The Last Word Dining Reviews - UPDATE 6/17 - TS SUMMARY SHEET!

[TheDWord]

** 6/17/09 - ALL TS REVIEWS ARE NOW UP. YOU CAN SEE A SUMMARY OF THE RATINGS FOR EACH RESTAURANT IN EACH CATEGORY HERE!**

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ORIGINAL POST

Hello All. Well, we’re back home after 7 days in the World. It was a great trip, but an exhausting one. I may do a trip report, as I took over 850 pictures, but that may be some time coming. I did however, want to get to some dining reviews (sorry, no food pictures- couldn't get myself to take pictures of the food- I was hungry!). Before I describe the rating system, I want to let everyone know a little bit about me, so you can have some perspective when reading these reviews. First of all, I live in Bergen County NJ and work in New York City. I’ve been in the tri-state area now for over 30 years, and have dined at many New York City restaurants, ranging from low priced dives to ultra fine dining, across many ethnic food types. I’m by no means a food critic, but I‘d say I have a decent understanding of food.

In my reviews, you will get a frill free, objective review and grade for table service restaurants in the areas of décor, service, food, and value, with an overall grade at the end, and a grade for quick service restaurants in the areas of food and value, with an overall grade and comments at the end. For character meals, I include a section on the quality of character interaction (not graded), and it will contribute to the overall grade. You will notice in my ADR list below that we had three princess character meals. I will have a separate section comparing the three character experiences, and let you know which one hit the mark and which one fell by the wayside. I will also be as open minded as possible, and not let any negative things in one category spill over to another (i.e., if the waiter spilled wine on me, I will grade the service accordingly, but it won’t have any bearing on the food rating).

Here are the restaurants we dined in:

Table Service

T-Rex Cafe (D)
Rose & Crown Pub and Dining Room (D)
O'Hana (D)
Tusker House - Donald's Safari Breakfast (B)
Chef Mickey's Breakfast (B)
Cinderella’s Royal Table (L)
Princess Storybook Akershus Royal Banquet Hall(B)
Sci Fi Drive In Theater (L)
The Turf Club (D)
1900 Park Fare (D)
The Spirit of Aloha

Quick Service

Seasons Food Court (L)
Electric Umbrella (L)
Casey’s Corner (L)
Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn (L)
Starring Rolls Café (B)
Mara (B)
Artist Palette (L)
Wolfgang Puck Express (D, B)

Onto the rating system:

Décor

0 What décor? There’s no front door, there’s no walls, there’s no tables, there’s no chairs
1-3 Complete dump of a place. Who decorated this place? The three blind mice? So horrible, I can barely eat.
3-5 Below average space. The décor doesn’t match the theme, and it looks drab and boring.
5-6 Average décor. It’s acceptable and doesn’t ruin the experience, but it could use a ton of work to spruce this space up.
6-7 I see what they’re trying to do, and it sort of works, but needs some work to make it much better. There are still some major faults.
7-8 Nice looking place, and fits the mold of the restaurant nicely. Could use some tweaking though
8-9 Very nice space. It’s clear they spent a ton of dough in there. Great theming, if it’s a theme restaurant.
9-9.5 Excellent looking space. Looks new, impeccably maintained, fits the theme appropriately, and high end materials used. Good music to go with as well
9.6-9.9 Absolutely gorgeous looking with no real fault anywhere. Ultra high-end finishes, perfectly themed if it’s a theme restaurant.
10 Perfect in every single regard. Doesn’t matter if the food stinks here, because the décor makes everything just perfect.

Service

0 What service? I had to kill the chicken, de-feather it, marinate it, and cook it, then go to my vegetable garden for my salad ingredients.
1-3 What is this place? Help yourself heaven? Why are the servers cursing me out?
3-5 Rude service, messed up my order, waited for hours to get a meal.
5-6 Wait staff was not friendly and seemed preoccupied with something else. Orders were botched up as well
6-7 Wait staff was not friendly, but at least they got the order right, or vice versa.
7-8 Wait staff either tried too hard and failed, or was just too overbearing. Orders were right.
8-9 Service was very good and made me feel like leaving a good tip. There may have been an honest mistake in the order, but I can clearly overlook that.
9-9.5 Excellent service. The staff all were in sync with each other and the meal went very smoothly with no mistakes. The wait staff was very friendly and knew the menu well
9.6-9.9 Impeccable service, staff nailed everything, made me feel good about myself and my experience there. Completely sold me on the food and knew the menu inside out.
10 Perfect in every single regard. Human beings this perfect should not be waiters and restaurant staff.

