PDA

View Full Version : Dining Reviews 11/15-22: Part 1 CBR Food Court, 'Ohana, F&W


barbeml
11-25-2003, 01:06 PM
Just back from 9 days in the World. “We” are me, my Hubby Dave, my Brother John, Sister-in-law Barb, her Mom Shirley, and my Nephew Harry (3.5). Here are some detailed reviews:

11/15:

CBR Food Court/Banana Cabana. Dave and I arrived a day later than the others, and had lunch in CBR Food Court while waiting for our room to be ready. We had salads with grilled chicken—very crisp, fresh and tasty. The chicken was moist and generous in portion. It was nice to be able to choose the dressing (Ken’s packets) we preferred. Salads were around $7.00 each. I did not want to eat too much because I wanted to be starving for ‘Ohana, but we did have a Banana Cabana at the Pool Bar of the same name. Quite good, but a little sweet. I much preferred the Goombay Smash I had a couple of days later. Nice and strong! Drinks at Banana Cabana were about $6 and change.

‘Ohana. Our group was joined by Harry’s best friend Julia and her parents Grant and Christine, who just happened to be at WDW for part of our trip. Our PS was for 5:00 PM, just when they open. I checked us in and we all sampled the Tambu Lounge’s famous cocktails while waiting to be seated. Back Scratchers, Malibu McCaws and Pina Coladas were enjoyed by all. The kids had exotic Shirley Temples.

We were taken to our nice big table after a tour of the cooking fire and desserts (DH and I have enjoyed ‘Ohana before, the newbies were amazed). Bread and the two lazy susans filled with starters appeared quickly and we emptied them pretty quickly! The wings, seafood wontons, salad, and rice were delicious. Everyone loved the peanut sauce. The veggie was string beans with bacon bits—very good. Then came the parade of skewers. All the meats were moist, tender and delicious and the shrimp got great reviews (sorry, I don’t eat shrimp). Christine said she ate more than 30 shrimp!

The food just kept on coming and everyone had more drinks. Amazingly, my second Back Scratcher was stronger than the first! Gotta love those Poly bartenders!!

We had two wonderfully attentive servers, and everyone appreciated the warm moist towels for cleaning sticky hands. The pineapple with caramel sauce was all the dessert most of us needed, but Barb and Christine just had to try the coconut snowball, and they shared with everyone. Quite good.

The kids enjoyed the coconut race and gummy worms. This is one place where the adults could really relax and enjoy the food and drinks while the kids had enough entertainment to keep them happy. Overall, an A+ experience for taste, value, theme and service.

11/16: Kona Café. Altho we did not have a PS, Hubby Dave suggested we drive over to the Poly to get our bags of Kona beans (so we could make coffee in our room and take some home), and have breakfast at the Kona Café. Just the two of us. We put in our names and by the time we had purchased $130 worth of coffee beans, our table was ready. We had a press pot (best coffee in the World and the world, IMHO), and Dave had Kona Delight and a muffin while I had eggs (scrambled dry as ordered, and done perfectly) with bacon and potatoes. Service was a bit slow (our server was very nice, but seemed new), the food and beverages were delicious. As usual, I give Kona Café an all around A.

Epcot Food & Wine Festival: All six of us enjoyed this tremendously. Dave and I have been there for F&W before, but have never taken full advantage of it until this year. We started on the Canadian side. Among the six of us, we sampled chili lime chicken, shrimp broth, lamb, beef stroganoff, potato pancake, merlot, ice wine, crème brulee, goat cheese & tomato tart, jaeger schnitzel, smoked ribs, apple strudel, watermelon water, chicken sha cha, beer, chicken quesadilla. Standouts were the goat cheese tart, crème brulee, lamb and quesadilla. Among beverages, the watermelon water was the favorite.

I really hope they continue to expand the F&W Festival. I was stuffed for the rest of the day, but Dave and the rest of the gang had salads and sandwiches from CBR Food Court for supper.

Much more to come...

inky dinky doo
11-25-2003, 05:56 PM
I really enjoyed your reviews, barbeml, especially the one for 'Ohana. We're headed there for the first time in about two weeks. It sounds like we're in for a treat!

Pat

11 days and counting . . . again!

danny1649
11-25-2003, 07:44 PM
Reviews that I enjoyed reading I could almost smell the coffee thanks for sharing.:wave2:

barbeml
11-26-2003, 11:30 AM
inky dinky doo--I can't say enough about 'O'hana. After hyping it to the group, I was thrilled by how much everyone enjoyed it. It's not every day that you can make 7 adults and two children happy all at once!

danny--thanks for the nice comments!

Krissalee
11-26-2003, 05:03 PM
Fantatsic reports - thanks for sharing them!

We tried O'hana for the first time last month, and have to agree that it was fantastic. I had the Lapu Lapu to drink, and, believe it or not, our waiter tried to talk me out of ordering it! He said it was too strong, but I thought it was just right! :teeth:

I also love snacking at the food and wine fest - can't wait to return at that time of year!

swankybeth
11-26-2003, 07:46 PM
Great reviews-you're making me hungry!!! :)

slp87
11-27-2003, 05:48 AM
We tried Ohana on our last trip and added it to our "must eat" list!!