A free dining, steak-filled Sept. food extravaganza! Final post, 10/25!

[klacey1]

Hello all! I am ashamed to admit I have two unfinished dining reports on this board. * hangs head in shame * That will not happen this time! I captured photos of most of our meals & snacks and I hope you enjoy reading about them. We stayed at the WL with free dining! I know theres a lot of debate over the dining plan, but we personally love it. I'm not sure if we paid for it if we'd get the full value of it, but I really love the convenience of it.

My dining party consisted of me and my boyfriend, Zach. I love pretty much everything-- seafood, all kinds of meat, veggies, etc. Im not a fan of unmelted cheese (so no cheese plates here), but I love anything with truffle oil and scallops are one of my favorite things in the world! I also love trying unique beers, and occasionally a cocktail. Zach, on the other hand is much more picky. He is strictly a meat and potatoes guy and had steak at most of our TS meals (hence the title)! He hates cheese unless its on pizza and tends to not like most sauces.

On with the show! Here are the places Ill be reviewing:

Cookes of Dublin
Biergarten
Pecos Bill
Main Street Bakery
Raglan Road
Writer's Stop
Pizza Planet
Yachtsman Steakhouse
Captain Cooks
Be Our Guest
Three Broomsticks
La Cantina de San Angel, Katsura Grill, & LArtisan de Glaces
La Hacienda de San Angel
Sunshine Seasons & Tony's Town Square
Wrap up!

I hope you enjoy! I have pics of most of these meals!

 

[klacey1]

First up is Cooke’s of Dublin! We had an ADR at Raglan Road for the following night, which may seem a bit repetitive, but I really wanted to try Cooke’s! We got to DTD around 1:30 and had no trouble finding a table.

Zach initially wanted to order the battered sausages, but unfortunately they were out! He went with the chicken instead:

He loved this! It was a huge portion of chicken, and instead of being breaded like most chicken tenders, this was fried in the same batter as the fish and chips. It was piping hot and tasted incredibly fresh (both in the quality of the chicken and batter). He probably ate about half the chicken and half the fries and was totally stuffed!

I got the scallops:

Another huge portion and a total home run! There were six meaty, delicious scallops fried in the same batter as Zach’s chicken. They were perfectly cooked (over-cooked scallops are my worst enemy!) and again, piping hot. My fries got a bit soggy sitting under the scallops, but as I ate every nugget of delicious scallop, it was okay. I only ate a few fries, which were a bit thicker than I prefer. Those who like the British, steak-cut fries will definitely like these, though!

We both got the chocolate chip cookie for dessert, which ended up being a total waste. After we were done with lunch, the wax paper the cookies were wrapped in was totally clear from the grease of the cookie. Blech! After a heavy fried meal in the Florida heat, we did not need anything else!

We’d rate this a 9 out of 10. For Zach, it is definitely his new favorite CS in DTD. I still hold strong to WPE, but this is a VERY close second. We’ll definitely be back!

 

[Tinker12]

Great start!! Thank you for sharing!

 

[lisaviolet]

You had me at steak and then killed me with this -----

(so no cheese plates here),
!

But I'm following nonetheless.

 

[lisaviolet]

What's so wonderful about it - is the people watching at the outside patio. Love the location for that - it's absolutely relaxing.

 

[klacey1]

Great start!! Thank you for sharing!

Thanks for joining in!

You had me at steak and then killed me with this -----

But I'm following nonetheless.

What's so wonderful about it - is the people watching at the outside patio. Love the location for that - it's absolutely relaxing.

Haha, sorry to disappoint with the lack of cheese plates! I do love the outdoor patio at Cooke's-- it was just about 100 degrees this day!

 

[princess_momma]

YUM! I have always wanted to try Cookes! You know I love all your choices, can't wait to read about them!

 

[klacey1]

YUM! I have always wanted to try Cookes! You know I love all your choices, can't wait to read about them!

Definitely make time to go to Cooke's on your trip-- soo good!

 

[klacey1]

We had a 7:05 reservation at Biergarten for our first night. We were a bit nervous about this for a couple of reasons. One, we were worried about our tablemates. Would they be friendly?! Would they be misbehaving kids?! (Or adults??) Secondly, we’re not crazy about buffets. I think it’s pretty hard to maintain food quality in steam plates. Also, Zach was afraid everything was going to have sauerkraut, of which he is NOT a fan. With these positive thoughts in mind , we checked in. The delightful Nikolai explained about the communal seating and asked if we were okay with it. (Of course! Nervous, but okay with it!) He was super enthusiastic and funny-- actually all of the CMs at the check in desk were great. I hope they enjoy their jobs here-- it certainly seemed like that group did!
We stood to the side until the other six of our party checked in, a family with four kids. Nikolai brought us to our table and said that Sandra would be our waitress. We were up on the second tier, to the left of the stage. I thought it was the perfect location and that the restaurant was sooo pretty. I love the faux sky!
Fortunately, our tablemates was SO great! The parents were super friendly and the kids were well-behaved, chatty, and adorable. AND-- they were fellow New Yorkers! They live in the county where we live, about 30 minutes away from mine & Zach’s house! How funny is that?! The dad used to work down the street from my job, too! We had a lot of fun talking to them throughout the meal.
Sandra came and took our drink orders/explained the buffet immediately after we were seated. She was super sweet/helpful. We never waited for drink refills and plates never piled up.
The show started shortly after we came back with our first plates and was terrific! The band really was talented and it wasn’t too loud at all.

