Opinions on L'Originale Alfredo of Rome Please

[goofy4tink]

My dd, 10, and I ate there several weeks ago. She has wanted to eat there for quite awhile. So, we walked up to the podium, at about 5:30 or so, on a Tuesday. We were seated right away. We were put in a waaay back side room. I asked if we had misbehaved somehow. No, the host said. It would get busy later on. And it did. THe room was empty when we were seated but it was hopping an hour later. Our waitress was wonderful. Only problem was linguistic. We could barely understand her!! I had the Alfredo and dd had plain spaghetti with parm. cheese. My salad was terrific. The Alfredo was as wonderful as I had heard. It was a little pricey for what we ate. DD wants to try it again in August. Hopefully, she'll be feeling better for that trip and will eat better!! Our service was quite good. Server was very attentive. My only problem with the whole experience?? Trying to get out of the place!!! I just couldn't find the way out and ended up leaving by a door that the servers were using to get outside.

 

[sotoalf]

Why settle for mediocre-to-poor Italian food when you have a Moroccan restaurant two "countries" and a Norweigan one a quarter mile away? People, Italian food is the cheapest and quickest to make (pasta is as inexpensive as rice), and any one of your hometown Italian restaurants serves food more creatively and with much better service than Alfredo's.

It's very simple. If you have your heart set on Alfredo's, I won't dissuade you. But you can get great Italian food anywhere. Alfredo's is nothing more than an Olive Garden or Macaroni Grill with Renaissance architecture.

 

[MamaQuack]

DS and I ate there Dec 17. Had no PS but were seated almost immediately despite the place being full. Our waiter was from Rome and he was hysterical!!!! He had a huge party table behind us but never neglect the little tables. We had our usual and were not disappointed: dinner salad, calamari and fettucine alfredo. It was all served timely, warm and in huge amounts. We were so glad we went and will keep returning as long as we get such good treatment. Yes its loud, yes its crowded, yes its maybe not exactly the Itailian some of us are accustomed to - but we love it.

 

[Micca]

DW and I have been going to 'Fredo's since Epcot opened. We eat there every trip and have dined there more often than most of the eateries here in our hometown(and Epcot is about 1400 miles away!).

In this forum it's not unusual to see comments like "...not as good as Olive Garden", or "...Chey Boy Ar Dee is better". To those people I say how much I am looking forward to sampling OG and the Chef in their part of the world as we don't have anything like Alfredo's around here

That said, it can be crowded, loud, and the service is spotty. DW and I found the same qualities at restaurants in Italy, so I guess that makes it authentic. The place was PACKED when we ate there two weeks ago, but the wait staff was pretty good and very polite. Also, I believe that the signature Fetuccini Alfredo is consistently the best thing on the menu.

 

[danny1649]

We have not had good experience at Alfredo's the 3 times we have dined there.Poor service and food at any price does not make me happy.I'm not hard to please give me some good food and smile when you take my money and I'm happy.This has not happened for us at Alfredo's.

 

[allicat]

My sister and her husband are vacationing at Disney now.She called and told me this was their worst meal, not of this particular trip, but worst meal EVER at Disney. (And they are frequent visitors)

She said the sauce on her lasagna tasted like Chef Boyardee. We were looking forward to trying it in April, its one of the few places we havent been to, but I think I will steer clear.

 

[Pixie_Dust]

Thumbs way down. Cramped, rude waiters, plus you can get Italian food anywhere. Try the Portofino resort by Universal for real Italian food that isn't just Alfredo sauce. You have been warned.

Cheers

 

[Pixie_Dust]

Originally posted by Winka
Does L'Originale set up outdoor seating on the piazza? If so, I'd stop by for a bellini too...

LOL, we went once and begged for outdoor seating. We had PS and they refused, only to seat people with no PS outdoors 30 seconds later. The creeps. It was like another person said, so bad we still remember it.

 

[jaysue]

Thanks all for the replies - always appreciated

I am wavering in my determination to try this experience and I am thinking we are going to try somewhere else in Epcot WS

Thanks again!

Happy New Year!

Cheers
jaysue

 

[danicaw]

As you may have noticed people either seem to love or hate Alfredo's.
I think food tastes are different for everyone...and I can't make a determination if I will like something or not until I have tried it. You can have a good idea how you will feel about the non-food aspects of the dining experience - service, decor, etc. based on reviews.
With that said if you are going to try Alfredo's I have a few suggestions...
- dine at a less crowded time. try to avoid the main meal times which are more crowded.
- make a PS ressie
- plan on a leisurely (long) meal.

We love Alfredo's, the food is a must for us on each trip, but we always allow plenty of time for this meal. We use it as a break from the rush of the park. Time to stop and slowly drink a cool beverage and talk about the day so far. In our experience if you go in on a timeline you are more likely to be turned off by the place.
This may not appeal to you, if thats the case you probably won't enjoy it no matter how good (or bad, depending on your taste) the food is.

 

[GoofyB]

We usually eat here when my in-laws are with us because she's a very picky eater (eg, we went to Boma for the dinner buffet and she had mac & cheese! She's in her 50s! Even my sons tried more than that!). Anyway, I digress. We eat there only because we have to with them; last time we swore we wouldn't do it again. It is terribly crowded, my husband's fettucine alfredo was cold and congealed -- basically, too much money when we can get much better Italian food at home.

My advice: skip it and try some of the other wonderful Epcot restaurants.

 

[franw]

Go there for lunch or a late lunch. We had lunch there at about 3 pm one day and sat outside. Everything was very good. We had great service and didn't feel rushed. The prices are much more reasonable before dinner.

 

[Kay1]

Since our Disney Dining Card expired, we've been sticking to fast food, but last week we needed to to go for an afternoon trip to Epcot and knew we would need PS seating for a comfortable meal. We chose Alfredo's mainly because I love their fettucine Alfredo and only allow myself such a caloric treat once in a blue moon.
The food was good and the server very polite and competent, though quite the saleswoman. I don't have strong feelings about the place one way or the other. I'll tell you, though, we made the PS less than 24 hours in advance during the busiest time of the year. Maybe you can wait until you get there to decide - go inside and see if it's to your liking - you never know.

 

[hucifer]

I went to Alfredo's back in the 80's and remember the pasta to be homemade and the flavor to be very good. Cut to 16 years later...Sept 2002...the pasta was not homemade, and the flavor was passable.

The food wasn't terrible, but it didn't make me want to return. I'm hoping that in 16 years they will come full circle back to the original restaurant that I used to like.

 

[ducklite]

I've eaten there a dozen times give or take. Service was generally mediocre to bad, although we did have a couple decent servers.

Food was so-so.

The place is cramped and noisy. I'm not sure why we kept going back, although we've pretty much wiped it off the list.

You can get much better Italian at Mama Melroses in MGM.

Anne

 

[hucifer]

Originally posted by ducklite
You can get much better Italian at Mama Melroses in MGM.

Anne

Ooh! What she said! What she said!

Mama Melrose was my absolute favorite meal when I went in September. That food was soooooooooooo good.