2 Adults, DDP, 12 TS/11 CS Restaurants, and Our First Dining Report! Final Rankings!

[sophie832]

DH and I are now back from our very first trip to WDW, Dec. 2-12. We used the DDP, and (thanks to the DIS) made our ADRs early, so we had some great dining lined up!

Just a little background on us: We've been married a little over 2 years (this was our anniversary trip and belated honeymoon). I'm 30 and DH is 29. We're DLR APs, so we go there all the time. As far as food goes, we'll try any type of cuisine, but of course we both have food items we like/dislike.

Here's a picture of us on the Studio Backlot Tour at DHS:



Here are the CS restaurants I'll be reviewing with dates/meal:
12/4 - Yorkshire County Fish Shop - Snack
12/4 - Contempo Cafe - Lunch
12/5 - Flametree BBQ - Lunch
12/6 - Yakitori House - Lunch
12/6 - Beaches & Cream - Snack
12/7 - Wolfgang Puck Express - Lunch
12/8 - Columbia Harbour House - Lunch
12/9 - Sunshine Seasons - Lunch
12/10 - Beach Club Marketplace - Breakfast
12/10 - Sassagoula Floatworks - Lunch
12/11 - Tangerine Cafe - Lunch

Here are the TS restaurants with dates/meal:
12/2 - Les Chefs de France - Dinner
12/3 - Sci-Fi Dine-In - Lunch
12/3 - Boma - Dinner
12/4 - Biergarten - Dinner
12/5 - Rose & Crown - Dinner
12/6 - Le Cellier - Dinner
12/7 - Raglan Road - Dinner
12/8 - Coral Reef - Dinner
12/9 - Teppan Edo - Dinner
12/10 -Tutto Italia - Dinner
12/11 - Akershus - Dinner
12/12 - Cape May - Breakfast

I'll also post snacks as I go, so here's what I have so far:
12/3 - Pretzel at DHS
12/4 - School bread from Norway
12/4 - Moosehead beer and Torontopolitan in Canada
12/5 - Red roobios iced tea at AK
12/7 - Chocolate croissant and Cheesecake brownie at Boardwalk Bakery
12/8 - Gingerbread man and Chocolate-covered Smores at Main Street Confectionary
12/9 - Tequila Flight and Avocado Margarita at La Cava de Tequila
12/11 - Pastries from Boulangerie Patisserie

The Final Rankings!

We tried to take as many pictures as possible, which led to a lot of moments where one of us was about to take our first bite of food, and the other person suddenly said, "Stop!"

This is our first dining report, so I'm going to try and do each day's CS, snacks, and TS in separate posts. As far as reviews, our overall impressions of each restaurant were either: We'll definitely eat here again, we might eat here again, and there's no way we're eating here again! We also tried to rate each TS restaurant on atmosphere, service, and food separately, on a scale of 1-5 (1 being the worst, 5 being the best).

Hope everyone enjoys reading about our meals as much as we enjoyed eating them!

 

[sjs314]

subbing........... we will be 2 adults on the DP in Oct so restaurant reviews are something I want to make sure and read up on

 

[TigerKat]

Count me in!

 

[loganpaulsmom]

Looking forward to reading some of your reviews.. I have my ADR's booked already but I am still 4 months out and I am looking to maybe adding a few more and some of the ones I was looking into are on your list..

 

[sophie832]

Our plane landed around 4:45pm, and after taking the ME to the YC and checking into our fabulous room, we headed out to Epcot for our 8:00pm ADR at Les Chefs de France. It was a cold night, but we were excited to be at WDW.

We checked in around 7:50pm. There was a short line at check-in, and most of the outdoor waiting area seating was taken. They had heat lamps set up, which was nice. The hostess handed us a buzzer, and told us to stay close by. We took a quick Photopass picture by the fountains, and then our buzzer went off! We only waited about 5-10 minutes to be seated.

We had a nice table for two by the window. Our waitress, Pauline, was very nice, although she seemed a little bit slower than the other waiters/waitresses nearby. Other tables had bread while we were still waiting on drinks. Still, it didn't seem like slow service in comparison to what we're used to at restaurants.

This was our first time using DDP, so Pauline explained our options, and we both decided to go with the 3-course Prix Fixe menu, since it offered us a chance to have an appetizer.

No pictures of our drinks, but we both had iced teas.

Here's a picture of the menu:


I think that's the only picture we took of a menu. We were that excited!

DH and I both ordered the same three dishes, so unfortunately not a lot of variety in this meal:

Course 1, Lobster Bisque with a baguette




This was probably our favorite course. The soup was so rich and delicious! You can see the chunks of lobster that they put on the top. I only ate about 1/2 of my bowl, though, because I wanted to have room for all three courses.

Course 2, Beef short ribs w/pasta


This was good, and we had no complaints, but it just wasn't as fantastic as the soup.

Course 3, Puff pastry with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce



Hard to decide if this was better than the soup. Our vote is still for the soup, but the chocolate sauce on this dessert was heavenly!

