Truly bad dining experiences?

[Steffi]

I really disliked Big River Grille. The crowded atmosphere just wasn't my style and the chicken & pasta marinara dish I had was really awful. I have a hard time finding a meal that I don't like and I'm not a picky person, but that was a truly yucky meal.

Another disappointment was RFC, but it wasn't awful, just not great.

 

[Ladyhawke10]

Another disappointment was RFC, but it wasn't awful, just not great.

I've had a few really bad meals at Rainforest Cafe...I LOVE the atmosphere but can't decide if I want to put up with the food there anymore. It's too bad...I really wish they do a food makeover--the interior is so great!

 

[LindsayDunn228]

I honestly thought I was going to throw up after I ate some of it, we had to go for a walk in the fresh air for a while so that my stomach could settle.

I think you set yourself up for disaster just ordering it. Just the thought of a fish taco makes me gag!!

 

[weeyore33]

we've been s many times, only had 2 really bad food/service experiences and they were both at 50's prime time cafe, same as other posters, we had bad food, sever never cam back to table, except to bring check...

all in all other resteraunts were really good, had a great great experience at mama melrose, the chef came to our table and took requests for food, we got custom dinners!

 

[kymberwolf]

At WDW?? Never, ever, not once!!!! Our "worst" experiances have been average service (and not "bad" average service but "good" average service, if that makes any sense).

I've had great food and service at restaurants that have had bad reviews on both. Our favorite meal last year was at Fulton's. Not only was the food EXCELLANT but the server we had was fantastic. We also had good (or even great!) food/service at San Angel Inn, Kona's, Crystal Palace, Tony's Town Square, CRT (dinner), Chef Mickey's, Brown Derby (fantastic!!!!) and Marakeesh (sp? the Moroco sit down place). Even the counter service food was good, I really liked Pizzafari at AK, Casey's and Columbia House at MK, Backlot express at MGM, and the food court near Inoventions at Epcot. Room service at the Poly was also very good. All the places I just listed we ate at on our last trip in Dec. 2004.

I don't know if the people with bad reviews are just unlucky (which is possible, with 100's of restaurants and 1,000's of servers, someone is going to drop the ball at some point), or way too picky. I've never had even close to a bad experiance at WDW, either eating or in any other aspect of my trip. DFi has traveled all over the world and has eaten at some very elite and expensive places, and said the food at WDW is top notch. And this is a man that is VERY hard to please, and if something happens that he doesn't like, he'll say so.

Although we don't have our trips listed as part of our signature, we are seasoned Disney veterans with many trips and dining experiences under our belt. Probably over well 150 sit-down restaurants and not ONE truly 'bad" experience.

However, just once, while we were staying at the Grand Floridian, as part of what was then called the "Grand Plan", we had an early dinner at Citrico's and the server was a bit condescending towards us after we asked her for help in selecting a wine with our dinner. We're NOT wine experts by any means and simply asked for her recomendation. Her attitude from that moment on changed for the worse. I think also, when she determined that we were on the Grand Plan and wouldn't actually being paying for anything (other than the bottle of wine), she may have thought there was going to be no tip from us because the plan provided for a flat 15% gratuity. Bad thinking on her part becuase we made it a habit of leaving at least an EXTRA 15-20% on top of what the plan covered at our other meals. If we could have, we would have deducted the plan's prepaid gratuity because she was just a pill to deal with.

I don't know what the actual numbers are on meals served at Disney in a given period of time, but you have to thinks millions and millions of meals served over the years and with those kind of numbers, the odds are there will be bad meals and/or service. Overall, the Disney-magic, both in quality of food AND service is the envy of all theme park/hotel operations and has set the standard to be emulated.

 

[blondemom]

We just returned from 8 days in WDW. We usually love O'Hanas breakfast, but it came out cold twice. We would try it again, though, since it could have been a bad day there. Dinner there was awesome!

We won't be returning to Liberty Tree Tavern for lunch, though. The food was not the same quality it was last time we visited four years ago. My kids didn't take more than one bite of the macaroni and cheese (too mushy, they said - and it was barely recognizable as macaroni and cheese, it looked more like orange mush). My turkey panini sandwich was terrible. That's my opinion, though. My husband liked the pot roast!!!

