Tony's Town Square - Why all the hate? I dig it....

[tommygunn]

I'm from the NY/NJ area so I have great pizza and Italian food everywhere around me. And Tony's isn't "great" by any means. But it is not worthy of all the hatred it receives on this forum. I think everything there is pretty good. Meatballs are tasty. Chicken parm is pretty good. I really like the little pizza they make for appetizer. All that plus you have a perfect location. So what am I missing? It's certainly better than an Olive Garden so what's the beef?

 

[Barbydoll8]

I think people just expect more from a TS MK restaurant. I thought it was fine and as original north easterner (I lived near central NJ SE of Philly), I know good Italian too. Our meal there wasn't horrible but it wasn't stellar. Just fine. Then again, I never order spaghetti and meatballs out because I can never justify paying anything over $5 for it. I can make that at home for literally less than $2.

 

[GF Girl]

I have to admit, we eat there every year and the food was never anything great, but it was acceptable. This year, however, they blew us away. My brother ordered the spaghetti and meatballs, which I warned him against since we are picky Italians. He ordered it anyway, and we were shocked that it actually tasted like a home cooked sauce. The meatballs were even fried, which you almost never find in a restaurant. This year all of our entrees were exceptional. I had the scampi and my father had the Cannelloni (which they have since removed from the menu).

 

[Pmlocke]

I like Tony's which is why I take the critiqes on these sites with a grain of salt. Personal tastes and preferences steer your opinions of a restaurant, ride, hotel, park, etc. I think you would be hard pressed to find two individuals in a park out of the thousands there on any given day that would like and hate the same things. I enjoy reading all the comments but find it weird that many people actually take offense when someone disagrees with their post. I do like Tony's and will be eating there in 41 days so horay for my vacation and I hope everyone on this site finds what makes you happy and that we all have a safe and wonderful visit.

 

[magicalcouple]

We try to get to Tony's every couple of years. It's not a favorite, but it does deserve some love! We enjoy the Lady and the Tramp theming and have never had a bad meal.

 

[999_Happy_Haunts]

Starting at the top.....
Pre-shredded cheese out of a bag.
Sauce out of a jar.
Re-heated breaded chicken that could have come from you local grocer's frozen food section.
Unsauced pasta.

Compared to:
Freshly sliced cheese melted over the top as well as a sprinkle of freshly ground Parmasen.
Sauce with chunks of milled tomatoes.
Real chicken breast.
Pasta that has been tossed in the sauce to combine.

Tony's approach to the dish is lazy, full of shortcuts. It comes off as mass-produced banquet food that cannot justify the price. Obviously some people have no problem with it. My personal opinion is that the techniques employed do not produced food that I would put into the "good" category. But I am always careful to say that "I do not like the food at Tony's" instead of "You will not like the food at Tony's".

 

[KenHutch]

Why we don't eat at Tony's, 1 rude seater (we had a relative who cannot sit in a booth) waited an hour for our food and the children's spaghetti was cold. It does have nice atmosphere and we had an incredible waitress who apologized for the cooks. And yes the food does taste as if it came out of can.

 

[JustCallMeMommy]

It is my DD's favorite, so we eat there most trips. Plus, Lady and the Tramp is my very favorite Disney movie. The food is fine, and the atmosphere is fun. I don't ask for much more than that.

 

[tony67]

Starting at the top.....
Pre-shredded cheese out of a bag.
Sauce out of a jar.
Re-heated breaded chicken that could have come from you local grocer's frozen food section.
Unsauced pasta.

Compared to:
Freshly sliced cheese melted over the top as well as a sprinkle of freshly ground Parmasen.
Sauce with chunks of milled tomatoes.
Real chicken breast.
Pasta that has been tossed in the sauce to combine.

Tony's approach to the dish is lazy, full of shortcuts. It comes off as mass-produced banquet food that cannot justify the price. Obviously some people have no problem with it. My personal opinion is that the techniques employed do not produced food that I would put into the "good" category. But I am always careful to say that "I do not like the food at Tony's" instead of "You will not like the food at Tony's".

