Just returned and disappointed in Dining

[sizzle]

I have to agree with the poor quality of food this time. I am still at Disney and my wife and I have been very dissapointed in the quality of food. The service is somewhat to be desired as well. Very slow on refills, and takes forever to get you meal and you bill. I went to Chef Mickey's last Friday, and I will never step foot in that place again. I do not understand the raving reviews for that place. It is so far overrated that I would choose McDonald's in downtown over Chef Mickey's. Not just the quality of food, but the restaurant was filthy. Torn carpet, dirty walls, and filthy restrooms. There were dirty towels laying on the restroom counters. I can't believe this is acceptable to the people that stay in the contemporary, let alone this being a 'Disney' quality restaurant. I had a very good experience at Les Chaefs de france, Teppan Edo, and O'hana's. Everything else was on a sub par level.
I have to say as well that the DDP has ruined the dining experience. You have to make reservations 3 months in advance to even step foot in anything of good quality, and sometimes that long for poor quality. I miss the days when you was strolling down Epcot and decided to stop in somewhere and grab a bite and they made room for you.
The only way to save money when Disney gives away free dining to everyone is by cutting the quality of the food they serve. (cheaper cuts of meat, etc) I agree, let's roll back the price of the rooms, meals, and ticket prices and let's start paying or what we want again. It would solve alot of problems.

[jonahbear2006]

there is a lot of work needed to be done there in dining and in resorts. apparently most of the services are depreciating. The horrible time we had in dining has curbed our desire for dvc. I agree with chef mickeys. There was a huge rip in the carpet. How is that acceptable? carpet is not expensive, replace it over night and get the place looking right. The dining room was very unattractive and i dont know about you but that ruins my appetite.

[lighteningqueen]

What do you think it will take before Disney listens to all this. Someone from corporate needs to be reading these boards. I have never in my life here in Texas paid the price for food as the prices for same foods in Disney, only worse tasting. Why can't they use some of the closed attractions buildings to make new restaurants to sit down in and not high dollar. Bring down all the prices at all the restaurants and quit doing the plan. People always say on here it way to much food. No it isn't from pictures I see the portions are so small for the prices they get. And who orders a steak laying on a bed on mac and Cheese. Just plain weird...They could have places like Chilis or food like that and not need to charge so much. When the public says that it is way to much food to eat then Disney is going to cut down and raise the prices even more. Do we really want that. There has not been one place yet we said that it was the best thing that we had put in our mouths. Think they need some mom chefs in the World to get some good tasting foods that we can rave about. ha ha

[DizneyRox]

I've (among others) have been saying this for years. I'm not surprised, and actually quite happy to read that others are starting to take notice.

If the word spreads, maybe, just maybe something will be done about it. Highly unlikely though...

On our last trip we tried a bunch of new places some that people have been raving about for years. None, I felt were a good value. Ohana's was garbage really, Tony's was overpriced Ragu, even dinner at CRT was a disappointment (and it was free!).

I'm finding it hard and harder to justify a trip, and when I go, I try to find was to disguise my disappointment to not ruin everyone's trip. I think from now on, I'll just let it be known, start returning food, etc. There's really no excuse, especially with those prices!

[Seasonscraps]

What do you think it will take before Disney listens to all this. Someone from corporate needs to be reading these boards. I have never in my life here in Texas paid the price for food as the prices for same foods in Disney, only worse tasting. Why can't they use some of the closed attractions buildings to make new restaurants to sit down in and not high dollar. Bring down all the prices at all the restaurants and quit doing the plan. People always say on here it way to much food. No it isn't from pictures I see the portions are so small for the prices they get. And who orders a steak laying on a bed on mac and Cheese. Just plain weird...They could have places like Chilis or food like that and not need to charge so much. When the public says that it is way to much food to eat then Disney is going to cut down and raise the prices even more. Do we really want that. There has not been one place yet we said that it was the best thing that we had put in our mouths. Think they need some mom chefs in the World to get some good tasting foods that we can rave about. ha ha

Corporate Disney is not going to read these boards - they will not make any change to the current dining situation until it starts to hit their bottom line. Right now, not only are most of their restaurants fully booked months in advance, most of them are prepaid through the dining plan!!

Dissatisfied guests need to let the big wigs know that they are dissatisfied and that they are taking their dining dollars else where.

