23 Nights, 40 ADRS, too many food pics to count!! COMPLETED 01/22!

[iluvpluto27]

Citricos has always been one of our favourite WDW restaurants so we were looking forward to our dinner here. We arrived a little early so had a drink in Mizners lounge. I had a Kir Royale which had a nice balance of cassis and sparkling wine, and DH got some type of drambuie and scotch cocktail which I can’t remember the name of.

We checked in at Citricos and were seated in a couple of minutes at a two top near the open kitchen. The restaurant was busy and our waitress took a while to greet us, but provided good service throughout the meal.

We were served a complimentary Amuse Bouche which actually arrived at the same time as appetiser, some type of cheese and tomato onion salsa which was very tasty.

For my appetiser I had the Arancini which were delicious, deep fried balls of mushrrom risottto. They had a strong mushroom flavour, the rice was soft but not overcooked and paired well with the tangy tomato based sauce.

DH chose the Blue Crab Pave, this was pile of fresh crab meat paired with capers, lemon and olive tapenade. It was very fresh tasting, plenty of crab and the capers worked well with the dish providing a salty contrast to the crab.

For my main I chose Berkshire Pork two ways, which was so good. The Belly was incredibly tender and could be easily pulled apart and the fillet was cooked perfectly medium so it was juicy and not at all dry. The potato gratin was good, soft potatoes and a nice amount of cheese. The orange blossom mustard sauce was lovely, sweet with just a hint of heat from the mustard and it paired well with the pork, my only criticism is there could have been slightly more sauce on the plate. This was a very good entree, one of the best of the trip.

DH chose Pan Seared red snapper served with paella, scallops and rock shrimp. This is supposed to come with chorizo but he asked to have it omitted. The snapper, shrimp and scallops were all cooked well and had a lot of flavour. The Paella was also nicely cooked but seemed to lack seasoning so didn’t have a lot of flavour, I think it probably missed strong flavour of chorizo and would have been a better dish if you left the chorizo in.

For dessert I had Warm Chocolate Banana tart. This was delicious, buttery pastry, an almost fondant like filling with bananas in the middle and caramelized bananas on top. It was served with vanilla ice cream which balanced the rich chocolate taste and a cute chocolate crown.

DH tres leches, this was nice milk cake but not as moist as tres leches you’d get in Mexico. It paired well with the strawberry coulis and balsamic cream, making it a light and not overly sweet dessert. I liked the chocolate lattice decoration on top too.

To finish the meal DH had a port and I had Chocolate Mint coffee with Godiva Liqueur and Rumple Minze. The coffee was good but it had a very strong mint flavour.

Citricos remains one of our favourite restaurants and is still on our must do list. All the dishes were were very good, apart from DH’s paella which was still tasty, just not outstanding. We’ll definitely be back!

 

[kmedina]

You just inspired my 12-01-11 dessert. We will dine there that night, and I will have the chocolate banana dessert.

 

[Linda67]

I've finally caught up

Thanks for the Citricos review; it's the only signature we haven't tried yet but I think we are going to give it a go in May

 

[Mum from oz]

Just wanted to pop in and say hi! I have read your whole report from start to now in one sitting and I am really enjoying it, especially the desserts!

 

[iluvpluto27]

You just inspired my 12-01-11 dessert. We will dine there that night, and I will have the chocolate banana dessert.

Hope you enjoy your meal there, the chocolate tart is lovely!

I've finally caught up

Thanks for the Citricos review; it's the only signature we haven't tried yet but I think we are going to give it a go in May

Definitely give it a try, I think you'd enjoy it.

Just wanted to pop in and say hi! I have read your whole report from start to now in one sitting and I am really enjoying it, especially the desserts!

Thank you very much, glad you're enjoying my reviews.

Sorry I've been so slack with the updates but I've been sorting out our holiday next year. DH has agreed we can take my parents, sister and brother-in-law with us to WDW next year for their first ever trip. They could never have afforded a trip to the US so I'm so pleased I'm going to be able to share my favourite place on earth with my family.

Booking a trip for 6 has been a lot more difficult than when it's just the two of us, trying to coordinate time of work, price flights and accommodation. I've finally booked 12 nights at SSR and 4 night at Royal Pacific so they will get to experience both Disney and Universal. Anyway it's all sorted now so I should be much quicker at updating this report.

