2 Cool Cats hit WDW: a LIVE food review! (with pics, yo!) COMPLETE!

I am enjoying your reviews so much. Great pics and descriptions of the food. I am so glad you are doing this. I never was interested in Sanaa's menu, but now must try it. Funny, I have eaten at Cape May two or three times, and never noticed they had so much non-seafood.:rotfl: I love the crab legs.
You sound like you and your mother travel very well together and have a wonderful time. That is great.
Just wondering, do you use TIW or DDP or any discounts? You haven't mentioned pricing and "value" which is so nice. Seems like most of the reviews and people's reponses to questions on the DIS are based on dining plans. Your review seems to be really based on the food. Very refreshing. Thank you.
 
Great reviews so far. The Mint Bliss sundae from Ghirardelli is my absolute favourite and, I agree, their hot fudge sauce is the best :thumbsup2

I have seen so many positive reviews of Yak and Yeti lately, we had decided to try it for ourselves in August. Sorry your experiences haven't been great.
 
great photos and great reviews..
Thanks for taking the time to do this...
 


I'm really enjoying your reviews. We've never tried Cape May for dinner as although I like fish, I'm not a huge shellfish fan but it looks pretty good, and there seems to be plenty of choice for the non seafood eaters too.

We've really enjoyed Cape May both times we've had dinner there. We don't really like shellfish, either (except shrimp), but there's tons of other stuff. We didn't even go on the salad bar side! Or have any soup, which is unusual for us.

Just wondering, do you use TIW or DDP or any discounts? You haven't mentioned pricing and "value" which is so nice. Seems like most of the reviews and people's reponses to questions on the DIS are based on dining plans. Your review seems to be really based on the food. Very refreshing. Thank you.

We're DVC members and AP holders, and we've done both TIW and DxDDP before. This time, we're just doing either DVC or AP discount where it applies, and otherwise paying plain ol' OOP. None of the dining plans are a good fit for us: we aren't really into QS, and the DxDDP was WAY too much food!

Great reviews so far. The Mint Bliss sundae from Ghirardelli is my absolute favourite and, I agree, their hot fudge sauce is the best :thumbsup2

I have seen so many positive reviews of Yak and Yeti lately, we had decided to try it for ourselves in August. Sorry your experiences haven't been great.

We're actually planning *another* trip to Ghirardelli before we go home! We had Beaches and Cream last night and decided we might like Ghirardelli better. It was a really, really tough decision, so we need another taste test!

We read a lot of good Y&Y reviews around here, too, which is why we decided to give it another try. Our service was excellent, and all of our food was hot and fresh...it just didn't have the flavor we were looking for. :confused3

great photos and great reviews..
Thanks for taking the time to do this...

Thanks for taking the time to read! :goodvibes

I'm in! Thank you for the reviews! Can't wait for more.

More coming up in a jiff! :hippie:

I've really enjoyed all your reviews so far. It's making me hungry! Can't wait for more. :thumbsup2

Hooray! Food reviews should always make you hungry! Thanks for reading. :hippie:
 
We're kinda all over the map today, kids. Let's start at DHS....

We had some toast in the room, and then headed for the Studios. We saw that the wait times for RnRC and ToT were pretty long, so Mom got us fast passes for RnR and I headed for the tower. After getting repeatedly dropped down elevator shaft like a couple of mentally deranged masochists, we decided we were hungry.

We had some confusion over hot dogs...and ended up at Starring Rolls, where we were sorta planning to go anyway. I immediately grabbed a chocolate chip muffin, and then wished I hadn't when I saw the other choices. Anyway, we ended up with a bunch of stuff, most of which we brought back with us.

For me, a sandwich.

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It's turkey, lettuce (which you can see I removed), mozzarella cheese, a mix of peppers, and pesto sauce. This sandwich was really good! I was very pleasantly surprised. The turkey was delicious, and all the ingredients were a great combo. Next time I go, I'm gonna get the sandwich and a cupcake and skip the rest.

Mom, the smarty, got a marble cupcake.

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She thought it was good. She said it wasn't anything super-duper-magnificent, but she liked how the two types of icing were different textures; it made it more interesting.

