With all the bad reviews I read about some of the food on property...

[HeatherPage]

don't get me wrong, I love Disney and most of the restaurants there, but after reading so many bad reviews of places (for example I just read a thread about Sci-fi - about how stick to the basics because most of the other items on the menu stink), how do the chefs at these establishments not know their food is terrible. Do they never try their own dishes? Do they have huge egos and just not care? Do they stick the least experienced chefs at these types of restaurants? Anyone care to comment or take a guess? I've heard that Disney reads these boards like a hawk, so surely some of this stuff is getting back to the chefs at the restaurants. All I know is if I were heading up a restaurant and I kept hearing such awful reviews of my food, I'd want to fix it and quick.

 

[It's A Happy Day]

I can't say how they run things at their restaurants but I feel that every restaurant has it's "good" dishes and it's "bad" dishes regardless of where you go and WDW is no different. I would not order seafood at a Steakhouse & I would order seafood not steak in a seafood restaurant. Each restaurant has there better dishes but must have other items on the menu to serve everyone's varied tastes. When my family goes out for seafood my brother gets chicken fingers and fries because he won't eat any type of fish/seafood so it is a better option than not eating. Just my 2 cents

 

[Snow Shoe]

Well I guess our family isn't that pickey. We've never had a "bad meal" at Disney. I guess somebodies idea of bad is obviously different from our's. One time at Chefs de France, our DD, 12 yo at the time, wanted to try thier duck. When she tasted it, she really didn't like it. So the server asked what she would like instead, and replaced it without any problem.

I sometimes wonder if the "bad food" is really the persons expectation of what the food should/might taste like, or are used to having it prepared a certain way, and when it's not to thier liking, feels that it's "bad". I've experienced this at San Angle Inn in Mexico. Being from Texas, we eat a lot of Tex-Mex food every week at our house and out. (not Taco Bell or other fast Mexican fast food, that's not mexican) The mexican food was not bad, but different from what we were use to. You also have to realize, that many of the foods have been some what "americanized". Lighter sauces, creams, spices, etc. to fit our tastes, but still have the basic countries flare.

 

[bicker]

The reality is that the restaurants are, generally, nowhere near as bad as they're presented by their critics. (That's why they're called "critics"! ) Everything seems to need to be presented bigger online, perhaps because some posters feel, with so much information out there, that unless they make things sound more sensational or more abomitable than they really are, that they as posters won't be heard.

There are "better" and "worse" restaurants -- no question -- but for the reasons you pointed out, we're generally making distinctions between different shades of gray with regards to what are all great restaurants.

 

[Kaycee]

I have never had a bad meal at WDW. Some of my meals have been better than others, but none of them have been bad. Yet I have posted on this board that there are restaurants I will probably not revisit. An example is 'Ohana. Our food and service there were well above the line of "acceptable" - we just didn't enjoy it as much as other WDW restaurants, so it's on our list of "been there, done that, no need to go back." Tony's is on the same list. We've been to Tony's twice, and the meals were not bad, but they weren't among our favorites either.

Name any restaurant at WDW, and I can guarantee you that it will be on at least a few DISers' lists of favorites. Sci Fi and Donald's are two of our very favorite WDW restaurants, but they are among the restaurants that get the worst reviews here on the DIS. On the other hand, no restaurant escapes criticism here. LeCellier and Boma are among the most popular restaurants with DISers, but I've read plenty of negative posts about both.

When you read restaurant reviews on the DIS, you need to keep them in context. DISers are not your typical WDW visitors. We are generally super-planners who care very deeply about every aspect of our WDW experience. Otherwise, why would we take the time to post on an Internet site? Because we put so much time and effort into planning our WDW visits, we tend to examine every aspect of our visit under a microscope. Under those conditions, an event that would barely be noticed at a restaurant anywhere else turns into a major ordeal. For instance, last year DH and I visited San Francisco, a city known for great food. While we did have some great meals there, we also had a couple of meals that were worse than anything we've ever had at WDW. Yet this is the first time I've mentioned those bad meals anywhere on the Internet.

This is why I think DISers should base their dining decisions on what sounds appealing to them, not on a few reviews they read on this board. The reviews are helpful if they are used to get an overall feel for what a restaurant is like. But if we had decided not to visit Sci Fi or Donald's based on the bad reviews we read, we would've missed out on some of the most magical moments we've had at WDW.

 

[bicker]

I agree with most of what you've said. Just a couple of notes:

While we DISers tend to be more critical, I think we apply that criticism uniformly: The places that get the most bad reviews probably are worse in the eyes of most patrons than the places that get the most good reviews.

Of course, you still need to apply basic logic. If a critic doesn't like the cuisine the critic is reviewing, you're going to get a skewed review. Similarly, if you don't like the cuisine the critic is reviewing, that review may be way off-the-mark for you.

The key is to find reviewers who's tastes are just like yours, by becoming part of the community and getting to know them. Then you know who's reviews to trust and who's not to trust.

 

[AussieAngel]

It seems that although lots of people complain about Sci-Fi, lots more people still go there!!

I've heard that the burgers are dry, but people still order them.

It's a bit like McDonalds - people know it's bad, but the majority of people still eat there. So why would they change the menu?!

 

[TwingleMum]

I also think sometimes people expectations at WDW are much higher than in "normal" life (whatever that is ). I have had very few "bad" meals at WDW. We have eaten at Sci Fi and the burgers were fine. I mean anyone at anygiven time can make a mistake and over or undercook something. I think generally WDW does a fabulous job serving the volume of people it does everyday. But I also think if a restaurant on the BB is getting uniformly panned perhaps the menu or staff needs retraining or at least a good hard look by WDW management. (my 3 yr olds contribution )

 

[Kaycee]

The key is to find reviewers who's tastes are just like yours, by becoming part of the community and getting to know them. Then you know who's reviews to trust and who's not to trust.

I agree completely. In fact, I meant to say something similar to that in my post and forgot to add it. By the way, Bicker, you are among the reviewers whose opinions I trust.

 

[bicker]

Aw, shucks!

 

[snowbunny]

how do the chefs at these establishments not know their food is terrible. Do they never try their own dishes? Do they have huge egos and just not care?

Married to a chef....at a theme park restaurant serving thousands of meals a week, the artiste ego really doesn't enter into it. These people are just trying to get decent food out on a scale and pace that most of us really can't imagine without spending a day back in the kitchen.
On that basis perhaps not every dish is great but I think the chefs at WDW do a great job overall.

 

[HeatherPage]

Thanks for the replies everyone. Don't think I was personally knocking the restaurants/chefs, I was just trying to make sense of all the bad reviews I seem to see. Good or bad, a meal I'm eating at Disney World is usually far better than a meal back at a restaurant at home just due to the location alone