WORST DISNEY DINING EXPERIENCE

Not a dining experience but I had the WORST experience at chefs de France. We were sitting around in the world showcase after illuminations. It was pretty empty and my dad’s blood sugar plummeted. We didn’t have anything and it got to the point where he couldn’t even walk anymore. I was literally sprinting through the world showcase trying to find the closest place open to get a coke or juice. I ran into the restaurant and the entire staff (management included) was arguing with me/yelling at me that they couldn’t serve me. I eventually gave up and as I was running to the next country ran into one of the general cast members (with the flag shirts, not specific to a country) and started bawling. She wound up being a former nurse that retired and worked at Disney part time! She scrounged up a couple bottles of OJ and sat with us until my dad’s blood sugar came back up.

I refuse to visit the entire French pavilion ever since.
 
Funny enough, lurking on this thread in particular finally prompted me to join DISBoards.

The worst dining experience that my wife and I have ever had at WDW was back in 2015 (I think) at Bongo's in what was then Downtown Disney. I think this was actually only a few months before it closed. This was our second trip to WDW and was going to be our..third overall time at Bongo's, I believe. We typically stick to the sit-down restaurants at DD/DS and do quick service at the parks.

So, we went there one night mid-way through a week and a half long trip. It was super busy at the time, well into the dinner rush (probably near 8PM). We were seated on the lower level of the restaurant literally right in front of a live band they had playing that night. I believe they used to do live music/dancing shows every night there. We had been to Bongo's twice on our first trip to WDW and really enjoyed it, actually had a big mix-up with our order on our second time that led to not only the whole bill being comped but also a round of drinks on the house. So, we went in there with a very good opinion of the place, we're both big fans of Latin and Cuban cuisine.

We went in and were seated super close to the band, we ordered and it took forever for our food to arrive..to the point I think we actually considered just putting cash on the table to cover our drinks and leaving! When the food finally did arrive, it was downright awful. I think the term we both used at the time was "dog food". Haha. It was a huge disappointment because that we had really enjoyed Bongo's in the past and that place wasn't exactly cheap either!

But, that's not where the bad experience came from! We ate the meals and sort of resigned ourselves to the excuse that the restaurant was shutting down soon and maybe they had just let the quality go because of that, sadly enough. The atmosphere of the restaurant that night was really fun, the band was great, and we were on vacation! So, we ordered a couple more drinks and decided to hang out.

Now like I said above we were seated directly in front of the band and at one point they had their dancing show start, where they would have like three or four couples come out in traditional outfits I think and do a little demonstration. It was cool, at first, but weirdly enough one of the men in the dancing group kept staring at us throughout their performance. He was actually staring at me in particular and it wasn't a very friendly look, it was honestly downright menacing how he was glaring at me. I remember asking my wife if maybe our table was positioned too close to them or something, but we weren't sure. Whatever the issue was, this individual appeared VERY upset with us (more so ME) about something!

So, there was a lull in their performance and he was still staring me down and finally I said something (needing to raise my voice slightly over the music). I asked him "are you alright?" which appeared to make him even more irritated. Their dance show then ended a couple minutes later and as the group was moving to go "backstage" or whatever, he paused and stared right at me and said "you're next". Which he said quite assertively.

I stood right up. I don't profess to be a tough guy. I'm a veteran, I'm a blue collar working man, but I don't go looking for fights. However, that comment really caught me off guard while trying to enjoy a night out with my wife on our vacation. I mostly certainly wasn't going to sit there and be..threatened really, for lack of a better word! I was..25 years old at the time, I would hazard he was around my age.

That was it though, not worth escalating, not worth getting myself in trouble on his account. So, it was cash on the table and walking out to enjoy our night (at Paradiso 37, which I'll add we've never had anything short of a wonderful time). Food was downright bad, interaction with the staff was downright alarming. Good riddance, Bongo's.

I guess I'll never know the reason why, don't much care to, but I know hostility when I see it..and this individual was carrying a BIG chip on their shoulder and we (more so me) were his target!
 


Is there any possibility whatsoever that they were only continuing singing because of your table and maybe one other table?
My point being that the stare down guy was mad that you were sitting just drinking therefore making his night longer? (I am in NO WAY saying this is acceptable but just asking?)
No I have never been to Bongos either lol
 
Is there any possibility whatsoever that they were only continuing singing because of your table and maybe one other table?
My point being that the stare down guy was mad that you were sitting just drinking therefore making his night longer? (I am in NO WAY saying this is acceptable but just asking?)
No I have never been to Bongos either lol


I don't think so! The place was packed that night and I think the band/dancing group was (and apparently still may be) part of their nightly entertainment. I remember when we were walking out that the wait to be seated was pretty substantial and we almost wanted to warn the people standing in line, haha.
 


