Worst WDW Food Experience

[Alice777]

We got the free dining plan and figured that we would take this opportunity to do a bunch of character dinings for our kids, but now I'm getting a little nervous after reading all these reviews! ahh!!
Breakfast at Akershus, Dinner at Hollywood & Vine, Dinner at 1900 Park Fare, Dinner at Chef Mickey's, Breakfast at Hollywood & Vine. Also booked at Coral Reef.

Don't worry about people's review here. Everyone has different taste so until you actually try it yourself, you won't know. I did much research on what everyone raved about and what people hated for my past trip in April and much to my surprise, I did not like what most people raved about and liked what people hated it so you never know.

So for my trip this November, I have booked ADRs on places I wanted to eat regardless of what people said about the restaurants. My main point for this trip is not the "quality of food" or "the best service" but for ambience and for something I would not get to experience at home. Just relax and enjoy.

 

[areno79]

Electric Umbrella- Consistently awful dried out hamburgers and chicken fingers.
Worst TS was Akershus. Seated an hour after our ADR, and the food was gross. It was nice to see the princesses, but wouldn't go there again because of the food.

 

[thingwithwings]

There's only one that stands out as truly horrible in my memory, and that's our most recent venture to 50s Primetime Cafe.

I'd been there twice before, so I knew what to expect from a decent server: "family" teasing, airplane feeding if you cover your plate with your napkin, lots of pranks and fun. The second to last time I went was a blast. Our server had us in stitches the entire time, and while the food wasn't anything to write home about, it was still on the "good" side of average.

So I was excited to take DH there during our honeymoon. It took us a little while to be seated, as it does, but things just went downhill from there. Our server just looked like he wanted to be anywhere but at work that day, didn't play around with us or anything. The food was lukewarm and rubbery (at least mine was; I got the meatloaf. DH got the fried chicken, which he described as "good, but not worth this price"), straight on through dessert.

The saddest part was that I knew our experience wasn't typical. We could see the server at the other tables in our dining area laughing it up with the families there, really getting into character. Our guy just, for whatever reason, was very meh. I would've rated him poorly at our local T.G.I.Friday's, and at a WDW restaurant where the theme is such a huge part of the experience? Absolutely dreadful.

 

[KTousha]

We got the free dining plan and figured that we would take this opportunity to do a bunch of character dinings for our kids, but now I'm getting a little nervous after reading all these reviews! ahh!!
Breakfast at Akershus, Dinner at Hollywood & Vine, Dinner at 1900 Park Fare, Dinner at Chef Mickey's, Breakfast at Hollywood & Vine. Also booked at Coral Reef.

We've done breakfast at Akershus twice and it was amazing both times!

 

[mommyrosa2]

Back from another wonderful 9 day stay and this time around our worst meal by far was dinner at 1900 PF!! Much of the food had very little seasoning, a lot of it was cold, they were terrible at replenishing items, especially the seafood, and we all agreed it was just plain awful. Won't be returning anytime soon!

 

[mikerohlfing]

With out a doubt the Coral Reef was the worst dinning experience we ever had at any of the Disney World restaurants. The wait staff not only gave poor service, but was rude. We have never run into anything that came close to the dinning experience we received there. I know that we will never eat there again.

That's too bad. I went to Coral Reef for the first time over Christmas. We were seated right next to the aquarium, our waiter was attentive, and the food was great!

 

[lizzyshakuntala]

We had a bad experience at Flying Fish during our stay last October. The food was incredible, but service was horrible!! We were seated almost 2 hours after our ADR and it took another 20 minutes for anyone to finally stop by our table! After that our server kept disappearing until our table was finally served by a different server. The entire dinner (including the wait) took around 4 hours! What really upsets me is that it was our last night in WDW and we missed Illuminations because of this (which we had purposely missed earlier in the trip so that we can specifically end our last night with Illuminations after a nice Flying Fish dinner then walk back to our resort, BWI!). Oh well, at least the food was excellent!

