Slightly Delayed Dining Review - with Pictures - updated 3/2 Sunshine Season and Jiko

[Flossbolna]

When I wrote my last dining review (Our Quest for American Food (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1464967)) in 2007 I was not expecting to back within one year. Now I am planning my third winter trip to WDW in a row and will be back in just a little over two weeks time. I guess, this is an experience which a few people around here had before me. :rolleyes1

I actually started to write the dining review for the 2008 trip shortly after the trip on my computer, but never got around to post the first installment. Now planning for our 2009 trip, I am really regretting not finishing it. Now I came up with the idea that doing a dining review is actually a great thing to channel the pre-trip-anxiety into something productive. And hopefully it will set me into the perfect mood to continue with my dining review for 2009 directly after our trip!

In the fall when the winter was looming over us, my friend Carola and I remembered how great it was to escape the grey and cold days of February in Germany and enjoy sunny Florida. Also, Lufthansa (the German airline) had just started direct flights from Frankfurt to Orlando. So after a few phone calls, we decided to fly over the Atlantic just to stay at WDW and booked our stay from January 29 to February 7 2008 at the Animal Kingdom Lodge.

A brief introduction of the cast of this review:

Magdalene (that's me), 37, I am a lawyer, normally based in Nuremberg in Bavaria, but at the moment living in Berlin. I am the Disney-fan (you might have guessed from the fact that I am the author of the dining review) and therefore the planner of the trip. I love good food (sometimes a bit too much), I enjoy cooking and experimenting. I can be very adventurous with what I eat, but there are certain things that I absolutely hate: onions, red peppers, shellfish, cilantro and braised meat. So I am picky, but not because something might be exotic, but because I don't like the ingredients (or the method it was cooked). I am not so much into desserts. I like sweets, but rather as a treat inbetween than after a meal. Appetizers however, are just my thing!

Carola, 36, another lawyer, but now working as a tax expert. We met in law school and this is our third trip to WDW together. I still don't really understand after three trips together, how she chooses her food. There are some things I know: she likes chocolate and nearly everything sweet, she likes mashed potatoes and braised meat. However, just as me, she enjoys good food, so for both of, dining is part of a relaxing holiday!

This is a picture of the two of us (I am the one with blond, curly hair) just before we went on the Keys to the Kingdom Tour (which was fantastic by the way)

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/DSC02796.jpg

[Flossbolna]

So how did we plan our dining? We had a few places that we wanted to revisit: Boma and Jiko at AKL, since we were staying there and really liked those restaurants. California Grill, because Carola wanted to have the cheese board again. And Kona Cafe, I really love the Polynesian and wanted to have a reason to eat there and the food was great there last time. We also had a place that we had discussed both last trips and never made it there: Le Cellier. Besides that: we wanted to eat at places that are “different” for us. Remember, we are from Germany, so typical American food is exotic for us! In the end there was not so much room for new experiences...

These are the ADRs we ended up with:

1/30/08
Boma 6 pm
1/31/08
Teppan Edo 12 pm
2/1/08
Artist Point 5:30 pm
2/2/08
Liberty Tree Tavern 1 pm
California Grill 8:30 pm
2/3/08
Le Cellier 5:30 pm
2/4/08
Boma 9:15 am
2/5/08
Kona Cafe 5:30 pm
2/6/08
Jiko 8:30 pm

As you see, we decided to become signature restaurants girls, eating at three of those. And without telling too much beforehand: we didn't regret those choices. :thumbsup2

Besides those table service restaurants I will also be reviewing our counter service food as we go along through the days. I have plenty of pictures, which I hope you will enjoy! I still like looking at my own food pictures!

This is an index to the reviews on this thread:

1/30 Breakfast at Mara (AKL) (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=29549800&postcount=3)
1/30 Lunch at Backlot Express (DHS) (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=29552058&postcount=9)
1/30 Dinner at Boma (AKL) (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=29581192&postcount=32)
1/31 Lunch at Tepan Edo (Epcot) (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=29606376&postcount=37)
1/31 Dinner at Sunshine Season (Epcot) (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=29608346&postcount=43)
Bonus post: pictures of Backlot Express (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=29608477&postcount=45)
2/1 Lunch at Flame Tree Barbecue (AKL) (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=29627630&postcount=49)
2/1 Dinner at Artist Point (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=29651010&postcount=50)
2/2 Breakfast at the Mara (AKL) (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=29713339&postcount=61)
2/2 Lunch at Liberty Tree Tavern (MK) (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=29713469&postcount=62)
2/2 Dinner at California Grill (CR) (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=29715027&postcount=63)
2/3 Lunch at Columbia Harbour House (MK) (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=29751143&postcount=66)
2/3 Dinner at Le Cellier (Epcot) (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=29751236&postcount=67)
2/4 Breakfast at Boma (AKL) (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=29769409&postcount=73)
2/4 Dinner at La Cantina (Epcot) (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=29769540&postcount=74)
2/4 Drinks at Victoria Falls (AKL) (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=29769588&postcount=75)
2/5 Breakfast at Mara (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=30175827&postcount=82)
2/5 Dinner at Kona Cafe (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=30176256&postcount=83)
2/6 Snack at Sunshine Seasons (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=30589710&postcount=86)
2/6 Dinner at Jiko (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=30589736&postcount=87)

[Flossbolna]

We had arrived at MCO the evening before with a three hour delay – the entertainment system of our plane was not working and had to be replaced before we were allowed to start the flight from Germany to MCO! :scared1: (We thought this was bad, but the flight back was even worse!! :scared: ) Therefore we got to bed much later than expected.

We still had a pretty early breakfast from Mara at our hotel, the Animal Kingdom Lodge) on our balcony. I went down to get the mugs and something to eat and ended up with two kids meals: waffle with bacon and grapes. A drink was also included. This was our breakfast table:

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Mara/DSC02536.jpg

And this is a close up of the kids meal:

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Mara/DSC02539.jpg

We thought this was a great deal! The waffles were fresh and the portion size was just right for me for breakfast. We ended up getting this a number of times for breakfast.

I really liked the Mara, we never ate a lot of meals there, but found it to be convenient for our needs. Most of the time we took the food back to our room and sat on the balcony. They told me, it was ok, to take the tray with me, mousekeeping would remove it. I never found it too crowded, but I was never there for breakfast after 8 am.

I also very much like the décor:

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Mara/DSC02453.jpg

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Mara/DSC03049.jpg

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Mara/DSC03050.jpg

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Mara/DSC02452.jpg

It also has nice outdoor eating area:

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Mara/DSC03051.jpg

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Mara/DSC02848.jpg

[luckytobeme88]

very nice! I will be folllowing you for sure..;)

[TigerKat]

Count me in!:thumbsup2

[MickeyNicki]

I'm in!

[dvc at last !]

I am in...
waiting for more !

I love Boma for dinner !

:cool1:

[Flossbolna]

very nice! I will be folllowing you for sure..;)

Count me in!:thumbsup2

I'm in!

I am in...
waiting for more !

I love Boma for dinner !

:cool1:

Welcome to my first four readers!!! The next update will be online momentarily! :goodvibes

We love Boma as well, it is our only must do for every trip!

[Flossbolna]

We spent the morning at DHS and got an early lunch from the Backlot Express. This was our first time trying a counter service restaurant in this park and we were pleasantly surprised. we got a salad an a sandwich and shared both. We felt that this was plenty of food and really liked both dishes, but the salad was so good that I actually made a point of coming back one day just to eat the salad!

the salad was the South West Salad with mixed greens, crisp corn tortilla, black bean relish, grilled sweet plantains and chimichurri dressing (according to allears.net this now includes chicken, we had it without chicken):

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Counter%20Service/DSC02479.jpg

The sandwich was the grilled vegetable sandwich. We liked it, but for our taste it was too much cheese and too few vegetables.

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Counter%20Service/DSC02480.jpg

As I said before, I went back to Backlot Express and we are already talking about getting lunch there again in a few weeks time.

[John's Mom]

Count me in! :goodvibes Can't wait for your Boma and Jiko reviews!

[luckytobeme88]

OMG, that salad you had in DHS looks like it has chicken on it.

[wdw1972]

That Mara kids' breakfast looks perfect for me! I'm staying concierge the next couple of times, but that almost looks good enough to leave the lounge for :rotfl2:

[Shell0616]

Count me in! Great reviews so far...:goodvibes

[TigerKat]

Backlot has a great grilled turkey sandwich!:goodvibes

[5infam]

I'm in too - We have ADR's at a few of the places you visited, so I am looking forward to what is coming!!:thumbsup2

[medicgirl911]

Can't wait to read more!

[Wendi2000]

Looks yummy so far!!!

[PNO4TE]

I'm in! :wave2:

How nice to put a face (or two) to you now, Floss... or may I call you Magdalene?

[Flossbolna]

Count me in! :goodvibes Can't wait for your Boma and Jiko reviews!

Welcome! I already wrote the Boma review, just did not get around to post it. But it will be up sometime today hopefully! :goodvibes

OMG, that salad you had in DHS looks like it has chicken on it.

You are right, it looks like chicken, but these are the plantains. They were really delicious. In my opinion the salad does not need any chicken at all!

That Mara kids' breakfast looks perfect for me! I'm staying concierge the next couple of times, but that almost looks good enough to leave the lounge for :rotfl2:

The quality of the waffels varied a bit, but most of the time they were really nice and fresh. I love warm breakfasts (we don't have those here in Germany), but I don't want that much food in the mornings. I will see what I can get at Captain Cooks at the Poly this time...

Count me in! Great reviews so far...:goodvibes

Thanks! I am glad that people are enjoying my reviews! :goodvibes

Backlot has a great grilled turkey sandwich!:goodvibes

Grilled turkey sounds good, too. Perhaps we will get to try it this time! :thumbsup2

I'm in too - We have ADR's at a few of the places you visited, so I am looking forward to what is coming!!:thumbsup2

I am planning on finishing my reviews before we leave in two weeks time, so hopefully they will be of use for you! :goodvibes

Can't wait to read more!

