Around the World in 80 Bites (UPDATE: Lunch at Coral Reef and F&W Snacks!)

TifffanyD

DIS Veteran
Joined
Apr 23, 2007
Hi All!

We just returned from the world yesterday, and in an effort to relive all of our gastronomical delights I decided to do a little food review for everyone. The first 2 nights were spent on the deluxe plan with Me, DH, DFil, and DMil. We stayed at BWV and the room and the food was a present to them. It was their first (ever!) trip to the World, and DFil's Bday.

The other 4 nights were spent at ASMu with just DH and I. We were on the regular Free DDP for this portion.

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Main Players Are:
** Me :figment: I don't eat beef or pork but I will try (and like) just about any fish and most other seafood. I love cheese and sweets (but not always super chocolatey things)
** DH (schimj on boards) :smickey: He likes beef but isn't huge on pork. He does like to try other things (lamb, bison) as well as fish and seafood. He can sometimes get me to try new things :) He does like his sweets too (especially chocolate milkshakes!) and anything else chocolatey.

Making Guest Appearances:
** DFIL :goofy: Likes seafood and beef but likes things pretty plain, without too much sauce or fuss. Also likes chocolate milkshakes a lot.
** DMIL :tigger: Likes seafood as well and apple type desserts. Probably the only real salad eater of the bunch :)

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Places we ate include:

9/6-9/8/2009 (DXDDP - BWV)
Liberty Tree Tavern (Lunch)
Narcoossee's (Dinner)
Coral Reef (Lunch)
Rose & Crown (Dinner)
Sci-Fi (Lunch)

9/9-9/13/2009 (FDDP - ASMu)
Intermissions (Lunch)
Boma (Dinner)

Pizzafari (Lunch)
Kona Cafe (Dinner)

Columbia Harbour House (Lunch)
Garden Grille (Dinner)

Intermissions (Lunch)
Chefs de France (Dinner)


Also some various snacking. I don't have many pictures, but what I lack in pics I hope to make up for in opinions.

Update: I decided to keep this as an ongoing food review so I am adding more meals here. I also took some more pics!

9/26-9/27/2009 (DXDDP - CR)
Le Cellier (Lunch)
Tutto Italia (Dinner)
Coral Reef (Lunch)
Food & Wine Festival Snacks

11/2-11/5/2009 (DXDDP - BCV)
Flying Fish (Dinner)
Kona Cafe (Breakfast)
Captain's Grille (Dinner)
Kouzzina (Breakfast)
Teppan Edo (Lunch)
Narcoossee's (Dinner)
Cape May Cafe (Breakfast)
Food & Wine Festival Snacks
T-Rex Cafe (Lunch)

12/5-12/6/2009 (DXDDP - AKL)
Fulton's (Lunch)
Jiko (Dinner)
Boma (Breakfast)

1/24-1/26/2010 (DXDDP - TBA)
TBA

2/7-2/8/2010 (QSDDP - AKV)
TBA
 
We had Liberty Tree Tavern for lunch, which is a standard for us. Upon our suggestion, all 4 of us ordered the Tavern fried cheese. Let me tell you, 4 plates of this is a LOT of cheese! Yet, there wasn't too much left over. Delicious, as always. This place has THE best fried cheese - I just love the white cheddar nuggets.

Next up, the entree. I always get the Pilgrims Feast, since I don't eat red meat. Once upon a time, they had a delicious sandwich called "The Sandwich Heard Round the World". It had turkey and cranberries on multigrain bread... and some other stuff. It was awesome. Of course, that is gone so I am forced to order the big thanksgiving feast. Oh well :). I ate all the turkey and most of the potatoes, as always. Delicious. The stuffing is ok, I am picky so I just eat a bit of it.

DH had the pot roast, which he loves and I believe he agreed it was good again. I think either DMIL or DFIL got the pot roast as well, not sure what the 4th meal was.

For dessert I got the strawberry shortcake. This is a little different than what I am used to as the shortcake itself is strawberry. However, I don't taste that much strawberry in the cake. It's still good tho and garnished with some whipped cream, strawberries, and blueberries. DH got the ooey gooey toffee cake which is always a winner (since the new desserts anyways).

