Pixie_Dust
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 10, 2000
- Messages
- 1,430
Vacation time is too short and Disney prices are too high to waste on bad food. We did not have any great food on our recent trip, but here are a few "heads up"s to avoid any surprises...
Dole Whip in Adventureland, MK:
I tried it because so many ppl here said it was great, and it does taste great imo. Just be aware it melts almost immediately (saw a woman lose one!), and basically you are paying almost $3 for a cup of air. There is a huge air gap in the middle of the skimpy coil of soft serve, and when I asked, the CM told me it is supposed to be like that!
Artist Point at the Wilderness Lodge:
This is a very expensive restaurant that is supposed to be top notch. The decor is beautiful. But as a "foodie" I can tell you the food does not deliver as promised. I won't go into detail, but the two signature dishes, the cedar plank salmon and the buffalo steak, did not come out smoking hot, and we couldn't even tell if they use their smokehouse any more. The hash for the salmon was terrible, and the strawberry salad had rotten strawberries and bad flavor. The only part of the desserts that was good was the sorbet/ice cream.
The worst part was that the salmon was raw even after sending it back to be cooked, and instead of admitting that the true test of a chef is to be able to perfectly cook a piece of fish, they made an excuse that it was "sushi grade" salmon. I did not order warm sushi, and know they do it that was to cover the fact they cannot cook it properly every time. Better to leave it uncooked when you have uneven chef abilities, they probably thought.
The menu was also a mishmash of spring and summer items along with deep winter root veggies. They had an excuse for that too, which was that they were serving things from the Pacific Northwest, but hello, any menu planner worth their salt would know the produce should also be fresh and seasonal. I heard a server misinform diners as to what was in the mashed root veggies, btw. The only good side we tried was the sweet potatoes that came with the buffalo steak.
I ordered the ridiculously expensive wine flight and got extremely skimpy pours as well as pressure from the server to try things I knew I wouldn't like. Once he tricked me by bringing what he recommended instead of what I ordered, which soured my palate and ruined the rest of the wine from the first glass when I went back to it.
When I tried to talk to a manager about all this, all I got were excuses and an invitation to try the restaurant again at our own expense. As if we would ever pay that much money for such bad food again, hah! They are not serving anything better than you can get at the lower priced places (which is not saying a lot, since WDW restaurant quality has gone downhill overall with the advent of those dining plans and free dining and leasing out a lot of their restaurants.)
I do not need to hear replies about how you liked it. If you did, start your own thread. This is my experience to serve as a warning to others.
Yak & Yeti at AK:
The menu looked good. It is always full when we try to make a ressie, and I found that is because they keep half the tables for walk-ins. We waited in line at 11am to get in.
At first I was pleased by the food (although the specialty Yak Attack drink was too expensive for something that did not taste as though it had any rum in it whatsoever). Then I got a huge bent staple in my stir fry! (Thank God I chew slowly; DH would have swallowed it without thinking!) The waitress said it happens a lot (!) because the veggies come in bags. Funnily, almost immediately a manager came up and whisked away the plate, to "show the chef," conveniently leaving no evidence. She tried to give us 20% off the entree, but if something like that happens in real life, the restaurant will comp your entire bill. When I said that, she went back and returned saying she would comp the entree. It began to feel like buying a car with all the back and forth and long waits.
So then we tried to pay for the rest using our DVC perk discount, only to be informed that Landry restaurants like Y&Y and Rainforest Cafe only do the discount off the entree, not the whole bill (so it didn't apply to us because our entree had been comped), and only for the first four entrees, even though that is NOT what the perks book says. The next manager came out and claimed Disney is aware of their policies, but I think Disney would know better than to print false claims as this has been going on for a long time.
I was also rather shocked that they were so blase about the staple in the food, as someone could have shredded their mouth, choked, punched a hole in their intestines, or other dire consequences from that - and to know it goes on regularly without their having tried to change their procedures was quite chilling.
You have now been warned. Dine at your own risk.