Welcome to my report!

Looks yummy so far!!!

Yes, it was yummy! To be honest, I only ever had one meal at WDW that I really found unacceptlable, that was the salad at the counter service in Mexico at Epcot :eek:

I'm in! :wave2:

How nice to put a face (or two) to you now, Floss... or may I call you Magdalene?

Hi Elin, glad you came over here! You are welcome to use my first name :goodvibes Floss is actually the town where my parents live (and Bolna was the name of our dog). When I signed up for the disboards I combined these two and did not think about that floss actually is an English word connected with dental hygiene :scared1: But then there is also candy floss, so that's ok :goodvibes

[TinkerBelle_325]

Great Reviews so far :thumbsup2

I see that you're going to Disney again in just 2 weeks!

You will LOVE the Polynesian :) It's my all time favorite resort.

[skellingtonfreak]

Great reviews so far! I totally missed that salad at Backlot Express when we were there! Now that we planned our Star Wars Weekends trip, I will HAVE to try it. It looks fabulous!

I am so in for the rest!

[pixie08]

Great reviews. I am in. Love to hear more because we love some of the places you dined at!

[Donald is #1]

I'm on board! popcorn:: popcorn::

[pixeydust]

Really nice pictures and great reviews, I am so looking forward to hearing about these places we haven't been to yet! That salad looks yummy, we will have to try it on our next visit! :goodvibes

[DWFan4Life]

We had arrived at MCO the evening before with a three hour delay – the entertainment system of our plane was not working and had to be replaced before we were allowed to start the flight from Germany to MCO! :scared1: (We thought this was bad, but the flight back was even worse!! :scared: ) Therefore we got to bed much later than expected.

We still had a pretty early breakfast from Mara at our hotel, the Animal Kingdom Lodge) on our balcony. I went down to get the mugs and something to eat and ended up with two kids meals: waffle with bacon and grapes. A drink was also included. This was our breakfast table:

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Mara/DSC02536.jpg

And this is a close up of the kids meal:

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Mara/DSC02539.jpg

We thought this was a great deal! The waffles were fresh and the portion size was just right for me for breakfast. We ended up getting this a number of times for breakfast.

I really liked the Mara, we never ate a lot of meals there, but found it to be convenient for our needs. Most of the time we took the food back to our room and sat on the balcony. They told me, it was ok, to take the tray with me, mousekeeping would remove it. I never found it too crowded, but I was never there for breakfast after 8 am.

I also very much like the décor:

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Mara/DSC02453.jpg

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Mara/DSC03049.jpg

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Mara/DSC03050.jpg

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Mara/DSC02452.jpg

It also has nice outdoor eating area:

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Mara/DSC03051.jpg

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Mara/DSC02848.jpg


Looks nice, less crowded and the food looks yummy :woohoo:

I'll go there someday in our next trip. Thanks :)

[lissiesmum]

I can't wait to hear the rest of your reviews...you ate at most of the restaurants I want to try in April :)

[danalee]

count me in!

[wdwthanksgiving]

enjoying your reviews...are you on the left ot right in your photo?!
we are going to be at wdw jan 24-jan 27! yippee!!!
thanks for taking the time to post:yay:

[Disneylover87]

enjoying your reviiews! popcorn:: were going back in may and then either feb or march and eating at some of those places!!:yay:

[Mahusky]

Im in too! Mouth is watering and my mind is wandering to WDW!!!:cool1:

[Flossbolna]

Great Reviews so far :thumbsup2

I see that you're going to Disney again in just 2 weeks!

You will LOVE the Polynesian :) It's my all time favorite resort.

Thanks! I really hope I will love the Polynesian. I really love AKL and we decided to go with the Poly this time since we are saving so much with the 4+3 deal that the Poly for the first time comes down to a price that I find half way reasonable. Before my first trip the Poly was the hotel that I dreamed about, but after our first stay at AKL I totally fell in love with AKL, so now I am a bit homesick for my AKL, even though I get to stay at the Poly. I know it sounds very strange and I keep telling me that I will love it there: seeing MK over the lake, taking the monorail to Epcot, enjoying the beach etc....

Great reviews so far! I totally missed that salad at Backlot Express when we were there! Now that we planned our Star Wars Weekends trip, I will HAVE to try it. It looks fabulous!

I am so in for the rest!

Glad that you are enjoying the reviews, I hope to have the salad again in a bit over two weeks time (to be precise, on 1/26 :goodvibes ). I wll report back, whether it is still as good as last year!

Great reviews. I am in. Love to hear more because we love some of the places you dined at!

Welcome! We really enjoyed all of our meals on that trip, it was really hard to figure out where to eat this time, because we wanted to try new places as well as revisit old favourites! :goodvibes

I'm on board! popcorn:: popcorn::

Welcome! It's great to see so many from the Jambo thread!! :cool1:

Really nice pictures and great reviews, I am so looking forward to hearing about these places we haven't been to yet! That salad looks yummy, we will have to try it on our next visit! :goodvibes

Thank you! I am really lucky that Carola is playing along so nicely and patiently waits while I am taking thousands of pictures of our food. :goodvibes

Looks nice, less crowded and the food looks yummy :woohoo:

I'll go there someday in our next trip. Thanks :)

I really like Mara, however, these pictures were taken at "off" times. We (or at least me) are rope drop people, so breakfast there was always before 8 am. Once we were there later and it was getting a bit chaotic. But I never found it unbearable.

I can't wait to hear the rest of your reviews...you ate at most of the restaurants I want to try in April :)

You have a good list of restaurants lined for your trip then! When reading reviews, I find it interesting how different the peoples restaurant choices are. We really like the resort restaurants and eat there a lot, while other people have most of their meals inside the parks.

count me in!

Welcome!

enjoying your reviews...are you on the left ot right in your photo?!
we are going to be at wdw jan 24-jan 27! yippee!!!
thanks for taking the time to post:yay:

Sorry, I should have clarified this: I am the one with the pink t-shirt and blond curly hair. I will edit the post...

enjoying your reviiews! popcorn:: were going back in may and then either feb or march and eating at some of those places!!:yay:

Welcome! Lucky you that you already have two future trips planned!! :banana:

Im in too! Mouth is watering and my mind is wandering to WDW!!!:cool1:

Welcome, hope you will enjoy the future reviews as well, will post the next one very soon!

[Flossbolna]

This is the only restaurant we have eaten at for every one of our trips to WDW. We really love the food there. We love all the different tastes we can get there and end up eating as many different things as we can. Our favourites really are the appetizers, the soups, the salads, the bread and dips. While the main dishes are good, we find them to be more “standard” and we rather concentrate on the things that we cannot get anywhere else.

Unfortunately the jet lag really caught up with Carola this evening and she was feeling really bad. Fortunately we were staying at AKL, so she actually went to the room to lie down for about 10 min during the meal and could not really enjoy it as much as she had hoped for. You will not be surprised to hear that we have an ADR for 1/25/09!

I started the meal with drink: a Lemon Drop. I love lemons, so I thought this would be just my drink. It was nice, but too sweet for me.

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Boma/DSC02508.jpg

I have pictures of our plates of food, but unfortunately I don't remember all the dishes anymore. Still, they are nice to look at, here are the pictures:

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Boma/DSC02506.jpg

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Boma/DSC02507.jpg

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Boma/DSC02509.jpg

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Boma/DSC02510.jpg

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Boma/DSC02511.jpg

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Boma/DSC02512.jpg

If you have a specific question, I will try to answer as best as I still remember!

[jess20k]

I am enjoying your reviews! We will be staying at AKL for the first time in less than 2 weeks, I cannot wait!

[chocolateMinnie]

Great reviews, wish my German was as good as your English you put me to shame!

[bonnielynn]

I'm in...

[Flossbolna]

I am enjoying your reviews! We will be staying at AKL for the first time in less than 2 weeks, I cannot wait!

AKL is a great hotel, hope you have a fantastic stay there!! :thumbsup2

Great reviews, wish my German was as good as your English you put me to shame!

Thanks a lot! :goodvibes

I'm in...

Welcome, the next review is about to be ready to be posted! :goodvibes

[Flossbolna]

The next morning, Carola was fortunately feeling much better and we got exactly the same breakfast as the day before. I told you, we really liked it! I also have to mention, that they first wanted to give me apple sauce to go with it, but I had read somewhere on the DIS that people could get grapes, so I asked for them and that was no problem.

Once again we were at Epcot at rope drop (I love the jet lag in this direction: You fell like you slept in when you wake up at 6 am as it is noon for our internal clocks!) and were quite hungry for our lunch at Japan!

Teppan style dining is not very common in Germany and those restaurants are usually extremely expensive. I had always wanted to try this, so was very excited that we would be able to try out the at this time still pretty newly renovated Teppan Edo.

Our ADR was for 12 pm, that was the first seating for lunch. We were one of the first parties to check in and were told to wait in the entrance area. They have small Japanese opening ceremony here, which was a nice start:

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Teppan%20Edo/DSC02569.jpg

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Teppan%20Edo/DSC02570.jpg

We were then lead to our table. There are several rooms behind each other, each with four tables:

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Teppan%20Edo/DSC02591.jpg

Above each table is a huge fume hood (:confused: :confused: that's the word my dictionary comes up with???):

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Teppan%20Edo/DSC02573.jpg

At the start of the meal our server brought out hot towels. These were great! :thumbsup2

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Teppan%20Edo/DSC02572.jpg

For my drink I got an iced green tea. It was ok, but I have had better iced green teas before:

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Teppan%20Edo/DSC02574.jpg

Carola and I decided to get a couple of appetizers and the split an entree.

We wanted to try something we never had heard of before: Edamame, young soy beans:

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Teppan%20Edo/DSC02576.jpg

They were absolutely delicious!! :lovestruc I have since realized that many Japanese restaurants here offer them and I order them regularly. But very few times, have I gotten ones that were as good as at Teppan Edo!

We also had Assorted Tempura (shrimp, chicken breast and seasoned vegetables with a Japanese dipping sauce). The picture shows it half eaten:

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Teppan%20Edo/DSC02575.jpg

The tempura was nice, but not spectacular. I think we focused so much on the edamame that we did not really notice the tempura.