[DizneyRox]

Corporate Disney is not going to read these boards...

Actually, I assure yu they do. But, since no changes happen I think it's safe to assume that everything is going to plan (meaning profit goals are being met). You are correct that until things don't work according to plan, they won't change anything. Unfortunately, when they don't hit plan, they look for more cuts to make goal instead of analyzing the problem and addressing it.

[Laughin' place]

I would agree that the condition (physical plant) has gone down. Cleanliness and maintenance arent what they used to be. I was last there in June 08 (admittedly, a year ago, and before the economy really went south). At that time, I cannot honestly say I noticed a difference in portion size or quality of the food. I am perfectly willing to believe things may have changed since then.
I, too, love planning meals, trying different venues, etc, so the quality of the dining experience is important to me. We are from Chicago, and we do dine regularly at very good to world-famous eateries there and throughout the US.
All that being said, just one counter-point. When I purchase a meal at WDW (OOP or DP), I take several things into account when deciding if I am satisfied/got my dollar's worth. I do adjust my expectations a bit -- after all, Im in a theme park (the world's greatest, but still, a theme park). I could eat better in Chicago (or at my house) for less. But I dont have Soarin' next door, or Illuminations in my backyard.
I say, let's keep pushing Disney to uphold the standards they have set in the past, but also be realistic and not expect haute cuisine.

[Seasonscraps]

Actually, I assure yu they do. But, since no changes happen I think it's safe to assume that everything is going to plan (meaning profit goals are being met). You are correct that until things don't work according to plan, they won't change anything. Unfortunately, when they don't hit plan, they look for more cuts to make goal instead of analyzing the problem and addressing it.

You're right...

They listened to the complaints about too much food on the DDP now there's no appetizer.

They heard the complaints about poor service guests were receiving because the tips were built in and now the tips are excluded.

[jonahbear2006]

I have to agree with the poor quality of food this time. I am still at Disney and my wife and I have been very dissapointed in the quality of food. The service is somewhat to be desired as well. Very slow on refills, and takes forever to get you meal and you bill. I went to Chef Mickey's last Friday, and I will never step foot in that place again. I do not understand the raving reviews for that place. It is so far overrated that I would choose McDonald's in downtown over Chef Mickey's. Not just the quality of food, but the restaurant was filthy. Torn carpet, dirty walls, and filthy restrooms. There were dirty towels laying on the restroom counters. I can't believe this is acceptable to the people that stay in the contemporary, let alone this being a 'Disney' quality restaurant. I had a very good experience at Les Chaefs de france, Teppan Edo, and O'hana's. Everything else was on a sub par level.
I have to say as well that the DDP has ruined the dining experience. You have to make reservations 3 months in advance to even step foot in anything of good quality, and sometimes that long for poor quality. I miss the days when you was strolling down Epcot and decided to stop in somewhere and grab a bite and they made room for you.
The only way to save money when Disney gives away free dining to everyone is by cutting the quality of the food they serve. (cheaper cuts of meat, etc) I agree, let's roll back the price of the rooms, meals, and ticket prices and let's start paying or what we want again. It would solve alot of problems.

hey hey hey, did we meet you by the pool in POFQ?
I agree. Towards the end of our trip we were devastated to even pay the tip for these dinners. I was glad it ended on a good note at Grand floridian cafe or I might have cancelled my december trip altogether. The kind of saved the magic for us. From now on I will def. not be randomly "trying" new foods down there. I think that Walt, himself, would be quite ashamed right now.

[SurferStitch]

What happened since last October???? And, I don't want to hear "DDP"....even with the advent of it, we've still had awesome meals, even during free dining.

We had amazing meals in October, 2008. Has everything really gone south in the last 8-11 months???

Like I said before, we haven't been disappointed in the dining at WDW at all (okay, we hated The Wave and Le Chefs, but that's it). In the past 13 years, we've been very, very satisfied with our dining in WDW, especially at the resort restaurants.

I really am stumped.

[PetefromRI]

I don't know what to say.We've never had a bad meal in Disney World.We did have a real snotty waiter at the Cali Grill but the food was great.I've had meals that we liked better than others but no meals that were bad.Even the CS places have been good for the most part.I think it has more to do with timing than the DDP.It's a shame that the OP had so many bad meals but we've been there for the free dining twice and never had an issue,other than the places being very packed.It does seem that alot of the menus have become generic and I wish that they would get there creativity back but we still enjoy Disney dining.

