Jan 27 - Feb 1 - DDP Reviews, Ohana, LeCellier, Tusker House, Mama Melrose, pictures!

[bedell32]

We just got back last night from an awesome week at the POP Century. The weather was beautiful :banana: . There were eight people in our party. All were on the DDP. I will be reviewing the following restaurants:

Ohanas (Dinner)
Chef Mickey's (Breakfast)
Columbia Harbor House (Dinner)
Le Cellier (Lunch)
Biergarten (Dinner)
Tusker House (Lunch)
Pop Century (Dinner)
Pop Century (Breakfast)
Mama Melrose (Lunch)

[bedell32]

Arrive at Disney World.

Ohana's was recommended to us by a CM when I called the reservation line. She said it was a great way to kick off our vacation. SHE WAS RIGHT! It was so good that we wished that we could have done it again during the trip. No such luck. This place is booked. Dinner started with this awesome bread that tasted like coconut and pineapple. No butter needed, it was great. They no longer serve those wonton chips. Instead they give you the dips and tell you to put them on the meats. The salad, potatoes, veggies and meat were all awesome. I have no words to describe just how delicious the bread pudding dessert is. Ice cream over warm bread pudding with a caramel sauce, yum!!! Our server here wasn't great. She was hard to find and a bit short :sad2: with her replies. Oh well, she didn't ruin it for us. It was a great dinner and we never felt rushed.

[disneyfav4ever]

I'm glad you liked Ohana. I hope they serve the bread at breakfast too, since I'm not eating dinner there on my next trip.

[poohluvrs]

We love ohanas! Sad the chips are gone but bread sounds ok too. Hope the potatoes arent next!
Looking forward to your reviews!popcorn::

[JSTX]

I'm glad you liked Ohana. I hope they serve the bread at breakfast too, since I'm not eating dinner there on my next trip.

Yep the bread is served for breakfast. That and the juice are incredible.

[NicMelMom]

Looking forward to your reviews. We will be staying at the Pop Century and having breakfast at Chef Mickey's.

[TigerKat]

Subbing.....popcorn::

[familyS]

Thanks for writing and posting your reviews.


Looking forward to reading more :goodvibes

[bedell32]

It was a beautiful Monday morning when we set out for the Contemporary Resort. We stayed at the POP so we had to take the bus to the Magic Kingdom and the monorail to the resort. It was no problem and we made our 8:30am res in time.

As a kid my parents would take me here and I would love to eat and watch the monorail go by. On this occasion our large party was seated in a room behind the buffet with a clear view of the castle. It was amazing. The food here is really good especially the veggie egg casserole. Very cheesy and tasty! All the standard breakfast food is there. The real reason we booked this breakfast is for the characters and they didn't disappoint. Everyone of them visited our table and took pictures. The kids loved it and they also enjoyed the Mickey pancakes.

My one complaint and it's not specific to this restaurant is the coffee in the world is gross :scared1: . They only use Nescafe. In fact they don't even have Lipton Tea bags just Nestea. I hope by the time I go again they will have switched. I'm a Dunkin Donuts coffee girl and I couldn't wait to get a cup once I got home.

Anyway, I highly recommend this character breakfast. After we ate, we hopped the monorail to the Magic Kingdom. We had full bellies until dinner time.

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b316/darla250/mickey.jpg

[DonnaLeah]

Great reviews!! Keep 'em coming!!

[bedell32]

We had used our table service for Chef Mickey's in the morning so we had to find a CS that was filling. This place was a good fit. I had the 1/2 tuna sandwich with the NE clam chowder soup. It was really good. The bread was hearty and filling. The apple crisp was just OK. I ordered an adult CS for my ds (4) because I didn't see anything he would like on the kids menu. This wasn't a problem since all CS are pooled. He had the fish and chips with strawberry yogurt. He ate it up and enjoyed it. I had to help him because it was a big portion. I liked this place. The rest of our gang hit Cosmic Ray's and they said it was OK if you want greasy filling food. :confused3 . Another guest in our party had the Garden Galley Salad. It was just OK. It was small and not very filling.

Next up: LeCellier lunch with pics!