We also got...

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A cinnamon roll, a cheese Danish, that muffin I was telling you about, and the chips that came w/ my sandwich. We brought all of this except the chips back to the room with us. I ate the muffin, and it was ok. Just a plain ol' muffin. Like I said, wish I'd gotten something else instead. We haven't eaten the cinnamon roll or the cheese Danish yet.

A while later we went to Backlot Express and Mom got a hot dog. The hot dog itself was good, but the bun (as has been discussed ad infinitum here on yon DIS) was cardboardish. Boo. :sad2:

We left DHS right about closing time and headed for AKL. Our ADR for Boma was at 8:20, so we stopped by the lounge for a while. I wanted a martini that was on the menu at Jiko, but our very nice bartender, Dustin, said he couldn't make that one b/c he didn't have all the ingredients for it. He suggested I get a Striped Lemur instead.

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It has...a bunch of stuff...and ice cream...and he adds vanilla vodka to it, he said, to give it an extra kick. It kicked, all right. I've had this drink before, but it isn't actually on the menu anymore (that I could find), so I was glad to have a good bartender!

Mom's drink, also pictured, was a Super Fruit Margarita from the standard drink menu. There was something in it she wasn't crazy about, or maybe, she said, she didn't like it w/ the salt, but once the ice melted she said it was better and she finished it off.

This is getting a bit long, so I'm gonna do a new post for Boma...brb!
 


I checked us in at Boma at 8, our ADR was 8:20, and they buzzed us at 8:19. Not too shabby. We also got a great table actually INSIDE the boma! Normally we're at one of those little two-tops shoved up against a column or something.

As always, we started out with soup.

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The curry coconut chicken stew is one of our favorites. It's sweet and spicy, with tons of big chunks of chicken. Mom ate her bowl and then the remains of mine, too. This is her favorite soup.

I also got the Tanzanian crab soup.

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Ok, um. This is not normally something I say about food, b/c I consider myself an adult and not a 5-year-old, but this soup was nasty! I was expecting something like She Crab Soup, but with a different spice profile. Uh uh. The crab taste was overpowering, and it was incredibly salty. I like crab. I like crab soup. I like fried softshell crab, crab legs, crab in my sushi...but the flavor of the crab in this soup was...I can't even describe it. I honestly can't believe a chef tasted this soup and thought, "Awesome! Soup's on!" It was terrible. I had to eat a whole slice of pita to get the flavor out of my mouth.

Anyway, moving on.

My first plate...

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Mac and cheese, carved strip loin, basmati rice with mater paneer on it, ancho bbq ribs. Sigh. First of all, they've changed the mac and cheese. This tasted like Stouffer's, and while I do like Stouffer's mac and cheese, that's NOT what they serve at BOMA!! I was incredibly disappointed. The meat was ok; it felt like it wasn't nearly as herby/flavorful as in the past. I didn't like the mater paneer, which is paneer cheese in tomato sauce w/ peas. It was too spicy for me tonight. The ribs were pretty good; I liked the sauce mixed with the mac and cheese.

Mom's plate...

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Carrot ginger soup in the bowl. On the plate, ribs, mashed potatoes, and peanut rice. The carrot ginger soup was way too sweet for her, and she only took one bite. She loved the mashed potatoes, and we both went back for more. The peanut rice is one of her favorite things at Boma, and she liked it mixed with the potatoes, too.

My dessert plate...

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A zebra dome, chocolate cinnamon mousse, and butterscotch banana bread pudding. You might remember from my Tusker House review that I love this pudding. The one tonight at Boma was even better than the one at Tusker House; it was smoother. The zebra dome was way sweeter than I remembered, but the cinnamon chocolate mousse was heavenly.

Mom's dessert...

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Caramel cheesecake, zebra domes, cinnamon chocolate mousse, and peanut butter mousse. She loves zebra domes, and she also liked the cinnamon chocolate mousse. She said the peanut butter mousse and caramel cheesecake were "ok."

Sigh. Ok, guys, this is gonna be REALLY hard for me to write.

