Sorry I have been away for a while, folks! We have been pretty busy getting Belle settled in her new home in NYC! All went well and I'm happy to report she is having a great time at college orientation. They bring the freshman in 9 days before classes start to help them get acclimated to the environment, which is a great plan for such a huge university in a potentially overwhelming city.
So now, back to the food!
I don't seem to have receipt for breakfast on Sunday, 9/5, but I know that some snack credits were used at Captain Cook's. I believe that Aladdin had a yogurt parfait (his usual breakfast we both love these things!), Hercules enjoyed a bagel with cream cheese that he toasted himself on one of the available toasters, and Belle probably had a cheese danish (the cheese danish is one of those foods only eaten on vacation!). I wasn't hungry, so I just filled my mug with coffee. Plus I wanted to save some room for eating in the MK!
Our ADR at LTT was at opening time, 11:30. We arrived around 11:20 and checked in. We had to wait around for a few minutes in the quaint lobby, and we really enjoyed the vibe in there. We watched the family of the day ring the bell and declaration was made that the place was open! (Very cute short ceremony) We were seated right away at the railing in the Betsy Ross Room. Loved our table!
Our server was Jay, and we told him right away that we planned on ordering 3 meals and splitting each 4 ways and he said no problem, he would make sure that we had plenty of plates. We also knew on a tip from a DISer that we needed to ASK for rolls with honey butter, so we put in that request right away:
These were soft and sweet to begin with, and with the honey butter, they tasted a little like dessert. A little honey butter goes a long way!
We were quickly served our one diet coke, a pomegranate lemonade, and 4 waters all around, and fell in love with the glasses so we bought 2:
These cost $5.00 each and a great souvenir! Jay added the cost right onto our bill.
For our appies, we wanted a Crab and Spinach Dip for Two. We fully expected this to count as 2 out of our 3 allowed appetizers, but Jay said it would only count as 1! So we were able to get it and still order two others. So I present the Crab and Spinach Dip for Two:
This was delicious! It was very fresh tasting with tons of chunks of blue crab and very cream cheesy with just the right amount of spicy kick to it. If anything, we would have preferred just a little more spinach, but it was so good as it was. It was served in a nice bread bowl that made for the perfect vehicle for the dip. Even Aladdin, who is not a fan of crab, thought this was great! It was a large portion, too, and if this had been our only appetizer, it would have done the trick for the 4 of us!
Next we ordered a bowl of New England Clam Chowder:
The clams in this bowl were soooo tender and juicy, which is quite a difficult accomplishment in a restaurant! I wonder if they throw them in at the last minute for each order, or if the tenderness is unique to restaurant opening? The soup was heavily seasoned with tarragon, perhaps just a little too much for my liking, which reminded me of the chowder at Chef Mickey's, but it didn't ruin my enjoyment of the creamy, buttery soup.
For our final appetizer, we chose the Declaration Salad:
We had the choice of strawberry viniagrette or roasted garlic buttermilk. We were tempted to go with the buttermilk, but we asked Jay for his recommendation and he said strawberry! So we tried and and are we glad we did! This was a perfect salad! Everything was crisp and fresh and the dressing was refreshing and not overly sweet or overpowering. This was by far Belle's favorite of the appies. It made both of us really want to try the Colony Salad main course next time (also, on the way out, we saw a Colony Salad on another table, and that thing is HUGE! We were afraid a salad would be too small for splitting but that is definitely NOT the case at LTT. Even this appetizer salad had plenty to share, though it might look like a small portion in this photo).
For our main courses, we decided we had to go with some of what makes LTT famous! First, the Pilgrim's Feast:
The traditional turkey dinner with turkey breast, mashed potatoes, stuffing and green beans. It came with a relatively small amount of gravy, which disappointed Herc a bit, so we asked if we could please have some more. Jay brought out another whole boat of gravy. The whole thing was delicious and we have not one negative comment about anything on this platter. I also want to mention that I am not a big fan of white meat turkey, and I think the whole combo is generally pretty boring, but for some reason on this day (pixie dust?) even I loved this meal!
Next, we chose the New England Pot Roast, Our Tavern Keeper's Favorite:
Well, I would say that the Tavern Keeper has some darned good taste, because this thing was so scrumptious! The cabernet and mushroom sauce was extremely rich and delicious, it was better than my slow-cooker pot roast that I make at home, which is my former favorite pot roast ever. Note to self, add cabernet!
For our final entree, we had a hard time deciding between the Colony Salad or the pasta dish, but since we were splitting, we were afraid the salad wouldn't be enough. So we went with the Freedom Pasta:
This was the low-light of the meal, if we had to pick one. It was OK...the fusilli pasta was cooked right and the mushroom cream sauce was pretty tasty, but the grilled chicken was pretty dry and tasteless and the "seasonal vegetables" were some bland tomatoes and perhaps some few and far between pieces of squash? and maybe a spinach leaf here and there? Anyway, not memorable.
We were really looking forward to dessert at LTT! We have been dying to try the Ooey Gooey Toffee Cake:
This was very good! We would order it again...maybe...if they weren't serving the OTHER desserts that we though were GREAT!
Seasonal Fruit Crisp that day was Strawberry Rhubarb:
yum. Yum. YUM!!!!! This was soooo good! We didn't want to share! It was just the perfect amount of sweet and tart and the crumbs on top were so good! We all liked this dessert more than the famous berry cobbler at Artist Point, and were kind of scratching our heads about the lack of love for it? And it wasn't even as good as the final choice...
Johnny Appleseed's Cake:
This is described as tavern-made white cake filled with apples, craisins, dried cranberries and topped with ice cream. Well, I couldn't really detect many apples, but this was so so DELECTABLE! We absolutely LOVED this, and I can see why LTT has chosen this dessert as their signature sweet at dinner! In my opinion it was the best of the batch that we tasted that day (Herc perferred the crisp). This was ooey and gooey, more so than the toffee cake, we thought, which was a tad dry. This had a caramel sauce on it, which is my favorite, and perhaps because the cake was simpler, I was able to aprpeciate the caramel more? IDK, maybe it's just our family, but we left LTT scratching our heads about how OVERrated the toffee cake was and how equally UNDERrated the fruit crisp and the appleseed cake are?
We would return to LTT in a heartbeat, and recommend lunch there to anyone. And having tasted the Pilgrim's Feast and the Johnny Appleseed's Cake, we would even recommend it for the family-style dinner to anyone who enjoys that kind of meal! Overall, LTT rates a surprising:
4/5!
Our OOP cost for this meal was $21 for the tip, plus $10.65 for the 2 mugs and the tax on them. Jay put it all on one bill, for a total of $31.65
Next up...an interlude...
We haven't done it in about 10 years, and I don't think we're going to rush back (since I definitely don't need an entire meal filled with fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and strawberry shortcake
), but I'm glad to see it's still great as always.
The food at HDDR is very basic and plain, and...well, not that healthy when you think about it. But they do what they do well (well, usually, not always, as evidenced by our dried-out chicken). Everything on our table (except the chicken) was perfect for what it was. Pork and beans is not may favorite side dish, but, if you like pork and beans, it doesn't get better than this, if you get my drift. It would be nice if they added a tomato salad with capers and olives, or crunchy green beans, for those looking for something healthy besides iceberg lettuce! 
But it's definitely not me (or DS). Well, maybe after a few of those sangrias! 
! We should start a fund for you to go every year and then report back to us.... Keep up the great work!!!
You can be the founder and president of the iloveeeyore fan club! Charge the members big dues to pay for my next trip! 
