Have you always wanted to try Whispering Canyon? Check out a dinner review of this dining location that was not magical.
Whispering Canyon Cafe
Whispering Canyon Cafe is located inside the main building of Disney’s Wilderness Lodge. My (Donna) family booked a dining reservation for Whispering Canyon Cafe to end our first day at Animal Kingdom.
My family really enjoyed looking around this rustic resort. Their favorite part was the oversized rocking chairs and the babbling brook in the resort lobby. We enjoyed exploring as we waited for a notification that our table was ready.
I completely understand that every dining location can have good days and bad days. Fellow KtP writer Susan had a wonderful dining experience at Whispering Canyon Cafe. Be sure to check out her review of this location as well.
It was great to hear her positive experience, but I also wanted to share our less than magical experience to help give a different perspective.
Modified Guest Experience
One of the reasons why Whispering Canyon Cafe was on my list of “must try” dining locations was the high-spirited hijinks of the serving staff. We had heard that the experience had been modified.
In the past Guests visiting the Whispering Canyon Cafe could enjoy fun antics when requesting a simple item from a server such as a whole handful of straws thrown on the table when asking for one straw.
Guests requesting a refill may then receive an oversized glass of their beverage that would be large enough to share with the whole family. A simple request for ketchup could result in a whole army of ketchup bottles being delivered to your table.
I secretly hoped that we could enjoy a few of these shenanigans. I knew my family would really enjoy it. Unfortunately, we did not experience any shenanigans and our service was quite disappointing.
We spent the majority of our meal without refills. My children requested ketchup, and we had to ask our server and then two other servers to finally receive ketchup for their meals.
Unfortunately, we did not experience any shenanigans and our service was quite disappointing.
It is possible that they did not have enough servers for the night and perhaps that caused poor service, but it was disappointing to have made a dining reservation 60 days in advance for the service that one could expect from counter service dining.
Adult Entrees
Guests can choose from bottomless skillets and chuck wagon favorites to please the entire gang. Our family dined at dinner, and we chose from the all-you-can-eat skills for dinner. The price for the all-you-can eat skillet meal is $34.00 per person.
My husband chose The Traditional – Oak-smoked Mustard-Barbecued Beef Brisket, Maple-Chipotle Pork Ribs, Slow-smoked Pulled Pork, Citrus-Herb Chicken, Western-style Sausage, Smashed Potatoes, Buttered Corn, Sautéed Green Beans.
The price for the all-you-can eat skillet meal is $34.00 per person.
The vegetables served with this skillet were far superior to the meat served. The Maple-Chipotle Pork Ribs were inedible. The meat was extremely tough and difficult to eat. Both the chicken and the pulled pork were dry and less than appetizing.
I chose The Land and Sea. This consisted of House-smoked Salmon, Citrus-Herb Chicken, Spicy Vegan Sausage, Charred Portobella, Barbecued Cauliflower, Roasted Potatoes, Sautéed Green Beans, Oven-roasted Carrots.
I was hopeful that this meal may be better than that served to my husband. Unfortunately, that was not the case. Both the salmon and the chicken were quite dry. The oven-roasted carrots were cut quite thick and were not cooked nearly long enough.
Due to the price of this meal, I felt that the quality of food that we received was very disappointing.
We voiced our concerns to our server, and he just laughed it off saying that they have a hard time controlling the temperatures of the meats. Due to the price of this meal, I felt that the quality of food that we received was very disappointing.
Kids’ Meals
The kid menu offered a smaller version of the bottomless skillet. My older two children ordered the Traditional skillet. Unfortunately, they received the same dry meat that our skillets consisted of.
Our youngest chose the Grilled Chicken Breast. When she finally received the ketchup that she requested she enjoyed her meal. However, I think she could eat just about anything as long as it is drenched in ketchup. She was happy to be able to choose a chocolate chip cookie as a side.
Our older children ate only a small fraction of their meals for $9.00 a piece. I think they could have enjoyed a meal at a counter service location for less than this price, and they would have enjoyed it even more.
Overall Experience
We ate at Whispering Canyon Cafe after our day at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. The following day we visited Magic Kingdom and enjoyed Liberty Tree Tavern for dinner. This was a completely different experience.
The meal at Liberty Tree Tavern was absolute perfection. We received exceptional service. We thanked our server repeatedly and shared that the previous night our dining experience had been disappointing. He shared that this was the Magic Kingdom difference.
I know that others have received less than magical dining experiences at Magic Kingdom as well, but this was just the magic we needed at the beginning of our vacation.
Would we try it again?
I think in time I would give this dining location another chance. Simply hearing so many other people’s positive experiences at Whispering Canyon Cafe gives me hope that a magical experience could be enjoyed during a future trip.
We may wait a little while before we try it again. Hopefully this would allow for a full dining experience filled with good ole shenanigans once again for our whole family.
