A Signature a Day Keeps Reality Away: A Sep '15 Dining Report - Updated 4/11 x2

[ariane37]

While not a fan of sLushi, all of your alcoholic beverages definitely look good

 

[hokieinpa]

Sounds like you found some delicious slushi there! And your Cucumber Fizz does look quite refreshing - but I'm having a hard time imagining both cucumber and Sprite in the same drink!

And Casey does look quite proud of herself - flowers and all!

 

[Lisa F]

Casey wanted her own dessert and went with the cookies and cream.

​

what was the cream portion of this dessert? Taking my kiddo to CA Grill in December. Last time he had the rice krispie sushi but he does not like gummies and swedish fish so thought this might be a better option for him. It says pop rock ice cream on the menu? eh? Was the little cutie happy due to her dessert or the slushi or maybe both?

 

[momof3princes]

Love that Casey calls it Slushi I was wondering about the bacon/sushi combo, it always sounds strange to me. My boys now love sushi and the amount they can pack away is ...well that is the case with anything they are a fan of

 

[Sailormoon2]

Just caught up (recently returned to the DIS from a prolonged absence) and LOVING your report. as always!

 

[kastoney]

It's funny you say that as this is always my quandary as well - to choose a filet, bison strip, duck, etc or go with the Dragon Roll and Spicy Kazan as my entree?! I always get the Dragon as an appetizer even if I do go with a more traditional (non-slushi) entree. Glad to hear you enjoyed it as well. The price is so high I am trying to stay away from my beloved California Grill for a couple trips... But I am planning a holiday blowout and you better believe that California Grill sushi will be making a triumphant return!

Yeah they definitely have so many options that its hard to choose. Glad we finally tried the slushi but as you said the prices are pretty crazy. Hope you enjoy as much as we did on your holiday trip.

Catching up! I have avoided the dining board unintentionally as I have been getting started planning our next trip! It will be just a Disney quickie, and I think the perfect opportunity to play ADR roulette, as inspired by you! I scored a same evening CG s(l)ushi fix in December. My very smart 8 year old picked your top sushi choice. It was sooo good. I think your number 2 looks good, too. Via Napoli was a hot mess for us a couple summers ago... Bad service, tough, almost burnt crust. I think we may need to give it another try, though, as 99% of people seem to love it! I wonder if they have any decent gluten free options. Surprisingly, Tutto Italia does.

WOO-HOO for another trip when are you going? Of course I love the idea of playing it by ear. Our next trip will be another mix as we'll have my inlaws with us for part of the trip and I didn't want to chance availability for 5.

Lovve that you have slushi lovin' kids too. I think if you start them early it is just common place, not weird.

Sorry you all didn't love Via Napoli. The crust is almost always charred and a little chewy, so if that isn't your pizza style likely best to stay away. I on the other hand love charred crust.

Wow how does that happen, very cool!

I think you'd be surprised how much it really does. I think we've only ever made one ahead of time CG ADR before. All others (and we go almost every trip) are last minute.

Oooh great choice! Do you find when you use a sommelier, they choose more of the higher priced wines, or do you give them a price range and then they choose from there?

We definitely give them a price point and then let them go from there. Though there have been a few times when we didn't do that and they rarely went exorbitant. I think a good sommelier is pretty proud of what they do and let their palate, and not price point, dictate their recommendations.

While not a fan of sLushi, all of your alcoholic beverages definitely look good

Maybe after a few alcoholic beverages you would be a slushi fan

Sounds like you found some delicious slushi there! And your Cucumber Fizz does look quite refreshing - but I'm having a hard time imagining both cucumber and Sprite in the same drink!

And Casey does look quite proud of herself - flowers and all!

The slushi was definitely deliciouso. And I think drinking anything with cucumber is likely odd but it somehow worked. And Casey is always proud of herself. She's never met a mirror she didn't love

what was the cream portion of this dessert? Taking my kiddo to CA Grill in December. Last time he had the rice krispie sushi but he does not like gummies and swedish fish so thought this might be a better option for him. It says pop rock ice cream on the menu? eh? Was the little cutie happy due to her dessert or the slushi or maybe both?

I thought it was just regular ice cream. Pop rocks ice cream does sound cool, but I don't remember Casey mentioning anything. She was definitely happy about the dessert. Definitely a rare occurrence for her to have something all to herself.

Love that Casey calls it Slushi I was wondering about the bacon/sushi combo, it always sounds strange to me. My boys now love sushi and the amount they can pack away is ...well that is the case with anything they are a fan of c

The pork sushi wasn't bad my any means, just not the what I was expecting.

Good to hear you've got some slushi fans too. Though, mine puts next to nothing away

Just caught up (recently returned to the DIS from a prolonged absence) and LOVING your report. as always!

