The "Mr. and Mrs." Report--6 days DXDP, partly vegetarian, with pics, 8/26-9/1

[smartestnumber5]

The Preliminaries

Who are we?
GF--32. She works in IT and is a recent WDW convert thanks to me.
Me--26. I'm a grad student, have loved WDW since teenage-hood.


What kind of food do we like?
I'm a vegetarian, so while I do like a lot of meat, I don't eat any of it. She is an ex-vegetarian who really loves fish and beef.

I love a lot of variety when I eat, while she is happier with the typical meat-potato-vegetable kind of meal.

We both love cheese. Neither of us are big on goat cheese, but most any other kind is yummy!

I love very, very sweet and/or very rich desserts. I am a peanut and chocolate fiend. I do not think that fruit belongs in dessert. Fruit is healthy for you--dessert should not be. She likes fruity desserts and doesn't like things that are overly sweet. (It's amazing I stay with her given that kind of sacrilege :sad2:) Her favorite desserts are creme brulee and panna cotta.

She is a bit of a coffee connoisseur (well she's picky let's say) whereas I can't drink coffee (darn acid reflux :sad1:).

What are the details of our trip?
We arrived in Orlando from Tuesday, August 26th and will leave on Labor Day (Monday, Sept 1st). Our first night we stayed off-site, and then in the morning of Wednesday, August 27th we checked into POFQ and began out stay with the deluxe dining plan. We've done free dining twice before, but this trip we decided to go all out and we purchased the DXDP at the discount rate.


What was our ADR schedule?

Tuesday, 8/26
Dinner--walk-up--The Cheesecake Factory

Wednesday, 8/27
Lunch--12pm--Raglan Road
Dinner--9:10pm--California Grill

Thursday, 8/28
Breakfast--9:20am--1900 Park Fare
Dinner--7:50 PM--Flying Fish

Friday, 8/29
Lunch--12:00pm--Tusker House
Dinner--6:05pm--The Wave (last minute ADR)

Saturday, 8/30
Lunch--walk-up--Beaches and Cream
Dinner--8:00pm--Jiko

Sunday, 8/31
Lunch--12:00pm--Liberty Tree
Dinner--8:30pm--Narcossees

Monday, 9/1
Lunch--12:50pm--LeCellier


How was the food?
DELICIOUS! :yay:

[mom2my3kids]

How far is the cheesecake factory from Disney??

[smartestnumber5]

How far is the cheesecake factory from Disney??

We were staying about 5 minutes outside of Disney property our first night, and it was about a 20 minute drive for us (it's in the Millenia Mall in Orlando). So it's probably more like 25-30 minutes from WDW.

[wilma-bride]

Bring it on - enjoy the rest of your trip :)

[adsrtw]

Oh how fun! I'm always intrigued with vegetarian meal choices ~ love variety. I'm not vegetarian myself, but I enjoy eating meat-free here and there. Can't wait to read more!

[iluvpluto27]

I'm in. I love vegetarian reviews as my DH is vegetarian and as I do all the restuarant planning, I'm always on the lookout for new places to try with good veggie options.

[disneyfav4ever]

Can't wait to read your reviews.

[The Marsons]

I'm in, looking forward to it!

[habg1]

Sign me up! :thumbsup2

[tiggerlvr27]

I'm in!!!:thumbsup2

[Rebelmom67]

Anxiously awaiting more...:)

[AnninIowa]

Another vegetarian subscribing!! :thumbsup2

[smartestnumber5]

Dinner—Cheesecake Factory

I know it’s not a Disney restaurant, but it’s where we ate our first night, so I’m including my review of The Cheesecake Factory. We’ve been two other times and had really great food both times (GF loves the miso salmon dish), so when our flight was moved a few hours earlier and it became clear that we’d need to eat dinner one night without the DXDP I suggested The Cheesecake Factory.

The restaurant is in Orlando at the Millenia Mall which is apparently about 20-25 minutes away from the WDW area (or that’s how long it took us to get there at least). We arrived sometime after 8 pm and were given a pager. They told us it would take 20-30 minutes but the pager went off in about 5 minutes. We were seated at a two person booth in between the hallway to the bathrooms and the entrance to the kitchen which is right next to the bar. It was a perfect seat for us—a little bit secluded and not too close to other people.

We decided this trip to control ourselves and order less food than we thought we needed. Our reasoning was that the next day we were getting the DXDP and would be eating 3 course meals twice a day. We had to preserve our eating ability—no getting overly full before the DXDP even starts!

So we ordered: two Iced teas, the Avocado Eggroll appetizer, The Vegetable Chopped Salad, and a side of mac & cheese. The server started us out with our drinks and bread. The iced tea was mango flavored which I thought was a nice change, but GF didn’t like it. There were two kinds of bread—one brown with oats on the crust and one white. Both were good and we had to remind ourselves not to fill up on bread.

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About this time as we were enjoying the beginning of our dinner, we notice a man and a child around age 10 loitering nearby our table. The man also seems to have parked a stroller about 3 feet from our table, and it seems to be partially blocking the entrance to the kitchen. The stroller was not a problem for us (though I’m sure the servers didn’t appreciate it!), but the child eventually took a seat on the floor in between the stroller and GF’s side of the booth. He was essentially a food away from GF, or as she put it “in my lap.” The father seemed to not only have no problem with the child sitting there, but seemed to have suggested it! He stepped over to order something at the bar leaving the child next the stroller. A few minutes later he returned with a drink for himself and a soda for the child. After handing the soda to the child, he walked back over to the bar and stayed there.

GF and I were giving each other the “*** is going on” eyes this entire time. She was clearly annoyed and whispered to me, “Are we crazy? Is this normal?” This kid was standing/sitting at the same distance a server would stand when checking on you, so it was quite close. He would have heard every bit of our conversation…if we had been having one, but his presence made it impossible!

We just sit and watch thinking maybe the man (his father I assume?) will realize how rude it is to park his child in the middle of our dinner or maybe a server will suggest that he move the child and stroller. The dad comes over again and talks to kid and then goes back to the bar with the child following. We are hopeful that they will stay away, but I suggest if the child comes back that perhaps we should break into an NC-17 rated conversation next time the dad makes his way over. Surely knowing he would make the child move then!

At that point we witnessed what was apparently the rest of the family coming to join the man, the child, and the stroller. They huddled around the man and child at the bar hence completely blocking the kitchen. Servers kept coming out with plates and almost smashing into a person or having to squeeze by. They were clearly quite annoyed, but amazingly no one said anything to these folks. Finally after one more round of kid and dad walking back and forth to the bar the entire family moved and we didn’t see them again.

Thank goodness—no more sweaty child interrupting our meal! Our food came out shortly after and we happily dug in.

We both really enjoyed the avocado egg rolls a great deal.

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GF described them as innovative—rich and satisfying. The sauce which accompanied them was a little sweet with a hint of peanut and cilantro. I had been unsure about whether avocado was going to work in an eggroll (I mean, Mexican and Asian mixed together—doesn’t sound good). But it WAS good. I really liked the sauce as well--I love peanut sauce. And the wrappers were nice and fried but didn’t seem too greasy.

The mac and cheese was good old satisfying comfort food. We only had a side of it, but it was quite a good amount.

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The salad was the one downside of the meal. It had been described as: VEGETABLE CHOPPED SALAD: Asparagus, Green Beans, Tomato, Cucumber, Roasted Beets, Apple, Edamame, Radicchio, Romaine and White Cheddar Tossed with Pomegranate Vinaigrette on the menu. It was listed under “small salads” so imagine our surprise when we were presented with this (actually this picture is after we had eaten it for awhile):

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It was huge.

I took one bite and said “this tastes like fish.” GF said it was probably just the pomegranate and I thought “since when does pomegranate taste like fish?” A few more bites and I decided specifically it tasted like sushi (but I don’t eat sushi with fish in it). What part of sushi? No idea. GF tasted it and agreed that it did taste like sushi. She couldn’t figure out what the particular flavor was either. The cheese also wasn’t working in this as it was in huge blocks—it really needed to be spread out more evenly.

Time for dessert. We had agreed ahead of time that we would share one piece of cheesecake even though usually we have trouble agreeing on one. GF is more into plain, unadulterated desserts so she prefers the plain cheesecake or the cheesecake with strawberries. I like a lot of flavors so I would always go for peanut-butter chocolate or macadamia nut caramel banana. We compromised and decided upon the turtle cheesecake—nuts, chocolate sauce, and caramel. It was quite good and actually had a great big ball of really rich chocolate on top which pleased me greatly.

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Overall this was a really good meal. I was actually quite amazed how little food we really needed. I was trying hard not to overeat and so I ate 2 eggroll thingies, about 1/12th of the salad (which was huge!), and less than half of the mac and cheese. I actually remarked to GF at one point: “why do they give such huge portions? Doesn’t that just negatively impact their dessert sales since people get too full before dessert time?”

Final word: Great food. Good service. Good atmosphere (except for the random child joining us!). We will definitely be back (but won't get the veg chopped salad this time).

