Am I Alone... WDW Food is BAD

[KikoKea]

I have never gone to WDW for the food all I want is half way decent food at a reasonable price

I agree. Paying $$ for food we don't enjoy quickly gets that TS/QS marked off our list (lookin' at you, Pizza Planet/Rizzo's Pizza!). We've found places that have OK food, and we stick with them, occasionally trying something new, if it appeals to us. This is an area where Disney needs to up it's game (but please don't up the prices!)

 

[righttrack]

But is that the case for the higher end restaurants? I don’t see how the Cali Grill sears and serves more guests per day than any restaurant in a major American city. The QS locations... yes, that’s huge.

You have to look at it holistically. Cali Grill is part of this giant conglomeration with a single supply chain and single cadre of chefs and practices. Your local higher end restaurant may be part of a restaurant group, but it's certainly smaller than WDW as a whole. It's as if all of WDW is one restaurant, serving a large banquet across all of the parks. That's what I mean when I mean scale. Ingredients are sourced internally. Certainly Cali Grill has some unique ingredients but there is likely a single buyer group, warehouse, etc. A chef at Cali Grill likely had a career path that may have started cooking for a quick service for example and worked their way up, or they were an outside hire from a fine dining establishment.

 

[Stellajack]

I'm really not interested in trying every "high end" restaurant that Disney has to offer since the food experience is not why my DH and I travel there. However, there are 4 places that we have decided not to book again, none of which are signature restaurants.
Tony's Town Square in MK (our food was not even on a par with a QS), Rainforest Cafe (don't even want to discuss this one), Mama Melrose (a fan favorite so I won't bash it). The last is the Kona Cafe at the Polynesian. We had read so much about the coffee and Tonga Toast that we decided to do breakfast there on our "resort-non-park day. The Tonga Toast was so tough that I had trouble cutting it, and the coffee (french pressed) was unremarkable in every way. We do admit that we had unreasonable expectations for the coffee since our coffee beans are roasted right at home. I simply checked these experiences off as "lessons learned" and don't expect others to agree with me on quality of food, service, or price.

 

[Phonedave]

Again, it sounds, (and I may be wrong), like you are making a broad statement based on a small sample size. Try the resent
DFB item of "What not to eat in Disney World". One of the items it notes are the downsides of Chef Mickey's. Just to let you
know, I know not all food in WDW is great or worth the price, overall, however, I do not think it qualifies as bad.

I think we agree here. I don't find food at WDW in general bad. Most of it is pretty good in fact. However, it is not great, not memorable, and way overpriced, even for a theme park. That has been my assertion all along. I will even eat the creme brulee at WDW. It's not so bad that it's inedible, it's just not the be-all end-all of creme brulee, and it's also overpriced.

 

[OG Runner]

I think we agree here. I don't find food at WDW in general bad. Most of it is pretty good in fact. However, it is not great, not memorable, and way overpriced, even for a theme park. That has been my assertion all along. I will even eat the creme brulee at WDW. It's not so bad that it's inedible, it's just not the be-all end-all of creme brulee, and it's also overpriced.

Thank you for a well defined opinion. I think in a number of cases we can agree that WDW food in not the be-all and end-all of food.

 

[righttrack]

I'm really not interested in trying every "high end" restaurant that Disney has to offer since the food experience is not why my DH and I travel there. However, there are 4 places that we have decided not to book again, none of which are signature restaurants.
Tony's Town Square in MK (our food was not even on a par with a QS), Rainforest Cafe (don't even want to discuss this one), Mama Melrose (a fan favorite so I won't bash it). The last is the Kona Cafe at the Polynesian. We had read so much about the coffee and Tonga Toast that we decided to do breakfast there on our "resort-non-park day. The Tonga Toast was so tough that I had trouble cutting it, and the coffee (french pressed) was unremarkable in every way. We do admit that we had unreasonable expectations for the coffee since our coffee beans are roasted right at home. I simply checked these experiences off as "lessons learned" and don't expect others to agree with me on quality of food, service, or price.

