When it comes to theme park food, Disney World is – for the most part – above average. In fact, we’d go so far as to say that some of its food is actually excellent. There aren’t many theme park resorts out there that offer everything from hot dogs to Michelin-starred meals, with the Most Magical Place on Earth truly offering something for every appetite.
As with any destination packed with dining options, not every restaurant hits the same mark. Every devoted Disney park fan has their go-to Disney World spots—the ones you’ll eagerly wake up at dawn to snag an Advance Dining Reservation for or more than happily carve out time from a packed park day to savor.
These aren’t always the same from guest to guest, but some restaurants have earned more negative reviews than others. As per TripAdvisor, these restaurants are the worst on Disney property.
Tony’s Town Square Restaurant (Magic Kingdom)
Tony’s Town Square Restaurant, located at the entrance of Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World, offers an Italian dining experience inspired by Lady and the Tramp (1955). Known for its family-friendly atmosphere, the restaurant features a menu with classic Italian dishes, including pasta, pizza, and desserts.
It’s received a lot of flack for poor quality over the years, and even though we’d argue that it’s actually much better now than it once was – especially since updating its menu in 2022 – its bad rep still lingers. It boasts 3.5 stars on TripAdvisor, where reviewers have particularly strong feelings about its hectic service and low-quality food. “We found the restaurant to be extremely noisy, badly organized, the menu was limited, our waitress was extremely curt and rude, the food could only be described average at best,” said one reviewer.
Another remarked, “This restaurant [is] by far was the [worst] I have ever been to. I love everything Disney which is why this is soooo difficult to write. I literally thought I would be safe by the Spaghetti & Meatballs. I got so sick. I kept tasting the meatballs for like a day and a half after eating here.”
Maria & Enzo’s Ristorante (Disney Springs)
Maria & Enzo’s Ristorante, situated in The Landing area of Disney Springs, opened in 2018 and offers a rustic Sicilian-Italian dining experience inspired by the 1930s. Unfortunately, Italian doesn’t seem to be one of Disney’s biggest culinary strengths, with the restaurant also boasting 3.5 stars on TripAdvisor.
This hasn’t always been the case. As one reviewer pointed out, the quality was significantly better pre-COVID. “Back in 2018, it was the best Italian restaurant on property and one of the best Italian restaurants I have EVER been to,” they wrote. “I’ve dreamed about their food since, particularly the complimentary Italian bread and olive oil.”
Others have pointed out that the free bread service has been erased from the restaurant while portion sizes were slashed. One user said that the quality is reminiscent of fast food, while another wrote, “Very high priced for low-quality food. Food is like cafeteria food low quality.”
Roundup Rodeo BBQ (Disney’s Hollywood Studios)
This is one of the newer additions to Walt Disney World Resort’s dining scene. Located in Toy Story Land at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, the table service restaurant is inspired by the beloved Pixar Animation franchise of the same name. It offers an all-you-can-eat, family-style menu with a variety of smoked meats, classic sides, and desserts, with colorful, supersized decor designed to make you feel like a toy (plus the tradition of freezing when a cast member shouts, “Andy’s coming!”)
Unfortunately, while it’s a lot of fun to look at – and admittedly also pretty fun to visit – there’s been a lot of negativity around Roundup Rodeo BBQ. With a 3.5 rating on TripAdvisor, visitors have accused the restaurant of serving mediocre food at high prices.
“My husband said the brisket was ok, but everything else was terrible,” said one reviewer. “The sides were a letdown. Corn overcooked and overpowered by seasonings. My daughter said mac and cheese tasted like Kraft box brand.” One even said that it was “by far the worst meal we have ever had at WDW.”
Another guest—who paid £165 ($214) for two adults and two children—added that it was “overrated,” “very disappointing,” and plagued by “unorganized service.” This service is a sore point for many guests, perhaps even more so than the food.
Planet Hollywood (Disney Springs)
We’ll be honest: until we started writing this article, we actually forgot that Planet Hollywood even existed. Disneyland Paris has shuttered and is currently in the process of demolishing its version of the chain restaurant, which is dripping with movie memorabilia and serves classic American fare.