I love Boma. I always list it as one of my favorite restaurants on property. It's a must-do for us. Tonight, however, I was disappointed. I wasn't feeling 100%, so maybe it was mostly me, but...the best things I ate were mashed potatoes and bread pudding!! That's insane, y'all. I mean, truly bug nuts. I enjoyed Cape May last night quite a bit more than Boma tonight, and I never, ever thought I'd say/type/think those words.

I'm really hoping this was just an off night--though WHY CHANGE MY MAC AND CHEESE?!?--and next time we visit things will be back to normal. :confused3

Tomorrow we have Le Cellier for lunch and Flying Fish for dinner, and I guarantee a visit to Boulangerie Patisserie!

Until then, happy eating! :hippie:
 
Sorry for the break yesterday, kids. I had my lunch review all typed out, and then the flaky WDW interwebs pooped out on me and I lost it all. I was so frustrated I just went to bed.

So here we go, Le Cellier review, take 2!

We were almost late for our ADR due to some unforeseen issues, but after hustling from International Gateway to Canada, we made it with 5 minutes to spare. Whew!

We listened to a slightly off-key rendition of "O, Canada" before being taken to our table. We liked the 11:30 time slot b/c the restaurant didn't start filling up until we were ready to leave. We stopped going to Le Cellier b/c the tables are so closed together, and when that place is full just getting to the bathroom can be dangerous!

Our server, Gabrielle, arrived almost immediately to take our drink orders. We both got smoothies.

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Mom's is on the left, and it's called the Niagara...something. Maybe Falls, but that sounds too cheesy to be true. Anyway, it was mango mixed w/ pomegranate, we think. Not sure. She said it was the "bomb diggity." I can't make this stuff up, y'all. :laughing: Mine was raspberry with a little bit of sprite, and it wasn't too sweet. The smoothies were cold and refreshing after our way-too-rapid jaunt through World Showcase.

We both decided on selections from the prix fixe menu, and for our first course we went with the cheddar cheese soup.

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Looking at this picture makes me want to eat that soup. Right. Now. Like I said, it's been a long time since we've been to Le Cellier--6 years--but we always loved the cheese soup and the pretzel bread.

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We were really glad to find that these two items were as good as we remembered. The soup is cheesy (duh), a bit spicy, rich and smoky with that hint of bacon. The pretzel bread is soft and salty, and it's good dipped in the soup or smeared with the delicious butter they provide. Omnomnom. :cloud9:

We both ordered the house burger, but Mom got hers with no 'shrooms.

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I took the pic after I removed the pickle from the plate and the tomato from the bun, respectively.

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Ahhh, what a good burger! We always did enjoy Le Cellier's burgers, and while this is a bit fancier than back in the day, it's perhaps even more delicious. They were both cooked a perfect med. rare. The cheese is amazing, the bun is soft and fresh, the pancetta was delicious, and the bbq sauce wasn't overpowering. Also, the fries were hot and crispy. These burgers are HUGE, tho, and we each only ate half of ours. We decided next time we'll split one and have plenty!

For dessert I went with the sorbet, which was mandarin orange.

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I wanted something light after that heavy meal, and this fit the bill perfectly. It was just a little sour, and very refreshing. Between the two of us, Mom and I ate two scoops, but we couldn't finish off the other one. Also, the cookie on top was amazing, lightly sweet, slightly savory, and nicely buttery.

Mom got the chocolate moose.

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So cute! The mousse was good. Ya know, pretty standard chocolate mousse. Mom said later she wished she'd gotten the maple creme brulee.

Overall, we really enjoyed our return to Le Cellier. Like I said, the 11:30 slot was perfect b/c the restaurant was less crowded. The food was all delicious, and if on our next trip we split a burger, it won't be quite so expensive! We left completely stuffed and happy, and we'll probably return next trip.

It might be a while before we're back for dinner, tho. Let's not get too crazy! :eek:

After lunch we puttered around Future World for a while, saw Captain Eo, took a ton of pictures, and then wandered back toward the World Showcase. We listened to Off Kilter and then made our way to France and a spot I both love and loathe: Boulangerie Patisserie!

