Anyone else who strongly dislikes 50s Primetime Cafe?

[epcotfan]

I don't mind the food, but the service schtick is annoying at times. I guess our last waiter thought he was a comedian. We were visiting just after the war in Iraq started and SARS was in the news. We were seated in a small room with two other families. The "Uncle" decided he would introduce all of the tables to each other. He then proceeded to ask us where we all were from. One table was from Britain and the other was from the US. Finally when he announced our table "from Canada" He said to us, "Oooh I hope there isn't an international incident." Everyone just kind of avoided eye contact after that. It was really awkward. Now I think I have an awesome sense of humour but that comment just seemed tacky.

I really like the Prime Time's decor and comfort food, but the "mom, dad, aunt, uncle" role playing gets really tiresome after awhile.

 

[Uncleromulus]

I agree with some others in wanting to know a bit more.
"Frightened" seems a pretty strong reaction to just a bad meal. Was there anything else involved?

 

[sotoalf]

Yuck. If my mother cooked - or, worse, acted - this way, I'd have run away from home more often.

 

[wilderness01]

Ok we are planning on eating there again in 3 weeks. Tell us did you find a roach or something nasty in your food? If you don't want to post can you PM me?

 

[WDWDennis]

I've done it 4 times now. We had 2 really good servers and 2 so-so servers. THEY are why my wife and I go there, not for the food. IMHO, the food is mediocore at best. I never had a bad meal, but I can't say anything really good about it either.

I think the thing about Primetime is all of the hype its gotten over the years. When the place first opened, nobody had ever seen or done anything like it before, so it was just an awesome place to go. These days, the expectations are SO high for the place, that a lot of people are going to be let down. All it takes is a bad server and your whole meal can be ruined. If you have a really great server, then medicore food can be overlooked.

I think that whoever does the hiring needs to REALLY be choosey on who they pick. I mean, that really made me laugh a few post back, when it was obvious that people didnt like their food and the waiter still gave the "no desert until you finish" line. That is SOOOOOO lousy!! The servers need to be able to adapt to each custumer, not just say lines before and after the meal.

I think as time goes on and the place gets even more popular, its going to be harder and harder to impress people. I know I have pretty much lost all interest in going back after our last server. I DON'T go there for the food, so I don't want to risk spending all that money and winding up with a lousy server.

 

[DNBois]

Wow! I haven't checked the post in a while - for those of you faint of heart, or in the this case faint of stomach, please do not read the following.
I had pm'd a couple of curious people but I might as well tell everyone - like I said, there is no easy way ot describing it. There was a large slimy membrane like material in my pot roast that had what looked like blood vessels in it like as if it was an actual piece of the beef they didn't get rid of. It makes me quesy just thinking about it - the waiter saw it after trying to get me to eat another bite so I could have dessert - he removed the plate from the table very, very quickly.
This is why we will not most likely, but definitely not eat there again and believe me, we are not hard people to satisfy and love a lot of WDW restaurants but this was a shock which is probably why we ran out without complaining.

 

[Ron from Michigan]

We have ate at 50's PT many times over theyears and have always enjoyed it. It was where we saw our first celebrity at WDW. Sela Ward sat next to us and talked to our daughters a lot during the meal.

 

[scrump]

That's too bad. And pretty gross. PT was always good to us, though admittedly, the act gets really old really quickly for me. But my friend enjoys it immensely, so it's all good in my book. I did have the meatloaf in the past, and it was dry, but also had the pot roast which was very worthwhile. I'msorry your experience was so awful.

 

[Tim4WDW]

Originally posted by DNBois
There was a large slimy membrane like material in my pot roast that had what looked like blood vessels in it like as if it was an actual piece of the beef they didn't get rid of.

I'm sorry to hear that. We eat there everytime we go and enjoy it. The food is okay, but really enjoy the entertainment put on by the CMs more. If we want better food at the Studios, we usually go to the Brown Derby.

 

[CRSNDSNY]

We absolutely loved the service, food and atmosphere the first two times we dined there. The last three times were not so good experiences. The food wasn't as good, the waitstaff not as much fun, etc.

It will be a few years before we try here again. We'll hit some other dining areas we haven't yet tried at MGM first.

 

[DISNEMOM]

i wont go back there again, because the waitress we had was really rude to my then 3 yr old daughter. she didnt want to finish her food, which was fine w/us, she ate alot. but this lady wouldnt stop harping on her and then went on and on to the whole room about what a brat she was!, so misbehaved, etc. she was perfectly behaved, and if this is supposed to be a joke or not, she went to far. ruined my thoughts on this place.

 

[leebee]

Sorry to hear about the pot roast, but meat comes from animals, and animals have membranes and blood vessels. In fact, pot roast is cooked for a long time at a low temperature so that the membranes and the cartilage in the meat change chemical structure and make the meat tender. If it had been my meal I would have either cut out the offending section OR talked with the waiter and asked for a replacement meal, not just another serving of pot roast. You are paying for the meal and deserve edible food. If you truly could not consume another bite of anything after this discovery, you should have spoken to a manager and had them take the meal off the bill. You'd be surprised how often this could be done IF the party requests it...once I ordered a beef dish in Mexico and it came in the chicken form...kitchen was very busy and it would take about 30 mins to replace...dh ate the chicken thing, I ate some of his dish, waiter took the chicken thing off the bill. ANyhow, sorry you didn't like 50's. We always go and enjoy it, although I do think that the schtick gets old and the servers should be a tad more observant as to when their shenanigans are going too far.

 

[Harambe]

This is a place we have never gone to, only because I am not comfortable with all the bullying, although done in fun, by the wait staff. That makes me uncomfortable - and if they started on my children, like DISNEMOM described, I'd really be uncomfortable.

So sorry the OP had to endure the carnage on her plate. It should have been noticed by the chef plating up her meal.

 

[BeamsofLight]

I'm also in the 'didn't hate it but won't go back' boat. We ate here on our honeymoon. The food was probably the worst meal we had the whole trip - not that it was awful, just mediocre. I remember my fried chicken being the greasiest I've ever seen, and I ate very little of it as a result.

Our server was pretty reserved, which was fine, and she did bring us a 'honeymoon cupcake' which she made us stand up and feed to each other. It was cute and a nice touch.

The thing that stands out in my mind though, that I think about whenever I think about this restaurant, was the state of the bathroom. It may have just been a bad day and it's probably not usually like that, but that was the nastiest, foulest, dirtiest bathroom I've ever seen on Disney property. My thought was "no wonder they make sure everyone washes their hands."