Hi Melora,
Food seems to be the area in which most people take issue with the Guide. Even within the Guide's research team, "restaurant reviews" is one of the top (if not
the top) areas of debate. The internal discussions we had about Le Cellier, for example, prior to the 2004 edition were pretty heated.
To keep things simple, I'll just talk about sit-down restaurants here. Bob's point of view on this, as he's mentioned in the past, is that if Disney says a restaurant offers "fine dining" (and charges "fine dining" prices), then it should be held to a "fine dining" standard similar to what you'd see outside of WDW. Certain restaurants succeed admirably: California Grill, Victoria & Albert's, Shula's, Spoodles and Citrico's come to mind. I think that the Guide's reviews of these restaurants generally match well with guest experiences.
For "casual dining," the bar is obviously a little lower. Bob again, though, holds Disney to the standards they themselves set. If a restaurant offers, oh, say, "tender pan-seared tilapia in a bed of hydroponically grown lettuce," then that pan-seared tilapia better be tender, and should be comparable in quality, preparation and presentation to what you'd get outside of WDW at a similiar establishment for a similar price. We think this is a reasonable expectation, especially as Disney is the one setting the terms in their menu language.
This expectation, though, is one area that everyone doesn't agree on. Lots of folks write in expressing some variation of "It's a theme park, what do you expect?" Not to be glib, but I think we expect what Disney says they can deliver on the menu. That seems like a logical place to start, anyway, and I'm not sure what else can be used as a generally acceptable basis for judgement.
The problem, as I see it, is that Disney has to serve tens of thousands of meals every day. To maintain that level of quality and consistency (while still making a profit) for that many meals is extremely difficult. As one might expect, some restaurants manage to do this very well. Some don't do it well at all (cough Cap'n Jack's cough), and most probably fall somewhere in the middle. If you put every Guide restaurant review on a chart (which I did this past spring after disagreeing on some reviews with our culinary professional), I think you'll see that the ratings - unconsciously - follow that kind of bell curve.
Finally, it's worth noting that we post representative reader comments *and* their restaurant ratings along with every one of our reviews. That extra feedback should help folks make the best possible decisions about where they want to eat.
Hope that helps explain a little about how the Guide rates restaurants. For the record, I like Le Cellier. I think the 50's Prime Time Cafe is okay (the atmosphere is good, and when the server is really in-character it's a lot better), and my own experiences at Sc-Fi have been pretty bad. I don't do food reviews at all, BTW.
Besides the food reviews, the touring plans in the 2004 edition are completely updated from the 2002 edition, and will save you lots of time standing in line - up to 90 minutes in the Magic Kingdom. We've also got expanded hotel coverage, new park companion cut-out pages that show every ride, restaurant and rest spot in each park, and lots of information from Disney experts like Deb Wills (wdwig.com) and Mary Waring (Mousesavers.com).
If there's anything I can help with for your trip, feel free to drop me a line:
testa@ncat.edu.
Sincerely,
Len Testa
