Hey!!! Don't eat that, I haven't taken a picture yet!! *Completed*

[VikingInMouseEars]

Hi all, long time food review reader, first time food review poster. We are currently in the world, arrived Dec. 1st and they're making us go home on Dec. 15th. I will not promise that this review will be 100% live, but I will do the best I can (mostly depends on how tired I am each night when we get back to the condo).

We are staying off property at the Polynesian Isles Resort. This is our 3rd stay here and if we aren't staying on-property this is our first choice.

Cast of gluttons:

Me- Eric, 48 I will eat most things, but not a fan of many veggies and I really don't care for the spices used in African and Indian food. I am also the photographer.

Luanne, 50 She eats most anything.

We are both foodies, our WDW trips are basically planned around where we want to eat. We both enjoy all the planning and research involved in a WDW trip and LOVE reading these food reviews. Also, we are not really officially married but we do celebrate our anniversary on Dec. 8th, so there will some of those celebration desserts many of the TS restaurants give you.

I have decided not to list where we will be eating as we have only been here 2 days and have already made changes LOL.

So welcome aboard and I hope you enjoy the ride.

 

[wdwloverz]

Can't wait!! Such an awesome time of year to be at WDW! ENJOY

 

[VikingInMouseEars]

Day 1, Dec 1st. Travel day.

I got home from work about 1am, got to bed about 4am and was up and out the door at about 8:30am. Our flight wasn't until 12:55 but we have a cat and a dog and of course they can't board at the same kennel. So we take the cat to the Petsmart Pet Hotel about 12 miles west of the house the dog goes to a place about 15 miles northeast of the house and the airport is about 30 miles south east of the house, so we basically make a huge 3/4 circle.

Unfortunately there are no food pictures today. One the way to the airport we hit Macdonalds for sausage and eggs biscuits.

After arrival in Orlando, we stooped at Walmart for coke, water and ice and then went to check into the condo.

By the time we finished all that it was about 8:30PM so we headed for DTD Marketplace. Tonights agenda was Wolfgang Puck Express. I was still operating on about 3.5 hrs sleep so I wound up leaving the camera in the condo. But what we ate was; Bacon Wrapped Meatloaf - mashed potatoes, port wine sauce and crispy onion rings. We both ordered this, we both love this, we both dream and drool about this at home and it didn't dissapoint.
We also had a Meatballs and Peppers Wood-fired Pizza, house-made meatballs, mozzarella, fontina and tomato basil-garlic sauce to share. This was something we hadn't tried before, but we both liked it. I would have preferred the crust to have been cooked a little longer, but thats just a personal preference, overall it had great flavor!

After dinner we stopped by Ghirardelli for some free samples. This time of year it is white chocolate peppermint squares.

Then I ran in to World of Disney for a supply of Minnie's Bake Shop chocolate chip cookies. I love these things and always go home with a bunch, for those of you taking part in the DDP they are also a snack credit.

For Day 2 we will be at MK .... stay tuned.

 

[VikingInMouseEars]

Can't wait!! Such an awesome time of year to be at WDW! ENJOY

Welcome. Yep, this is our favorite time to be in WDW. Last year we came at the end of Oct. and beginning of Nov. so got to see both the Halloween celebrations and also the beginning of the Christmas season and we enjoyed that also. But the total emersion into Christmas that Dec. in WDW brings can't be beat in our opinion.

 

[GoofySon'sMom]

Looking forward to your reviews! Have a great trip!

 

[Uncle Remus]

Hi all, long time food review reader, first time food review poster. We are currently in the world, arrived Dec. 1st and they're making us go home on Dec. 15th. I will not promise that this review will be 100% live, but I will do the best I can (mostly depends on how tired I am each night when we get back to the condo).

We are staying off property at the Polynesian Isles Resort. This is our 3rd stay here and if we aren't staying on-property this is our first choice.

Cast of gluttons:

Me- Eric, 48 I will eat most things, but not a fan of many veggies and I really don't care for the spices used in African and Indian food. I am also the photographer.

Luanne, 50 She eats most anything.

We are both foodies, our WDW trips are basically planned around where we want to eat. We both enjoy all the planning and research involved in a WDW trip and LOVE reading these food reviews. Also, we are not really officially married but we do celebrate our anniversary on Dec. 8th, so there will some of those celebration desserts many of the TS restaurants give you.

I have decided not to list where we will be eating as we have only been here 2 days and have already made changes LOL.

