It was better than I had expected, but I was expecting chicken nuggets and fries twice a day, every day.

Plated meals were better than buffets, which were better than fast food. No surprise there. Would I go there for the food? No. Would I go there for vacation sans kids? No. Was the food as good as what we get in DC for a similar price point? No. But it was better than I had expected, both in taste and in healthfulness.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:First, what are your standards? Amusement park or Per Se? For amusement park food, DW is the best, hands down, and very consistent. You can also easily find nutritious options at almost every outlet, and the default kids meals don't come with fries.

The amusement park food is certainly not high quality.

The fine dining options at DW are pretty amazing, especially the 4-5 star options at the resorts. And the prices reflect that. Service I think can be a little spotty, and the need for advance reservations (or $$ to the concierge) is annoying.

What's wrong with fries? Kids love fries.

I posted this. I agree, and we let our DD have fries at some meals (but not all.) I was just pointing out that the food wasn't all typical amusement park fried food and burgers. We had delicious salads, and DD had options including fresh veggies and fruit in addition to sometimes getting fries as a treat. I found the various options at both the low end and high end remarkable given the volume of food being prepared, the number of people, the logistics of it all, etc. By no means do I consider myself above letting my kid have a burger, fried chicken, fries, etc. sometimes.

Wolfgang Puck, Emeril's, Portobello and anothe place at downtown disney I can't remember were all very good. But I searches out places before we went.

OP here. Okay, pardon me for my "ridiculous sweeping statement" that evidently offended some. The food wasn't ALL horrible -- there were a few good items here and there. For example, the pork shank from the street vendor in Magic Kingdom was good. Also, the buffets usually had fresh bananas, apple slices for the kids...the apple cobbler at the Crystal Palace buffet was good. Breakfast at the hotel was pretty good, with a decent variety of cereals and fruits. But the rest was, well, pretty bad. Way over-salted, unflavorful, all slightly different variations of the same basic dishes of starches and meats, strange flavor combinations and unappetizing things that were clearly just invented as a way to recycle leftovers from the night before (e.g., "roasted plaintain salad")....we paid $44 per adult for the Crystal Palace buffet and for that price, I expected a decent meal. And I am really not a picky eater.

Anonymous wrote:First, what are your standards? Amusement park or Per Se? For amusement park food, DW is the best, hands down, and very consistent. You can also easily find nutritious options at almost every outlet, and the default kids meals don't come with fries.

The amusement park food is certainly not high quality.

The fine dining options at DW are pretty amazing, especially the 4-5 star options at the resorts. And the prices reflect that. Service I think can be a little spotty, and the need for advance reservations (or $$ to the concierge) is annoying.

What's wrong with fries? Kids love fries.

Anonymous wrote:Didn't have high hopes at Tony's town sqaure but was plesently surprised. the lamb shank was excellent among other dishes at my table. It's all about managing expectations. I love Foie gras and 12 course tasting menus but that's not releastic at Disney. Calling all the food horrible isn't either.

Exactly. People like OP who make these ridiculous sweeping statements make my eyes roll.

I think it's all bout expectations. We went in thinking it would be horrible middle America mall food, but actually had some good meals, balanced by the over priced bad fast food.

It is what it is, you know? It's a lot of food produced for the masses of people who are there. We did research before hand and that led us to make some decent choices and we just put up with the rest.

We had a good meal at character lunches - the buffet in Animal Kingdom was rally pretty good. The meal in Norway at Epcot (the princess one) was also really pretty good (though OMG the cost). The movie theme park - the name I can never remember - had a couple of places that looked interesting, and we had a good meal at the place that's set up like drive in movie theater.

So you have to be picky, you have to have done advance research, and when you do a grab and go meal you have to make wise choices, but it's possible.

Most of the kids restaurants are sub-par.

Did you go to anything in Epcot? Those are great...well the ones in the countries.

Also, the contemporary and GF have extremely good resturants but maybe more adult.

The only really good food we had was actually at Downtown Disney at the bowling alley. It was called Splitsville. They actually had a great menu and great food. Other than that it was just food for the masses.

First, what are your standards? Amusement park or Per Se? For amusement park food, DW is the best, hands down, and very consistent. You can also easily find nutritious options at almost every outlet, and the default kids meals don't come with fries.

The amusement park food is certainly not high quality.

The fine dining options at DW are pretty amazing, especially the 4-5 star options at the resorts. And the prices reflect that. Service I think can be a little spotty, and the need for advance reservations (or $$ to the concierge) is annoying.

Didn't have high hopes at Tony's town sqaure but was plesently surprised. the lamb shank was excellent among other dishes at my table. It's all about managing expectations. I love Foie gras and 12 course tasting menus but that's not releastic at Disney. Calling all the food horrible isn't either.

I had great meals at Jiko, Flying fish cafe, Blue Zoo.

We were not impressed either. We had a great time, but the hotels, and the entire place looked a bit run down too.

Yeah, I think it's bad.

We just got back from a trip to Disney World. The food was horrible. At the hotel, character buffets, inside the Magic Kingdom, etc. Is this just how it is? Or did we miss the good restaurants?