What is dining like where you live?

[kamik86]

I'm curious, tell me what kinds of restaurants you have near you that you go to, and then your opinion on Disney food.

I live in a small area in Western MA. Most chain restaurants (if we have one near us) are around 40 min from my house (the mall is at least 30) and there are some decent smaller places (we have only tried a few) in about that distance. I think Friendlies, pizza places and a small Chinese place are the only ones closer. I cant think of an Italian place near me, the closest used to be a restaurant in a hotel nearby that did a pasta bar once a week but the owners switched and that went way down hill. There is another place that is just ok. We don't have Olive Garden, Macaroni Grill or any of the chain Italian places.

We mostly go to 99 (which is ok but is still a chain and the cooks rarely get meat to the right level of doneness) and Chili's that we do to most often. Well that and the small Chinese place which is amazingly good.

Disney food is amazing. I love Tutto Italia, Teppan Edo (nearest hibachi place is in Albany NY as far as I know... which is well over an hour away), Le Cellier and many of the other places in WDW...

I'm curious if all the people that think the food is really bad actually have good restaurants near them. I lived in Rochester NY for a few years and there were so many places there and many were good but I couldn't go often as I was a poor college student then.

 

[RMulieri]

Like you the places I live near now are few and not all that great,I rarely eat out and when we do it is Friendlys or Bob Evans for my 7 yr old.I grew up in NY/NJ and had tons and tons of fabulous places to choose from.I like disney dining well enough but its not all that incredible compared to when I go home to visit.

 

[vicki_c]

I live near Annapolis and it would not be an exaggeration to say there are hundreds of restaurants within 30 minutes of my house. Chains and many excellent non-chains. But even given all that, I don't find food at Disney to be bad. I don't really compare it to the places I have at home, because my expectations aren't the same.

A local place HAS to be better or they will go out of business. That is not the case somewhere like Disney.

So except for a few exceptions, I don't expect high end gourmet cuisine at Disney, regardless of the price, and I am pretty much always satisfied. I can't recall a bad meal at Disney ever. I've had things I didn't like that much, I've had bad service only once that I remember, so it's all fine with me.

I definitely think those with less choices at home are probably going to be more impressed with the food @ WDW.

 

[cbg1027]

I live in Tallahassee FL. I guess you could call it a small city, population around 300,000.

There are lots of local and chain places here but certain types of cuisine are really lacking here (no Vietnamese springs to mind).

Food here ranges from really poor to really great. There are a some unique places here I love going to.

So for me, Disney food is the almost the same as dining in my hometown. Some of it has been really poor (Les Chefs de France) and some has been exceptional (Citricos).

I love eating at Disney, but I tend to frequent the signatures as that is food I cannot really get in my hometown. I also like to eat at fine(r) dining establishments when I travel as it is something I do not splurge on at home.

95% of my eating experience at Disney has been great. Part of the reason I love going to Disney is for the food. I'm sure part of the reason I like the Disney food so much is because the food lets me know I am at Disney. I also don't get to eat it very often so that can make it seem better to me.

I really look forward to eating at Disney.

 

[gillep]

I live just outside of Washington DC and we have numerous great restaurants, DH and I tend to stay away from almost all chains because there are so many better restaurants right by us. We also have a lot of ethnic restaurants that I really enjoy. I like a lot of Disney food but I go in with different expectations than at home. As far as I am concerned there is no exotic or spicy food at Disney, which is fine as they have to have restaurants that appeal to a good number of people. I just know that no matter how exotic strange or spicy people on the DIS say the food is that I will find it pretty tame compared to the fun things we can eat here every weekend.

 

[PoohsFan1]

We live in a suburb of Chicago (about 30 minutes from the city) so we have a ton of chain restaurants and family owned restaurants. We are lucky to have our pick of food, however my family doesn't go out to eat a lot...we'd rather save our money for our food in Disney

 

[bluejasmine]

We arent really picky eaters at all.. Our town has alot of chain type restaurants.. I do enjoy them tho Olive Garden, Red Lobster, AppleBees, Ruby Tuesday, CrackerBarrell plus alot of fast food.

About 20-35 miles away they do have alot more locally owned restaurants that offer different fare but we dont make it out that way too often.

I do enjoy almost everything Ive eatten in WDW with the exception of CP, H&V and a meal I had at Kona once..

 

[Miaka]

Food. LOL I love to talk about food. We have had good food experiences at Disney with two exceptions. 1) Steak. I have not had a good steak down there at all. and 2) Whispering Canyon. Everyone talked about how good the skillet was, and my husband and I both got it, and found it to be disgusting. I recognize it's probably mainly the result of being from Iowa and Beef and Pork here is amazing. Even the chain places have really good steak around here. So, I just remind myself not to get those while down there and all the rest is skittles and we're good.