Food

0 What food? There were things still moving on my plate, and it wasn’t melting chocolate on my lava cake…
1-3 I had better food at the local soup kitchen.
3-5 Not even good for fast food
5-6 Like fast food
6-7 Think Cracker Barrel, Ruby Tuesdays, TGI Fridays
7-8 Respectable table service food. They clearly have a chef who knows how to cook
8-9 Very good food. Cooked to my liking and flavorful. There were a couple of things that could have been done better, but an overall satisfying meal
9-9.5 Excellent food, cooked to my liking, presented well with little or no real fault to find
9.6-9.9 Unbelievably delicious. Can’t find this anywhere else, cooked to perfection, elegant presentation, robust flavors that work well together
10 Perfect in every sense. Must be a world reknowned chef. Every bite is just heaven.

Value

0 What value? I paid $100 and didn’t eat anything
1-3 Huh? You’re charging me $50 for a stick of gum?
3-5 You’ve got to be kidding me. I could eat the same meal at McDonalds three times over for the price you’re charging me.
5-6 Didn’t think this meal should be that expensive. I feel like I got ripped off.
6-7 A tad on the expensive side for the meal I had.
7-8 I got what I paid for.
8-9 Good value. Should be spending more for what I ate. Nice surprise.
9-9.5 Excellent Value. They really need to think about raising their prices.
9.6-9.9 Unbelievable value. An absolute steal for the quality of the meal. Maybe the best kept secret around
10 How is this possible? I ate like a king and my wallet feels no pain!


Overall

0 Can’t possibly be worse. If I typed the words to describe the dining experience here, I’d be banned.
1-3 Overall a terrible meal. I would rather have gone hungry
3-5 Would not recommend this restaurant to anyone. Everything was generally subpar.
5-6 There were a few good moments, but overall a negative experience
6-7 I would neither recommend nor not recommend this restaurant. It was just OK.
7-8 It was a positive experience. Things could have been better, but I enjoyed it.
8-9 I had a great dining experience at this restaurant. I highly recommend this place. A few glitches here and there detracted the meal, however.
9-9.5 Excellent restaurant and dining experience. Great menu, great service, and décor. A must do.
9.6-9.9 One of the best restaurants I’ve ever been to. Every facet was awesome and I thoroughly enjoyed every moment.
10 The best restaurant I’ve ever been to. There’s nothing that could have been better, just perfect in every sense.

Note that the overall grade will not be an average of the for areas sub-areas. As the days go by, I will post reviews of the restaurants listed above. Please feel free to express your thoughts, agrees, disagrees, etc. I hope you all enjoy!

 

[TheDWord]

Where: Downtown Disney
Date: Saturday, May 9, 2009
Time: 8:15 PM
Party Size: 4 Adults, 2 Children, 1 Infant

The T-Rex Café is Prehistoric-themed restaurant in Downtown Disney. The restaurant is sectioned into 4 main rooms, the geotech room, the ice room, the coral reef room, and a prehistoric forest room. We were situated in the geotech room. The restaurant has very elaborate theming, with gigantic automated dinosaurs, wooly mammoths, insects, etc lining the walls and columns. We didn’t know what to expect, and when we left, it was with mixed results.

Décor
In our geotech room, every 15 minutes or so would be a simulated meteor shower, and lighting would change and the dinosaurs would go crazy. Looking over into the ice room, it was just too blue and I don’t think we would have made it through dinner in a neon blue room. I got dizzy just looking over into that room. Did I mention that the restaurant is loud? Well, turn up the decibels because you have to literally shout across the table to get a conversation going. Also, the animatronic dinosaurs are large, loud, and can really frighten a little one. My daughter, who is 3.5 years old, couldn’t look up from her seat because if she did, she’d be staring right at a giant insect scaling the wall in front of her. She was absolutely terrified. I had to hold her the entire meal. For older kids and adults, it’s fun, exciting, and interesting at first, but again, constantly yelling to say something to someone got old and tired fast. My older son enjoyed the atmosphere and walked around the restaurant, but it seemed like everyone had the same idea, and thus getting around the restaurant was difficult. It was not easy to even go to the restroom, weaving by kids posing for photos, waiters and busboys doing their thing, and parents walking their kids around. Overall, the restaurant is heavy on the theming, so great if you’re into that. However, it’s just too loud and crowded with so many people wandering out of their seats and it really takes away from the experience.

