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View Full Version : Dinner at Storytellers?



CarlieB
02-09-2004, 02:22 PM
Just wondering if anyone had recently had dinner (or lunch, for that matter) at the Storytellers Cafe at the GCH? I know they do a good breakfast but not so sure about their dinner menus...

innerSpaceman
02-09-2004, 02:38 PM
Ugh! They recently changed their menu (approx. 5 weeks ago) and eliminated my favorite dish, my boyfriend's favorite dish, and two other friend's favorite dishes.

It's off our list.

Hyperboy
02-09-2004, 02:49 PM
I put a review up of Storytellers Cafe on the "reviews" section of this web site.

In a nutshell: Avoid Storytellers unless you want disgusting overpriced food and have a good supply of Immodium with you to... err... plug you up.

EandCDad
02-09-2004, 02:58 PM
We went last night. My wife had ribs, which were were really good (although expensive) and I had the chicken melt sandwich, which was also pretty good (and not so expensive). They have a dinner buffet which is $25 for adults and $11 for kids. Our daughter had the buffet so I perused the selections which inluded, Ceasar Salad, potato salad, garlic mashed potatoes, herb chicken, vegtables, prime rib, some other stuff and a few kid friendly selections (chicken tenders and mac and cheese.)

Dinner for 2 adults and 2 kids was about $50. Not cheap, but not horrible considering it's a Disney property.

I don't remember too much about the other menu items except that kids entrees (with fries and a drink) were $7 and the regular menu had pizza, hamburgers, pasta with shrimp, some type of fish (Salmon?), filet mignon, maybe pork chops?

The service wasn't that great but we think it was mostly our waitress as we usually have good service. They did give our daughter a nice little cake for her birthday on the house, which was cool.

I tend to prefer them for breakfast.

Hyperboy
02-09-2004, 03:03 PM
Originally posted by EandCDad
We went last night. My wife had ribs, which were were really good (although expensive) and I had the chicken melt sandwich, which was also pretty good (and not so expensive).

The service wasn't that great but we think it was mostly our waitress as we usually have good service.

I had the chicken melt sandwich when I went there last Sunday -- besides the bread being soggy mush and chicken tasting mediocre, the "not so expensive" comes out to about $10.00 for a sandwich. If you want a good sandwich, go over to the Jazz Kitchen Express and order a po-boy for $8.50ish.

I've eaten at Storytellers many times, usually when forced to by a group of friends. I think I've had good service there once, and incredibly mean, rude and inattentive waiters the rest of the time. So much so that the table had discussions about how horrible the service was.

EandCDad
02-09-2004, 03:08 PM
Originally posted by Hyperboy
I had the chicken melt sandwich when I went there last Sunday -- besides the bread being soggy mush and chicken tasting mediocre, the "not so expensive" comes out to about $10.00 for a sandwich. If you want a good sandwich, go over to the Jazz Kitchen Express and order a po-boy for $8.50ish.


I was mostly comparing the price of the sandwich to the price of the ribs. The ribs seemed overpriced, but the sandwich seemed priced in line with similar sandwiches at other Disney Resort locations ($8.50 at Jazz Kitchen, $8-9 at ESPN, $9 or so at Rainforest, etc.). The bread I got wasn't mushy, but it had a giagantic tomato on it and I think if it sits too long with that on it, it will mush it up. The tomato wasn't very good, but when I took it off, the rest was pretty tasty.

Hyperboy
02-09-2004, 03:10 PM
Our food had obviously been waiting around for a while before it was served to us :) Oh well... there are better places to eat at the DLR for around the same price.

EandCDad
02-09-2004, 03:16 PM
Originally posted by Hyperboy
Oh well... there are better places to eat at the DLR for around the same price.

I agree.

I'll also add that for the price they were charging, $25, the selection at the buffet seemed a bit skimpy. Make sure you look over the buffet before you order it.

cstephens
02-09-2004, 03:51 PM
I've had lunch there once or twice and dinner there once or twice. I wouldn't refuse to go, but I'd only go if I was forced. I thought the food was ok, but it was kinda ordinary, especially for the price. The service wasn't horrible, but it was, again, ordinary. The creme brulee, though, was not to par at all - it was like eating a dish of vanilla pudding, which is fine if what you want is a dish of vanilla pudding, not if you're wanting creme brulee.

