What Is Your Most Disappointing Restaurant @ WDW

[Ajax]

The San Angel Inn. We dined there in '87, and it was pure magic! The menus were leather-bound, the servers were all well trained and personable, and the food was very good. All in the shadow of an active volcano!

Then two years later, we noticed that the entire operation had begun to fray a bit.
The next time we ate there, in '95, we vowed never to return! Our waiter understood very little English, we had to point to the items we wanted on the stained paper menus before he knew what we were talking about. Our food was mediocre and lukewarm, and downright cold by the time we snagged our waiter and sent it back. Whereupon they chose to nuke my fish dish, rendering it to the consistency of a slab of vulcanized rubber.

Although the manager did adjust our bill and was very pleasant about it, we haven't been back since, volcano or not.

 

[Oh Kay!]

 

[BCV23]

Originally posted by Ajax
The San Angel Inn. We dined there in '87, and it was pure magic! The menus were leather-bound, the servers were all well trained and personable, and the food was very good. All in the shadow of an active volcano!

Then two years later, we noticed that the entire operation had begun to fray a bit.
The next time we ate there, in '95, we vowed never to return! Our waiter understood very little English, we had to point to the items we wanted on the stained paper menus before he knew what we were talking about. Our food was mediocre and lukewarm, and downright cold by the time we snagged our waiter and sent it back. Whereupon they chose to nuke my fish dish, rendering it to the consistency of a slab of vulcanized rubber.

Although the manager did adjust our bill and was very pleasant about it, we haven't been back since, volcano or not.

Ajax, you might want to give it another try one of these days. I agree it was not up to snuff a few years back, but my sons and I really enjoy it again. Still haven't gotten my DH back though after a couple of meals that just didn't cut it 2 or 3 years ago. I'm working on him.

 

[Claudia1]

Boma. Didn't like the spices. Food was done very well but just not my preferred style. The kid's buffet had rubbery chicken.

In fact, I am surprised that the AKL doesn't have a more generic offering available. The Mara had some more American-style foods but after 4 days, it was no loner appetizing. Not everybody wants to eat African for a week-long vacation.

 

[Tiggerlover91]

Jiko

 

[Tiggernut_jadie]

Biergarten in Epcot - YUK!!! I've been to Germany many times and the food here was revolting - DH had the chicken which was rubbery and inedible - I had the sausages and sauerkraut which tasted like no german sausages I'VE ever eaten ......................NEVER AGAIN!!!!

 

[sha_lyn]

Tiggernut_jadie
There are so many other options on the buffet. Did you try any of them?

 

[las3888]

As far as having high expectations and being disappointed I would definitely have to say BOMA. We ended up eating mostly the kid's far (mac and cheese etc.). When we looked around us - many people were doing the same.

However, hands-down the worst restaurant is Planet Hollywood. I don't know why, but even after an awful experience the first time, we have gone back 2 more times and each time was just awful.

Another one worthy of this list is O'Hana's. It is kind of talked up as some kind of special restaurant for special occasions, but we found it just crazy with all the kids running around during the kids activities. Just not for us!!!

 

[Forever42]

Originally posted by BCV23
Ajax, you might want to give it another try one of these days. I agree it was not up to snuff a few years back, but my sons and I really enjoy it again. Still haven't gotten my DH back though after a couple of meals that just didn't cut it 2 or 3 years ago. I'm working on him.

We went to dinner there back in December, and we were thoroughly unimpressed. It's been my second most disappointing dining experience, after Teppanyaki. The food was decent (and I love traditional Mexican dishes), but I thought it was overpriced for what we received, even for Disney standards. The tables were crowded extremely close together and I could reach out and touch everyone around me if I had wanted to.

We'll stick to the Cantina. :/

 

[Luckymommyx2]

We were so disappointed with our one big meal splurge...Le Cellier! The service was horrible, we had the table right beside the kitchen door, and the food was worth about half of what we paid. For our $100 we expected A LOT more. I really had my hopes up for this meal...next time we'll try a different country.

 

[Bbgrizzle]

Flying Fish. The food was okay (not fantastic), but I was expecting a lot more atmosphere I guess, from reading other people's reviews about how much they liked it.

Another disappointment was Beaches and Cream. I went there wanting to like it, but my burger was yucky and my chocolate peanut butter sundae came half melted, which I really hate!

 

[DisKim]

Please don't flame me for this, but I did not care for Ohana's. I was so excited to eat there and I found the meat very dry and "blah." I know alot of people love it. Maybe I caught them on at the wrong time.

 

[mrslane]

Tony's Town Square in MK was, by far, the worst and most disapointing restaurant I've experienced at WDW, EVER!!!
Chef Boy R'Dee could barf a better meal. I base my opinion mainly on food quality. The service was not great either, however.

Sci-Fi is no place for good food--from my experience. Dessert, perhaps...

Mexico (San Angel Inn) has food that only seems good in the dark. I love this place because of the atmosphere and service. I do go back because I love the place!

Overall, my DH cooks so it's hard to pay high prices for any food at WDW, but the restaurants w/ atmosphere are the best for us. We live where it's easy to get fresh fish so we have not tried some of the high-end seafood places. However, Fulton's prices are silly compared to what I'm used to here!