[TigerKat]

I had the tuna sandwich & chowder on our last trip and LOVED it. Nice change from burgers & chicken strips.:thumbsup2

[JARNJ3]

It was a beautiful Monday morning when we set out for the Contemporary Resort. We stayed at the POP so we had to take the bus to the Magic Kingdom and the monorail to the resort. It was no problem and we made our 8:30am res in time.

As a kid my parents would take me here and I would love to eat and watch the monorail go by. On this occasion our large party was seated in a room behind the buffet with a clear view of the castle. It was amazing. The food here is really good especially the veggie egg casserole. Very cheesy and tasty! All the standard breakfast food is there. The real reason we booked this breakfast is for the characters and they didn't disappoint. Everyone of them visited our table and took pictures. The kids loved it and they also enjoyed the Mickey pancakes.

My one complaint and it's not specific to this restaurant is the coffee in the world is gross :scared1: . They only use Nescafe. In fact they don't even have Lipton Tea bags just Nestea. I hope by the time I go again they will have switched. I'm a Dunkin Donuts coffee girl and I couldn't wait to get a cup once I got home.

Anyway, I highly recommend this character breakfast. After we ate, we hopped the monorail to the Magic Kingdom. We had full bellies until dinner time.

As you stated - coffee around the World is just plain terrible. Nonetheless, we drink it anyway.

Chef Mickey's is a MUST DO for us every visit. Kids particularly love the breakfast pizza and the french toast sticks. The last time we were there - they even had sticky mickey's - which were delish!!

I am enjoying reading your reviews!

[bedell32]

I was really looking forward to this meal. I made the reservation months in advance. I would have liked to have had dinner here but it was booked. Lunch turned out to be really good. The pretzel bread was soft and chewy. Yummy! They also let you pick from a milkshake menu for the DDP drink which was nice. Some of us got the Chocolate Raspberry shakes. I saved my drink for a cappuccino with dessert. :thumbsup2
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b316/darla250/lecell.jpg

I had a salmon dish. I don't see it on the All Ears Menu but it was delicious. Served over maple risotto with pecans sprinkled about.
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b316/darla250/salmon.jpg

My DH had the strip steak. He said it was really good.
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b316/darla250/strip.jpg

My Mom is a vegetarian so she ordered the butternut squash ravioli. She said it was good. Nothing incredible.
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b316/darla250/ravioli.jpg

For desert my Dad had the Chocolate Whiskey cake. Very good.
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b316/darla250/chocolate.jpg

I had the Creme Brulee. It was awesome. It's one of my favorite deserts and it didn't disappoint. I could have done without the jelly on top though.
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b316/darla250/brulee.jpg

Sister in law had the apple crumble. She said it was really good.
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b316/darla250/apple.jpg

My Mom had the chocolate moose. She said it was way too sweet and she couldn't eat it all. It was cute though. :rolleyes1
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b316/darla250/moose.jpg

Both my sons had the meal that comes with an appetizer. They had the cheese soup. The grown ups ended up eating both bowls just to give it a try. The kids weren't interested in it. One ds had a hot dog served with green beans. He ate it all. The other had the spaghetti with sauce. It was chunky sauce and he likes his smooth so it wasn't a big hit :worship: . They both made their own sundaes which they loved.
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b316/darla250/kids.jpg

The service here was perfect. The whole staff was very friendly. It was a great table service and we would do it again. :)

[bedell32]

WOW! You better have a ADR for this place. It was packed. We were seated after a five minute wait with a perfect view of the stage. The buffet is not huge but it includes all the German food you would want. I'm not a big meat eater, I only tried the Knock wurst, but others in our group thought the meats were dry. There wasn't much that my kids liked at this one. They ended up having the potato leek soup and dipping pretzel bread in it. They compared it to Panera's. Overall it was a good meal and we left full. The show was a lot of fun. The kids enjoyed doing the chicken dance. Our waitress was extremely busy and hard to get a hold of here.

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b316/darla250/germany.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b316/darla250/germany1.jpg

After Germany, we continued around the lake to the Norway bakery. I had read that Schoolbread was an excellent snack option. Oh boy, was it! We had it for breakfast the next day. I wish I had taken a picture of it. I could go for one right now. Don't miss this, you'll be sorry!