 

[iluvpluto27]

We had another breakfast at Beach Club Market Place. I had a coconut bar, this was very good but too rich for breakfast, it was very moist packed with coconut flakes, chocolate chips and biscuit base. It was much heavier than it looked and I wasn’t able to finish it.

Dh got another coffee cinnamon cake.

We arrived five minutes late for our 12pm reservation at Toyko Dining due to a delay on Soarin. They had no problem with that, and were sat immediately.

The restaurant was may be a third full, and it stayed that way throughout meal. Service
was good, very friendly as always here. Our server was always apologising for the wait, even when there hasn’t really been any.

To start I had the pork ribs, marinated in soy, sake and ginger dressing. These were delicious, the meat literally fell of the bone, and the sauce had a good flavour to it.

DH had the tuna, salmon sensation. This was also really good, cubes of raw tuna and salmon, mixed with avocado, in a soy based dressing. Very refreshing in taste, the fish was very fresh and worked well with the avocado and soy dressing.

For my entree I had Ebisu, which was scallop and chicken tempura. This was a huge entree consisting of a bowl of nicely cooked and seasoned rice, a little rice noodle salad, marinated cucumber salad (very refreshing), miso soup, the tempura and dipping sauce. The Tempura was well cooked with a very thin batter. The chicken and vegetables were the best as the scallops seemed to have released liquid when cooking which made the batter slightly soggy. I enjoyed the rice and the salads, and the miso soup had a good flavour. Overall a very nice and unique entree.

DH had the sushi deluxe matsu combination. This included california roll, omelet, salmon, tuna, prawn, eel and a few others. This was all very fresh, the rice just sticky enough in texture and the fish was well prepared.

We were pretty full after our large entrees so we shared the green tea pudding for dessert. This is flan like in texture, with a mild green tea flavour and sweet caramel sauce. It’s actually very good, even if it doesn’t look the most appealing dessert.

In summary we enjoyed a nice quiet lunch here and would definitely return.

Before leaving Epcot we stopped by caramel shop to use up some snack credits. I chose a strawberry, ripe strawberry dipped in thick milk chocolate and a swirl of caramel.

DH chose a salted milk chocolate caramel. This was amazing, sweet caramel and chocolate contrasting with the salt sprinkled on top. It was very rich so he could only eat a little at a time.

We were going to EMH that night so while were were refilling our mugs I grabbed a cupcake in case we were hungry after getting back around 1am. As it happens we weren’t so this never really got eaten. I had a couple of bites and it was a moist red velvet cake with strawberry frosting, it was good but not as good as Starring Rolls.

 

[janeapplemeadow]

That sushi looked really good. I think I should put it on my Restaurants to try for next time.

 

[kmedina]

Yet some more yummy dessert ideas for this trip. More yummy coffee cake, yay. The pork ribs also look amazing.

 

[iluvpluto27]

That sushi looked really good. I think I should put it on my Restaurants to try for next time.

It was really nice, not quite as good as California Grill but well worth 1 table service credit.

Yet some more yummy dessert ideas for this trip. More yummy coffee cake, yay. The pork ribs also look amazing.

DH really liked that coffee cake, and I loved those ribs, I couldn't believe how tender they were.

 

[iluvpluto27]

We had an 8:30 reservation and accessed the castle via fantasyland at 8:10. The Main Street Electrical Parade had just started so we watched it from front of castle (great view by the way) for 10 minutes or so before checking in.

After checking in and getting our picture taken with Cinderella we were seated within a few minutes at a two top on the top level of the restaurant.

We ordered diet coke and coke to drink and the bread was brought out quickly. The princesses came round reasonably quickly and we met Aurora, Belle, Ariel and Snow White.

We both ordered the cheese plate to start which arrived quickly. The goats cheese in centre of the cheese was very tasty and the cheddar paired well with the sultanas. I thought the creamy cheese was ok but it was very tart, DH however thought it had spoiled, and he knows cheese much better than me so i didn’t eat much in case he was correct.

