Do bad reviews make your dining decisions?

Have you ever gone to a Disney restaurant with bad review and had a good experience?

  • Yes

  • No

Results are only viewable after voting.
For sure - we like to try different things and everyone has different tastes. ( Or levels of expectations ).
 
Maybe

I am here enough to see the good and the bad. If there starts to be a trend of not so good, that will influence me

One bad review from a place I have experienced, probably not
 
Yes. Reviews on sites like this aren’t very usable. You tend to get the negativite reviews rather than positives. We make up our own minds and have had only a very few bad meals over 26 years.
 
I feel the Disney masses tastes are considerably different than my own for the most part. Most visitors to WDW seem to be from the east coast or Midwest and some of the southern states. I'm from the southwest. When I travel to many of those areas I find the food rather bland and boring rather than the big and bold I'm used to. Instead there's more meat, potatoes and bread than in the southwest. Spicy means it has salt and pepper! lol. The restaurants that get high marks have menus with those same type of menu items and thus generally not what I prefer.
 


I don't pay attention to reviews (I do love reading them) and decide where I want to eat and go from there. I would rather find out for myself instead of believing the review.

There are some reviewers that, in my opinion, are natural complainers. If the food isn't gourmet top notch food they will complain. I just chuckle when i read those reviews.

We actually really enjoy Chef Mickey's. We've eaten there 3 times and never had a bad meal. Yes it's chaotic and noisy but the food has always been fresh, hot and the buffet area clean. We've also had a great meals at Le Cellier, Ohana and many other places people hate.
 
Cooth said:
Would you ever go to a Disney sit down restaurant knowing it had bad reviews just for the experience or atmosphere?
Click to expand...
OP, bad reviews exist for every restaurant at Disney World. Keep in mind that a restaurant being booked out does not equate to it having great food. At Disney there is a combination of things that can make a place popular from characters, theming, location/view, Wishes viewing or other viewing, past reputation before dining plans, family traditions (start/end vacation), special event/menu or dining plans. Also, notice the array of responses you will find/read on restaurants. If you love to try a place then by all means try it. On the other hand keep in mind the trends you can read/see over the years as there is a level of truth contained within their message. While certain restaurants can provide satisfactory experiences there may be other better choices. Overall, take note dining at Disney has primary performers and others are hit and miss dining destinations. The challenge is understanding and determining one from the other as many have place appeal of a dining destination on factors outside of food quality and service.
 
I read reviews here, on Trip Advisor, Yelp and other places but. I always take them with a grain of salt. If something seems good me, they don’t normally impact my decision. Exceptions are when there are way more negative reviews than positive.
 


No. You should try things for yourself. We avoided places due to reviews, but finally decided to try for ourselves. We found that we were usually happy with our choice to give those places a try. There was at least one that I can think of that we weren't that happy with, but we satisfied our curiosity.
 
Generally, no I don't let reviews determine where I will eat. There will always be positive and negative reviews for any restaurant, I'd rather determine it for myself.
 
I'll just say this: Tony's is my daughter's favorite restaurant on property, and I've never had a "bad" meal there. Is it fantastic, top of the line? No. But it's fine.
 
Locally, I've found I can trust Yelp reviews. With Disney it's different, many things color the reviews posted, and some of the restaurants that get trashed are among my favorites.
Marrakesh, I've eaten there since it opened, I love the "it's not authentic" comments, having been to Morocco and having an Aunt who taught me to make Moroccan cous-cous, that statement makes me laugh every time. I've always had very good meals at Le Cellier, people thought it was the cat's meow years back, because it was a cheap 1TS credit for the filet! Now, it's not worth the gum you scrape off the sole of your shoe, because it's 2TS credits. I still enjoy it. Nine Dragons, several excellent meals, beyond reproach service! Chef Mickey's... and the like Disney buffets, you're there mostly for the show/characters etc. Having realistic expectations, knowing that the $$$ spent don't necessarily correlate, it's Disney but it's a theme park with hoards of people to satisfy!

Foodies, picky eaters, experienced palates, food snobs, argh, who cares, I don't judge, personally I love 5 star restaurants but I'll still eat Craft Mac & Cheese and hot dogs (Casey's in Oct)!
 
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We’ve experienced some pretty bad service at Disney restaurants. So when there are several bad reviews regarding this type of thing we do take notice. It will effect us making and/or keeping reservations with a new to us place or a place we haven’t been in awhile.

We pay less attention to someone saying they didn’t like the food if the menu looks appealing. However, we will read what people think and we will take it into consideration.
 
I don't pay a whole lot of attention to the reviews when I make my choices on where we are actually going to eat. There are places that constantly get bad reviews that I like and vice versa.

Plus there are some I eat at for other reasons ... I like Chef Mickey's on Christmas Day ... seeing the Fab Five ... going after Mass, etc. - is it my favorite buffet, no.

I have eaten in Mexico every trip I have ever been on ... so ummm for lets say since Epcot was open ... is it my favorite Mexican food ... nope

Tony's doesn't annoy me as much as it does some people. My kids prefer jarred spaghetti sauce and two of them think canned Spaghetti O's is a delicacy. So having an okay meal without having to listen to them complain is priceless :-)

Some people rave on here about Biergarten. I like the music ... but the food isn't something I care for ... DH asked me why we were eating Hot Dogs and Mac n' Cheese last time we went there.
 
I wouldn't hesitate to go to a restaurant that gets bad reviews at Disney. Disney restaurants (or resorts, for that matter) are all of a certain quality and standard. We know we aren't going to a local greasy spoon that could be disgusting with shady characters. Because of this, the other factors are just variables that are very subjective and can change from meal to meal.
 
There is only one Disney restaurant that we've avoided based on reviews. I'm looking at you, Tony's...no, let me rephrase that - I am pointedly NOT looking at you, Tony's. I am looking everywhere EXCEPT Tony's.

There are just too many other options for us and we've only been to WDW 3 times for a week each. We have an Olive Garden at home if we want that style of food. I'm sure you can say that about most (all?) restaurants at WDW but with the sheer volume of bad reviews for Tony's, we'd rather take a chance on a different place.

In sort of the same way, I avoid pizza at WDW. I've never been to Via Napoli but, aside from VN, I haven't seen much good news about WDW pizza.

You might like Tony's. That's fine with me. We can coexist peacefully. Just don't ask me to meet you there for dinner. Unless you're buying...then I might give it a shot. :duck:
 
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