10 days of WDW dining with pictures and reviews!

We had no ADRs for dinner but did not have an inkling for more counter service food either. Unfortunately for us, every table service place in the MK was booked solid and not allowing walk-ups, so we were forced into quick service. We chose Pinocchio's simply because nothing sounded good and we were closest to it.
Here is what we ate:
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It doesn't look bad, and it really wasn't awful. :confused3 We have eaten the little individual pizzas at AK and think those are alright, but this just really didn't have much taste. The sauce was really too strong and bitter and there wasn't much flavor to the cheese. We split the pizza and each had a little salad and were underimpressed with it all. I don't know what we were expecting since this was probably a little frozen pizza reheated for us after we ordered it, but honestly, I have enjoyed every frozen pizza I've ever eaten over this one.

On top of the food being not so great, the whole restaurant was just basically a mess. The restaurant was terribly dirty and so were all the tables. There seemed to be one employee who looked tired and uninterested with a dustpan and broom set, wandering around past loads of trash that were just lying on the floor. It was so odd. It wasn't magical at all. It was dirtier than the county fairs I have been to. So strange. We don't need to eat here ever ever again.
 


We finally made it to DP's actual birthday day. As a special birthday gift to her, I'd given her something priceless: I actually let her sleep in today!!! :lmao:

That's right, no RD, no early breakfast plans, we just woke up late, took our time drinking coffee in our refillable mug and headed out for breakfast at the restaurant of her choice, Kouzzina. We didn't even shower-just went as we were. What are birthdays for, after all? :banana:

We were both really looking forward to this meal, actually. We didn't need a reservation and just walked right in shortly before the change from breakfast to lunch.

We started off with this:
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Sure beat the stuff we'd been drinking from our resort refillable mug! :rotfl2:

DP had this, the spinach, tomato and feta scrambled eggs with breakfast potatoes and small fruit salad in place of the choice of meat.
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She enjoyed this and didn't complain. The croissant was a nice accompaniment.

I went for the breakfast skillet served with eggs, pequillo peppers, bacon (minus the bacon for me), onion and greek cheese on a sweet potato hash topped with arugula.
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There was nothing wrong with this. It was a tasty start to the day. The arugula was nicely flavored with strong olive oil, as was most of the dish. It was overall light on the seasonings otherwise. I wasn't crazy about the sweet potatoes.

My overall problem with Kouzzina was the amount of oil in or on everything we ate. It tasted ok, but it left an oily feeling in your mouth. We were full for most of the rest of the day and just felt generally icky for several hours, and I really think it was from all of the oil. A person can only eat so much pure oil and feel alright.

I really don't think I need to go back here again. DP still reads the Kouzzina menu online and to this day, thinks it sounds good and wants to try it again. But I think she has forgotten how bad she felt after eating there and how much she complained. :sick:
 


We skipped lunch, did some swimming, and finally, out of consideration for those around us, took showers. :lmao:

We had an ADR at San Angel Inn (DP's request) at 6 so that we could be finished in plenty of time to walk around the lagoon and secure a perfect spot for Illuminations.

On our way around the lagoon to San Angel Inn, we stopped for this cool and refreshing beverage:
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A watermelon slush from Morocco.

Can you tell we like slushy type drinks? Actually, it is me who loves them and DP just plays along. This was my least favorite of all of them, and unfortunately was also the most expensive. At $5, I expected this to taste lots better than the $3 version at HS, but it didn't. It was ok, just nothing special.

We arrived at San Angel Inn and were seated fairly near to the water and the volcano. We had both been wanting to dine here since our first visit to WDW.

We started with the chips and salsa and a side order of guacamole, which was served with these little flour crisps on the side.
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The guacamole was very good, much less spicy than at La Hacienda, which worked better for me, not as good for DP. The waiter assured us that the little crisps were fried flour bits and had absolutely no meat or animal product in them. They reminded me a little of pork skins, which I consumed with my southern grandparents during my childhood. :sick: We ate some, but not many, because we just couldn't tell what they really were. They did taste good, though.

We also shared a margarita, I believe it was passion fruit.
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Yum! Perfect and heavy on the alcohol. We don't drink much at all and both felt a little tipsy right away.

For dinner, DP had something she absolutely loved, and it was certainly pretty to look at, the camarones a la diabla.
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This was shrimp roasted diabla style with poblano rice served over yucca puree and cascabel chile sauce. I managed to snag a little taste, and this was definitely something worth trying! Who knew yucca puree could be so creamy and satisfying, like a cross between mashed potatoes and parsnips. The shrimp were delicious also.

I had the fish tacos.
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These were not good at all. The first bite I thought was tasty, with heavy, crispy breading. The rest of the time I was choking this down, the fish was slimy and sooo fishy, and I like the taste of fish! I would never eat this again, nor would I recommend it to anyone. It was the worst meal I have eaten in a long time, and that is saying a lot. I should have stopped, but I just hate to waste food.