Iced tea (x 2)= 5.90
Avocado Eggrolls = 9.95
Veg Chop Salad = 8.95
Side of Mac & Cheese = 5.95
Carmel Pecan Turtle cheesecake = 6.95
Tax = 2.46
Tip = 8.50

Total = 48.66

[AussieAngel]

Yum!! DH and I LOVE The Cheesecake Factory! We don't have it here in Australia, so both times we've been to the US, we track down the closest Cheesecake Factory and pig out!! :cool1:

I totally agree about the massive meals. They are SO big. We figure you don't have to eat it all though. I usually eat about half. It sometimes gets a bit embarrassing when the server takes away my plate and says, "You didn't like it?!" and I have to say, "It was great, but I'm full!!" Although that tends to happen at pretty much all American restaurants - HEAPS more food than in Aussie restaurants!

Once in the Hawaii Cheesecake Factory, DH ordered an enchilada, and it was bigger than his forearm. Seriously. We laughed for about 5 minutes at the size of it.

Anyway, can't wait to hear about the rest of your reviews!! :yay:

[butiflfeet]

I love Cheesecake Factory! We don't have one near us either so whenever we travel we search out a Cheesecake Factory. Thanks for the review!

[adsrtw]

I've never been to the Cheesecake Factory. Honestly, I thought it was a dessert only place. That looks tasty.

[smartestnumber5]

We were staying off-site for our first night so our plan for day two was to get up and check in at POFQ and then head to Downtown Disney by lunch time for lunch at Raglan Road.

Shortly after waking up I actually had an attack of acid reflux that manifested differently than usual. Most of the time I suffer from a lot of pain and burping. But this time there was nausea too which was a new symptom :sick: . I kind of started freaking out--not just because it was unpleasant, but because I was thinking "how in the heck am I going to enjoy this trip which is scheduled around meals!?"

I took a crap-load of prilosec and zantac and thought maybe I just needed some food in my stomach. We stopped at Starbucks and GF got a mocha while I went for a coffee cake and chocolate milk. (Granted chocolate milk is probably not the best thing for an upset stomach, but I was really trying to convince myself that I would feel better once I ate something.) I had a few bites and a little milk, but it really didn't do much to make me feel better, and I hit the zantac again when we left Starbucks.

Breakfast—Starbucks

Mocha—3.65
Cinnamon swirl coffee cake—1.95
Bottle of water—1.8
Chocolate milk—1.5
Tax--.37
Total—9.27

This was all a big downer of course and I started contemplating whether I'd have to skip lunch and just let GF eat :sad1:. We drover over to POFQ and checked in. Turned out our room was ready even though it was early, so we were able to bring our suitcases in. We decided to take the boat over to Downtown Disney (which again was probably not the smartest choice when someone is suffering from nausea! :rolleyes:). It turned out fine, though, because around that time I started feeling better. Just in time for lunch--how weird is that?

As we sat waiting for the boat, I turned to GF and said, "Honey, what if I'm pregnant?" I suppose for many couples, this could have been a moment of panic (or for some a moment of joy). For us though it was a moment for :lmao:. GF being female just doesn't have the right equipment.

[smartestnumber5]

We arrived at Raglan Road about 10 minutes ahead of our ADR time (which was noon) and found the restaurant surprisingly empty. Maybe it was because Downtown Disney is not as busy as the parks and it was kind of early. But we were in the restaurant until at least 1 pm and the entire time we saw probably only five parties in the restaurant.

We had tried Raglan Road on an earlier trip a few years ago and we hadn't had a good experience that time. It had been the last dinner of our first trip together (a free dining trip) on the 7th day. This was before GF had been treated for sleep apnea and plantar faciitis (a foot problem) so she was quite miserable by the end of the trip and wanted to skip our last dinner. I was tired too, but I wanted to have that last dinner and so we went. We had a late ADR and ended up being late for it--so late that the kitchen had technically stopped serving. Our server didn't seem very happy to have to deal with us and our food was luke-warm and not good. GF even got the bread and butter pudding to go and didn't enjoy it when she ate it the next day.

So we didn't have great aspirations for this meal, but we also figured there was no where to go but up! :)

We ordered as follows:

Goatstown salad—10.95
Soup—4.95
Lobster Club—13.95
Port Burger—11.50
Dundon’s Delight—7.99
Bread and butter pudding—7.99
Iced tea—2.5
Iced tea—2.5
Tax—4.06
Total—66.39 2 credits
Tip—12.01

The appetizer menu had only three appetizers that were designed for one person--all of the others could be chosen on the DXDP only by using two people's appetizer credit. The shareable appetizers were all meat which meant that they weren't something GF and I were about to share. So we were limited in our choices. There was soup of the day, the Goatstown salad, and I'm drawing a blank on the third one (I know it was seafood or meat).

We asked the server about the soup of the day and she said it was tomato gin soup. That sounded good to me, but given my earlier stomach problems I was worried it would trigger more acid reflux symptoms given the alcohol and acidity of the tomato. The Goatstown salad didn't sound very good to me (I think I may have even had it as an appetizer the last time we ate here), but it was my only option. GF decided to go for the soup and offered to let me have some (hence guaranteeing that she got to eat some of my salad).

Here are our appetizers:

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You might be wondering why the tomato soup is green. We had the same question when it was served (by someone other than our server). We both tasted and thought "doesn't taste like tomato either" :confused:. Then we discussed how perhaps it was made with green tomatoes. In any case, it was quite good and creamy--though, the complete lack of a gin taste should also have been a tip off.

I had a few more spoonfuls and GF was chowing down when the server came to check on us. She took one look at the soup and said, "What happened to tomato soup?" We said, "Uh, we thought this was the tomato--but we were wondering why it was green." I believe she said it was Colcannon soup--which apparently has ham in it. Oops--well it didn't taste like meat. :confused3

GF asked if there actually was any tomato soup since we were planning to share the soup and salad and the server said she'd check. Turned out that the tomato gin was the soup for dinner only so they hadn't made it yet. Didn't matter to GF, though, as she was quite enjoying the soup. She described it as a light thin cream of broccoli with a noticeable hint of butter.

My salad was fine. GF seemed to enjoy it more than me even though she usually doesn't enjoy goat cheese very much. I used to be more of a fan and she really hated the stuff, but somehow that changed recently and now she likes a lot of it and I'm more grossed out. Strange :confused3 She thought they selected a good goat cheese which was creamy and not too goaty and she liked the raspberry puree with it.

On to entrees. I had only one option--the portobello sandwich. And GF decided on the lobster club mostly just because it was something new and different. We got to pick one side along with our entrees. She chose roasted veggies and I chose potatoes.

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GF descried the lobster club as "a little strange, but good." First of all she didn’t think that it actually had lobster in it. She suspected it was 95-100% crab and that perhaps there was some lobster hidden in it; but all she could taste was crab (but high quality crab). The “lobster” was mixed with a little mayo and sandwiched between white toast and a little bit of crispy bacon and egg. The bacon was nice touch, but she couldn’t taste egg. She described the bread as "like eating sryrofoam, but the flavor of dish was pretty good and made up for the bread.

She had the roasted veggies on the side which had mustard sauce and were sort of sweet from roasting. (I tried these and didn't really like them, but I think I was still having some sensitivity given my earlier stomach issues.) She liked them but couldn't eat much as she was getting full by then.

I had the portobella mushroom sandwich with cheese and tomato relish and got potatoes as my side. The potatoes usually come with chive mayo but I don’t like mayo, so I asked if they were already mixed with the mayo. The server said no and I asked for them plain. As expected, plain potatoes are not all that appetizing, but I did choose it. The other sides just didn't sound good to me.

My portobella sandwich was good and I don’t even like portobella that much. It was cooked well (barbecued maybe?) and the bun was very tasty and had caramelized onions on top. The cheese and tomato relish were very good as well. Still, I didn’t love it. It was clearly a well done entrée, but I'm not sure it was for me. Of course, this was really only an hour or two after my bout of nausea so it might have been that I was just not in my normal state of appreciativeness of food at that moment.

And finally dessert. Here is a pic of the menu (which they bring to you on a big wooden slab):

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Our server left it with us so we could read it and decide what to order, but she told us that technically they are supposed to hold it up in front of you while you read it. How weird! What if you are indecisive and need to study the menu for a bit? :confused3 In the end I chose the bread and butter pudding (despite GF's warning that she hadn't liked it that much when she tried it). The perfect dessert for GF would have been the Three Times a Berry--a panna cotta with berries--since panna cotta is her favorite dessert. But they were out of that one that day. Nothing else really sounded good to her so she randomly chose the Dundon's Delight--"Strawberry pavlova with vanilla pod ice cream. Served on a strawberry and champagne consoome."

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GF didn’t like her dessert. It came with two meringues which she is not a fan of given their sweetness. I tasted them also and the insides were kind of wet and smushy. GF said she's heard that that is how meringues are supposed to be, but I found it gross. I like my meringues very hard and very sweet. Along with the meringues was a scoop of garden variety vanilla ice cream. She described the raspberry mint champagne consume (soup) as a a thin sweet sugary raspberry sauce with some giant pieces of mint floating. The pieces of mint were unpleasant and bitter and she didn’t taste any champagne at all. (I thought it did taste like alcohol). So overall, a bad dessert choice.

My dessert, on the other hand, was sooo good! GF took one bite and realized how wrong she'd been. Apparently the bread pudding being fresh and warm makes all the difference. She loved the butteryness and especially the vanilla frothy sauce so much that she ended up eating half of it.

