Indulge A Little - Feb 2014 Report - Updated Victoria & Albert's 3/2

[Dis_Yoda]

Who: Dis_Yoda & Mr. Dis_Yoda
When: Feb 5th to 9th
Where: Animal Kingdom Lodge Club Level​

Feb 5th
Boma​

Feb 6th
Club Level Breakfast
Chefs de France
L' Artisan des Glaces
Yachtsman
Victoria Falls​

Feb 7th
Pecos Bill
California Grill​

Feb 8th
The Mara
Victoria & Albert's​

Feb 9th
Club Level Breakfast​

 

[vettegirl]

Sounds like a wonderful lineup. AKL CL is suppose to be amazing!!

 

[Dis_Yoda]

Sounds like a wonderful lineup. AKL CL is suppose to be amazing!!

Thanks! It was a great trip food wise (not so much weather wise as it was grey everyday!)

AKL CL was nice. Not sure how often I'll spend the extra DVC points for it but it worked well for this vacation.

 

[Dis_Yoda]

Boma​

We arrived at Animal Kingdom Lodge at 7:30pm & checked in upstairs. We ended up going downstairs for our reservation about 50 minutes early but it wasn't a problem to be seated after a few moments wait. It wasn't crowded and there were a decent amount of tables empty this evening.

When we were seated, we both ordered a cocktail.

Our first go around at the buffet we came back with:

My plate:

Ribs, Peanut Rice, White Rice, Cornbread, Mac'n'Cheese, Fufu

My husband's plate:

Chicken, Rice, Pita, Mac'n'Cheese, Mashed Potatoes

I found the ribs to be really sweet without not much meat on the bones. I did love the peanut rice though. My husband's favorite was his mashed potatoes.

I went back up for a 2nd main plate but forgot a picture but I had Strip Steak, Salad & some more Peanut Rice My husband just had some more potatoes.

I enjoyed the strip steak a lot more than the ribs. It was cooked to my liking (medium rare) The salad was well salad.

It wasn't until we were halfway done with our second servings did our drinks actually get served, which is a bit unfortunate as it took a while to get them. A smoked turkey doesn't really work well for desserts but at least my husband's cider was fine for that.

My dessert plate:

I really enjoyed the coffee tarts more than anything else on the plate. They were light with a nice flavor. I enjoyed the zebra domes but not to the point where I would crave them as much as some of the other guests do.

My husband's dessert plate:

His favorite was the strawberry panna cotta.

Overall, we weren't too thrilled for Boma for the price (our final bill was $96.73 after TiW) as it just wasn't a relaxing meal to us. We just aren't buffet people for dinner. In the future, we'll stick to Boma for breakfast unless its a situation similar to this night where we know we won't be arriving until 8:00pm & know we won't be going out to the parks that late.

 

[Dis_Yoda]

Club Level Breakfast​

The best part of the breakfast was the Jungle Juice! This is the same juice they serve at Boma & the lounge has it out all day. Its too rich for us to drink more than 1 full glass as we've moved to only drinking water nowadays outside of alcohol.

I enjoyed the chocolate muffin, some fruit & a croissant. Pretty standard club level breakfast fare but it was enough to get me started for the day.

My husband enjoyed a sesame seed bagel with cream cheese and some chocolate chip muffins.

 

[Dis_Yoda]

Chefs de France​

We arrived about 5 minutes before the restuarant opened for the day and didn't have to wait long to be seated after the 12 o'clock hour hit. We were seated in the very back of the restuarant, near an area that looks like it should be more of a bar/cafe than a normal sit down area although their bar was completely not stocked.​

We began with some drinks - myself a St. Germain's Cocktail, my husband a Glass of Wine​

As it was a bit chilly this morning in EPCOT (grey and in the mid 50's), I really wanted some hot soup to help warm me up. Luckily, they have this amazing French Onion Soup​

Unfortunately, the onions within the soup were still pretty much raw. Between the cheese, bread and broth though I was able to warm up which is all I wanted anyway.​

