Overview: Tony's Town Square is located on Main Street in Disney's Magic Kingdom in Orlando, Florida. It is casual dining, being located in a theme park, featuring Italian cuisine. The restaurant is based on the Italian restaurant in Lady and the Tramp.
Overall rating: 1 1/4 stars.
Brad gives it ... 1 star.
By now you have probably read that Tony's was the one place we had been waiting to go to all summer long. Well, it finally happened. We got a reservation and got in. Our hopes were high, as are our standards. When you go to a sit down, full service restaurant at Disney, you go in expecting a certain level of magic to happen. At most restaurants, as soon as you walk in the door you are greeted with a theme that immediately puts you into a certain frame of mind. Disney had become very good good at creating a magical gateway into a fantasy world as soon as you take your first step in. This was definitely not the case at Tony's. Even before you enter, you can begin to tell that something isn't right. You can walk up to the front of the restaurant, which by the way has very poor signage, and see a nice little piece of Disney magic right out on the sidewalk in the form of paw prints. This is a sweet touch which sets you up for something great. As you go to walk into what you think is the front of the restaurant, you are greeted by two small hedge planters that completely block the supposed entrance. There was no signage that I could see that told you how to get to the real entrance. It turns out that to get into Tony's you have to fight your way through the crowd at the very large and very crowded photo/film store. We got checked in and took our seat in the waiting area. By this point we were soaked and starving, but we knew there were good things to come. Or so we thought.
I won't go into much detail about the decor because you can probably get a good idea from the other reviews, but I will say that I was very disappointed. There are some things that I will usually let slide, but this time Disney was way off the mark. There was no charm, there was no ooh and ahh, there was simply no magic. Onto the food. For starters I ordered the minestrone soup. It was actually pretty good. There were nice chunks of vegetables and it wasn't lacking in taste or way over-flavored. I was happy with it. I didn't totally enjoy the cold bread, but you can't complain, it's free (feel free to believe that if you wish). Then it was onto the main course. Chicken Parmesan was my choice for my entree. It looked somewhat promising. The piece of chicken was a very decent size but I ran into my dinner issue with the breading. It was very apparent that it had at one time been frozen. It had that really great soggy feeling that nobody really wants when they have ordered something that is supposed to be fried. So that is where they first went wrong on that dish. Second, there was barely enough sauce to use with the spaghetti that came underneath the piece of chicken. The pasta was not even on par with something you can buy at your local markets frozen food aisle. All that said, the actual chicken was the only good part of the entree. Now we moved onto the what was supposed to be the best part. Dessert. We were handed a menu that had several choices on it but three of us all came to the same conclusion, gelato. We were all thinking the same thing, how can you screw up something that is as easy as scooping it out of a tub? Well apparently you can screw it up when that tub just happens to be full of chocolate ice cream that you try to pull off as chocolate gelato. We were all relieved when the check finally came and we were allowed to leave our most un-magical Disney dining experience I think we have ever had. So with all of that said, go to Pecos Bill's, get you some fries, melted cheese and a burger and relax knowing that you got better quality food from a quick service restaurant than you would if you waited an hour for some kibbles and bits.
Chelsea gives it ... 1 star.
Greetings fellow foodies! On a particular Friday evening, I set out with my three dinner companions in search of food and merriment (the two usually going hand-in-hand). To add to the excitement, the restaurant of choice for the evening was Tony's Town Square restaurant in the most magical of all places Walt Disney World! Who could ask for more? I knew that the theme of the restaurant (and I do love a theme) was supposed to resemble Tony's, the Italian restaurant from Disney's Lady and the Tramp. I had visions of checkered table cloths, Chianti bottles turned into candle holders, and scrumptious Italian food possibly served by an accordion playing waiter. Sadly, none of these things were there. The decor was simple with a slight nod to the Victorian era of the film which gave the restaurant more of a cafeteria feel than one would like. There were stills from the movie mounted on the walls which were cute but not atmospheric. Ignoring the lack of ambiance, we pressed on. The menu consisted of your typical Italian-American fare, but with one sad exception...no wine. I settled on the caprese salad for an appetizer and the ingredients were fresh. The balsamic drizzle that accompanied the salad was savory without being overwhelming to the other ingredients. I have to say, though, it is really hard to do basil, tomato, and mozzarella wrong. My second dish was a downer. The menu had promised a spicy tomato sauce on linguine and seafood. There was nothing spicy about this sauce, although it was red, so that is something. The rest of the ingredients were just ... adequate. Overall, the meal was way over-priced for the quality of the food. However, I was glad to not have ordered the gnocchi that my other dinner companion ordered. When I tried the grey-colored pasta, I could not find the will to swallow it, (for me this is saying a lot). The texture was grainy and hard which is not at all the way to describe what should be delicious fluffy potato-pasta dumplings. It was truly awful. When we described the dish to our waitress she only replied "Oh, I will tell the kitchen," which I really doubt that she did. We tried to salvage the meal with a dessert of basic chocolate gelato. Sadly, we got chocolate ice cream, and yes, there is a difference. To sum up, save your money. Go to Casey's Corner across Main Street in the park for some really great hot dogs at half the price. There is no Disney magic to be found at Tony's.