 

[webstah]

Our very worst was actually a non meal. We had reservations for Planet Hollywood for 6PM, party of 10. We got there at 5:40 and checked in. They sent back down to the bottom floor to wait until they called up. 15 minutes later we're called and told to go upstairs. We go up and check in with the hostess, who tells us to wait by the bar, along with a dozen other parties. Two tables at the bar, both full of dirty dishes and no one cleared them. Nowhere for anyone to stand, other than the passageway. It didn't look like any of the other parties were called while we waited. 2 1/2 hours later we still hadn't been seated, even though we constantly checked in with the hostess. ( I would have left much sooner but was out voted) We finally went to the McDonalds downtown Disney and got something to eat. The restaurant was dark and excessively noisy to boot. We never tried there again.

 

[punkin712]

We had a bad experience at Flying Fish during our stay last October...We were seated almost 2 hours after our ADR and it took another 20 minutes for anyone to finally stop by our table!...The entire dinner (including the wait) took around 4 hours!...

...We had reservations for Planet Hollywood for 6PM, party of 10. We got there at 5:40 and checked in. They sent back down to the bottom floor to wait until they called up. 15 minutes later we're called and told to go upstairs...2 1/2 hours later we still hadn't been seated, even though we constantly checked in with the hostess...

You both must have the patience of a saint!! I would NEVER wait more than 45 minutes past an ADR to be seated, unless there was a very good reason and we were given a round of comped drinks while we waited. I would be too aggravated to enjoy my meal at that point! I get it - places are crowded, the staff can't predict how long each party will stay, blah blah blah. But once you start creeping toward the 1 hour mark past your ADR, it's just insulting.

 

[sbarisch]

We thought Coral Reef was awful! The room was so cold, I was severely shivering the whole time. Our server was wonderful, even brought me a "napkin shawl" to try to warm me up. The food, though, was terrible. Dessert was good, and we ate it quickly, since we were all starving!

 

[IngmarP]

I think some of the negative reviews may be due to people ordering something that the restaurant doesn't do very well.
When I go to Coral Reef, it is a seafood restaurant so I order seafood not vegetarian items. When we went to Le cellier, I asked the waitress her recomendations and she steered me in a great direction. Now if you order pizza in a pizza place and the pizza is not to your liking, not much you can do. But I think when people stick to the specialties of the house, they'll do a lot better.

I agree with this view and would take it a step further. If your home town or region is famous for a certain dish, don't expect to get the same quality at a theme park, regardless of price. People from Texas or North Carolina should skip anything called barbecue at Disney, although others may think it's great. We are from Maryland, and I could not talk my wife out of ordering crab cakes at Coral Reef. Big mistake, they were worse than frozen ones from the store.

 

[Jennasis]

I agree with this view and would take it a step further. If your home town or region is famous for a certain dish, don't expect to get the same quality at a theme park, regardless of price. People from Texas or North Carolina should skip anything called barbecue at Disney, although others may think it's great. We are from Maryland, and I could not talk my wife out of ordering crab cakes at Coral Reef. Big mistake, they were worse than frozen ones from the store.

Au contraire...we are from NC and I think the BBQ at Flame Tree gives any of our local places a run for the money. The only place better than FT around here (and I'm including the "famous" Lexington BBQ which is awful) is a place in Winston-Salem called Bib's Downtown. FT has better sides than ANY local joint.

Taste is subjective.

 

[tony67]

I agree with this view and would take it a step further. If your home town or region is famous for a certain dish, don't expect to get the same quality at a theme park, regardless of price. People from Texas or North Carolina should skip anything called barbecue at Disney, although others may think it's great. We are from Maryland, and I could not talk my wife out of ordering crab cakes at Coral Reef. Big mistake, they were worse than frozen ones from the store.