And the best part, DFIL got his "Happy Birthday Patriot" birthday song (which I didn't get on my birthday). It was a great way to kick off the trip and a great meal. This remains our favorite place to eat in the MK.
 


Looking forward to your reviews. :goodvibes My DD and I are going to be eating at LTT next week. We've already agreed we are trying the Tavern friend cheese. :thumbsup2
 
We had eaten at Narcoossee's once before on our honeymoon and had gotten to watch wishes from the deck outside with the music piped in. This was such a wonderful experience that we had planned this meal as a special birthday/first visit meal and timed it to coincide with wishes once again. Of course, Disney changed the timing of the fireworks since we had planned this and moved them to a later time, so we missed that part of the meal. However, we still had some great food and a really nice meal experience.

Before our meal, we had some drinks at the bar. I and DFIL had the sunken treasure, which is something with rum and pineapple juice that comes out looking like swamp juice but tasting yummy. DH says there was melon liquer in there too. Here is a pic of the drink:

P9060018.jpg


DH had a magical star cocktail which came with a glowcube. I think I had this once before on a prior trip:

P9060019.jpg


And DMIL had a blackberry mojito:

P9060020.jpg


For the actual food part of the meal, we all started with the shrimp and crab chowder. This was so delicious. It was creamy and slightly zesty with huge chunks of seafood in it. I should have taken pics in it. I'm a picky eater and easily scraped off the micro onions with my fork.

Next up, entrees. DMIL and I both had the whole maine lobster. DH and DFIL both had the surf and turf. I thought the lobster was the least impressive part of my meal. It was ok, but sort of sweet, and just not that great. But I think I may be starting to get "over" lobster. It was a decent filler tho, something not too spicey and which left me with plenty of room for dessert.

DH had the surf and turf last time as well. He says it was well done but this time the lobster tail was a little bland.

For dessert, DFIL and I each chose the gelato. Of course, his had a little extra something that mine didn't:

P9060022.jpg


I forgot to mention that he also got a personalized menu to keep with "Happy Birthday" printed on it for him and the date. Really nice :)

The flavors in this were chocolate, pistachio, cappacino, and raspberry. I am not a coffee drinker (love the smell but not the taste) so I tried this and then handed the rest to DH. As a non-coffee person, it wasn't that offensive. The other flavors were all delicious, especially the pistachio.

DH had the key lime creme brulee and said it was very nice.

DMIL had the almond cheesecake and really enjoyed it.

The other 3 enjoyed a bottle of wine with dinner and then shared a pot of pressed coffee with dessert. DH said both of these were very good. The wine was a white, possible a Riesling.

Overall, this was everyone's favorite meal of the trip. The atmosphere is elegant without being too stuffy, the service is great, and the food is delicious. We will be eating here again in November for DH's 30th bday (but hoping to catch the fireworks this time). We did get to see a bit of the electric light parade after dinner, so that was nice.

At the end of this day of feasting, we rolled outselves back to the BWV and into bed.
 


Coral Reef is one of our very favorite restaurants. I love the mahi mahi dish and it is on the lunch menu so this makes a very good lunch for us.

We got to the restaurant and we were seated within 5 minutes. However, on our way out the lobby was PACKED and I think we would have waited awhile had our reservation time been a bit later. We were seated on the 2nd level, so not directly by the tank.

For appetizers, I got the lobster bisque, DH and DFIL got the appetizer for 2, and DMIL got the sea & land. The soup was delicious, really creamy, and I loved it. DH has gotten the sea & land before and really likes it. In the app for 2, the sea & land is included as is a taste of the soup and some scallops. DH said the app for 2 was well done and he enjoyed the scallops. However, buyer beware that the tastes of soup came in a little cut with no spoon. I'm not sure if a spoon would have even fit in a little cup. So if slurping your soup bothers you, you may be SOL here.

For entrees everyone got the mahi mahi upon our recommendations, and all really loved it. There was a new thing on our plates this time, some sort of leek or something? DMIL ate it but I just pushed it aside. It was one big piece so it was easy to remove.

