Help! How's the Coral Reef??

[dsnyfan001]

Hey All!

I have been to disney over 10 times but the sad thing is I never stayed on the property. I finally booked and going in September and I am staying at the ALL STAR MOVIE RESORT CANT WAIT!! Anyways, never ate at the restauraunts and I booked the Coral Reef what is your opinion on this place??? I heard good but for the peeps that dine at disney alot, gotta have some good comments so please share!! I would love to hear! Thanks:mickey:

Jill

[nyobabe2]

I'll tell you, we booked the Coral Reef for our grand gathering on the last night of our trip and I was really nervous because of all of the negative reviews. Let me just tell you...it was so relaxing to be in this restaurant and if you know dining in disney you know it's anything but relaxing. Just looking at the tank was so mesmerizing watching the divers and fish was wonderful and the kids got such a kick out of it. As for the food, All 12 of us had a really great meal. You know it's tough, I can tell you this and someone else may have gone there on an off day and had a junkie meal and give you a different vibe of the place.
All you can do is take a chance with any of these places but to me, this was one of the better ones we ate at for sure. Hope I helped! Enjoy!!:thumbsup:

[RockinRollerMom]

I am a fan of the Coral Reef. We dined there last year with a party of 9. Every-one enjoyed their meal. (I got the alaska king crab-YUM!) The service wasn't the best, but like I said we were a party of nine and we had the last ressie of the night. I'd definetly go back there again. (Unfortunetly I don't think I'm going to be able to fit it into my next trip:pout:)

[brewcrew26]

We dined at Coral Reef a long time ago but the service and the food were excellent. Like someone else said it is very relaxing and mesmerizing to look in the tank. I was fairly young when we went and it was a great attention keeper for a kid, plus the waiters were very child friendly -- I remember them bringing me a special drink of some sort for free.

But that was a long time ago, so I can't attest to any of comments of service declining or the quality of the food. I'd like to try it again in the future, but since I lived in Boston, I'm so picky about fresh seafood now.

[Seasonscraps]

We really enjoyed our meal at the Coral Reef. We had a bit of a wait but once we sat down it was wonderful - the food was delish, we weren't rushed nor did we have to look for the waiter, the atmosphere can't be beat. As it is mentioned above - the tank is mezmarizing.

Enjoy!

[Natazu]

Coral Reef (Table Service) ☺☺☺☻
This used to be a 4 and a half smiley face restaurant. What happened? In a nutshell (in a fish tank actually), the dining plan. Now I’m not one to blame the dining plan for a restaurants shortcomings so let me explain… no, not enough room. Let me sum-up. Once Coral Reef went from Signature Service to Table Service, some unpleasant things happened. More families started to come in elevating the noise level way beyond the room’s ability for acoustical suppression. Then, lobster and filet left the menu permanently. There’s still a great NY Strip. I can give kudos to the Grilled Mahi and Blackened Catfish but nothing comes close to replacing the lobster. They continue to offer the best creamy lobster soup in central Florida (guess they found enough lobster for that). For dessert, the Chocolate Wave is worth at least half a smiley face on its own. We still go to Coral Reef once or twice a year but it’s no longer on the must-do list. Even with the changes, it's one of the best non-signature restaurants at WDW.

[Charlee]

Last year we were in the same boat as you as it was the first time we were on property for the whole of our vacation and the first time we tried many TS places!

We loved the Coral Reef and none of my family either likes sea food and my dad cannot eat sea food! Instead we all enjoyed the NY Strip Steak and the yummy chocolate wave which is to die for :cloud9:

We loved the atmosphere and got great service - he was attentive and informative without hovering over us and I know we gave him a good tip! :thumbsup:

The Coral Reef was the one ADR I was forced to make by the rest of the family for our June trip!

[cal5755]

My mom and I really enjoyed it during our last trip in Nov. We have ADR's for our Grand Gathering in Sept.

My opinion is always this.... you have to try it for yourself at least once. Everyone has different opinions so you have to form your own.

We thought it was relaxing and enjoyed watching the fish float by. Our food was delicious, the chocolate wave outstanding and our waiter Alejandro was great!!

Have fun!!

[epceddie]

My wife and I had a great meal at Coral Reef on our honeymoon in October.
Neither of us are big seafood fans, but we loved the lobster bisque. We both had steaks that were delicious and cooked perfectly.
We were lucky to get a table right next to the aquarium and our waiter was excellent.
I've eaten there three times and have never been disappointed. I really like the atmosphere.
I always go for lunch and make reservations for as early as possible. The prices are lower than dinner and I've never had to wait that long to be seated.
Hope this helps. Enjoy yourselves!

[MickeyandTink]

We ate dinner there last year and I would say it's so-so.

The pros - It is almost like being inside an aquarium (especially if you seated next to the glass like we were.) Also, we didn't find the seating to be overly crowded or too noisy.

The cons - The food quality was not bad, but very limited. I had the crab legs, which while they were fairly tasty, had nothing else on the plate but crab legs. Also, the service was exceedingly slow. We had ADR's for 6:15 so we could go to see the eat to the beat concert after dinner. It was after 8:30 before we could get out of the restaurant. Long story short, we ended up missing almost the entire show and DW and I had a bit of a tiff as a result of the rush to get over to it.

