Liberty Tree Tavern Review...third time is NOT the charm

mickey916

DIS Veteran
Joined
Feb 14, 2009
Recently dined at LTT on Thursday, December 8 for the third time this year and boy was this a different experience!

Background: The first time my DH and I dined here was this past April. We received excellent service and the food was phenomenal. In fact, it was so good that we revised our plans for our May trip to be able to share this great restaurant with our adult sons. The second time, during our May trip, the service was fine, nothing extraordinary. The food was still very good but we didn't think it was quite as good as the first time or quite as good as Garden Grill in May. As we planned our December trip, my DH and I decided to dine here again, hoping to enjoy the meal as much as we had in April. Unfortunately this third time was an utter disaster.

We snagged a 6 pm reservation during a MVMCP night for which we didn't have tickets. I verified ahead of time with a Cast Member online that we'd be able to dine as long as we were checked in before 6 pm. We checked in at 5:45 and were seated promptly. The table was a little odd, it was against a side wall with seating for the two of us on just one side facing some sort of prep area. As we were seated, we overheard our server complain to a manager that it was 6:03 and she didn't know why they would seat someone after 6:00 at her table.

She approached us and explained the menu. We had seen on various vlogs that steak fries were available upon request. My DH was craving fries so I asked if it would be possible to get a side of fries with our meal. She looked at us like we were crazy and said "You want fries???" I sheepishly said "Yes if that's okay." She went off and quickly returned with a plate of cold fries and then said in an annoyed voice, "Do you also want ketchup?" My DH said, "yes please". She then brought the salad and a basket of stale dinner rolls.

Another server eventually brought out our patriot's platter, mac n cheese, mashed potatoes and green beans. We started to fill our plates and our server came back and said "Do you want any more of anything?" We hadn't even had one bite yet of our food so we said, "Not yet. Let's see how we do and we will probably want some more of a few items."

Here's our thoughts on the food: the turkey, pork, pot roast, and stuffing were just as good as always. There was also a shredded meat on the platter that we hadn't had before that was excellent (more on that later). The mac n cheese was terrible. It was cold and it seemed that they forgot to put any sauce on it. The mashed potatoes were really dry and cold. The green beans were so salty that we couldn't eat them. Keep in mind, we loved all of these items on our prior two visits.

We polished off the platter, leaving most of the sides uneaten. We never saw our server the whole time we were eating. We decided we would like to have some refills of the pot roast and shredded meat. Finally our server came to our table and said "Are you ready for dessert?" I respond, "No, not yet. We actually decided we would like refills of the pot roast and the shredded pork." She responds, "turkey". I say, "No thank you. We just want the shredded pork and pot roast." She says "You're not getting it. It's turkey." So I said "the shredded meat is turkey?" She responds "Yes it's turkey. This is a turkey dinner." So I simply said "Okay whatever that shredded meat is, we'd like that and some pot roast." She disappears for a very long time.

When she finally reappears she puts the platter of two meats on the table and leans over and says really sacrastically and slowly "here's your turrrrrrkkkkkkey". At this point since she had never offered to refill our sodas, I said "Could we please also get a refill on our drinks?" She snapped back "Yeah, I was just about to do that. Coke and Diet Coke. Right?" She stormed off and then brought our drinks. When she did I said "we'll be ready for dessert next too." She came out with the dessert, which seemed to be a much smaller portion than our previous trips. She placed it on the table and also placed our check next to it and said "here's your check." At this point we both we sitting there stunned. We couldn't believe how rude she was the entire time. I've never been treated like this by a waitperson ever in a restaurant. We quickly ate our dessert and paid the check, leaving a 10% tip since we did actually get food brought to the table.

As we left I looked for a manager to relay our experience but didn't see anyone except for a few young College Program guys at the front and I didn't want to complain to them. We also had to catch the ferry to Fort Wilderness to ride the holiday sleigh ride so I didn't want to wait around for anyone. We're still in shock at how incredibly rude this woman was. Liberty Tree Tavern went from one of our best experiences to the worst restaurant experience we've ever had in our lifetime. What a difference a server can make!

P.S. If you want to see my review from our April trip click here: April report Here is our May review: May report
 
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I mean, everyone can have a bad, but it seems like maybe customer service isn't a good fit for that server. How disappointing.
 
OP, I would definitely send off an email to customer service. That kind of treatment by a server is Not OK.
I'm so sorry you had to go through this at LTT. LTT is one of our go-to restaurants at the MK on every trip. I hope she just had a bad day and there is no more of that kind of awful treatment.
 


Just…wow. I would at least send an email sharing your experience. That is totally unacceptable. Sorry you were treated so rudely.

I am also confused about the shredded mystery meat 🤨
According to our server it was dark meat turkey. However in April and May we only had sliced turkey breast, sliced pork roast and pot roast, nothing shredded. I honestly didn't really care what she called it, I just wanted more. It was delicious...LOL.
 
