Why isn't the food better at WDW?

[jsmla]

I’m not a big fan of full meals at WDW but I do enjoy a lot of the snacky stuff.

I wonder how regional tastes affect everyone. I’m from South Louisiana, like my spice and find most of the WDW eats (when it’s not waaay too salty) to be very, very bland

 

[jhoannam]

Personally, I wouldn’t do that either, but then I must be easier to please than you. I can always find something to eat at any park. If you can’t find anything to eat, WDW won’t stop you from bringing your own food. Pack a couple sandwiches and try to enjoy your day.

I'm not difficult to please. I was pointing out that you mentioned all these good places to eat, but they weren't IN the parks. We want good food IN the parks, I'm not even requesting great food. Magic Kingdom needs good QS, period. And it just isn't there, the QS food is just okay.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

The food in WDW is, generally, terrible. We've been there so many times and we just expect it now. We aren't there for the food and I always cringe a little when I see posts on the DIS asking where "foodies" should to go eat in WDW. I could count on one hand the places I would recommend to foodies at WDW and I don't even think I could count to five. If we want better food, we head over to the Swolphin (even there, we had a pretty lackluster meal at Il Mulino on our last trip). This is why I rarely bother making ADR's anymore. I don't find the 1 TS credit restaurant food to really be any better than the QS, so why bother? Even many of the signatures are not up to par. I'm just glad we've learned this lesson over the years. It's certainly no fun to drop $300 for a family of 3 on a mediocre meal.

 

[fla4fun]

I’m not a big fan of full meals at WDW but I do enjoy a lot of the snacky stuff.

I wonder how regional tastes affect everyone. I’m from South Louisiana, like my spice and find most of the WDW eats (when it’s not waaay too salty) to be very, very bland

I find most restaurant food to be on the bland side. I carry packets of cayenne to add a little kick.

Food is such a subjective thing. You could feed a dozen people from the same plate and get a dozen different opinions. And that’s all they are - opinions. Mine is no more or less valid than yours.

We have very rarely been disappointed with a meal at WDW, but we have rarely been wowed either. We have found the food to be good and enjoyable for the most part. It has been comparable to a lot of our restaurant experiences outside the “bubble”. We don’t go to Disney planning to have a foodie experience (there are other places to visit for that). Perhaps we have less refined palates, or are more easily satisfied, but we have never left a restaurant thinking we would never return.

Then, again, we have only eaten breakfast at Tony’s . . .

 

[buckeyeguy1]

I've asked this question myself before, mostly after eating at QS. I think there are probably several factors in it.

1. A whole world of palates eat there. They have to find some sort of acceptable middle ground to keep everyone somewhat happy.

2. Time. Plenty of blame to go around on this one. Most guests plan their days to the max and spending time dining takes away from their availability to see more. I would guess that there are a lot of guests that would rather eat an okay burger that was mass cooked in a kitchen and thrown together to get you out the door fast versus waiting the extra 5 minutes for a better burger to be cooked to order. Honestly, the way Disney has in a way forced more planning into your day, they kind of make you feel more hurried to get on to the next thing.

3. Price. I'm sure they have a set profit margin they want for their food products. I'm not defending nor am I complaining the point. If we want better quality items, it costs someone and it sure is not going to be the business trying to profit from it.

4. Competition. If you are staying on property and do not have a vehicle, where else are you going to eat?


I am not normally wowed at many meals at WDW, but I have found several places that I do ENJOY eating at. We have had several truly delicious meals (all table service of course), but we for sure paid for those experiences.

I will say on our last trip (week before Easter), I found myself looking at the food prices and scratched my head a little thinking do I really WANT that for the price?

 

[disneyseniors]

I feel that the quality of the food at WDW has declined over the years since the introduction of the Dining Plans. I have gone to WDW for many years starting in l978 and have watched the steady decline, but mostly after the DP was started. I think they started mass producing meals for the masses. Also the bigger crowds now at Disney is a factor. It's sad but here to stay, I think.
We aren't "foodies" and don't expect gourmet food at WDW, so we are usually happy with what we get at the parks. When we want an excellent meal for a special occasion, we go to DS, especially the Boathouse.