I thought it was great too. It was very hot when I got it and I burned my tongue a bit when I got a spoonful of the inside. While GF liked the cream sauce, I liked the caramel sauce (because it was sweeter of course!). I dumped both on top as soon as I got it and then thought, "Huh, maybe I shouldn't have dumped it all on top--how is it going to seep down to the bottom?" Since I used most of the sauce GF had to shake the container of the cream sauce to try to get the last remnants. She even tried to stick a spoon in there but the spoon she had was too big to get in there.

It was definitely one of the best desserts of the week.

Overall it was an okay meal, but nothing was exceptional other than the bread pudding. And while that was really good, I wouldn't want to go back for an entire meal just for that. I think maybe Irish food just isn't my thing. Objectively the food was really good, but it just didn't excite me.

[Mom of 2, Wife of 1]

Excellent review of RR. We're going there on our next trip for the first time. Could you elaborate on the appetizers available for one person on the DxDP versus those available for two by sharing a credit? Their menu lists six for "solos" and seven for "sharing". I'd hate to be limited to only three.

[adsrtw]

Thanks for the Raglan review. The soup does sound good, but I would have preferred the Tomato one also. As far as the pregnancy concern goes, if it is true, you will be one wealthy person!:lmao:

[Minniespal]

Excellent:thumbsup2

[smartestnumber5]

I totally agree about the massive meals. They are SO big. We figure you don't have to eat it all though. I usually eat about half. It sometimes gets a bit embarrassing when the server takes away my plate and says, "You didn't like it?!" and I have to say, "It was great, but I'm full!!" Although that tends to happen at pretty much all American restaurants - HEAPS more food than in Aussie restaurants!

Once in the Hawaii Cheesecake Factory, DH ordered an enchilada, and it was bigger than his forearm. Seriously. We laughed for about 5 minutes at the size of it.


Yeah it's amazing how big those meals are! I don't know how people have room for cheesecake. (Maybe most people have more self control than me :rolleyes1).

[smartestnumber5]

I love Cheesecake Factory! We don't have one near us either so whenever we travel we search out a Cheesecake Factory. Thanks for the review!

I know we don't have any in the entire state of Michigan apparently.

We drive to my family in PA every year and pass through Ohio so last year we had the idea of stopping in Cleveland (or was it Cincinnati?--I mix up those two cities a lot :rotfl:) to eat there. It actually hadn't occurred to me at all to check for The Cheesecake Factory in Orlando because this was the first trip where we rented a car and/or spent any time staying off-site.

I'm so glad I thought of it because now we can schedule a Cheesecake Factory dinner on every trip! :)

[smartestnumber5]

I've never been to the Cheesecake Factory. Honestly, I thought it was a dessert only place. That looks tasty.

I used to think it was only dessert too (or at least that dessert was the thing to go there to eat). But actually they have a humongous menu--it's a spiral notebook format and it just goes on and on.

I'm thankful I'm a vegetarian when I'm there, because at least that narrows my choices quite a bit for me!

As far as the pregnancy concern goes, if it is true, you will be one wealthy person!:lmao:

But probably minus one GF unless I had a darn good story!

[smartestnumber5]

Excellent review of RR. We're going there on our next trip for the first time. Could you elaborate on the appetizers available for one person on the DxDP versus those available for two by sharing a credit? Their menu lists six for "solos" and seven for "sharing". I'd hate to be limited to only three.

Unfortunately I can't remember exactly what the appetizers were, but I know that the menu was divided into "solo starters" and "starters for sharing."

I had checked the Allears menus before we left and I guess the lunch menu on Allears is actually a year old because it was different there. (I think the entrees were different as well.) Are you going for lunch or dinner though? The menu might have more solo appetizers for dinner than for lunch.

Yes, the solo section of the menu we had listed only three things--soup of the day, the Goatstown salad, and one other meat based appetizer (GF says she thinks it might have been a steak salad). Then under the "starters for sharing" were listed probably at least 5+ appetizers that are made for two. I don't know what all of them were, but I am sure that the Dalkey Duo (the cocktail sausages) were on there.

I asked the server how the appetizers worked while using our credits and she said that if we got any of the "for sharing" appetizers that would count as both of our appetizer credits. So I suppose if you know that you can agree with someone else in your party you could pool your credits and get any appetizer--but that does kind of ruin the fun of everyone getting to pick their own.

[NWOhioAngela]

I know we don't have any in the entire state of Michigan apparently.

We drive to my family in PA every year and pass through Ohio so last year we had the idea of stopping in Cleveland (or was it Cincinnati?--I mix up those two cities a lot :rotfl:) to eat there.

If you're driving Michigan to PA and passing through Cincy, remind me to never ride with you! ;)

[smartestnumber5]

If you're driving Michigan to PA and passing through Cincy, remind me to never ride with you! ;)

:lmao: I just looked at a map!

I guess it was Cleveland!

[NWOhioAngela]

:lmao: I just looked at a map!

I guess it was Cleveland!

Must be a Michigan thing! GO BUCKS! :yay:

[smartestnumber5]

After Raglan Road we headed over to Goofy's Candy Company. With all of those snack credits to spend we just had to create our own treats. (This is a must do even when we don't have snack credits!)

I sometimes make some vacation exceptions as far as the vegetarianism goes, meaning sometimes I eat marshmallows or things with gelatin or meat based stock. I was trying to be good this trip though and decided to stick with the stricter interpretation of vegetarian, so I decided to forgo the marshmallows and rice crispy treat "make your own"s. I'm not a big gingerbread fan (especially not with chocolate, nuts, and caramel on top :scared:) so that treat was out as well. Pretzels and cookies were all that was left.

I decided on 1 pretzel creation and 2 cookie creations. For the pretzels I had one of each of the following: 1) white chocolate and m&ms, 2) dark chocolate and caramel, and 3) milk chocolate and sprinkles. The first cookie was peanut butter flavored filling dipped in milk chocolate and coated in peanut butter cups. The second was vanilla filling with butterfingers, chocolate chips, and caramel. :dance3: (Yes, I am a candy feign who acts like a 5 year old in Goofy's Candy Co!)

GF decided she wanted a caramel apple. She had tried one last trip and had trouble eating it because it was so large. It didn't go much better this time. She got it dipped in chocolate and coated in pecans, caramel, and sprinkles. (There is a fourth pretzel with sprinkles because one of them broke while they were making it, so they just threw in the broken part and made me another whole one.)

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Goofy Candy Co

Create your own pretzel—3.5
Create your own cookie—3.5
Create your own cookie—3.5
Tax--.63
Total—11.13 3 S


Create apple—6.95
Tax--.46
Total—7.41 OOP

We sent in our orders and then went next door to look for some souvenirs. When we came back in we heard GF's name being paged--the creation artists had a question about her apple. We took a seat near the creation area (there is a new seating area which didn't exist during our last trip) and waited. There was a family who was also waiting near the counter. They were chatting with one of the cast members and seemed to be having a great time, laughing a lot.

My name was called as my first creation was done. The cast member gave it to me and I proceeded to knock it right off the counter. The entire family standing there and the cast member gasped loudly and I caught it at the last minute before it hit the floor! Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. The cast member shouted, "That was a masterpiece--you almost dropped it!" The family then proceeded to tease me about my lack of care. They teased me even more as my name kept getting called over and over. I told them I was stocking up!

When we got in line to pay there were a few other adults who were purchasing large numbers of treats from the store with no 'children in sight. One of them told me that you can actually order the creations online! (I refuse to contemplate getting a Goofy's Candy Creation except while at WDW--it's just too dangerous otherwise :lmao:) I was glad I was not the only sugar loving, candy worshiping adult.

Since we were so full from lunch we didn't eat our treats at the time. Instead we headed back to POFQ for a rest.

After our rest I went and grabbed the resort mugs we got on the DXDP for free.

Sassagoula Food Court
Resort Mugs--24.98 2 Mug credits

I believe we only used the mug one time during the entire trip for iced tea. GF can't stand the Nescafe coffee. And I can't drink any carbonated beverages. In the past at Pop I got a lot of the icees, but they weren't available at POFQ. So iced tea was pretty much my only option. But that was also what I drank at every meal, so I really didn't feel like more of it when we were at the resort. So I just stuck to yoo-hoo and water.

Then we headed out to the grocery store before dinner. We'd never had a car at WDW before and never had a fridge (we stayed at Pop during past trips) so we never did any grocery shopping. I think given our inexperience we bought too much:

Winn Dixie
Wine—11.99
Paper towels—2.29
Zip bags—2.99
Yogurt--.67
Yogurt--.67
Yogurt--.75
Milk—1.59
Package of water—3.69
Nutra grain bars—3.49
String cheese—3.59
Saltines—2.99
Yoo-hoo—3.29
Choc full of nut coffee—3.99
Tax—1.34
Total—43.33

The saltines, string cheese, and nutra grain bars were actually just to have around in case my "morning sickness" came back and I needed to get something into my stomach in the morning. GF ate the entire package of string cheese (she loves it), but I only ate one nutra grain bar and a few crackers during the rest of the trip. ("Morning Sickness" went away after the 2nd morning--yay :yay:)

The yoo-hoo was my drink for the morning. I can't drink coffee or most kinds of juice given my acid reflux and given the morning sickness I thought milk might not be a good choice. But yoo-hoo is just chocolate flavored whey (Whatever that is! All I know is little miss muffet ate some) and water--that can't be too harsh on the stomach right? :rotfl:

Turned out we didn't need the paper towels (I thought they would be helpful for the car as I was sure we would spill something at some point, but we never opened them). The water was a great purchase given that WDW charges $2 a bottle, and for $1.69 more we got 12 bottles.