So welcome aboard and I hope you enjoy the ride.

Your title and above description sounds a lot like me and my wife, although we're officially married in Washington, DC (and 6 other states or maybe it's 9 now, LOL). We honeymooned at Disney and are going back this next June for our 2nd anniversary so I can definitely relate to the celebration desserts.

Happy anniversary, I'm anxious to see all your photos and wishing you both the most fabulous celebration!!

 

[butiflfeet]

I hope you're having a great trip! I can't wait for more of your reviews. The bacon wrapped meatloaf at WPE is a must-try for me on our next trip!

 

[sweeteypie1118]

Love your title! I was saying that my whole trip Have a great time!!

 

[Jacksonev1]

15 Days in the World!! How fun!!!

 

[Christine9125]

Joining in, I love live reports!

 

[TigerKat]

Signing on! Have fun!

 

[VikingInMouseEars]

Looking forward to your reviews! Have a great trip!

Thanks!

Your title and above description sounds a lot like me and my wife, although we're officially married in Washington, DC (and 6 other states or maybe it's 9 now, LOL). We honeymooned at Disney and are going back this next June for our 2nd anniversary so I can definitely relate to the celebration desserts.

Happy anniversary, I'm anxious to see all your photos and wishing you both the most fabulous celebration!!

Thank you! The celebration desserts are a nice surprise when you get them, although we have been on the DDP before and then its almost to much dessert (never would have thought I'd ever say that LOL).

I hope you're having a great trip! I can't wait for more of your reviews. The bacon wrapped meatloaf at WPE is a must-try for me on our next trip!

Thanks and we highly reccomend the meatloaf... ask for extra gravy!

Love your title! I was saying that my whole trip Have a great time!!

Thanks. So far Luanne and I have each been guilty once of nt waiting for the picture LOL

15 Days in the World!! How fun!!!

If your gonna do it, do it big, I always say LOL

Joining in, I love live reports!

Welcome!!

Signing on! Have fun!

Thanks and welcome aboard!

 

[VikingInMouseEars]

Day 2 dawned bright and early at about 10AM LOL. We actually had an ADR for a Trails End breakfast........ But.......I work a 2:30PM to 12:30 AM shift at work, since Oct 1st I had had a grand total of 5 days off, Colorado is 2 hours behind Florida and as mentioned I had only gotten about 3.5 hours of sleep the night before we left so ... the best laid plans of mice and men and all that LOL.

We puttered around the condo allowing the coffee to do its magic and then headed to MK for lunch. We decided to hit up Sleepy Hollow and try the :


IMGP1898 by VikingInMouseEars, on Flickr

and the:


IMGP1899 by VikingInMouseEars, on Flickr

Overall we liked the Sweet and Spicy Chicken Waffle Sandwich best. It had enough going on to counter act the sweetness of the waffle and the chicken had a very good flavor without being to hot. On the other hand we felt that the Ham, Prosciutto and Swiss was over powered by the sweet waffle. It might have been better with more salty ham and/or prosciutto to cut the sweet waffle. We both wished the waffles had been cooked just a little longer as they were very soft. Overall neither sandwich was too bad, but neither will make the must eat again list. We do plan to try the Nutella and Fruit Waffle later in the trip.

Along about mid-afternoon we decided it would be a good time to try a Citrus Swirl - orange slush with vanilla soft-serve ice cream from Sunshine Tree Terrace. Alas there is no picture as I was shovelling this citrusy, ice creamy mound of deliciousnous in my mouth as soon as the guy handed it to me, oh well, guess now I have to get another one to take a picture LOL. I really enjoyed this cold refreshing treat, I prefer this to Dole Whips. Luanne enjoyed hers as well, but I think her heart belongs to the Dole Whip Float. If you opt to try this make sure you go to the Sunshine Tree Terrace as they have the orange slush and Aloha Isle only has orange flavored ice cream, get the real thing.