For dessert DH got the mousse. He liked it. DMIL and I each got a new dessert, which was mango sorbet on some sort of almond cookie with a brittle type thing on top and some sauce on the side. Here is a pic of mine:

P9070069.jpg


I didn't care much for this. The cooke on the bottom was very hard and difficult to cut with the spoon, the sauce was a little weird with it, and the sorbet wasn't as flavored as I expected. I was going to order the butterscotch creme brulee but I asked the server how the sorbet was and he assured me it was delicious. Not the best choice.

DFIL got the creme brulee. I didn't see any left on his plate, so it must have been good. We all really loved this meal and I can't wait to go back in 12 days!
 
We planned Rose & Crown for DFIL's birthday dinner so that we could (hopefully) view Illuminations from the viewing area I heard about here. Our reservation was for 7:10. We checked in right on time and got a pager which allowed us to go anywhere in the UK. The British Invasion was just starting up so we were able to catch 10-15min of the show before we were seated.

We had a table on the patio but it was more on the side and under the overhang. For appetizers, DH and I split the cheese and sausage plate (which 2 people must order), DFIL may have had a salad, and DMIL had the potato and leek soup. I had previously had the cheese plate here so I was looking forward to it. Included were 2 nice sized wedges of cheddar, 1 very large square of mushroom brie, and only 1 stilton pastry. I was sad about the last bit, as this was very good. There was also crustini, but only about 4 pieces. The candied walnuts were good and the cheddar was great. The brie was a bit bland for me. I didn't eat the sausages, of which there were 2 kinds. DH said they were good. I was still a bit disappointed in this plate as compared to last time.

For the main meal, I had Fish & Chips. This was good but the fish was one HUGE piece instead of a few planks. I wish it was a few pieces instead as it's easier to eat this way. The fries were good and there was malt vinegar on the table. DH and DFIL both got the steak dish. It had some sort of guinness demi-glace on it. DH asked for medium-well and it came more like medium-rare, but he still enjoyed it. DH said the potatoes that came with it were confusing, he wasn't sure if they were supposed to be scallopped or something else, but they had an odd texture. Like they were sliced, boiled, then layered with cheese. DMIL ordered the lamb two-ways. This had a lambchop and shepherd's pie made with ground/cubed lamb.

For dessert I got the sticky toffee pudding. This was very good but the cake was a bit more dense than the last time I had it. Still delicious. DH got chocolate whiskey cake and he said it was very good. It was much better than he expected. He had wanted the trifle, but they were out this night. DFIL and DMIL got the apple crisp dessert with ice cream. They seemed to enjoy these.

As we were getting our desserts, DH asked our waitress if we would be able to see illuminations from our seats or if we should try to exit before then. She said there was a viewing area we could go to or she would see about a table. After we were done, she asked if we were ready to go down for the fireworks (about 5-10 min before they started) and led us to a table in the front of the patio. It was the 2nd tier but still a great view. And she had already set it up with our beverages of choice - wow that was great service! It was a really good view but the table in front of us was annoying and too squirmy... some girl kept running all over taking pics and jumping up in front of us. Oh well. We had a really good view of the little girl who got to "conduct" the fireworks for the night, as well.

All in all, I'd say the food here was alright... not anything super special that would make it a must-do. However, the service was spectacular and we booked it in large part for the illuminations viewing, which was great.

Sorry for no pics, I don't think I took any more food pics for the rest of the trip. I had lost my camera early on in the trip, but it was returned to me, and I was a bit stingy with my use of it.
 
Oh and the restuarant had JUST had a menu change, so the smoked salmon over potato cake app was gone, which DH was wanting to order again. It seems like early September may be the usual time for this restaurant to change its menu
 
Your appie at R&C sounds great but there is nothing else on the menu that wows me....

I was told by a CM at Tutto Italia that the majority of the TS places change their menus 4 times a year to go with the seasons....
 
Your appie at R&C sounds great but there is nothing else on the menu that wows me....