Onto the food/drink! Zach got a root beer, and I got a diet coke as our DDP included drinks. Normally, I wouldn’t show a picture of diet coke, but I loved the mugs they used. How cute is this?!

I also ordered the beer flight, which was soo good!

It included a Radeberger Pilsner, Schofferhofer Weizen, Altenmunster Oktoberfest, and Hovels. (Thanks for the reminder, AllEars.net!) The Oktoberfest was my favorite-- nice and crisp and cold. My least favorite was probably the Weizen, but I tend not to like wheat beers anyway.
Now for some food pics. Here’s Zach’s first plate:

He had the roast pork from the carving station, pretzel rolls, pork schnitzel, and roast potatoes to start. He loved everything on this plate. The roast pork was his absolute favorite-- he asked for an end piece, so it was crispy and crackly without being dry. The pretzel rolls were warm and soft and did not need any butter. He was impressed that the pork schnitzel was still crispy and not one bit soggy from sitting on the buffet. He thought the potatoes were cooked perfectly and whatever herbs they use on them were great!
He went up for a second plate of pretty much everything he had on the first plate!
My first plate:

I tried a lot more things! Starting from the top and going clockwise, I had pretzel bread (warm and soft), cold cucumber salad (pretty much flavorless, but a nice balance to the rest of the heavy food), pork schnitzel (juicy pork with a cripsy breaded crust-- yum!), beef roulade (a delicious savory sauce that the beef definitely needed. It was tender but a touch dry), spatzle (flavorless), mac & cheese (creamy and cheesy), potato dumpling (buttery and soft), sauerbraten (sooo tender), and roast potatoes (decent, but nothing compared to the potato dumpling). As you can see, most things on my plate were absolute home runs! My favorites were definitely the sauerbraten, mac and cheese, and potato dumplings, but the only thing I disliked was the spatzle. I found the texture hard to chew and there was no flavor to it. I went up for a second plate that had a heaping portion of mac and cheese, another potato dumpling, and a small portion of sauerbraten.
I unfortunately did not get any pictures of our dessert, but Zach and I both LOVED the apple strudel. That vanilla sauce was delicious-- I saturated the strudel in it!
We give Biergarten a 10. Everything from the atmosphere to the service to the show to the quality of the food was fantastic. This is a must-do on future trips for us from now on!

 

[Tinker12]

All this time, I did not know that it was communal sitting. Oh my! The food does look very good, especially the pretzel bread. Who could turn that down?

It's wonderful to hear that you sat next to people who lived so close!! What good luck!

 

[chocolateMinnie]

Great start to your reviews - looking forward to more

 

[blabbermouth]

Great reviews so far! We thought about Cookes, but both times we decided we didn't really want fried food. It does look good though.

I'm so glad you loved Biergarten! I didn't realize they'd wait for your whole table to arrive before seating you. Nice beer flight, looks very refreshing!

 

[klacey1]

All this time, I did not know that it was communal sitting. Oh my! The food does look very good, especially the pretzel bread. Who could turn that down?

It's wonderful to hear that you sat next to people who lived so close!! What good luck!

The communal seating was really fun! The pretzel bread was sooo good! I think Zach had five or six rolls!

Great start to your reviews - looking forward to more

Thank you very much!

Great reviews so far! We thought about Cookes, but both times we decided we didn't really want fried food. It does look good though.

I'm so glad you loved Biergarten! I didn't realize they'd wait for your whole table to arrive before seating you. Nice beer flight, looks very refreshing!

Cookes was delicious but you definitely had to be in mood for heavy fried food! It was certainly filling!
I'm not sure if waiting for the whole party is a new thing, because I've definitely read DRs where the people where shown to tables where other people were already sitting. I definitely like the entire party being seated at once better!

 

[librarygeek]

Yes, you must finish this dining review because I will be eagerly anticipating the whole thing!

I haven't tried Cookes yet - but it looks delicious! Battered anything sounds great Earl of Sandwich is our current favorite place to grab a quick bite in DTD.

Thanks for the Biergarten review! I've also been debating whether or not I'd like it. I feel the same way you do about buffets, and like Zach I don't like sauerkraut! But your review is making me feel better about trying it some day! I've actually been talking about a hypothetical (as of now) trip with my brother and I'm wondering if he'd like it. He is super, super picky, but he loves beer and is really into our German heritage. It sounds like the only thing he would eat is the pretzel rolls and the dessert. Did you happen to notice if there was a kids section of the buffet? With maybe french fries and stuff? It might be worth taking him there just for the atmosphere as long as there's enough that he will eat

 

[Mrs T 2009]

Your meals look yummy!!

I LOVE scallops also, so that makes me want to try cooks even more!!!

eww to greasy cookies


I am so glad you had a great time and meal at biergarten!!! I knew you were kinda worried about it!

Yay for having good tablemates!! I would be very nervous over whom we'd get if we ate there!

Your meals looked amazing though!!! Making my mouth water!!

 

[wiigirl]

Following along!

 

[Disneyluvr81]

I'm in!! Can't wait to read more! So glad you guys had a great time at Biergarten! My DH loved the strudel too!!

 

[cdhale]

I had the Altenmunster Oktoberfest, too.

 

[princess_momma]

Hooray for dining reviews!! I'm so glad you did one! I need to do it as well!

I'm so glad you love Biergarten...it is a must do for all my favorite Dis-friends it feels like! We had a great time there! The beer was so good and I love your thorough descriptions!

 

[dshouse4]

Great reviews. Want to go to Biergarten on our next trip.