For our entree we had the sirloin steak and chicken combination. Sharing was no problem, we just got each half a portion on our plates. And we did not have to share the sauces! This was good as the meat itself is rather flavourless in my opinion. But the sauces were fantastic, so we really liked the combination. Our chef made quite a show and I was happily snapping away, so here are lots of pictures:

setting up:

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Teppan%20Edo/DSC02577.jpg

distributing the sauces, while explaining them:

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Teppan%20Edo/DSC02578.jpg

the making of an onion volcano:

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Teppan%20Edo/DSC02580.jpg

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Teppan%20Edo/DSC02581.jpg

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Teppan%20Edo/DSC02582.jpg

the chef making fun of my camera:

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Teppan%20Edo/DSC02583.jpg

serious meat preperation:

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Teppan%20Edo/DSC02585.jpg

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Teppan%20Edo/DSC02586.jpg

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Teppan%20Edo/DSC02587.jpg

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Teppan%20Edo/DSC02588.jpg

my chicken portion (edited to add: I think it must be the steak after closer looking at it, sorry for the confusion!) (that's a quarter of a full meal or half of my split portion)

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Teppan%20Edo/DSC02589.jpg

I totally forgot to take a picture of the chicken, I think I had eaten it by the time I got the steak.

Overall we really enjoyed Teppan Edo, but we found it a bit over prized for what it offers. We are not planning a return trip this year, we rather want to try something new. However, I will happily go there again on another trip. I am really glad I finally got to experience this style! :goodvibes

[mickeymotto]

I'm so glad you posted those Mara photos and tips. We will be there this summer and I love seeing the restaurant area. It just gets me more excited about our upcoming trip!

BTW, love your reviews so far....more, more, more!!!!:thumbsup2

[maxiesmom]

my chicken portion (that's a quarter of a full meal or half of my split portion)

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Teppan%20Edo/DSC02589.jpg

I totally forgot to take a picture of the steak as I was already enjoying my food when I got it.

Overall we really enjoyed Teppan Edo, but we found it a bit over prized for what it offers. We are not planning a return trip this year, we rather want to try something new. However, I will happily go there again on another trip. I am really glad I finally got to experience this style! :goodvibes

I was glad to see a review for Teppan Edo, I am considering it for a trip this year. But are you sure your picture is chicken and not steak? Either you have your pics mixed up, or that is some nasty looking chicken and I think I'll pass!;)

[PNO4TE]

If you have a specific question, I will try to answer as best as I still remember!

Where are your Zebra Domes??? :eek:

[Flossbolna]

I'm so glad you posted those Mara photos and tips. We will be there this summer and I love seeing the restaurant area. It just gets me more excited about our upcoming trip!

BTW, love your reviews so far....more, more, more!!!!:thumbsup2

I think Mara is a beautifully themed restaurant, I really like it a lot!! AKL is fantastic!

I was glad to see a review for Teppan Edo, I am considering it for a trip this year. But are you sure your picture is chicken and not steak? Either you have your pics mixed up, or that is some nasty looking chicken and I think I'll pass!;)

I guess you are right, this is the steak. When I looked at it on photbucket I realized it was only one type of meat, but the picture was much smaller, so I decided it had to be the chicken... :laughing:

Where are your Zebra Domes??? :eek:

Elin, pleas don't tell anyone. You have discovered my secret: I don't like Zebra Domes :ssst: I guess this is the reason why I am not an official member of the Wilbunch Gang :guilty:

[PNO4TE]

Elin, pleas don't tell anyone. You have discovered my secret: I don't like Zebra Domes :ssst: I guess this is the reason why I am not an official member of the Wilbunch Gang :guilty:

Magdalene, I am not crazy about them either. I think it is the flavor of the Amarula Cream Liqueur. I am not an official member either, so maybe that is why! :upsidedow

By the way, I think your flume hood is what we call a vent hood. :thumbsup2

[Flossbolna]

This was our absolute favourite counter service restaurant in 2007. So we really had to make a repeat visit!! :goodvibes

I went with my favourite dish from last year: the salad with seared tuna:

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Counter%20Service/DSC02632.jpg

The salad was good but not as great as in 2007 :confused3 . I found the tuna to be a bit tough to eat. Do you see the white in the meat, that was not chewable. The rest of the meat was fine, though. Carola got the same salad and she had no complaints.

We are planning a return trip again this year, but I think I want to try something else. The sandwiches sound really nice, but so does the caesar's salad. That's another dish not really available in Germany, and I really love it! Carola always says that I would be happy to only eat caesar's salads and ribs while I am on holiday in the US. popcorn::

[Flossbolna]

Magdalene, I am not crazy about them either. I think it is the flavor of the Amarula Cream Liqueur. I am not an official member either, so maybe that is why! :upsidedow

By the way, I think your flume hood is what we call a vent hood. :thumbsup2

Thanks for help with the language!

I think for me it is that it is too sweet and possibly the coffee taste. I love Amarula, I once brought a bottle back home from South Africa when it was not yet available in Europe. And me and my friends agreed that it tastes like Bailey's, only better! :goodvibes

[Flossbolna]

Sorry, I totally forgot that I had tried to take quite a lot of restaurant pictures as well as those of the food. :goodvibes

So here are my picures of Backlot Express. I think it is an extremely well themed restaurant. And by the way, there also is a Backlot Express restaurant at the Walt Disney Studios Paris (the second theme park at Disneyland Paris). They nearly are twin brothers!!

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Restaurants/DSC00790.jpg

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Restaurants/DSC00789.jpg

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Restaurants/DSC00787.jpg

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Restaurants/DSC00786.jpg

[All7OfUs]

I've been lurking on your report since the beginning, but this is the first time I've posted here. :goodvibes I was glad to see the review of Teppan Edo also, as it's on my list of next trip tries. I was especially glad to see that sharing was okay. I was a little skeptical that it could be done, being the nature of the restuarant, but my friend and I are both pretty lite eaters and we wanted to get appetizers as well.

Thanks for your hard work for us! Keep 'em coming! :thumbsup2

[John's Mom]

Magdalene, I am not crazy about them either. I think it is the flavor of the Amarula Cream Liqueur. I am not an official member either, so maybe that is why! :upsidedow

I must admit that I don't like zebra domes either. ;) To me, they have a coffee flavor. I love coffee, but won't eat anything coffee flavored.

And that's coming from a member! :laughing:

[Flossbolna]

I've been lurking on your report since the beginning, but this is the first time I've posted here. :goodvibes I was glad to see the review of Teppan Edo also, as it's on my list of next trip tries. I was especially glad to see that sharing was okay. I was a little skeptical that it could be done, being the nature of the restuarant, but my friend and I are both pretty lite eaters and we wanted to get appetizers as well.

Thanks for your hard work for us! Keep 'em coming! :thumbsup2

Teppan Edo is a great experience! I really can recommend to get an early lunch ADR to catch the opening cermony. It was such a nice touch. The cast members there are great, very polite and lot's of bowing!

Also, I have shared a number of meals and never had a problem with it. I never felt that the service was lacking because of it. That's why we generally tip a bit more when we share. :goodvibes

I must admit that I don't like zebra domes either. ;) To me, they have a coffee flavor. I love coffee, but won't eat anything coffee flavored.

And that's coming from a member! :laughing:

Wow, and I always was so quiet about my dislike because I felt there must be something wrong with me. It's great to know that others have the same problem... :rolleyes1

[Flossbolna]

Breakfast this morning was a again the lovely kids meal waffle. I told you, we really liked it a lot!! :rolleyes1

Flame Tree is once again an old-time favourite. I think we have by now certain counter services we like and don't really make many experiments. Perhaps we really need to change our habits a bit on our upcoming trip!! :scared1: At AK we have never eaten anywhere else. Both Carola and I fell in love with AK on our trip in 2007. :love: The first time we were there in 2004 we found the park to be boring. But in 2007 we spent more time there and started to explore it properly and enjoy all the incredible details. If I could only visit one park at WDW, I think I would choose AK, even though it would be a very hard choice. And the food has to come from Flame Tree.

As I told you, I really like ribs. These can be bought in Germany, but they are different here and they never have this barbecue taste which I love.

We both got the ribs as well as a side of fries which we shared. The ribs were great, but it ended up being too much food for each of us and we have the very best intentions to share in two weeks time! I liked the beans, Carola the corn bread muffin, so sharing will work quite well and leave more room for a treat. I really missed the corn on the cob and would love for it to come back :sad2:

Here is the picture:

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Counter%20Service/DSC02676.jpg

We had a very early lunch, the receipt is from 11 am! This was a great time to have lunch as there was no line and we had the seating area for ourselves. I love to sit all the way down by the water (picture from 2007, but we were at the same table again in 2008):

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Restaurants/DSC00390.jpg

There was even a boat with characters passing us and it was fun waving to them! :wave2:

As I said, this will be a definite return trip for us!! But we might have to get two lunches in AK, so perhaps we will get to try Pizzafari... :scared1:

[Flossbolna]

Ok, now on to a more interesting meal:

Artist Point was a new experience for us. We had an early ADR here for 5:30 pm. After the morning at AK and a nice break at the hotel (a must do for us), we took the bus to MK and then hoped on the boat to WL to have a nice meal there before heading out to DTD for some serious shopping!

The WL is always stunning:

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Resorts/DSC00299.jpg

We arrived about 20 min before our ADR and were told that they are not open yet, but we should be back at 5:30pm. We shopped around a bit, I really like the WL store. I actually would really love to stay there one day, but Carola thinks it is too dark. So unless I find another travel companion (DBF made it very clear that it will never be him, well we will see :rolleyes1 ), I don't think I will get to stay there so soon.

When we returned to the podium we were immediately shown to our table. There was no queue to be checked in or so and there only was one other table occupied in the whole restaurant. It only started to fill up at around 6pm.

I really liked the atmosphere of the place, it was very bright with lots of daylight coming in. We were seated at a nice table at the window.

