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Narcocees or California Grill for brunch
- Thread starter Sunset7132
- Start date
Weather_Lady
Well-Known Member
We just did Brunch at the Top, for the first time (we've never even eaten at California Grill before), this past Sunday.
Perhaps our experience was anomalous, or perhaps it's just because I live in a geographical area (Finger Lakes Region of Upstate NY) that is chock-full amazing, upscale food that is locally-produced and inexpensive, but Brunch at the Top fell colossally short of expectations.
It started off poorly when the receptionist handed us off to the wrong staff member, who got flustered when she realized we weren't the family she was supposed to be seating, and unceremoniously pointed us back to the podium like naughty children being sent to the corner. We were never welcomed to the restaurant, or offered the complimentary cocktails that other guests were handed as they arrived. The person who seated us noticed my daughter and said they'd bring us a "children's menu," which never materialized, since there is none (something one would expect the staff of a signature restaurant to already know). After we were seated, there was a good 10-minute wait before our server arrived to deliver the most pretentious pour of water in human history, gushing as she filled our glasses from what looked like a plastic sports bottle, that "this water is triple filtered! TRIPLE! FILTERED! You can't get this just anywhere." Then she disappeared for 20 minutes, an act she would repeat throughout the meal.
As for the meal, the sushi and charcuterie and cheese were very good -- just very good, not great, and on par with what I can buy at my local Wegmans supermarket. I ordered the Eggs Benedict with poached lobster as my entree, and it had obvious problems: it was served open-faced, but the English muffin halves were raw instead of toasted, and only one of them had ham on it. While both pieces were topped with a nice-sized chunk of lobster, the lobster was overdone and rubbery (in fact, the lobster on the lobster roll I'd had at Columbia Harbor House the day before was infinitely better), and the Hollandaise was so thick that it was sitting in jiggly, upright glops, like congealed pudding, instead of sauce. Although the menu said the dish included marble potato hash, there was none on the plate. I didn't want to complain and be "that person," and by this time, I'd had a plate-full of sushi and salad and was feeling pretty full, but I couldn't get over how pathetic my entree was, and how bad the quality control in the kitchen must be for this to have made it out to me.
Ultimately, the best parts of the experience were the beautiful view and the delicious coffee, but by the time the check arrived, I felt like a complete fool. I'd known that in the case of my children, I'd be paying a ridiculous price for them to eat pancakes and bacon and bagels because that's all they'd be interested in, and I had accepted that. However, I had really expected that my own dining experience would be special, if not amazing, and it was sub-par in every way. Our first experience at a "signature" restaurant couldn't hold a candle (in terms of service and food quality) to the meals we'd had earlier in the week at Yak & Yeti and Via Napoli for a fraction of the price. I can say with complete confidence that we will never be back.
Perhaps our experience was anomalous, or perhaps it's just because I live in a geographical area (Finger Lakes Region of Upstate NY) that is chock-full amazing, upscale food that is locally-produced and inexpensive, but Brunch at the Top fell colossally short of expectations.
It started off poorly when the receptionist handed us off to the wrong staff member, who got flustered when she realized we weren't the family she was supposed to be seating, and unceremoniously pointed us back to the podium like naughty children being sent to the corner. We were never welcomed to the restaurant, or offered the complimentary cocktails that other guests were handed as they arrived. The person who seated us noticed my daughter and said they'd bring us a "children's menu," which never materialized, since there is none (something one would expect the staff of a signature restaurant to already know). After we were seated, there was a good 10-minute wait before our server arrived to deliver the most pretentious pour of water in human history, gushing as she filled our glasses from what looked like a plastic sports bottle, that "this water is triple filtered! TRIPLE! FILTERED! You can't get this just anywhere." Then she disappeared for 20 minutes, an act she would repeat throughout the meal.
As for the meal, the sushi and charcuterie and cheese were very good -- just very good, not great, and on par with what I can buy at my local Wegmans supermarket. I ordered the Eggs Benedict with poached lobster as my entree, and it had obvious problems: it was served open-faced, but the English muffin halves were raw instead of toasted, and only one of them had ham on it. While both pieces were topped with a nice-sized chunk of lobster, the lobster was overdone and rubbery (in fact, the lobster on the lobster roll I'd had at Columbia Harbor House the day before was infinitely better), and the Hollandaise was so thick that it was sitting in jiggly, upright glops, like congealed pudding, instead of sauce. Although the menu said the dish included marble potato hash, there was none on the plate. I didn't want to complain and be "that person," and by this time, I'd had a plate-full of sushi and salad and was feeling pretty full, but I couldn't get over how pathetic my entree was, and how bad the quality control in the kitchen must be for this to have made it out to me.
Ultimately, the best parts of the experience were the beautiful view and the delicious coffee, but by the time the check arrived, I felt like a complete fool. I'd known that in the case of my children, I'd be paying a ridiculous price for them to eat pancakes and bacon and bagels because that's all they'd be interested in, and I had accepted that. However, I had really expected that my own dining experience would be special, if not amazing, and it was sub-par in every way. Our first experience at a "signature" restaurant couldn't hold a candle (in terms of service and food quality) to the meals we'd had earlier in the week at Yak & Yeti and Via Napoli for a fraction of the price. I can say with complete confidence that we will never be back.
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Cal grill is the most overrated restaurant at Disney.... Outside of V&A, you are not going to find places that you would in Boston, Napa, Chicago, NYC, LA ect ect.... In the bubble you pay prices, you never would in the real world for quality/service.
Weather_Lady
Well-Known Member
I understand your point. I truly wasn't expecting the food to be "worth" $80 per person in the real world -- but for those prices, I thought it was at least guaranteed to be good (i.e., not overcooked, not poorly executed, not missing bits of the dish, and served with a modicum of professionalism and care). I don't think that expectation was unreasonable, and at all of the other restaurants we enjoyed while at WDW, that same expectation was met and/or exceeded.
The fact that we got better-prepared food and more attentive service at Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater than at Cali-effin-fornia Grill just stunned me. And after the way I'd talked it up to my family ahead of time... I know my reaction probably sounds hyperbolic, but candidly, I'm just terribly embarrassed. It feels like that episode of The Middle when the mother springs for a new dining table and chairs online, and is all excited and can't wait for it to arrive, and discards their old dining set thinking that she's done such a great thing for her family... and then the new one arrives and turns out to be a dining set for a dollhouse. I guess you could say that Brunch at the Top is my dollhouse dining set.
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Sorry to hear that... Sucks.
slipperalwaysfits
Well-Known Member
Sorry for your lackluster experience! I know from your previous posts, you were really looking forward to brunch there! I'm glad you had a good experience at the Sci-Fi! 
@Weather_Lady
@Weather_Lady