Ways to improve the parks dining

[Ben]

The park does have food to correlate with the country the restaurant is located in, but I feel that a change to an Epcot style of food would be great, what I mean is having much fresher food with a couple of sit down places. instead of squire's grill quality fish have Yorkshire Fish company quality fish(YFC is amazing!). Having foods feel more homemade will help the park improve it's culture, make dining and drinking an attraction, and give the park an opportunity for more revenue. So I am just going to go through each country and give ideas for it's dining enhancement.

England: Like I mentioned above, having a restaurant like YFC would be a great upgrade. use fresh Cod or Haddock like ,instead of Catfish which is what I hear is what most fish and chips in America is made out of. Possibly add some indoor seating, and your gold.

Scotland: With Haggis and blood pudding as their typical fare, I think it's OK if we just stick to corn dogs here

Ireland: Grogans Grill is great here, My only suggestion is to bring back the giant Baked potatoes

Jack Hanna's Wild Reserve: I would love to see a Rain forest Cafe in here somewhere

France: Replace some of the Royal Palace theater with an upscale restaurant with French Cuisine and maybe a nice show to go with it, add a bar, and it sounds awesome. Also, only have it open for dinner, it would be great for private functions


New France: Trappers is great,but inconsistent.make the food more fresh, get better quality meat,and make the whole menu consistently fresh.

Germany: Fine, those shops and snack stands suffice the hamlet

Oktoberfest: Again, the German food needs to be fresher, the product is fine, the quality is not. STOP USING HEAT LAMPS BGW!!

Italy: Enclose the sitting area and restaurant area and make a Via Napoli style sit down restaurant.

Festa: Expand the buffet into having more Italian dishes like Chicken parm

 

[Brandon]

I like all of these ideas, the only issue is food becoming more expensive than it already is.

 

[Ben]

Thats true, but tourists already pay a ton of money for bad food, how much are they willing to pay for good food?

 

[Thomas]

I wouldn't call the park's food bad... in general. It's just not as good as it could be.

 

[Ben]

I wouldn't call the park's food bad... in general. It's just not as good as it could be.

Exactly,it has so much potential to have the quality of food you only see at Epcot

 

[Party Rocker]

I think you are over thinking the food too much. As far as fish goes they use tilapia, which from what I hear is pretty good. France already has a restaurant; Bistro 205. What they need to do is enclose the entire seating area and prepare authentic french foods and they can have a very successful full service restaurant. By the way, last I saw Bistro 205 there was a sign that said it only served Trapper's menu. Anyone else got info on that?
As far as the current food options, yes they are hit or miss sometimes but food is very hard to keep ready consistently so there is no waiting.
I do think that each of their major restaurants should be full service indoors. Trappers, Festhaus (maybe), Risterante Della Plaza, Bistro 205, and Squire's Grill. Then finally, the buffet is specifically for pizza and pasta, think CiCi's Pizza.

They could do very well with having the above mentioned restaurants into full service provided they decicde to invest by:
1) Build proper indoor seating,
2) Use real dishes not plastic,
3) Refine their menus (more authenticity)
Once they take care of those three things, they should be set.

Now price, I could understand people being scared away by high prices for food, but I think all entrees should stick to $15 or under provided the portions are decent to overwhelming. Also, only the major restaurants would be full service, so it is basically choose what you want for dinner and/or lunch and not snacks for 10 minutes. Their food is actually pretty fresh from what I've been told and most everything is an in-house recipe. There are very very few things that aren't in-house. They just need to really perfect their recipes and instead of having signature recipes, be a bit more authentic.
This is the reason I am excited to see gelato at the park. It is an authentic upgrade from Dippin Dots and plain ice cream. I want to see more things like this. How about some snitchel in the Festhaus? That is one of the most popular German meals. I loved having it hile I stayed in Germany. I know that ins't the correct spelling but that is how it sounds.
If they had full service, they could easily make food much more fresh and to order rather than pre-set and warmed food.

 

[chickenking]

This is a theme park folks. True restaurant-style dining isn't really necessary. Even if it was somehow incorporated, I can only imagine how high the prices would be set. Plus, just like more upscale restaurants, waiting times would almost certainly be long (reservations anyone?)(& Quick-Queue? ), and who wants to pay to come to a park and then pay even more high dollars for so-called fine dining? Not me. Plus, this would almost assuredly drive up ticket prices as well. If the occasion strikes me for this kind of eating experience, there are plenty of fine restaurants around town.
Don't' they already have something nicer with Elmo & the Celtic Fire crews?

 

[Party Rocker]

I think you missed my point. We have seen what they tried to do with Bistro 205, prices would not be that bad. I hate how people automatically think they are forced to pay high prices. Only a few select restaurants could be full service, with you snack stands and other snack food places all through out the park.

I am looking for some strong urge to make the park classier and more well themed. For example, Grogan's Pub and Annie's Cafe. Those are the best well thought out places as far as the food/drinks served and the actual presentation of things. It is like an actual pub and cafe not just some cafeteria on the side of a street or something. I mean it doesn't have to be full on full service but something to make the food establishments more authentic, like a small cafe you would really walk into on the side of a street in France, not just a cafeteria line in a theme park.