General view of the restaurant:

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Artist%20Point/DSC02688.jpg

Trying to capture the nice wall pictures:

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Artist%20Point/DSC02686.jpg

We had planned to share at this meal as we were still feeling very full from the lunch at Flame tree. So we ordered the portobello soup as appetizer and got the buffalo steak as our entree. we also got a glass each of the red wine that was paired with the buffalo, the Dusted Valley Stomp Cabernet Sauvignon.

The wine was really good and it went really exremely well with the buffalo. This is a picture of the wine:

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Artist%20Point/DSC02684.jpg

They served us some nice sourdough bread which I really liked:

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Artist%20Point/DSC02680.jpg

This is the Smokey Portobello Soup with Roasted Shiitakes and Chive Oil (I asked for a menu here, so I can give you its proper name):

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Artist%20Point/DSC02687.jpg

This is actually a picture of the split portion. We each got one of those bowls! I really love it when they serve the split portions seperately! :thumbsup2 The soup is very rich, so we were really happy to have split it. I think I would be full after a eating the whole portion myself!

Next a picture of the Grilled Buffalo Sirloin Steak with Sweet Potato-Hazelnut Gratin and Sweet Onion Jam:

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Artist%20Point/DSC02691.jpg

Again, this is only half of the normal portion. I really liked it that they split the meals in the kitchen. We had ordered the steak medium rare as it was advised by our server. The meat was really fantastic. The gratin went very well with the meat and so did the onion jam. I personally don't really like onions, but this was quite good, but I did not finish it. I am really sad that they no longer have the buffalo on the recent menu.

We had no dessert as we were really full after this. Which was a bit sad as there were some really yummy sounding desserts of the menu. :sad1:

We had thought about a return trip to Artist Point, but to be honest, at the moment I don't find the menu very appealing, I would have loved to get the Buffalo again as this something so unique. Also, as I mentioned before, we really want to try new places. If we had stayed at WL, I am sure we would have eaten there again. Even though Artist Point sometimes does not get very good reviews, we really liked our dinner there a lot. :banana: We had no complaints, our server was great, wine and food were outstanding and the atmosphere was lovely. We really liked the early ADR time as the restaurant was so quiet!!

[Flossbolna]

The next reviews will be lunch at Liberty Tree Tavern and after that the highlight of our trip: dinner at California Grill!

[jess20k]

We also enjoyed Artist Point. I'm sad to hear they took the Buffalo Steak off the menu, that was my favorite dish there.

[Mahusky]

I actually would really love to stay there one day, but Carola thinks it is too dark.

This too funny my DW feels the same way about being too dark and she doesnt want to stay there either!

Again I love the report 32 days and counting for us..... although most of it will be at VB.

[darthtatty]

great reviews, look forward to reading more :)

[TigerKat]

Great review! Of all the signature restaurants Artist Point's menu just doesn't appeal to us.:confused3

[Krissalee]

Thanks for taking the time to share your reviews - looking forward to more!

[Donald is #1]

Great reviews! Do you remember how the service was at Artist Point? I tried it for the first time in December and while the food was excellent, the service was very slow. It took 1.5 hours for my meal and I was dining solo!

[chocolateMinnie]

great review of Artist Point, it looks like an empty restaurant when you visited. I found WL to be very dark also and very similar inside to AKL and Poly - assume they are same architect/designer

[tarheelmjfan]

I'm enjoying your reviews. It's so nice, when there's links to specific restaurants. :thumbsup2 Thanks for posting.

[Flossbolna]

We also enjoyed Artist Point. I'm sad to hear they took the Buffalo Steak off the menu, that was my favorite dish there.

I hope the Buffalo will come back one day - it would really make me want to come back there! ::yes::

This too funny my DW feels the same way about being too dark and she doesnt want to stay there either!

Again I love the report 32 days and counting for us..... although most of it will be at VB.

And as you can see: Artist Point is actually a restaurant with lots of light!! Have a great trip, Vero Beach sounds like a lovely place!

great reviews, look forward to reading more :)

Thanks, next review will be up shortly!

Great review! Of all the signature restaurants Artist Point's menu just doesn't appeal to us.:confused3

That's the way I feel about Narcoossees: I am not a fan of sseafood and even though there are other options, it just does not appeal to me that much... :confused3


Thanks for taking the time to share your reviews - looking forward to more!

Welcome, glad you enjoy them!

Great reviews! Do you remember how the service was at Artist Point? I tried it for the first time in December and while the food was excellent, the service was very slow. It took 1.5 hours for my meal and I was dining solo!

Our server was nice, polite and unobtrusive, but she was always there when we needed her (but then as you saw, there were not many others she had to look after as well). I checked our receipt and it says 6:30 pm. So our meal took exactly one hour.

great review of Artist Point, it looks like an empty restaurant when you visited. I found WL to be very dark also and very similar inside to AKL and Poly - assume they are same architect/designer

It was very empty, but not is a scary way. It was getting filled up around 6:30 pm when we were leaving. AKL and WL had the same architect. The funny thing is that Carola my friend loves AKL and was happy to stay at the Poly this year, but not WL...

I'm enjoying your reviews. It's so nice, when there's links to specific restaurants. :thumbsup2 Thanks for posting.

Thanks! It is always good to know that there people enjoying what I write! :goodvibes

[Flossbolna]

You won't believe it, we really mixed it up this morning! :cheer2: At least I did. Instead of the kid's meal I got a cinnamon roll! I am really sorry, I did not get a picture of it :rolleyes: But I can show you last year's picture:

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202007/DSC00313.jpg

The cinnamon roll was my favourite in 2007 and it tasted equally good in 2008! It is not huge, but it was enough for me. I had a lot of cinnamon in it and was fresh.

Carola once again had the kid's meal...

[Flossbolna]

This was one meal I was really looking forward to. In 2007 we really were trying to make a point to eat “American” food. I had asked for recommendations here on the DIS and the LTT was recommended very much. I did not really care for the turkey dinner (not my type of food) and Carola did not care too much for the characters. But lunch sounded very good. Still we did not get around to eat there in 2007. It did not make sense to waste a TS dining credit here, and we were on the Dining Plan then. Due to the changes in 2008 (no appetizer and tip) we figured out it did not make sense for us. And I really liked to have more freedom in choosing my meals. I had intended to really keep track of our spending and do a review afterwards whether the plan would have saved us some money, but I lost track in collecting all receipts somehow. I hope to do it this year.

So after having missed out in 2007, I was certain to include it in my next trip, whenever this would be.

Our ADR was for 1 pm, but we were very hungry already before noon, so we went there very early, I think at about 12:30 pm or even earlier (our receipt is from 1:18 pm) and they were able to seat us after a very short wait.

I liked the interior of the restaurant, it looked very colonial. But it was very hectic and loud!! We eat most of our table service meals at the resort restaurants and Boma certainly isn't a quiet place either, I found that the restaurants in the parks are even a bit more noisy and hectic.

Ever since reading the menu on Allears I was set on getting the Colony Salad (Washington apples, sweet pecans and applewood smoked cheddar and grilled chicken tossed with field greens in honey shallot vinaigrette). I love pecans (once again: very American for me!) and smoked cheese. I was not at all disappointed, this salad was just my thing!! The dressing had a sweet taste to it. This is something that to me is very American: the combination of savoury and sweet. I love it, but in German food it is very uncommon.

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Liberty%20Tree%20Tavern/DSC02734.jpg

It was a very generous portion and very filling.

Carola is the one who loves braised meat, so when I explained to here what the pot roast (braised beef in a cabernet wine and mushroom sauce served with mashed potatoes and garden vegetables) was (I had seen so many pictures here on the DIS that I had a very good idea what it was), she was sold. She loved her food and was struggling to finish it, but would not leave any leftovers:

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Liberty%20Tree%20Tavern/DSC02733.jpg

I tried some and pretty much hated it: I just don't like the taste of braised meat!!

We were too full again for any dessert.

It was a really nice quick lunch. We expected it to be a hectic place: after all we were inside the MK! The food was really very good for what it was, we liked it much better than the Prime Time Cafe. We will go back on our next trip for lunch on our very last day. ME will probably pick us up around 4:30 pm. So the plan is to pack in the morning, check out at the Poly and then have some fun at the MK before heading home. Lunch at LTT fits into this plan extremely well and I think I can see that this might become a tradition for me.

[Flossbolna]

In 2007 was our first meal at California Grill and I was looking forward to it so much. But then on the evening itself I was not feeling that well. :sad1: We still had a fantastic meal there which we really enjoyed and Carola has been talking about the cheese plate ever since. But I really wanted to get the chance to experience the restaurant fully without feeling a bit off. Therefore, we wanted a return trip.

In 2007 we went on an evening with the Pirate and Princess Party. We first experienced Wishes at 7 pm in the MK and then saw the Pirate and Princess fireworks from CG. We thought that was a great way of doing it, so we got the 8:30pm ADR. Unfortunately sometime before our trip Wishes was cancelled that evening.

We arrived a bit early for our ADR and were told that they were running a bit late (30 min). This was fine with us, we had intended to get a drink at the bar anyway. Once we arrived at the restaurant we were surprised that the bar area was actually pretty empty and we got a nice place at the counter. :thumbsup2

I was a bit surprised that the bar had no bar menu. :confused3 I asked for it and just was told that they had a full bar. I guess this means that they have very good bartenders who realy know their job. But the problem is that I don't know any cocktails. :goodvibes So I was really at a loss. The only thing that came into my mind was the apple martini that I had had at a restaurant on the gulf coast during our 2007 trip to Florida. Once again, this is something that you normally don't get in German bars, I only knew about it from watching the TV-show Scrubs (you see how educating TV can be ;) ). So I asked for this and yes, that was possible. Carola decided to get the same drink:

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/California%20Grill/DSC02769.jpg

These were very good! I think I will be more prepared this time, I have been thinking about which drink to order ever since we booked this trip!! I think I will get a gimlet...

While we were sitting at the bar we started reading the menu and already made a first decision: we wanted a flatbread to start us of.

