Coral Reef to do or not?

[Mnchknbrat1982]

Okay here is my question I've heard this place is either awesome or not good at all. I've ate at a place like this a couple yrs ago in a mall in Nashville, TN. So I am wondering would you eat at this place or not? It will only be my bf and I. I am not a big seafood person, I do like fried shrimp and Alan likes white fish. Other than that I would probably get chicken or something. So if you wouldn't eat here where would you choose? It doesn't have to be in the park. I do want something for dinner though.

My ADR's that I definately plan to keep are:
Whispering Canyon Cafe (Sun 9/23)
Le Cellier( Tues 9/25)
Sci Fi (Mon 9/24)
Chef Mickey's (Thurs 9/27)

I can make my ADR's on 3/26

[the real Alice]

I wouldn't compare the restaurant in Nashville. Although the scenary is the same ,they are not operated by the same company and you therefore can't compare the food. If you're not a seafood fan I wouldn't recomend going.

[Strmchsr]

I agree that if you're not a seafood fan, there's plenty of other places you'd enjoy. Now that CR is only 1 TS I will actually eat there again. For the atmosphere, it's incredible. The food is good (not awesome). The mai mai is really incredible, but i just don't feel you get the value for your money at CR that you get other places.

[MsMin]

I love the CR and have been the past 2 yrs. Many of us have ordered steak instead of seafood which was great. It's not a "fried fish" kind of restaurant so if you are looking for that you could be disappointed. We have always had great service and food.
Our two favorites this past trip were Spoodles and the Coral Reef. We enjoyed both more than LeCellier which typically gets great reviews. Our server there was really flat and a little slow.
I wouldn't hesitate going there for steak and enjoy the atmosphere. If you have the DDP it can be a great value. Our bill for 7 ppl w/ one drink ea. for 4 out 7 ran over 500. It's easy to spend 50 per person there. The lobster bisque is great if you like cream based soups.

[Mnchknbrat1982]

yeah we have the dining plan. I would end up getting steak or chicken or something. But I know the bf will want fish so I wondered about the white fish. Anyone know any good recommendations I could tell him to try? As I would like to keep this in a way. So if everyone says go for it I probably will.

[Strmchsr]

yBut I know the bf will want fish so I wondered about the white fish. Anyone know any good recommendations I could tell him to try?

Definitely the mai mai. It's really good.

[Rich Mc]

A great place to eat and watch the fish in the tanks! We love to eat fish but if you aren't into fish they have many other items to try.

[Tiggerish]

My first instinct was to reply, "if you're not a seafood fan, forget it", but then, the atmosphere is completely worth it. It is an expensive steak or chicken, but it is cool to sit so close to the "wildlife".

The mahi-mahi is excellent, but is not just plain "white fish"--it is served over couscous and is dressed with a honey-soy sauce, which I found absolutely delicious, but I am an adventurous eater.

[Jasper]

While other posters are correct that the atmosphere is great at Corral reef, you can spend as long as you want watching the fish by visiting the Living Seas pavilion. Having said that, since you say you are not a seafood fan I would say do the living seas pavilion for the atmosphere and go someplace else for dinner. I would suggest some place like California Grill for a great dinner that has more variety of food.

[garymacd]

I don't think I would eat there for a couple of reasons:
1 I don't like fish

2 You would have to stare a some idiot (like me) in the tank staring back at you while you are trying to eat.

Actually, that sounds like fun!

[Natazu]

Ok, first let me say that there is no place in Nashville that will compare to Coral Reef, not even a little. When you get fish at Coral Reef, that fish kissed its little fish wife goodbye that morning, got its little fish briefcase and went to its little fish job and never came home. You can't get that kind of freshness 600 miles from the ocean.

For whitefish eaters, the mahi is absolutely wonderful. It's my favorite since the lobsters moved to Canada.

For non-fish eaters, they have a good NY strip & prime rib. The chicken looks good but I've never tried it.

[WDW1985]

Back in the mid to late 80's the Coral Reef was truly a premier restaurant at WDW. It was expensive, but worth every penny. In the late 90's something started to change and my family and I stopped going simply because it just wasn't the same, still good, but not great. You cannot beat the view, but the quality and service has suffered somewhat. Mind you I have not been there in some time, but my brother was there last fall and kind of felt the same way. It think it's worth a try if you haven't done it before, but know there has been a bit of a decline. Also I'm not sure if they've done any renovations recently??? That of course would be a plus. Cheers

[StillSimbaGirl]

I wouldn't go to the Coral Reef - ESPECIALLY if you are a seafood lover.

Seafood Mousse - yech. Probably the worst thing I've eaten at Disney - 4 people at our table - every one had a bite; no one would finish it.

Everything else - mediocre, at best. I did NOT get the Mahi Mahi - maybe if I had I would be singin a differnt song.

There is no fried shrimp on the menu - they don't do fried.

There are really good places to go (Rose & Crown's not on your list) in Epcot. Pick something else or walk over to Board Walk, Beach Club etc.

oh yeah, the service was dreadful.