In sum, we will probably try it again some day, but it is not on our must-do list.

[boobalk]

We've ate there several times. The atmosphere is wonderful. The kids loved it when the divers in the tank would swim up to the glass and wave at them. The food was good. Our only beef was that they change their menu often. So our faves from one trip aren't usually available when we go back. I have to say though, our last visit there was less than desireable. The food wasn't very well prepared, and the service was less than what you expect from WDW. :confused: So we'll probably skip this one next time around.:(

[disneyfankev]

went there last year the atmosphere is great food was good

[LandFan]

Coral Reef (Table Service) ☺☺☺☻
so let me explain… no, not enough room. Let me sum-up.

Nice Princess Bride reference :D

Now THAT's a great movie :thumbsup:

[JasonH]

I give Coral Reef :thumbsup::thumbsup:, but I'm also partial to seafood as well, so that does have some credence to it. However, I've only been there twice, once with the fam when I was in high school and the other time on a solo trip about 5 years ago. I wasn't disappointed at all. In fact, on my solo trip visit, I had the earliest dinner reservation. I was seated right next to the aquarium, had a wonderful waiter and had the most wonderful meal, albeit most expensive meal of my life as well. But to me, the experience was worth every penny I paid for and then some. To put it in other words, I was on :cloud9:

[GrmGrninGost]

The Coral Reef is one of our 3 or 4 favorites! The food is excellent and the atmosphere is fantastic! We love watching the fish swimming around while we dine! :mickey:

[TheMartellFamily]

We too have never been and we are soooo looking forward to go there with our big group of 19 in Sept. There is something for everyone and even better yet one in our group will be haveing a b-day that day and it is her b-day meal. Yes there have been some neg reviews but then since I have not tried it, it has not stopped us. We dislike some restaurants while everybody loves them and we are in the minority. You need to try then you can then choose which way your vote will sway. Good luck and enjoy I know we will.

[gmgdisneymom]

I am so glad you asked about the Coral Reef, we willl be eating there in October and I was a little leery after the reviews too. Now I am more looking forward to it

[AlliMo]

the atmosphere and the "wave' are the two reasons you should go. The food is sort of hit or miss....not bad but not amazing. I don't remember any issues with the service. The last time I was there I had very inappropriate kid jumping up behind us and throwing and touching things on our table. But like I said before, the atmosphere and the wave make up for it!

[Mickey91]

We have eaten there on our last two trips. It is one of our very favorite places to go. The fish are awesome to watch!!!:mickey:

[4myprincesses]

Ate there today and it was pretty good. We were there for lunch. I had the Lobster Salad (think chicken salad but oh so much more tasty and elegent (??) with some greens, baguette toasted, and the lovely lobster soup) and mom had the pork chop. Both plates looked and tasted wonderful. The sea and land appetizer was perfect, the mango sorbet ok, wish I had gotten the wave.

Kids meals have great portion sizes and are flexible on sides. Very accomodating to children, though I hated to see all the people taking advantage of that. If one of my princesses starts getting out of line one of us takes the offending princess outside until she calms down and is ready to eat. To me it's simply being polite, however others seem to think it's okay for their kids to scream repeatedly for long periods of time and climb all over the place. Don't get me wrong, kids are kids and they are going to yell or make noise, but we are just the type that removes ours when they are just out of hand. Off soapbox, back on topic.

I would recommend trying Coral Reef. The food is tasty, atmosphere is great, though the serivce is a little slow. It looked to me that perhaps the servers were handling one too many tables. For the price of food and therefore reflected tip, I expect a bit more attentive servie than our server was able to give with the other tables he was assigned. So I guess if you want a filling, tasty meal in the aquarium atmosphere and aren't in a hurry it's a good fit.

[LandFan]

Oh, yeah, I forgot to say that we really liked the COral Reef! We ate their for our anniversary dinner last year and the catfish was FABULOUS! I also got them to make the personalized menu and have the diver hold up a sign to surprise DH :D He welled up with tears:cloud9:

[Clotho]

We have only been one time, and our impressions were:

Beautiful restaurant. Worth going at least once just to see it--amazing tank and fish!

Very noisy. Someone noted before that since they designed the restaurant to be signature (more adults), but it is now a regular table service, the noise from kids yelling, running around, etc was very very loud. We chose a late seating specifically to reduce chances of having tons of kids there. But alas, no chance at a romantic meal here. Even an 8:45 seating was packed with unruly rugrats.

Food so-so. The menu was very limited, and both our meals were not what we expected for the price. Lest you think it is a Seattlite getting snooty over seafood (we can do that, we have some of the best), while I did have a seafood pasta, hubby had a steak. My pasta was not good. Like bad flavor not good. And hubby's steak was thin, overcooked, limp.

Service was pretty good. Our server was kind and knowledgeable, though a little slow on the service. She suggested a lovely wine which we still enjoy at home now to this day as a result.

Conclusion? We might go back someday, if we hear the chef has changed. And be ready for lots of kids and not plan on too much romance.