Decor Grade: 6.2

Service
With the atmosphere so hectic and crazy, it almost makes sense for the service to be that as well and indeed, it was. The waiter service was just what you would get at a TGIF, Rainforest Café, etc- someone reciting the company line intros and moving on about their way. We felt rushed, like they needed our table for the next group. After the initial greet, the service was pretty robotic. I don’t think any orders were messed up, but didn’t feel like the service was anything special.

Service Grade: 6.8

Food
T-Rex has great theming (if you’re into that) but the buck stops there. A friend and I ordered the steak and cheese sandwich, the wife ordered the fish tacos, and our nanny ordered the burger. The steak and cheese was your run of the mill quick service quality. I had to pay an extra $2 for waffle fries instead of potato chips- how crazy is that? How do you not serve fries with a burger or sandwich order? You’re a burger joint for cryin out loud! The wife’s fish tacos were equally unimpressive. The fish looked processed and the cilantro overpowered the taco. Our nanny ate her burger- I didn’t taste it, but it looked like your standard fare burger, if not slightly on the small side. Again, substituting fries for potato chips added $2 to the meal. Overall, the food was your typical Landry / Riese restaurant style food, nothing special, nothing too horrible.

Food Grade: 6.5

Value
For a party of 6 (including two children), we paid $113.70, including tip and tax. That was just for four adult entrées, two children entrees and two desserts. For the quality of food, it is way overpriced, and you are clearly paying for the heavily themed décor. However, as the high decibel and crowd levels outweigh any benefit from the elaborate decorations, this is not a good value for your money. You should not be paying $15 for a bacon cheeseburger with fries, and you certainly should not be paying $9 for an ice cream sundae.

Value Grade: 5.5

Overall
The T-Rex Café is something that you probably should do once, since it is so unique, but I don’t think I need to tell anyone that this place is a one-time deal only. I walked out of there wondering why I made this reservation in the first place, but I know that if I never ate here before, I would sacrifice the subpar food to experience the dino-crazed environment, even if I was told that it was too loud and crowded. I guess this is a place you do need to do once, just to get it over with. Just be aware that it may frighten your younger ones.

The Last Word: 6.0 A notch above fast food, typical of your Ruby Tuesdays / TGI Fridays, but over the top theming. Way to loud and crowded.

 

[TheDWord]

Where: Epcot – World Showcase, United Kingdom
Date: Sunday, May 10, 2009
Time: 7:50 PM
Party Size: 2 Adults

Rose & Crown is an English pub-style restaurant in Epcot. The restaurant is on the lake side of the main road in the World Showcase and features indoor and outdoor seating. Ideal for watching Illuminations, the Rose & Crown delivered on a lot of question marks we had going in and made for a very nice meal at the end of a very hectic day.

Décor
Rose and Crown by no means is a fancy, upscale joint. It is a classic pub-style décor through and through. If that’s what you’re expecting, then that’s what you get. The outdoor area is nice and quaint, but it was really hot when we were there so we opted indoors. The dining room is small but the tables are spaced out nicely and the space is very kid-friendly. Everything, from the tables, chairs, benches, floors, lighting, etc was themed correctly, including the staff- the front desk check-in people, ushers, and servers were all in full English pub mode, and were all either really from England or had a great accent. I can’t stress enough how much I felt like I was not in Florida, but in an actual English pub. If you time your reservations to match Illuminations, it is probably the sbest spot to watch the show. Even if you are indoors, they have a private outdoor viewing area just for restaurant guests, right next to the water. The show was absolutely amazing! Nice job. Some may not view this as a negative at all, but the only downside for me was that the dining room smelled like ale, like it would in an actual pub, the floors were sort of sticky and the window was a little dirty. Although it hits the mark in accuracy, it would have been nice to have eaten in a slightly cleaner environment.

Décor Grade: 7.7

Service
Our waiter was very friendly, made great recommendations, and was on the mark on our orders. Some wait staff make small talk that just hinders the overall experience, but our server was actually very engaging and conversation was fluid. I didn’t find him trying too hard, or forcing anything. It was just enough to have an interesting conversation, but not overly so that it crossed the waiter/patron barrier. Refills were always there before we asked and he guided us to the viewing area for Illuminations. We didn’t feel rushed, and we didn’t wait too long for food either.

