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!