Dole Whip in Adventureland, MK:
I tried it because so many ppl here said it was great, and it does taste great imo. Just be aware it melts almost immediately (saw a woman lose one!), and basically you are paying almost $3 for a cup of air. There is a huge air gap in the middle of the skimpy coil of soft serve, and when I asked, the CM told me it is supposed to be like that!
Artist Point at the Wilderness Lodge:
This is a very expensive restaurant that is supposed to be top notch. The decor is beautiful. But as a "foodie" I can tell you the food does not deliver as promised. I won't go into detail, but the two signature dishes, the cedar plank salmon and the buffalo steak, did not come out smoking hot, and we couldn't even tell if they use their smokehouse any more. The hash for the salmon was terrible, and the strawberry salad had rotten strawberries and bad flavor. The only part of the desserts that was good was the sorbet/ice cream.
The worst part was that the salmon was raw even after sending it back to be cooked, and instead of admitting that the true test of a chef is to be able to perfectly cook a piece of fish, they made an excuse that it was "sushi grade" salmon. I did not order warm sushi, and know they do it that was to cover the fact they cannot cook it properly every time. Better to leave it uncooked when you have uneven chef abilities, they probably thought.
The menu was also a mishmash of spring and summer items along with deep winter root veggies. They had an excuse for that too, which was that they were serving things from the Pacific Northwest, but hello, any menu planner worth their salt would know the produce should also be fresh and seasonal. I heard a server misinform diners as to what was in the mashed root veggies, btw. The only good side we tried was the sweet potatoes that came with the buffalo steak.
I ordered the ridiculously expensive wine flight and got extremely skimpy pours as well as pressure from the server to try things I knew I wouldn't like. Once he tricked me by bringing what he recommended instead of what I ordered, which soured my palate and ruined the rest of the wine from the first glass when I went back to it.
When I tried to talk to a manager about all this, all I got were excuses and an invitation to try the restaurant again at our own expense. As if we would ever pay that much money for such bad food again, hah! They are not serving anything better than you can get at the lower priced places (which is not saying a lot, since WDW restaurant quality has gone downhill overall with the advent of those dining plans and free dining and leasing out a lot of their restaurants.)
I do not need to hear replies about how you liked it. If you did, start your own thread. This is my experience to serve as a warning to others.
Yak & Yeti at AK:
The menu looked good. It is always full when we try to make a ressie, and I found that is because they keep half the tables for walk-ins. We waited in line at 11am to get in.
At first I was pleased by the food (although the specialty Yak Attack drink was too expensive for something that did not taste as though it had any rum in it whatsoever). Then I got a huge bent staple in my stir fry! (Thank God I chew slowly; DH would have swallowed it without thinking!) The waitress said it happens a lot (!) because the veggies come in bags. Funnily, almost immediately a manager came up and whisked away the plate, to "show the chef," conveniently leaving no evidence. She tried to give us 20% off the entree, but if something like that happens in real life, the restaurant will comp your entire bill. When I said that, she went back and returned saying she would comp the entree. It began to feel like buying a car with all the back and forth and long waits.
So then we tried to pay for the rest using our DVC perk discount, only to be informed that Landry restaurants like Y&Y and Rainforest Cafe only do the discount off the entree, not the whole bill (so it didn't apply to us because our entree had been comped), and only for the first four entrees, even though that is NOT what the perks book says. The next manager came out and claimed Disney is aware of their policies, but I think Disney would know better than to print false claims as this has been going on for a long time.
I was also rather shocked that they were so blase about the staple in the food, as someone could have shredded their mouth, choked, punched a hole in their intestines, or other dire consequences from that - and to know it goes on regularly without their having tried to change their procedures was quite chilling.
You have now been warned. Dine at your own risk.
Having been on the DIS for awhile now I am always suspicious of posters who first posts are controversial or rude. 
and issue an edict that anyone that disobeys your rules of no disagreement allowed! shall be summarily executed. Just be warned: I, Jack's GeeMa, will immediately begin asking for aid from the United States to throw a little coup in your honor. Let Freedom Ring! Unalienable rights like posting and eating at lousy restaurants! for all the huddled masses! Down with censorship! 
You're okay. 