Service Grade: 9.3

Food
Bread was hot. That’s a great start! Both the wife and I ordered the Steak and Fish, both medium rare, with me opting for the chips as opposed to the mashed potatoes. First, the steak- the quality of the meat was not great, but good enough. It’s probably comparable to an Outback steak. However, both of our steaks were cooked perfectly. As for the fish, we were also pleasantly surprised at how well it was prepared. The fish itself was good, not great, but the batter was crispy and light, and it did not give us that “greasy” feeling that many other fish ‘n chips orders do. The chips were your standard fare french fries. Again, they were OK, not great. The green beans were fresh and cooked to perfection- crunchy, but without that raw vegetable taste. I’m not sure of the other dishes or any of the appetizers (we were on the regular dining plan), but our main dishes really hit the spot. The food quality was mediocre, but the execution and preparation was A+. For dessert, I ordered the Baileys Irish Cream Trifle and the wife had the ice cream sundae (kids menu). The sundae was not that good, but my Trifle was excellent. Call it an Irish cream chocolate parfait. Overall, we were very pleased with the food. Although the quality of the steak isn’t the best, it’s perfectly fine for what this place is- an English pub.

Food Grade: 8.1

Value
In total, our meal came out to $77.61 including tip and tax. For pub fare, it is a pretty big price in my book, but we did get the most expensive entrée on the menu, which featured a steak and a fish. The other entrees were reasonably priced, all in the $15-20 range. Not great value, but right where I think it should be.

Value Grade: 7.5

Overall
Rose & Crown was a winner for us. The food was good, service excellent, and reasonably priced. It was themed perfectly, maybe so much so to a fault (the odor, dirty windows and the sticky floors). The viewing of Illuminations really capped our night, and made it even more memorable. Overall a very good experience

The Last Word: 8.0 A very good sampling of English pub fare with excellent service. Unbelievable view of Illuminations.

 

[TheDWord]

Where: Polynesian Resort
Date: Monday, May 11, 2009
Time: 9:30 PM
Party Size: 2

O’Hana is a family-style all-you-can-eat restaurant serving various meats with some starters. It fell well short in our book of what we would consider a classic fire pit barbeque meal. It was a poor man’s (and I mean very poor) Brazilian Churrascaria.

Décor
O’Hana is located on the 2nd floor of the Polynesian Resort’s main building, tucked in a corner overlooking the seven seas lagoon. There is a nice lounge/bar area for guests waiting to be seated. The restaurant has a large dining floor and is definitely more suited for larger parties. The fire pit is in the middle of the restaurant floor, where the chefs are cooking meat for all to see. When we were there, the lighting was dim and there was Polynesian elevator music playing in the background. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but for a restaurant that should be exciting and lively, given the nature of the theming and food, the overall feel was a bit drab and dull. It could be because I had a late dinner, but the ambiance gave me more of a quiet, lazy, Vegas lounge-like feel than an active Polynesian theme with a wood fire pit. We did catch the Wishes fireworks show, and they did play the Wishes music while the show was on. The view wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t anything like being in Magic Kingdom. It’s a nice, but not spectacular, added feature that made the experience more Disney and welcoming. What struck me as sort of odd were the servers. One would think that in keeping with the theme of this restaurant, the waiters/waitresses would be “in character” or native pacific islanders, but our server looked more like someone who would serve us a country farm meal in Kansas. There were a few others that fitted the latter mold as well. Otherwise, the décor overall struck me as “quasi-themy” if not a bit dull, and outside of the fire pit, which did not look too clean, it was well-organized and tidy

Décor Grade: 6.3

Service
Aside from our server looking like she was mistaking Perkins for O’Hana, she was very friendly and sweet. The person who was walking around with the meat skewers was however, quite bland, with no personality, looking like someone who couldn’t wait to get off duty. Mind you it was 9:30 and he may have had a long day, but good service should last through the entire dinner service. The food came out rather quickly and it was hard to keep up. One big annoyance I noted was that our server never changed out our plate for a new one. When you’re taking about all-you-can-eats with different types of foods, meat sauces, shrimp peels, salad, etc, you do need a clean plate once in a while. Our server also got our drink orders wrong. DW ordered a club soda and got a sprite, and I ordered a diet coke and got a regular coke. Honest mistake, and one that probably doesn’t happen too often, but it contributed to an overall negative experience.

