A Post Open-Heart Surgery/Anniversary Dining Report!!! FINISHED! (and we are FULL!)

[Stringbean&Wingnut]

An addendum to the Hacienda review, I had forgotten to mention that we recieved a basket of chips (black, red, and regular chip color) and two salsas when seated. The two salsas are the same as the ones served at the counter service restaurant next door. One is a chipotle salsa, and is a bit spicier. The other is a salsa verde, on the more mild side. Both were very good, I personally preferred the chipotle salsa.

Also, here are the restaurants we will be reviewing!!

Beaches and Cream (lunch)
La Hacienda de San Angel (dinner)
Kona Cafe (breakfast)
Casey's Corner (lunch)
Jiko (dinner)
Captain's Grille (breakfast)
Tangerine Cafe (lunch)
Boulangerie Patisserie (lunch)
Goofy's Candy Company (snack)
Raglan Road (dinner)
Grand Floridian Cafe (breakfast)
Kona Cafe (lunch)
Boma (dinner)
Kouzzina (breakfast)
Epcot snacks (lunch)
Narcoosees (dinner)
Boma (breakfast)
La Cantina de San Angel (lunch)
Kouzzina (dinner)
Captain's Grille (breakfast)
Rose & Crown (lunch)

Sorry to keep everyone in suspense of our destinations!

[dchi]

Glad your surgery went well and you had a great trip to Disney.
P.S. You are a very brave lady!

[Stringbean&Wingnut]

Originally Posted by dchi

Glad your surgery went well and you had a great trip to Disney.
P.S. You are a very brave lady!

Thank you so much!!! Welcome!

[amyrella]

i'm in... althouhg at first i was very excited to see that you were on the DxDP and were hoping you were going to review a few of the restaurants i'm eating at, i see that you are not!! lol

oh well i'm still going to read, for the future!!

I'm so glad your surgery went well... i hope you continue feeling well and no hiccups occur!

[Stringbean&Wingnut]

So you know that meal you've had in the past at Disney, that one that was SO good, and you just think about it and book reservations to go back and really really hope that it's just like you remembered? Especially since you've convinced your travel companion that it's awesome and a must-do?

Thankfully, some things stay the same (phew!)

So Wingnut and I headed off to Kona Cafe. Well, our journey to Kona began several months prior, back when we were scouring (read: basically memorizing) restaurant menus and I told him about the wonder and majesty that is Tonga Toast. He was in awe ("wait, it's FRIED?!?!"), I was giddy with anticipation. I had a plan, a plan involving some pancakes, pineapples, and macadamia nuts. I had seen way too many pictures of these to not try them for myself.

Onward!



Wingnut waiting patiently for his sugary fried dough. It has a banana in it. It's healthy fruit!

Speaking of healthy fruit, we both had orange juice. I had completely forgotten to tell Wingnut about the Lilikoi juice (which I'm absolutely positive he would have loved) until after we placed our juice orders. He was content with his choice (spoiler alert: he did absolutely love the Boma equivalent. Frunch? Jungle Juice? ::asks Wingnut:: West African Frunch.)

Pretty soon this arrived at the table



Syrup, butter, and strawberry sauce for the Tonga Toast. Oooh the giddy anticipation across the table was rising. Wingnut experimentally tasted some of the strawberry sauce on the end of his knife, and declared it delicious. I agreed, although it was a touch sweet for my taste (He loves sugary items - I once gave Wingnut pure cane sugar candies from Epcot, which were some of his favorites, just as a point of reference )

And the glorious moment then arrived.



Wingnut: "It was very good, the ham was very tasty, nicely grilled, and the tonga toast was great, both dips were really tasty although the strawberry definitely won out."

Along with



(I had gotten the pineapple and butter on the side)

WOW these were good! And dense! But tasty! And really, so filling! But just one more bite!

Or, as Wingnut puts it, "your pancakes were chock full o'nuts."

Now, I can eat pancakes pretty much anytime, anywhere, tons of them. I love pancakes. And I've eaten some dense pancakes before, but I was really surprised when I was only able to eat this much of them. (And this was with a bit of effort here, folks.)



These pancakes are PACKED with macadamia nuts! Delicious, but I had to leave a saddening amount behind. The sausage was just regular sausage. Not jam-packed with macadamia nuts, thank goodness!

Tremendously full, I then realized something...we get two beverages with breakfast! I'm going to assume this is typically used for coffee, especially at Kona, but neither Wingnut or I are coffee drinkers.

I do, however, enjoy a nice hot chocolate.



This may not look like much, but it was the best hot chocolate of the trip (this one may have kicked off a hot chocolate with breakfast trend for this traveler). And after I had ordered it, I realized that it would have been a good idea to get it in a to-go cup, as we were pretty much stuffed with pancake and French, er, Tonga toast by then. Just as I thought of this, the server came back, the hot chocolate already in a to-go cup! I praised his brilliance, and we were on our way, deliciousness in tow (I think I was spoiled by the chocolatey drizzle).

So did Kona Cafe live up to our breakfast expectations? Absolutely! AND we got to MK in time to see the opening show, which I hadn't thought we'd be able to, and hadn't seen before!

[Stringbean&Wingnut]

Originally Posted by amyrella

i'm in... althouhg at first i was very excited to see that you were on the DxDP and were hoping you were going to review a few of the restaurants i'm eating at, i see that you are not!! lol

oh well i'm still going to read, for the future!!

I'm so glad your surgery went well... i hope you continue feeling well and no hiccups occur!

Welcome, and thank you!!! I have been feeling more and more like my old self every day, it's wonderful to be getting my energy and strength back!