There are a ton of tables - and only handful are near the tank...so a cool view, not all that likely.

I've eaten most places in Epcot - this was my least favorite. Give me the cod in Norway over anything I had at the Coral Reef! It was at least edible.

[tinkerbelle75]

I wouldn't go to the Coral Reef - ESPECIALLY if you are a seafood lover.

Seafood Mousse - yech. Probably the worst thing I've eaten at Disney - 4 people at our table - every one had a bite; no one would finish it.

Everything else - mediocre, at best. I did NOT get the Mahi Mahi - maybe if I had I would be singin a differnt song.

There is no fried shrimp on the menu - they don't do fried.

There are really good places to go (Rose & Crown's not on your list) in Epcot. Pick something else or walk over to Board Walk, Beach Club etc.

oh yeah, the service was dreadful.

There are a ton of tables - and only handful are near the tank...so a cool view, not all that likely.

I've eaten most places in Epcot - this was my least favorite. Give me the cod in Norway over anything I had at the Coral Reef! It was at least edible.

my thoughts exactly-except I did order the Mahi-and it was just okay.

[the real Alice]

[QUOTE=Natazu;1225195]Ok, first let me say that there is no place in Nashville that will compare to Coral Reef, not even a little. QUOTE]

As a native Nashvilleian I reserve the right to disagree with you. The food may not compare but the atmosphere does.

[2MuchWDFun]

Don't know about the restaurant in Nashville, so I can't comment on that; however my husband and I had a great meal last September.

I almost cancelled the reservation because of the mixed reviews on this site...I'm glad we didn't. It was the best meal of the trip (we ate at Le Cellier and Jiko's, too).

One negative that I saw upon arrival was that the waiting area needs more seating, a lot of adults/kids were sitting on the floor.

We got seated within 10 minutes of our ADR right in the 1st row next to the tank. We ate here years ago for lunch and sat in the back row. Wherever you sit you get a great view of the tank.

I can highly recommend the Pan seared Ahi Tuna...fabulous! It is sushi grade and delicious, you hardly notice that you are eating fish, it tastes like prime rib. I almost didn't get it (not a fish or sushi fan!) but I am so glad I did. It comes with wasabi mash potatos...mmm; they are the perfect complement. My husband got the MahiMahi and loved it.

We did see people eating prime rib which I have to say looked delicious and is a very large portion.

For dessert get The Wave. It is fabulous.

Also, for people complaining of slow service. I sometimes think that we tend to rush too quickly through meals...it's not a coffee shop or fast food joint...don't expect to be out of their in 20 minutes. We received excellent service, in fact it was our waitress' last night. She was transferring to V & A after working at the Coral Reef for over 20 years.
Enjoy the experience, have good conversation, check out the fish in the tank, relax, savor the ambiance, look lovingly into each other's eyes and have a fabulous meal.

[pook@wdw]

Been to CR twice. 1st time...loved it! 2nd time...hated it. Atmosphere always great-especially if there's divers in the tank. I think the DDP had a lot to do w/the 2nd time not being so great (menu change according to our server). Not a "must-do" for us

[JPL]

This seems to be the most hit or miss restaurant in WDW. There is absolutely no consistency to the quality of the food or the service. I have a few theories regarding this but will save those for another post. If you are not a big seafood person there are plenty of places to eat. If you are a seafood lover this is not your best choice for good seafood. I personally would skip it.

[WDW1985]

JPL you hit the nail right on the head! CR is obviously not consistent and that's the sign of poor management. The question I ask is if you were to take away the fish tank, would you still want to go? It's the tank that keeps them coming.

[huzzah4]

I would not recommend it. When my better half and I went in 2004, we had several issues. First of all, we had to wait approx. 20 mins past our ADR, and we got there a good 10-15 mins early. While waiting, there was very little seating, so we spent a good deal of time standing in others' way until there was a space for us to sit on the floor. Once we finally got seated, the table and chairs were very wobbly, then due to the design of the tables with pieces of shells and stuff embedded into them, we could not even get our drinks to stand up normally, I was constantly afraid they were going to spill. The service was not horrendous, but it was definitely not up to what I would consider Disney standards. They were pretty slow to respond to any requests, and my tea glass was completely empty several times (a cardinal sin as anyone who has been in the restaurant business knows). The food itself was mediocre, it wasn't bad, but it was not quite up to an Applebee's or Ruby Tuesday's standard, let alone one of Disney's signature restaurants, and, once again, the plates would not sit evenly on the irregular surface of the table. Finally, and this is something I have not seen anyone else mention, the noise in the place was absolutely unbelievable. Perhaps it was just the one table we sat at, but it seemed to us that the large window into the aquarium acted as a parabolic reflector for every screaming child, inane conversation, dropped fork, etc. We could hear everything that everyone said, amplified several times, it was so incredibly noisy that I actually left with a splitting headache, which made the rest of the day somewhat less enjoyable. Other than that, I thought it was just fine though.