We got seated after a bit of a wait and just when I went to turn in the beeper, a guest at the other end of the bar asked us in German where we were from!! It turned out that he had moved to Orlando 25 or so years ago and really liked German being spoken at the restaurant. What a fun experience! :goodvibes

We were seated in the Wine Room. This is a separate room from the main dining room which only has a few tables. It is at corner furthest from the Magic Kingdom, so no chance to see the MK from here, but we could see the WL and Epcot in the distance. At first I thought: why are we put in this dark corner... Then I remembered that this is the Wine Room that I had heard many DISers talk about and that I only heard positive things. We really liked it in the end as it was so much quieter and because of our server!

When we were seated, we were told that our server would be “insert some male first name that I have forgotten, so let's just say Peter”. So we waited patiently, for “Peter” who we saw was busy with another table. We were all set to immediately order our flatbread, we were getting really hungry!! Well, after “Peter” finished with the other table he dissappeared. In the meantime Gary (I remember his name!) came to our table and introduced himself. :scratchin We were not really sure what he was doing and due to our confusion we ignored him a bit, thinking he was just trying to help out his colleague and keep us happy until “Peter” would have time for us. Well, “Peter” kept ignoring us and so we ordered the flatbread with Gary. It turned out that Gary actually was our server and he was the best server ever!!! :banana: :banana: It was not at all his fault that we did not realize that he was our server, it was the hostess, who had told us the wrong name. We liked him so much that we will make sure to request him as our server when we return in about ten days, even though I find the concept of requesting a server a bit strange.

After the meal he asked where we were from in Germany and I said that I work in Berlin at the moment. He asked whether Sir Simon Rattle was still the chief conductor at the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra (he is) as he had him as a guest at the CG one day. I really liked this story as I have a number of friends who think I am stupid for enjoying Disney. They are the ones, where I always get the impression that they don't go to concerts or in the opera or the theater because they truly enjoy it, but because it is a lifestyle they consider appropriate. So if Sir Simon Rattle goes to Disney, I can as well!! And I can still enjoy all these cultural things nevertheless!

Well, I guess you did not come here to read my philosophical essays, but the here about the food, so without further much ado, here is the most exciting bread and butter and oil we were served:

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/California%20Grill/DSC02770.jpg

I love the bread at California Grill. Sourdough in Germany is only used in darker breads (we eat a lot of rye or wheat/rye-mixtures), not in pure wheat bread. I love the texture and the slight sour taste. So this is really a treat. And the bread was better than at Artist Point.

The next picture is our flatbread:

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/California%20Grill/DSC02771.jpg

Marinated Beef Tenderloin with Parmigiano Reggiano, Balsamic Reduction and Lemon Oil.

This was lovely! It was very crisp, the beef was delicious and the balsamic reduction and the lemon oil gave it an interesting taste. It appeared to be quite big, but we were really hungry and it was gone very quickly without us feeling full or so. It was a great start to the meal and I think we are planning on getting a flatbread again on our next visit!

That's why we decided that we wanted to share an appetizer as well. I love artichokes and when I saw those on the menu, I was really tempted to get them. Carola, thought this sounded good, too. So we got the

Braised Artichokes with Serrano Ham, Black Olive Crostini and Meyer Lemon Vinaigrette.

Sorry, I only have a picture of a half portion, I only remembered to take a picture after we had split the meal. It did not come out split as it did at Artist Point, but we were fine with getting it served on one plate.

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/California%20Grill/DSC02773.jpg

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/California%20Grill/DSC02775.jpg

We liked this dish, but it was not incredible. I would have loved for there to be more artichokes. The crostini were a bit dry. But the vinaigrette was very good and all in all it was a good dish. Perhaps I would have been happier if we had not shared...

But then I would definitely had problems with my main course. I had already decided when reading dining reviews here on the DIS that I wanted to try the grilled pork tenderloin. I was briefly tempted by a Ahi Tuna, but then settled on pork:

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/California%20Grill/DSC02778.jpg

Grilled Pork Tenderloin with Creamy Goat Cheese Polenta, Cremini Mushrooms, Zinfandel Glace and Sage.

This was soooooo good. I absolutely loved it! Gary recommended it to be served medium and that's how I ordered it. I was brought up that pork must not be eaten raw, but I had read in a dining review that pork is now pasteurized. I have no idea, whether this is right, but then I thought that Disney would not sell food of which they know that it is highly dangerous to eat. The pork was just a bit pink in the middle, therefore not dry at all. The polenta was very creamy and a bit cheesy. The sage was lovely crisp. The only part of the meal that I was a bit disappointed in were the mushrooms. I love all kind of mushrooms and these were just plain mushrooms, nothing special about them... Still they were perfectly good, just not as “wow” as the other parts of the dish.

Carola meanwhile decided to be very "exotic" (this was one of the meals were she totally surprised me with what she ordered) and got pasta:

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/California%20Grill/DSC02777.jpg

Okay, the menu made this sound a bit more extravagant (but the receipt says pasta):

Hand Crafted Butternut Squash Ravioli with Oyster Mushrooms, Parmigiano, and Truffle Brown Butter

It was the vegetarian dish and it was fantastic. I got to try a bit of it and it was really hand made. It looks like a small portion, but it was four very large ravioli and Carola was having trouble finishing it, but then she also had that pot roast for lunch. Carola was very pleased with her meal. I think she said she chose it because she felt like eating something familiar. And it tasted like something that you could get at a very good Italian restaurant here in Germany. And we do have good Italian restaurants here, especially in Munich, it's just 120 miles from Munich to the Italian border...

At some point we also ordered some wine (I think after the flatbread when we had figured out that Gary was actually our server). I was sure that I wanted a Californian wine – I am eating at a Californian restaurant! I told Gary a bit what kind of wines I enjoyed and he recommended a very nice Cabernet, it was the Simi Landslide, Alexander Valley. It was not cheap, but I remember that I liked it very much. Carola on the other hand wanted an old world wine and picked the one Chianti they had on the menu: Borgo Pretale Chianti Classico Riserva, Tuscany. She liked it a lot, but for me it was not smooth enough. Still it was a very good wine, no doubt. Once again a Chianti is one of the standards you get here at better restaurants. So Carola's wine really went very well with her choice of main course!

Carola had been talking about the cheese board ever since our last trip to WDW. But when we had finished our main dishes, we were really distracted by the dessert menu. We realized that we were both really drawn by the Banana and Buttersotch “Buzz”

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/California%20Grill/DSC02781.jpg

Caramelized Banans and Butterscotch Custard Stack with Caramel Sauce, Cocoa Nib and crunchy Plantain

One of the things that sold us on this dish was the plantain. We loved it in the salad at Backlot Express and it is so exotic to us. But Carola is a banana fan anyway and I love caramel. So we decided that we would share this dessert. No way could we think about eating a whole dessert each! It was heaven! Of course it kind of falls apart when you start eating it, but we tried to combine the different layers and they really added to each other. I loved the banana ice cream that was in it (even though it is not mentioned in the description), it was definitely selfmade. I am really sad that it does not appear on the recent CG menus available, but the good thing about CG is that the menu changes daily, so you never know what other delights might be available. And I think Carola cannot be distracted from the cheese plate again... :rolleyes2

After dessert it was time to head outside to see the fireworks from the Pirates and Pricesses Party. These were great, but we saw the fireworks a few days later inside the park and they were sooo much better. In my opinion viewing the fireworks from there is a bit overrated. Of course we had to go out to the viewing platform, but I don't mind that at all. I want to be outside and hear the fireworks explode! We took the last bit of our wine outside with us and if we had been a couple, it would have been quite romantic out there. But that was lost on us...

It was 10:21pm when we paid, so I think the meal took us about 2 hours in total. We thought it was just the right speed to the meal, very relaxed, but never too slow.

As you could have guessed from what I wrote, we will be back at California Grill very soon. This time our reservation is for 5:30 pm and I hope to catch some daylight. It would be lovely to see the sun go down from there! Wishes is at 8pm, so we will see when we finish our meal, whether we stay around for a bit with an after dinner drink or whether we have enough time to leave and get over to the MK to see Wishes from there. I hope we will manage to have a relaxed meal, but still get to the MK. We will see how this works out!

[frdeb1999]

Great review and pics!! :)

[Flossbolna]

Great review and pics!! :)

Thanks, it is always good to know, that people are enjoying what I am writing!! :goodvibes

Lurkers, take this as a hint: I would love to hear from you!!! :goodvibes

[Flossbolna]

This morning we had a very early start. :crazy2: We had to be at the MK before 8:30 am. No, we did not have a breakfast reservation – we were going on the Keys to the Kingdom Tour. :cool1: We arrived just after 8 am and after we checked in for the tour we enjoyed the empty Main Street USA. This is the morning, the picture of Carola and me in the first post is from (by the way, for those who started reading before I changed the description, I am the one with the blond curly hair).

Part of the Keys to the Kingdom Tour (which was fantastic!! :thumbsup2 ) was lunch at Columbia Harbour House. So we really had no choice on where we wanted to eat for lunch that day, but I had wanted to eat at CHH anyway. Sorry, I have no pictures from this meal and I have no idea what Carola had. But I had the hummus sandwich: Lighthouse Sandwich - hummus with tomato & broccoli slaw. It was very good and the brad was freshly toasted. I love hummus and this was very tasty. We had a very early lunch, in our own separate area upstairs, but there were basically no other people upstairs at all!!

I would love to return here, but I guess we will see where we are and what we feel like eating when we are in the MK.

[Flossbolna]

Ever since our first trip I had read about how wonderful Le Cellier is. On our very first trip in 2004 we had a reservation there, but the only time we could get was 4:30 pm. We really did not feel like eating at that time and since we were there during te Food and Wine Festival, we decided to eat around the world instead. In 2007 we were considering getting a reservation, but felt that eating in a dark cellar was not really what we would enjoy so much and decided against it.

So when we were discussing meals for 2008 Carola and I agreed that we had to get Le Cellier “out of our system”. We just really needed to eat there finally! We were lucky, we got our reservation in early November for early February, so only four months out. Our reservation was for 5:30pm as we wanted to have time to explore around the world before Illuminations. (Well, we ended going to the MK to see Wishes...)

