glencoe
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 1, 2005
I have made a new rule for our family when we are at a sit down restaurant for a nice meal. What do I mean by nice? Well in the parks and on a schedule I don't mind efficient service (in and out in 45 min-1 hour average) however at Disney Springs for example when we have the time and want to enjoy the meal, we follow a new plan. Here it goes..
Don't order your drinks/apps/entree at the same time.
We generally are informed of where we are going, have a kid with Celiac so we don't stare at the menu for long. So we are most often ready to order all up front. Unfortunately this has created a problem. It happened at the Boathouse last June in Disney springs (other places too, but this was the worst ever) We arrived at 6:50 for a 7pm reservation. We were sat immediately. Drink orders in, Chef came to table and spoke with my son about celiac order. We placed our orders.. Sat back for a nice dinner, we were dropping him for the college program so we wanted to enjoy this last meal with him until next visit.
Salad came, I was on my second bite of salad and then our stuffed lobsters arrived. 7:13!!!!! ( I kid you not) You would think it was impossible to cook a stuffed lobster that fast.....I guess not.
Our server saw the look on our faces and apologized and sent them back "to make new ones" . Then not even 5 minutes later another runner came back with the same buggers and just dumped them on the table (we were still working on our salad/apps).
I have not idea what was going on back in the kitchen, but we did not order cheap, weren't on the dining plan (we were going to use TIW but that was not a factor at that time). Honestly not sure if any of that is truly a reason but just putting that out there. I still nicely tipped our waiter as he seemed to be trying to fix the problem, spoke to management on way out as well. They offered up return visit with "something nice" but I will probably never return....there are way to many options at Disney to take a chance of a repeat.
So the end finally of this story/review of sorts. Separate your app/entree order, hopefully the server doesn't hold up the app order to enter all at once though. That way you wont have the dreaded entree on top of unfinished app issue, or the "rushed meal" feeling. I am courteous of using a table past a reasonable time, I always tip above the 18% mandatory TIW added tip as well. We go out alot and follow responsible dining rules, however I always hope the server/kitchen/runners do their job as well!!
Don't order your drinks/apps/entree at the same time.
We generally are informed of where we are going, have a kid with Celiac so we don't stare at the menu for long. So we are most often ready to order all up front. Unfortunately this has created a problem. It happened at the Boathouse last June in Disney springs (other places too, but this was the worst ever) We arrived at 6:50 for a 7pm reservation. We were sat immediately. Drink orders in, Chef came to table and spoke with my son about celiac order. We placed our orders.. Sat back for a nice dinner, we were dropping him for the college program so we wanted to enjoy this last meal with him until next visit.
Salad came, I was on my second bite of salad and then our stuffed lobsters arrived. 7:13!!!!! ( I kid you not) You would think it was impossible to cook a stuffed lobster that fast.....I guess not.
Our server saw the look on our faces and apologized and sent them back "to make new ones" . Then not even 5 minutes later another runner came back with the same buggers and just dumped them on the table (we were still working on our salad/apps).
I have not idea what was going on back in the kitchen, but we did not order cheap, weren't on the dining plan (we were going to use TIW but that was not a factor at that time). Honestly not sure if any of that is truly a reason but just putting that out there. I still nicely tipped our waiter as he seemed to be trying to fix the problem, spoke to management on way out as well. They offered up return visit with "something nice" but I will probably never return....there are way to many options at Disney to take a chance of a repeat.
So the end finally of this story/review of sorts. Separate your app/entree order, hopefully the server doesn't hold up the app order to enter all at once though. That way you wont have the dreaded entree on top of unfinished app issue, or the "rushed meal" feeling. I am courteous of using a table past a reasonable time, I always tip above the 18% mandatory TIW added tip as well. We go out alot and follow responsible dining rules, however I always hope the server/kitchen/runners do their job as well!!
