Mmmm....Cake, 9 nights of Deluxe Dining w/Pictures *Big Update 8/29 GF Wishes DP, CRT

[gilsan]

We spent the afternoon at Animal Kingdom and saw some shows we missed last time, The Lion King and Flights of Wonder, and discovered our DD had easily made the 40inch mark and would be able to ride more things than last time.

Since we were staying at GF we decided to valet park the rental. It was convenient when we were dining at other hotels especially when we were tight for time. No hunting for a parking spot and than rushing through the parking lot to the restaurant. We returned to the hotel and found that our room was ready. I had requested an upper floor near the pool and both requests were fulfilled. I thought I would throw in some pictures of our room and view. The view was nice when wishes was on.

We changed and headed to the Boardwalk for dinner at the Flying Fish. We had eaten at the Flying Fish last time. I liked it a lot my DH was more on the fence about eating there.

We checked in for our 6:05 ADR on time and were seated within 5 minutes. We were celebrating our anniversary on the trip and were presented with personalized menus and offered complimentary champagne.

For our appetizers I had the Tuna Tartare and Crispy Tempura and Vegetable Sushi roll. It was good. Sorry the picture is a little blurry.

My DH the Crispy Sesame and Togarashi scented Calamari. The last time we were here I had the Calamari and loved it, but I wanted to try something different. I think I would pick the Calamari as my favourite I love the flavour of the Asian dipping sauce.

DD had the fruit skewers with honey yogurt I don’t have a picture of them. She ate the strawberries and left the melon.

For our mains I had the Flying Fish Signature dish Potato Wrapped Red Snapper with Leek Fondue. I was not thrilled with this dish the red snapper was bland and the sauce was good but very rick and there were too many leeks. I had debated between this and the special of the day Tilapia and wished I had chosen it instead.

DH had the Smokey Citrus and Fragrant Pepper-spiced Yellowfin Tuna. It was delicious, he definitely had the better entree.

DD had the Mickey Pasta with Olive oil. She ate much of this on our last trip and enjoyed it again.

Both DH and I had a glass of the recommended entree wine with our meal.

For Dessert I had the Banana Napoleon it was very good.

DH had a trio of peach desserts that included a cobbler, a creme brulee, and a cake. Neither of us a creme brulee fans but it was very good and enjoyed the other desserts with the cake as the least favourite.

DD had a Mickey Puzzle that she enjoyed playing with I don’t think she ate much of it but it kept her busy.

Overall we enjoyed our meal at the Flying Fish, it wasn't as good as last year and would not be top pick, but if I could fit it into a schedule I would go back, (but I wouldn't get the signature dish again).

The cost not including wine or tip was $167.39.

After diner we walked on the boardwalk and stopped at the Boardwalk Bakery were I picked up a little Mickey head cake and DD picked a muffin. I used a snack credit for both. The Mickey head sat it the fridge for a couple days before we ate it and it was moist and very good I would definitely recommend. I don’t know if DD ever ate the muffin.

 

[gilsan]

Here is a the menu from Flying Fish

 

[goldielocksraj]

Thanks for the reviews so far! And I love your pictures, especially the ones of the hotel. Your view is to. die. for. !!!!

I love it whenever someone who had DxDDP writes reviews, hubby and I will be getting that for our December trip and I feel that the more reviews and opinions I read, the more we'll be able to utalize and enjoy our food! (Not to mention, reading other TR and FR is a good break from reality .

 

[gilsan]

Kona Cafe

I made an early 7:30am reservation for Kona Cafe. My plan was to walk over from the Grand Floridian, have breakfast at Koan then walk over to the TTC and catch the monorail over to Epcot hopefully for rope drop. The walk over was easy the path wasn’t to busy and it only took about 5-10 minutes to make over there. We checked in a couple minutes late and had to wait a few minutes to be seated. Our server while friendly was not fantastic. He took a long time to make it over to our table and made the comment that he had been given two tables to look after. It didn’t fill me with confidence.

I ordered a pineapple juice and DH and I would “split” a Kona coffee French press pot. I don’t drink coffee so it was all DH. DH also ordered a glass of pineapple juice but was brought orange juice. It he decided it wasn’t worth the hassle of getting the waiter to correct the drink. DD also had pineapple juice.

For food I had to order Tonga Toast which I did enjoy with the strawberry sauce.

I talked DH into the Big Kahuna he thought it was all right but wished he had ordered something else more interesting. He original was going to order Tonga Toast, but I talked him into the Big Kahuna so I felt bad he didn’t love his meal.

DD had the Mickey Pancakes. She is not a morning person and did not eat much of her breakfast.