 

[Farro]

I find it odd those who call themselves "foodies" would expect to find that type of food/dining experience at WDW or any theme park, period. A menu/experience that a "foodie" would be expecting is not really possible at a place that has to cater to the amount of people that WDW caters to. A "foodie" restaurant caters to a smaller, more exclusive palate than Disney.

When you then put the "foodie" aspect aside, I stand by my statement that WDW has above average food in and out of the parks, quick service and table service. Every place? Of course not. But I can tick off on three hands table service and quick service places we have had good to great meals. Even one or two wows!

 

[chris benton]

Good food is available in all the parks. You just have to know where to go. Yes its harder in DHS and MK, but its still there.

I want this everytimr I go to MK

An example of "different strokes for different folks:"
I LOVE that spicy chicken sandwich, but that slaw is absolutely vile. I almost wonder how they could pack so much sugar into that slaw.
But again, just my opinion. I LOVE those sandwiches, but no slaw for me. It ruins it completely.It's like a scoop of crunchy cabbage n' carrot ice cream on an otherwise wonderfully spicy sandwich.

Just an opinion, folks - I'm POSITIVE that I like some things you'd find horrible. Just illustrating a point.

 

[Disneypro1]

DL has very good food. Nothing to complain about at all. WDW I think is also good. Maybe not to DL level bit still nothing to complain about. Overall. Both keep us happy.

 

[buzznina]

Cannot like these two sentences more than what you stated.

Pixie dust is apparently mighty strong stuff with many.

I could not agree more!!
Like you, we have over 30+ trips and cannot count the many different places we have eaten and the food is okay. Yes, we had some very good meals but that is not the norm, most of the time it's just on the bland side and find the consistency is not there.

I feel that the quality of the food at WDW has declined over the years since the introduction of the Dining Plans. I have gone to WDW for many years starting in l978 and have watched the steady decline, but mostly after the DP was started. I think they started mass producing meals for the masses. Also the bigger crowds now at Disney is a factor. It's sad but here to stay, I think.
We aren't "foodies" and don't expect gourmet food at WDW, so we are usually happy with what we get at the parks. When we want an excellent meal for a special occasion, we go to DS, especially the Boathouse.

 

[skyblue17]

I think it's fair to expect more than just "theme park" out of a place like WDW that has SO many restaurants and food options. No, not everything or everywhere, but high quality should be an option when there ARE so many options.

I do think that Disney knows that they are dealing with a lot of people who are a. eating because it's time to eat/they are hungry, b. picky/not interested in branching out, c. children and d. are going to eat on site anyway, and will pay regardless. That is a kind of lazy view from their end, but it's accurate!

 

[GillianP1301]

It depends on where you're eating. If you are primarily doing QS in the parks, then your dining experience is going to be a lot different than signatures at the resorts. Other than 1 bad meal at Coral Reef, I can honestly say I've never had a really bad meal at Disney World. That would be out of about 175 - 200 meals over the last 7 years, 80% of which are TS. I've had plenty of just okay food, meals that I was happy with, but wouldn't necessarily rave about - I would say the vast majority of my meals fall into that category and some of those mediocre meals are by choice because they are character buffets and I see value in that aspect of it. As for the rest, they would fall into the very good/awesome meal and the ones we tend to repeat.

I will say that compared to your average theme park, the food is far superior at WDW both in quality and variety.

 

[tex1989]

Some one else said it but taste is so subjective. I eat what I like or what I think I will like. We have found plenty of good food over the years at Disney and continue to. Up front you have to accept that it costs to much! That's a given but my expectations are not raised because of the price. I write it off as I pay a lot more for it not because it is gourmet, but because it is Disney. Once I am at that point it lowers expectations and I am fine. I am not really sure about the rest of yall here but I am from Texas and we can't get food anywhere as good as what we can make at home. I just really questioin people when they say they think the food is not that good. We eat at home a lot and anytime we eat out we tend to enjoy it, even more if I am eating out at Disney.

Maybe my palate is not sophisticated enough, I don't know but everything I eat there has been pretty good comparatively speaking.

 

[tguz]

The last 2 Summers we have only eaten QS and we have found some very good food. The only place we decided not to try again was The Electric Umbrella in Epcot. A few of our favorites are The Polite Pig, Pecos Bill, The Backlot Express, and Blaze Pizza. We won't do Blaze Pizza again though as one opened up near where we live and we can get that here at home. We are doing QS again this Summer but in our 2021 trip we are going to get the standard meal plan so we can branch out with some new restaurants.