There may be a reason for that. Reviewers are consistently underwhelmed by Planet Hollywood. On TripAdvisor – where it boasts a rating of 3.5 – few guests have good things to say about the restaurant’s slow, and sometimes even rude, service (one user said it was “horrendously bad”). They have even loss positive words for the food. One guest claims to have “had a burger that must’ve been frozen it had no flavor” and notes that “you can do better almost anywhere else in Disney Springs.
The Diamond Horseshoe (Magic Kingdom)
The Diamond Horseshoe is a lively dining venue in Magic Kingdom Park that captures the spirit of the Wild West. This classic saloon-style restaurant – which describes itself as an “Old West music hall” – features a hearty menu of American, holiday-inspired fare.
If you’ve ever perused available ADRs at Disney, you’ve probably noticed that The Diamond Horseshoe is always available. We mean always available. There’s a reason why few people make this their restaurant of choice, with TripAdvisor (where it has a 3.5 rating) flooded with comments about its mediocre food. “Quality of food was like a cheap buffet,” said one disappointed guest. “Food arrived cold, so did the coffee.”
While you admittedly get huge portions, this isn’t always a good thing if the quality is subpar. As one guest said, “I would rather have quality over quantity. The chicken thighs were dry. The sausage was tiny, almost like little weenies you get in a can. The brisket, while it fell apart, was bland. In fact EVERYTHING was bland!”
Pizzafari (Animal Kingdom)
We’re huge fans of the dining options at Animal Kingdom, which boasts some of the most interesting dishes in Walt Disney World Resort—or, in fact, any Disney theme park. However, Pizzafari is a bit of a letdown. The colorful quick-service pizzeria is perfectly passable in our eyes, but some have gone so far as to denounce it as among Disney World’s worst offerings.
Once again boasting a 3.5 rating on TripAdvisor, it’s been inundated with comments about the quality of its pizzas. One particularly passionate negative review reads: “Pizzafari uses premade frozen pizza but charges fresh prices … I would be embarrassed to sell that piece of crap.” Or, as one user so eloquently put it, “Throw away the pizza and eat the plate.”
Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Cafe (Magic Kingdom)
First thing’s first: Sonny Eclipse is absolved from all criticism of Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Cafe in our eyes because A) He’s an animatronic alien, and B) He’s a singing animatronic alien for whom we’d lay down our lives to hear another round of “Hello Space Angels.”
Our undying love for Sonny Eclipse aside, the quick-service restaurant in Magic Kingdom Park’s Tomorrowland area isn’t anything special. “From exorbitant prices to lackluster quality and unbearable noise levels, this popular eatery fails to live up to its hype,” complained one reviewer on TripAdvisor (where it has a rating of, you guessed it, 3.5 stars).
“We had chicken sandwiches and they were terrible,” said another. “Chicken was dry and tasteless. Buns were not toasted. This was the worst meal of our trip.” Meanwhile, a third user said, ”
Lotus Blossom Café (EPCOT)
Located in EPCOT’s China Pavilion, Lotus Blossom Café is a quick-service restaurant that serves Chinese favorites such as pot stickers, egg rolls, orange chicken, chicken fried rice, and Mongolian beef. Theoretically, this should be delicious—especially considering the quality of EPCOT’s food offerings is generally quite impressive—but in practice, guests are often left unimpressed.
Many feel like you just don’t get value for money here. “Although the teenager in the group liked the orange chicken and I enjoyed the egg roll portion of the other meal, the rest of the two meals were simply tasteless,” recalled one guest. “The Shrimp Fried Rice had very few shrimp, and the fried rice had no flavor. I felt like we had sat down in the mall food court and ordered our lunches.”
Another went so far as to declare it the worst Chinese food they’d ever had, writing, “This was awful. So bad we could not get the taste to go away. Over breaded, over cooked, little or no flavor except old grease taste. I realize the Chinese food in Florida in general is not the best, but this is Disney and you would expect at least decent food.” All in all, it’s no surprise that it’s only mustered a 3.5 rating on TripAdvisor.
What’s your least favorite restaurant at Walt Disney World Resort?
The post Avoid These 7 Worst-Rated Restaurants at Walt Disney World appeared first on Inside the Magic.
