Wolfgang Puck Grand Cafe

On our last trip to Walt Disney World, Mama_chelledun and I made a sincere attempt to adhere to a strict budget. This meant staying at a moderate hotel, booking off-peak flights, and eating at primarily counter service eateries. Of course, we couldn’t go a whole four days without splurges, so I scheduled exactly one “fancy” dinner at a place we felt would be a hit – the dining room at the Wolfgang Puck Grand Cafe. Surely, we figured, Wolfgang would show our taste buds a good time.

Sadly, it appears that either Wolfgang has left the building permanently or he’s past his prime, as I would never repeat my Grand Cafe experience or recommend it to others, even at half the price.

Know Before You Go (If You Must Go)
Wolfgang has more than a dozen restaurants around the country, three of which can be found in Lake Buena Vista’s Downtown Disney shopping/dining/entertainment complex. A casual, take-out eatery is located on the Marketplace side, while the Grand Cafe’s two dining options can be found on the West Side. We ate upstairs, in the Dining Room, but we could also have eaten in the more casual (but still table service) cafe downstairs.

Reservations are practically mandatory if you wish to eat upstairs, but only accepted for certain meals downstairs. Disney’s main reservation line can help you make reservations or you can call the restaurant directly, but I was on hold twenty minutes and got hung up on two times while trying to confirm my dining time so I don’t recommend that route.

Atmosphere and Service
My first impression of the dining room at Wolfgang Puck Grand Cafe was good – after seeing dozens of screaming kids in the downstairs space, the upstairs facility seemed comparatively tranquil. Unfortunately, two hour waits downstairs ensured that at least a few of those screaming kids followed us to the more upscale eatery.

The seating area in the dining room is surprisingly small, with just twenty or so white-clothed tables. Most are for two. We were given a window seat, which was good, but this meant we had to perch awkwardly on bar stool-height chairs throughout our two hour meal, which was bad. If I were ever dragged back to the Grand Cafe I would definitely insist on a regular-sized table and chair. The strangest thing I noted about the ambiance in the dining room had to do with the “soundtrack” – the base from the thumping, blaring music in the casual cafe below leaked up the stairs with no attempt made to hide it or cover it up. This meant we spent our entire meal kind of sort of hearing songs that definitely did not add to the elegance of the experience.

Service was meh. Our waiter was attentive initially but forgot about us as soon as he got a larger table. It took us a very long time to get our meals, a refill on wine, and the check.

The Food
One would think Wolfgang Puck would know how to cook, right? I mean, doesn’t he have or two a show on the subject? I realize celebrity chef/restaurant owners aren’t generally slaving away over the burners personally, but one would think that an excellent chef would manage to pass at least a fraction of his knowledge on to those working in the restaurant bearing his name. Not so at Wolfgang Puck Grand Cafe, clearly.

To start off on a positive note, I will concede that the wine was good. We asked our server to pick out a Riesling for us and ended up with very nice, moderately priced glasses of wine. We passed up appetizer options such as sea scallops and pork pot stickers and instead kicked off our meals with classic caesar salads at ten bucks each. I’ve got no problem whatsoever for paying that price for a yummy, high quality solid. Unfortunately, in this case our caesar salads were no better than the side salads I typically pay $2.00 to add on at my local Applebee’s or T.G.I. Friday’s. Think minimal parmesan and croutons which tasted (gasp!) store bought. We received bread with our salad, which along with some butter turned out to be the highlight of our meal.

For entrees, diners can choose between dishes such as wienerschnitzel with warm potato salad, rack of lamb with garlic mashed potatoes, and filet mignon with “lobster crushed potatoes.” Mama_chelledun and I each opted for the short rib with garlic mashed potatoes, which interestingly enough appears to have been removed from the menu since our visit. I believe our meals each cost around $45.00. Unfortunately, they were terrible. Instead of having the tender, no knife needed texture good short ribs should have, our meals each consisted of a brick of fat and bone. Even when using a steak knife, it was tricky to cut enough meat off to constitute even a bite. The flavoring wasn’t terrible, but the meat was so poorly cooked that we seriously contemplated sending the meals back. In the end, we decided not to bother when our waiter failed to check on us for twenty minutes after we received our meals. By that point, we’d lost our appetites anyway. Four months after our meal, Mama_chelledun continues to insist the meat at Wolfgang Puck's is the worst she's ever had.

After the first two courses disappointed us, we opted out of dessert and ended up spending $3.00 on beignets back at the hotel. These deep-fried pastries turned out to be much tastier than anything we ate during our $125.00 meal at Wolfgang Puck’s.

Overall…
If you’re prepared to shell out more than $50 per person for a meal while at Disney, head to Le Cellier, California Grill, or Victoria & Albert’s instead. Even if our food hadn’t been horrible, I still wouldn’t have recommended this restaurant. The dining room a at Wolfgang Puck’s Grand Cafe is simply too noisy, cramped, and generally uninspiring to justify its high price point. Avoid it like the plague!

Recommend this product? No