notfrostyjosh
02-02-2008, 07:20 PM
I doubt this will be as entertaining or enlightening as some dining reviews so I’ll try to keep this short and to the point. You don’t care that I’m male, 22, on my second trip to Disney along with my girlfriend of 3ish years who’s on her first trip to Disney right? Didn’t think so.
I’ll be rating the following counter service meals on the following criteria:
HIGHER IS ALWAYS BETTER EVEN FOR HEC!
SPO- Speed of Ordering. This includes the efficiency of the ordering process, how well castmember knows what “I’ll have the #3 no tomato with apple slices” means, speed of food to my outstretched hands after order taken, and two other variables mentioned later.
HEC- Overall Hectastity of Restaurant experience. This includes availability of seating, how crazy I felt while ordering/devouring, how many kids tried to eat my sandwich, and three other variables mentioned later.
QUAL- Overall Quality of food. Assumes each bite is served on silver plate with gold fork. No relation to cost. Straight up quality rating without further variables to take into account.
VAL- Overall value of meal. There are 18 variables here which are too many to list. Basically it comes down to how happy I was to part with my $20 after consumption of meal.
OK FINE! A little about my counter service philosophy. My girlfriend does not eat much and would rather skip the meal in lieu of chocolate cake and a spicy cheese pretzel. Thus, our goal was to share most meals around noon to hold off pretzel purchase until 3pm to hold off dinner until 530-6pm. The value rating is thus partially based on how successful we were holding off pretzel purchase until 3pm.
On several occasions she said, “I don’t understand why the internet people complain so much about the food at Disney, it’s all really good!” I had to explain to her in harsh terms that “Dear, the reason the food is good is because I spent 8 hours a day for a month straight reading the DIS. If you want to go to Sci-Fi by all means we can go.” This was followed by a quick, “Is it 3pm yet?”
Alphabetically except when I forget until later or mess up:
ABC Commissary – Dinner 540pmish Day 5ish
(2) Fried Fish $7.09 * 2
(1) Large Drink $2.39
I understand plastic is in with facial reconstruction and retro seating, but I did not feel this translated well to fried fish. We planned to go back to Toy Story Pizza Planet, but they closed at 529pm (When EMH was to 10pm no less! Crimes!) and we didn’t get off the Backlot Tour until 533pm. My girlfriend wanted to try the Chicken Curry, but because the picture looked disgusting and I couldn’t imagine how a place specializing in Ugly Betty Cheeseburgers could make a decent curry, I convinced her to stay away. The fish is not as good as Yorkshire at Epcot but is edible with the very-difficult-to-open tartar sauce packets and a pretty good value considering you get 3 large fish-like strips and a bunch of run-of-the-mill fries. Sorry-about-the-dashes I’ll try to keep them at a minimum in the future. There is plenty of seating and the line moved relatively fast for us. When we left the lines were getting long since it was the only counter service remaining open and it looked like they could have used another cashier or two.
SPO- 8/10 Efficient and speedy
HEC- 9/10 Plenty of room to spread out. No kids trying to munch my fish is a big plus.
QUAL- 6/10 For Hollywood Studios it wasn’t that bad, but this was probably some of the worst food we encountered.
VAL- 9/10 Plenty of food and large drink
I would recommend Pizza Planet if you want pizza during your trip, but this wasn’t by any means awful especially considering the immense amount of seating and several different options.
Anandupar Local Food Cafes – Next to Yak and Yeti in Asia Lunch 12pm Day 4
Crispy Honey Chicken $8.99
Chicken Fried Rice $3.99
Pork Egg Rolls $3.29
Large Drink $2.39
I was looking forward to this counter service because saying “Anandupar Local Food Cafes” is more fun than say waiting in line for Country Bear Jamboree. Try saying it out loud now, “Anandupar Local Food Cafes.” Almost as fun as actually being there huh? The line to order was the slowest we encountered. Really, very slow. The menu is also small and hard to read for the sight challenged, but there is a menu at the register to look over while ordering. The egg rolls and fried rice were very good and would make a great snack. The entrees come in a takeout like box and are on a bed of rice. I was expecting the Honey Chicken to be smothered in sauce similar to Panda Express Orange Chicken, but there was very little sauce on the chicken. It was basically chicken nuggets on top of a bed of rice with very little sauce. We found this to be disappointing, especially considering how fun the name of the restaurant is to say. There is a lot of seating in the rear of the restaurant and the condiments included soy sauce, hot sauce, and “duck” sauce packets. I tried to duck sauce but after trying it once and not being able to discern the flavor I was scared to dip again. The Shrimp Lo Mein looked good and I would have liked to have tried something else, but we were not particularly pleased and let down a bit by the Honey Chicken.