Your problems you seem so concerned about, is $$$ and time. In regards to price, like I said, I do not see them charging more then $20 an entree in a full dining facility unless they di some serious reconstruction of whole restaurants and they were looking for a quick investment. I honestly, think if they do small upgrades and changes over the years, they can add up to full service restaurants without a very large initial fund. Personally, Bistro 205 is a good example of this. For their first full service restaurant, I found it to be a good baby step to something better. Now to make a small improvement, I would say add some real shade and or cover. Instead of those awful shade shelter things, replace them with a roof, and have the patio dinning area be like a patio. Add some real fans and you just made a small improvement over two years to increase the value of this idea, without having to spend a large initial fund and try to gain a good refund on that investment. Basically, if done right we wouldn't have to worry about expensive prices, plus just because it is full service doesn't mean the prices automatically go up.

Next issue is time, I do understand your concern about waiting. However, you only really ever go to eat a full on meal at the park once, maybe twice a day. Imagine a 20 maybe 30 minute wait to get your food from the minute you order to the minute the food gets to your table. That isn't a bad wait time and you only have to go through this at most two times a day (lunch and dinner) unless you enjoy eating full on meals consistently. Also, figure in the time it takes to get a seat probably about 5 minutes, not even. So in all honesty, you could go to one of these full service restaurants and get food and eat in the same amount of time you wait in line for a ride or very popular show. I honestly wouldn't see it as a problem.

Also this would give them the few extra minutes to make your food fresh and tasting the best it can taste.

 

[chickenking]

^^
To OP:

I think you are over thinking the food too much.

Yup.

I think you missed my point.

Nope.

Also, the poll is about making it a priority to improve dining. There are so many other important things to be considered for a theme park. Rides... Shows... landscaping (my favorite)...maintenance. Plus, isn't there a Food & Wine festival on the way?

 

[Party Rocker]

If the festival is terrible which it probably will be, food refinement is required. Plus I do believe the park needs to work on refining their culinary offerings.

 

[Haberdasher1973]

As far as theme parks go, the SWP&E properties actually have pretty good food offerings - I think, for the most part, you're just accustomed to it. Could it be better? Yes. Should they make it a priority? No. I think the park has more pressing matters at this time.

 

[pandorazboxx]

I don't see why they couldn't offer something like a Finnegan's at USF that runs basically typical applebee's type prices and level of service.

 

[David]

This is a theme park folks. True restaurant-style dining isn't really necessary. Even if it was somehow incorporated, I can only imagine how high the prices would be set. Plus, just like more upscale restaurants, waiting times would almost certainly be long (reservations anyone?)(& Quick-Queue? ), and who wants to pay to come to a park and then pay even more high dollars for so-called fine dining? Not me. Plus, this would almost assuredly drive up ticket prices as well. If the occasion strikes me for this kind of eating experience, there are plenty of fine restaurants around town.
Don't' they already have something nicer with Elmo & the Celtic Fire crews?

Thing is, this idea as worked well at other parks so there's no reason BGW couldn't do it. Location would be key for it to work out properly though, and IMO we need another indoor eatery. Weather forces the only indoor eatery we have to be slammed.

 

[James]

I feel like BGW's biggest need for dining is indoor seating or something close to it. When your operating season spans hot summer days to cold winter nights, having places that can be air conditioned and heated should be a high priority.

 

[Ludwig II]

I feel like BGW's biggest need for dining is indoor seating or something close to it. When your operating season spans hot summer days to cold winter nights, having places that can be air conditioned and heated should be a high priority.

I completely agree because the closest thing they got to that was the "heated tents" at CT which were never really heated; plus they were always jam-packed with people.

 

[chickenking]

I can totally see having more indoor seating. Though I have never had any real problem with the elements, I understand that other people may not be as comfortable in the heat or cold. So in addition to the tents, or maybe in place of them, what would you like to see in their place and where would they go?

Though, this is a different issue than making more refined dining a priority for the park. I just find it odd to worry about fancy eating and staying inside when paying to go to a theme park. It's kinda like going on vacation and getting an expensive hotel room and then worrying about it including XBOX and HBO. You can do those things at home. But hey, each to their own.

 

[Shane]

I really think the park needs to fix Bistro 205. It was supposed to have its own custom menu and at the last minute they went cheap and did a "Best of the Park" menu which was a total failure and was cheaper for them to just serve the Smokehouse menu. The key is going to be giving Bistro 205 a unique menu and then making it more visible. If you really want to improve food offering even further the park is going to need to take on something I spoke of just over a year ago. Feel free to resurrect that thread if you are so inclined...

 

[Nora]

I would love a reserved dining option too. Going to the Florida Parks last year, I fell in love with calling ahead to reserve a table, and then enjoying a really nice... albeit very expensive dinner.

It was such a pleasant and quiet experience when traveling. It would be a welcome addition in my book- if that kind of thing ever managed to take off at BGW.

 

[Shafor]

I may be in the minority here, but I could care less about the food. :/

 

[chickenking]

^
As long as they still have my corned beef sandwich at the Festhaus I is happy.