[PetefromRI]

All that being said, just one counter-point. When I purchase a meal at WDW (OOP or DP), I take several things into account when deciding if I am satisfied/got my dollar's worth. I do adjust my expectations a bit -- after all, Im in a theme park (the world's greatest, but still, a theme park). I could eat better in Chicago (or at my house) for less. But I dont have Soarin' next door, or Illuminations in my backyard.
I say, let's keep pushing Disney to uphold the standards they have set in the past, but also be realistic and not expect haute cuisine.[/quote]
I couldn't agree more!

[MNNHFLTX]

I think my expectations are actually pretty reasonable, which was our experience in August was somewhat disappointing. As I said before, we didn't have any meals I could call "awful", but definitely nothing that was great either (except for Tokyo Dining). And I pose this question to all of you out there--if you went to a restaurant in the city/town where you live and paid, say, $35 per person for a basic meal, wouldn't you expect it to be more than just okay? You all know I love Disney World, but I still think that we have to hold them to the same standards we would the "outside" world.

[lockedoutlogic]

What happened since last October???? And, I don't want to hear "DDP"....even with the advent of it, we've still had awesome meals, even during free dining.

We had amazing meals in October, 2008. Has everything really gone south in the last 8-11 months???

Like I said before, we haven't been disappointed in the dining at WDW at all (okay, we hated The Wave and Le Chefs, but that's it). In the past 13 years, we've been very, very satisfied with our dining in WDW, especially at the resort restaurants.

I really am stumped.

People's tastes in food and their satisfaction with restaurants has alot to do with their "food upbringing". i.e. not everyone eats the same staple foods and has been exposed to the same types and caliber of restaurants...

So if you don't mind me asking, what restaurants did you have the "great" experiences in 2008?

Maybe it's more an issue of some of the locations/ types of food than it is "overall decline"


Though the overall selections (menus) and service definitely have declined....but i'm not sure that it the real problem in this argument

[SurferStitch]

So if you don't mind me asking, what restaurants did you have the "great" experiences in 2008?

Oh sure, no problem....

2 dinners at Narcoossee's

Cali Grill

'Ohana (breakfast and dinner) - breakfast was good, dinner was excellent. Meats were cooked perfectly, and food was abundant.

V&A (well, it's NEVER anything but amazing here)

Teppan Edo - perfectly cooked/seasoned food. Lots of it. Great chef.

Le Cellier - Filet was huge and cooked exactly the way I love it. Cheese soup was perfect, as usual. Trois Pistoles beer is heaven.

Nine Dragons - Excellent food, as always. Our server was so much fun, and very friendly.

Fulton's Crab House (lunch) - Always have an excellent meal here.

Donald's Safari Breakfast - Delicious, hot, fresh, and different.

Grand Flo Cafe (breakfast) - Always the best breakfast we have in Disney.

That's just some of them.

What am I used to eating at home?

Well, I just had filet and crab cakes at the Bonefish Grill last night. It's the best restaurant in our area with the freshest seafood, and best cuts of meat. I like good food, and this place has it.

I also like the Palm Restaurant. We go to one in NYC, but also loved the one at Universal.

Emeril's Chop House - Just opened up in our area. Fantastic seafood. Much better than the Emeril's at Universal.

So, you can see, I do eat at some incredible restaurants at home, and I feel that many like Narcoossee's, Cali Grill, etc. easily stand up to them.

[wdw_bound]

1900 Park Faire was a good breakfast, honestly how could you ruin that..

Actually, they figured out a way. We went for breakfast on our last trip, and the ham was still refrigerated cold in the middle, but hot on the outside . I brought it to the server's attention, and she just shrugged. One of the other servers overheard and had it taken off the buffet. It was brought back out while I was at the buffet, only to be taken immediately back to the kitchen after one of the staff touched a slice (there's this neat invention called a thermometer, folks...). On top of this, the potatoes were undercooked, and there was half an omelet under our table...

We have dined at 1900 PF for the last time, and actively advise friends against it as well.