Service Grade: 5.9

Food
This is where O’Hana falls off the cliff. We started out with pineapple bread, which was dry and cold. It may have tasted better if it was right out of the oven, but it was obvious that it had been a while since that piece of bread saw any heat. Then came the salad, which actually was pretty good. I don’t recall the name of the dressing, but it was the tastiest part of our meal. We then got a large bowl of chicken wings and fried dumplings. The teriyaki sauce on the wings was so thick and gooey, we were sure they were pre-made frozen wings that were microwaved. Honestly, you could go to Costco and buy teriyaki wings that taste far better. The dumplings were of the same frozen ilk. The batter was heavy, hard to chew, and the sauce on top of it literally tasted like caramel. The batter really dominated the taste, and the flavors did not go well together at all. Next came a large bowl of broccoli that was so mushy and watery that we may have gotten the “bottom of the barrel” on that one. Our serving was clearly the fresh batch made at 6pm, not 9pm. Up next was yet another large bowl of lo mein noodles. The noodles were clearly of the instant variety that was boiled, then stir fried, except that part of the noodles were soggy, and another part was still crunchy and hard. The marinating tasted like soy sauce with sugar/starch. That was it. No veggies, meat, just instant noodles that wasn’t prepared correctly, soy sauce, and sugar. Then came the meats. When I saw servers walking around with skewers, it reminded me of those Brazilian Churrascarias, except that the selection of meat at O’Hana was the following: One type of beef, turkey, pork and shrimp. The beef was a low quality cut, as it was very stringy and dry. I am not a well-done eater, but even well done steak that is good steak is tender and juicy. I asked for a medium rare piece, and twenty minutes later, when we were done with our meal, the server came back and said “Here’s your medium rare piece” and it was just as well done as the first one. Considering the quality, I wasn’t about to wait another 20 minutes to be disappointed again, so I left it at that. The pork tenderloin was about as hard as my briefcase and lacked any flavor whatsoever. Inedible. The turkey was average- Definitely on the dry side, but it was edible and actually had a bit of flavor. The shrimp was overly well done and soggy. Again, it had little to no flavor. To boot, it still had the shell on it so we had to peel them manually. Not horrible if they would change out my plate once in a while. Well, onto dessert. The bread pudding tasted stale and bland. Again, maybe it’s because we had a later dinner reservation, but stale?? The pudding part was good, and the ice cream on top was good was well. Actually, that ice cream was probably the second best part of the meal, after the salad. Even if the bread was warm, and the beef came out medium rare, the food still would have been poor, as it is obvious that the quality of the meats themselves is of a subpar grade, the chefs are not that good as the marinades and flavors are also subpar, and they use a lot of frozen, pre-packaged foods. The sheer amount of food was enormous for two people. It could easily have fed 6-8. I hope they donate leftover food to local charities, because it would be a monumental waste of food not to.

Food Grade: 4.9

Value
For two, the meal came out to $72.19 (including tip and tax). Considering the overall dining experience, this price is way too high, as there are many quick service counters with better food than O’Hana, and the service was in general mediocre. Seeing Wishes was a nice touch, but not worth the price of entry.

Value Grade: 5.3

Overall
In summary, we had a terrible meal at O’Hana. The quality of the food was poor and the execution of the dishes was horrible. Service, although the server was friendly, was poor as well. Missing one drink order is bad enough, but both of our orders? That’s inexcusable. Not changing out our plates throughout the meal was also a big blunder in my book. The meat skewer guy was basically a robot who did not want to be there, and made us feel like we didn’t want to be there as well. Ambiance is OK if you like heavy theming, but the music did start to get annoying after a while. Wishes was a nice break in the middle of an otherwise forgettable dining experience.

The Last Word: 5.2 A lot of hype going in, but disappointed heavily. Awful food prep and quality killed this meal.

 

[KatMark]

Great start. Can't wait to read the rest. So glad you liked Rose & Crown--it's been one of our favorites for years.

 

[TigerKat]

Great start, so far looks like we have similar tastes!

 

[CrabbyPatty]

Great informational reviews - keep 'em coming!

 

[frdeb1999]

Great start! And love the detail!! Even without pics!

 

[jenbear123]

Too bad about O'hana. I hope it's a better experience at breakfast time since we have an early ADR coming up in July

 

[pennyplanner]

I like your rating system. I'm ready in for the duration!

--penny

 

[BriarRosie]

I'm a fan of snipping out stuff.