We were seated very shortly after we checked in (I think not more than 5 minutes). We never got an explanation of the restaurant or the bread, :confused3 but we had a very nice (and very good looking) server. :thumbsup2

I wanted to get a Canadian beer and asked for recommendations. Our server explained the different choices and I settled on the Moosehead Pale Ale, which was really great!! :goodvibes Carola had a glas of wine which she liked.

We got the obvious bread:

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Le%20Cellier/DSC02851.jpg

Here I must mention one thing: Southern Germany is the home of the pretzel – from here it emigrated to the new world. So pretzel bread as a Canadian speciality seemed always a bit strange to me. But I was really curious. Unfortunately I was very disappointed. We still have lots of real bakeries in Germany which make fantastic pretzels. But there are lots of bakery chains taking over. They offer rather bland tasting industrial baked goods. And no chain bakery pretzel I ever had was something to write how about. To me Le Cellier's pretzel bread tasted just like any bland industrial pretzel at home. It wasn't bad, but it was really not great at all in my opinion.

We both had to have steak and each got a filet. While I had the famous mushroom filet:

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Le%20Cellier/DSC02854.jpg

Carola had the maple glazed filet which was since eliminated from Le Cellier's menu:

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Le%20Cellier/DSC02852.jpg

We both really liked our steaks, they were very tender.

Overall we had a very nice meal , but after two evenings in a row eating at signature restaurants I could not help feeling a bit let down. :guilty: Le Cellier is definitely not in the same league as Artist Point and California Grill for me. We had exceptional meals there, while Le Cellier was very good. Also, I found the restaurant very crowded. I knew this before, but it still did have an impact on how I felt there. Also, it was quite noisy. Just as with Liberty Tree Tavern, I think the restaurants in the parks are just that bit more hectic.

We had thought about going back to Le Cellier, it was more Carola's request than mine. But as you will easily guess: No chance to get an ADR in December for January!

[TigerKat]

WOW - I just noticed you're going back in 5 days, I'm jealous!;)

[Shell0616]

I am really loving your reviews. You remind me of my trip to Europe. Every country we went to I asked for the most "English" "Dutch" "French" food I could get. I wanted to try everything.

Thanks for your reviews!

[jpmom97]

Loving your reviews!! Can't wait to read more!

[FirstMagic]

I am really enjoying your reviews and photos, thank you for taking the time to write them and post here. I hope your next WDW vacation is truly magic!

Guten appetit! :goodvibes

[Flossbolna]

WOW - I just noticed you're going back in 5 days, I'm jealous!;)

:cool1: Yes, only four more days now! I just need to get rid of that stupid cough that decided to visit me!! :crazy2:

I am really loving your reviews. You remind me of my trip to Europe. Every country we went to I asked for the most "English" "Dutch" "French" food I could get. I wanted to try everything.

Thanks for your reviews!

Thanks for your nice comment. I agree that part of the fun of travelling is eating things that are different from at home! One thing I really love when I am in a foreign country is visiting supermarkets and look at all the food that is so different from at home!

Loving your reviews!! Can't wait to read more!

Thanks! Next review will be up shortly!

I am really enjoying your reviews and photos, thank you for taking the time to write them and post here. I hope your next WDW vacation is truly magic!

Guten appetit! :goodvibes

I am glad that you are enjoying them! We have the best intentions to have fun and we have some nice ADRs planned. I hope to continue with the dining reviews immediately after the trip!

[Flossbolna]

Another meal that we did not manage in 2007. I had never wanted to spend prime touring time in a restaurant eating breakfast. But this time we were staying for eight full days, so sacrificing one morning seemed ok. Staying at AKL, we of course had to eat our breakfast at Boma!

We had an ADR for 9:15 am and where immediately shown to our table. The restaurant was actually pretty empty, we would not have needed that ADR.

We both got a glass of their special juice, but I did not like it, too sweet for me. Carola and I both agreed that it tastes like something called “multi-vitamin-juice” here in Germany. It is a juice blend, one brand for example uses apple, orange, mango, pineapple, passion-fruit, peach and banana. Really not my cup of tea at all, but the orange juice I got instead was very good!

Sorry, once again no photos here. :rolleyes: The food was very good. We had a very big breakfast. We loved the omelettes, the pancakes, the bacon, the ham. Carola got really into the African oatmeal-type-dishes they offer. I loved the fresh fruit they had. All in all a very nice fresh breakfast with plenty of food! :cheer2:

I must say that I am normally not a great fan of buffets: I hat it when food is kept warm for two long. But the quality at Boma was first class! Everything tasted fresh and there was always plenty of food out! :thumbsup2

We were thinking about returning – but the logistics were too complicated since we are staying at the Poly this time. But instead we will have a character breakfast at Tusker Hosue! This is a first for Carola: her first character meal ever.

[Flossbolna]

We spent quite a bit of the day at Typhoon Lagoon. I loved it there, Carola however thought it was actually too chilly to really enjoy the water. I guess it really depends on your personality whether February and water parks go well together for you. We did not eat there, we really did not feel hungry after breakfast at Boma.

We ended up in Epcot that evening and Carola really wanted to go to La Cantina again. We had eaten there in 2004 and she really loved it, therefore we returned in 2007. In 2007 I had the only meal at WDW that I really hated at La Cantina (see here for review (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=18963548&postcount=75)). So I was really not soo keen on returning. Since Carola had really not been so keen on the water park, it was only fair that dinner should be her choice. She got the combination platter as always:

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Counter%20Service/DSC02878.jpg

I decided to revert to my choice of 2004, the nachos with a side order or guacamole.

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Counter%20Service/DSC02879.jpg

It was a huge portion and I did not finish it, even with some help from Carola. While it was absolutely fine, it was just not the thing I was craving at the moment.

Also I did not like the presentation of the dishes. I don't like the styrofoam boxes. I have seen recent pictures here where the dishes were on plastic plates and I think that looks much more appetizing!! We will see wether we end up eating there again or wether I get to try the Tangerine Cafe for the first time!!!

[Flossbolna]

After we got home to our hotel, Carola and I decided to end the evening with a nice drink at the hotel bar. :drinking1 Victoria Falls is very beautiful and we really wanted to make sure to have a drink there!

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Victoria%20Falls/DSC02836.jpg

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Victoria%20Falls/DSC03070.jpg

We had another apple martini (I think this was Carola's):

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Victoria%20Falls/DSC02882.jpg

and a pomegranate splash:

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Victoria%20Falls/DSC02883.jpg

For anyone wondering what this is, here is a picture of the standardized bar menu, I guess you could get this drink at any hotel bar in WDW:

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Victoria%20Falls/DSC02880.jpg

Both drinks were very good and refreshing and the bar was not too crowded. It was after 9pm and I think the pre dinner crowd had already sat down for their dinner.

[PiperGirlInWondrland]

Wonderful reviews! Can't wait for more! :coffee:

[TigerKat]

We are not buffet folk either, however, breakfast at BOMA was wonderful.:thumbsup2

[John's Mom]

Magdalene,

Thanks for sharing your great reviews and pictures! :goodvibes

[momofdbsdc]

Wonderful reviews Magdalene! Thank you so much for sharing them!

Kim
momofdbsdca

[Joie29]

I am loving your reviews Magdalene! I need to go back and read through all of them, and am anxious for you to finish...

About Le Cellier--we felt similarly...I will be posting our review of it soon. It was good, but perhaps we had built it up in our minds too much.

Can't wait to read more! :goodvibes

[Flossbolna]

Sorry that I abandond the thread so suddenly. I managed to get a nasty cold just before I was about to travel to WDW, had to miss a day at work and just managed to get healthy again to get on that plane and somehow finish everything that needed to be done at work. There was no energy left for writing reviews. While we had a great trip, I got sick again just after we came back - and even worse than before. But now I am starting to feel better, so I am back to finish this up and then will start the new review!

Wonderful reviews! Can't wait for more! :coffee:

Magdalene,

Thanks for sharing your great reviews and pictures! :goodvibes

Wonderful reviews Magdalene! Thank you so much for sharing them!

Kim
momofdbsdca

Thanks for all the nice comments!

We are not buffet folk either, however, breakfast at BOMA was wonderful.:thumbsup2

Somehow, I think breakfast is the meal that is best for buffets, we had another great buffet breakfast during our last trip! And I think Boma is just overall wonderful! :goodvibes

I am loving your reviews Magdalene! I need to go back and read through all of them, and am anxious for you to finish...

About Le Cellier--we felt similarly...I will be posting our review of it soon. It was good, but perhaps we had built it up in our minds too much.

Can't wait to read more! :goodvibes

I agree, expectations sometimes are a key to how much I like a meal - if they are exceeded, the meal is wonderful, if they are not met, the meal is not good. Unfortunately you can't really switch them off... :confused3

[Flossbolna]

This morning I got a muffin at the Mara, which was huge:

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Mara/DSC02885.jpg

It was a good muffin, but not in anyway spectacular. But it was something different from my ususal breakfast!

Lunch does not deserve an extra post, I was at DHS and had the same salad again at Backlot Express.

[Flossbolna]

I have always been dreaming about staying at the Poly. Therefore this was the one ressort I really wanted to visit during my first stay at WDW in 2004. I settled on having my birthday dinner there at Ohana in 2004.

In 2007 I really wanted to try Kona Cafe after I had read so much about it here on the DIS. I was not disappointed, it was really very good! Therefore I wanted to return again in 2008. We really took some time to explore the Poly before our meal and somehow we had fallen in love with AKL so much, that we felt a bit let down by the atmosphere of the Poly. It no longer seemed so magical for us. Good for us: the magic returned when we were actually staying there at the end of January, even though we really missed AKL!

This was the evening we were going to attend the Pirate and Princess Party at the MK. We had an early ADR for 5:25 and I was hoping to be seated earlier, but even though we checked in 15 min early, we were seated just on our time. We managed to get to the MK just in time for the party at 7pm.