Our meal was served with this rice, which was green (I am guessing cilantro?) and tasted kind of like rice pilaf. It didn't really seem to go with anything, and we didn't eat very much of it.
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Oddly enough, we heard the man at the table next to us asking for several helpings of this rice and proclaiming it the best rice ever. To each their own.

In spite of my gross entree, we had a lovely evening. Here is the table next to us, after it was emptied but before it was cleaned.
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And here is the real reason you eat at San Angel Inn:
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The meal and restaurant for DP was a success. I didn't fare so well, and much later in the evening didn't feel so great. I might have had some sort of reaction to one of the oddities I had eaten. I would definitely return to this restaurant, I'd probably just avoid the "fried crisps" and the fish. The service was pretty slow, so plan to have plenty of time, and ask for your water glasses to be filled before you start eating the spicy salsas!
 
DP had already decided she wanted some sweets from the Boulangerie Patisserie as her official birthday dessert. We secured a spot and then I went to purchase our treats.
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A lemon tart and a napolean

This was our first time tasting the napolean and it was really yummy, nice and creamy with crispy flakey layers. The lemon tart was something I'd been dreaming about since the last time we'd visited when I discovered that the cream on top is not meringue but is instead toasted marshmallow cream. :cloud9: You can't get much better than that. Maybe it is because I was still so full from dinner, but I didn't enjoy it as much as I did the last time I had it. It didn't seem quite as fresh, but again, I wasn't very hungry, so it is hard to know if that made the difference. It was still good and I will eat it again as soon as I get the chance!

Here is what we saw as we looked out across the water, waiting for the show:
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It was a special end to DP's special day!
 
The next morning, we had the breakfast of champions, school bread! :thumbsup2
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We had been reading about this on the dis and had to try it, so we'd picked it up the day before and kept it in the fridge in our hotel room.

It was good but could have used more cream filling. It was a little dry and more like "bread" than I thought it would be. :confused:

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Here is the inside; see how little cream there was! :sad1:

For lunch, we went to Rose and Crown; we were so looking forward to trying the vegetarian shephard's pie, which we'd seen on the lunch menu only on an unofficial site online. Here is the menu:
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Unfortunately, there was no vegetarian shephard's pie on the menu. I'm not sure if something changed, or if it is only available at dinner. We were a little disappointed, but still eager to try some other things that sounded great.

We shared a light pomegranate lemonade.
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This is good, especially for a "light" drink.

DP ordered the fish and chips.
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This was ok, but not nearly as good as what we remembered having from the walk-up window alongside the restaurant. I think it might be because the pieces of fish were bigger, therefore the ratio of fish to breading and oil was higher, rendering the whole thing just not quite as good. It was ok though.

I ordered the vegetarian stone pie, which was described as mushrooms, onions, spinach, cheese and a side salad. This sounded right up my alley.
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Unfortunately, this wasn't what I had in mind at all! Nowhere on the menu did it explain that this was an egg pie, similar to a quiche but without the proper texture. It was like a gelatanous egg custard, and I didn't like it much at all. The flavors of the vegetables were good and the crust was lovely, but the texture of the dish was totally off-putting, especially since I wasn't expecting eggs at all. The salad did not impress me either.

For us, this is one meal we don't need to repeat, and a sad disappointment since we'd been looking forward to it so much.
 
After touring some of the countries in World Showcase and taking a whirl through Imagination with Figment, we had worked up a little bit of an appetite.

We chose this snack from Karamel Kuche:
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It was some sort of caramel bar, and it was delicious. So far, Karamel Kuche is my favorite destination for snacks!

We went to the late showing of Fantasmic at HS and because we were low on time, we missed dinner.

Later that night, on returning to our hotel, we stopped in at the Beach Club Marketplace for a late night dinner, which we took back to our room.
We split the flat bread cheese pizza.
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This was so good, and again as with the breakfast croissant, I only wished we had each ordered one. That is how good it was! The crust was fresh and tasted of Italian herbs, and the cheese was flavorful and delicious. The sauce was mild and nicely spiced. If only they could serve these at Pinocchio's in MK!!! :)

We each had a small side salad, but I didn't photograph those.

We went to sleep satisfied and sad, because our long trip was beginning to wind down. :sad2:
 
This morning, we woke up early to make RD at MK and finished off the last of our granola bars from home.

We made it to MK for RD and took a spin on the teacups as well as Dumbo and many of our other favorites. When it was time for lunch, we were in a conundrum. We had an ADR for Liberty Tree Tavern (mostly because we wanted to taste the Ooey Gooey Toffee Cake), but we were both so sad that we had cancelled our reservation for earlier in the week at Tony's Town Square Restaurant. We decided to skip the LTT and head down to Main Street in hopes of getting a walk-in table at Tony's.

We were in luck!
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What a charming restaurant!

Here is the view from our table:
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We were seated on the patio and our server was fast and attentive.

