Do you have a "never again" list? Which restaurants are on it and why?

[Bonnie151]

Olivia's. The food was fine, very nice, in fact, but I've never had such awful service in my life. It's the only time I've ever seen DH complain in a restaurant anywhere! Our waitress took our order and then pretty much vanished. We ordered a starter out of pocket to share while the children had their soup. Then someone dumped all of our main courses on the table before the children were even halfway through their soup. DS and DH finished their drinks but there was no sign of our waitress to ask for refills. Then we finished our entrees and waited and waited and waited... finally after about 25 minutes of not spotting our waitress she reappeared to give us the dessert menus and promptly vanished again. So we waited and waited and waited...

I was about to gve up and just ask for the desserts to be boxed up when DH decided he'd had enough and had a word with the manager. She apologised and said that our waitress had been busy with a party of 6 but that we shouldn't have felt ignored. She offered to comp the appetiser but DH said he wasn't looking for anything, he just wanted to give feedback (and an early explanation as to why we weren't tipping!).

When the bill finally came we weren't charged for the appetiser which was nice, but I wouldn't go back to eat there again - too many other places to try before I'd go back somewhere I'd had a lousy experience!

 

[cynzilla]

Spirit of Aloha Dinner: Food Preplated. Salad was HOT, Chicken and Ribs were COLD. 2 meal credits for my daughter to have a "boxed dinner" which was an uncrustable and a handful of goldfish. We saw our waitress TWICE the whole time, just impossible to get drinks, or butter or much of anything there!

 

[Pirates4me]

Olivia's. The food was fine, very nice, in fact, but I've never had such awful service in my life. It's the only time I've ever seen DH complain in a restaurant anywhere!

We have stayed at Old Key West six times and we have always made a point to go to Olivia's for dinner at least once during our stay. In fact one of the waiters is actually a friend of mine on Facebook. He remembered us from previous stays at OKW. We look forward to seeing him every trip.

I have never experienced any of the troubles that you had. In fact they have gone out of their way for us. I recommend it to all who will listen and have never been told they had lousy service or bad food. Too bad your experience wasn't as nice as ours has been.

 

[mightymouse]

We have stayed at Old Key West six times and we have always made a point to go to Olivia's for dinner at least once during our stay. In fact one of the waiters is actually a friend of mine on Facebook. He remembered us from previous stays at OKW. We look forward to seeing him every trip.

I have never experienced any of the troubles that you had. In fact they have gone out of their way for us. I recommend it to all who will listen and have never been told they had lousy service or bad food. Too bad your experience wasn't as nice as ours has been.

That was part of the disappointment - the food was great! My complaint began "We've really enjoyed the food, it was fantastic, but...." and I'm afraid the service was so bad, it outweighed the food.

Most folks will go and get the usual great Disney service AND great food, but it was a bad enough experience to put us off. Like DW says, too many other options to risk it again. We went to Shutters a few days later, another new one for us, and had food that was equally great, and a server who was just sooooo nice and attentive. Made all the difference.

 

[DisneyBabies]

We have two others in addition to Tusker House (never again . . . ever) but they are "never again for (a certain meal)".

Crystal Palace (dinner): It smelled really bad all over the restaurant and the food seemed more cold than hot. Our server was great and we love the characters, but if the food combined with the smell was a huge turn off. We did just brave breakfast there in March and I am so glad we did. It was excelent and convinced us to take DD there for breakfast in February.

CRT (breakfast): I really don't think we ask for much when we go to any restaurant, but this breakfast failed on all levels. As far as the food goes, I prefer that my eggs be cooked for at least a couple of minutes before they are served to me and the bacon shouldn't crumble into tiny pieces when you bite into it. The characters (except Jasmine who talked to DS and listened to all his opinions on the trip up until that point for more than 10 minutes) rushed by just long enough to sign his book and take a picture. (We wound up in toon town to see the princesses later that morning so he could talk to the princesses since they "were too busy" at breakfast. And they were fabulous . . . they let him talk and responded to everything he said like they had all the time in the world for him.) And our server didn't smile once the whole time we were there. When we asked if we could get eggs that were cooked better and bacon that was a little less cooked, she said that everything was cooked that way and it would take 30 minutes to get new food. She also asked for our KTTW card as soon as we sat down . . . literally . . . before she even asked what drinks we wanted. We gave it to her after she brought the fruit and she kept it until we left, although we were actually ready to leave 15 minutes before she brought it back to us. We were very disappointed since our dinner there a couple of years before was one of the best of both of the trips we had taken up to that point. And that dinner is still at the top of out list.