 

[DisGirl819]

I live near Seattle/Tacoma...so we have any restaurant you can imagine here. We usually frequent either the local places (much better than chains) or go to the upscale date places. We barely eat out so when we do, we like to make it count.

The way I look at restaurants is not just food and service. Certain places you're paying a premium for location or view and you can't take that into account when you're judging the worth of the restaurant. For example, we at at the top of the Space Needle in Seattle. There you're paying for the awesome view and the fact that its a very upscale restaurant. We paid $160 for the two of us. I can see why tourists would complain about the cost, but its not supposed to be an everyday restaurant. Its basically a special occasion restaurant that tourists frequent. I'm ok paying that kind of money because we had great service, great food (fresh and local too) and a great view of the city and the water. Just like I"m ok paying more for a character meal that my kids get to meet their favorite characters and we eat good food.

I don't think places like Chef Mickey's are as bad as the reviews I've read on here but like I said, we don't eat at places like Golden Corrall, Applebee's, Friday's, etc. I agree that some of the buffets in WDW need to be a bit better as far as the food quality goes, but I don't think they are terrible by any means.

I tend to view WDW restaurants as a view/destination that you're paying a premium for in addition to the food. If the food is inedible, I will complain, but otherwise I'm just happy to be there

 

[dismichael]

We live in a fairly urban suburb of NY/Philly in NJ. We have all kinds of food here, all within a short car's ride. On top of that, we have the chains that everyone else has i'm sure. There is actually 3 large malls within 20 mins from our house. With that said....

We LOVE Disney's restaurants. I have a deathly nut allergy, so many chefs at the local places do not fully understand the severity of it, thus, we can't eat there. Of the other places we have tried (i.e. Morton's Steakhouse in Atlantic City, Bobby Flay Steak also in A.C.) we still keep going back to Disney- partially for the dining experience. My dad has been to numerous steakhouses for work, yet Le Cellier seems to maintain the top of his list. We are actually trying Shula's this time to compare. The food in Disney is all prepared by trained chefs, whether you are eating at Victoria and Albert's, or the Pop Century Food Court. Many of the World Showcase chefs, as well as others throughout the World, are brought in from all over the world [including U.S.] and are very good at what they do. Disney is also AWESOME with allergies, and will accommodate you to their best ability. Only restaurants we would not recommend would be Boma and the Wave, because the chefs there were a little ignorant. Other than that, Bon Appetit!

 

[DaParkers]

I live in New Orleans and feel that we have some of the best food in the world. We have restaurants run by celebrity chefs like Emeril and places owned by moms and pops. We have food that you can get from a corner store that rivals upscale restaurants I've been to in other places. With that said, I don't judge WDW food by New Orleans standards. I just enjoy the vacation. I also have never gone without free dining. We've had it very year since my first trip in 06, so I don't know if I would feel differently if I was spending $100 on a buffet for my family. I can only remember having something that I thought was really bad once. That was the beignets at POFQ. Maybe it was just that day or a consistent thing. I don't know, but they were nothing like what I get here or even make at home myself. I tend to keep it safe when I eat at WDW and not order things that can be messed up. I don't go for the cuisine because I'm lucky enough to be able to get a great meal at home for $15, but I enjoy myself and the restaurants at WDW nonetheless.

 

[Niki in NJ]

I'm from NJ about 20 minutes from NYC and work in NYC, so we have tons of excellent restaurants around. We rarely eat chain food. We also are big on cooking .. so our standard tends to be pretty high and we can be pretty harsh critics. With that being said, we enjoy Disney dining! There are many places that we don't care for; however, there are some really excellent places that we enjoy eating at in Disney. We always tell people that we think the food in Disney is great .. we do eat a lot of TS meals though and not many CS. I think it depends what you order, too. I'm not ordering spaghetti and meatballs out anywhere, because no one is going to compare to my grandma's! I don't go to Disney for the food, but it's always an aspect of the trip that we really enjoy. In fact, I can't think of other vacation destinations (islands or different states) that I have visited that have had better food than Disney offers.

 

[MickeyNicki]

I live in a resort area so on Marco Island there are no chain restaurants except McDonalds and Subway. The average lunch is $10-16 bucks per entree (we brown bag it LOL) and dinner is $25 ++ for dinner

In Naples we have tons of chain restaurants and a few mom and pop's ..... sadly the chain places have kicked the mom and pop places out of business

 

[bitbonkers]

I live in the middle of England and so there are lots of fish and chip shops, chinese and Indian restaurants. Pub dining is also very popular (bar meals or pubs with restaurants attached). We also have American chain places....TGI's etc.
I like Disney food......I love the mash lol.