Dinner tonight was at Sanna. As I said earlier I don't really care for the spices used in a lot of African and Indian food, but I discovered last year that Sanna has one of the tastiest steaks on WDW property. For starters we had:


IMGP1992 by VikingInMouseEars, on Flickr

The Indian Style Bread Service. You now get all five breads...Naan, Garlic Ginger Naan, Spiced Naan, Onion Kulcha and Papadum, you also get to choose 5 of the dips....Red Chile Sambal, Cucumber Raita, Coriander Chutney, Mango Chutney, Coconut Chutney, Garlic Pickle, Spicy Jalapeno-lime pickle, Roasted Red Bell Pepper Hummus, Tamarind Chutney. We took 3 cucumber raita, 1 roasted red bell pepper hummus (for Luanne) and 1 Spicy Jalapeno-lime pickle (for me). We really liked all the breads, one is a very thin crispy cracker like thing, the others are thicker and soft (think very thick tortilla like texture). The cucumber raita is a yogurt with cucumber 9and some other stuff) dip, very mild and cooling. I didn't have the hummus, but Luanne likes it. The jalapeno-lime pickles were HOT with a HOT that lingered, I don't know what else was in this dip but it was hotter than just jalapeno hot. I like spicy, but generally not the fire-breathing, steam coming out of your ears kind of hot, but I actually liked this, I mixed it with some of the cucumber raita to cool it down a little.

We also had the:


IMGP1991 by VikingInMouseEars, on Flickr

Lamb Kefta Kabobs - with mint chutney These were great!! I have no idea what the ingredients were, but the flavor was out of this world. I would go to Sanna just for these. I think I saw that on the Sanna lunch menu they have a lamb kefta sandwich and I look forward to trying that someday. Luanne asked for the recipe, but they didn't have it to give out.

For our main course we had:


IMGP1994 by VikingInMouseEars, on Flickr

New York Strip - Coriander Chutney rubbed strip steak served with seasaonal vegetable wat and potato wedges.


IMGP1993 by VikingInMouseEars, on Flickr

New York Strip - Coriander Chutney rubbed strip steak with 5-grain pilaf instead of the veggies.

Both steaks were very good, cooked to order and had a very nice char flavor that just plain makes the steak as far as I am concerned. Luanne had hers with the veggies and she enjoyed them. As the veggies are laced with the spices I don't care for I got my steak with 5-grain pilaf. The rice was cooked well, but I was wishing for a bit more flavor. The steaks are worth going to Sanna for, I will just try different side until I find one I am happy with.


We weren't going to order dessert, but in honor of our anniversary celebration the server brought us this:


IMGP1997 by VikingInMouseEars, on Flickr

Complimentry Celebration Dessert from Sanna. Mint/Raspberry Sorbet and a very fudgy Chocolate cake.

I am a sorbet fan and I loved this! The sorbet had a very tart yet sweet berry flavor and the mint melded in well, noticeable but not overpowering. The cake was very moist and chocolately.

Sanna was a big hit and has become one of our must do's, for both the food and the atmosphere. Don't forget to go outside and look at the animals, through night vision goggle they lend you if your there after dark.

Next I will bring you day 3 at AK where we will find out... did he or didn't he remember to take a picture of his mickey bar?

 

[suburbiatexas]

this looks so tasty! i am going to have to re think my ressies, sanna looks so good to me....you had me at the bread and dips!

 

[VikingInMouseEars]

Welcome back to day 3 of our Disney dining extravaganza! Another day another cancelled breakfast ADR, this time it was Boma, apparently I am no longer a morning person LOL.

Anyway, today we find ourselves at Disney's Animal Kingdom on a nearly perfect day, cool temps, manageable crowds (literally walked onto EE.....TWICE......through the stand-by line!!), who could ask for anything more....... well yeah, we can ask for food! We decided that we would have lunch at Flame Tree BBQ.

Luanne ordered the:


IMGP2025 by VikingInMouseEars, on Flickr

Ribs and Chicken Combo served with baked beans and coleslaw
She really enjoyed this, said the ribs had great flavor and the chicken was moist and flavorful.

I ordered:


IMGP2024 by VikingInMouseEars, on Flickr

1/2 Slab of St. Louis Ribs - served with baked beans and coleslaw and a side of onion rings.

I like my ribs on the firmer side rather than falling off the bone and these were perfect, great smoky flavor and the BBQ sauce I got from the condiment counter had just the right tang. The coleslaw was the creamy kind wich I prefer, other than that it was just coleslaw. I know many people don't seem to like the beans but I do, great flavor with shreds of meat. The onion rings were well cooked and tasted good.

Now, to answer my question from the previous post, yes, I did remember to take a picture of my mickey bar, however I didn't take it LOL. Luanne had wandered off somewhere when I bought my mickey bar so I was by myself. I had forgotten to change back to my smaller camera lens after riding the safari ride so there I was, holding an unwrapped mickey bar in one hand with no one to hold it and no place to set it down while I changed lenses, I tried to take a picture. but my arms were just not long enough to hold the mickey bar far enough away to get it in focus. Now I had to ask myself, should I find someplace to set the bar down and change lenses or should I just eat it........ I ate it.