[bedell32]

I didn't realize how hard it is to remember to take pictures before digging in. We were always so hungry but here's a picture from outside the restaurant. We waited at least 20 minutes to be seated here. Apparently breakfast had run late. The outside of this place is very crowded. People stick around to watch the show and it's hard to get to the podium.

This was a favorite for our party. They had excellent food. Not your typical buffet food.The Jungle juice was delicious. I really enjoyed the salmon, orzo with tomato and feta, cous cous and breads. My DM (vegetarian) had lots of choices. The desserts were really good too. My favorite dessert was the chocolate pecan pie squares. My DS has a peanut allergy so the chef made up a special dessert plate for him. He felt so special.

A funny thing happened before this meal. My DS had a loose tooth at the beginning of the meal but not at the end. Apparently he swallowed it :rotfl2: . We found out the Tooth Fairy pays really well when you lose your first tooth at Disney World princess: . I think her name was Tinkerbell.

We highly recommend this restaurant for lunch. It was great!

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b316/darla250/tusker.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b316/darla250/tooth-1.jpg

[bedell32]

We had dinner at the POP twice. I can't remember what everyone had but I'll talk about what I do remember. The first night I had the Parmesan Crusted Chicken. It came with a salad and a breadstick. It was very tasty. I had the packaged chocolate cake for dessert. This cake was probably a million calories but it was good and I had it for dessert the next night also. Some of our party had the Italian food. They said it was OK. The vegetable lasagna had a weird taste but the Alfredo sauce was good. The Turkey Ciabatta sandwich was really tasty. The kids were only offered a chocolate pudding with their meals at this location.

Breakfast included the Mickey waffles, Chocolate Chip pancakes, Breakfast Pizza, and breakfast platter. Everything was good except the breakfast pizza. It was just strange :scared: . I couldn't eat the whole thing. Coffee was gross, but I've already discussed that. On the DDP you're suppose to get two drinks. We did manage to get a fruit cup instead of the extra drink one day but the next day they said no. Inconsistent :confused: .

Overall, I think the choices at the POP food court are good. The place is comfortable and fun . We purchased the refillable mug early in our trip and it turned out to be a good value plus a nice souvenir. Here's a picture from the outside of the shop next to the food court.

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b316/darla250/pop.jpg

[Maggi May]

Great reviews! Thanks for posting them.

We are planning to eat at Biegarten, Tusker House and Columbia Harbour House next week, so it's fun to read a recent report.

[shellybelly72]

Great reviews!

[bedell32]

Mama Melrose is located way in the back of the park. We ran into Buzz and Woody. They were really funny and made the kids laugh so much they wouldn't even look at the camera. :rotfl:

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b316/darla250/melrose.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b316/darla250/mama.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b316/darla250/buzz.jpg

This was our last TS of the trip. I wish I could say it was excellent but it wasn't, just OK, nothing special. Service was very slow.

My ds (6) ordered the spaghetti with meat sauce and a salad. My other ds (4) had the pepperoni pizza with salad. The dressing on the salad was ranch. We didn't get a choice, it was already on it and it was tasteless.

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b316/darla250/salad.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b316/darla250/kidsspa.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b316/darla250/pizza.jpg

The pepperoni pizza was really good. The spaghetti was just OK.

DH had the Spaghetti Fra Diavolo. He said it was good but the clams were super tiny!

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b316/darla250/fra.jpg

I had the Tuscan Chicken Bruschetta. BIG mistake. It was overcooked chicken with super salty prosciutto and a tiny bit of cheese over plain lettuce and a piece of stale bread. The bruschetta was good but there was hardly any of it. Really bad. I ended up eating most of my ds pizza. After all the research I did on this board I can't believe I ended up with a lousy meal. yuck. :sad1:

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b316/darla250/chick.jpg

Mom and Sis in Law had the Wood-grilled Shrimp over pipette pasta. It was really good. I tried it. I wish I had ordered it! They both really enjoyed it.

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b316/darla250/shrimp.jpg

Dad had the Chicken Parm. He said it was good. It was a small portion.

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b316/darla250/parm.jpg

My brother tried the Wood Grilled Tuna. I don't think he cared for it too much.