You are correct, but I would not judge all the crab cakes in the area by the crab cakes at Coral Reef - I had crab cakes at one of the F&W seminars made by a chef from Wolfgang pucks - they were the best I've ever had - and it's rare something at one of those demos is that outstanding.
Most likely if I tried some at the right place in Maryland they would be just as amazing if not better..but it is also just as likely it could be a tourist trap and I'd be unimpressed.
I'm in an area famous for seafood and Italian food, and actually getting great seafood and great Italian food is tough - so many of the most well known are just tourist traps

Au contraire...we are from NC and I think the BBQ at Flame Tree gives any of our local places a run for the money. The only place better than FT around here (and I'm including the "famous" Lexington BBQ which is awful) is a place in Winston-Salem called Bib's Downtown. FT has better sides than ANY local joint.

Taste is subjective.

Agreed - not a big fan of NC style myself - so I'd always pick Flame tree over NC style as well - my friend actually opened a NC style place up here and it just did not work - although it is really hard to get BBQ to work up here for some reason regardless of the style - people tend to think Chilis is the place to go for ribs and it's hard to compete with that price point.

 

[rwdavis2]

Back from another wonderful 9 day stay and this time around our worst meal by far was dinner at 1900 PF!! Much of the food had very little seasoning, a lot of it was cold, they were terrible at replenishing items, especially the seafood, and we all agreed it was just plain awful. Won't be returning anytime soon!

Sounds like an "all you can stand" buffet.

 

[Tinker06]

Electric Umbrella- Consistently awful dried out hamburgers and chicken fingers.
Worst TS was Akershus. Seated an hour after our ADR, and the food was gross. It was nice to see the princesses, but wouldn't go there again because of the food.

Akershus was one of the best meals we had in April. It was seriously delicious - probably one of our favorites of the trip. Crazy how it can vary.

 

[areno79]

Akershus was one of the best meals we had in April. It was seriously delicious - probably one of our favorites of the trip. Crazy how it can vary.

This was in 2009....hopefully it's improved since then!

 

[ShannonMB]

We got the free dining plan and figured that we would take this opportunity to do a bunch of character dinings for our kids, but now I'm getting a little nervous after reading all these reviews! ahh!!
Breakfast at Akershus, Dinner at Hollywood & Vine, Dinner at 1900 Park Fare, Dinner at Chef Mickey's, Breakfast at Hollywood & Vine. Also booked at Coral Reef.

Take them with a grain of salt. Some of the places that have very mixed reviews end up being some of my favorites. And when the kiddos are little and want to meet the characters, that's what it's all about. You will save yourself a lot of time stalking characters and waiting in line for them by doing the meals, and will definitely find something you can enjoy. And even if you were paying for the DDP the character meals are a good value on it! As far as Coral Reef goes, my dad (who went with us in February and hadn't been to WDW in 25 years), called it the best meal of our trip and still talks about that aquarium restaurant.

Have fun, don't be scared and enjoy!

 

[KSR0330]

Peco Bills at MK was terrible.

 

[Iamthequeen]

My daughter and her new husband ate at Be Our Guest last week while on their honeymoon. The service was absolutely terrible. The meal took 2 hours and they had to ask for the check 3 times. The 2nd time, the server brought it, but it did not have the dining plan on it, so she had to take it back to re do it. They declined dessert because they just wanted to leave, but the server brought some any way. After speaking with the manager, they left. My dd decided to "let it go" and enjoy the rest of the week.

 

[Deanie1]

Reading all these reviews has me worried for our next trip. Maybe I shouldn't be hoping for free dining!
Or maybe I should just bring some protein shakes from home.

My sister's worst restaurant - Raglan Road. My other sister and I were fine but one sister was up all night with food poisoning. She stayed in bed at the resort for the next 1 1/2 days and was not feeling right for several days afterwards.

Hollywood Brown Derby - delicious meal but server was slower than molasses. It seemed like all she did was clean tables while we were waiting to be served and again for our bill. We missed several of the shows we were hoping to see as lunch took about 2 - 2 1/2 hrs!