We were thinking about getting a drink and our server recommended a drink called “Sand in Your Pants”. I think there was alcohol involved... I remember that I really liked it, but am sorry that I can't give you more detail than that. But I have a picture:

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Kona/DSC02929.jpg

I had the Tuna Oscar – served with fried green tomatoes, tempura-fried jumbo lump crab, and wasabi hollandaise.

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Kona/DSC02931.jpg

I had it without the crab since I am allergic against shellfish. Mentioning my allergy once again brought out a chef to speak to me. The first time this happened Carola was very cross with me as she felt like we were drawing everyone's attention to us. But she now is used to it and appreciates that most of WDW's chefs are actually pretty good looking guys. And they are always great to talk to, too!

I had great expectations in this dish, but was a bit let down. The fried green tomatoes was something I never had tried in my life, and was excited to taste. But I did not really like them, they felt very undercooked to me. After I came back, I read a number of reviews stating that they are not like they are supposed to be, so I will definitely try to eat them again, but not at Kona. The Tuna was good, but not great. I would have preferred to have more asparagus and sauce. I also would have preferred for the wasabis hollandaise to have more bite. The wasabi was really just a hint, not hot at all!

Carola had the Macadamia Nut and Chive-crusted Mahi-mahi - served with watercress salad with warm shiitake-soy vinaigrette and sticky rice:

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Kona/DSC02930.jpg

She loved it, it was one of her favourite dishes then and she requested to return to Kona because of the mahi-mahi. So Kona was another return trip in January. Since we were staying at the Poly, this was an easy decission!

[Joie29]

I had the Tuna Oscar – served with fried green tomatoes, tempura-fried jumbo lump crab, and wasabi hollandaise.

I had great expectations in this dish, but was a bit let down. The fried green tomatoes was something I never had tried in my life, and was excited to taste. But I did not really like them, they felt very undercooked to me. After I came back, I read a number of reviews stating that they are not like they are supposed to be, so I will definitely try to eat them again, but not at Kona. The Tuna was good, but not great. I would have preferred to have more asparagus and sauce. I also would have preferred for the wasabis hollandaise to have more bite. The wasabi was really just a hint, not hot at all!

Carola had the Macadamia Nut and Chive-crusted Mahi-mahi - served with watercress salad with warm shiitake-soy vinaigrette and sticky rice:




Okay, I was so excited to see this review because I just added Kona to my "must-try" list of dinners for our next trip! ;)

It seems like everyone who writes about your tuna dish wants to like it, but ends up being disappointed. This dish sounds so great, but seems to fall short...they should perhaps rework the dish! And, yes, well made fried green tomatoes are wonderful, so do try them elsewhere (or make them at home?).

Carola's meal looks and sounds delicious! :thumbsup2

Great review, I'm excited to read more...:goodvibes

[Flossbolna]

Okay, I was so excited to see this review because I just added Kona to my "must-try" list of dinners for our next trip! ;)

It seems like everyone who writes about your tuna dish wants to like it, but ends up being disappointed. This dish sounds so great, but seems to fall short...they should perhaps rework the dish! And, yes, well made fried green tomatoes are wonderful, so do try them elsewhere (or make them at home?).

Carola's meal looks and sounds delicious! :thumbsup2

Great review, I'm excited to read more...:goodvibes

The tuna dish really sounds wonderful and it is a shame that it does not really taste as good as it sounds. However, Kona is still a great restaurant and it definitely deserves a place on your must try list!!

[Flossbolna]

Ok, I really need to finish this, so I can start the 2009 dining review! :goodvibes

So here we go with our last full day at WDW :sad1: (smiley because of last day, not because of bad food experience!)

Carola unfortunately had developed a nasty cold an chose to stay in bed for the morning. :sick: I got up early for rope drop at Epcot, but skipped breakfast. Instead I got a midmorning snack at the Sunshine Seasons. I really did not want any breakfast food, so I got this strange selection:

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Counter%20Service/DSC02962.jpg

It is a tomato and mozarella salad, chips and a strawberry shortcake. It was all good, even though the salad was very cold! I understand that food must be chilled in order not to spoil, but I hate eating salads that are just a few degrees above freezing, they taste like nothing!


For Lunch I picked up a caesar salad (without chicken) at the Mara. I was asked whether I wanted it to be tossed. Yes, please! I love it when my salad is tossed and the dressing evenly distributed. It was good, just a basic caesar salad. It had quite a lot of dressing on it, but I like it that way!

[Flossbolna]

This was our last meal at WDW and we wanted to have a nice relaxing evening at our resort. We loved Jiko on our last trip to WDW, so we felt that this would be the right highlight for the end of our vacation. By the way, in my opinion, this is one of the things the Poly misses: a signature restaurant! Therefore we did not repeat this idea of ending our trip with a memorable dinner...

Jiko is a beautiful restaurant with lots of artwork. You can do a culinary tour at the AKL which explains the meaning of the décor at Jiko and you get to taste a few things at Jiko and Boma. You don't have to stay at AKL to take part and it is a really interesting experience. Here are a few pictures of Jiko:

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Jiko/DSC02844.jpg

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Jiko/DSC02841.jpg

I started the dinner with another apple martini , I had grown rather fond of this drink! I was served the drink together with the little shaker and there was even a rest in the shaker, which was poured by our server after I had about two thirds of my drink. So I really got some good value there!!

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Jiko/DSC02972.jpg

and from a different angle:

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Jiko/DSC02973.jpg

We decided to share a flatbread as appetizer since we really liked that at CG. We got the Chef's Speciality Flatbread which for this evening was pulled beef, harrisa spread, fresh spinach and soft goat cheese. It was very flavourful and we really enjoyed it.

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Jiko/DSC02971.jpg

The bread and butter they serve at Jiko both has lots of spices in it. There were two sorts of bread and one was even a bit sweet and tasted like German gingerbread to us. While it was interesting, it is not the bread and butter you can eat lots of. Which can be good in a way, too! ;)

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Jiko/DSC02979.jpg

For my entree I had the same as last year, the Maize-crusted Sturgeon - with Vegetables of the Moment and Tomato-Butter Sauce: It was as wonderful as I remembered it. The sauce is fantastic and the vegetables are still very crisp without feeling undercooked. I think it is a lovely combination of the very light fish. I am normally not a fish person, but this is really wonderful!

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Jiko/DSC02977.jpg

Carola was still not feeling very good and really did not want to eat any meat, therefore she went with the vegetarian option: Grains, Peas, and Vegetables - Kamut, Pearl and Black Barley, Wheat Berries, Quinoa and Garbanzo Peas with Roasted Vegetables and Seared Tandoori Tofu:

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Jiko/DSC02976.jpg

It was a very big portion and she could not at all finish it. I tried it and it was not as bad as it sounded to me. But then I would never have ordered it. I am no fan of grains! So I was actually surprised how good it was. Carola liked it, sorry that I cannot tell you more about it! But I have seen, that it is no longer on the menu, so you would not need that much information anyway. But for any vegetarians out there: Allears now has a specific vegetarian menu posted for Jiko!

We decided to skip dessert, but got an after dinner drink instead. We both got a drink called “Chocolate-Covered Cherry”. The menu described it as follows: Dark Crème de Cacao, Skyy Vodka, Amarula and Cherry Brandy in a Chocolate-rimmed Martini Glass with a Chocolate-covered Cherry. Well, it was presented a bit differently, but it was as delicious as it sounds!!!

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Jiko/DSC02982.jpg

This was a fantastic meal and I am really sad that we did not make it to Jiko on our 2009 trip!

[Flossbolna]

This really ends my dining review. We still had something to eat on our departure day, but it was another kids breakfast and another caesar's salad, both not documented by picture, so they really don't deserve a review. Neither do the many more meals we had to eat in Orlando due to our plane having a technical problem which made it turn around just before the runway and ended with us having to deplane, being transported to a hotel (by Mears, who used a Magical Express bus for that which made us feel even more miserable). We finally managed to leave MCO by plane 20 hours after our scheduled departure time. I can tell you: this was no fun!!!

A new dining review will be up shortly, I am still trying to find a catchy title (any suggestions would be welcome!) and I would love to post a photopass picture in the introduction and those are still on their way to me...

[TigerKat]

Thanks for sharing your reviews with us! Looking forward to the next set.:goodvibes

[eventamy]

I had the Tuna Oscar – served with fried green tomatoes, tempura-fried jumbo lump crab, and wasabi hollandaise.

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Kona/DSC02931.jpg

I had it without the crab since I am allergic against shellfish. Mentioning my allergy once again brought out a chef to speak to me. The first time this happened Carola was very cross with me as she felt like we were drawing everyone's attention to us. But she now is used to it and appreciates that most of WDW's chefs are actually pretty good looking guys. And they are always great to talk to, too!

I had great expectations in this dish, but was a bit let down. The fried green tomatoes was something I never had tried in my life, and was excited to taste. But I did not really like them, they felt very undercooked to me. After I came back, I read a number of reviews stating that they are not like they are supposed to be, so I will definitely try to eat them again, but not at Kona. The Tuna was good, but not great. I would have preferred to have more asparagus and sauce. I also would have preferred for the wasabis hollandaise to have more bite. The wasabi was really just a hint, not hot at all!

I had the tuna oscar last week (Wednesday) and really LOVED it! It was absolutely amazing. My DH agreed and wished he had ordered it instead of his strip steak. Maybe they've improved it since you were there!

[Flossbolna]

Thanks for sharing your reviews with us! Looking forward to the next set.:goodvibes

Good to know that people enjoy what I am writing! :goodvibes I will post a link here for the new review.


I had the tuna oscar last week (Wednesday) and really LOVED it! It was absolutely amazing. My DH agreed and wished he had ordered it instead of his strip steak. Maybe they've improved it since you were there!

