Jiko-The good and the bad

[Simba's Mom]

The good-DH had the filet, and he kept raving about how it was by far the best beef he'd ever had.
The bad-the maize crusted halibut. I'd had it once, years ago, and loved it, but this time it was incredibly dry, bordering on inedible.
Service was excellent.

 

[cedricandsophie]

Love jiko. My husband and I usually get a couple appetizers and a bottle of wine plus the bread service with dips. I’ve never been disappointed with food or service.

 

[DisneyStarWisher]

People always rave about Jiko. We finally tried it last week and were really disappointed. I got the filet which was tough, and my DH got the loin strip which he said was gristly. I had also heard so much about the macaroni and cheese and was looking forward to trying it. I just found it strange-tasting. We will not be back. We are starting to discover that there are way better regular table-service restaurants than signatures. For example, the filet at The Wave was one of the best I've ever had!

 

[loves to dive]

People always rave about Jiko. We finally tried it last week and were really disappointed. I got the filet which was tough, and my DH got the loin strip which he said was gristly. I had also heard so much about the macaroni and cheese and was looking forward to trying it. I just found it strange-tasting. We will not be back. We are starting to discover that there are way better regular table-service restaurants than signatures. For example, the filet at The Wave was one of the best I've ever had!

We were disappointed as well. We sat at the bar first and had a drink and appetizers and that was an excellent experience, the bartender was friendly but not too intrusive, the food was good. Then we moved to the restaurant and it was just hoo hum. The waiter was fine but not very friendly. The food was just so so, not great, not bad. My son (grown) got the steak and didn't even eat it all, which is unheard of because it was just so so. We both got a wine flight, he got a red and I got a white and my white had two of the same wines his red did. Out of 6 wines there were only 2 that were different and what's with 2 reds in a white wine flight? We weren't told they would be the same when we ordered them or we wouldn't have ordered two. The price was ridiculous. We don't mind paying for good service and good food, heck we did V&A to the tune of $750 and felt it was worth every dime but we paid close to $200 for two entres and two wine flights. We didn't get coffee or dessert after because we were just ready to get out of there. Not worth it and off our list, we won't go back.

 

[nancy155]

I must have hit a good night as my service and food was amazing. I had the filet which was cooked exactly as I like it and it melted in my mouth. Chef out does himself on this meal! I even enjoyed the wine the server suggested. The server was attentive and the Chef even came by my table to see how my experience was. Great experience and really good food.

 

[FredQc]

I am deeply sorry to read that some people had bad experiences at Jiko. Of course, every restaurant can have a “bad” evening, or can be outside the taste of some people. I guess that I have eaten at Jiko 12-15 times and I don't remember any bad meal or experience.

Overall, I still believe that more people like Jiko than dislike it. Trip Advisor lists nearly 3000 restaurants in Orlando and Jiko is currently rank 16th !

But, once again, every restaurant and every server can have a bad night.

 

[SafariFan1984]

We went for our anniversary and were really looking forward to it because of all of the phenomenal reviews, but it just didn’t live up to the hype. We arrived five minutes early and they actually made us wait for ten minutes despite the restaurant not even being half full with a bunch of staff just standing around chatting. The staff were not friendly, some of them were actually pretty snobby and not one even acknowledged our anniversary. As soon as they realized that only one of us would be drinking (beer) as I am allergic to most wines and was driving, we pretty much never saw the waiter again except to take our food order and drop off the check. The filet was so tough I had to wonder if I had received the leftovers from the weekend. The rest of the meal was nothing memorable. We had planned on dessert but by that point we just really wanted to get out of there as the whole experience had just been so disappointing and we were so uncomfortable. The staff really did a great job at making us feel unwelcome. Our meal at Captain’s Grille a few weeks earlier for my mother’s 60th birthday was perfection, though.

 

[goofy78]

We went to Jiko for the first time in 2014. Went back in 2015, 2017 and it is on our list for 2018. It may be the only restaurant that is a must do for us. Service has always been great and we have never not liked anything we ordered. One of my DD said even her cappuccino was the best she's ever had anywhere!

 

[Jetta8300]

People always rave about Jiko. We finally tried it last week and were really disappointed. I got the filet which was tough, and my DH got the loin strip which he said was gristly. I had also heard so much about the macaroni and cheese and was looking forward to trying it. I just found it strange-tasting. We will not be back. We are starting to discover that there are way better regular table-service restaurants than signatures. For example, the filet at The Wave was one of the best I've ever had!

We have been here 3 times. We also didn’t like it, it’s our least favorite signature out of all of them. We kept returning after all the positive reviews thinking something would change. We have always had good service however.

I wonder if people love it so much because it’s unique, and they don’t have restaurants around like that at home? I think people rave about their “old” mac and cheese, that I think you can still ask for. It used to come with the filet and was white. We got the “new” mac and cheese as a side and thought it tasted like watery beefaroni. It was incredibly watery and gross. Our fish dinner that was over $50 was no more than 2 oz of fish on top of 3 baby carrots and a cherry tomato. 5 bites of food. After hubby and i each had an app, entree, extra side of mac and cheese, and dessert, we were starving after we left. $200 later.

We have noticed portion sizes being cut in half or thirds at the signature restaurants since we started vacationing at disney and no longer include them in our plans. Disappointing since we are foodies and used to eat at a signature every night for our first 3 trips.