Restaurant Poll Series: Coral Reef

[jblrn2b]

In the nay column - which is too bad because the restaurant is really beautiful.

 

[Sassagoula Billy]

Sorry, I meant, it seems that the poll on this thread makes it seem as if the restaurant isn't quite as maligned as you'd expect given all of the negative reviews you see on the Dis anytime someone brings the restaurant up.

When this thread was started, I expected the poll numbers to be much closer to 50/50. It seems, at least so far, that the dissenting opinion belongs to a more vocal minority.

I'm surprised as well! Coral Reef is normally the whipping boy of Disney Dining!

 

[JennaWest]

25% nay 75% yay that is our groups poll, my husband sister and brother in law love it and I hate the food but love the atmosphere, havent noticed bad service.

 

[mattmom]

We love this place.

 

[bytheblood]

Pros:
Ambiance


Cons:
Poor service
Hair in food
Unintelligible server
Long wait for drinks and food
Very noisy restaurant


Saturday, December 8
5:30 PM


We arrived at 5:15 and were finally sat at 6:15. The wait was okay with us, we were in no hurry. The only thing that made it bad was the couple in there with us that had 5 kids all under the age of 5 screaming and crying. I felt bad for the kids, but felt equally bad for the guests. Their kids were tired and miserable. My guess is that their nap was neglected.

After we were sat it took our waiter 15 minutes to come and take our drink order. After 10 minutes we received our tea and placed our appetizer order. He also asked for our entree and dessert order at the same time.

Our appetizers came out about 10 minutes later and then our entrees only 5 minutes after that. For an appetizer I ordered the sea and land. The meat was very tough and impossible to eat. The shrimp was good. My sister ordered the ceasar salad. She said that the ceasar dressing was very fishy and she was unable to eat it.

I ordered the pasta and shrimp, which was not too bad. There was a lot of shrimp and they were big. My sister ordered a steak which was cooked correctly and tasted pretty decent. My daughter ordered a kids pizza which came with a complimentary hair on it. Once she found that, her appetite was ruined, as was mine.

For dessert we all had the chocolate cake. It was decent, but a bit dry.

The ambiance was nice. I enjoyed the tanks and saw the divers a few times. I thought looking at fish while I was eating would gross me out, but it was actually relaxing. There was one huge fish with big bulging eyes that was gross, but the rest were okay.

Our server was not good. He was from Turkey, which doesn't matter except his accent was VERY VERY thick and he was impossible to understand. He was also very slow and it was impossible to get a refill of tea.

I would like to try Coral Reef again some time, but probably not any time too soon.


Overall, I score the Coral Reef as a C-. These people are lucky that Anton Ego did not visit or they would be out of business.

Scores
Cleanliness: A
Food: C
Characters: NA
Service: C
Wait: C-

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I did try it again and it was just as bad. The only change was that we did not get a hair in our food.

 

[michelleiada]

We enjoyed our dinner there. We all had steak and it was very good. The service was top notch....although I can't remember the name of our server but he was superb. Now...my family members had a completely different experience, they had steaks that were loaded with grisel and poor service. We were there at the same time but opposite sides of the restaurant. Go figure...

 

[kstatefamily]

It is a yea for us. This was our first meal on our first Disney trip. We thought the food was good and the service was good as well. We will be returning in Dececmber at our 7 year olds request. She wants more of the fish soup (lobster bisque).

 

[OhThePain]

In this case I am a Nay sayer. It used to be one of my favs. I've been there a good 7 or 8 times. As the menu has evolved the quality of the food and service have gone way down.

 

[ElizabethB]

It used to be delightful to dine there. Not anymore. It is terribly overpriced if paying OOP. Food, service and ambience have all declined. Our last dinner was about 18 months ago. The steaks were terrible (very cheap quality) -- and the place was jam-packed with noisy families and kids running all over the place.

It's just really poor, now, and definitely off our list.

 

[DEA]

I voted 'yea' based on a good meal there last year. I did not get a 'sad little crabcake', but had a nice, well-prepared piece of fish with good sides. The rest of my family seemed to enjoy theirs, as well. I think I have a picture somewhere of my then 2 year-old biting into the bread there, which was roughly the size of her head.

In addition, I was all set to hate the place, especially when we got seated at the back of the restaurant instead of closer to the aquarium. I ended up really enjoying the food, though.

 

[Uncleromulus]

yea--but with a small "y". Our food and service here have been pretty good the times we ate at Coral reef. Of course it is noisy and thanks to the fish tank, full of kids. We don't go here when it's just Mrs. U and I, but when friends suggest it, we don't try and talk them out of it.
Faint praise??

 

[MagicalMawMaw]

We really liked it!
The service was good & our steaks yummy.
And they seated us right by the tanks which was nice.
We are going there again on our next trip. It was the restaurant my DH wanted to go to as he really liked his steak there!

 

[DISaholic's]

We were there last week! And we all really enjoyed it! I have to say I probably wouldn't order the steak though. My BIL had it and was unimpressed. The majority of the menu is seafood/fish. Everyone that had the seafood was extremely happy with their meal. We had a great waiter. He recommended the catch of the day for me and it was wonderful! We were seated in the booths directly in front of the tanks so we had a great view, not too many children running around (that isn't the restaurant's fault, that's the parents fault). All in all a good meal and we'd go back again in a second.

 

[Soph&HanMom]

yea for my family. My Dd is 6 and is a marine life fanatic so it was a great place for her to eat. I had the steak which was good (nothing exceptional) and my Dh had the mahi-mahi which we both thought was excellent. Typical kids menu. Service was excellent as well. A nice place to go for lunch get out of the heat and enjoy the view.

 

[francophone]

I ate at CR in Feb. with our two daughters for the first time, and we went back at the end of June with DH along with us so he could try the steak. We were seated within a few minutes of checking in for our lunchtime ADRs both times, and our servers were attentive. DH had steak and commented that it was good but small for the money compared to the steakhouses and larger portion sizes he generally prefers, but a good quantity given the heat of late June and its dulling effect on his appetite. I had fish each time, tilapia in Feb. and trout in June. Our daughters had the kids' pizzas and enjoyed watching the fish and sea turtle in the tanks. No complaints and we're hoping to dine there again some day.

 

[TreslovesWDW]

Nice place but the food was just ok and we all left hungry and that was with app,dinner and dessert

 

[clc053103]

It used to be delightful to dine there. Not anymore. It is terribly overpriced if paying OOP. Food, service and ambience have all declined. Our last dinner was about 18 months ago. The steaks were terrible (very cheap quality) -- and the place was jam-packed with noisy families and kids running all over the place.

It's just really poor, now, and definitely off our list.

What she said! I was thinking it might be because we went during free dining. SO loud. There was even a big line for the inadequately sized bathroom.

Service was so bad that when food was delivered to the wrong table, the people ate it.

We are going to give it a try for lunch as we heard it's not such a madhouse.

 

[Belle & Ariel]

We like it a lot. DS 16 would eat there every day for free dining if we would book it.
Have never had bad food. Service is good but it does seem we wait to get bill and have KTTW processed.

 

[DisGirl23]

We enjoyed it last fall. I'm not a seafood person so, I had the Chicken Caesar Salad and it was very good. DBF loved his Lobster Ravioli and we both polished off our desserts!

 

[CanadianPaco]

It was nice experience but I doubt we'd go back anytime soon. The food was all right and the service was very good! But not enough of a draw back!