 

[shmoogrrrl]

It really is funny how people all have different tastes. I guess that is why there are so many options!

We adore Whispering Canyon and it is a must for all of our trips. Seems like a lot of people don't like it!

We haven't had too many terrible restaurant experiences but the last time we ate at Coral Reef, I hated my food and the service was not good. That was about 6 years ago and we've avoided it on every trip since. However, we have an 8-year old who would LOVE that huge wall of fish, so I am considering the idea of giving it another try next year when we go.

We probably won't return to the Yachtsman Steakhouse anytime soon. Not because we had a bad experience (on the contrary, the food and service were excellent) but it was too much like any other steakhouse that we could eat at around our house.

 

[BonnieMB]

Crowne and Rose! DH lives fish and chips and these were awful. My meal wasn't so great, either. Add that to a server we never saw, and we'll stick to the loads if other options in Epcot WS!

Oh that's too bad! I think that was where one year we had patio seats for Illuminations and it was a wonderful experience, including the fish and chips.

My 'never-again' is Coral Reef in Epcot. The restaurant itself was loud and cold; the food was cold and like rubber. And salty. Like it was cooked in seawater salty. Both my sister (SaraMC) and I swore we would never, ever eat there again.

 

[ShhhQ]

Olivia's. The food was fine, very nice, in fact, but I've never had such awful service in my life. It's the only time I've ever seen DH complain in a restaurant anywhere! Our waitress took our order and then pretty much vanished. We ordered a starter out of pocket to share while the children had their soup. Then someone dumped all of our main courses on the table before the children were even halfway through their soup. DS and DH finished their drinks but there was no sign of our waitress to ask for refills. Then we finished our entrees and waited and waited and waited... finally after about 25 minutes of not spotting our waitress she reappeared to give us the dessert menus and promptly vanished again. So we waited and waited and waited...

I was about to gve up and just ask for the desserts to be boxed up when DH decided he'd had enough and had a word with the manager. She apologised and said that our waitress had been busy with a party of 6 but that we shouldn't have felt ignored. She offered to comp the appetiser but DH said he wasn't looking for anything, he just wanted to give feedback (and an early explanation as to why we weren't tipping!).

When the bill finally came we weren't charged for the appetiser which was nice, but I wouldn't go back to eat there again - too many other places to try before I'd go back somewhere I'd had a lousy experience!

That is the same kind of experience we had at Plaza.... except the food was just ok not good.

 

[ilovepete]

Wow some of these were surprising for me. I am thinking of changing some of my ADRs!

Never Again for us:
Coral Reef
ABC Commissary
Mama Melrose


My husband loves Biergarten. It is not my think at all but I go for him.

 

[N10CJT]

We loved Boma. Yachtman's Steakhouse is good, but I have to tell you. You can get pretty much the same good meal at Captain's Grill, and it's one TS instead of two TS for DDP or it's cheaper if you pay out of the pocket. If given a choice between the two, I'd do Captain's Grill any day.

See for me, Captain's Grill is a never-again! I ordered the scallops last year and they came out almost raw. I had taken a bite of one and chewed it a couple times, and then noticed that it tasted funny, and sure enough, it had that translucent center of undercooked shellfish. I sent it back, and they made another, and it had the same problem. I don't know if the broiler was broken that night or what, but it was terrible, and I spent the next morning sick and attached to the bathroom.
Chef Mickey's breakfast was a never-again, and then my brother's girlfriend joined us for the first time and I sucked it up for her sake, and it was equally as bad.