What is the worst meal you've ever had at WDW?
Ours was Mama Melrose! It was terrible. I had a flatbread that tasted like a chalky Weight Watchers pizza. My husband had a pasta dish that they forgot to even put the sauce on it. It was by far the worst meal we've ever had in a restaurant...let along WDW.
I'm gonna get skewered for this one but...
California Grill (ducks to avoid flames being thrown).
My wife and I had an ADR (or whatever they were called back then) back in 1999, on our honeymoon. We waited almost an hour for our table. That was a bad start, but I chalked it up to us having a relatively late dinner ressie (and yes, I know...fireworks = slow table turnover). We had a drink at the bar and enjoyed the observation deck. Not a real big deal.
Once seated, our server was another good 5 to 10 minutes before coming to our table. She was brusque, rather short with us, and not friendly at all. She asked if she could take drink orders and I said we were actually ready to order everything. She was visibly, and obviously, annoyed by this (though why, I don't know).
While we were waiting for our server, we had looked at our menus and loved what we saw. In particular, one dish stood out, but had something I'm allergic to in the vegetable side (Literally, the ONLY thing in the world I have an allergy to....and it's not a super common thing). I asked our server if I could substitute something, ANYTHING, else for that item...any other veg. She rolled her eyes, sighed, and said she'd have to ask in the kitchen.
She returned 10 min later and said the kitchen could substitute something else. I said fine, and we placed our order. Apps and entree.
The apps never showed up. The entree's did, about 30 min later (the server didn't check in once during that whole period), and I pointed out a) the apps had never arrived and b) she'd just served my entree with the item I asked to be subbed out. She got very "huffy", said she would have the apps put in now if we wanted (I said no thanks), and she'd consult with the kitchen to see why my entree was not made it out correctly (like she was doing me a HUGE favor to do so). I said to leave the existing entree, and asked her to just go procure a new plate with the substitute veg on it..I'd pick around the stuff on my plate I couldn't have. I did this because, at this point, we'd been more than patient, and the track record wasn't good...I didn't want to wait another 20 min for my food. She disappeared and didn't come back, not once, except to drop off the check...and THAT was 15 minutes AFTER we'd obviously finished eating. So I never did get the sub. And we spent close to 3 hours (our ADR was for 6:45...we left at close to 9:30)
FYI, the food we DID get was good, but not great. We'd have MUCH better on that trip. The execution of whoever was working in the kitchen that night was just not great. The menu items were varied, and interesting sounding, but....they just didn't come out of the kitchen nearly as good as they were on paper.
I paid the check, and stopped on the way out to speak to the host and ask for a manager. I explained the whole situation to him, he tooks some info from me (we'd charged to the room), and promised he would take care of the meal. He never did.
We got home and I wrote a letter to Disney, expressing my dissatisfaction with the entire evening. We DID get something back from them...we ended up getting a free meal at Le Cellier on our next trip...so at least they did, eventually, "make it right". But it was, by far, the worst meal we've EVER had on WDW property.
To add to that, we DID go back to the CG, figuring, after all the glowing reviews we'd seen, we must have gotten them on a bad night. Well......about all I can say is it WAS better. Not much better (service was still slow, though at least not RUDE...food was still just "OK"...actually, my wife's was cold, and our entrees had to be remade..but in the end the apps were good (we GOT them!!) and when we ate, the food was marginally better than previously). But better. And I'd even made the ressie EARLY so as to ensure we were not caught up in the "fireworks crowd". We vowed, based on the price of the meals, we'd never go back on our dime..
I've been back for business dinners, on conventions. It seems they handle large parties pretty well....but my wife and I will never go back there on our dime. 2 chances, considering all the other WONDERFUL options at WDW, were enough.
I just have NO desire to go back to that place!
