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5. Quality

Dragon Roll at California Grill
Image: Disney

Many guests have rightfully pointed out that Disney restaurants suffered quality loss the last ten years or so. We don’t pull many punches here at Theme Park Tourist when we spot this happening. However, despite some ups and downs, Disney still has the competition pretty soundly beat in the area of quality.

This ties to variety, but at any Disney park, you can find food that is legitimately delicious. Every restaurant may not meet this standard, but every park has a few standouts that remain consistently quality. I often tell visitors to try to stretch themselves and try something new when visiting Disney—you’re paying extra either way, so you may as well get something you can only get at Walt Disney World or Disneyland. The truth is, despite some issues, Disney is way more consistent with quality than many other theme parks. Even at usually reliable mainstays like Mythos or Finnegan’s at Universal Studios or Das Festhaus at Busch Gardens Williamsburg, it sometimes feels like you never know what you’re going to get. Perhaps it’s just due to the sheer volume of restaurants Disney offers, but they seem to do a better job with quality control, at least from a broad perspective.

Does Disney need to improve quality at some restaurants? Absolutely. Do they majorly goof up sometimes? Yes. However, we will say that across the board, we have more good experiences than bad ones with Disney, and that in and of itself is a positive mark in their favor.  

6. Buffets

Biergarten exterior
Image: Sam Howzit, Flickr (license)

Theme park buffets usually aren’t anything to write home about.  While a few US theme parks have some standout options, the vast majority of theme park buffets bring to mind high school cafeteria lunches and Golden Corral far more than they do any worthwhile themed dining experience.

Disney’s buffets are surprisingly good. Epcot’s Biergarten is one great example of a buffet done right, with laudably authentic German fare paired with a charming show. Boma at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge is another great choice that frequently tops lists for the best theme park restaurants in the country, offering a wide variety of mouth-watering African dishes. Cape May Café offers an outstanding seafood spread to make any shellfish fan cheer. We already mentioned Tusker House, as well as Ohana, both excellent buffets in their own right. Even Disney’s more traditional buffets like the Crystal Palace and Chef’s Mickey are going to be better than the average chain restaurant, which says a lot. When it comes to value, you can’t go wrong with most of Disney’s buffets.

7. Guest service

Tower in Morocco Pavilion
Image: Jett Farrell-Vega

If there’s any area we enjoy being proven wrong, it’s when a theme park restaurant we previously had a bad experience at makes a turnaround. It’s proof of one of Disney’s strongest areas: guest service. While they may miss the mark sometimes, Disney guest service teams do seem to go out of their way to make sure guests leave satisfied, and it seems that often, they’re willing to make course corrections if guests seem consistently unhappy over a long period of time.

We experienced a great example of this recently at Restaurant Marrakesh. I’ve actually mentioned Marrakesh in several articles as one of the World Showcase restaurants to skip due to declined quality over the years. Indeed, the last time we visited, the service was somewhat surly, and the food was so bland that we decided we’d never go back—a real disappointment as it was one of my favorite Epcot restaurants as a kid. After striking out trying to get a boarding pass for Rise of the Resistance on opening day, we decided to hop over to Epcot and give Restaurant Marrakesh another chance. I am happy to say it was a completely pleasant experience. The service was wonderfully kind and attentive, and our food was flavorful and tasty (the chicken bastilla remains particularly good). Our entrees could have been a little warmer, and the couscous could still use a little flavor boost, but we would absolutely eat there again. Something changed over the years, and it seems Disney heard guest complaints.

Sometimes it may seem that Disney is completely ignores guests in the area of dining—there are definitely still some areas they need to improve and haven’t yet. However, their long term track record shows that, more often than not, if Disney receives repeated complaints about an issue, they prefer to address it and keep your business.

Just look at the flip-flopping that took place at Galaxy’s Edge. On one hand, you had confused guests who couldn’t make heads-or-tails of the “fantasy” names of the food at Docking Bay 7, even with attached descriptions. Disney changed the names to sound more familiar. This upset Star Wars fans who loved the immersion of the in-world names like Felucian Garden Spreads and Endorian Yip-Tip Salads. Disney eventually met both groups halfway by including both the fantasy and familiar names on the menu. Everyone wins. They listened.

While Universal is getting in gear improving their dining game (for example with the reimagining of the previously-loathed Jurassic Café at Universal Studios Hollywood into a highly-rated Costa Rican dining experience), many other parks just seem set in their ways. If something isn’t meeting guest satisfaction, change course.

8. Expansions

Space 220 restaurant concept art
Image: Disney

Whereas most theme park dining stays pretty stagnant (again, Universal is the only park we’ve seen bucking this trend), Disney doesn’t appear to have any intention of slowing down their dining game any time soon.

We know a number of Star Wars-related dining experiences are on the way with the Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser resort experience, as well as circulating rumors that a sit down restaurant might still be integrated into Galaxy’s Edge. We also know Epcot will be adding Space 220, a sort of space “observation tower” restaurant near Spaceship Earth, as well as a new creperie to the French pavilion, and the Regal Eagle Smokehouse at Epcot’s American Adventure (as a Texan, I can’t describe how happy this makes me). The Grand Floridian is also getting a Beauty and The Beast themed lounge. These are just the projects we know about. In short, guests can rest assured that new dining experiences will continue to be a part of the Disney adventure for years to come.

What else do you think Disney does better than other parks at dining? What do they need to improve on?

 

 
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