates the tip on those numbers. If you disagreed with it, though, you certainly could have made your point at the time, or not paid the gratuity on the extra. 18% of $12 is $2.16, so while I know your anger is really fueling this not the $2.16, its really probably not worth so much upset! I'm sure a quick word to the manager and it would have been removed. I can recall a time that we ordered an appetizer, despite asking for it a few times and getting excuses, it didn't appear until we were almost done eating.....when I pointed out that we really didn't want it now as we were about to have dessert...they left it and said to enjoy it with their compliments and it wasn't on the bill. We did try a bite, but didn't finish it, because by then we were in dessert mode. Management does want to please you if they can...but of course, they couldn't do anything about your disliking olives, lamb and cous cous. I'm sure they would have done something on the tip.
The description of Lemon Chicken says it contains olives, so that should have been a warning that you'd not like this dish if you didn't like olives. Most cuts of Lamb are always very fatty, especially the shank, so that's typical too. And cous cous, well it's an aquired taste.
The food at this restaurant is very different from American food....so it's one that many avoid because they don't want to risk trying something and not liking it. The spices and flavors are much different and many American palates don't like the food. That doesn't however mean that the food is poor quality...it means that you did not like the flavors. You said almost all the way through that your companion enjoyed it. So had he written the review it would have been positive where yours was negative. I totally appreciate people writing reviews and I most definitely appreciate your review because you said WHY you didn't like it....you don't like olives, I do, therefore your review wouldn't be the same for me as I do like olives and the lemon chicken description clearly says it has olives and preserved lemons (which create a very strong flavor)
I hope that others who perhaps do like some of the flavors mentioned will give this restaurant a try....it's definitely a repeat for my family.
THis is a favorite restaurant of ours but we would never take friends who weren't familiar with the food to such a place because of the foreign flavors.
