Insanity Vol 6: Mr. Dis_Yoda turns 30 - Monsieur Paul & Complete!

[Dis_Yoda]

Who: Dis_Yoda & Mr. Dis_Yoda
When: December 26th to 28th, 2013
Where: Swan
Why: See Title ​

Background:
My husband never gets his birthday off work. In his industry, this is his prime time and I pretty much don't see him most of the month of December. When we got a copy of the schedule for Christmas week last night, I noted he doesn't close on the 26th, has his birthday off and then closes on the 28th. Perfect for a quick trip somewhere for his birthday. I gave him some different options & he picked Disney as of this morning. I know this is the busy time of the year & we have 0 DVC points left to be used for UY13 & UY14's points are mostly claimed except for 8 of them. I started pricing out hotels this morning & found out staying at the Swan is actually cheaper for us than staying at any of the Disney Moderates and only about $150 more than staying at the Disney Values. That made the hotel selection a no brainer! As this is a super quick trip, we are only planning on visiting Hollywood Studios & EPCOT as they are in walking distance from the hotel.​

As of the moment, we have dining planned at Tokyo Dining & Monsieur Paul. I was actually surprised by the amount of options available for such a last minute trip.​

Table of Contents​

December 26th
Il Mulino

December 27th
Writer's Shoppe
Refreshment Port
Tokyo Dining
L'Artisan des Glaces
Monsieur Paul​

 

[Dis_Yoda]

Il Mulino

We left Naples shortly after 7PM on the 26th & made great time towards Disney - arriving slightly after 10PM at the Swan. After we checked in and dropped our stuff in the room, I was hungry as the last time I ate was around 3pm. My husband was hungry but also tired from working all day so I headed downstairs to get something at either Kimonos or Il Mulino & was going to get him something to go when I was done with my meal. I decided to go to Il Mulino as the karaoke going on at the other was not going so well

I started with the Harvest Spice Red Sangria

This tasted like a perfect holiday drink. Its a Red Diamond Blend, Simple Syrup, combined with fresh oranges, cranberries, cinnamon sticks, cloves, peppercorn & bay leaves.

For dinner, I went with two appetizers.

Insalata Trattoria - Seasonal Greens w/ Fennel, Carrots, Red Onion & Toasted Pine Nuts w/ Citrus Vinaigrette.

This salad was very fresh. The fennel and onions were shaved so thinly that it was easy to be able to enjoy all the different elements in one reasonable bite.

Arancini - Italian Rice Balls over Spicy Marinara Sauce

This was just enough food for a decent dinner. The marinara wasn't that spicy but I tend to eat spicy foods in general so it was very mild to me. The rice was filled with little bits of meat inside & had the right amount of seasoning for me.

No pictures but I go my husband the Caesar Salad w/ Chicken to go. He enjoyed their chicken but it seemed they forgot to put any dressing on it or place it in the to go bag if it was in a separate container. It was after 11PM so we just took it as a simple mistake & didn't hold it against them.

I hadn't been to Il Mulino since April 2010 where I felt the service lacked. They redeemed themselves with this late evening meal. I'm not sure when I'll fit it in with my upcoming trips though.​

 

[Dis_Yoda]

Writer's Shoppe


We arrived at Hollywood Studios to accomplish one ride...

No, not Toy Story Mania

Star Tours!
(It is my husband's favorite ride there)

We hadn't had breakfast outside of an espresso beverage from the JavaBar @ the Swan & we had walked the mile from the Swan to Hollywood Studios so I was a little hungry.

No, we didn't take the smart choice and get a large cookie.

I had seen on the Disney Food Blog they now had Macarons at the Writer's Shoppe. I love a good macaron. (Le Macaron in Naples has taken more of my money in the past few months than I care to admit )

This was not a good macaron. It was crunchy with the sickly sweet frosting in the middle. A macaron is supposed to have a crunch to it but it should melt into softness as you reach the middle. It seemed they didn't sift their almond flour or mix it properly with the egg whites or something. With the grainy texture of the super hard crunchy cookie, I'll go with the sifting.

​

 

[Dis_Yoda]

Refreshment Port

After we enjoyed our 1 ride at Hollywood Studios & that awful snack, we headed over to EPCOT. Eventually we got thirsty & my husband had yet to experience the new Club Cool.

He enjoyed the new flavors & felt it provided more selections we would actually drink than the previous choices.

It was time to head to the World Showcase but it wasn't quite open yet so we went to the Refreshment Port for some warmer drinks.

My husband had the Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate and I enjoyed the Warmed Spiced Apple Cider w/ Frangelico

Both were nice selections but I'm not sure I would have gotten the cider again. While looking over the Holiday Around the World drink selections - pretty much all of them were different ciders or hot chocolates so we knew we weren't going to enjoy too many more of them as you can only have so many hot ciders and hot chocolates in a day.
​

 

[Dis_Yoda]

Tokyo Dining

Lunch was set for Tokyo Dining as we had enjoyed our quick meal here back in October.

I started with a sparkling sake.

It was light and sweet which is what I was looking for at that time.

We skipped on appetizers.