 

[ead79]

We have only had one truly bad experience. It was at Yakitori House (though it often gets pretty good reviews here), and the chicken pieces were so gross (had fatty pieces and other pieces I don’t even know what they were) we had to throw our food away. Fortunately it wasn’t a super expensive meal, but I hated to waste the money for food we couldn’t even eat.

Some of these complaints seem a bit off to me. I am somewhat surprised at the number of people who arrive before their PS time, then get angry because they have to wait. I thought that you were supposed to arrive 5 minutes before your PS time, not 45. I can see why you would still have to wait due to scheduling/occupancy purposes. Also, not every seat in a restaurant is going to be the best seat in the house.

On the other hand, things like yelling at guests, food poisoning, rude comments, etc. are totally unacceptable under any circumstances.

It’s also good to note the whole “different strokes for different folks” thing. I try to steer clear of restaurants that receive routine bad reviews from lots of people, but some of my favorites are on this thread (Artist Point, Boma, etc.).

 

[couzen]

We have eaten hundreds of meals in the World and I must say I was extremely disappointed in the Princess breakfast at Restaurant Akershus. The princesses were great and my daughter loved them, but we were completely crowded in there like sardines. I was literally rubbing elbows with the guy at the table next to me. It was so bad that for the princesses to get to several tables towards the back about six or seven people had to move their chairs so they could squeeze back there. There were four of us and at they brought out a plate of food that might have been enough for one adult--like two waffles, four link sausages, two pieces of bacon, and for some reason about fifty pastries. Then we would ask for more and the server would bring out two more pieces of bacon. At one point we had waited forever to finally complete all four plates of the initial breakfast and she brought out more pastries before any of the hot food. To this day we still laugh about that. I will say the server was very nice and polite, but completely overwhelmed with the crowds.

 

[dazed_mint]

The worst experience my family ever had was at CRT earlier this month. It was a real disappointment, because my mom has been trying to get us in there since I found out about it when I was 6 (i'm 17 now!) We arrived on time, and were seated quickly. Everything was going really well until my mother felt something dripping onto her head. She tried to ignore it, but water was falling onto her forehead and at a certain point, onto her eyeglasses. She called the waitress over to ask what it was, and the waitress said "Oh! That's just the condensation from our air conditioner! Think of it as a special feature at Cinderella's Royal Table!" and walked away laughing. This was far from a satisfactory answer in my mother's eyes. My dad asked her to wait until after the meal to deal with it, and she agreed to because she didn't want to ruin the morning for my sister and I.

As we were leaving the park that afternoon, she went to Guest Relations on Main Street. When the woman working the desk heard her story, she immediatly offered to comp us the meal (we were on the dining plan). We had a great dinner at Mamma Melrose's that night. Even though breakfast was bad, it was a great reminder of why my family loves Disney - they really take care of you!

 

[WDW LifeLong Fan]

We have had really good luck in our dining at WDW.

However, our last trip to GF in July provided a less than stellar experience at
Narcoossee's.

The food was good but the service was among the worst we have ever had at ANY restaurant.

 

[Disneyrsh]

Well, it figures I read this thread, go to Disney last week, and have a spectacularly bad dining experience at Mama Melrose's.

It started out ok, we had adr's for 4 pm to give us plenty of time to eat and then catch the parade. Our server, Dori, sat us and then proceeded to completely ignore us for the next HOUR AND FORTY FIVE MINUTES!!! I think we still would have been sitting there today if my mom, husband, and three kids under the age of ten hadn't gotten up and left. Our drinks were never refilled.

My dad and I sat there, steaming, for another 15 minutes and she came by and DIDN"T EVEN NOTICE 80% of the table was missing. I had to get up and go get her to come back to the table, tell her we'd like our desserts to go and the check as soon as possible.

Another 15 minutes goes by. We hope that the rest of the family was able to see the parade. She finally comes back with seven ice creams in cups and the check. The bill was 171 dollars. I wanted to tip her 1.00, but my dad persuaded me to leave 10 and write "Poor Service!!!" on the bill. So we did. Argh. It was awful trying to entertain three kids for that long. My six year old fell asleep!