GF was excited to be able to have coffee in the room given the coffee pot, but we actually didn't end up opening it. The first morning that I tried to make her coffee, I realized that we didn't get any filters. So I tried to make just the regular coffee that the hotel provides (which comes in a ready made filter) and the coffee pot proceeded to spit water everywhere. We realized later that the actual pot was not the right size. It wasn't tall enough to push up the dripper allowing the coffee to come out. So that was the end of the coffee for GF. Without the coffee the milk was of no use either. Though actually the milk was useless anyway because we found it frozen in the fridge on the morning after our shopping trip, so we had to toss it.

Really we should have just bought wine, string cheese, and water and saved $25.

[Mom of 2, Wife of 1]

Unfortunately I can't remember exactly what the appetizers were, but I know that the menu was divided into "solo starters" and "starters for sharing."

I had checked the Allears menus before we left and I guess the lunch menu on Allears is actually a year old because it was different there. (I think the entrees were different as well.) Are you going for lunch or dinner though? The menu might have more solo appetizers for dinner than for lunch.

Yes, the solo section of the menu we had listed only three things--soup of the day, the Goatstown salad, and one other meat based appetizer (GF says she thinks it might have been a steak salad). Then under the "starters for sharing" were listed probably at least 5+ appetizers that are made for two. I don't know what all of them were, but I am sure that the Dalkey Duo (the cocktail sausages) were on there.

I asked the server how the appetizers worked while using our credits and she said that if we got any of the "for sharing" appetizers that would count as both of our appetizer credits. So I suppose if you know that you can agree with someone else in your party you could pool your credits and get any appetizer--but that does kind of ruin the fun of everyone getting to pick their own.

Thanks for the response. We're going for dinner -- I noticed you went for lunch. Most likely they had fewer choices at lunchtime as most venues scale down their menus for that time of the day. At least I'm hoping that's the case. I get what you're saying about agreeing/sharing an app with someone else in my party, but my husband is a big eater, and although he loves me, he has obligations to his hunger. And I do mean obligations... :rotfl:

[TPCShauna]

Thanks for the RR review. I am seriously considering this locale for our upcoming trip but would need to do some serious altering to fit it in. I am reading every review I can get my eyes on to help with the decision. Sorry it wasn't to your liking.

[wilma-bride]

Thanks for your reviews so far. We love cheesecake factory but agree that the portions are huge! When we went last time, my DH ordered the lunch portion of pasta which, here in the UK, would have been a small bowl full. It came out and was massive. Not only coul dhe not finish it but he had absolutely no room for cheesecake and had to get his to go.

We have enjoyed Raglan Road both times we've beent here but I thinkt he service (and food) can be a nit hit or miss.

[iluvpluto27]

Great updates. It's a shame there's no veggie appetiser for two at Raglan, as when one of your party is vegetarian, it does limit your choices.

And we're also two adults without children who always hit up Goofys for the make your own treats, I just love them!

[TINKB72]

Waiting patiently to hear more reviews.......popcorn::

[TigerKat]

Signing on a bit late....

[smartestnumber5]

We had ADRs at California Grill for 9:10 pm. We left POFQ around 8:45ish and arrived with a few minutes to spare. How nice to be able to jump in the car 20 minutes before an ADR and arrive on time! We will never go to Disney without a car again :worship:.

As we arrived we saw the new restaurant--The Wave--next to the front desk. We had talked about possibly trying to go there for dinner on the night we were going to Pleasure Island, but when I called we couldn't get anything for earlier than 8 to 9 pm. (Originally we wanted to go to Wolfgang Puck Cafe but were told they only do walk ups. Later I found out that they actually take reservations but not through Disney, but there were none available for that night so we weren't sure we wanted to take our chances with doing walk-up.) We stopped to take a look at the menu and GF suggested that we ask the concierge about an ADR. We did and the castmember found an ADR in the 6pm hour right away--but for 4 instead of 2. She booked it and said, "Just tell them the other two in your party decided to stay at Magic Kingdom." So we got exactly the time we wanted :woohoo:.

We headed up to the 2nd floor to check in and were given a pager. We were told it was a 20-25 minute wait at that point and were sent over to the elevator. About 30 seconds later the pager went off before we had even gotten off of the elevator.

We walked over to the hostess who took our pager and said--in a French accent--"Mr. and Mrs. Smith." I think I must not have been processing because I just nodded without thinking at first before I actually processed what she was saying.

Now GF does wear men's clothes and she does have short hair. And some people do refer to her as a male after a quick glance sometimes. But usually on second glance the breasts make them realize their mistake. At the very least, we usually see a moment of realization cross their face. But in this case, the hostess didn't seem to notice that GF is female. She just seated us and told us our server would be right with us.

We thought it was odd that not only did she assume that GF was male, but she also just assumed that we were a married couple, and that we shared the same last name, and that I use the title "Mrs." We couldn't help but :rotfl:. For the rest of the dinner i kept referring to GF as "Mr. Smith."

Here is what we ordered:

Dinner—California Grill
Iced tea x 2—4.38
Big Bang Roll—19
Scilian Flatbread (charged as pork apple flat bread on the receipt strangely?)—12
Kappachio fish—33
Vegetarian Unplugged—19
Cheese plate—17
Peachy keen dessert—10
Tax—7.44
Total—121.82 4 M credits


Our server was very nice and helpful as we asked what we thought of a couple of dishes. We decided to use one dessert credit for a cheese plate for our first course. Strangely we ended up not getting any bread--the first thing they brought us was the cheese plate and after that out came the appetizers.

The cheese plate was delicious as always. Actually this was one of the best ones we've had at any restaurant in Disney.

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The left-most cheese was a soft brie that called "Brillat Savarin." It tasted like honey and it was great with some honey on top (though honey wasn't actually the accompaniment meant for that cheese). The description of the cheese plate explained that the cheese was named after a French 18th century gourmet who is famous for his quote "tell me what you eat, and I will tell you who you are." That's taking food just a little too serious for us :rotfl:. But If we are what we eat, then GF is definitely a fish of some kind, and I am a block of sugar.:)

The other cheeses were Mahon (cow's milk described as sharp, lemony, salty), Monte Enebro (goat cheese), Pecorino Foja di Noce (sheep's milk), Fourme d'Ambert (blue cheese). I also liked the Mahon, Pecorino, and the blue, but I was not so into the goat. GF liked every cheese on the plate and didn’t find any of them offensive (usually there's at least one she finds at least one disgusting). All were delicious. It was one of the top cheese plates we’ve had.

After the cheese plate came the Sicilian flatbread and the Big Bang Roll.

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The flatbread usually came with Sopressata, Tomato Compote, Provolone Cheese and Pepperoncini Relish. I asked for the sopressata (some type of meat) to be taken off. The first bite I took of the flatbread was not so great—it seemed to be missing something. I realized that bite didn’t include any pepperoncini—the second bite was much better with the relish on it. But I do think that the meat probably would really have made a difference. It just didn't seem like as good a dish as we're used to at the California Grill.

GF felt similarly about it. She thought it was something which would be good at a mid-price Italian restaurant, but she expected more at Cali Grill. It did give us good idea for making something like that at home though.

The sushi arrived on long thin plate. It was pretty to look at—lots of fish eggs of 2-3 different colors. Strangely it was served with no soy sauce, but with a huge blob of wasabi, a thick brown sauce, and lots of ginger. GF really wanted soy sauce as the brown sauce didn’t do it for her, but she did without. She enjoyed the sushi, but as usual it wasn’t anything special. She said she felt like she could have gotten it for $6.95 at local sushi restaurant--that it included two tasteless kinds of fish, and a couple of crunchy things she couldn’t identify, and then eggs. (Every time we've gone to CG and she gets sushi because no other appetizer appeals to her and she's disappointed. Next time we go I’m going to make her get veggie appetizer so I can have some since she doesn't really appreciate the sushi anyway!)

Time for entrees. My Vegetarian Unplugged had four dishes: 1) heirloom tomato flatbread (2 pieces): tomato, provolone, roasted garlic, arugula, 2) salad with blue, sweet toasted nuts, and peaches, 3) gnocchi/mushroom/corn dish, and 4) unknown (potatoes, tomatoes, some kind of paste/pate thing.

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I couldn’t identify #4 and didn’t really like it that much, so I didn't eat much of it. Looking at the menus now, I suspect that it was the side which was served with the salmon: roasted Fingerling Potatoes, Yellow Beans, and Porcini Mushroom Vinaigrette. #3 was very good. It was served with the Seared Hawaiian Kona Kampachi which GF had. #2 was also good, though it was only a salad so less exciting. And #1 was a better flatbread than the Sicilian one which we had for an appetizer. It was probably was better as a vegetarian flatbread because it was designed that way--not made vegetarian by me asking them to remove the meat.

GF got the Seared Hawaiian Kona Kampachi.

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It was the first entrée at CG she really loved. She said the fish was cooked amazingly well—it was buttery, moist, tender on the inside, and slightly crispy on the outside. She liked the sauce which came with it--a creamy butter and corn like sauce. She though the corn and gnocchi and seaweed side dish was a little less successful. The corn and gnocchi was good on its own, but with buttery bland fish nothing really stood out; she thought the side needed to be more flavorful. But still, the fish was the highlight of the dish and she enjoyed it a great deal.