Total w/o DDP: $91.38 plus tip

Atmosphere? We had a nice table, and the decor was very French, but there wasn't anything terribly special about the atmosphere. We give it a 3.

Service? This would be a 3 as well. Not outstanding, but not bad.

Food? We give this a 4. One of the better meals of our vacation, and a nice way to start off the trip.

Overall rating? We would definitely eat here again!

 

[sophie832]

subbing........... we will be 2 adults on the DP in Oct so restaurant reviews are something I want to make sure and read up on

Count me in!

Looking forward to reading some of your reviews.. I have my ADR's booked already but I am still 4 months out and I am looking to maybe adding a few more and some of the ones I was looking into are on your list..

Thanks for following along Hope some of my reviews are helpful...or at the very least make you drool!

 

[chocolateMinnie]

subbing

 

[sophie832]

We had 2 OOP TS meals planned, one of which was lunch at Sci-Fi. We wanted to go because of the experience, although we were hoping for good food, too, of course.

We had an ADR at 11:50am. We arrived 10 minutes early, were handed a buzzer, and got seated about 5 minutes later. Waiting was no big deal, since there were only 2 other parties waiting, so we could just sit in the lobby. While we were there, at least 2 groups came by to ask if they had walk-in seating, which they didn't.

We were seated in the middle seat of one of the cars towards the back. The front seat was occupied by a man and his approximately 3-year-old son, while the back seat was occupied by a man and his tween daughter. Our waiter, Christian, seemed to take a bit of a long time getting to us, but it was maybe 10 minutes at most. He took our drink orders, plus the meal order for the people in front of us. I ordered a cherry Coke, and DH ordered their light pomegranate lemonade.

Once the drinks came, we ordered. The waitress for other cars nearby was so much more animated and friendly than our waiter. He wasn't rude or anything, but he just didn't have much personality. Plus, he would be gone for long periods of time while she was always coming around.

I ordered the Italian Grilled Chicken Sandwich, with the cucumber salad. Since I'm not a huge fan of melted cheese, but I love provolone, I asked for the cheese on the side. This is what it looked like when it came out:



It was missing the bruschetta! I guess the cooks thought I didn't want any because I asked for the cheese on the side?

I let our waiter know, but of course it took him a while to get the side of bruschetta out to me, and I'd already eaten half the sandwich by then. The sandwich was decent with the bruschetta, although the chicken was a little dry. The cucumber salad was typical...if you like pickled cucumbers, you'll like it.

DH ordered the Angus Chuck Burger with cheddar cheese and french fries.



He said it was fine...no complaints. They didn't ask how he wanted the burger cooked, but it was probably medium well or well done. Hard to tell in the dark.

Since we were paying OOP, we didn't order dessert.

Total OOP cost (before tip)? $37.13

Atmosphere? We give it a 4. It would've been a 5, but the little boy in the seat in front of us was a bit...ummm...hyperactive. His father didn't seem to care about anything except eating, so the boy was constantly climbing all over the seat, and often turned to stare at us or put his hand over the back of the seat towards our food. Not fun.

Service? This gets a 2. Not great.

Food? This is a 2 for me, and a 3 for the DH. I think if I'd had the bruschetta on the sandwich, it might've been a 3.

Overall rating? We might eat here again...but for the atmosphere only.

 

[sophie832]

I figure I might as well post any food pics I have. Our very first snack credit went towards a pretzel at the Anaheim Produce stand at DHS. It's right next to Fairfax Fare.

Here's the pretzel:



And here's a picture of my first bite:



I know...great picture, huh? I told DH I wanted an action shot!

 

[sophie832]

Our ADR was for 8:15pm, and after realizing that it's a long bus ride from DHS to AKL, we spent a little time in the hotel lobby before checking in around 8:05pm. We got a buzzer, but were seated 5 minutes later. At this point, we'd had buzzers at all 3 restaurants, and all 3 times we were seated quickly enough that we wondered why they even bothered with the buzzers.

Our waitress' name was Amy, and she was great. I ordered an iced tea with extra lemons, and DH ordered a root beer.

First trip to the buffet included a couple of soups: butternut squash, and lentil.


Loved...loved...LOVED the butternut squash soup! It was almost like pumpkin pie in a soup, but not as sweet. We're big lovers of lentil soup, but this time it was bland and not our cup of tea.

I also brought back this plate on my first trip:

Two kinds of flatbread and three kinds of hummus! I believe one was olive and one was sun-dried tomato, but I don't remember what the third one was. I enjoyed them all, but DH wasn't a fan of any of them (and he usually likes regular hummus).

Here's another one of my plates:

There's some prime rib, and I think it's covering a piece of pork shoulder. I got a couple of sauces to go with the meat. One was spicy tomato, and I think one was tamarind. The spicy sauce definitely had a kick to it! This plate also has the quiche (Bobotie?), a cold seafood salad, and two of the African cornbread rolls. There might be FuFu here, too. Soooooo tasty!

One of DH's plates:

More quiche, some rice, blurry FuFu, and I'm not sure what kind of pasta salad thing.

DH's "kiddie buffet" plate...I think it's pretty obvious what's on it:

Nothing particularly special about any of this, taste-wise.