We then waited just under 40 minutes for our entrees, this was fine as Wishes started at 9 and we could see some fireworks from our table, it was nice that they piped the music in too.

I chose the Seafood pasta as my entree, this had pieces of crab, shrimp, pancetta and spinach in a cream based sauce. The pasta was well cooked, there was plenty of crabmeat in the dish, the shrimp were a little overcooked, the sauce was fine and I couldn’t really taste any pancetta. Overall a decent bowl of pasta but nothing special.

DH chose the vegetarian casselout, which was better than he was expecting after he heard the server at an adjacent table saying this dish was often sent back to the kitchen. It was a decent stew, plenty of beans, chickpeas, well cooked vegetables, in a tomato based sauce served with cous cous. It wasn’t packed with flavour but it was nice enough.

For dessert I chose the almond cheesecake. This was a good, creamy cheesecake, with a strong almond flavour paired nicely with lingonberry jam. It didn’t hold a candle to Narcoosees almond cheesecake but it was nice enough.

DH had the dessert trio, a smaller portion of almond cheesecake, a mini fruit tart and chocolate mousse. The mousse was good, very light and airy texture but it didn’t have a particularly strong chocolate flavour. The tart was fine, not a lot of custard filling but pastry was buttery, and the fruit fresh.

Overall had a better meal here than expecting, service was adequate, we saw all the princesses and the food was ok. We enjoyed watching Wishes from inside the castle, and we didn’t mind the length of time we were there (just under 2 hours) as we still had plenty of time to enjoy EMH which didn't finish until 1 am.

 

[iluvpluto27]

We started the day with another breakfast at BC Marketplace, yogurt parfait for me and a , cinnamon roll for DH.

We spent the morning at Storm along Bay then headed to Epcot for our 1pm Chefs de France reservation ( I just love the convenience of the BC!). We were seated immediately at a nice window table which was good for people watching and we also saw the chair balancing act.

Our server good, very friendly and efficient but I got the impression he was trying to increase his tip by getting us to order more expensive dishes.

To drink I had the St Germain cocktail which was sparkling wine, elderflower and soda water. This was really good, light and refreshing, one of my favourite cocktails of the trip.

To start I chose the tomato and goats cheese flatbread, this was very good, incredibly thin crust, tangy tomato topping and plenty of goats cheese. It was too big for one person though so DH helped me out.

DH had the cheese plate. goats cheese, brie and some kind of hard cheese. The goats cheese was tangy with a slightly herby taste, the brie type cheese had good flavour but wasn’t as creamy as he was expecting. It was a nice plate but way to much cheese and nothing to balance or accompany the cheese.

For my entree I had quiche lorraine. This was so good, thick buttery pastry, creamy, egg filling, plenty of bacon and cheese and a hint of nutmeg. Absolutely delicious and very rich so it worked well with salad leaves and sharp balsamic dressing.

DH chose salmon which was slightly overcooked but still had a nice flavour. It was served with spinach, potato and tomato sauce. The spinach was a little overcooked and didn’t seem to pair that well with the salmon, the potato was well seasoned and cooked and the sauce had a little but of heat to it but not masses of flavour. Overall he rated this dish as just ok.

We shared the apple crepe for dessert. The crepe was ok, a little bit crispy on end but soft in the middle, the apple filling didn’t have a ton of flavour but the caramel sauce was nice. The smooth ice cream served with crunchy white chocolate curls was probably our favourite part of this dessert.

Overall we had a nice meal and we saw Remy who was very cute. My meal was probably better than DH’s, but service good, food fine for 1 TS if you stick to the simpler dishes.

In our quest to use up 30 snack credits in the next 4 days we walked to germany to grab a couple of treats. I picked the caramel chewy bar, caramel, shortbread biscuit base mixed with nuts.

DH chose a marshmallow caramel roll, thick chewy caramel swirled with creamy marshmallow.

DH also picked a peanut butter caramel cookie to share. I only had a bite, but it was a thick crumbly cookie with a strong peanut butter taste, but I’m not sure it worked that well with the caramel.

 

[2xcited2sleep]

Thoroughly enjoying your reviews. Thanks so much for sharing.

 

[Linda67]

I am so enjoying your reviews

You are helping me to compile a very long list of things to try from the Caramel Shop!