Kenny gives it ... 1 star.
So there we are, soaked from the constant irritating on and off down pour that was Tropical Storm Fay. Why brave such things for food you ask? Simple. We had all been looking for to Tony's and all its Italian goodness for the entire summer. Now only a few feet, several wide eyed children glued to a TV and a bus load of soaking wet tourists stood in our way....
Instead of walking into what should have been a Lady and the Tramp inspired Italian restaurant, I walked into what looked like a Piccadilly's on the corner of boring and slightly institutional. If it hadn't been for the very realistic (note sarcasm) Styrofoam bread in a basket propped up on a table, I might have though I was in a hospital cafeteria. Granted there was some Disney artwork scattered about on the walls and a nice homage to the movie in the form of a lit silhouette in the window, but seriously come on, this is Disney not some ridiculously under-budgeted tourist attraction. So enough about the lack of theming, the good food has to be the redeeming quality right? Not so much. I started with the calamari which honestly wasn't too bad; I think it might have been the best part of my dining experience at Tony's. For my meal I ordered the spinach and ricotta gnocchi primavera, but what I got was some kind of over-cooked frozen vegetables with hard dark brown "gnocchi."
Gnocchi is potato pasta right? Not at Tony's; at Tony's it's brown, dry, gritty stuff. I can't even call it food. The fact that I had a hard time telling the mushrooms apart from the gnocchi should have been a clue. I ate about 3 fork fulls before I called it quits for the night. I decided not to order dessert, instead I just had a cup of hot tea. I couldn't take any more heartbreak from the Disney that I love. So if it's good food for a good price that you're looking for, don't go to Tony's, go over to Casey's Corner, Liberty Tree Tavern, or one of the other fantastic dining establishments in the Magic Kingdom.
As the song goes "this is the night, it's a beautiful night," so go somewhere else besides Tony's.
Savannah gives it ... 2 stars.
I have had my heart set on going to Tony's all summer. A true Disney-phile, I was intrigued by the Lady and the Tramp paw prints out front and the prospect delicious Italian food in the Magic Kingdom. Unfortunately, my hopes were dashed like a five year-old who has dropped her ice cream cone.
When we walked into Tony's, I immediately looked for the themed decor that Disney is known for. Although there were several sweet touches, like the silhouette of Lady and the Tramp in the window sharing a bowl of spaghetti, the overall style was more ice cream parlor than Italian restaurant.
The menu looked promising at first. I chose a Tomato Caprese salad to start with, usually one of my favorite dishes. I was especially excited about this one because it was to come with shallots, roasted garlic, and balsamic vinaigrette. As it turned out, shallots and garlic was code for a slice of red onion. It is difficult to mess up mozzarella and tomatoes, but at best I would say the salad was lackluster.
For my entree, I selected the shrimp scampi with sun-dried tomatoes and asparagus. Fortunately, mine was the most appetizing thing that arrived at the table. It was obvious that every entree had been frozen, and frankly, if I want frozen shrimp scampi, I'll cook up a Bertoli's at home and it won't cost me $17 a plate. However, the overpriced formerly frozen food didn't bother me nearly as much as the waitress who made it quite clear that she could not care less that the food was bad even when it was brought to her attention. But on a positive note, Becca was a very efficient beverage refiller.
Finally, we ordered dessert. Three out of the four of us chose a chocolate gelato, because, as my sister neatly put it, how can gelato go wrong? It turns out, gelato goes wrong about the time you try to bill melting low-grade chocolate ice cream as gelato thinking no one will notice.
I love Disney. I always have. So I hate to write anything negative about it. But I go to Disney's restaurants knowing that I will pay high prices, and in return, I expect great food and excellent service. Tony's was a complete disappointment. I went in hoping for animated movie magic complete with dogs getting starry eyed over spaghetti and meatballs and came out feeling like I spent a night in the pound. Do yourself a favor. Instead of going to Tony's, throw a checkered table cloth over your coffee table, pop a Stouffers in the oven, and watch Lady and the Tramp on DVD. You'll be much happier.
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