DH's meat plate, with prime rib and pork shoulder. He thinks the prime rib kind of makes a Donald-esque face here...bill facing front.

We both thought the prime rib was excellent, and the pork was so-so.

Both of the next two plates have corn pudding on them, which was another one of our favorite dishes. There is also some Lentil Kofta, a sort-of cornmeal "mush", couscous salad, and some kind of stewed tomatoes.



Finally, the moment we've all been waiting for...the desserts:

We only took a picture of my plate because I almost took one of everything! There's zebra domes (of course), banana bread pudding with a vanilla sauce, passion fruit dome, a peanut butter dessert, brownie, sugar cookie, and 1 dessert that I have forgotten. Zebra domes were good...but...the passion fruit dome was the BEST!

Total w/o DDP? $70.27

Atmosphere? We give this a 3. All of AKL has great decor, but, in the end this is a buffet with open seating.

Service? A solid 4. Amy didn't go above-and-beyond, but she always kept our drinks refilled and was very nice.

Food? DH gives it a 3, and I give it a 4. We both had dishes we loved, particularly the butternut squash soup, FuFu, banana bread pudding, and passion fruit dome.

Overall rating? DH and I are at odds here...he says he might eat here again, and I say definitely!

 

[sophie832]

We stayed at Epcot all the way to the end of some very cold EMH on 12/3. Honestly, probably the best night of our trip since the park was pretty much empty. We hung out in Norway towards the end, and DH decided to buy some School Bread at the Kringla Bakery.

We put it in the fridge, and this was his breakfast on 12/4:


I hate coconut, so I didn't have any, but DH said it was delicious! Good use of a snack credit.

 

[sophie832]

DH and I slept in until almost noon on 12/4, and we had a 2pm parasailing reservation, so we were ready to rush through Epcot from the International Gateway to the Monorail. DH had already eaten his School Bread, but I was starving. So, we made a quick stop at the Yorkshire County Fish Shop along the way.



Photo of the menu:

Fish and chips...or...fish and chips?

We chose...fish and chips!


There were actually 2 dessert choices, but I can't remember what the other one was. We actually wanted the shortbread, which was a good thing, since they ran out of whatever the other one was...and this was at 1pm!

Sweet tea was refreshing, and the shortbread was good when we ate it as a snack a few days later. The chips (fries) were actually better than the fish. I'm not a huge fan of fried food, and even DH thought the fried batter was excessively thick.

Tables were all taken, so we sat on the curb and ate in a hurry.

Overall rating? We won't be going back (unless DH has a random craving for fries/chips).

 

[sophie832]

After parasailing, we were hungry again, so we stopped at Contempo Cafe to share our second CS meal of the day. This was our first time dining here, so I wasn't quite sure how the process worked. I ordered at the kiosk without much trouble. My receipt printed, and I didn't notice it said to proceed to the cashier. I figured, as with most cafeteria-style food, you would pick up the food first, then pay.

I picked a cran-apple juice out of the case:


Then saw our sandwich was ready...Turkey BLT w/green bean salad:


No one else was around, so I picked up the sandwich order, and a few seconds later asked a CM if the Worms N Dirt cake was one of the desserts we could have (it was), and I took that, too:


Got to the cashier with my tray full of food, and told her I wanted to use a CS credit. She said "You didn't pay?" I told her no, and then she asked me how I got my food. I told her I just took it, and she was still focused on how I got the food without paying first. So then she had to go ask her manager what to do, and the manager said, "Well, just process it." I mean, big "Duh" there. I had my receipt, and I obviously had the same order as the receipt, so just charge me for it.

Yes, I felt kind of stupid because I didn't pay first, but no one said anything until the cashier, and she was kind of rude about it. The manager was cool, though.

The sandwich was pretty good, although a little heavy on the sauce for my taste. We both enjoyed the dirt cake.

Overall rating? We'd go back, but I'll know better next time.

 

[sophie832]

While hanging out in Epcot, we stopped at the drink cart in Canada to get some adult beverages.

DH had a Moosehead beer:

He said the beer was good, but not fantastic.

After the beer, I got him to put on the hat:


I had the Torontopolitan:

Surprisingly strong, and tasty! Would definitely get this again

Action shot!


These were not part of the DDP, so we paid $14.75 OOP.

 

[Pooh&OurHunny]

Joining in, I did the same thing at Contempo Cafe...I didn't know you had to pay first then pick up the food. I brought my food and use my room key...live and learn.

 

[WizardLarz]

Count me in! I need new ideas for my next trip!

 

[sophie832]

Joining in, I did the same thing at Contempo Cafe...I didn't know you had to pay first then pick up the food. I brought my food and use my room key...live and learn.

Glad to know it wasn't just me!

 

[coconutprincess]

You are having some great meals!!!! Your desserts have looked fabulous! Esp the one at Chef's and worms and dirt!

I agree, Sci - Fi is okay, its really atmosphere only.

 

[pocahontasgal87]

yum cant wait to see more

 

[gardengirl628]

Count me in!!! Woot woot!