Sorry to disappoint with our restaurant choices - I will admit that I shuffled around our reservations so much before the trip that at one point we probably were going to eat somewhere you are planning to go! (I may have driven my poor Wingnut a bit nuts with all of my indecision, but we were happy in the end!)

[sophie832]

I made a Kona Cafe breakfast ADR for our next trip specifically to try the Tonga Toast. It just looks soooo tasty!

[Stringbean&Wingnut]

Originally Posted by sophie832

I made a Kona Cafe breakfast ADR for our next trip specifically to try the Tonga Toast. It just looks soooo tasty!

I think that is a great reason to make a Kona Cafe ADR!

They do have a bunch of other yummy items, pressed-pot Kona coffee if you enjoy that, fabulous hot chocolate, and the Tonga Toast came with a strawberry sauce Wingnut loved. It's also a great place to go straight to MK or Epcot on the monorail afterwards!

[auntfrannie]

I love the Kona for breakfast! Actually, I've enjoyed all my meals there. I have ADRs for April and am looking forward to the pancakes. Although the Tonga Toast is calling me, too. Decisions, decisions!
Love the reviews!

[Linda67]

Hello from England

Love your reviews and boy does your breakfast at Kona look good

It's great that your surgery went so well and the smile on your face in your Disney photos shows what a great a trip you had

[minniebeth]

Stringbean, I'm so loving your review! I too, am amazed by your courage along your journey! I wish you a continued wonderful recovery.
You have a great writing style, I will be looking forward to the rest of your review, especially breakfast at Kouzzina! We have breakfast planned there for our upcoming trip.

Thanks for sharing

[Jenna319]

I love the macadamien pineapple pancakes at Kona! We have a breakfast ADR there in February and I cant wait!

[Stringbean&Wingnut]

Originally Posted by auntfrannie

I love the Kona for breakfast! Actually, I've enjoyed all my meals there. I have ADRs for April and am looking forward to the pancakes. Although the Tonga Toast is calling me, too. Decisions, decisions!
Love the reviews!

Welcome! Kona is definitely one of my favorite breakfasts on-property, they have a really nice variety of unique items. I had been torn between the pancakes and the Samoan, which is eggs Benedict over pulled pork. How good does that sound?!?

Between the pancakes and the Tonga Toast, you can't go wrong though!

Originally Posted by Linda67

Hello from England

Love your reviews and boy does your breakfast at Kona look good

It's great that your surgery went so well and the smile on your face in your Disney photos shows what a great a trip you had

Hi and welcome!!! Thank you so much, we did have a wonerful trip! It was great having it to look forward to!

Originally Posted by minniebeth

Stringbean, I'm so loving your review! I too, am amazed by your courage along your journey! I wish you a continued wonderful recovery.
You have a great writing style, I will be looking forward to the rest of your review, especially breakfast at Kouzzina! We have breakfast planned there for our upcoming trip.

Thanks for sharing

Welcome!! Thank you very much!!!

This had been our second time at Kouzzina for breakfast actually, we had gone on a previous trip. I really enjoy it there, it's a nice relaxing atmosphere before going to the parks, and has really good food too! I hope you enjoy it there as well!

Originally Posted by Jenna319

I love the macadamien pineapple pancakes at Kona! We have a breakfast ADR there in February and I cant wait!

Welcome!! Oh my goodness, aren't they SO good?!?! I was just so sad to leave so much of them behind!! Enjoy!!!

[Stringbean&Wingnut]

First, things we did not eat on the Jungle Cruise:



So after our filling Kona breakfast, Wingnut and I made our way around the MK. I continually reminded him that we had dinner at Jiko that night, so appetites had better be ravenous for then. No extraneous snacking!

Early on in the lunching time frame, we found ourselves in the vicinity of CHH, a CS I had wanted to try. However, after we finally found the entrance (a bit tricky coming from Fantasyland, at least for us!), it was bustling inside, and we weren't all that hungry, so we trekked on.

A bit later, around ::checks photo time:: 1 or so, we (read: I) was starting to get a bit hungry. I toyed briefly with the idea of getting a funnel cake from Sleepy Hollow (shockingly, a snack I didn't get during this trip at all ), then remembered Casey's. Wingnut was on board.

While making our way over, I began to get nervous about crowds there, as it was pretty much peak eating time, and CHH was busy during practically breakfast. However, when we walked in, the stations were only about 2 people deep. Yay!

In keeping with my decree of having voracious appetites for dinner, we ate light. I had a hot dog, and Wingnut was originally going to get one as well, but then the corn dog nuggets caught his eye.





(I have no idea why I had my camera on the tungsten filter, sorry about the blue lunches . It's fixed for the Jiko pictures though, don't worry!)

I had heard all about the new buns for the hot dog, that they were using whole wheat buns now (which still doesn't make sense to me on items like a hot dog ). They were obviously not squishy white bread buns, but they didn't bother me too much. They didn't fall apart or crumble when I ate. The hot dog was warm and perfect for a not-very-filling snack.

Wingnut called his corn dog nuggets "a nice little fast lunch, they were ok, standard corndogs, just miniaturized and put with spicy brown mustard."

I would definitely come back to Casey's, especially for a more full meal (I had opted out of having fries, but will not make that mistake again, especially when there's "Caution: Hot Cheese" signs around! )

[branv]

My goodness girl, you definitely earned this trip the hard way! Glad to hear you're recovering well. Keep up the good work on the reviews, really enjoying them (even if they did just jumpstart my dinner cravings an hour early! )