I did enjoy my breakfast, but I don’t know if I would go out of my way just to have breakfast at Kona. The food was good but the service was lacking. It took a long time to get our bill and then pay it so we were a little late for rope drop.

Cost not including tip $44.25.

 

[vettegirl]

Your pictures are so amazing.

 

[Gouden Leeuw]

Your DD is the cutest!

Those are some insane pics!

Cant wait to read more.

Cheers

 

[Linda67]

Great Kona update, I am going to have to try the Tonga Toast at some point

 

[disneyfav4ever]

Your reviews and pictures are fantastic. I am so hungry for the calamari at Flying Fish right now.

 

[goldielocksraj]

The food was good but the service was lacking. It took a long time to get our bill and then pay it so we were a little late for rope drop.

I completely agree-my sis and I went to Kona for a late breakfast one Sunday morning in February. Even though the restaurant was only about half full, service was extremely slow-but we saw one table where it was even slower than ours!!! So sorry that you missed rope drop-I hope that didn't spoil your morning?

 

[jakenjess]

I'm in! Looks like a great line-up, and your pictures are beautiful!

 

[rodeo65]

Great pictures!! We also start any trip (including one to the grocery store) at Tim's. That is DH's biggest complaint about our trip to Disney last year. Once we got 1/2 way throught Ohio no more Tim's. He couldn't stand any coffee in WDW. Maybe I should plan for Kona just for the press pot next time.

 

[gilsan]

Gouden Leeuw, jakenjess, vettegirl, disneyfav4ever
Thanks everone! I am glad you are enjoying the reviews and pictures. Doing the food report makes the trip last just that much longer.

goldielocksraj Luckily missing rope drop didn't affect us at all. It seemed that other people had better waiters around us, just the luck of the draw. I did notice that a lot of people were being trained everywhere, at the restaurants and in the parks.


rodeo65As I say I am not a coffee drinker but my husband is an aficionado and likes his coffee just so. He did think that the coffee at GF was not bad. How long of a drive was it it from where you live? We were surprised at the number of cars at WDW with Ontario plates.

 

[gilsan]

For lunch we had reservation at Teppan Edo for 12:40pm. DD who hardly ate any breakfast started complaining that she was hungry just after 11am so we got her a Mickey ice cream bar to tide her over until lunch. Epcot was very busy with the dance competitions that were happening on that weekend.
We had some time to kill until our Soarin FastPasses would be open, so we got in the line for Nemo the sign said 30 minutes, but by the time we finally got on the ride it was at least 45 minutes later.

By the time we got off the ride our Soarin’ window had been open a while and I wanted to ride it before lunch, because we did ride Soarin’ it made us late for our reservation at Teppan Edo.

I had hoped to walk leisurely over to Japan, but since we were late we rushed over in the midday heat ensuring I would be a sweaty mess by the time we got there. We were about 10 minutes late for our ADR by the time we got there and then had to wait another 10 minutes before we were seated at the back of the restaurant in a room with 2 grills.

For some reason I took no pictures at this meal. It was a meal that would have been easy to take a picture at, but no I forgot. The service was good, but our server was quite and the room was noisy so I had some trouble hearing her. Our chef was good, but you could tell that he did the same show 30 times a day. We had tempura to start. It came with apiece of chicken, shrimp, zucchini, and onion. The tempura was nice and light. DD ate our chicken and loved it. I like sweet potato tempura so I was disappointed there was none.

For our entrees I had chicken and shrimp, DH had steak and chicken and DD has the chicken. All meals came with rice, noodles, vegetables, and dipping sauces. The entrees were good and was flavourful. Overall it was a good meal, but something you could have at any Hibachi restaurant. DH was keen on trying this restaurant so I am glad he got a chance to do it, but I don’t think I would go back. I would be interested in trying Tokyo Dining. Epcot has so many interesting restaurants It have to be really wow to go back instead of trying something new.

Here are a few pictures from Epcot

Up next California Grill

 

[gilsan]

We had eaten at the California Grill last September and enjoyed our meal, but it was not my favourite this time it was my number one. I originally had California booked later in the week but because we added the dessert party I moved it to different night and was happy to get a reservation just before 6PM. Last year I had hoped to get a window seat overlooking MK. I was disappointed when we walked pass all the window seats and were seated in a quiet room in the back. As it turned out the wine room was a wonderful place to sit. Very quite and peaceful compared to the rest of restaurant, and it has a beautiful view of Bay Lake. This time when we arrived to check in we requested to sit in the wine room and happily our request was granted.

Here are a couple pictures of the view.

I had a bottle of Evain and DH had San Pellegrino, and DD had apple juice to drink.

For starters I had so sushi. It was a crab roll with thinly sliced beef on the outside. I believe it was called Oscar roll. It was delicious I would highly recommend it.

