Foot traffic to the Terrace (the old "Hospitality Center") has been slow ever since the Anheuser-Busch free beer samples and the Brewmasters Club were removed back in 2009. We REALLY miss the beer and the free tours.
Since the beer is gone, I guess they decided a new buffet would be a good use for the old space. We planned on eating at the Terrace anyway, so we decided to give the new Terrace Garden Buffet a try. Big mistake. Here's my review:
First the good...
- Price ($11.99 Adults; $7.99 Kids)
The price is very fair for all-you-can-eat pizza, pasta, salad and dessert. The price even includes unlimited refills on soft drinks. - Included on All-Day Eating PassWe were surprised that the buffet is included in the SeaWorld all-day dining pass.
- Pasta Sauces
Your choice of Alfredo, tomato or meat sauce. All were very flavorful and get a "thumbs up" especially for theme park food. - Generous Pizza ToppingsYour choice of cheese, pepperoni or supreme. Lots of cheese and plenty of toppings. Wish they also offered sausage.
- Salad
Your choice of house or Cesar - both nicely chilled, crisp and fresh. The house salad included cherry tomatoes, red onion and black olives. - Chocolate Cookie
There are several desserts (see below) but the chocolate cookies were really quite good with a good chocolate flavor.
Now for the bad...
- Can't See Buffet FirstThis was weird and should have been our first clue. You had to order and pay for your buffet meal at an outside kiosk far away from the restaurant and could not enter the restaurant to see the selections first.
- Super Soggy Pizza
The crust, unfortunately, made the pizza nearly inedible. The buffet heating elements trap all the heat and steam making the pizza crust so soggy you can't even hold a piece up to eat it. Even whole pizzas that looked like they had just been brought out from the oven were soggy and limp. - Whole Wheat Pasta
I'm not a fan of whole wheat pasta (and neither were most of the other guests around me). Many parents were asking for "white pasta" for the kids, but were told that there was none. Worse, the pasta was a penne that simply did not hold up well on the buffet. The noodles were bloated and limp with dried edges. They really should switch to a heartier pasta (like a corkscrew) that can better withstand the holding method. Even better - offer guests a choice between regular or whole wheat. A second option included a tri-colored tortellini. - Desserts Made from Same Pizza CrustI knew that dessert would primarily be a choice of cherry or apple dessert pizza. I was at least hoping that they would sweeten the crust. Nope. Just some pie filling dumped on top of the same pizza crust. The fruit was tasty, but the crust just didn't work. Three different cookies were also offered - choice of vanilla, chocolate or chocolate chip. I only liked the chocolate.
I cannot recommend the SeaWorld Pizza Pasta Buffet. In fact, if we were on the All-Day Dining Plan, we would have simply walked out. As I've mentioned before, theme park food is really hit or miss. A huge benefit of the eating pass is being able to just walk away from bad food. Unfortunately, we paid for the buffet ala carte.
I LOVE the idea of a pizza pasta buffet, but SeaWorld has got some work to do. Better yet, they should scrap the idea of trying to do it themselves and let CiCi's Pizza open up in that space. CiCi's isn't the world's best pizza, but they know how to properly run a pizza buffet and it would be 100 times better than what SeaWorld has attempted - especially for the desserts!
The only thing SeaWorld did better than CiCi's was the pasta sauces.