Truly bad dining experiences?

[FFerret]

Not counting Fultons, of course, where our service experience has always been bad.

Gotta speak up for our Fulton's experience in OCT 2003. We were treated to a wonderful seafood dinner there by Mr. FFerret's generous aunt and uncle. Both my little "ferrets" made a huge mess--they accidently both spilled their drinks on the nice table cloth and promptly fell asleep--and the service didn't bat an eye but tidyed things up quickly. VERY friendly and the food was AWESOME

 

[NJBlackBerry]

We had a memorably bad meal at San Angel. Four entrees; four overcooked and inedible meals. Not just bad by Disney standards, but by any standards. Awful.

 

[dizfanz]

Maybe one out of 8-10. The only place I would call a waste of time and money would be Fresh. A pasta dish made to order is fresh, not a pasta sitting under a heat lamp for an hour.

 

[maggs]

Beaches and Cream was horrible, horrible, horrible and Ohanas comes in in second place - awful food, lousy service.

Maggs

 

[Shinji]

Bad Dining experience? May 2004 at Port Orleans French Qtr food court. Stopped there for a quick lunch on the day we arrived. It was decent food, what you might expect from a food court. The next morning was absolutely terrible. My scrambled eggs were not fully cooked, runny and contained not one but, two human hairs. Needless to say, I did not eat it.

I stood at the little counter for over 15 minutes after asking for an order of beignets instead. The guy handed out at least 7 orders in front of me. I finally gave up and found some fruit instead. I guessed that fruit is something that they could not mess up.

We spent the rest of the trip catching the bus over to riverside to eat every morning. We learned to ask upon boarding if they would be stopping at the front of the resort first. We assumed the route once and were wrong. One morning we ended up at a water park. When we didnt get off the bus, the driver asked where we were headed. We told him the front of the resort and that we were happy to wait. He took us directly to the front of the resort without stopping at any of the other stops first. After dropping us off, he closed the doors without picking anyone up and continued to the next stop. I actually felt bad about it. LOL

 

[cseca]

Citricos - lousy server, average food, small portion for the price.
Big River Grill - bad food, lousy server.

 

[jarestel]

Some dining experiences have been better than others, but no dining experience has been what I would classify as bad. So zero truly bad dining experiences in many, many, many trips to WDW.

 

[ccw]

Food poisoning at San Angel Inn and a ridiculously expensive and very bland meal as far away from the fish tank as we could possibly have been with an arrogant and obnoxious server thrown in for good measure at Coral Reef. BUT we have been to Disney often and those are my only two complaints about meals so, for the most part, if I don't have to cook it or clean it up, I think it's a pretty darned good meal! Have to add that we have lots of wonderful restaurants where we live so I do not really make dining a focus of our Disney trips (exception being character b'fasts and Hoop de Doo when kids were little and my first ever trip to EPCOT FOOD AND WINE FESTIVAL this year in Nov.!!!))

 

[gilld]

The ONLY bad experience we have had was at Sci Fi Dine In back in 1999. Although we had a PS for 4 adults at about 2pm , they made us wait over 90 mins to get seated and even let in walk ups of 4 before they decided to let us in. Then the server took 45mins to bring our meal, which was cold.

Because my husband doesn't like to make a fuss, we left without asking to see the manager and only left $1 tip, but I then went to Guest Services/Relations and wrote a long complaint - did we hear anything - not a thing. I would NEVER go back again.

 

[jessieroo]

We have never had a bad dining experience. The only place we have ever eaten and didn't really enjoy was the 50's Primetime Cafe. The "experience" was just not our thing. Between my family & my sisters & brothers family we have never had a meal that was bad. Sometimes I think people expect the "magic" to be present 100% 24/7. If we can sit and enjoy our meal & some quiet time that is good enough for us!

 

[PatsGirl]

I think I'm with the majority that has never had a truly bad dining experience. Yeah, a so-so meal, a great meal with bad service, a bad meal with great service, you get the picture. I find myself reading these boards and keep changing my dining plans for our Nov/Dec trip and then realize that any ONE (maybe two) person can have a bad experience but unless there are a whole lot of people complaining (like the thread on the Garden Grill) I think I might try it...

Like someone else said, different strokes....

 

[MaryKatesMom]

O'hanas was a terrible experience for us. Mediocre food which we never got refilled, also we ordered chicken fingers for the DD's because they would never touch the other things and weren't hungry anyway(didn't eat them) but the server charged us for the $9.99/kid instead of the price of the chicken fingers. We couldn't get her attention to fix it and after waiting forever to get seated, forever for food and forever for our bill we were exhausted and let it go.

Sci-fi missed the ball one trip. We had a noon PS, got there early and still didn't get seated until 12:45. I probably wouldn't have cared but my Dad was with me and he grumbled quite a bit. I also had an awful turkey sandwich there, yucky chicken and stale bread, but it still is one of our favorites.

 

[photonut]

march 2004.....i remember it like yesterday.
Ate at Sci Fi and ended up in the hospital for our entire stay with dehydration from food poisoning..
I have never been so sick.

Can't even walk by the place now.

 

[jann1033]

Um, uh, WHAT?! First, why was your husband over-tipping after such bad service? Second, why was he discussing it with the server??