And the kicker was, when we got to Fantasmic later that night with our special blue tickets, 30 minutes early as requested, the place was horrifically overcrowded-no room in the fantasmic dining section, no seats anywhere, people pushing and shoving for a standing spot, and more pouring in all the time. We beat it out of there as fast as possible and just chalked it up to a bad Ju Ju day. We'd been several times before and figured, labor day weekend, bad idea for future reference.

But wow, Mama Melrose's, never again. We saw the manager bussing tables, and the place was half empty.

What's going on at Disney?!!

 

[ceecee]

Probably our worst was Planet Hollywood (we even gave it a second chance) both times bad service and bad food.
Whispering Canyon - which always gets rave reviews was terrible when we went, really slow service (not busy at all) 55 minutes to get our order and then it was wrong. The waiter said goofy was cooking (the only joke of the night, but that was before we knew to even expect jokes). DH did get a giant coke. The endless milkshake ended with one because the refill came after dessert. Just a bad experience, and we wasted over 2 hours of precious Disney time there.
We also did the Princess Breakfast at Epcot and while it was worth it for the characters the food came cold.

 

[jrjac]

We just returned from a 7 day trip. We had only one "bad" dining experience-the Spirit of Aloha Dinner Show. Food? Blah! Service? Horrible! Show? Arghh! To be fair, the last 10 minutes of the show was great and there were a few great photo ops of my son!

 

[lovehoney]

As we were leaving the park that afternoon, she went to Guest Relations on Main Street. When the woman working the desk heard her story, she immediatly offered to comp us the meal (we were on the dining plan). We had a great dinner at Mamma Melrose's that night. Even though breakfast was bad, it was a great reminder of why my family loves Disney - they really take care of you!

I love the idea of talking to Guest Relations after the meal. I'm always afraid if I complain or if I send my meal back that the waiter or cook will spit in (or worse ) my meal.

 

[chrismb22]

This is such a tough thread to respond too because it's not like an attraction or something set in stone that might ALWAYS be bad. There are so many factors that could influence what is a "bad" meal. It depends on what the person is looking for. For example, there's this wonderfully romantic restaurant near my home that is delicious but the meal takes -- not kidding -- four/five hours for dinner. I have friends that absolutely love it but me, I like romance and atmosphere but that's a little much. Does that make it a bad restaurant? No but I won't go back.

Obviously, food poisoning or an undercooked meal is different and that can kill a meal (no pun intented) but over all I think a "bad" restaurant can depend on how hungry you are when you sit down, your server, those around you, restaurant atmosphere, time of day, chef on duty (remember, the same chef isn't on duty 24 hours a day), what you've eaten the day before, how tired you are, where you are going next, who you are with, style of restaurant and don't forget customs of the server/customer. Maybe what's considered the norm in one region of the country is just unheard of where you come from.

Enjoy whereever you go. I'm not letting any of these posts influence my October trip. I checked the menus and the "Birnbaum's dining" book and I am letting style of food -- as well as recommendations from friends who know my taste -- influence me. All I know, is right now, I wish I was getting coffee and a donut at the Main St. Bakery in MK instead of heading off to the local coffee shop on my way to work. Can Oct 15th get here any quicker, please, pretty please with MICKEY on top?

 

[Danthesand]

And the kicker was, when we got to Fantasmic later that night with our special blue tickets, 30 minutes early as requested, the place was horrifically overcrowded-no room in the fantasmic dining section, no seats anywhere, people pushing and shoving for a standing spot, and more pouring in all the time. We beat it out of there as fast as possible and just chalked it up to a bad Ju Ju day. We'd been several times before and figured, labor day weekend, bad idea for future reference.

Excellent report with an important moral: touring WDW during holidays is "done at your own risk." For no matter how "strategic" an itinerary is, it's impossible to completely avoid the mobs that fill WDW during holiday periods.