Welcome back!!!!! Glad you are enjoying!

 

[kastoney]

A Grand Breakfast Throwdown

With bellies full of slushi we slept in the next morning and ultimately decided on grabbing some breakfast to avoid the crowds we'd encountered at Animal Kingdom earlier in the trip. So the the magical disney app we went and settled on a new breakfast place for us: The Grand Floridian Cafe.

I'd read great reviews of GFC from others and we were curious to compare to our favorite breakfast spot, Kona. In that vain we started with our first showdown: Pressed Pot Coffee.

While this wasn't as large a serving as Kona, it was still quite good. It clearly wasn't Hawaiian coffee but a nice dark roast. Advantage: Kona

I'm sure it will surprise no one that in addition to coffee mamasita needed a Bloody Mary too.

This was very good with just the right amount of spice and even better just the right price tag ($7.95). I believe both Kona and GFC serve the standard Disney bloody mary mix so these were essential the same. Advantage: Me (cause when bloody marys tie I win)

For my entree I wanted to keep it in the eggs benedict family and after mulling it over between the lobster and regular egg benedict, I decided to keep it traditional.

This is Two Poached Eggs, Toasted English Muffin, Canadian Bacon, Key Lime Hollandaise, Asparagus and a Broiled Tomato Au Gratin. I think I did GFC an injustice ordering this as I had no idea what I was thinking passing up lobster. Plus all my blond highlights had clearly taken to my brain as I forgot I didn't like Canadian bacon. All that said this was well cooked with runny egg and a nice hollandaise (though with no discernible key lime flavor). The asparagus was well cooked, though needed salt, and the tomato with bread crumb topping was a nice touch. Sadly it wasn't even in the same league as the Kona Samoan, but again purely my bonehead move.
Advantage: Kona

Casey had no interest in eggs benedict so she went with the Minnie's Grand Cake.

I'll skip the description as I think it is glaringly obvious, but she was in pure pancake heaven. An actual minnie shaped pancake (as opposed to Kona's arrangement of 3 pancakes) and sprinkles was a winner in her book.
Advantage: GFC

Jason went with a seasonal special, Citrus Pancakes

This is three pancakes topped with Roasted Pecan and Sun-dried Cranberry and served with House-made Orange Butter and Bacon. While there wasn't a ton of citrus flavor in ye old citrus pancakes the pecan topping was delicious. The citrus butter did come in handy and really brought forth the citrus flavor. Much to my surprise he declared the citrus butter better than the macadamia nut at Kona. So by the hair of a butter....
Advantage: GFC

Overall we really enjoyed GFC. I'd say it and Kona are both excellent breakfast options, though if I had to choose it would be Kona for The Samoan alone. I'm sure we'll be back again so I can order better and make a more fair choice. With our tables in wonderland card we saved $9.10 and left very satisfied customers.


Up next, the onion ring showdown continues ​

 

[kastoney]

The BBQ Kingdom

From the Grand Floridian we hopped the bus to Animal Kingdom and encountered crazy bag check lines yet again. They clearly need more bag checks at AK as this has become quite the norm for us. But once we got inside the park we had a ball.

We saw monkeys.


And baby giraffe's.


And even earned a wilderness badge or two.


Before Casey met a half dressed man in a loin cloth.

There is just something very wrong with a little girl taking her picture next to a half naked man. Clearly her smile shows the absurdity of his ensemble was lost on her.

Tummys rumbling a bit we went to one of our favorite AK places, Flame Tree Barbecue. We didn't want to ruin our dinner plans so we all decided to share the Rib & Chicken combo.

This is smoked Ribs and Chicken served with Homemade Baked Beans, Coleslaw, and Jalapeño Cornbread and as usual it was delicious. The chicken was dark meat with crispy skin and moist meat. The ribs were a tad on the dry side but had great smokey flavor and a ting a heat. I enjoyed both with their spicy bbq sauce. The corn bread was very moist with just a tiny bit of heat from the jalapeños and the baked beans were nice and sweet with large chunks of meat. I can't comment on the cole slaw because this little lady devoured it all.

"Whatcha talkin' 'bout Mama?"

We also ordered some onion rings to share (oh who am I kidding these bad boys were all for me)

At only $3.99 these are a steal. They were hot, crispy, and huge and the perfect accompaniment to the meats. And they were even more yummy dunked in some bbq sauce. At half the price, and twice the quality of the ones we'd had at SciFi they are the clear winner.

To wash all these goodies down Jason and I shared the Safari Amber.

This is a bit darker than I traditionally like, but hit the spot none the less.

Overall, Flame Tree remains one of our favorite quick service restaurants. As I'm sure you've seen we don't frequent QS too often, but when we do this is high on the list. The food is well done, seating ample, and hello I can order beer!!! Plus they take tables in wonderland, so we saved $7.31.