For the main course, we had a wait a bit for our food. After I finished my soup, the waiter came back to confirm the order for my husband, which was strange for that to happen oh 25 minutes into the meal.​

We had a decent wait until the food actually arrived.​

My husband's Roasted Half Chicken, Potatoes & Broccolli ​

He enjoyed it as much as he did last July. The chicken was moist and flavorful. The potatoes were both crispy and soft.​

I went with my go-to dish here: Flatbread baked with creme fraiche, onion and bacon​

It was everything I wanted. The creme fraiche is such a light addition to the flatbread that it doesn't feel like a heavy dish despite the amount of bacon and onions on top.​

Our service here wasn't the best this time around but the main courses will keep this in our rotation. There are so many options in EPCOT for lunch though, I'm not sure when we'll be back as in our early May trip, we'll be eating at the Flower & Garden Booths and in our late May trip, we'll be more focused on just Hollywood Studios for Star Wars Weekend.​

 

[wilma-bride]

Great start to your reviews

I have to say that we had much the same opinion of Boma breakfast as you did of dinner. For us, there wasn't enough there that is different to standard breakfast buffets to make it worth the trip out to AKL (OK if you're already there I suppose).

Chefs looks great

 

[butiflfeet]

Great start to your reviews! When we had lunch at Les Chefs in December the onions in my portion of onion soup were undercooked too. And our entrees seemed pre-prepared. It was pretty disappointing, but there are so many other options in Epcot for lunch that I'm perfectly fine now with skipping it for the next trip!

 

[DLo]

Thanks for taking the time to review. We are going to Chefs in May. We were hesitant to go back as we had bad service the last time we went also. But we are going to give it another chance. Fingers crossed for good service!

 

[rocketriter]

Well, a month ago we had terrible service upstairs at Monsieur Paul, so maybe the whole building is overrated.

 

[Dis_Yoda]

Great start to your reviews

I have to say that we had much the same opinion of Boma breakfast as you did of dinner. For us, there wasn't enough there that is different to standard breakfast buffets to make it worth the trip out to AKL (OK if you're already there I suppose).

Chefs looks great

I'll agree with you about the breakfast buffet if I had to take the buses. The times we have gone there we were staying closer to the Animal Kingdom area so going there isn't too out of the way (we drive so there is no worries about wasting too much time getting there) Plus its cheaper & lacks characters so two other pluses for me.

Great start to your reviews! When we had lunch at Les Chefs in December the onions in my portion of onion soup were undercooked too. And our entrees seemed pre-prepared. It was pretty disappointing, but there are so many other options in Epcot for lunch that I'm perfectly fine now with skipping it for the next trip!

With as quickly as my soup came out, I'm pretty sure it was preprepared and they though the onions would cook themselves while waiting on the line or something. With how much of a wait we had, I think our entrees were fresh (at least my husband's chicken) at least but some of the nearby tables were able to get all 3 courses and out the door before we even got our entrees.

Thanks for taking the time to review. We are going to Chefs in May. We were hesitant to go back as we had bad service the last time we went also. But we are going to give it another chance. Fingers crossed for good service!

This is the first time in 3 trips there that I had bad (really just slow) service. I hope you have a lovely meal there!

Well, a month ago we had terrible service upstairs at Monsieur Paul, so maybe the whole building is overrated.

That is unfortunate. We really enjoyed our meal there in December when we went for my husband's 30th Birthday. Sorry you had bad service.

 

[Dis_Yoda]

L' Artisan des Glaces

If you have followed any of my other trip or dining reports from the past year, you'll know my husband has his new favorite snack place. To him, not visiting here at least once per trip is not an option.

After our lunch at Chefs, we headed over to L'Artisan des Glaces to have some of their lovely ice cream.

I went with my standby favorite there outside of the alcoholic martinis.

Chocolate Macaron Sandwich

I just love these. It doesn't feel as heavy as eating an entire ice cream cone but that's probably all in my head. I just wish they would come out with some new flavors for the Macaron sandwich but with so many options for other things, its ok.

My husband switched up his usual flavor and had the Salted Caramel in a cone.

