crispy
Well-Known Member
In relation to WDW, I think service is the deciding factor to me. Most of the restaurants at WDW (with a few exceptions) are good, not great. I think service is what tends to set some of the restaurants apart from others because most people are looking their for an experience and not just dinner.
For example, this past trip, we went to The Garden Grill for dinner. The food was good, but the waiter was exceptional and really went above and beyond to make sure we had a great experience. He brought my girls a special dessert just to be nice, he made sure we had everything we need quickly, and he didn't hover. We were also seated in a timely manner by a very friendly hostess, the character interaction was great, and the character handlers and staff were really on the ball. For example, while Mickey was at our table, a couple of children wandered into the restaurant (we were right at the entrance at that point and it's easy to do) and started trying to get pictures with him. The character handler and hostess handled it immediately in a very kind and firm way. Overall, the food was good, but the service made the experience exceptional. It's now a new "must-do" restaurant for us.
On the other hand, we also did the Tusker House character lunch. I am a huge fan of the food at Tusker House, but the lunch was complete chaos from check-in to paying the bill. The set-up for check-in was a disaster. As we stood in line to check-in, they were pulling people behind us to check-in at another kiosk meaning they were getting checked-in and seated before us even though we had been there longer. It would have made more sense to grab the next few people in line. It didn't get much better when we were in the restaurant. The waiter was okay, but not very helpful overall. The character interaction was a disaster. We waited and waited (as did many others). They kept pulling the characters to go spend time with angry customers while leaving the rest of us to wait and wait. Fortunately, the food was excellent. We will definitely go back for the non-character dinner, but we probably won't do any character meals there because of the not-so-great service.
For example, this past trip, we went to The Garden Grill for dinner. The food was good, but the waiter was exceptional and really went above and beyond to make sure we had a great experience. He brought my girls a special dessert just to be nice, he made sure we had everything we need quickly, and he didn't hover. We were also seated in a timely manner by a very friendly hostess, the character interaction was great, and the character handlers and staff were really on the ball. For example, while Mickey was at our table, a couple of children wandered into the restaurant (we were right at the entrance at that point and it's easy to do) and started trying to get pictures with him. The character handler and hostess handled it immediately in a very kind and firm way. Overall, the food was good, but the service made the experience exceptional. It's now a new "must-do" restaurant for us.
On the other hand, we also did the Tusker House character lunch. I am a huge fan of the food at Tusker House, but the lunch was complete chaos from check-in to paying the bill. The set-up for check-in was a disaster. As we stood in line to check-in, they were pulling people behind us to check-in at another kiosk meaning they were getting checked-in and seated before us even though we had been there longer. It would have made more sense to grab the next few people in line. It didn't get much better when we were in the restaurant. The waiter was okay, but not very helpful overall. The character interaction was a disaster. We waited and waited (as did many others). They kept pulling the characters to go spend time with angry customers while leaving the rest of us to wait and wait. Fortunately, the food was excellent. We will definitely go back for the non-character dinner, but we probably won't do any character meals there because of the not-so-great service.