Mom went to find us a table (no mean feat) while I ventured into the daunting depths of French pastry heaven/hell. Gah. I emerged relatively unscathed with a delicious haul.

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Strawberry tart, carton of milk (duh), almond triangle, chocolate cake. The strawberry tart is my absolute favorite snack at WDW. It's light, sweet w/o being overpowering, and the strawberries always taste so fresh. The tart shell is buttery and never soggy. :love: For little else would I venture into the heart of darkness that is the Boulangerie queue!

The almond triangle was for Mom, and I got the cake in case she didn't like the triangle. The triangle was delicious, tho. Very lightly sweet, and filled with a sort of lemon curd-like substance that was laced with almond flavor. I smeared some of the chocolate icing from the cake onto it and it turned into something truly amazing! :lovestruc (smaller heart head, b/c it still wasn't in strawberry tart territory)

The chocolate cake was pretty standard. We didn't finish it, and I wish I'd gotten a chocolate chip cookie instead.

In case you can't tell, while I love Boulangerie's wares, I can't stand the actual store itself. It's always hot and crowded, and the queue is so narrow it's like some form of torture. I wish they'd expand the place, but maybe that would ruin its "charm." (please note my heavy use of sarcasm here)

I'll be back later to post about our Flying Fish dinner experience, and I just made us an ADR at Yachtsman for our last night dinner, so expect that...I don't know. I'll be on the road tomorrow. Sometime!

Until then, happy eating! :hippie:
 
And now for one of our favorite WDW restaurants of all time, Flying Fish!

Our original ADR was for 7:15, but we were able to move it to 5:30, when the restaurant opened. We were the first people seated, and we had a great table by the window beneath the flying fish on swings.

We both ordered some water, and then we ordered a cheese plate for our appetizer.

please hold while I find the picture...I know it's here somewhere....
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Or not. I KNOW I took a picture of the cheese plate, but it's missing...so instead you get a pic of the cheese menu! The Saint Andre was probably my favorite, but they were all delicious. I wasn't super crazy about the Blue, but that's just b/c I'm not crazy about blue cheese in general. With the right amount of honey it was pretty good. Mom's favorite was the Drunken Goat. Honestly, they were all delicious. Flying Fish does a fine, fine cheese plate.

We decided to order appetizers and sides rather than regular entrees. For the sides we got grilled asparagus and the leek, fontina, and truffle-laced mac and cheese.

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Grilled asparagus is one of my favorite foods, ever. I could eat it all day. I got the sauce on the side b/c I'm not super crazy about it, and b/c I didn't want anything to interfere with that yummy grilled flavor! Both of these were super delicious. The mac and cheese was rich and cheesy, and the bread crumbs on top were nice and crunchy. It was mac and cheese for grown ups. :goodvibes

I chose the yellowfin tuna tartare and crispy tempura tuna-vegetable sushi roll for my main.

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Omnomnomnom. This dish was wonderful! The tuna on top was fresh and cold, and the roll bit was crispy and warm. The one issue I had was the pieces were too big to eat in one go, and when I cut it up everything fell apart everywhere. I made a mess. Also, I got one bite that was pretty much all wasabi and my face exploded. :eek: It was delicious, tho, and I would order it again in a heartbeat.

Mom got the crispy rice-crusted Maine lobster.

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Holy moly. Lemme tell you, this was some good eats! The lobster was super crispy and buttery, and the broth was just...wow. A crazy combo and sweet and savory and spicy. She ate every single bite (except the two I had), and later said this was one of her favorite dishes of the whole trip.

For dessert I chose the green tea white chocolate creme brulee.

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First can I just say, other restaurants, take note! This is how creme brulee should be served, in a wide, shallow dish so you get the maximum amount of caramelized crispy goodness. By far the best creme brulee I've ever had. Super crispy, crunch top, not-too-sweet custard. And it was green. I want to be eating this right now. :love:

Mom got the marcona almond-laced chocolate mousse with "sinful triple rich brownie creation"

front
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and back
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The menu describes this as "apple wood smoked bacon praline crunch, smoky salt-scented chocolate sorbet, and raspberry coulis." Mom was like, "You want me to get bacon...with my dessert?" Yeah, ok, this was pretty frakkin awesome. The key, tho, was you had to get each element in your bite. When you put the mousse/brownie/sorbet combo together, wow! It was yums. :thumbsup2

Whew. Flying Fish, how we love thee! The food here is always stellar, the service great, and we love the atmosphere. Flying Fish is and always will be one of our favorite restaurants on property. Go there! Run!