[sizzle]

hey hey hey, did we meet you by the pool in POFQ?
I agree. Towards the end of our trip we were devastated to even pay the tip for these dinners. I was glad it ended on a good note at Grand floridian cafe or I might have cancelled my december trip altogether. The kind of saved the magic for us. From now on I will def. not be randomly "trying" new foods down there. I think that Walt, himself, would be quite ashamed right now.

yes we did meet at the pool. I just signed in as a user after we spoke that night. Hope you all have a better time in Dec

[sizzle]

I don't know what to say.We've never had a bad meal in Disney World.We did have a real snotty waiter at the Cali Grill but the food was great.I've had meals that we liked better than others but no meals that were bad.Even the CS places have been good for the most part.I think it has more to do with timing than the DDP.It's a shame that the OP had so many bad meals but we've been there for the free dining twice and never had an issue,other than the places being very packed.It does seem that alot of the menus have become generic and I wish that they would get there creativity back but we still enjoy Disney dining.

I guess I'm basing alot of this years experience on past meals. I have to agree that I had very good experiences in the past. It has been two years since I have been to Disney. It seems there is a remarkable difference from two years ago until now

[lockedoutlogic]

Oh sure, no problem....

2 dinners at Narcoossee's

Cali Grill

'Ohana (breakfast and dinner) - breakfast was good, dinner was excellent. Meats were cooked perfectly, and food was abundant.

V&A (well, it's NEVER anything but amazing here)

Teppan Edo - perfectly cooked/seasoned food. Lots of it. Great chef.

Le Cellier - Filet was huge and cooked exactly the way I love it. Cheese soup was perfect, as usual. Trois Pistoles beer is heaven.

Nine Dragons - Excellent food, as always. Our server was so much fun, and very friendly.

Fulton's Crab House (lunch) - Always have an excellent meal here.

Donald's Safari Breakfast - Delicious, hot, fresh, and different.

Grand Flo Cafe (breakfast) - Always the best breakfast we have in Disney.

That's just some of them.

What am I used to eating at home?

Well, I just had filet and crab cakes at the Bonefish Grill last night. It's the best restaurant in our area with the freshest seafood, and best cuts of meat. I like good food, and this place has it.

I also like the Palm Restaurant. We go to one in NYC, but also loved the one at Universal.

Emeril's Chop House - Just opened up in our area. Fantastic seafood. Much better than the Emeril's at Universal.

So, you can see, I do eat at some incredible restaurants at home, and I feel that many like Narcoossee's, Cali Grill, etc. easily stand up to them.

That about covers it.....

Though i do contest that NYC is "in the area" of Northeast Pa

Some of the locations you mentioned are the best at WDW....others i find highly and universally overrated (narcoosee's and le cellier)

My wife and i are deciding where to go for the "no kids" meal this winter on our next trip....haven't been to california grill (other than a wedding reception) in about 5 years so that is the early favorite...artist's point...VandA...Jiko also right there (i think VandA will win out....if things go my way)

We had dinner at Ohana last April and the experience was TERRIBLE....food was average at best....so i guess we're all hit or miss.

[4myprincesses]

We just got back from a stay at POFQ. We have been going in September every year for 6 or 7 years now as well as a trip or two inbetween. We have been there during hurricanes, holiday crowds, slow times, and the tail end of spring break.

All that to say, this was some of the worst dining we have had. Not all of it was bad though.

The good:

Tokyo Dining, if you like Japanese food this is a great stop. Service is excellent, view is perfect, sushi is fresh and tasty, restuarant and bathrooms clean and updated...really, nothing to complain about here at all.

Liberty Tree Tavern, we ate lunch here and loved it (as always.) The staff is on the ball at this restaurant. Our table had two highchairs and a spoon and napkin for the little ones in our group without us even having to ask for it. Sounds minor, but every other restaurant we went to we had to take away the knife from their place setting and move the setting out of reach or we had to ask for silverware and napkins for them and either stand waiting for the highchairs while they brought them or had to ask again for them. Our server had our shared meals split in the kitchen, accomodations were easily made for an allergy, the place was clean, service friendly, the table was kept cleared, extra plates were automatically brought for the twins, and our drinks were always refilled. The food here is filling and good, though not outstanding (we were so sad to see the crab-cake was gone and the shortcake changed.) Hands down it was the best service we received our entire trip, if you have Teresa as your waitress your in for a treat, ask her to teach you the princess wave.