SPO – 4/10 Very slow for only 3 or so people in front of us.
HEC- 10/10 Since ordering was so slow nothing was really going on. Ample seating in back with umbrellas to shade from the sun.
QUAL- 7/10 Fried rice and egg rolls would make a great snack. Honey chicken left something to be desired
VAL – 9/10 Plenty of food for the two of us. 2 egg rolls, large side of fried rice, and a lot of chicken nuggets on top of even more white rice. Very filling.
Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Café – 3 times, Lunch and Dinner Twice
2 times:
Chicken and Rib Combo $13.99
Large Drink $2.39
Triple Chocolate Cake $3.39
1 time:
Turkey Bacon Wrap $7.59
Large Drink $2.39
Chili $3.09
We ate at Cosmic Ray’s three times because it was pretty good and really convenient. There is plenty of indoor and outdoor seating and the lines are fast. We heard more than a few people exclaiming. “Wow, real food!” when entering. Apparently they had spent one too many meals at the Electric Umbrella. The chicken is really good, but the ribs are only OKish. You get a good chunk of chicken and 3 ribs. A lot of meat on the ribs but they tasted overly processed and the sauce isn’t particularly tangy or BBQ-y. The “Sandwiches Bay” is a little misleading as the only “sandwich” options are the Turkey Bacon Wrap, Veggie Wrap, and Pork Sandwich. I would have assumed there would be other sandwich options. The Turkey Bacon Wrap is very large and was plenty to share and the chips it came with were actually good, especially with the extra chili we ordered. We ate here one evening at the beginning of EMH and it was swamped with people, many of which did not realize there was a lot of seating around the corner. Late at night and for EMH the Sandwich Bay is not open.
SPO- 9/10 Efficient and they know what they’re doing. They move a lot of people through quickly.
HEC- 7/10 For EMH this place was swamped and pretty slow with a lot of people confused about where to go and what to order. There is plenty of seating, but the lines get long and it is sometimes hard to move around through the lines to get to the seating area.
QUAL- 8/10 The Chicken, Turkey Bacon Wrap, Chili, and Chips were very good. The Ribs are only OK.
VAL- 9/10 Especially on the DDP this would be the place to get the most bang for your buck. The Combo is enough to share especially with an extra side and the Turkey Bacon Wrap is huge for $7.
More to come as I type.
See:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1706447
for my Pirate and Princess Party Review/Ride info
I’ll be rating the following counter service meals on the following criteria:
HIGHER IS ALWAYS BETTER EVEN FOR HEC!
SPO- Speed of Ordering. This includes the efficiency of the ordering process, how well castmember knows what “I’ll have the #3 no tomato with apple slices” means, speed of food to my outstretched hands after order taken, and two other variables mentioned later.
HEC- Overall Hectastity of Restaurant experience. This includes availability of seating, how crazy I felt while ordering/devouring, how many kids tried to eat my sandwich, and three other variables mentioned later.
QUAL- Overall Quality of food. Assumes each bite is served on silver plate with gold fork. No relation to cost. Straight up quality rating without further variables to take into account.
VAL- Overall value of meal. There are 18 variables here which are too many to list. Basically it comes down to how happy I was to part with my $20 after consumption of meal.
OK FINE! A little about my counter service philosophy. My girlfriend does not eat much and would rather skip the meal in lieu of chocolate cake and a spicy cheese pretzel. Thus, our goal was to share most meals around noon to hold off pretzel purchase until 3pm to hold off dinner until 530-6pm. The value rating is thus partially based on how successful we were holding off pretzel purchase until 3pm.
On several occasions she said, “I don’t understand why the internet people complain so much about the food at Disney, it’s all really good!” I had to explain to her in harsh terms that “Dear, the reason the food is good is because I spent 8 hours a day for a month straight reading the DIS. If you want to go to Sci-Fi by all means we can go.” This was followed by a quick, “Is it 3pm yet?”
Alphabetically except when I forget until later or mess up:
ABC Commissary – Dinner 540pmish Day 5ish
(2) Fried Fish $7.09 * 2
(1) Large Drink $2.39
I understand plastic is in with facial reconstruction and retro seating, but I did not feel this translated well to fried fish. We planned to go back to Toy Story Pizza Planet, but they closed at 529pm (When EMH was to 10pm no less! Crimes!) and we didn’t get off the Backlot Tour until 533pm. My girlfriend wanted to try the Chicken Curry, but because the picture looked disgusting and I couldn’t imagine how a place specializing in Ugly Betty Cheeseburgers could make a decent curry, I convinced her to stay away. The fish is not as good as Yorkshire at Epcot but is edible with the very-difficult-to-open tartar sauce packets and a pretty good value considering you get 3 large fish-like strips and a bunch of run-of-the-mill fries. Sorry-about-the-dashes I’ll try to keep them at a minimum in the future. There is plenty of seating and the line moved relatively fast for us. When we left the lines were getting long since it was the only counter service remaining open and it looked like they could have used another cashier or two.