Décor

0 What décor? There’s no front door, there’s no walls, there’s no tables, there’s no chairs
1-3 Complete dump of a place. Who decorated this place? The three blind mice? So horrible, I can barely eat.
3-5 Below average space. The décor doesn’t match the theme, and it looks drab and boring.
5-6 Average décor. It’s acceptable and doesn’t ruin the experience, but it could use a ton of work to spruce this space up.
6-7 I see what they’re trying to do, and it sort of works, but needs some work to make it much better. There are still some major faults.
7-8 Nice looking place, and fits the mold of the restaurant nicely. Could use some tweaking though
8-9 Very nice space. It’s clear they spent a ton of dough in there. Great theming, if it’s a theme restaurant.
9-9.5 Excellent looking space. Looks new, impeccably maintained, fits the theme appropriately, and high end materials used. Good music to go with as well
9.6-9.9 Absolutely gorgeous looking with no real fault anywhere. Ultra high-end finishes, perfectly themed if it’s a theme restaurant.
10 Perfect in every single regard. Doesn’t matter if the food stinks here, because the décor makes everything just perfect.

Service

0 What service? I had to kill the chicken, de-feather it, marinate it, and cook it, then go to my vegetable garden for my salad ingredients.
1-3 What is this place? Help yourself heaven? Why are the servers cursing me out?
3-5 Rude service, messed up my order, waited for hours to get a meal.
5-6 Wait staff was not friendly and seemed preoccupied with something else. Orders were botched up as well
6-7 Wait staff was not friendly, but at least they got the order right, or vice versa.
7-8 Wait staff either tried too hard and failed, or was just too overbearing. Orders were right.
8-9 Service was very good and made me feel like leaving a good tip. There may have been an honest mistake in the order, but I can clearly overlook that.
9-9.5 Excellent service. The staff all were in sync with each other and the meal went very smoothly with no mistakes. The wait staff was very friendly and knew the menu well
9.6-9.9 Impeccable service, staff nailed everything, made me feel good about myself and my experience there. Completely sold me on the food and knew the menu inside out.
10 Perfect in every single regard. Human beings this perfect should not be waiters and restaurant staff.

Food

0 What food? There were things still moving on my plate, and it wasn’t melting chocolate on my lava cake…
1-3 I had better food at the local soup kitchen.
3-5 Not even good for fast food
5-6 Like fast food
6-7 Think Cracker Barrel, Ruby Tuesdays, TGI Fridays
7-8 Respectable table service food. They clearly have a chef who knows how to cook
8-9 Very good food. Cooked to my liking and flavorful. There were a couple of things that could have been done better, but an overall satisfying meal
9-9.5 Excellent food, cooked to my liking, presented well with little or no real fault to find
9.6-9.9 Unbelievably delicious. Can’t find this anywhere else, cooked to perfection, elegant presentation, robust flavors that work well together
10 Perfect in every sense. Must be a world reknowned chef. Every bite is just heaven.

Value

0 What value? I paid $100 and didn’t eat anything
1-3 Huh? You’re charging me $50 for a stick of gum?
3-5 You’ve got to be kidding me. I could eat the same meal at McDonalds three times over for the price you’re charging me.
5-6 Didn’t think this meal should be that expensive. I feel like I got ripped off.
6-7 A tad on the expensive side for the meal I had.
7-8 I got what I paid for.
8-9 Good value. Should be spending more for what I ate. Nice surprise.
9-9.5 Excellent Value. They really need to think about raising their prices.
9.6-9.9 Unbelievable value. An absolute steal for the quality of the meal. Maybe the best kept secret around
10 How is this possible? I ate like a king and my wallet feels no pain!


Overall

0 Can’t possibly be worse. If I typed the words to describe the dining experience here, I’d be banned.
1-3 Overall a terrible meal. I would rather have gone hungry
3-5 Would not recommend this restaurant to anyone. Everything was generally subpar.
5-6 There were a few good moments, but overall a negative experience
6-7 I would neither recommend nor not recommend this restaurant. It was just OK.
7-8 It was a positive experience. Things could have been better, but I enjoyed it.
8-9 I had a great dining experience at this restaurant. I highly recommend this place. A few glitches here and there detracted the meal, however.
9-9.5 Excellent restaurant and dining experience. Great menu, great service, and décor. A must do.
9.6-9.9 One of the best restaurants I’ve ever been to. Every facet was awesome and I thoroughly enjoyed every moment.
10 The best restaurant I’ve ever been to. There’s nothing that could have been better, just perfect in every sense.

Note that the overall grade will not be an average of the for areas sub-areas. As the days go by, I will post reviews of the restaurants listed above. Please feel free to express your thoughts, agrees, disagrees, etc. I hope you all enjoy!

This has got to be the most thoroughly entertaining ratings guide I've ever seen! Just the first part of the Service ratings make me think you were going to dine at the Plimoth Plantation!