 

[DEA]

We live in the western hinterlands of the DC suburbs, about 12 miles outside the Beltway. Around our house, most of the restaurants are chains, either national or local, but there are a lot of standalone restaurants, as well. When my DW and I go out to dinner, we have, for the past 6 or 7 dinners, gone to the same place in the even-more-hinterlandy town of Leesburg to The Wine Kitchen, which is consistently fantastic. We sometimes go there for brunch with the kids, but most dinners out with the kids are to one of the chain restaurants closer to us.

Going into DC nets you a lot of really good standalone places, or series of places opened by the same chef.

I really like to eat at WDW. I think that the signature restaurants, for the most part, put out consistently good if not great, meals. The TS restaurants I think are generally at or above the quality of chain restaurants in the Red Robin/Outback/Good local chain tier. Except Tony's Town Square.

The CS restaurants are all over the place at WDW. Some I consider worse than McDonalds or Taco Bell. I'd say that the food quality at the better ones (Tangerine Cafe, Sunshine Seasons, Fairfax Fare, The Mara) are as good or better than the better CS restaurants around here (Moe's Southwest Grill, Five Guys, California Tortilla).

And, of course, the Disney prices are higher, but I think that you get you can get your money's worth if you pick the right places. I have eaten a lot of good meals and very few bad meals at WDW.

 

[OhThePain]

We are from Long Island and within 20 mins. we can get to just about any type of cuisine we would want. NYC is a 30 mins drive (or train ride) from where we live. We visit all types of restaurants from fast food to 5-star. I personally can't stand the typical chain restaurants (i.e. Chili's, Outback, Ruby Tuesdays, Apple Bees). My girlfriend and I have a few places that we regularly visit.

When it comes to WDW dining, our thoughts really depend on our mood at the time we eat. The food at buffets are nothing great. They serve their purpose but we don't go to them so much anymore. Some other TS restaurants are pretty inconsistant. Sometimes the dish is pretty good, othertimes the same dish can be under/over cooked, under/over seasoned, etc. We usually tend to eat at more signatures while at Disney. The prices are not much higher than some TS or buffets and the food quality is significantly better.

 

[SouthernExplorer]

We have more variety than you would expect where we live. We have poor quality, high quality and everything in between. There is a park close by that serves park quality food at park prices. Outside the park there are some very good local resturants that we go to from time to time.

We have a very expensive AAA five diamond resturant close by. We have eaten there three times and we only go with my parents who visit from time to time. We eat at the resort's grille from time to time, and I find that food much better than the fancy schmancy five diamond place. I have discerning taste buds though DH says that I'm just picky.

In town we have various chain, local, and fast food restuarants and we find that many of them are very good. We rarely eat out, and when we are in town we eat mostly fast food to save money. I found a really great chain deli that I love in the local mall.

During our upcoming trip to WDW we will probably have a light breakfast in our room, bring our own snacks and water into the parks, and dine only at quick service. Nearly all of our sit-downs will be off-site. We are considering the Cape May clambake, but might just to go to seafood resturant off-site instead. We can only assume that from the park food we have sampled here and at Disneyland, Six Flags, etc. is near the same quality at WDW. Yes, I am aware that Victoria and Albert's is a AAA five diamond (and very expensive), but that means nothing to us because I hate fancy food so it's not a good value for us.

 

[Hopefully]

I live in the suburbs of Boston - a 30 minute drive away. In the city you can get anything you want, at every level. I have eaten at Morton's and Ruths Chris etc.
Near home, we have the ususal chain restaurants and many family owned places. We tend to stay away from the chains like Friday's because we don't like them. We have our favorite local restaurants that we frequent.
Dining is an important part of our Disney vacation. We enjoy the food, but as others have said our expectations at Disney are different than at home. I don't find it drastically more expensive than here at home either.
We are DVC owners and have been going to Disney for years. After all those years there are only 2 restaurants that we won't return to - at opposite ends of the spectrum. We will not return to H & V and we do not like the food at Yachtsmans Steakhouse.

 

[Kelblum]

We live at the Jersey Shore (no, it is not like MTV We are in Cape May County which is in the very Southern tip of NJ. Most of our restaurants are seasonal so all Summer long (plus early fall and late spring) we have excellent seafood, italian and cheese steaks! (we are about 1 1/2 hr to Philly). The rest of the year just about everything is closed so we have to go about 30-40 minutes North to get to Atlantic City for fine dining or chain restaurants.

I do think most of the food at WDW is good, and since we are a resort area, prices are pretty similiar for dinners.

 

[Cat0727]

We live in NYC so not all of the food at Disney really compares...except the prices I enjoy Disney dining very much though.