I'll be back sometime tomorrow with our review for a wonderful dinner at Yachtsman Steakhouse, and then our last morning breakfast at Kouzzina.

Until then, happy eating! :hippie:
 
Thanks for posting these reviews, they are great! A lot of places that people overlook here that all look amazing!
 
After another short break, I'm back with the concluding post. Man, we had a great trip! I'm gonna do Yachtsman dinner and Kouzzina breakfast on the same post, and then end with some "final thoughts."

Here goes...

We spent our last full day, Monday, basically just goofing off. We grazed on leftovers in the room, and mulled over our dinner options. We spent probably 45 minutes reading menus of nearly every non-park restaurant at WDW before deciding on an old favorite: Yachtsman Steakhouse. Why? Two reasons: it's always been delicious, and it's one of the easiest restaurants to get to! :laughing:

We were seated shortly after arriving, and we were given a nice table with a view of Storm-a-long Bay. Score! Our server, Oscar, has been at the restaurant during its entire 20-year existence, and he's waited on us several times before. He quickly brought us one of our favorite parts of the meal: bread service!

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Onion rolls, sourdough rolls, butter sprinkled with sea salt, and roasted garlic. My favorite are the onion rolls, b/c they're both softer and sweeter than the sourdough. Add some of the creamy, salty butter and the rich garlic...oh man, it's one of my favorite things in all of WDW!

We both started with the lobster bisque.

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Described as "Maine lobster, herbes de Provence bescuit, roe chantilly." Oh man. This was amazing. It was rich, a little spicy, the "bescuit" was savory and fantastic, and the "roe chantilly" added a nice boost of seafood and creaminess. My mouth is actually watering as I type this. That was some killer soup!

For her main, Mom got the "shrimp and grits" appetizer.

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aahh, they're looking at me!

She was a bit surprised that the heads were still on, but they'd obviously been separated ahead of time, b/c they just slid right off. That sounds gross, I guess, but it was no big deal, and Mom's pretty squeamish about that sorta thing.

The dish is described as "jumbo prawns, buttery hominy grits, Berkshire pork sausage and mushroom ragout, and Creole butter sauce." I'm a little confused by the "hominy grits" bit. How else do you make grits?! :lmao: But anyway. While she didn't really care for the ragout, b/c she's not much of a shrooms eater, she made short work of the rest. The shrimp were grilled perfectly, and the grits were rich and buttery. A really delicious take on a low-country classic.

Mom also got the spaghetti squash side for us to split.

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Oh. My. God, fellow DIS'ers! This dish maybe be one of the best things I have ever eaten! The description reads as follows: "maple butter roasted, candied pecans, anise hysop." Gah! It was so amazing. Buttery, savory, just a little sweet, buttery...a nice sweet crunch from the pecans....We decided to go w/ this as a change of pace from the truffle mac and cheese (and we'd just had mac and cheese at Flying Fish the night before), and we were SO GLAD! Just fantastic. Order this if you have the chance, and I promise you won't regret it. :love:

For my main, I ordered the filet.

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I gave Mom a nice size chunk of this, b/c that was our plan all along. The filet was cooked nicely, and the sauce was delicious and not too heavy. The mashed potatoes were wonderful! Lumpy and with some skin in. That's just how I like my mashed potatoes. :goodvibes

As we were contemplating dessert, Oscar brought us a little cup of tiny Madelines, still warm from the oven.

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I ate one before we got the pic. These were delicious: warm, crispy, light and not-too-sweet. Perfect lil cookies.

For dessert, though we were getting dangerously full, we got this delicious chocolate cake.