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b316/darla250/tuna.jpg

I didn't get any pictures of the desserts but here's what we had:

Crema Limone. Refreshing, pretty good.
Honey Hazelnut and Ricotta Cheesecake. Good
Warm Chocolate Truffle Cake. Good
Tiramisu. Good
Kids had the ice cream sundae.

Overall, the desserts were just OK. We ended up getting mickey bars soon after as a snack. I wouldn't eat here again. It was a long meal because of the slow service.

If you want to finish off your trip with a really good meal, try Ohana's. Everyone loved it and begged me to get us another res there. No luck, they were booked.

[hardingk]

Thanks for the great review!

[bedell32]

I just wanted to add that we did get Dole Whips as a snack. I had read about them on this board and really wanted to try one. Here's my opinion. Get one with vanilla ice cream instead of pineapple ice cream. The pineapple ice cream was just too much pineapple. The vanilla tasted really good with the juice though.

[ampc3]

Thanks for sharing.. :)

[Pirate Me]

I just wanted to add that we did get Dole Whips as a snack. I had read about them on this board and really wanted to try one. Here's my opinion. Get one with vanilla ice cream instead of pineapple ice cream. The pineapple ice cream was just too much pineapple. The vanilla tasted really good with the juice though.

Ah, you're making me want a pineapple dole whip now. I've never tried it with vanilla ice cream but I'm not a big fan of vanilla and I do adore the pineapple.

[Minniespal]

Excellent:thumbsup2

[arieljasmine]

Thanks for sharing your reviews with us. I love the pizza on the Mickey shaped plate!

Laur's princess:

[minniemee]

Thanks for sharing your reviews with us!
Ohana is definitely one of my favorites also, the food is great there!

[wilma-bride]

Thanks for the great reviews.

[sheri4641]

I can't get into mama melrose.. any reviews, pictures on hollywood and vine.. is there a way I can search for specific restaurants??:confused:

[mrsbelle]

Great reviews! We could only get Le Cellier for lunch, so I especially liked to see your review on that!

[bedell32]

I wouldn't recommend Mama Melrose. The service wasn't good. I think it had something to do with the size of our party (8) and the DDP. Not sure. The food was just not worth the price. I wanted to like this place, I really did :confused3 . Oh well, lesson learned.

GO TO OHANAS. Best food on the trip. It was so good I forgot to take pictures!!

[bedell32]

Did anyone else have too many snack credits left? I should have planned them better but we had a ton!

[BigMama]

Did anyone else have too many snack credits left? I should have planned them better but we had a ton!

WE USED OUR LEFTOVER CREDITS AT THE CANDY STORE IN DTD.

[SuzieN]

We used most of our snack credits for breakfast at the POFQ food court. a package of cereal with a carton of milk is only 1 credit! We would stop in every night on our way back from the parks to get breakfast for the following morning. This worked out really well for us!

[graceandemmasmom]

We will be going in June and I was wondering if I made some good choices for dinners. We will be going to Le Cellier for dinner the first night, 50's Cafe, Coral Reef, Capt Jacks, and Trails End. We have 2 meals with Disney characters, Crystal Palace and Akerhaus.

Any advice?

Me :laundy: DH:teacher: DDprincess: DDprincess:

[bedell32]

Since the only meal you have planned that I did also was LeCellier for lunch. It was a great TS. I have done CS in the past, it' also very good. Sorry I can't give advice on the rest of your dining plans.

[jsouda]

May of 2007 was our first trip to the world. We had character breakfasts at Crystal palace, Akerhaus, Hollywood and Vine, and Chef Mickeys. Our least favorite was Akerhaus. The food was ok. It was served at our table. Our favorite was Hollywood and Vine with JoJo's Circus and Little Einsteins. My kids enjoyed these characters the most. Crystal Palace and Chef Mickey's was also just as great. On our next trip we will not be going back to Akerhaus. This restaurant was the most crowed as the tables were very close together. They had buffet style fruits that were not very convenient to get to. :cheer2:

[SmallWorld71]

Thanks for the reviews. I've had good luck at many of the places you went to: 'Ohana (our "cousin" was very good here), Chef Mickey's, Biergarten and Columbia Harbor House. :goodvibes I haven't been to Le Cellier since it was a buffeteria type place, but I would like to give it another try one of these days. :thumbsup2