I ordered the shrimp caesar salad, wanting something a little on the lighter side.
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This was good, plenty of shrimp, nice dressing and fresh romaine lettuce. All in all the perfect portion size and just enough, light and fresh.

DP had her second flatbread in two days:
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This was good, too, although a little plain for my tastes. She seemed to thoroughly enjoy it.

When we had finished, we were heading over to Splash Mountain to use FPs we had obtained earlier, when we realized that we had finished our lunch prior to our 1 pm reservation at LTT. And that is when it hit us! :idea:
Why not have two lunches in one day?!

Thankfully, I'd eaten so lightly I could stomach it. :lmao:

So we stopped right in at LTT and checked in for or reservation.
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We drank water so we wouldn't feel like the ultimate gluttons. :rotfl2:

We started with something I'd been wanting to try for months, the crab dip appetizer for two.
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This was ok. The color was really unusual, kind of a grayish orangey brown. Not exactly how you want your crab dip to look. :eek: It tasted alright and was satisfying.

After that, we were ready for dessert, and we knew just what we would have.
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After all the wait, it was certainly worth it! This was delicious.

We were very pleased with ourselves for stopping by and keeping our ADR.

Now before we could leave, our server came by and asked if she could acknowledge DP's birthday, noting that it was listed on our reservation. It's funny, because I had listed her birthday on every reservation I had booked, yet this was the first time anyone had even mentioned it. I must say, I was very impressed.

The server brought this nice little cupcake to us in recognition of the special event.
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There was absolutely no way we could eat this after all we had just consumed (remember, our server didn't know we'd just eaten 2 lunches!:laughing:), so we asked her if we could take it to go. She put it in a little paper cup with a lid, and I packed that cupcake around in my purse for the rest of the day.

We ended up eating it for breakfast the next morning, and it was still good and actually pretty impressive for a free birthday dessert.
 
Loving all your reviews! Thanks for sharing! So funny to do 2 restaurants for lunch, lol! Great idea to get that yummy cake! :thumbsup2
 
2 lunches in one day! Fantastic idea! Although, like you, I'm sure I would be absolutely stuffed.
 
Yummy pics! Loving your reviews!! What a nice view from Tony's too! Awesome!:wave2:

It was great and it just added to the experience of being at that restaurant. The inside is so charming, too, though. Doesn't look like there is a bad seat in the house!
 
Two lunches in one day?!?! I love the way you think!:thumbsup2
Thanks so much for your wonderful reviews and the pictures.
 
For dinner, we had an ADR we were perhaps most excited for, Kona at the Polynesian. It was very simple and fast to take the resort monorail from the MK straight to the Poly. We arrived early (we were hungry after all those lunches :lmao:) but they checked us in and seated us right away.

The restaurant was bustling and nicely themed with a great view of the monorail out the window. Our server was fast and seemed genuinely interested in making sure we had a good experience. Of all the restaurant experiences we had at WDW this year, she was the best server we encountered.

We started off with the bread they serve to each table. It comes with macademia nut butter.
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Wow was this good! I could have eaten just this and been satisfied. The bread was soft, warm and slightly sweet. The butter was heavenly.

We shared the Malibu Macaw, which was some sort of coconut rum tropical drink.
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This was delicious, sweet and refreshing and very tropical tasting.

We decided to start with some sushi rolls as an appetizer. Our server informed us that the sushi takes longer to prepare, since they are each made to order (and we could see the chef from our table). It could be as long as 20 minutes from the time the order is placed; we were in no hurry, so we ordered the sushi roll of the night, the crab cake roll.
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These were very good. The seaweed was a little tough and chewy. They really did remind me a lot of California rolls but were much richer. I probably would have been just as happy with the California rolls, which might have been easier on the wasteline. :rotfl2:

For dinner, DP ordered something she had planned in advance, the tuna oscar.
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I am a fan of anything oscar, but this was a spin on the traditional topping. The lump crab was actually fried before being placed on the tuna. I managed to snag one little bite, and boy was that good! She enjoyed the fried green tomatoes underneath, but was a little jealous when she spied the man at the table next to us eating his with mashed potatoes instead. Apparently this is a substitution you can make if you so wish. Overall, this dish was a huge hit and she loved it and can't wait to eat it again.

I went with the shrimp and scallops.
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This was good. The shrimp were delicious and the scallops were plain but nicely done. The white rice was as plain and simple as it looked. I didn't care for the flavor of the slaw, which was a slightly pickled taste with a little spice to it. I found the seafood tasteful, but it was plainly seasoned, so I asked if there was any sauce I could get as an accompaniment. The server returned with a little dish of some sweet and spicy plum sauce, and this did the trick.

Kona was our favorite meal of the trip collectively, if you weigh both our opinions of all aspects of the meal. We can't wait to return, and now we hope to stay at the Polynesian on a future trip.

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A lovely view across the lagoon from the Poly (construction crane and Cinderella Castle in the background).
 

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