Since we had used one of our dessert credits for the cheese plate we only had one dessert credit to share. We usually get the Bananas Buzz at CG, but decided to try something new this time. We compromised and went with the Peachy Keen: Peach Cheesecake, Bellini "Bubble Tea", Spiced Tea Cake with Vanilla Creme Glace.

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GF was very pleased with the dessert. Splitting it meant it was not too much at end of a large meal. Her favorite of the three items was the bubble tea because it tasted like "fresh squeezed peach juice with hint of sugar." I did not like the bubble tea very much because it only had a hint of sugar! She thought the tea cake with vanilla creme was really good—flavorful and rich but not too sweet. She didn’t like cheesecake as much and the peaches on top of the cheesecake had "a weird spicy taste" which she didn’t enjoy. But overall thought it was perfect end to the meal.

I was surprised about how good it was. I don’t usually love peach, but I was feeing full so was up for most anything. I thought GF would really like that dessert so I said yes to that one. The bubble tea didn't do much for me, but the other two desserts were yummy.

Overall this was a great meal. It's pretty much always our favorite and this trip didn't disappoint.

[smartestnumber5]

Next up was 1900 Park Fare at 9:20 am. This was earlier than we usually get out and accomplish something at WDW, but we were trying for an early schedule this trip.

Our bill included:

Breakfast—1900 Park Fare
2 adult breakfast buffets = 37.98
tax = 2.47
total = 40.45 2 M
tip= 6.84


We left this breakfast with numerous pics of GF looking pained while posing with characters. GF later announced, "Mornings are hard enough without characters." She can be such a curmudgeon sometimes, but at least we have funny pictures. :lmao:

Here are our various plates:

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GF isn’t a huge breakfast person so the buffet was more for me than for her. She was most interested in the smoked salmon--nothing else was particularly note worthy.. She went up to the buffet a second time and couldn’t get to anything because so many people were waiting in line for omelets. The only thing she got on the second run was bread pudding with vanilla sauce. When she got back I went up to get a second plate and she had her bread pudding sitting on the side of her main plate she was still picking at. The server came by and just picked the bread pudding plate right up after GF had only gotten one bite. The server must have though it was a used plate to be picked up and didn’t bother to ask and I guess GF didn’t say anything. After that GF didn't even bother trying to go up a third time.

My thought was that the buffet was not as good as I remember (I'd gone a few times with my family say 6 or 7 years ago). I like breakfast a lot, but nothing here was that good IMO. I really was in the mood for eggs, but they had poached with lobster I couldn’t eat, omelets with a really long line, and scrambled eggs which were really watery. I did try to eat the scrambled ones, but they weren't hitting the spot as they were kind of gross. (The scrambled eggs I've had at the Pop food court were definitely significantly better.) I also tried a cheese Danish, a mickey waffle, French toast, breakfast potatoes, bread pudding, some fruit, and a bagel with citrus cream cheese.

Nothing was that good. Danish didn’t seem to have any cheese in it. The waffle and French toast were fine—same thing you get at Pop food court. The breakfast potatoes were fine but a little weird. The bread pudding was good. Fruit of course was good. The bagel was bad--not bagel like at all.

On the second run through the buffet I tried again with eggs and toast but once again, eh. I felt like I could have had the same food at a buffet like Golden Carrol or something. And while it's nice to have pics of GF looking uncomfortable with characters, we really didn't need them. So this meal was less than successful.

We decided that in the future if we want to do a breakfast, we should definitely do a non-buffet restaurant where things are made to order.

[Rebelmom67]

You have the absolute best reviews!!! I'm drooling!

[wilma-bride]

Everything at Cali Grill looks great. We have only had breakfast at 1900 Park Faire once but really enjoyed it, especially the Strawberry Soup.

[iluvpluto27]

Loving your reviews. The vegetarian unplugged looks good, but sorry GF didn't enjoy her sushi, I normally love the sushi there but I've never tried the Big Bang Roll.

[sherry8253]

Great reviews and pics. Thanks for taking the time to post.

[heatherlynn444]

great reviews, thanks for sharing! can't wait for more!

[DLo]

Enjoying your reviews and pics. Believe it or not last year was our 1st time at Goofy's Candy Co. How could we have missed this? Seeing your pictures makes me want to go there right now!! Well, I only have 2 months until I enjoy something way too fattening but worth it. I think my ds10 already knows what he wants to order.

[smartestnumber5]

After 1900 Park Fare we headed on over to Blizzard Beach. Around 12:30 after various swimming activities, we were hungry for a few snacks.

We stopped at the Warming Hut which was right next to the wave pool and scoped out the menu. GF really needed to sit down and we realized that we'd gone an awful long time in the sun without even a sip of water. So she sent me up to order water and nachos (without the chili) while she took a seat.

I was hoping to mostly only use snack credits for anything we wanted to eat other than TS meals. After all, with that many TS meals and snack credits it just seems silly to spend a lot of money on even more food.

When I got further ahead in line I saw that the nachos were actually listed as "nachos with chili and cheese" and cost over $4. I was wondering if they'd be cheaper without the chili and might then be under $4 and count as a snack credit. I doubted it though. For a minute I debated whether to buy them if I had to pay OOP. But then I figured GF did specifically ask for them and there was nothing except ice cream and drinks that seemed like they'd count as snack credits at The Warming Hut. So I thought I'd just go ahead and pay OOP.

Turned out that the nachos did count as a snack credit when you got them without the chili. I also decided to throw in a Mickey ice cream sandwich at the last minute. And I used a third snack credit for a bottled water.

Nachos with cheese—?
Ice Cream Sandwich--?
Bottle of water--?
Tax--?
Total--? 3 S
(Not sure of the prices on these).

GF had asked for jalepenos on the nachos, but when I asked when ordering I was told there was "jalepeno sauce" by the napkins and ketchup. When I got over there I found packets of liquid that looked like bbq sauce. I didn't necessarily taste like anything--it was just hot.

The nachos were your standard carnival/theme park nachos with cheese. We enjoyed them. The Mickey ice cream sandwich had traditional chocolate sandwich parts but shaped like Mickey heads. The ice cream seemed to be cookies and cream, but without any large cookie bits. It was a nice satisfying ice cream treat.

After a bit more of the wave pool and lazy river, we decided to head out. We had heard about the mini-donut stand and decided to check it out. Unfortunately, they didn't accept snack credits, so we decided to pass. We didn't really need the donuts.

I did remember having seen a menu at BB including snowcones so while GF went to change and get our stuff from the locker we had rented, I went searching for a snowcone.

It wasn't so much a cone, but a large cup filled with ice.

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I decided on watermelon flavor and headed back to find GF. We each had a bit of the snow cone, but it didn't take very long for the ice to melt and we were left with a very sweet, very icy watermelon drink. It was good while it lasted, but we ended up throwing at least three quarters of it away.

Snow cone--3.50
Tax--.23
Total--3.73 1 S

[sherry8253]

Enjoying the reviews.

[Twilightlover]

sounds yummy

[smartestnumber5]

We had a long break between breakfast at 1900 Park Fare around 9am and dinner at Flying Fish around 8pm that day. The snacks held us over well, but we left Blizzard Beach by 2pm and then took a nap back at the room and watched some TV. By about 6:30pm we got kind of bored waiting for dinner. So we headed over to the Boardwalk thinking maybe we could get in early.

When we checked in the hostess gave me a pager but said it was unlikely we'd get in before our ADR time. We walked around the boardwalk a bit and then sat outside of the Sweet Shop for a bit. Right around our ADR time, our pager went off.

We were seated in the back of the restaurant in a room that had perhaps 8 tables in it. At first the room seemed to be only about half full and pretty quiet. We perused the menu and asked our server for her thoughts on a couple of dishes. Surprisingly when it came to appetizers GF decided to go with a cheese plate. She loves seafood and this was a seafood heavy restaurant, so I thought for sure she'd get a seafood based appetizer. :confused3

Of course, I was plenty happy with her choice because I meant I got to try some of her appetizer which rarely happens. I debated between the mozzarella salad and the Mediterranean salad. In the end I just wasn't feeling mozzarella at that moment, so I chose the Mediterranean one.

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Shortly before the appetizers came out our server brought us some bread. It ws some type of foccacia bread. Neither of us are big fans of foccacia bread, so it was a bit of a disappointment. I think last time they had some type of multigrain sourdough type bread which is more up our alley.

GF enjoyed her cheese plate greatly--as she put it "cheese is always delicious." Unlike the California Grill cheese plate, however, this one did have the one requisite repulsive cheese. I'm not sure what kind of cheese it was, but she is right--it was repulsive. She liked all the rest of the cheeses though. I thought there was one other one that had an unfortunate
aftertaste. I mostly only had one bite of each and left them for GF and she devoured all but the respulsive one.

My salad was good. The all ears description says: Salade Méditerranée - tender greens, cucumbers, plum tomatoes, Bermuda onions, radishes, Nicoise olives, Greek feta, fines herbes, and lemon-dijon vinaigrette.

The feta was the best part. It was in big squares which made it more fun to eat than when it is crumbled and spread throughout the salad. (This way you can control exactly how much cheese you get in each bite depending on how much of the sqaure you put on the fork!) At one point GF decided to help herself to some of my salad and she grabbed an entire cube of feta (I'm talking like a 1 x 1 x 1 inch cube) on her fork. There were only three cubes at most in the salad and I'd already eaten one when GF stuck her fork in one and tried to take it off my plate. She must have noticed she was taking all the rest of my cheese, because she stopped and cut off just a part of the cube.