SPO- 8/10 Efficient and speedy
HEC- 9/10 Plenty of room to spread out. No kids trying to munch my fish is a big plus.
QUAL- 6/10 For Hollywood Studios it wasn’t that bad, but this was probably some of the worst food we encountered.
VAL- 9/10 Plenty of food and large drink
I would recommend Pizza Planet if you want pizza during your trip, but this wasn’t by any means awful especially considering the immense amount of seating and several different options.
Anandupar Local Food Cafes – Next to Yak and Yeti in Asia Lunch 12pm Day 4
Crispy Honey Chicken $8.99
Chicken Fried Rice $3.99
Pork Egg Rolls $3.29
Large Drink $2.39
I was looking forward to this counter service because saying “Anandupar Local Food Cafes” is more fun than say waiting in line for Country Bear Jamboree. Try saying it out loud now, “Anandupar Local Food Cafes.” Almost as fun as actually being there huh? The line to order was the slowest we encountered. Really, very slow. The menu is also small and hard to read for the sight challenged, but there is a menu at the register to look over while ordering. The egg rolls and fried rice were very good and would make a great snack. The entrees come in a takeout like box and are on a bed of rice. I was expecting the Honey Chicken to be smothered in sauce similar to Panda Express Orange Chicken, but there was very little sauce on the chicken. It was basically chicken nuggets on top of a bed of rice with very little sauce. We found this to be disappointing, especially considering how fun the name of the restaurant is to say. There is a lot of seating in the rear of the restaurant and the condiments included soy sauce, hot sauce, and “duck” sauce packets. I tried to duck sauce but after trying it once and not being able to discern the flavor I was scared to dip again. The Shrimp Lo Mein looked good and I would have liked to have tried something else, but we were not particularly pleased and let down a bit by the Honey Chicken.
SPO – 4/10 Very slow for only 3 or so people in front of us.
HEC- 10/10 Since ordering was so slow nothing was really going on. Ample seating in back with umbrellas to shade from the sun.
QUAL- 7/10 Fried rice and egg rolls would make a great snack. Honey chicken left something to be desired
VAL – 9/10 Plenty of food for the two of us. 2 egg rolls, large side of fried rice, and a lot of chicken nuggets on top of even more white rice. Very filling.
Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Café – 3 times, Lunch and Dinner Twice
2 times:
Chicken and Rib Combo $13.99
Large Drink $2.39
Triple Chocolate Cake $3.39
1 time:
Turkey Bacon Wrap $7.59
Large Drink $2.39
Chili $3.09
We ate at Cosmic Ray’s three times because it was pretty good and really convenient. There is plenty of indoor and outdoor seating and the lines are fast. We heard more than a few people exclaiming. “Wow, real food!” when entering. Apparently they had spent one too many meals at the Electric Umbrella. The chicken is really good, but the ribs are only OKish. You get a good chunk of chicken and 3 ribs. A lot of meat on the ribs but they tasted overly processed and the sauce isn’t particularly tangy or BBQ-y. The “Sandwiches Bay” is a little misleading as the only “sandwich” options are the Turkey Bacon Wrap, Veggie Wrap, and Pork Sandwich. I would have assumed there would be other sandwich options. The Turkey Bacon Wrap is very large and was plenty to share and the chips it came with were actually good, especially with the extra chili we ordered. We ate here one evening at the beginning of EMH and it was swamped with people, many of which did not realize there was a lot of seating around the corner. Late at night and for EMH the Sandwich Bay is not open.
SPO- 9/10 Efficient and they know what they’re doing. They move a lot of people through quickly.
HEC- 7/10 For EMH this place was swamped and pretty slow with a lot of people confused about where to go and what to order. There is plenty of seating, but the lines get long and it is sometimes hard to move around through the lines to get to the seating area.
QUAL- 8/10 The Chicken, Turkey Bacon Wrap, Chili, and Chips were very good. The Ribs are only OK.
VAL- 9/10 Especially on the DDP this would be the place to get the most bang for your buck. The Combo is enough to share especially with an extra side and the Turkey Bacon Wrap is huge for $7.
More to come as I type.
See:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1706447
for my Pirate and Princess Party Review/Ride info