Bad food?

[KenHutch]

You really just have to take all the reviews with a grain of salt. Different tastes, different pallets. For example I had what I thought of as a poor meal at Flying Fish but I temper any review by admitting I am from the Midwest and would not know great seafood if it walked up and smacked me in the face. On the other hand I wince when the read barbeque reviews from people because I am from Kansas City and when people talk about good StLouis barbeque (it doesn't exist) I shake my head. And these reviews can make you change your mind, I had a poor meal at Artist Point in 2015 but several reviewers I enjoy reading have convinced me that its time to give AP another try.

 

[jarestel]

I think most people are disappointed by the price for the kind of food they can get in their hometowns for significantly less. Most Disney food is not horrible, it's just extremely overpriced. When they charge a premium for the vittles, people expect it to be better than average.

 

[rg35]

We've enjoyed the large majority of our meals over the last few years. The only massive disappointment was 'Ohana.

Since we're from NYC, there's not really a lot of "sticker shock" as far as pricing goes.

 

[marcyleecorgan]

Our city is such a foodie city that it puts EPCOT's World Showcase to shame... you can find just about anything from anywhere here... even shark fin

 

[gillep]

I live in a large city in CA so I don't really have 'sticker shock' when I eat at WDW, prices are in line with what I am used to, and in some cases cheaper.

It is just personal preference, and a lot to do with what you are used to at home. For instance, I do not find any restaurant on WDW property even remotely exotic, and have yet to have a single dish that I would refer to as spicy, even when I ask for something to be prepared that way. That's ok though, I adjust my expectations accordingly and still enjoy my meals.

I have mostly given up on WDW QS meals, I just don't enjoy them for the most part. There are a few dishes here and there that we enjoy, but overall I would rather spend more on a TS meal than most of the QS at WDW, don't even get me started on WDW QS pizza .

Overall, we have many more good meals than bad, but there are certain restaurants that we just don't go back to as we know that we do not prefer the food there.

 

[tinkerhon]

Same here - our only real bad meal was at CRT. We enjoy Ohana, Boma, Sanaa, Garden Grill and especially HDDR.

We have a ton of restaurants that we love as well - only
had 2 bad meals/experiences that I can remember - one dinner at Tony's - and our Chef Mickeys bfast- which is now referred to as "Camp Mickeys" !

 

[Sparkly]

Disney food isn't too bad for mass-produced theme park food. The table service places are mostly okay as well, with a few disappointing meals (Biergarten, Raglan Road come to mind from previous trips), I think you can get much better stuff offsite imo.

 

[DisneyArkie]

Every restaurant has an off night.

I like to read Yelp, but I chuckle when I read a 1 star review and find the reviewer saying something like “we have eaten here for 10 years and have never had a bad meal, it WAS our favorite restaurant, but last night the food and service were terrible, we will never be back”. What I find funny about it is this. For 10 years they love it and NEVER have reviewed it, but with one bad experience they get on yelp and smear it.

 

[CuteAsMinnie]

I feel like I’m constantly reading complaints about the bad, over- priced food at WDW. While we’ve had a few disappointments, we very much look forward to the wide range of food options and dining is a huge part of our trips. Other than Pizzafari ( tried twice and won’t go back) and some bland cupcakes, we’ve been happy and enjoyed our meals. What gives?

Don't know..... we've never had a BAD meal at WDW, not have we ever had BAD service. We certainly had food we didn't care too much for and service that was a bit slow (but honestly after looking around the restaurant and seeing the number of tables a server had, we relaxed our approach).

ALL food at WDW, when compared to anything/anywhere not ON property is grossly overpriced, it we certainly can find good values. We compare Disney food/restaurant to Disney food/restaurant. That being said, the signature restaurants we've dined in we most likely won't return to because we can't justify those experience for what we paid. Neither were BAD by any means.

 

[zebrastreyepz]

I feel like I’m constantly reading complaints about the bad, over- priced food at WDW. While we’ve had a few disappointments, we very much look forward to the wide range of food options and dining is a huge part of our trips. Other than Pizzafari ( tried twice and won’t go back) and some bland cupcakes, we’ve been happy and enjoyed our meals. What gives?

It's the DIS where everyone gripes more than compliments.

Over the years, I've had to take multiple breaks from this board because the negativity can get pretty overwhelming for me.

 

[vacationer1954]

Disney food isn't too bad for mass-produced theme park food.

Except that some of the restaurants we eat at, at Disney, don't operate that way: They have chefs, prep-cooks, regular restaurant kitchens, etc. And many regular restaurants in the real world rely heavily on Sysco, just like many Disney restaurants rely on pre-prep from central kitchens.

Figuring that 35% of the menu price, if not more, is attributed to the location, direct comparisons need to discount Disney prices by that much to make sense.

 

[WorldWalker18]

- On the other hand, compared to most theme parks, I think WDW food is overall very good, with a lot of variability

This is spot on for me. Comparing WDW with our local Six Flags, I cannot complain much about WDW food. It’s amazing that a park will charge $15 for a soggy hot dog and have so few other options,(even more amazing that people buy that sad little dog). For me, it’s all relative.