While I liked this salad, I couldn't help but wish for the salad I had during our last trip to Flying Fish. It was something like arugulat with peaches, gorgonzola, and candied pecans. That salad was sooo yummy. It had the best gorgonzola cheese I've ever had. And the salad came with a "crostini" that had melted gorgonzola on top of it. Yum! It was still on the menu at Flying Fish that was on all ears until just a few months ago and I was quite disappointed to see that it had been changed. We make salads with gorgonzola at home, but that must have been a very high quality gorgonzola; I've never had one that good before or since.

For entrees GF was debating between a trout dish (listed as the "Chef's Thunder" entree) and a salmon. The trout sounded good because it was pumpkin seeded. The salmon sounded good because it came with "sweet corn pudding." In the end she went with the trout--it was the Chef's Thunder after all!

I didn't have much choice for my entree. There was only one vegetarian entree on the menu. Last trip there had been no veggie entrees, and the server had sent the chef over to talk to me and to create my own tasting plate which included four small dishes. This time, though, there was an entree on the menu, so that was the one I got: Ligurian Trofie Pasta Dumplings - Summer's Bounty Heirloom Tomatoes, Chantrelle Mushrooms, and Basil Sun-dried and Fresh Yellow Tomato Compote, Truffle-Based Oil, Pecorino Foglie di Noce

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GF described her entrée as "innovative" and said it involved lots of flavors. Her server had warned her when she ordred it that part of the entree was hot (the trout) and part was cold (the tabbouleh which came with it.) She really liked the caviar sauce on the fish, but said the rest of it wasn’t the best thing she’d ever eaten. She felt like it needed a little something, but wasn't sure what. She didn’t care for the tabbouhleh as it had some spices she didn't like. The trout, though, was very moist and she liked the pumpkin seed coating, but she wished it had more of the roe based sauce which was the only flavor they had added to the fish.

My entrée was very good. I hadn't been expecting all that much when I had read the description. I sort of thought, "Eh--pasta. Isn't that always the vegetarian entree?" But this was very good and very different from most pastas. The server had described the pasta as "like dumplings but without filling" and they did have that type of texture. Along with the dumplings were mushrooms and tomatoes as well as truffle sauce (or so said the description). I enjoyed this a lot and GF said that she would even considered ordering that as an entree (which is saying a lot given that she loves meat and seafood and would consider foregoing that in order to have a vegetarian dish).

While we were eating our entrees a family was seated at the table/booth next to us. There were three or four children, two of them appeared to be twins and all of them seemed to be between ages 6-10. They were quite cute and clearly dressed up for the occasion. At California Grill the night before we had also been sitting next to a family with children--two young girls who seemed to be between ages 3 and 6. We were surprised throughout the trip at how many children of various ages we saw at signature restaurants. I hadn't remembered seeing so many children there on previous trips and I wondered if the various DDP plans--specfically the DXDP--was the reason.

After our entrees we looked over the dessert menu. There was a panna cotta on the menu, but it came along with tropical fruits and was coconut flavored. Our server warned GF that it was very sweet. GF being ambivalent about sugar decided against that one even though she loves panna cotta. With that dessert off the table, she didn't know what to choose. Eventually she decided on a lemon blueberry tart.

I didn't have such problems deciding on a dessert. I knew right away that the chocolate peanut butter bread pudding was the one for me! (I am a chocolate peanut butter worshipper :worship:.)

As we waited for our desserts another family was seated behind us. I couldn't see this family as they were behind me, but GF had a good view. They apparently had three children under the age of 5 and as soon as they sat down said children began making their presence known. I heard the loud screeching, but GF also reported that they were getting up and running around the table. I have a very high tolerance for babies and children making a ruckus, but GF does not. She was clearly annoyed--by the screaming in particular. She's very sensitive about noise and I like to tease her about how she will survive having kids of our own.

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Our desserts arrive and GF's wasn’t quite what she expected. The menu had said something about almond crème, so she was expecting a creme that would cut the strong flavors of the blueberry and gingersnap crust, but there seemed to be just a bit of unsugared lemon cream on top. She did like the gingersnap flavor of the crust, but she thought it was a little strong.

The word for my dessert was basically "yum." How can you go wrong with chocolate and peanut butter?! Actually as I thought about it afterwards, I was not sure how “well done” the dessert was. I may have just enjoyed it a lot because I love anything with chocolate and peanut butter (it also had banana). I also thought it didn't seem to really fit the sophistication level of the restaurant. I mean, it was chocolate-peanut butter-banana bread pudding and not one that appeared to be specially made or to have strange ingredients. Of course, what do I care if it was "sophisticated" enough--it sure tasted darn good! :thumbsup2

We liked our server a lot. She was nice, friendly, down to earth, and told stories/laughed a lot. We also thought she seemed too causal in her manner for what the restaurant was going for. But since we are pretty casual people, we liked it.

Unfortunately, throughout the dessert the children behind us continued to scream. GF was happy to get out of there. On the walk out she exclaimed that she could not understand why folks would bring toddlers out to a fancy restaurant at 9pm or later and not even attempt to quiet them while they scream. This was a theme throughout the trip. It all started on the plane, where a child who seemed to be about two years screamed through almost the entire flight. The child was sitting in a carseat next to a woman who I assume was her mother. Whenever the mother held the child the child stopped crying. And on the very few occasions when the mother talked to the child or tried to entertain her, the child stopped crying. But for the vast majority of the trip the mother didn't talk to the child who sat with no toys, nothing to play with and screamed. At one point the flight attendant actually tried to entertain the little girl and it worked. But the flight attendant had to go and do her job, and the little girl began screaming again.

As we were walking out to the car GF said, "I don't understand. Do these parents like this think that everything that comes out of a child's mouth is precious and should be treasured?!" I agreed with GF, but I still teased her about her very low tolerance.

Dinner—Flying Fish
Med Salad—10
Cheese plate—16
Pasta Dish—26
Trout--32
Iced tea—2.19
Iced tea—2.19
Chocolate Peanut Butter Bread Pudding—8
Lemon Blueberry Tart—8
Tax—6.79
Subtotal--111.17
Tip—20.88

[adsrtw]

Never thought about trying Flying Fish ~ hum, might have to now! Parents need to know their kids limits. If my kids are too tired, they will be cranky. I don't take them to nice restaurants then.

Keep it up!

[TigerKat]

Enjoyed your review of FF, it's one of my favorite places!:thumbsup2

[butiflfeet]

FF sounds really good! I'm with your GF on the kids thing. From what you described the kids were not appropriate for the atmosphere and it's up to the parents to settle them down. When I was a kid my parents would never tolerate that behavior and we would have been out of there and in sooooooooo much trouble for ruining the other diners' meals! I know being a parent is extremely difficult, that's why I don't have kids. I wouldn't want to have to give up a fine dining experience because my kids can't behave and I wouldn't bring them there in the first place. Especially late at night.

Anyway, sorry to rant about kids. They're not all bad, it's just the few that ruin it for the rest!

I'm enjoying your reviews!

[TPCShauna]

FF sounds yummy. Sadly, it's a no-go for us as DH doesn't like seafood and the meat entrees don't appeal.

I am SO with your GF regarding kids at late dinners. DH and I purposely eat after 8:30pm assuming that people won't bring their over-tired, over-stimulated children to dinner in nice restaurants. We are consistently disappointed because of that assumption. I guess everyone should enjoy the little darlings' inappropriate behavior. :rolleyes:

[eventamy]

Waiting for more! Great reviews!

[wilma-bride]

Sorry that your meal was interrupted by an annoying child. I often wonder why paretns take their childrwen out to eat quite so late. Our DS is used to eating at 5 pm here at home. I would no way expect him to behave himself after a long day at Disney at 9 pm at night.

Anyway, onwards and upwards - FF sounds like a good meal despite the interruptions.

[iluvpluto27]

Enjoyed your Flying fish review, and I'm pleased the veggie entree was good. Last time DH had the specially prepared veggie sampler after speaking to the chef, so I'm happy there's a vegetarian option on the menu now.

[CanadianPaco]

:upsidedow You are a great writer! Can't wait for more!

[smartestnumber5]

We started off the day with some breakfast in the room which I picked up while GF was showering. It was a simple breakfast--a chocolate muffin and three beignets--but it was pleasing.

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Breakfast—Sassagoula Floatworks

Choc Muffin—2.89
Beignets—1.99
Tax--.32
Total--5.20 2 S

I had one beignet and left the other two for GF. She swallowed them down quickly and managed to get powdered sugar everywhere! Somehow I didn't realize that one could choose either 3 beignets or 6 of them for a snack credit. I kept thinking I could only get 3. I don't know where I got that idea. :confused3

After breakfast we headed over to Animal Kingdom. We had an ADR at noon at Tusker House and were eager to try a new restaurant. Around 11:20 we were getting off Kali River Rapids and were trying to decide what we could do for about 30 minutes to entertain ourselves. Since we were pretty hungry we decided to just check in early thinking maybe we'd get seated early.

When we got to Tusker House there was a dancing/acrobatics show going on outside in front of the Dawa Bar. The check in desk was near the bar outside of the restaurant. We checked in and were given a pager. They told us they didn't start seating for lunch for another 5 minutes, but that there were only about 10 groups in front of us to be seated so it shouldn't be long. Indeed within about 7 minutes our buzzer rang.