That's great to hear that you had such a wonderful meal at Kona! Perhaps I will give it a second chance. I recently read that the Michelin guide tests every restaurant at least seven times before they decide to change the number of stars they give it. So I guess, I should give the dish at least a second chance, even though I can't see me trying it seven times if I don't like it by the third time!! :goodvibes

[TigerKat]

That's great to hear that you had such a wonderful meal at Kona! Perhaps I will give it a second chance. I recently read that the Michelin guide tests every restaurant at least seven times before they decide to change the number of stars they give it. So I guess, I should give the dish at least a second chance, even though I can't see me trying it seven times if I don't like it by the third time!! :goodvibes

DH & I had the Tuna Oscar two years ago and it was our worst meal of the trip. That was the second year in a row that KONA disappointed us. There's TOO many other restaurants for us to try before we'd go back there.

[Donald is #1]

Thanks for the reviews! They were great.

[BreTyPres87]

Great reviews! I only have a few of the ts meals for my ADR -ive run out of days before I even get there!:rotfl: but I love reading them all and you took some great pictures

[skellingtonfreak]

Thank you so much for the reviews. I truly enjoyed reading all of them, and I have gotten some great ideas about what to try at the restaurants you went to.

thanks!

[Uncle Remus]

Oh yes, this was a wonderful review, lots of good tips like splittin' appetizers and such.
The pictures are delicious, lookin' forward to part 2. :woohoo:

[TruBlu]

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/magdalenesch/WDW%20Food%202008/Counter%20Service/DSC02479.jpg
YUMMY! I was planning to order this when we go. I'm so glad to see it looks SO GOOD!!!!!

[Disneymom3304]

I just happened upon your story today and loved it! Thank you so much for all the time you put into the details of your reviews. I have been a handful of times now and never thought of splitting the apps. or meals, what a great idea! Can't wait to read the reviews from your latest trip. Thanks again!!!

[iluvpluto27]

Thanks for your reviews and pics. I really enjoyed reading them, and that chocolate covered cherry drink looks delicious!

[kid-at-heart]

:guilty: ... I don't like Zebra Domes :ssst: I guess this is the reason why I am not an official member of the Wilbunch Gang :guilty:

Enjoying your review. I just jumped in today.

Mara is by far one of my favorite places, but I do not like the Zebra Domes either. :rolleyes:

[Quacktatty]

I love reading reviews of restaurants that I enjoy! I am looking forward to your next set of reviews. I really wish Artists Point still had that Buffalo entrée - I would be there for sure!

[Flossbolna]

DH & I had the Tuna Oscar two years ago and it was our worst meal of the trip. That was the second year in a row that KONA disappointed us. There's TOO many other restaurants for us to try before we'd go back there.

We really enjoyed Kona this January, but I think it has a very limited menu. I think I have now eaten everything I like there and think I need to try something new.

Thanks for the reviews! They were great.

Good to hear that you enjoyed them! It's a lot of fun to relive the experience by writing these reviews!

Great reviews! I only have a few of the ts meals for my ADR -ive run out of days before I even get there!:rotfl: but I love reading them all and you took some great pictures

I know the problem! :goodvibes I had real trouble to get down our number of ADRs for our last trip!

Thank you so much for the reviews. I truly enjoyed reading all of them, and I have gotten some great ideas about what to try at the restaurants you went to.

thanks!

I really love reading reviews in order to get an impression as to which dishes I would enjox, too. So I am glad I could help you out! :goodvibes

Oh yes, this was a wonderful review, lots of good tips like splittin' appetizers and such.
The pictures are delicious, lookin' forward to part 2. :woohoo:

Thanks for the nice comment!

YUMMY! I was planning to order this when we go. I'm so glad to see it looks SO GOOD!!!!!

The salad was really glad. Unfortunately I was not able to get it again this January (never had lunch at DHS), another reason for a return trip to WDW!

I just happened upon your story today and loved it! Thank you so much for all the time you put into the details of your reviews. I have been a handful of times now and never thought of splitting the apps. or meals, what a great idea! Can't wait to read the reviews from your latest trip. Thanks again!!!

Sharing appetizers or entrees is a great way to try different things. No server ever dissapproved of it. But we generally tip a bit more if we share (and of course the service was good).

Thanks for your reviews and pics. I really enjoyed reading them, and that chocolate covered cherry drink looks delicious!

The drink was great! It was like a dessert without making you even more full! :rolleyes1

:guilty:

Enjoying your review. I just jumped in today.

Mara is by far one of my favorite places, but I do not like the Zebra Domes either. :rolleyes:

Mara seems to get mixed reviews here on the boards, but I really like it, too. I think it already looks so cool! Good to know, that I am not alone noot liking Zebra Domes! :thumbsup2

I love reading reviews of restaurants that I enjoy! I am looking forward to your next set of reviews. I really wish Artists Point still had that Buffalo entrée - I would be there for sure!

The steak was really great. Unfortunately the menu at AP really does not look very appealing to me now. I still would like to eat there again, the soup was really great and the venison spring rolls sound intriguing. Perhaps I could make a meal out of appetizers there... :goodvibes

[Flossbolna]

DH & I had the Tuna Oscar two years ago and it was our worst meal of the trip. That was the second year in a row that KONA disappointed us. There's TOO many other restaurants for us to try before we'd go back there.

We really enjoyed Kona this January, but I think it has a very limited menu. I think I have now eaten everything I like there and think I need to try something new.

Thanks for the reviews! They were great.

Good to hear that you enjoyed them! It's a lot of fun to relive the experience by writing these reviews!

Great reviews! I only have a few of the ts meals for my ADR -ive run out of days before I even get there!:rotfl: but I love reading them all and you took some great pictures

I know the problem! :goodvibes I had real trouble to get down our number of ADRs for our last trip!

Thank you so much for the reviews. I truly enjoyed reading all of them, and I have gotten some great ideas about what to try at the restaurants you went to.

thanks!

I really love reading reviews in order to get an impression as to which dishes I would enjox, too. So I am glad I could help you out! :goodvibes

Oh yes, this was a wonderful review, lots of good tips like splittin' appetizers and such.
The pictures are delicious, lookin' forward to part 2. :woohoo:

Thanks for the nice comment!

YUMMY! I was planning to order this when we go. I'm so glad to see it looks SO GOOD!!!!!

The salad was really glad. Unfortunately I was not able to get it again this January (never had lunch at DHS), another reason for a return trip to WDW!

I just happened upon your story today and loved it! Thank you so much for all the time you put into the details of your reviews. I have been a handful of times now and never thought of splitting the apps. or meals, what a great idea! Can't wait to read the reviews from your latest trip. Thanks again!!!

Sharing appetizers or entrees is a great way to try different things. No server ever dissapproved of it. But we generally tip a bit more if we share (and of course the service was good).

Thanks for your reviews and pics. I really enjoyed reading them, and that chocolate covered cherry drink looks delicious!

The drink was great! It was like a dessert without making you even more full! :rolleyes1

:guilty:

Enjoying your review. I just jumped in today.

Mara is by far one of my favorite places, but I do not like the Zebra Domes either. :rolleyes:

Mara seems to get mixed reviews here on the boards, but I really like it, too. I think it already looks so cool! Good to know, that I am not alone noot liking Zebra Domes! :thumbsup2

I love reading reviews of restaurants that I enjoy! I am looking forward to your next set of reviews. I really wish Artists Point still had that Buffalo entrée - I would be there for sure!

The steak was really great. Unfortunately the menu at AP really does not look very appealing to me now. I still would like to eat there again, the soup was really great and the venison spring rolls sound intriguing. Perhaps I could make a meal out of appetizers there... :goodvibes

[Flossbolna]

DH & I had the Tuna Oscar two years ago and it was our worst meal of the trip. That was the second year in a row that KONA disappointed us. There's TOO many other restaurants for us to try before we'd go back there.

We really enjoyed Kona this January, but I think it has a very limited menu. I think I have now eaten everything I like there and think I need to try something new.

Thanks for the reviews! They were great.

Good to hear that you enjoyed them! It's a lot of fun to relive the experience by writing these reviews!

Great reviews! I only have a few of the ts meals for my ADR -ive run out of days before I even get there!:rotfl: but I love reading them all and you took some great pictures

I know the problem! :goodvibes I had real trouble to get down our number of ADRs for our last trip!

Thank you so much for the reviews. I truly enjoyed reading all of them, and I have gotten some great ideas about what to try at the restaurants you went to.

thanks!

I really love reading reviews in order to get an impression as to which dishes I would enjox, too. So I am glad I could help you out! :goodvibes

Oh yes, this was a wonderful review, lots of good tips like splittin' appetizers and such.
The pictures are delicious, lookin' forward to part 2. :woohoo:

Thanks for the nice comment!

YUMMY! I was planning to order this when we go. I'm so glad to see it looks SO GOOD!!!!!

The salad was really glad. Unfortunately I was not able to get it again this January (never had lunch at DHS), another reason for a return trip to WDW!

I just happened upon your story today and loved it! Thank you so much for all the time you put into the details of your reviews. I have been a handful of times now and never thought of splitting the apps. or meals, what a great idea! Can't wait to read the reviews from your latest trip. Thanks again!!!

Sharing appetizers or entrees is a great way to try different things. No server ever dissapproved of it. But we generally tip a bit more if we share (and of course the service was good).

Thanks for your reviews and pics. I really enjoyed reading them, and that chocolate covered cherry drink looks delicious!

The drink was great! It was like a dessert without making you even more full! :rolleyes1

:guilty:

Enjoying your review. I just jumped in today.

Mara is by far one of my favorite places, but I do not like the Zebra Domes either. :rolleyes:

Mara seems to get mixed reviews here on the boards, but I really like it, too. I think it already looks so cool! Good to know, that I am not alone noot liking Zebra Domes! :thumbsup2

I love reading reviews of restaurants that I enjoy! I am looking forward to your next set of reviews. I really wish Artists Point still had that Buffalo entrée - I would be there for sure!

The steak was really great. Unfortunately the menu at AP really does not look very appealing to me now. I still would like to eat there again, the soup was really great and the venison spring rolls sound intriguing. Perhaps I could make a meal out of appetizers there... :goodvibes

[Flossbolna]

I will be away this weekend, but hope to start the new review at the binning of next week!