 

[DJBounce]

Boma. Service was great and we loved the atmosphere.
It wasn't our type of food, I guess. Besides the carved meats and a few of the deserts, we just did not care for it.

 

[rejobako]

I've always liked Akershus: although I can understand if herring, mashed rutabaga, meatballs, and vinegar-laced vegetable salads are not your thing, you're probably not going to like it. Personally, I get my money's worth just forking in gobs of the smoked salmon. Another interesting taste-sensation is the brown cheese available on the cold cheese plate; don't know what it's called, but it's got the consistency of pressed peanut butter. Wouldn't want it every day, but it's appealingly different for a change of pace.

And if everything tastes bad to you, just have a shot of Aquavit to top off your meal; you won't taste anything else for hours.

Sushi in the bar in Japan is also a good choice. Get a seat by the windows and you have a great view of Epcot.

As for worst restaurants, there's plenty to choose from. Let's face it; you're in Disney for the attractions and the atmosphere; if you go for the food, you're sure to be disappointed. It's counterintuitive, though. When you sit in a long line to get into a place, you expect the food's going to be good, and it's weird when it's not . . . unless you realize that you're a captive audience. Everyone's got to eat, and everywhere's crowded. If you insist on decent food, I would recommend you go offsite: there's a good Benihanas in the Hilton near DTD, and once you get past that row of hotels there's a bunch of good franchise places that need to serve good food to stay in business. Try one of them.

All that being said, I still need to weigh in on my least favorite Disney restaurant: It's a tie among every place in the Magic Kingdom. IMO, there's just no good place to eat in there.

 

[Epcotgal8]

I've enjoyed reading this thread. When I first saw it I thought I shouldn't post because I might offend those who love the restaurants that we have been disappointed in but after reading all the responses it just shows that pretty much any place can be disappointing depending on individual tastes, what you order, the server you get etc.

Most disappointing experience - Artist Point. My mouth fell open when I read it on Ducklite's list since I thought I was the only one who had a bad experience there. We were staying at the WL and I had read such rave reviews I was REALLY looking forward to a good meal within our own resort. We took our children with us because although they don't always behave well at home, they like to dine out and they know how to behave. Because we had them with us we made an early p.s. This is the only time in any of our visits to LOTS of WDW restaurants that we ever felt we were "snubbed" because we had the kids with us. Even though the restaurant was virtually empty when we arrived they stuck us at a table that was just as you walk past the podium so the only view we had was of people checking in for their p.s. and the kitchen door. Our server started out acting like Rico Suave but then some college aged girls came in and he stayed at their table all evening leaving us and the one other table he had to totally forget us. Had to remind him to bring the bottle of wine we had ordered 25 minutes prior, he got our orders wrong, dh's came out before any of ours and by the time ours got to us my son's hamburger was literally stone cold and the bun was hard as a rock. My steak was very overcooked and cold as well. I wanted to send it back but he was nowhere to be found. Had to wait so long for dessert (because we'd basically given up on dinner and were still hungry) that I took the kids to our room and had dh wait on it. He continued to wait, and wait, and then wait for the check so by the time he brought our dessert back to the room the "warm cobbler" was cold and yuk! A cm made the mistake of asking us if we had tried Artist Point yet and we told her of our experience and when we got back to the room there was a message that they had taken the entire $125 + off of our bill which included the bottle of wine. We didn't ask for or expect that and I think it was good customer service on their part but I really would have rathered to pay the bill and have had a nice dinner there.

I tried it but won't be back - Two popular ones so don't flame me.

Alfredo's - Very rude, bad service on our first try there. I thought the food was mediocre but also thought it might be I didn't enjoy it because of the server. So gave it another chance a couple of trips later. This time service wasn't bad but main dining room was so loud and chaotic we couldn't make conversation. Our server was nice but he was so busy he was stressed. I wanted to like the food because I love Italian food. Again it was mediocre at best.

San Angel - Love the atmosphere but tables are close together and again, even though we love Mexican food we found their's to be very blah. We can do the ride to experience the atmosphere but we won't be eating here again. Other than that we have had good dining experiences at WDW.

 

[CamAnd]

SAN ANGEL INN

Would never go back. Service was poor. Waited sooo long before they brought out our first entree. Didn't care for the menu, food was nothing to rave about. Too dark in restaurant, would've liked to see the food in front of me. Tables too close together. Overall, thought it was way overpriced for the quality of food and dining experince . (That was a party of 4 adults)

 

[capegirl]

Interesting thread....we have PS for Crystal Palace....I think we'll pass on this one. We have a few places in the "worst meal" category. # 1 goes to BOMA. I took one look at that ox tail soup, and I was all done, but our friendly server took our minds off the food. # 2 goes to Tony's. The food there is not Italian, it is shameful. # 3 goes to The Whispering Canyon Cafe. My DH became sick beyond belief after eating some bad ribs at this place....however we did have a good time prior to DH's downfall.
# 4 goes to the Garden Grille. Chip & Dale were great, but that fried catfish was nasty.
I can honestly say that we have never had a meal at WDW that we would consider to be fabulous....but that's okay....we love it anyway!!

 

[Eeyore2003]

Brown Derby~~~4 meals, non of them were good

Jiko~~~food was good, but I was sick for the entire rest of the night, I think because the food was so greasy

 

[tiggersmom2]

We found the Biergarten to be downright NASTY! We will NEVER go back.