We both enjoyed the meal. GF was very pleased and emphasized that there was a lot of variety and that everything she tasted was delicious. We felt that there were a lot of the same flavors and types of food that we'd had at Boma in the past, but at Boma GF's response to a lot of the dishes was just "eh--it's okay." Here she actually enjoyed pretty much every dish.

Her favorites were the carved steak tip and the salmon. There was also an orzo salad with feta and olives which she liked a lot. She wasn't so impressed with desserts though--the only thing she really liked was the pecan bars. Still, she declared that she rated the food an A+.

GF's first plate
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My review isn't as glowing as GF's, but I did have a good meal there. I liked the desserts best. I thought they had a very nice dessert selection. I tried carrot spice cake, baklava, bread pudding, a lemon tart, a 7 layer bar, and some kind of cream tart with a chocolate shell. It was nice to have baklava on a buffet as I've never seen that before. I know baklava can be kind of expensive so I wonder if that's why it's unlikely to be found on a buffet.

As for the non-dessert items, there were a lot of vegetarian items—I was surprised at how many. I really liked mashed potatoes. I don’t know why--they weren't really special mashed potatoes. Guess I was just in the mood :confused3. There was one dish that was tofu and veggies and I was impressed that they had tofu. All of the salads and entrees were good, but none really stood out to me except the one which was orzo with feta and olives. So I would probably rate the buffet more like a B+/A- but more like an A/A+ for desserts.

My first plate
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My second plate & desserts
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In terms of service things were fine. We really didn’t see the server much at all, but then again we also didn't need much. We were probably only there 50 minutes or less.

Lunch—Tusker House

Buffet x 2—39.98
Tax—2.6
Total—42.58 2 TS
Tip—7.00

[smartestnumber5]

We had an ADR for The Wave at about 6:05pm. At about 5 pm GF was taking her afternoon nap (I had already awaken from mine) while I was on the phone with my mom. I had set an alarm for GF which went off while I was on the phone. I told her, "Honey, you have to get up so we can go eat again."

This was the first time on the DXDP that we just weren't hungry for the next meal. I think we had just scheduled lunch and dinner way to close together. But, we were planning to pleasure island that night, so we needed to finish dinner somewhat early.

So we headed over the Contemporary without being all that hungry. We did as the concierge instructed and told the host/hostess that the other two people in our party had decided to stay at MK. They didn't miss a beat and promptly seated us at a two person table. (I thought that was weird. If there were no ADRs for 2 left for this time, why did they have a 2 person table free?) Here's a pic of the table setting:

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Our server informed us that on the DXDP our drink could be a non-alcoholic specialty drink. This was the only time we encountered this on the DXDP (though we didn't ask anywhere else so perhaps the servers just didn't go out of their way to give us that information?). I picked a chocolate milkshake and GF got a raspberry smoothie like drink. Her drink was described in terms of its antioxidants and health benefits, but she wasa just in it for the raspberry taste. (She said it was like someone squeezed a fresh raspberry into her glass.) Our drinks also came with cardboad straws. We'd had these earlier at Tusker House and I assumed that was because of the animals at AK. I thought in the past there were no straws in AK, but I guess now the TS restaurnts have cardboard ones. Well we got the same straws at The Wave. I don't know why, though, as there were no animals anywhere near the Contemporary that I know of. I guess they were just going for some kind of "organic-antioxidant-environmentally friendly" kind of thing at the restaurant. (I think they also make a deal out of their sustainable fish.) GF refers to the group of people who are likely to be wooed by these kinds of things as "wu wu" people. (She being the child of hippies in the 70s-80s has had lots of experience with wu-wu things.) In any case, we're all for enviornmentally friendly products and sustainable foods. But we did think it was an odd kind of theme for a restaurant.

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The restaurant actually had its normal menu but also a lounge menu which had drinks and another 7 or so appetizers on it. I think there were two vegetarian appetizers on the normal menu (an avocado salad and a regular salad), but the other menu also included a few others--summer vegetable rolls, edamame, and skewers of papaya and either chicken, beef, or tofu.

I decided on the summer vegetable rolls from the lounge menu and GF went with the lettuce wraps. While waiting for our appetizers the server brought out some very good bread with butter topped with wine salt. It was quite yummy.

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GF was very happy with her appetizer. She said the lettuce wraps were her favorite appetizer of the trip so far. The wraps included lamb and scallops which she didn't think would go well, but in fact they were delicious. The scallops were really tender, and the lamb (which she said was in the shape of meatballs) was very flavorful. The meat/seafood came in a savory salty sauce with some cilantro, tomato, onion. She described the sauce as very flavorful.

My appetizer was good but not what I was expecting. I was thinking of fried summer rolls, but these were Vietnamese rolls with a raw sticky rice/noodle wrap. I had never had this type of roll before, but GF knew of them and told me what the rolls were made of. Inside were carrots, cucumbers and some other vegetables done julienne. The rolls came with a good sauce which was a bit spicy. They were interesting and something new I’d never had before. But I would have liked a little more in the rolls than just carrot and cucumber.

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For main dishes GF chose the beef tenderloin (as it was listed on the menu) which the server said was a filet mignon. (We were wondering why it was listed as beef tenderloin if it was a filet mignon?) I went with the only vegetarian entree on the menu--vegetarian stew.

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GF's main dish was not her favorite. It seemed like an average meat and potato entrée w/out anything really spectacular. The sauce on the meat was supposed to be a wine reduction but it was very sweet--almost like a bbq sauce. That was really only thing that was flavorful in entire entrée. After she got this dish she regretted it and wished she'd gone with the chicken pot pie. At this point in the trip she'd had a lot of fish, so that was out. But she was planning to get the filet mignon the next night at Jiko, so she wasn't sure about getting the beef either. I thought the chicken pot pie was a good option because it was something different--something that wasn't on any other menu. But unfortunately her desire for red meat got the best of her and she ordered that entree even though it really didn't sound that exciting. (She then wasn't in the mood for more beef at Jiko the next night, so she probably missed out on a really good filet mignon then.)

My entrée not that great either. It was green beans, zuchinni, tomatoes, squash, some other vegetables, and multigrain rice in some broth. But not enough broth to make using a spoon necessary (and then isn’t it not really a stew?). There was no protein in the dish. This is not an unusual problem regarding a lot of vegetarian dishes. The model often seems to be "just think of a meat based dish and then subtract the meat." Unfortunately with the meat goes the protein, and then you just end up with vegetables and starch--which was essentially what the stew was. It wasn't bad tasting or anything--I think it had a nice flavor. But I really needed cheese or tofu or something other than veggies and rice. It wasn’t a big deal, though, since I wasn’t that hungry to begin with. I had some more of the yummy bread and butter and even asked for a second basket so I had some to dip into the stew. (That didn't totally work since the stew didn't have much broth, but to me that's the best part of stew!)

On to dessert. The dessert menu at The Wave has three options--something like creamy indulgence, decedant indulgence, and one other I can't remember. Each choice includes three different mini desserts. I think GF went with decedant and I went with creamy. I can't remember what her three mini-desserts were, but I know she liked the caramel one the best.

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My three desserts were a panna cotta, a cheesecake, and a mousse. The panna cotta had some type of unsweetened citrus juice on top of it which was really bitter—even GF who likes fruit stuff and loves panna cotta wanted to spit it out as soon as she put it in her mouth. The cheesecake was yummy and had some crème brulee kind of topping. It was in raspberry sauce which I didn’t care about one way or the other. I'm not big on fruit adorning my cheesecake! The chocolate mousse was also good. We both enjoyed getting to taste a few different flavors for dessert.

GF also got some coffee with dessert and it was Columbian instead of the Nescafe crap, so she was pretty happy about that. Our server actually didn't charge us for the coffee (even though it was a 2nd drink for GF) which was nice of her. Service was good and she was very helpful. As we ate dessert GF and I were debating about a political/philosophy topic and pretty deep in conversation. Our server came by to check on us and drop off the check and strangely she kind of interuppted the conversation to chat with us about what we were doing later that night. I really think she must have been thinking "I should be really friendly and nice right before they write in my tip" because it was just odd given our conversation that was already going for her to start up another one with us. Whatever, it didn't affect her tip one way or the other.

The Wave

Vegetable Summer Rolls—7.49
Lettuce Wraps—11.99
Beef Tenderloin—28.99
Vegetable Stew—17.99
Choc Milkshake—4.29
Mega Berry Smoothie—4.29
Creamy Indulgence—7.99
Decadent Flavors—7.99
Coffee—2.19
Tax—6.06
3% House Charge**—2.8
Tip—18.64

** Does anyone have any idea what this "3% house charge" is? This is the only restauratn where we saw this and I have no idea what it means or why it was on the receipt. It was paid by the DXDP, but I'm just curious as to what it was. :confused3

[wilma-bride]

Great updates - Tusker House sounds like a great option for vegetarians. Not sure that the food at The Wave appeals to me much :confused3

[smartestnumber5]

Saturday was a day off from the parks. We had intended to have lunch and then just hang around at the pool. In the morning we decided to hit Starbucks so GF could get some cans of coffee. (Our coffee pot didn't work. The pot didn't fit the maker and so it wouldn't brew correctly.)