Somewhere out there, I thought the Soviet judge must be smiling at the minutiae.

Where: Downtown Disney
Date: Saturday, May 9, 2009
Time: 8:15 PM
Party Size: 4 Adults, 2 Children, 1 Infant

The T-Rex Café
Overall
The T-Rex Café is something that you probably should do once, since it is so unique, but I don’t think I need to tell anyone that this place is a one-time deal only. I walked out of there wondering why I made this reservation in the first place, but I know that if I never ate here before, I would sacrifice the subpar food to experience the dino-crazed environment, even if I was told that it was too loud and crowded. I guess this is a place you do need to do once, just to get it over with. Just be aware that it may frighten your younger ones.

The Last Word: 6.0 A notch above fast food, typical of your Ruby Tuesdays / TGI Fridays, but over the top theming. Way to loud and crowded.

I knew I'd want to stay far away from this place because I've been warned about the loudness and mediocrity by people I know who've been there. Sorry you had to endure that.

Where: Epcot – World Showcase, United Kingdom
Date: Sunday, May 10, 2009
Time: 7:50 PM
Party Size: 2 Adults

Rose & Crown is an English pub-style restaurant in Epcot.

Everything, from the tables, chairs, benches, floors, lighting, etc was themed correctly, including the staff- the front desk check-in people, ushers, and servers were all in full English pub mode, and were all either really from England or had a great accent.

No, they are really from the UK. All the countries have cast members who sign up for a year's stint in the International Program. It's always fun to chat with cast members about their countries.

I can’t stress enough how much I felt like I was not in Florida, but in an actual English pub.

Disney really got that right in Epcot. The level of detailing is amazing. You'll find similar depth of detailing in every World Showcase country.

Food
Bread was hot. That’s a great start! Both the wife and I ordered the Steak and Fish, both medium rare, with me opting for the chips as opposed to the mashed potatoes. First, the steak- the quality of the meat was not great, but good enough. It’s probably comparable to an Outback steak. However, both of our steaks were cooked perfectly. As for the fish, we were also pleasantly surprised at how well it was prepared. The fish itself was good, not great, but the batter was crispy and light, and it did not give us that “greasy” feeling that many other fish ‘n chips orders do. The chips were your standard fare french fries. Again, they were OK, not great. The green beans were fresh and cooked to perfection- crunchy, but without that raw vegetable taste. I’m not sure of the other dishes or any of the appetizers (we were on the regular dining plan), but our main dishes really hit the spot. The food quality was mediocre, but the execution and preparation was A+. For dessert, I ordered the Baileys Irish Cream Trifle and the wife had the ice cream sundae (kids menu). The sundae was not that good, but my Trifle was excellent. Call it an Irish cream chocolate parfait. Overall, we were very pleased with the food. Although the quality of the steak isn’t the best, it’s perfectly fine for what this place is- an English pub.

Food Grade: 8.1

If you wanted those same fish and chips and didn't have an ADR, the Yorkshire County (Harry Ramsden's) take out window is attached to the pub, and it's a fraction of the cost of the menu item in the dining room. Just something to keep in mind next time. Oh....sticky toffee pudding. Heavenly. Although the trifle you had sounds good to me, too. Next time, try the pudding.

Where: Polynesian Resort
Date: Monday, May 11, 2009
Time: 9:30 PM
Party Size: 2

O’Hana is a family-style all-you-can-eat restaurant serving various meats with some starters. It fell well short in our book of what we would consider a classic fire pit barbeque meal. It was a poor man’s (and I mean very poor) Brazilian Churrascaria.

Bingo. I would have described it as similar in concept to one of those Brazilian places.