I just have to get the salted caramel square

 

[kmedina]

We were happily surprised with the quality of the food at CRT. I agree that the cheese plate at Le Chefs De France is good, but it does need something to break it up.

 

[donnaf516]

Great reviews! All caught up and looking forward to more.

 

[Pinkgirl]

Really surprised at how long you were at CRT. Were you the last seating of the night?

 

[iluvpluto27]

Thoroughly enjoying your reviews. Thanks so much for sharing.

Thank you very much.

I am so enjoying your reviews

You are helping me to compile a very long list of things to try from the Caramel Shop!

I just have to get the salted caramel square

Thank you, definitely try that salted caramel, I think it was DH's favourite snack of the trip.

We were happily surprised with the quality of the food at CRT. I agree that the cheese plate at Le Chefs De France is good, but it does need something to break it up.

CRT was better than I expected, DH hated his meal there two years ago, so for him pretty much anything would have been an improvement.
It was a lot of cheese on that plate, good but too much without something to break it up as you say.

Great reviews! All caught up and looking forward to more.

Thank you.

Really surprised at how long you were at CRT. Were you the last seating of the night?

No, I think the last seating was 9:30 as I considered booking that one instead. I think they just forgot about our entrees to be honest, as other tables were finished much quicker than us.

 

[iluvpluto27]

Tonight we were trying Le Cellier for dinner, and were looking forward to seeing how it had improved now it had been upgraded to Signature status. We had an 8pm reservation, and checked in around 7:50, it was very busy and we waited about 20 minutes to be seated. The atmosphere still very much the same, crowded, reasonably loud and the tables were very close together, loud. It did empty out while we were eating and by the end of the meal it was much quieter.

I felt our server had too many tables (she seemed to have at least 6), and therefore we waited a long time to place our drink order. She was friendly and tried her best but she simply had to much to do to provide really good service.

I ordered a Blueberry ice wine martini this was very good, quite strong and you could taste the ice wine. The blueberry flavour became more pronounced after it had sat for a while.

DH had the Unibroue beer flight - 3 beers, one very like cider, one light wheat, one dark ale (trois pistoles). The cider style like one was his favourite, I think it may have been called ephemere. I thought this was good value at $8.25.

To start I had the traditional cheese soup. As usual this was very good, thick, cheesy, slightly smoky from the bacon, and it was a little spicier than i remembered. It was a huge portion so I left quite a bit but it was delicious with pretzel bread.

DH chose the Seared Scallops. These were nicely cooked, served with sliced radish, apple, mushrooms and a mushroom sauce. It was quite a light starter, especcially compared to my huge bowl of soup.

For my entree I had salmon served with cauliflower risotto, beetroot and carrots. The salmon was very nicely cooked, still juicy and flaky, with a crispy crust on top. The cauliflower risotto delicious, with similar flavours to cauliflower cheese, very rich and buttery. The carrots were nicely cooked, the beetroot was just a little underdone, and the romanesco broccoli was a vegetable I’d never had before, again it seemed a little hard but I liked the taste.

DH had the Alaskan Halibut which again was nicely cooked. The sauce was a tomato based shellfish sauce which had a strong seafood flavour. The mussels were tasty, and the green beans, baby onions and asparagus tips were all fresh and nicely cooked.

For dessert DH chose the Maple creme brulee, this was lovely, creamy custard, thick burnt sugar topping, strong maple flavour, paired with fresh cream and fruit.

I was full so got the chocolate moose to go, very good, thick chocolatey mousse, oreo crumbs and biscuits for ears and tongue, a very cute dessert.

Overall we had a nice meal, I don’t think it’s on same level as other signatures, although both entrees were really good and better than I expected. I think in future I’d stick to lunch to save dining credits.

 

[sarahewoods]

Hi there, I knew I ha seen this thread somewhere before. Just as good if not better reading it second time around.

Thank you for sharing xx

 

[dixonsontour]

Hi there, I knew I ha seen this thread somewhere before. Just as good if not better reading it second time around.

Thank you for sharing xx

I also saw your user name and thought you're not usually on here! welcome to the DIS (have you been down to the uk forum