My husband enjoyed Grilled Chicken

The chicken was perfectly cooked with having the grilled flavor without being burnt. It also came with 2 pieces of fried tofu that my husband skipped on. Fresh sautéed vegetables were just enough al dente. The rice is no longer standard white rice but beef fried rice which was still good in our book!

I went with the Tempura Shrimp & Chicken Combination

While not pictured, this also came with noodle/crab salad & a cucumber salad. It was exactly what I expected it to be. Fried but not too greasy!

We skipped on dessert as my husband had something else he was wanting more.

​

 

[chocolateMinnie]

great reviews - Tokyo Dining looks amazing. Off to look at their menu now

 

[Dis_Yoda]

great reviews - Tokyo Dining looks amazing. Off to look at their menu now

I love Tokyo Dining! The menu is very basic japanese - mostly sushi, tempura, and teriyaki but its a great break in the middle of the day. The waiters are always so polite there as well!

 

[Dis_Yoda]

L'Artisan des Glaces

If you've read my other reports, it should be no shock where we went for dessert. L'Artian des Glaces has become my husband's favorite place for a snack since we first went this past July.

Shockingly, my husband didn't order what he always did. He & I both ordered the same thing to make up for the awful macaron we had earlier from Writer's Shoppe.

Chocolate Ice Cream Macaron

And it totally made up for it! The ice cream melts perfectly between the two cookies to make the perfect bite!

​

 

[lizzyb]

Enjoying the reviews so far!

 

[Dis_Yoda]

Enjoying the reviews so far!

Thanks for reading along!

 

[Dis_Yoda]

Monsieur Paul

When planning this trip, my husband requested Monsieur Paul for his birthday dinner as we haven't been since the change over from Bistro de Paris.

We arrived about 30 minutes early to our reservation but it wasn't a problem to get us seated early. We were placed at a two top right next to the window so we were both able to people watch those outside.

Cheese Puff

We were given a cheese puff to start our meal off which was light and airy as you would expect one to be.

As we figured out what we would like for our meal, my husband surprised me & stated he was going to order wine. This made me stop & go Those that have read my reports before should know my husband isn't the biggest fan of wine. He attends the wine dinners with me because he loves me & appeases my need for wine. Slowly he's started to enjoy some of them as he learns more about them & gives them a chance. The biggest hit was the champagne dinner we had at Flying Fish for F&W Festival where he learned he liked the chardonnay grape so he figured he likes chardonnay. Rather than trying to pick another glass for myself, I just ordered the bottle of the wine he was going to pick as I knew we would be able to finish off a bottle between the two of us. Yes we only got a bottle that retails around $19 in the store but still a step in a wonderful direction

Said bottle after being finished.

We skipped getting appetizers as nothing really spoke to us this evening as I figured we would also get dessert.

As we waited, we were visited twice by the bread lady with her basket of 5 different choices. I was boring and enjoyed the baguette both times. My husband enjoyed the baguette first then had the poppy seeded one.


I went with the Roasted Duck Breast a l'orange

The duck was perfectly cooked. The fat was rendered correctly so that it wasn't chewy and the meat was a perfect medium rare. This was served with roasted potatoes.

My husband enjoyed Grilled Beef Tenderloin w/ mushroom crust, mashed potatoes

It was cooked to his requested medium. As he inhaled it rather quickly, I know he enjoyed it a lot He wasn't a fan of his mashed potatoes was it was more so a potato soup than mashed. He didn't really care much though as his steak was enough to make him happy.

For dessert, he enjoyed Warm chocolate and almond cake with rapsberry coulis in the center, hazelnut crust, hazelnut ice cream

I had Flourless chocolate cake, praline crunch, chocolate passion fruit ganache, chocolate mousse and ice cream

Both of us were really happy with our picks. Neither of us left anything on our plates.

Overall this was a great birthday meal!

One thing to note is that Monsieur Paul does not accept Tables in Wonderland so there was no discount here. I guess I'm going to keep this in mind & eat here more so when at Disney on a holiday as TIW isn't valid on those days anyway.
​

 

[auntfrannie]

I'm so happy that you enjoyed MP. I dined there last year and thought it was wonderful. Service and food were both exceptional!

 

[cdtommie]

Always enjoy your reviews...sad to see MP no longer accepts TIW. We have a reservation for May but now I'm going to cancel and go somewhere else.

 

[Dis_Yoda]

I'm so happy that you enjoyed MP. I dined there last year and thought it was wonderful. Service and food were both exceptional!

It really was a nice meal. I always enjoyed it when it previously was opened.

Always enjoy your reviews...sad to see MP no longer accepts TIW. We have a reservation for May but now I'm going to cancel and go somewhere else.

Thanks for reading along Yeah - that will keep it out of normal rotation on our quicker trips but I know sometimes we go during Easter or Memorial Day or 4th of July where TiW doesn't work so we'll save it for those days. At least our waitress was really polite about them no longer accepting it & we weren't on a budget trip so it is what it is.

 

[DonaldDoleWhip]

Thanks so much for the reviews. I feel similarly about Tokyo Dining and Monsieur Paul, and L'Artisan des Glaces is probably my favorite establishment in WDW right now.