For lunch that day we had a choice of Beaches and Cream or Kona Cafe. Both of us felt like Beaches and Cream when we woke up even though it's not the best use of TS credits. But it was what we wanted.

We arrive a bit before noon and check in. We were told there was a 20-30 minute wait for first available (which could be the counter) and more like 40 minutes for a table/booth. We decided to wait for the table/booth and grabbed a table out by Stormalong Bay. Just about 40 minutes later, we were buzzed and seated.

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Our server was very quick and efficient. Not very friendly, but not unfriendly. It seemed like her goal was just to get us in and out as quickly as possible without much fuss. That was fine with us.

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This was one of the a couple of places where the server asked to see our DXDP card before we ordered--she seemed to want to make sure that were indeed on the plan that included appetizers. Once she confirmed that she informed us that the appetizers were chicken noodle soup or onion rings (and maybe fries--I can't recall).

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That made my choice of appetizer pretty clear--onion rings. I'm a fan of onion rings, though, so that's what I was hoping to get as an appetizer anyway. GF decided she might as well try the soup since she could eat some of my onion rings. I chose the obvious veggie burger (with cheese) for an entree and GF went with a cheeseburger. (She controlled herself and went with a single rather than a double.)

Our appetizers were out very quickly. GF's soup was cold, and not very exciting. But on the plus side it did have Mickey noodles in it. My onion rings were a huge serving (a nice size for the $3.99 they would have cost OOP!) and were very tasty.

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While we were eating our appetizers, we saw a kitchen sink come out. I had one of these with my parents and brother when I was a teenager and it was a fun experience, but a little gross too with all of those flavors. Anyway, when they brought it out they announced that the person who ordered it was taking "The Challenge"--if he could eat it all himself in 2 hours it was free. I didn't know there was such a challenge. When we left the restaurant about 45 minutes later we saw that he'd surprisingly done a pretty good job eating it, with mostly a lot of ice cream melted in the bottom. Impressive!

Our burgers were very satisfying. GF said she felt like hers was especially good compared to your average burger joint burger. She thought that maybe they had buttered the bun--that's a trick we'll have to try. My veggie burger was good. It was served on a multi-grain bun. This bun was fine, but I've had some multigrain or wheat ones that are kind of gross. I don't understand why restaurants seem to assume that anyone ordering a vegetarian entree is looking for healthy food. I mean, a veggie burger (while it's certainly not nearly as bad for you as a beef burger) and fries is not healthy food--why would I want it on a multigrain bun? :lmao:

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For dessert I, of course, got the No Way Jose as always. I just love peanut butter and chocolate in ice cream :love:. GF was happy because usually she has to share my dessert (because it seems excessive to order two sundaes when paying OOP given their size) and she doesn't share my love of peanut butter. GF with her new found ice cream freedom made her own sundae with coffee ice cream and hot fudge.

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My sundae was yummy as usual. I ate all of the peanut butter and hot fudge sauce and then left the leftover ice cream--who wants ice cream without peanut butter or hot fudge on it? GF was impressed with the flavor of their coffee ice cream. I took a bite and it was pretty good--a very strong coffee flavor.

We left quite happy. And it was a very quick meal. That was kind of nice given we were eating to TS meals a day and the signature meals each approached 2 hours. Numerous times during the trip at meals especially GF would say "Okay, the topic is 'religion'" and she'd want me to tell her a story that had to do with religion because we'd run out of things to talk about at that moment. I guess this is why people have kids. So you can fill in those times with scolding them! :rotfl:

We were surprised that we enjoyed this one so much given it was food that we could have gotten at any Applebees type restaurant. I think it was because we had been eating so many good meals--we just needed a little bit of junk food! I think we'll definitely go back in future trips for a less expensive, quick, yummy meal.

Beaches & Cream
Iced tea—2.19
Coke—2.19
Cherry syrup--.29
Chicken soup—5.99
Onion rings—3.99
Cheeseburger—8.99
Veggie burger—7.99
No way jose—7.99
Sundae—5.99
Tax—2.97
Total—48.58 2 M
Tip—8

[sunny_stace]

We started off the day with some breakfast in the room which I picked up while GF was showering. It was a simple breakfast--a chocolate muffin and three beignets--but it was pleasing.

Love it! Now that's a breakfast of champions! A wonderful way to start one's day! Thanks for sharing, your reviews are great! :goodvibes

[TPCShauna]

Your reviews are so wonderfully detailed. I was especially interested in the Wave review as DH and I are dining here. Also, thank you for including your input on how the DxDP is handled. It's nice to know that we should be prepared to potentially ask questions regarding what is covered.

Great job! I look forward to more.

[John's Mom]

Great reviews! Thanks for sharing.

[smartestnumber5]

First a quick snack review.

I've wanted to try the doh bar (fried snickers) at Cookes of Dublin forever. Finally I managed it! GF laughed at me and acted as if I might spoil my dinner (what am I, a 5 year old?). Of course, once I had the doh bar in my hands she ended up eating half of it!

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It was extremely yummy. I know some people have reviewed it and said it was gross, but I thought it was essentially a chocolately melted mess inside some fried dough. How can you go wrong with that!?

Dinner—Jiko

BBQ Chicken Flatbread--10
Ostrich---13
Peppers—24
Shrimp—28
Iced Tea—2.19
Iced Tea—2.19
Crème Brulee—8
Tanzanian Chocolate Cheesecake—8
Tax—6.20
Total—101.58 2 M
Tip—19.68

We arrived about 40 minutes early at Jiko and were told that they were running on schedule, so they weren't going to give us a pager. They told us to just come back around our ADR time.

We decided to sit at the bar overlooking Boma. GF got a pear martini and I just had some water.

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We went back to Jiko at the time of our ADR and were seated right away. At the table next to us, was a family with two small children--one about 3 years old and one an infant. This was 8pm so it was a bit earlier than some of other meals where we'd seen a lot of children. Within about five minutes of our sitting down, the baby began to scream. I saw that they were only just being served their appetizers, so we figured we were in for quite a long evening of crying. For the rest of the meal the parents took turns holding the baby and taking him/her over to the bathrooms outside of the restaurant. They seemed to be trying at least, but they still had the screaming child at the table for a good portion of our meal.

It took us a little time to warm up to our server. At first it seemed that she was always looking elsewhere when talking to us. It felt like she wanted to get away from us ASAP. But when she took our orders she joked a bit and then she seemed a lot nicer for the rest of the meal.

The bread was fococcia bread with Tandori butter. I'm not sure what tandori flavoring is, but there seemed to be cinnamon or maybe ginger in the butter, and the bread was just slightly sweet. It was yummy.

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GF decided on the ostrich for an appetizer because it was something different. I asked about the cheeseplate, but it was mostly goat and sheep's milk cheeses, so I decided to pass. I thought about the tamales or the taste of Africa, but finally decided on a flatbread. I asked for the BBQ chicken one without the chicken, but with the bbq sauce.

GF said that the ostrich was good but not special. She did say it was nice to try a different animal though. My flatbread was really, really, really good. Yum—I could eat another right now. GF loved it too--she liked it better than her own appetizer even though it was vegetarian.

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GF went with the shrimp for her entree. I really thought that she'd get the filet mignon, which I've heard is really good at Jiko. But she had had beef the night before at The Wave, and hadn't loved it, so she decided against it. She liked the shrimp, but again she didn't think it was that special. She actually really loved the sweet and sour shrimp at Ohana (the non-grilled kind) and would have liked that better.

My entree was better than hers. I like it and thought it was well done, and she kept eating forkfuls off of my plate. I don’t know what the peppers were stuffed with—maybe some cheese and corn meal mixture? I just know it was good. And the dish had a really good sauce with rice and maybe lentils around the peppers. I didn't really know what was in it and I couldn't identify flavors, but I know it was good!

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GF's dessert choice was the pistachio crème brulee. Other than panna cotta, creme brulee is her favorite dessert. She tends to prefer it plain though, not with a lot of extra flavors. (We're so opposite when it comes to desserts! :lmao:) She said it was good but she found it too sweet. I thought it was a good sweetness, but then I love sweet things. I can't say I tasted the pistachio very strongly, but I did only have a tiny bite.

I went with the chocolate cheesecake. It didn’t taste that cheesecakey, but was more like a very rich chocolate cake with ganache on outside. Whatever--rich, chocolately goodness--can't go wrong there! The lavender ice cream which came with it was sort of strange. I can't really describe how it tasted. Just sweet and flowery. But it was good too. I ate it all and then regretted it when my tummy hurt about 5 minutes later. :rolleyes:

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Overall the meal was very good. This seems like a good place for vegetarians. There were numerous appetizers that had no meat/seafood, and the ones I had were still extremely tasty (enough to tempt GF away from her meat/seafood dishes even.)

I think if we were going to go to only two signature restaurants on a trip, I think California Grill would be our top choice, and Jiko would probably be our second choice.

[PrincessKitty1]

Thanks for the reviews! I'm vegetarian and DH is not, so it was nice to see what you and your GF thought of all the different dishes.

We never want to take away from park time to visit the resort restaurants, but I MUST eat at Jiko!

[TPCShauna]

I feel bad for your GF that she skipped the filet at Jiko. DH ate a lot of them on our last trip and filet is my favorite cut so I eat it a lot too and we both agreed that Jiko had the best one either of us has ever had. It literally melted in your mouth. I would highly recommend that she try it if y'all go back.