So now were are walking towards EE and were passing by Yak and Yeti Counter Service and we remembered all the rave reviews for the pork egg rolls so we got these little beauties:


IMGP2391 by VikingInMouseEars, on Flickr

These were every bit as good as people say. Many egg rolls have to much cabbage that overwhelms the pork, but these were perfect!

AK was open until 7 so we stayed and then decided to stop at the Contemporary Resort for dinner and watch Wishes from the balcony. We went to the Contemo Cafe and Luanne ordered:


IMGP2479 by VikingInMouseEars, on Flickr

Marinated Beef Flatbread - with oven roasted tomatoes, garlic, onions, arugula, and goat cheese

She loves this and orders it everytime, I try a piece everytime and am never that impressed LOL You will have to try it yourself.

I ordered:


IMGP2481 by VikingInMouseEars, on Flickr

Chicken Caesar - with garlic croutons
This was a nice salad, the lettuce was fresh and crisp and nice big chucks of chicken, however be careful, I found 2 small bones. The only draw back was that while the croutons had a great flavor, they were more dust than croutons.

We both also ordered:


IMGP2480 by VikingInMouseEars, on Flickr

Pasta with Chicken Basil Creme Sauce
We both liked this, although I would have preferred a bit more sauce it still had lots of flavor and the pasta was cooked perfect and this also had large chunks of chicken.

I also ordered one of these to take back to the condo:


IMGP2477 by VikingInMouseEars, on Flickr

Chocolate cupcake with mint frosting from Contempo Cafe.


IMGP2487 by VikingInMouseEars, on Flickr

Cross-section of cupcake.
Contempo seems to have an ever changing series of cupcakes and this was the newest one I had seen. I don't know whether they will be offering it all through the Christmas season or not. The frosting is a light green and thats where all the mint flavor was, just enough and not to strong, the frosting itself was heavier than a whipped cream but not quite as heavy as a butter cream. The cake itself was moist and chocolatey and as you can see by the cross-section has a liquidy fudgy center. I liked this cupcake alot.

I almost forgot, while at AK Luanne got a Cotton Top Tamarin Cupcake to go from one of the food carts. I didn't get a picture of the cupcake, but below is a picture of the white chocolate/dark chocolate lollipop that tops the cupcake. Luanne said the cupcake was great.


IMGP2488 by VikingInMouseEars, on Flickr

I hope you are enjoying this culinary trip with us through the gastronomical delight that is Disney Dining.

Tomorrow we will explore a lunch at BOG and find out if Cookes of Dublin can redeem themselves (I will explain that tomorrow).
Until then..

 

[VikingInMouseEars]

Today was a MK day. Crowds weren't to bad. We stayed in the Fantasyland and Tomorrowland areas and every ride except Under the Sea was a walk on. We had an ADR for Liberty Tree Tavern at the last minute called an audible and went to Be Our Guest instead. We had a 10-15 minute wait and that was mostly due to people trying to figure out the ordering system. You wait in line outside, then they let you in to wait in a second line to get to an ordering machine. As you pass into the ordering room you are given a red plastic puck with a rose embossed on it, the puck as somesort of locator inside of it so they can find your table to deliver your food. I have seen some reports of the ordering process going smoothly but I saw no sign of that LOL. They have 6 ordering station, 2 with a cashier to except cash and 4 that you operate yourself that except credit cards and DDP. I have never seen so many people who had shut their brains off in one place before LOL. To be fair, one of the things you have to do is scan your puck in order to tie it to your order and there is a little Mickey on one side of the puck that has to be placed just right in order for it to scan, but there are no real instructions on how to do that so there is a CM by each machine to guide you through the process. Seems to me that if a CM needs to help each person then that kind of defeats the purpose of self-ordering/payment machines. I was placed at a machine behind a young couple and you would have thought that the fate of the world rested with what this young lady choose for her beverage, she literally started to make a selection 4 different times only to yank her finger back and literally held her palm to her forehead while she rethought her pick. In reality, it didn't really matter because all beverages are self serve anyway, so she could have picked any fountain drink on the machine and then changed her mind at the beverage station LOL. For those of you who are waiting with baited breath...she eventually choose lemonade, the world is still here so apparently her choice was successful LOL.