 

[Farro]

Where are the bad meals at? Maybe everyone is eating at same place?

We've had good/great at (in no particular order):

Animal Kingdom - Nomad Lounge, various food carts, Yak&Yeti counter service, Harambe Village (?), place in Pandora (boyfriend liked more than I)

MK - Columbia Harbor House, Skipper Canteen, BOG - lunch, Sleepy Hollow, I had a potato from somewhere that was good

Epcot - Tangerine Cafe, Spice Road Table, Restaurant Marrakesh, Via Napoli (pizza), Tutto Italia (best ever Italian? No, but I'm picky about that and it was good!) France counter service (haven't eat table service yet), France ice cream, Germany counter service, La Hacienda De San Angel, England fish/chips were fine for us!

DHS - haven't eaten there much, but had chicken strips/fries which were perfectly acceptable.

Resorts -
Jiko
California Grill
Kona (b-fast)
Flying Fish
The Wave
Crew's Cup at Yacht Club
Boardwalk Bakery

Disney Springs -
Morimoto
Boathouse

Only meal we didn't really care for was the counter service at Polynesian, just wasn't to my taste and the place in MK where we got the pizza flat breads, didn't like those.

 

[sponica]

@tex1989 I haven't been overly disappointed in food at WDW. I think the only place I was disappointed was BOG dinner (old menu) and I had heard before I went there that the food can be meh. I was disappointed by Teppan Edo because I didn't think the entertainment was as good as the equivalent restaurants at home.

I'm also not expecting to be wowed, as long as it's a little more than what the frialator at the local place pumps out, I'm happy.

 

[kiford]

Food served to a captive audience will always be higher priced so I expect that. But the quality of the food varies significantly between all of the many, many places and can vary from time to time. We've had the misfortune to eat a few times at some QS/CS places which made McDonald's seem like high quality and where I seriously considered tossing the food out rather than eat it, some QS that made some of the TS at WDW or even at home seem like low quality, and TS that ranged from good to great IMO. It depends on your expectations which is impacted partly by what you experience at home for the same price and partly by your personal tastes and even what's available where you live. I don't think it's true to say that all of the food served at WDW is poor quality - there are a great many eating establishments in all of WDW and what you think may be good I may think is awful and vice versa. What I think is true, is that you have to sometimes kiss a few frogs to find a prince.


EDIT:

If we want better food, we head over to the Swolphin

I guess it also depends on what you define as WDW. I define it as any restaurant at any location in/on the grounds, so the Swan and Dolphin count to me as being in WDW, not just those specifically in the theme parks. At least half of our dining is at a resort. Even so, my original comment stands. I keep hearing from people about how Teppan Edo is not nearly as good as "your local hibachi restaurant" and is so much more expensive. My "local" hibachi restaurant is a 90 minute drive away with $30/day parking and is easily 2-2.5 times the price of Teppan Edo. So, for me, the food is tasty, I think it's pretty good quality for the price and I enjoy it the experience - this is driven by personal experience and expectation.

 

[Brett Wyman]

An example of "different strokes for different folks:"
I LOVE that spicy chicken sandwich, but that slaw is absolutely vile. I almost wonder how they could pack so much sugar into that slaw.
But again, just my opinion. I LOVE those sandwiches, but no slaw for me. It ruins it completely.It's like a scoop of crunchy cabbage n' carrot ice cream on an otherwise wonderfully spicy sandwich.

Just an opinion, folks - I'm POSITIVE that I like some things you'd find horrible. Just illustrating a point.

Honestly never noticed the slaw either way.

 

[FutureDisneyEventPlanner]

I’m not sure what you’re expecting from a theme park.

I notice you keep mentioning the "theme park" aspect of it, but WDW is not any old theme park. You can't compare Disney World to a regular ole theme park like Six Flags. Also Disneyland is a "theme park" and their food is amazing there.

 

[dismoose23]

Overall we have enjoyed every meal (QS, TS, SS) during our stays at WDW and DL. I will say though, ever since hearing DW's horror story about eating a WDW burger back during a high school trip, I vowed never to have a QS burger at Disney (and have still yet to).