 

[DisneyFreq]

I hope those of you that got food poisoning reported it? If you went to a doctor, they are required by law to report it...so if you skipped the doc, you'd better make sure someone hears about it. There are obviously some health code violations that need to be investigated. You don't get food poisoning just b/c something doesn't agree with your system. It's from improper food handling, cooking, or lack of handwashing by the staff.

And no, I don't go the WDW expecting my every minute to be magical. However, as one poster said, when you pay premium prices you expect decent service and above average food.

I haven't had any terrible service experiences BUT...

In 2000 at a character buffet lunch in MGM (had to have been Hollywood n Vine), we had some of the worst food ever. I think even the stuff they served at my daughters school in Hawaii would have been better (and they came up with things like chow mein with hot dog pieces!) We also had to wait about 30 min past our meal before Goofy came by and Minnie stopped twice in the meantime. Minnie was great and our waitress was great so no complaints about the staff. We came for the first lunch seating so there were still breakfast items on the line, and if it weren't for a couple of cold waffles we would have left starving.

When I was kid, my brother and I begged for Sci Fi. Our parents finally caved but, once again the food was a disappointment. My dad usually throws money around on WDW trips but he was pretty shocked at the prices when the menu was mostly sandwiches and hotdogs. I have to say, its pretty bad when you mess up a sandwich! My kids are now begging me to go to this restuarant (they saw it on the planning video) and I think I'll take the UG's advice and just go in for dessert at an off-meal time.

RFC: we've been three times, once at DTD and twice at AK. Service was fine but the food was just terrible. I only suffer thru this restuarant for the sake of my kids. The second time I went, I ordered a salad thinking you can't mess up a salad...wrong! The third time a flatbread pizza....which was pretty much just cheese bread. My husband keeps forgetting how bad the food is and insists we go, only to tell me at the conclusion of each meal that we're never coming back. I think the third time might have been the final strike. He told the kids that on our upcoming trip, we would check out the store and mabey get a souvee but that we wouldn't be eating there!

Fultons: we went here in 1999 and I have to say the food was pretty good (but OH so expensive....we knew that going in...that's why it was the last meal of our trip). Well..they billed us incorrectly...2 orders of snow crab legs ($32 ea) instead of one order plus one order of prime rib. It took them nearly an hour to correct it....and this is at the end of our meal! We were planning on squeezing in an hour at the MK after the meal but by the time we got out of there, MK was about to close. Husband wants to go back...I told him he can go alone.

One time at the CP (which we adore by the way) we made a PS for early breakfast. When we got there (with the verification slip in hand mind you...we needed to enter the park early) they couldn't find our ressie and told us we would have to wait an extra 30 min. I threw a tantrum (I'm embarassed to say....I was five months pregnant...and hungry!) and they sat us in about five minutes. Everyone was staring at me! Darn those mood swings!

 

[sha_lyn]

Our only truly bad meal was Chef Mickey's.

Food was absolutely horrible, lukewarm (to the point of being a health hazzard I'm certain), overcooked, bland grey masses. Desserts looked like they had been played in.

Service was nonexistant. Never got drink refills (other than the little carafs he left on the table that held 1 refill), had plates cleared etc. The table was too small for 4 people as it was, and here we were with carafs and piles of plates of uneatable food. We kept going back trying to find something to eat

Character interaction. well it seems that the characters didn't know about the seating area behind the buffet. We were there 1 1/2 hrs and not a single character came up. We did see them visit the other rooms 3 times. Another server in our area was finally able to get the characters up there.

 

[smraynor]

The worst meal was the cafeteria at MGM. Just horrible...still makes me cringe and its been five years

 

[IwasatWDWforamonth]

Tangerine cafe was GROSS, by far the most unedible meal in all of our trips too WDW, the chicken wrap tasted like 7 day old turkey from thanksgiving,my moms meat was greenish and I have no idea what that meat was, some kind of meat product?
We felt sick right after eating very little and threw it in the trash, im not kidding we felt nauseous. got fishn chips to get rid of the awful taste.
we complained at guest relations he was really nice and said that they must have been serving leftovers because they made too much for new years eve,
he gave us 4 ice cream coupons.