Both Luanne and I ordered:

IMGP2597 by VikingInMouseEars, on Flickr
Potato Leek Soup

We both enjoyed this, it was very tastly and the leek wasn't overpowering. I prefer larger chucks of potato and this was more of a puree but I would certainly order it again.

For her main course Luanne ordered:

IMGP2596 by VikingInMouseEars, on Flickr
Braised Pork (Coq Au Vin style) - eight-hour slow-cooked pork with mushrooms, onions, carrots and bacon served with mashed potatoes and green beens jardiniere.

She really enjoyed this. The veggies were fully cooked and the pork was nice and tender. She doesn't eat muchrooms so I got the and I agree, it tasted very good.

I ordered:

IMGP2599 by VikingInMouseEars, on Flickr
Grilled Steak Sandwich - with garlic butter spread and pommes frites

The steak was nice and tender and had a nice flavor. The greens were very bitter so I took about half of them off. The fries were typical Disney fries. One thing I think would have made the sandwich better would be to serve it with au jus as there was a lot of bread and even with the garlic butter it was a bit dry.
The cart they bring your food to you on looks like this:

IMGP2602 by VikingInMouseEars, on Flickr

On the whole we were impressed with the quality of the food, particularly for a CS and we will not hesitate to eat there again.

On our way to Under the Sea I stopped at Gaston's Tavern and got a:

IMGP2631 by VikingInMouseEars, on Flickr
LeFou's Brew, Frozen apple juice with a hint of toasted marshmallow and topped with all-natural passion fruit-mango foam.
This was very nice, not to sour, not to sweet. The foam really didn't add anything I felt, but I would certainly order this again.

For dinner we decided to give Cookes of Dublin another chance. For our first 2 or three trips Cookes was a must do for us, then we hit them on a bad night and have since skipped them for the past couple of years. The things I always looked forward to most where the mini battered sausages and the Irish Vintage Cheese and Bacon dip. Well on our last visit I opened my dip which is served hot and found a glob of goo in the center of the container surrounded by a watery liquid. I took it back to the counter and they gave me a different one, I opened it and same thing, took it back again and got another, this one still wasn't perfect but I was able to stir it up so that it was at least eadible. So I dipped one of my battered sausages and took a bite and the sausage was RAW in the middle! Took the whole mess back and got my money returned. So as I said we stopped going for awhile and finally decided that we had loved them so much we would give them another chance. So did they live up to our earlier expectation? Almost LOL

We both ordered the:

IMGP2706 by VikingInMouseEars, on Flickr
The Original One & One - Fish & Chips
The fish was excellent, nice and flakey, all white fish. The batter was totally cooked through and had a nice crispy texture. The reason Cookes only "almost" redeemed themselves was that while the fries were hot and cooked through, they were removed from the fryer a bit to early so they were basically just limp. These are steak fries so they really need to be crispy on the outside while soft on the inside.

I also ordered:

IMGP2708 by VikingInMouseEars, on Flickr
Mini Irish Sausages

Again the fries were a dissapointment, but the battered sausages.... well they were the little battered bits of heaven I remember. Words cannot describe my love for these things, whomever created these little gems of mouth-watering goodness deserves a knighthood.

We both also ordered the:

IMGP2709 by VikingInMouseEars, on Flickr
Irish Vintage Cheese and Bacon Dip

Being a guy, I don't usually use words like devine... and I won't here either, but this stuff is darn good. This has bits of bacon mixed in with the cheese and both the battered sausages and fries are great when dipped in this, in fact, if its dippable it would probably be good dipped in this.

Well that wraps up another tastebud pleasing day at WDW.
Tune in next time when we discover a breakfast roll that puts the MainStreet Bakery cinnimon roll to shame and what kind of special fruit drink our Trails Inn server Donnell mixes for me when he sees all the sausage links I am eating.LOL

 

[CaliBear]

Subscribed to your thread. You take great pictures and am enjoying your stories. The cart in BOG is the cutest thing ever.

 

[VikingInMouseEars]

Subscribed to your thread. You take great pictures and am enjoying your stories. The cart in BOG is the cutest thing ever.

Thank you and welcome. We may be in your neck of the woods as we are thinking about a trip to DL in May.

 

[nutz2notz]

Great report. Looking forward to more.

 

[VikingInMouseEars]

Great report. Looking forward to more.

Thank you!