Yeah that pretty much covers it

It's unfortunate as it is the only thing lady and the Tramp related at Disney that I am aware of and the food is not even on par with Olive Garden.
When it was open for breakfast it was a really good option - but that was a very long time ago.
We give it another try every few years and it is always disappointing at best.

There is no reason that for 26 they can;'t do better - but the problem is people accept it because it is Disney

 

[MikeOhio]

The chicken parm is literally frozen with fake cheese. None of it is made in house. You can like it if you want but it is objectively not good quality food.

 

[BlueStarryHat]

We like Tony's a lot, and I am speaking as a Philly girl who lives with an Italian guy who makes spectacular Italian food. The atmosphere is great, especially if you sit out in the greenhouse. The food is good and plentiful, on par with most of Disney's dining choices for this sort of food. I went to Tutto Italia twice, and it was awful-I'm talking straight up nasty. So I guess everyone is different.

 

[MickeyWaffles]

For us, it's the very consistent decline in quality. The food is fine. But it used to actually be good! The eggplant rollatini they had on their menu for years was a family favorite. Over the years it's gotten steadily worse.

I am Italian, so we are pretty picky, but we also don't walk into a Disney theme park restaurant expecting my great grandma's sauce recipe or homemade pasta. If the experience made up for the lame excuse for Italian food, we would be all for it and go for the experience.

For a restaurant without characters, it's too chaotic for us. We don't mind chaos - we do lots of character meals - but you feel like you're at a character dinner ... without the characters. Also notoriously long waits for people with ADRs - at least it was before we stopped going there. The last two times we went there we had to wait for a looong time to be seated. Then they lost us for good.

 

[CinderDuffy]

Being Italian doesn't make you an expert on Italian food. It means you're Italian. It doesn't mean you have taste or a refined palate & it doesn't make you a world-renowned chef.

The food quality is objectively poor. You may enjoy it anyway. Someone is keeping Golden Corral in business.

 

[buzzrelly]

We like it better than the food at BOG, and we make it a must do on every trip. To each his own...

 

[MickeyWaffles]

Being Italian doesn't make you an expert on Italian food. It means you're Italian. It doesn't mean you have taste or a refined palate & it doesn't make you a world-renowned chef.

Not taking the bait on this one, but nice try!

 

[holden]

It was our worst meal by far during our last trip. We definitely won’t be back.

 

[Kbendig]

Why I dislike Tony's:
1. Horrible server, rude and condescending
2. Dirty, maybe it was a bad day but the place felt and looked dirty. Didn't help that the bathroom needed to be cleaned (I know it's is a shared one, but it's still right there)
3. My sons pizza was burnt on one side and mushy on the other. How?
4. My chicken was frozen. As in, pure ice in the middle. And the pasta was just room temperature.
5. My husbands seafood tasted off

Some people have good experiences there, ours was so bad we won't give it another try.

 

[Deb & Bill]

I've finally learned after trying Tony's three times that I cannot eat there. Every meal I was every served there was not good. Either prepared poorly or cold or missing most of the ingredients (according to the menu). Theming is very nice, but the food is very poor quality.

 

[dclpluto]

If you like food that tastes like a TV dinner than Tony's is for you. I eat TV dinners a few times a month but I don't want to be eating one that tastes like it at a restaurant.

 

[999_Happy_Haunts]

3. My sons pizza was burnt on one side and mushy on the other. How?

Again, lazy cooking. A pizza should be rotated midway through the cooking process so that both sides of the pizza are exposed to the heat source for the same length of time. If this isn't done, one side of the pizza gets torched while the other remains undercooked. Pizza paddles are not just for taking the pizza in and out of the oven. They are supposed to be employed to rotate the pizza during the cooking process. I guess no one bothered to tell the folks at Tony's. (This all assumes that they are using a pizza oven in the first place. If not then they might have a problem with their microwave. Malfunctioning microwave ovens have been known to have "hot spots" and "cold spots".)