I know it may be blasphemous to say but I agree with you on Kona Cafe a bit. It's a bit like a standard, high end hotel lobby restaurant (which is really what it is). WDW should definitely tour the various brunch houses around the US which have grown in popularity and use those as a model for it's next generation Kona Cafe. I'm sure that a lot of these places have that appeal to WDW purists who want to come again and again for the same things, but like all things nostalgic, some things are worth keeping and others are worth letting go to establish new favorites. They could leave Tonga Toast alone, swap out the rest of the entire menu (day and night) and be fine.

 

[OG Runner]

The Youtube video I referenced by DFB, pretty much noted Kona Café is trying to be something that it isn't. They noted
they have a $95.00 steak there that really is not worth it.

 

[The Colonel]

Le Cellier used to be great. But it succumbed to the inexorable law of Disney Diminishing Returns. It is a classic example.

 

[StarshipDisney]

Why didn't you return the sandwich and ask for a refund or replacement?

Because I was so disgusted with the sandwich, I had taken a small bite out of it, the line was long, and at the time I just did not feel like making a scene. If I had gone up front I would have demanded the manager and only the manager. So I felt it was better to just leave and not press it.

 

[Familyof5]

WDW caters to the majority and of course options for children; so menus reflect ...but, there are exceptions for us older kids.

Try Jiko...I would travel just to eat there. And while you are there, Sanaah.
MK - Jungle Navigation Company
AK - Satuli Canteen
EP - Morroco

 

[CAV]

OK, would people please read my posts for comprehension before misquoting them? I never said my dinner at Ruth's Chris was $600. I do my best never to eat at Ruth's Chris. This is the actual quote:

"As for the prices? It's rare for my husband and I to go out to eat at a "regular" restaurant for less than a $100. Nicer restaurants in our area generally in the $200-600 range for both of us. The menus are often limited to 4-5 entree options. For us, most of the Disney restaurants fall under the regular pricing for a sit-down restaurant."

So, what restaurant did you pay $600 at and how many were at the table?

 

[xdan0920]

So, what restaurant did you pay $600 at and how many were at the table?

:frantically starts googling menus in some random US metropolis:

 

[xdan0920]

They did nail a few items of real food in the list, but I don't think I will be using DFB as a touchstone anytime soon.

I honestly wouldn’t be surprised to find out that the Disney Food Blog was now a wholly owned subsidiary of TWDC.

Kinda like how Ab-InBev owns “October” then claims it’s an unbiased beer mag.

 

[PixarPerfect]

LOL, there's no need for me to frantically Google anything as I was at the meals (for 2). Since you express such disbelief that meals for 2 could cost upwards of $200 in a major USA city, then giving you the restaurant names won't help you much as they'll be completely foreign to you. They aren't chains, after all.

But since you are so completely stunned by rather common upscale restaurant pricing, let's look at Disney's own Victoria & Albert. It is close to $470 for 2 people ($235 each), pre-tip / tax and without drinks ($587.50 with tip). If one adds in the wine pairings it comes close to $1,000 for 2 people, with tip. You can verify these prices yourself. V&A is hardly the only upscale restaurant in the country.

 

[crispy]

Then you really are no judge of the current quality of the item. (Check out the Disney Food Blog) They do very honest reviews
of all of the restaurants noting the quality of the food as well as the price.

I enjoy the Disney Food Blog, but it is not an unbiased source and rarely has anything negative to say about Disney. I woke up to that fact when they posted a rave reviews years ago about a bag of nachos and a cup of processed cheese that you can buy in the grocery store.

 

[crispy]

Again, it sounds, (and I may be wrong), like you are making a broad statement based on a small sample size. Try the resent
DFB item of "What not to eat in Disney World". One of the items it notes are the downsides of Chef Mickey's. Just to let you
know, I know not all food in WDW is great or worth the price, overall, however, I do not think it qualifies as bad.