DH had Crispy Asian Rock Shrimp Salad, it was also very good and he enjoyed it thoroughly.

DD didn’t like any of her picks for an appetizer and our waiter asked if she would like some fruit. I expected a plate with some strawberries and pineapple, but he brought out this which she devoured. It was also very cute.

For our entrees I had the Salmon with Spring Pea Risotto, I seemed to eat a lot of salmon and fish on this trip. This dish was divine, the salmon was cooked perfectly and risotto complimented the salmon.

DH had a pork dish. I believe it came with goat cheese polenta and beets in a wine reduction. It also was very tasty and he enjoyed it very much.

DD had the whole wheat cheese pizza that she enjoyed. It was fire grilled.

Both DH and I had a glass of wine that complemented the entrees nicely.

For dessert I had Bananas and Caramel. You will also notice that many of my deserts are some form of bananas and caramel a perfect combination in my opinion.

DH had Florida “Strawberry Shortcake, also very good. I was impressed with the liitle white chocolate cup that ice cream in it.

DD had the dessert sushi which she loved. It is very cute. It came with a marshmallow wasabi, I don’t think we had a chance to photograph it, rice crispy and gummy rolls, gummy fish, ginger which I believe was a taffy, and chocolate sauce to dip.

It was a fantastic meal. I absolutely recommend California Grill.

Up next Chef Mickeys

 

[branv]

Lovely photos! Can't wait to read the rest of your report.

 

[Cinderella&Dopey]

Hey! We were excited to see someone from Nova Scotia! Looks like you had a great trip! Look forward to read more!

 

[franandaj]

I'm totally in! Great Pictures and so far two of my favorite Signature Restaurants. I know what you mean that the Review sort of makes you feel like you are still on the trip!

 

[SweetMommy]

We had eaten at the California Grill last September and enjoyed our meal, but it was not my favourite this time it was my number one. I originally had California booked later in the week but because we added the dessert party I moved it to different night and was happy to get a reservation just before 6PM. Last year I had hoped to get a window seat overlooking MK. I was disappointed when we walked pass all the window seats and were seated in a quiet room in the back. As it turned out the wine room was a wonderful place to sit. Very quite and peaceful compared to the rest of restaurant, and it has a beautiful view of Bay Lake. This time when we arrived to check in we requested to sit in the wine room and happily our request was granted.

Here are a couple pictures of the view.

I had a bottle of Evain and DH had San Pellegrino, and DD had apple juice to drink.

For starters I had so sushi. It was a crab roll with thinly sliced beef on the outside. I believe it was called Oscar roll. It was delicious I would highly recommend it.

DH had Crispy Asian Rock Shrimp Salad, it was also very good and he enjoyed it thoroughly.

DD didn’t like any of her picks for an appetizer and our waiter asked if she would like some fruit. I expected a plate with some strawberries and pineapple, but he brought out this which she devoured. It was also very cute.

For our entrees I had the Salmon with Spring Pea Risotto, I seemed to eat a lot of salmon and fish on this trip. This dish was divine, the salmon was cooked perfectly and risotto complimented the salmon.

DH had a pork dish. I believe it came with goat cheese polenta and beets in a wine reduction. It also was very tasty and he enjoyed it very much.

DD had the whole wheat cheese pizza that she enjoyed. It was fire grilled.

Both DH and I had a glass of wine that complemented the entrees nicely.

For dessert I had Bananas and Caramel. You will also notice that many of my deserts are some form of bananas and caramel a perfect combination in my opinion.

DH had Florida “Strawberry Shortcake, also very good. I was impressed with the liitle white chocolate cup that ice cream in it.

DD had the dessert sushi which she loved. It is very cute. It came with a marshmallow wasabi, I don’t think we had a chance to photograph it, rice crispy and gummy rolls, gummy fish, ginger which I believe was a taffy, and chocolate sauce to dip.

It was a fantastic meal. I absolutely recommend California Grill.

Up next Chef Mickeys

Absolutely loving your reviews and this one of California Grill is making me really excited for our ADR in August. I especially love the pics of the kid's pizza and dessert. I had to make all my ADRs around what I hoped my son would eat at certain places. I knew the pizza and sushi dessert would be what he'd try and I just showed him the pics and he is excited as well!

 

[MrsB1228]

I'm loving your reviews and your pictures are just phenomenal! I also appreciate that you're including photos of more than just the food. I loves me some food porn, but I also really enjoy looking at beautiful photos taken around the "world". Looking forward to more!

 

[Linda67]

Wonderful review and photos of CG

Your salmon dish looks really good and that is something I would have ordered myself

Glad you had such an enjoyable meal