I was told by a CM at Tutto Italia that the majority of the TS places change their menus 4 times a year to go with the seasons....

Yeah the menu there isn't great. Luckily I LOVE fish & chips and I don't eat fish much at home so I eat it as much as I can at Disney. I also don't eat red meet OR pork and I'm picky besides so it can be difficult for me to find things to eat.

I think rose & crown said they change theirs twice... or maybe that was somewhere else. But it seems like they generally only change 1 or 2 things per category at most places
 
Our last meal of the trip was a later (than usual, for us) lunch at Sci-Fi. This is a restaurant that DH and I like but we realize it's not gourmet or anything. We had taken my mom here and she wasn't a fan so I was considering changing to 50's Prime Time but when we told DMIL and DFIL they thought Sci-Fi sounded better.

Anyways, on with the food. For apps DH got the spinach/cheese dip, I got the onion rings, and both DFIL and DMIL got the BLT soup. I liked the onion rings ok but I'm not an onion fan. DH and I split both our apps and my version of splitting the onion rings was eating the breading and giving him the onions inside :laughing:. I also had some of the dip, which I enjoy, but the last few times it's seemed thinner and the cheese on top isn't stirred in enough (so that it usually comes off in one big clump. Still yummy tho. DFIL didn't like his soup (I was kind of surprised he ordered it, knowing his tastes) and so DMIL ate both of them. She seemed to enjoy it.

For entrees, DH got a burger. He really liked it. It was bacon, mushroom, swiss and the fries were ok. He also added the avocado mayo and he liked that. DMIL and I each got the turkey sandwich. I am picky and usually get the grilled chicken sandwich (minus the bruschetta topping) but wasn't feeling like it. So I got the turkey sandwich plain (no bacon, lettuce, tomato, or mayo) but asked for cheddar cheese on top. They said this might cost extra (I'm not sure if they charged it or not, if so it seemed to be included with the DDP). The sandwhich was on multigrain bread, which is fine with me. The sandwich was just ok. I didn't taste much of the turkey or cheese and the coldcuts were a bit colder than I'd prefer (picky, I know, but not a complaint... just sayin'). It would have been a good meal tho if I was planning to take half back, as it was huge. Unfortunately, as this was our last day, that wasn't possible. DMIL and I both subbed fries for the blackbean relish, this wasn't an issue.

DFIL ordered the shrimp pasta. I don't know WHY he got this as we'd prepped before and he planned on the burger but then he said when he sat down he saw that and thought it sounded good. He liked the shrimp but didn't much care for the dish and said it was hard to see what he was eating (it's dark in there).

For dessert I believe 3 of us got the sundae (myself, DFIL, and DMIL) and DH got the chocolate peanut buter pie. What can I say, the sundae was great. It had plenty of fudge in it. DH said he had expected the peanut butter to be more creamy but it was just like a lump in there. But it was still ok.

Oh and DFIL got a milkshake for his drink - chocolate. He said it was good.

At the end of the meal they said this was their least favorite of the trip. I had warned them and tried to change it, but oh well. It wasn't bad just not as great as the others we'd had.

Snacks

We'd had some assorted snacks along the way. We got pastries at boardwalk bakery one time for breakfast - danishes. These were all delicious. We also got some danishes and such at mainstreet bakery one day. I had wanted the cinnamon roll but they seemed to be out so I was forced to settle for the banana bread pudding - oh darn. I LOVE bananas so this was great. Since we were staying at the villa it was easy to reheat. I had a churro in Epcot one day which was good - chewy and warm and cinnamony (better than one I'd had later in the week which seemed a bit old and lacking in cinnamon). Also we had some frozen strawberry lemonades in DHS which were delicious and refreshing.