Funny enough, lurking on this thread in particular finally prompted me to join DISBoards.

The worst dining experience that my wife and I have ever had at WDW was back in 2015 (I think) at Bongo's in what was then Downtown Disney. I think this was actually only a few months before it closed. This was our second trip to WDW and was going to be our..third overall time at Bongo's, I believe. We typically stick to the sit-down restaurants at DD/DS and do quick service at the parks.

So, we went there one night mid-way through a week and a half long trip. It was super busy at the time, well into the dinner rush (probably near 8PM). We were seated on the lower level of the restaurant literally right in front of a live band they had playing that night. I believe they used to do live music/dancing shows every night there. We had been to Bongo's twice on our first trip to WDW and really enjoyed it, actually had a big mix-up with our order on our second time that led to not only the whole bill being comped but also a round of drinks on the house. So, we went in there with a very good opinion of the place, we're both big fans of Latin and Cuban cuisine.

We went in and were seated super close to the band, we ordered and it took forever for our food to arrive..to the point I think we actually considered just putting cash on the table to cover our drinks and leaving! When the food finally did arrive, it was downright awful. I think the term we both used at the time was "dog food". Haha. It was a huge disappointment because that we had really enjoyed Bongo's in the past and that place wasn't exactly cheap either!

But, that's not where the bad experience came from! We ate the meals and sort of resigned ourselves to the excuse that the restaurant was shutting down soon and maybe they had just let the quality go because of that, sadly enough. The atmosphere of the restaurant that night was really fun, the band was great, and we were on vacation! So, we ordered a couple more drinks and decided to hang out.

Now like I said above we were seated directly in front of the band and at one point they had their dancing show start, where they would have like three or four couples come out in traditional outfits I think and do a little demonstration. It was cool, at first, but weirdly enough one of the men in the dancing group kept staring at us throughout their performance. He was actually staring at me in particular and it wasn't a very friendly look, it was honestly downright menacing how he was glaring at me. I remember asking my wife if maybe our table was positioned too close to them or something, but we weren't sure. Whatever the issue was, this individual appeared VERY upset with us (more so ME) about something!

So, there was a lull in their performance and he was still staring me down and finally I said something (needing to raise my voice slightly over the music). I asked him "are you alright?" which appeared to make him even more irritated. Their dance show then ended a couple minutes later and as the group was moving to go "backstage" or whatever, he paused and stared right at me and said "you're next". Which he said quite assertively.

I stood right up. I don't profess to be a tough guy. I'm a veteran, I'm a blue collar working man, but I don't go looking for fights. However, that comment really caught me off guard while trying to enjoy a night out with my wife on our vacation. I mostly certainly wasn't going to sit there and be..threatened really, for lack of a better word! I was..25 years old at the time, I would hazard he was around my age.

That was it though, not worth escalating, not worth getting myself in trouble on his account. So, it was cash on the table and walking out to enjoy our night (at Paradiso 37, which I'll add we've never had anything short of a wonderful time). Food was downright bad, interaction with the staff was downright alarming. Good riddance, Bongo's.

I guess I'll never know the reason why, don't much care to, but I know hostility when I see it..and this individual was carrying a BIG chip on their shoulder and we (more so me) were his target!

Sounds like maybe he had you confused with someone else? To say "you're next" as if you knew about something he had done prior. Either say, that sounds kinda scary!
 
Well, we had really great weather on our trip but a lot of our quick service food was not as good as it had been on previous visits.
Flame Tree - dried out meat
Pecos Bill - toppings bar had less offerings
Restaurantosaurus - dried out tough heat lamp burger and less than appetizing condiment bar
 
50's Prime Time

We arrived at 1:55 for 2:00 ADR and we were seated almost immediately. NO surprise we were HOT and thirsty, probably I was cranky. We were seated in a small room with a few other tables, two of which had meals in progress and a waitress serving them. The waitress was very chatty. She wandered in and out of the room a few times, ignoring us completely, so I assumed she wasn't our server. At 2:25, I had had enough of waiting. I went to the hostess to ask for a server. The very same waitress wandered over and had the nerve to chastise me for being impatient... I do know that they have this role to play, but this really wasn't the time to play. The no elbows on the table and eat your vegetables bit is fine, but this ... it crossed a line for me. I will never go back there. I know that the server likely no longer works there, but I'm not subjecting myself to this kind of annoyance again.
 