The Wave, I was nervous about this one with the up and down reviews, but we really liked it. The small-bite desserts were very good, the coffee is very good, fish was cooked perfectly, pork juicy and flavorful, and the kids were well accomodated as well.) Service was good (not the best, but pretty good) and the restaurant was clean and a quiet change after two character meals. We will go back here again.

The so-so:

Crystal Palace, love the food, hate the noise. I hope during the refurb they install something to help absorb then noise as it is so noisy in here. We do like how there are two buffet lines to accomodate the crowd. The food here was the same good food it has always been (except for no tropical slaw.) The reason I rated it so-so was because it is worn looking and the service is really hit and miss. The bathrooms are tiny and let's face it, character meals come with children running about all over. I know, it's Disney, but I have four girls ages 3-8 and they know that in a park it is okay to run about, not a restuarant.

Chefs de France, food was good but not great, service was good but not great. Just so-so. We might go back, might not, it really was just fine but nothing that really makes you want to tell everyone they should try it.

The bad:

1900 was awful. Service was the only saving grace here and that was barelly. Again, character meal so there were kids everywhere, characters were okay. The food not so good. This buffet is set up awful. It is arranged by region the food is from (though I didn't find anything that tasted authentic.) So each "region" had a couple hot dishes and a cold dish. People roam in and out, there is no directional line for the buffet. The result at 6PM for dinner was just a mess. The salmon was the only thing that I even wanted another taste of and there were a few things (all of the desserts...every single one) that I didn't even eat. We have been there before and honestly do not care to ever go back. The noise and confusion is doable if the food were good, but the whole point is to eat and most of it was just not edible (unless you like unseasoned dishes, tough/dry meat, dry bread pudding, and the afore mentioned rice cereal treats that were just plain awful.)

Cape May was the worst we had overall, enough that we asked to talk to a manager. We were here 2 hours....for a buffet! we were seated fairly quickly, but had to ask for highchairs (even though it was noted on our reservation that we needed them and confirmed at check-in.) We were given the impression we were putting them out having to get high chairs! Then the waitress took all of the napkins and silverware I put out of the girls' way so they could color. I had to ask three times and it was 30 minutes later until we had silverware for them, before that I gave them some finger foods. If that wasn't enough we saw new food being put on top of old food which would explain why my cornbread was so tough that I could knock on the table with it. We rarely saw our server, she acted like she could care less to wait on us and would rather chat with other staff. The clams/mussles were tough and just didn't taste right, though the clam chowder was wonderful. Desserts were good, but no plates for them, apparently they think desserts are look not touch after a certain hour. Maybe we would have gotten to them if we had silverware to start our meal with. Manager was nice, wanted to take server's tip off our bill, but that was not what we were looking for. I really think this place has a management problem if they are allowing food not to be rotated out properly, no plates are being re-stocked at the dessert station for an hours time, the servers visiting with each other instead of serving the customer, and so on. I hope we just hit a bad night, but we will not be back.

Counter service is always a mixed boat, but it has always been that way and we have favorites we keep coming back to. The hamburgers this time were different and we didn't like them so that was a bit disappointing. The POFQ food court we loved. There are some things there we just don't eat, but things like the chicken parmesean, the chicken and ribs, etc. are very good and very filling. The best counter we have found is Wolfgang Puck Cafe. Excellent service, even better food. Really, this is a gem of a place. The alfredo chicken with salad, the various pizzas, the roasted chicken and mashed potatoes, tropical tea, creme brulee, I could go on and on, but it really was that good!

We are a group of six, not the easiest to accomodate and I try to be understanding to that end. I have worked in a restaurant for 15 years so it isn't like I run someone to death. I let them know upfront what we need and am understanding if it takes a few minutes or they forget. Things get crazy fast during a supper hour. Not getting silverware at a buffet TS for a half hour though is inexcusable, especially with asking three times. We aren't picky eaters, the only allergy we have to watch is an easy one I can usually tell by looking at the menu, and we always leave extra tip money as serving is hard work. This time there were two places we didn't tip extra at two places and I am not ashamed to say it...in fact 18% was more than enough for the one.

Overall, though, our experience was a positive one or at least as good as we expected. You hate to let one bad penny tarnish the rest. I will be writing a note to Disney about our best and worst experiences...they need to know these things!