On our last day we each had 1 snack left (4 total) and we were at the sweets shop in DHS, so we got cookies. DMIL got an oatmeal, DH got a peanut butter (they said they used crushed up butterfingers in it), DFIL got a chocolate chip, and I got a gingerbread mickey cookie. Mine was delicious, I expected it to be crumblier but it was soft. Mine was much smaller than the others :(. DH liked his peanut butter cookie but was disappointed that he didn't taste any chocolate so he thinks the butterfingers were blanched:laughing:. DMIL liked her oatmeal cookie and DFIL liked his chocolate chip cookie. I tasted the peanut butter as well and I liked that it was chewy rather than crumbly. I'm a big fan of peanut butter but not so much peanut butter cookies... not sure why.

Well that's it for the first half of our trip. After this we took DFIL and DMIL to the airport for their trip back up north and DH and I checked back in for the second half of our trip. This time at ASMu with Free Dining - but just the regular DDP. Stay tuned for those reviews and, maybe, the ones for next weekend once we go. I will try to take more pics next time :)
 
Intermissions (Lunch)

After returning to Disney, we checked in to ASMu about 11am and our room was ready - Bonus! But it was time to eat. We both decided to get the chicken penne alfredo. This included a piece of parmesian breaded chicken, penne pasta, alfredo sauce, and a breadstick. This day, it took FOREVER to get our food even though the place was empty. There seemed to be some sort of confusion as the CM kept asking us what we wanted, we said we'd ordered, she asked what, we told her, she asked what we wanted, and we said we'd already ordered...etc. Eventually she gave up on us and said "Nevermind!" Not sure what was up with that. Anyways...

The breadsticks were delicious. Definitely the high point of the meal. The chicken was good - very moist but could have had more flavor. The pasta and sauce were good. We enjoyed this meal and DH ordered it again later in the week. It was definitely filling.

For dessert I got a brownie sundae. This included a full iced brownie, 3 big scoops of Edy's ice cream of your choice (butter pecan for me), and your choice of toppings (hot fudge, whipped cream, mickey sprinkles, and a cherry for me!). This thing was huge and easily shareable - I didn't finish mine. DH had a chocolate milkshake and said it was pretty good. Since we had refillable mugs, we grabbed bottled drinks (vitamin water and poweraid). No bottled coke products available.

Boma (Dinner)

Although we've previously sworn off lunch/dinner buffets, we decided to give Boma a try based on reviews here. We showed up for our ADR and the place was SWAMPED. We waited about 10 minutes and several groups (including us) were then seated. This seating created quite a bit of a pile up at the buffet. We had about a 5-10 minute wait in line. I had heard about all the variety here so I just grabbed a small amount of things to try. Unfortunately, there wasn't as much as I expected so all I ended up with was: drumstick of durban spiced chicken, small piece of nut crusted salmon, small sample of carrot ginger soup, and some pita bread. I thought all of this was pretty good - the soup was adventurous for me but I liked it (although it could have been warmer). DH had a nice full plate, including steak (ok, but a bit too rare), seafood soup (he really enjoyed this), falafel (he said kind of bland - oh yeah, I had this too and it had a strange taste compared to one I'd had before... I didn't care for this), bobotie (he liked this even though he was confused by it at first.. the cinnamon and raisin were unexpected), and chicken. I was ready to go get more but apparently so was everyone else who had been seated with us and stood in the first backup. By this time I was annoyed by the pileups so I skipped to dessert (oh darn!)

For dessert I got some fruit, zebra domes (always yummy!), a fruit tart (just ok), and a volcano cake. Probably some other things. I want to mention the volcano cake because it was much denser and chewier than I expected. I had eaten a piece and DH asked me how it was. My response was "this is going to sound strange, but it tastes like a pretzel". He took a bite and agreed. So, if anyone else tries the volcano cake, let me know if it reminds you of a soft pretzel with a hint of chocolate.

While I found this to be a better than average dinner buffet (definitely the best we'd had at Disney), I don't think we'll be returning (at least not anytime soon). The lines and backup were way too stressful and way too much work on vacation. The food wasn't good enough to deal with this.

**Note: I read this to DH and got to the part about the food not good enough for the backup, he said he liked it. Apparently this will be a point of negotiation for future trips.
 
I've always wanted to try Boma, but I have a very anti-adventurous family. I'm afraid the only way I'll ever get to try it is solo!

I am enjoying your reviews!
 

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