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I can't remember what it's called, and it's not on any menu I have a copy of. Bother. It has salted caramel gelato surrounded by caramel powder (not cocaine; calm down), and the cake is brownie, chocolate cake, peanut butter, and chocolate icing. Whew! Very rich. Very delicious. The gelato was quite salty, but it was delicious when combined w/ the cake. This dessert would've been too rich for one person after our heavy meal, but it was a good amount for us to split.

Overall, Yachtsman was wonderful. We hadn't been in several trips b/c we've been limiting our signatures to just one a trip (this trip blew that away...), but after this fantastic meal, it might be our signature for next trip! Oh, PS: Oscar said the restaurant will be closed for two weeks in August while they replace the floor.

Ok, let's move on to our last Disney meal, breakfast at Kouzzina!

We had a 10:30 ADR, but the place was almost empty. The ended up sending all the servers home but ours, so we were surrounded by people in an empty restaurant. That was a little annoying. :headache:

We started out with the phyllo dough.

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It's warm semolina custard stuffed into phyllo and sprinkled with cinnamon and powdered sugar. I didn't take the picture until I'd already cut it in half, so it's a little messy. This was really good, warm and sweet w/o being sickly sweet. I wish there'd been a bit more cinnamon, tho: it was a nice complement.

For breakfast, Mom got the Kouzzina stack.

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Artichoke spread on eggs (scrambled), sweet potato hash, bacon, and kalamata olive toast. Our server suggested spreading the artichoke stuff on the toast, but the butter they serve is so good I liked the toast better the old-fashioned way. Honestly, I wasn't too crazy about the artichoke spread, but Mom really liked it. This was a good breakfast: the eggs were cooked perfectly, the hash was good, and it all came together nicely.

I ordered the waffles.

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Whipped mascarpone and pecans on top, chicken sausage on the side. I got it w/ no honey, b/c I don't like honey. I topped it w/ syrup instead. This was so good!! The mascarpone wasn't too sweet, but it was nice and cool. The pecans were crunchy, and the waffles were crispy on the outside and soft and fluffy inside. The sausage was just a little spicy, and a nice complement to the syrupy waffles. All in all, a great dish!

We enjoyed our Kouzzina breakfast, except for the issue w/ the crowding into one section. We chose a late seating time b/c we were checking out, etc, but next time we go we'll try to eat a bit earlier. :thumbsup2

Gonna do a new post for the summation bit, b/c this has gotten long...brb!
 
Let's do a quick summation of favorites/least favorites.

First, princess:
Favorite overall meal: can't choose, but prob. Jiko
Favorite starter: the flatbread at Portobello
Favorite main: either the shrimp at Jiko or the lobster at Flying Fish (technically on the app. menu)
Favorite dessert: Ghirardelli brownie sundae! Jiko cheesecake a close second.
Favorite food item overall: the spaghetti squash at Yachtsman
Biggest disappointment: Beaches and Cream :guilty: I didn't include our trip to Beaches and Cream, but our sundae wasn't as good as Ghirardelli, and it made us sad

My choices:
Favorite overall: either Yachtsman or the Untamed Lunch at Sanaa
Favorite starter: lobster bisque at Yachtsman
Favorite main: gnocchi at Portobello (this got a huge :thumbsup2 from Mom, too)
Favorite dessert: either the chocolate mousse at Jiko or the creme brulee at Flying Fish. Both were amazing. Oh, honorable mention to the banana bread pudding at Boma.
Favorite food item overall: spaghetti squash at Yachtsman, easy
Biggest :eek:: the beets at Sanaa. Is that really how beets are supposed to taste?? Or, of course, that AWFUL crab soup at Boma.
Biggest disappointment: Boma. :sad2: I love Boma, and my experience there this trip made me so sad.

So there you have it, guys! We had some really great food this trip, and I was happy to share it with all of you. Look for us again sometime down the road!

Until then, as always, happy eating! :hippie:
 
Thank You for taking the time to do such FANTASTIC detailed reviews! We will be in WDW the end of March and you have me trying to fit FF into our 5 nite stay. I have already done all of our ADRS but I love the idea of appetizers,sides and desserts!! :thumbsup2 Joan
 

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