Up next, we crawl the monorail ​

 

[Misha72683]

The sushi at California Grill looks good! My kids both love sushi. It's the only non-"kid" food Alex will eat, while Nicky will eat anything. Jason's pancakes from the GFC look amazing, plus for me they have ghe special advantage of no pineapple and Casey's Minnie pancakes are adorable.

 

[2xcited2sleep]

For some reason Grand Floridian Cafe just never comes to mind but I've heard good things about both breakfast and dinner. Will have to remember for next trip.

Totally agree on Tarzan's "outfit." That loin cloth is embarrassingly tiny. I mean , really. What are they thinking?? And seems like a lot of opportunity for wardrobe malfunctions... just saying...

Thanks for the tip on onion rings. Will be filing that away for sure. If only they served these at the Dawa Bar.

 

[Elevationist]

I'm sure it will surprise no one that in addition to coffee mamasita needed a Bloody Mary too.

I am both shocked and scandalized by this admission, Kari.

Advantage: Me (cause when bloody marys tie I win)

I think I did GFC an injustice ordering this as I had no idea what I was thinking passing up lobster.

Yeah, I was about to say... How dare you!

Holy carbs, Batman. That looks fantastic!!!

 

[disneyAndi14]

Everything looks so yummy, we are staying at GF in August for a magical deal so we are going to do a breakfast there. I also love Kona breakfast, the slushi looked good, we had slushi last night at our favorite Japenese place by our house. I think because of this board we tried Flame Tree BBQ and also love it. We always get the onion rings as well. Great reviews!

 

[suse66]

Love your reviews on the GF cafe..... I've been tossing around GF vs Kona for my birthday trip. I think I might be swayed towards Kona though because I need to try the Samoan! Love the idea of trying out Flame Tree as well.... that meal looks great although on a solo trip, it might be too much if I am going to try for either Sanaa or Jiko on my AK day. Thanks again for sharing these yummy reviews and pics!

 

[samsteele]

They were hot, crispy, and huge and the perfect accompaniment to the meats. And they were even more yummy dunked in some bbq sauce. At half the price, and twice the quality of the ones we'd had at SciFi they are the clear winner.

They are incredible thingies! Yumm. Last Fall, I subbed out my nasty CS dessert included in the Fall free DP for a plate of these puppies. Of course, way too much food. But I survived the awesomeness that are the FlameTree BBQ ringies

 

[FoodieFriend]

I adore keeping up with your reviews! I did try Flame Tree for the 1st time in Sept & while the food was good, one person in my group was completely freaked out having to sit outside, shooing bugs & dive bombing birds while eating. I'm sure I'll have to stick with indoor dining at AK next time around.
I've definitely heard everyone on the DisBoards raving about restaurants at the Poly, we can't bring ourselves to try it because we're from Hawaii & when we go to WDW, we're looking for dining experiences outside of what we can get at home. in other words, come to Hawaii & I'll have a huge list of yumminess for you to try!

 

[kid-at-heart]

I've ever had.

I've found service at Kona is always lacking. This time around our waitress seemed to think she was working at waffle house, vice a restaurant at disney world, and despite keeping us waiting on multiple occasions she somehow made us feel like we were the ones holding her up. But I can get over that for the wonderful food. With our tables in wonderland card we saved $9.19 and this was the one occasion where our server earned no where near the 18% TiW adds in.

Up next some snacks and adult beverages pool side.
​

We love the food and coffee at Kona but the service is some of the worst we have ever experienced, on or off Disney property. Hopefully someday they will improve. I am enjoying your report. Is your husband a chef?

 

[awalker1015]

Can't wait to read about your monorail crawl. This is one of our favorite things to do and Mark and I were just planning the one we will do Dark Side weekend sans kiddos.

 

[OasterP]

I think this next trip I want to go to Kona JUST for the pressed coffee!! Also, we are going from May 10 - 17th, so we will miss you again! Are you sure you don't want to come again in May?

 

[bbak30]

I will forever be jealous of Casey's willingness to eat different things. She's so adventurous.

That Minnie pancake was precious, my girls would love the sprinkles.

I can't wait to try the jalapeño
Cornbread at Flametree. Love the onion rings though!

 

[Vernie822]

YUM, that slushi looks so good! I'm not a fan of raw salmon or anything slimy but I'll do ahi tuna and shrimp/crab any day. I think Cali grill slushi looks like some of the best around!

And of course Casey the slushi pro looks quite pleased

We have never done GF Cafe but it looks like a good option, especially if you're looking for a last minute type place. Did you have too many bloody Mary's when you passed up the lobster eggs Benedict?!

Looking forward to your monorail crawl! Is Jason ready for his half marathon? More importantly does Casey have her cheers practiced?!