Food
This is where O’Hana falls off the cliff. We started out with pineapple bread, which was dry and cold. It may have tasted better if it was right out of the oven, but it was obvious that it had been a while since that piece of bread saw any heat. Then came the salad, which actually was pretty good. I don’t recall the name of the dressing, but it was the tastiest part of our meal. We then got a large bowl of chicken wings and fried dumplings. The teriyaki sauce on the wings was so thick and gooey, we were sure they were pre-made frozen wings that were microwaved. Honestly, you could go to Costco and buy teriyaki wings that taste far better. The dumplings were of the same frozen ilk. The batter was heavy, hard to chew, and the sauce on top of it literally tasted like caramel. The batter really dominated the taste, and the flavors did not go well together at all. Next came a large bowl of broccoli that was so mushy and watery that we may have gotten the “bottom of the barrel” on that one. Our serving was clearly the fresh batch made at 6pm, not 9pm. Up next was yet another large bowl of lo mein noodles. The noodles were clearly of the instant variety that was boiled, then stir fried, except that part of the noodles were soggy, and another part was still crunchy and hard. The marinating tasted like soy sauce with sugar/starch. That was it. No veggies, meat, just instant noodles that wasn’t prepared correctly, soy sauce, and sugar. Then came the meats. When I saw servers walking around with skewers, it reminded me of those Brazilian Churrascarias, except that the selection of meat at O’Hana was the following: One type of beef, turkey, pork and shrimp. The beef was a low quality cut, as it was very stringy and dry. I am not a well-done eater, but even well done steak that is good steak is tender and juicy. I asked for a medium rare piece, and twenty minutes later, when we were done with our meal, the server came back and said “Here’s your medium rare piece” and it was just as well done as the first one. Considering the quality, I wasn’t about to wait another 20 minutes to be disappointed again, so I left it at that. The pork tenderloin was about as hard as my briefcase and lacked any flavor whatsoever. Inedible. The turkey was average- Definitely on the dry side, but it was edible and actually had a bit of flavor. The shrimp was overly well done and soggy. Again, it had little to no flavor. To boot, it still had the shell on it so we had to peel them manually. Not horrible if they would change out my plate once in a while. Well, onto dessert. The bread pudding tasted stale and bland. Again, maybe it’s because we had a later dinner reservation, but stale?? The pudding part was good, and the ice cream on top was good was well. Actually, that ice cream was probably the second best part of the meal, after the salad. Even if the bread was warm, and the beef came out medium rare, the food still would have been poor, as it is obvious that the quality of the meats themselves is of a subpar grade, the chefs are not that good as the marinades and flavors are also subpar, and they use a lot of frozen, pre-packaged foods. The sheer amount of food was enormous for two people. It could easily have fed 6-8. I hope they donate leftover food to local charities, because it would be a monumental waste of food not to.

Food Grade: 4.9

Wow. Had I been served that food, I'd have talked with a manager. I've asked for medium-rare before, and it had taken a while for some reason. But I was lucky enough to get a nice bowl full of meat cooked correctly. And FYI, ever since I'd first tried this place in 1996, the shrimp has always been the peel it yourself variety. I don't think I've ever gotten a plate change at any visit, now that I think about it.

I'd say you'd have gotten a better meal at Kona Café, but it wouldn't have scored high on décor. The food is on the better side of decent, though.

Very nice reviews so far! I give them an 8.6149563.
(Hope you don't mind my snarky responses. )

 

[webcreatrix]

about T-Rex. I have no desire to repeat last year's Rainforest Cafe experience and hold my 3 yo son through lunch!

 

[princessbride6205]

Loving your reviews, and completely agree with you so far.

 

[MickeyNicki]

Wow, loving the detailed reviews.

Thanks for the T-Rex one....we were going to eat there on our arrival day in June but I think we will stick with WPE instead.

 

[TheDWord]

I knew I'd want to stay far away from this place because I've been warned about the loudness and mediocrity by people I know who've been there. Sorry you had to endure that.

If I didn't have to tend to my daughter the whole time, I think I might have enjoyed it a bit more, but you sum it up pretty well- loud and mediocre.

No, they are really from the UK. All the countries have cast members who sign up for a year's stint in the International Program. It's always fun to chat with cast members about their countries.

Well that makes a whole lot of sense! No wonder! And I was thinking "the hiring process must be pretty stringent.."

If you wanted those same fish and chips and didn't have an ADR, the Yorkshire County (Harry Ramsden's) take out window is attached to the pub, and it's a fraction of the cost of the menu item in the dining room. Just something to keep in mind next time. Oh....sticky toffee pudding. Heavenly. Although the trifle you had sounds good to me, too. Next time, try the pudding.

I'll definitely try that next time- thanks for the tip

Very nice reviews so far! I give them an 8.6149563.
(Hope you don't mind my snarky responses. )

is that pi squared?

 

[TheDWord]

Great start. Can't wait to read the rest. So glad you liked Rose & Crown--it's been one of our favorites for years.

We really enjoyed it. I can see why it can become a favorite for someone

 

[ChelleinNC]

I'm in

 

[chrisw127]

Great reviews. I can't wait to read more.

 

[TheDWord]

Great reviews. I can't wait to read more.

Thank you. I'll have a couple more tomorrow.

 

[TheDWord]

I'm in

Welcome!