Have you enjoyed dining at Whispering Canyon Cafe yet? What was your experience? Did your family enjoy any fun shenanigans from the waiting staff? Share your thoughts with us on our Facebook Page.
We ate here for breakfast and dinner during the same vacation as we were staying at WL. Breakfast was decent and I would go again. Dinner was awful. Was up all night getting sick after that. I didn’t even eat that much of it because it was not good. I would not recommend for dinner.
We are invested in the vacation Club. We love the Wilderness lodge villas and the Whispering Canyon, but it is not like it was as other reviews have stated.
Agree. We did not eat at WCC but our dining experiences in Disney this time ) Jan 6 through 13, 2022) were very much a let down. From minimal selection ) do you want chicken or chicken tenders?), to the quality of food, servers running around and restaurant only half full…it has nearly destroyed my Disney feelings. So much has changed and not for the better.
We are there in December as well and while the only dish that was inedible was the steak, we noticed that the portion sizes shrank by almost one half. The server was too busy running around to be properly attentive to our needs.
Visted for dinner, 12/8/21.I was so excited to try the vegan skillet, I was so disappointed. The vegan skillet was so bad I took one bite and left all of my food. The service was subpar along with the food selection. So disappointing, one of the biggest letdowns of WDW restaurants.
Very surprised at the writers experience I just ate there the first week in January and can’t wait to go back.evetything was great
We had a very similar disappointing experience last spring. We had so looked forward to it, and the atmosphere and food was mediocre at best. We crossed Whispering Canyon off our list when we returned in the fall. Liberty Tree Tavern is our Go2 must do now.
We went when it first reopened after the shut downs. We live locally and discussed with our server the absence of the antics. At that time she said they were not allowed to do them because it involved other customer involvement which would violate the covid rules. Our food was good and so was our service.
Totally disappointed with the experience. The barbecue was terrible the meat tough with fake barbecue flavor! The place is ridiculously expensive for the quality of the food!
Like always everything else at Disney today, it’s better to keep your memories of past good times. We loved the WCC and always had good times there.
It would be sad to change these memories by visiting WCC and having a poorer experience. Sadly, I think this applies to almost all of Disney now.
Maybe it’s better to pull out the photo album and relive days of Disney past, instead of visiting again and have those memories destroyed (thanks Chepak).
Ate here in August with my family.. had the same experience as the writer. We went for the hijinks that I had heard about, thinking my boys would love it. But we got nothing but overly priced bad quality food
We stay at WL often and rarely eat at Whispering Canyon for the reasons you said and additionally, I go with my daughter, niece and mother and the skillets are just too much food and money….and just not good imo. We did eat there for breakfast in June 2021 and found that to be better and more reasonable.
WOW!! I’m surprised! My husband and I ate there the Saturday after Thanksgiving and it was pretty good. All the meats and veg were tasty and cooked correctly. Refills of drinks and food came out fast. Our waitress was funny and she anticipated giving us items before we even asked. ex. She brought out our drinks, turned to leave and turned around and said she forgot our straws and proceeded to throw about 10 on the table. We asked for extra bbq sauce and it came in about a minute. All in all, the food was fine. I’m not sure it is worth the price as I really don’t eat much, but we had a nice time. Yes! it is loud as are many restaurants at WDW, but you have to go into these places already expecting that.
I’m so sorry that your experience was less than magical. Hopefully it was an exception rather than the rule. If it helps any, we’ve eaten there four times since being introduced to it by a good friend of ours and it’s quickly become a favorite. At that first meal, I got put into timeout and i almost had an asthma atrack, I laughed so hard. My son-in-law is a bottomless put, so he loves the skillets. Even with the pandemic restrictions, our servers have managed to kerp the hijinx going. Hooefully, if you decide to give it another try, you’ll have a better experience.
We have not eaten at this particular restaurant but in December we ate at Ohana where we have dined countless times before the shut down. We had 6 family members visiting here for Christmas and thought they would enjoy it. The meat was so tough and the waiter said maybe the meat was over cooked. The 2nd platter was worse. No one could eat it , it was so tough. The chicken was burnt, and those awful biscuits were like rocks. What happened to the bread? While we ate the noodles and appetizers and dessert, the rest was a complete waste. Our waiter was scarce most of the time and we had to ask another waiter to get drink refills. We left a table full of uneaten tough steak and charcoal burnt chicken. The salad was just a bag salad and was nasty. Never again , Ohana.
Food quality aside, when we’ve been anywhere near “Whispering Canyon” it has been more like “Screaming Gulch!” Wrecks the ambiance of the entire lobby. Wouldn’t eat there for free. Hard pass!
We went to dinner at Whispering Canyon in January of 2022 and I’m sorry to say it was disgusting. My steak was gray…right out of a box and tasted like a box. My friend’s salad tasted like moth balls. Really, she asked me to taste it and it took me a good month before I could even look at a salad again.
I would be hard pressed to EVER go there again.