So a person who has had multiple bad experiences with the same food item should continue to order it to get a better sample size? That is the very definition of crazy.

 

[Isramom]

Reading about how a lot of people find regular Disney food to be lacking, I'm feeling less disappointed knowing that my prepackaged, sealed, microwaved kosher meals reportedly won't taste amazing. All the TS restaurants offer the same kosher options: a basic chicken meal, a basic beef meal, a basic salmon meal and a vegetarian lasagna. I think the QS places at the parks and resorts have prepackaged chicken nuggets, hot dogs and pizza. It doesn't matter where I eat because the food choices are the same, so I'm in it for the character experiences and the atmosphere. I'm hoping to find kosher plain orange juice at Oga's. I reserved there just to make sure to get into the Land.

Not that kosher food can't be amazing. It can! For lunch today, I just had a hot roasted portobello and herb sandwich on fresh multigrain bread topped with a perfectly fried egg and a side of flavorful salad with creamy garlic dressing. At a local cafe in my Israel city.

 

[mdcpr]

Reading about how a lot of people find regular Disney food to be lacking, I'm feeling less disappointed knowing that my prepackaged, sealed, microwaved kosher meals reportedly won't taste amazing. All the TS restaurants offer the same kosher options: a basic chicken meal, a basic beef meal, a basic salmon meal and a vegetarian lasagna. I think the QS places at the parks and resorts have prepackaged chicken nuggets, hot dogs and pizza. It doesn't matter where I eat because the food choices are the same, so I'm in it for the character experiences and the atmosphere. I'm hoping to find kosher plain orange juice at Oga's. I reserved there just to make sure to get into the Land.

Not that kosher food can't be amazing. It can! For lunch today, I just had a hot roasted portobello and herb sandwich on fresh multigrain bread topped with a perfectly fried egg and a side of flavorful salad with creamy garlic dressing. At a local cafe in my Israel city.

Kosher food can indeed be delicious, but I doubt it it will be that way in Orlando.

 

[Tiggerish]

Reading about how a lot of people find regular Disney food to be lacking, I'm feeling less disappointed knowing that my prepackaged, sealed, microwaved kosher meals reportedly won't taste amazing. All the TS restaurants offer the same kosher options: a basic chicken meal, a basic beef meal, a basic salmon meal and a vegetarian lasagna. I think the QS places at the parks and resorts have prepackaged chicken nuggets, hot dogs and pizza. It doesn't matter where I eat because the food choices are the same, so I'm in it for the character experiences and the atmosphere. I'm hoping to find kosher plain orange juice at Oga's. I reserved there just to make sure to get into the Land.

Not that kosher food can't be amazing. It can! For lunch today, I just had a hot roasted portobello and herb sandwich on fresh multigrain bread topped with a perfectly fried egg and a side of flavorful salad with creamy garlic dressing. At a local cafe in my Israel city.

My favorite “grab & go to eat on the plane” meal at LaGuardia’s CIBO Express is a kosher chicken & veggie sandwich. And I’m not even Jewish.

Your lunch today sounds amazing!!

 

[xdan0920]

LOL, there's no need for me to frantically Google anything as I was at the meals (for 2). Since you express such disbelief that meals for 2 could cost upwards of $200 in a major USA city, then giving you the restaurant names won't help you much as they'll be completely foreign to you. They aren't chains, after all.

But since you are so completely stunned by rather common upscale restaurant pricing, let's look at Disney's own Victoria & Albert. It is close to $470 for 2 people ($235 each), pre-tip / tax and without drinks ($587.50 with tip). If one adds in the wine pairings it comes close to $1,000 for 2 people, with tip. You can verify these prices yourself. V&A is hardly the only upscale restaurant in the country.

Well you said $600 not $200.

What city do you live in? I live 15 minutes from NYC. Maybe I can try some of the restaurants you recommend? I can also give you a recommendation or two if you’d like? Let’s trade stories.