Wolfgang Puck's at Downtown Disney

My husband and I are food fanatics and were very excited that we got a reservation for Wolfgang Puck's upstairs ("formal") dining area for a night of our honeymoon at Disney World. We dressed up, and were looking forward to our adult night-out after the stress of wedding planning was finally over. There are three main areas to this restaurant - a "casual" area downstairs, a sushi bar, and what we were told was the "formal" dining upstairs. (Please be advised that if you do decide to eat here, it's suggested that you make a reservation 180 days out from your vacation by calling 407-WDW-DINE.)

I think the only good part of our evening was that we did not have to wait; we got to the restaurant right as it was beginning to sprinkle a bit outside, but we were rushed right in and told to go upstairs. Once upstairs, we literally stood there not knowing what to do for a good five minutes. There's no seating area; just a small open platform at the top of the stairs near the bar. Eventually, a "host" came by and asked us where we'd like to sit - "a tall table or a short table." Without much of a description as to where these tables were actually located, we picked the "short table" as we did not want to feel like we were sitting at a bar for our dinner. We were seated, and the waiting officially began.

We waited; and waited; and, waited some more. Finally, a rather grumpy waiter came by and took our drink orders. After we requested a bread basket, we were given that too. But, I'm not sure if our unpleasant waiter would have brought it if we had not asked. During our long time-spans of waiting on a glimpse of our waiter, we observed the rest of the patrons in the dining area. We were honestly very disappointed at the atmosphere of what we were told (from the dining reservations number) and what we were expecting. We were told this was a tie-appropriate/cocktail venue, and this could not have been further from the truth. It had looked like most of the guests had rolled straight in from a long-day at the park. (Which, do not get me wrong. There are HUNDREDS of other places to eat all over the Disney property that you can be as casual as you'd like, but we were planning on this being our formal/romantic night with the advice of the reservation number, again, a severe disappointment.)

Two bread baskets in to the night (which was really the only good food of our meal), a.k.a. almost 45 minutes later, our waiter finally decided to take our order. I had a filet with mashed potatoes, while my husband had a strip. We sat and waited some more. (See a trend?) We got a bit tired of watching other guests come, order, eat, and leave while we were still waiting on our food. We were also a bit tired of watching the lady in her see-through shirt with pink bra under it seated next to our table; so much for formal dining.

Almost 2-hours after our arrival, we finally received our meals. Horrible. I was so disappointed with my filet; it was one of the worst ones that I've ever had. I've had better at quick-serve places like Chili's. My husband was also very disappointed in his meal; he'd rather go spend money at a less-expensive restaurant that we're guaranteed better food at than waste our money at Wolfgang Puck's.

After we ate, we sat for nearly 30 more minutes and waited on the waiter to finally come back to our table; oh, this was also after asking random waiters for drink or bread re-fills. He asked if we wanted dessert, and we were more than happy to tell him no, we just wanted our ticket. We were ready to get out of there. He eventually brought our check - which was absurdly high for the quality of food and service we received.

We could not have been more disappointed or let-down from this experience; my husband had been looking forward to eating here for almost a year, and talked about it all of the time anytime our honeymoon was mentioned. I would not recommend this experience to anyone. Let's just also say we were very happy we were paying for our dinner with cash; we probably would have been there another hour if we had to wait on a card to be returned.

We left the restaurant and ended up getting a brownie at the food court in our hotel; much better food and service there than at this supposed 5-star restaurant! Wolfgang Puck's ruined the only formal/romantic night we had planned for our honeymoon; this was the only disappointed of our entire trip. Stay away!