I don't know why he left the tip...he must have been in the wdw spend spend spend mode..my mouth dropped when he said he was going to but he's lots nicer than me. he was telling the server so he would know to look for it since otherwise he wouldn't have had anything on the table due to tip being in the voucher...i worked as a waitress and do usually make sure if i leave cash to either hand it to the server or make sure they know to get it...i had tips stolen off the tables by "patrons". i also think that's why i really am digusted by a snotty waiter when i have one, just no reason for it as we are always nice to them

 

[jann1033]

I would have immediately insisted that the server bring his supervisor over so he could repeat that comment to him, then ask for a different server. I'm sure his boss would have been as upset as you were and would have taken appropriate action. Sometimes I tolerate poor service if it's just carelessness, but something like that would get reported to save the next customer from a similar experience.

If my DH had insisted on leaving an extra tip in these circumstances, we would have had a talk! I always leave an extra tip if the service is decent, but would be sorry the server was getting the standard one in this case.

The nerve of the guy!

i hadn't really thought of that till now because if we have a problem any place other than wdw we always mention it ( same as if something is exceptional...hubby always says "as abusiness owner i like to know what my clients think of my work so i can make any needed improvements" and then tells them blablabla) maybe because we are in the "relax an have fun" mode, we have never done that at WDW for complaints just for compliments see above for the tip!

 

[DVCconvert]

Does anyone else find it 'odd' that there are so many posters finding individual places bad -- It's hard to believe anyone eats anything in WDW aside from swanson frozen TV dinners from Goodings!?

Gripes in this thread:

Sci-Fi
Ohana's
Primetime
Citricos
Port Orleans French Qtr food court
Beaches and Cream
Fresh
San Angel
Pizza Planet
1900 Park Fare
Artist's Point
Boma
RFC at DTD
RFC at AK
Big River Grill and Brew at BW
Fultons
Yachtsman Steakhouse
Captain Jack's

 

[LuluLovesDisney]

Does anyone else find it 'odd' that there are so many posters finding individual places bad -- It's hard to believe anyone eats anything in WDW aside from swanson frozen TV dinners from Goodings!?

Gripes in this thread:

Sci-Fi
Ohana's
Primetime
Citricos
Port Orleans French Qtr food court
Beaches and Cream
Fresh
San Angel
Pizza Planet
1900 Park Fare
Artist's Point
Boma
RFC at DTD
RFC at AK
Big River Grill and Brew at BW
Fultons
Yachtsman Steakhouse
Captain Jack's

I think it's because people are accustomed to different things- different foods are eaten in different countries, cultures, families. ( I won't eat ANYTHING at a particular relative's house!)

Another huge reason- different chefs preparing the food!

And the last reason: "entree specific" problems- perhaps one steak is a little fattier than another, or one pear is a little underripe, or someone accidentally overcooks something- these things can happen even in the best restaurant.

That's why, if there is a problem like that, I wold send it back and ask for something else.

And also why people need to try the places that appeal to them even if they read a "bad" review- all of our tastes are different.

No place in Disney is serving inedible gruel night after night- it just wouldn't be allowed.

I have eaten in 7 of the places listed here and enjoyed all but one.

 

[danalee]

I can add a new one to that list~ Rose and Crown
I was so looking forward to it, but.........First the service was BAD from the word go, and the food, well not much bettter!
The steaks at our table had a sauce that nobody cared for, but they werent cooked right either. 3 out of 4 could live with how they were cooked but one was burnt! One child in our party had chicken breast and I'm telling you it was so dry it crumbled when I cut it. Others had the Fish & Chips and they were all soggy.
We would have at least sent back the steak..........Oh wait no we couldnt cause our waitress was NOWHERE in site the entire meal~
We did find a manager who made excuses for her, and after that we didnt want to hear it, that was LONG night. We wont be going back there!
Thankfully this has been our only "bad" meal/service!!

 

[Ron from Michigan]

After all our visits, I can say that we have had bad service only once at Olivia's. The food and service were simply terrible.

 

[ducklite]

For the number of meals I've eaten there, it's been a very low percentage.

The truly bad meals were:

San ANgel Inn where our food was like cardboard and our server never came back after taking our order, we had to ask a hostess to get our check. On retrospect we should have simply walked out.

Boma where the chef took me through the buffet line very quickly and KNEW that there was only two things I can eat due to food allergies, and never offered an alternative. THe server when he came with the check noticed I hadn't eaten and only then asked if I'd like a chicken breast from the kitchen. I was so disappointed by that time that I left hungry. Again, I should have spoken to a manager, it was unacceptable.

Artists Point where our server was horrendous, she wasn't there when we needed her--brought the steak I ordered as MR out and it was obviusly super well done, she dropped it and ran--and didn't come back to check on us for over ten minutes. When she was at our table, she wouldn't shut up about her personal life, we didn't give a hoot or encourage the conversation, we were trying to have a quiet dinner together.

Captain Jacks, bad food and service.

Narcooses, always good food and bad service, we won't go back. The last time we told the server we were in a bit of a rush and she still kept us waiting for twenty minutes to take our order. We had been in the restaurant with three younger kids for over 40 minutes with no food in front of us.

ABC Commissary, food poisoning, confirmed by a vist to CentraCare.

Anne