Coral Reef - had a meal plan during this stay and service was horrible. It was also a party of 6, so automatic gratuity. I really should have said something to the manager but just didn’t want to deal with it. Food was good.

Another time we ate at Whispering Canyon and right as we got our meal, a little kid walked by our table and puked all over the floor - ugh! :crazy2: We pretty much lost our appetite and to manangement’s credit, they discounted our meal.
 
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Tony's Town Square at Magic Kingdom. Bad food...but great atmosphere.
Pete & the gang is going to be reviewing the new menu soon!
Their last review they said the marinara can take rust off a car bumper ....I can't wait to hear their more recent review.:yay:

Tony's Town Square is as disgusting as EVERYONE says. The only reason I dined there was for the FoF tickets. The service was fine. The atmosphere, sweet. The food...inedible. I'm waiting for someone from the Humane Society to rescue Lady and the Tramp from that disaster of a restaurant.
 
I’ve tried Planet Hollywood multiple times and never enjoyed the food. To be fair, I haven’t been since it’s the “conservatory”.
 
I’ve tried Planet Hollywood multiple times and never enjoyed the food. To be fair, I haven’t been since it’s the “conservatory”.
Ooooo....I forgot about our experience there in 1998. I amend my previous answer to Planet Hollywood.
 
Our worst Disney dining experience turned into a great one thanks to Disney magic and some great CM's. We were having lunch at Akershus with my parents on our first WDW trip in 2016.

It was one daughter's birthday, so she and her sister had started the day at Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique and were all done up and wearing their new princess dresses. We were just getting settled in with drinks when our sweet little Norwegian server dropped a glass of beer right onto the table and all over me. I didn't make a big deal of it, but a few minutes later I noticed that my older daughter (6 at the time) has huge tears welling up in her eyes: it turns out she actually got most of the spill and is sitting there with her new dress just drenched in beer. So then we wave down a manager and explain the situation. All he asked was what size dress it was, and literally 5 minutes later we had a replacement in hand! DD changed in the restroom and all was well again. A little while later they noticed my wet shirt too and gave me a voucher for a free shirt in any WDW store: I got a retro Mickey that is still my favorite Disney shirt. And the buffet was pretty decent too.
 
Mama Melrose is our all time worst dining experience. The food was more like canned Chef Boyardie than authentic Italian cuisine. If it wasn’t for the Fantasmic dinner package, we probably wouldn’t have eaten there in the first place based on others reviews. One and done.
 
Worst dining experience was STK in Disney Springs by far. My fiance and I went back in February and love steak so we were really excited. Not sure if we went on an off night, but our server was downright awful. STK is an expensive place, so you'd expect at least some level of service. We had to flag him down multiple times just to refill our water once. I wish I could attribute it to the restaurant being really busy so he was swamped, but throughout the night we saw him standing at the bar area with other waiters just talking. He gave us our bread (which is covered in a pesto of sorts), and we had no idea what it was but he offered no explanation. Once our food finally came out (about 45 minutes after ordering), he never once came to check on us, even though my steak was extremely rare. I couldn't send it back because no one ever stopped at our table to ask how the steaks were cooked or if we needed anything. Steak wasn't even that good and we spent about $50 each on a 6oz steak. Extremely disappointed and we definitely won't be going back there.
 
We gave Tony’s a try our first trip and it was average.. tried again last December and that will be our last time there..bland boring food.. were not impressed with anything there.. and we as a family all love Italian food
 
I've never had a completely awful meal at WDW, but if I had to pick the worst, it would probably be our trip to Chef Mickey last December. It was during the refurbishment, so it was moved to a convention room. It was, by far, the worst dining experience I've ever had at WDW. The food was awful-tasted like being at a bad wedding. The food was also served in closed lid bowls, so you had to find a place to put your plate down, open the lid, serve yourself, put the plate down, close the lid, and move on to the next one for every almost food option. Decor was complete blah, and the character interaction matched the blah decor-characters seemed robotic and completely disinterested. It was the only time at WDW that I wanted my money back.
 

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