I only like Storyteller for breakfast and would do that no problem.

I agree - other places are much better for a similar price.

CarlieB
02-09-2004, 03:52 PM
Hmmmm, thanks for the replies:)

I also read the reviews on the MousePlanet review page, and found an interesting trend: while the earlier reviews ('round 2002) are pretty good, the later, more recent ones are all pretty bad, which doesn't bode well. I think we'll probably be skipping Storytellers (unless there's some improvement) and just heading out to some other places. Why have a mediocre meal when you can do better?

AVP
02-09-2004, 03:53 PM
I ate there with a group of friends a few weeks ago. One of them is on a eating plan which makes the buffet a good choice for her, and we all just ended up with the buffet.

Some nights it's really good - other nights it's not. The menu seems to change all the time, and you never know what you'll get. There was a yummy pesto pasta dish there that night, and Shepherd's Pie. The carved roast du jour was dried out - I had a slice, and wasn't impressed.

Since we were celebrating a birthday, we splurged on their new dessert item, the chocolate fondue. We were REALLY disappointed in this. The chocolate quality was fine - and we're usually pretty fussy about that - but it was served in classic fondue pot with NO STERNO! There was nothing to keep the chocolate from getting cold and setting up, which is exactly what it did.

The other problem is that they serve it with a TINY portion of items to dip. There is easily 10x as much chocolate as needed for the two biscotti, two marshmallows, two strawberries and two "banana fritters" (tiny fried slices of banana) it comes with. They also serve slivers of a date bread, which just does not work with chocolate IMHO.

Since there were 6 of us, and since we had purchased the buffet which includes a dessert station, we went up to get a few more items to dip into the chocolate. Unfortunately, they have removed almost anything that could be used in fondue from the buffet - there were no strawberries, no bananas, no fresh fruit at all.

We ended up asking if we could have some of the apples and oranges that were in a bowl on the counter, and cut those up for dipping. Even after this, there was still way more (cold) chocolate than necessary.

There are a few great servers there - we try to hold out for them if we can - but the overall service quality is poor. I think that this comes from the part table service / part buffet nature of the place. Customers at buffets tend to tip less, and I think the servers are given more tables at a time since more of their customers are presumably getting their own food. Neither of these trends lead to a good service situation.

AVP

SoCalDisneyLover
02-09-2004, 06:24 PM
I had made reservations there for Valentine's Day, but after hearing so many complaints, I'm just going to cancel them.

Not to change the subject, but is the quality at the Wine Country Trattoria much better? It sounds like it's decent, although not spectacular, but hopefully someone is familiar enough to say whether they would go there. Choices are limited that night. I had wanted to try Catal, but they are offering a more expensive fixed price menu, and I don't want to go overboard just for a meal.

Mary Jo
02-09-2004, 07:33 PM
Wow, this was one of our favorite restaurants at the Disneyland Resort. I'm really disappointed that their menu and service seems to have gone down so much. :crying: :crying:

Not Afraid
02-09-2004, 08:13 PM
Originally posted by SoCalDisneyLover
Not to change the subject, but is the quality at the Wine Country Trattoria much better? It sounds like it's decent, although not spectacular, but hopefully someone is familiar enough to say whether they would go there. Choices are limited that night. I had wanted to try Catal, but they are offering a more expensive fixed price menu, and I don't want to go overboard just for a meal.

The Trattoria is a nice place with good food. It is one of my favorite restaurants inside the parks. Now, if you want spectacular, go upstairs to the Vinyard Room. Yummy~

SoCalDisneyLover
02-09-2004, 09:48 PM
Vineyard Room is sold out this Saturday, and I would have a hard time justifying a $120+ meal. That's over half the cost of my AP. I'm sure it's excellent, just a little much for me in So Cal I guess.