OP, I would definitely send off an email to customer service. That kind of treatment by a server is Not OK.
I'm so sorry you had to go through this at LTT. LTT is one of our go-to restaurants at the MK on every trip. I hope she just had a bad day and there is no more of that kind of awful treatment.
After I wrote this I was thinking it might be worth sending an email off. I know the server's name and obviously can provide the date/time. I'm not looking to get anyone into trouble or gain anything personally from an email. Retraining though of the server would probably be a good idea. Based on her complaint to the manager I think she expected to be done at 6:00 since the park closed then and was irritated to have a party sat at her table after 6:00. I also think she was already irritated and then we asked for fries, which is off-menu so that was strike two against us. We always smile and say please and thank you but there was no charming this woman...
 
After I wrote this I was thinking it might be worth sending an email off. I know the server's name and obviously can provide the date/time. I'm not looking to get anyone into trouble or gain anything personally from an email. Retraining though of the server would probably be a good idea. Based on her complaint to the manager I think she expected to be done at 6:00 since the park closed then and was irritated to have a party sat at her table after 6:00. I also think she was already irritated and then we asked for fries, which is off-menu so that was strike two against us. We always smile and say please and thank you but there was no charming this woman...
I would leave out the background info, edit the rest so it fits on one page, and email it.
 


According to our server it was dark meat turkey. However in April and May we only had sliced turkey breast, sliced pork roast and pot roast, nothing shredded. I honestly didn't really care what she called it, I just wanted more. It was delicious...LOL.
LOL well even so. I’ve seen tons of reviews of LTT and never was there shredded turkey and obviously as of a few months ago when you went that was still the case. Also? The “this is a turkey dinner” comment is both irritating and inaccurate. It’s as much a turkey dinner as it is a pork or pot roast dinner. I don’t know how you continued to be so polite to this woman, I really don’t think I could have. Kudos to you and your husband!
 
LOL well even so. I’ve seen tons of reviews of LTT and never was there shredded turkey and obviously as of a few months ago when you went that was still the case. Also? The “this is a turkey dinner” comment is both irritating and inaccurate. It’s as much a turkey dinner as it is a pork or pot roast dinner. I don’t know how you continued to be so polite to this woman, I really don’t think I could have. Kudos to you and your husband!
Her behavior was so outrageous that we were truly in shock…it was like “are we hearing her correctly?”
 
Yeah, I would send a message describing your experience. People have bad days, but nonetheless, that's not cool.

Kind of reminds me of an experience a few years ago I had at a local restaurant. The server came over, asked if we wanted dessert and in the same breath said "as if I care".
 
Yeah, I would send a message describing your experience. People have bad days, but nonetheless, that's not cool.

Kind of reminds me of an experience a few years ago I had at a local restaurant. The server came over, asked if we wanted dessert and in the same breath said "as if I care".
Some people are just not in the right line of work 🤦‍♀️
 
It is your duty as a guest and customer to report that behavior, please. Their superiors need to know what happened and she needs to get a reality check. No excuses for that type of behavior, specially for the price you paid.
 
The only tip she would've gotten from me would've been a handwritten note instructing her the proper way to act while serving her customers. Not a rude one, but an informative one. That was quite generous of you to tip her at all. I'm glad you were able to maintain your own self-control. I can't imagine what might've happened if you'd engaged with her in an equally negative way...food fight!
 
I tipped her figuring a low tip would indicate I wasn't pleased with the service, whereas no tip might have been viewed as an oversight. It wasn't so much self control but bewilderment, lol...I just couldn't believe what was happening!
 
I'm so sorry you had this happen. My husband is an executive chef and people who work as servers should be there to make a guest's experience as pleasant as possible. It sounds like she was really annoyed that she had to work later than what she thought she would-in which case she's in the wrong profession. I'd drop a letter-it's not right you had such a dissapointing experience.
 
I'm so sorry you had this happen. My husband is an executive chef and people who work as servers should be there to make a guest's experience as pleasant as possible. It sounds like she was really annoyed that she had to work later than what she thought she would-in which case she's in the wrong profession. I'd drop a letter-it's not right you had such a dissapointing experience.
That was we assumed as well. I do understand that it can be frustrating to have to work later than expected, but it's not really fair to take it out on the guests who are dining. I didn't end up writing an email and by now it's far too long ago. Unfortunately the holidays got in my way as well as some family-care issues. We plan on giving it another try next year when we go again in April. Might ask if "David" is there though so we can sit at his table. He was awesome!
 
Ate here today and had fantastic service. Great meal and loved the dining room, tables not too crowded together.

Can't believe the server in the OP got a 10% tip for rude sarcastic service, it would be a zero from me.
 
Off topic but I’ve never really heard of anyone getting fries with their dinner at LTT. Good to know when we go with our grandson!
 
Ate here today and had fantastic service. Great meal and loved the dining room, tables not too crowded together.

Can't believe the server in the OP got a 10% tip for rude sarcastic service, it would be a zero from me.
That's great to hear you had fantastic service. We skipped it for our December trip but we're looking forward to it again in April. It is usually one of our favorites. The 10% tip was hopefully at least a little shared with the other servers who brought us our food.
 

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