He loved it as well.

Obviously, we will continue to go back. In fact, my husband is excited that we are staying at the Boardwalk in late May as he plans on visiting France nightly for an evening snack.​

 

[happy2012]

Following along! The desserts look good.

 

[wilma-bride]

I am excited to try this place for the first time next month. I am thinking of trying the brioche ice-cream sandwich, have you had that one before?

 

[Linda67]

Great reviews as always
We've only eaten at Boma once and it was great for me as there were lots of veggie options but DH wasn't keen
Oh how I love L'Artisan Des Glaces - I can't wait to get back there

 

[Dis_Yoda]

Following along! The desserts look good.

They were great! I think we haven't found something we don't enjoy there yet.

I am excited to try this place for the first time next month. I am thinking of trying the brioche ice-cream sandwich, have you had that one before?

You should love it! I haven't had the brioche ice-cream sandwich because I always felt it would be too much for me to eat alone as we tend to go there after lunch now & my stomach can only take too much. You'll have to let me know if you enjoy it or not!

Great reviews as always
We've only eaten at Boma once and it was great for me as there were lots of veggie options but DH wasn't keen
Oh how I love L'Artisan Des Glaces - I can't wait to get back there

Thanks for joining in I can totally see how Boma would work great for the veggies between the soups, hummus and other selections. We'll probably go there for breakfast on October 6th after our 10 Mile Run for Tower of Terror but I haven't planned that trip much out yet. I'm just now starting to really plan the May Trips.

 

[Dis_Yoda]

Yachtsman

When we originally planned this trip out back in August 2013, we had selected going to Be Our Guest for our dinner. During our October long trip, we had such a great meal at the Yachtsmans, we decided we needed to go back during our anniversary trip. So I cancelled Be Our Guest & replaced it with this. I feel it was a great decision especially after reading some of the reviews on Be Our Guest.

We arrived about 30 minutes early to our reservation but had no issues being seated quickly.

Mmm, Aging Meat!

We were lead to the back of the restaurant where we noticed how not busy it was. As we felt it wasn't really busy in the parks either, it reminded us how much we enjoy this time of year at Disney as outside of the cheerleading groups, there are no major crowds around. It had been a while since we last were at Disney with such little crowds.

We ordered a bottle of wine to enjoy with our meal.

We received our bread as we ordered our meals.

I always love their onion rolls and sourdough.

For our appetizers, my husband went his traditional route & ordered their Caesar

What makes this one a bit different is the addition of coppa secca and egg. He enjoys these salty additions as they work with the dressing and cheese well.

I went a little non-traditional for my appetizer. I ordered a side dish of the Truffle Mac & Cheese

When you mixed a bit of the onions with the pocket of pasta, this was just enough of a balance that the truffle (oil most likely) didn't overpower the dish. As I continued to eat it, I did find it really heavy and had to stop before I was finished but I'm still glad it was my choice.

My husband and I both had the same entree but with different side dishes. Where he went with the traditional mashed potatoes, I subbed mine for the Sweet Potatoes.

We both loved our steaks. They were tender and flavorful. My sweet potatoes had bits of pecans with it and I loved the contrast and added texture. My husband loved his mashed potatoes as well.

I skipped getting dessert as I was full. My husband is an ice cream fiend so he went with the Yachtsman Sundae

He enjoyed this great & I enjoyed the bites of vanilla with chocolate I stole.

Yachtsman was a great meal again. We can't wait til we go back in late May!

​

 

[slp87]

What steak did you have? We're going in March and haven't been to yachtsman since 2000. Really excited to try again. Thanks for the report!

 

[Dis_Yoda]

What steak did you have? We're going in March and haven't been to yachtsman since 2000. Really excited to try again. Thanks for the report!

We had the filet. Enjoy your meal there in March!

 

[wilma-bride]

Have read a few negative comments about Yachtsman lately so was seriously worried about my decision to take my daughter for her 21st Birthday dinner there next month. Your dishes look great, though, so I am going to stick with my decision and hope for the best