Wednesday, May 10
Dinner at Concourse Steakhouse
A leisurely boat ride connected our digs at the Wilderness Lodge to the Contemporary Resort. Many moons ago, I described our first night of Disney dining at Chef Mickeys Restaurant. Tonight we ventured back to the Contemporary to try the Concourse Steakhouse. (I love me some filet mignon!)
Meeting Chef Mickey BEFORE dining here is a must if you have little ones. Once we arrived on the expansive fourth floor of the hotel, we heard all the fun sounds emanating from the Steakhouses flashier neighbor. I was a little worried that the boys might want to jump ship and greet their favorite mouse again. Fortunately, this did not phase Dash and Little Mickey a bit. Theyd already been there, done that.
When we approached the podium at 5 p.m., an empty restaurant greeted us. We always shoot for an early lunch (11ish) and an early dinner (5ish) when we eat out with the dynamic duo. You see, our boys come equipped with internal timers for meals. The timer starts ticking the second we enter a restaurant. They can be sweet, adorable, and compliant for about one hourgive or take a few more minutes for Dash and a few less for Little Mickey. Tick! Tick! Tick! When our tiny human time bombs go off, then it gets ugly. Very ugly. (As in U-G-L-Y; you aint got no alibi!!! Does
anyone remember that kind of ugly?!) DH and I shudder to hear the Mickster utter the three scariest words in his vocabulary: IM ALL DONE! Because when a two-year old is all done,
EVERYONE is all done. No soup for you!
Sorry for the rant. Just a little tip
If your kids have a finite amount of patience at mealtimes, its sooooooo worth it to eat ahead of the crowd. Zero wait for a table usually buys us more time with our ticking time bombs
which means we might actually be able to EAT some of our food. Enough said.
Where was I? After checking in at the podium, we were seated almost immediately at a nice table on the far right side of the restaurant. This removed our family pretty far from Chef Mickey's napkin twirling and celebratory dances. Our server greeted us right away, and jotted down our drink order. The kids Kim Possible placemats-slash-menus listed electric light potions as beverages. They sounded fun, so I asked if these drinks were included on the dining plan. Nope. Oh well, we ordered one Radiant Red Fusion for Dash and one Brilliant Blue Berry Goo for Little Mick anyway. How can you possibly pass up names like those? A few rounds of tic tac toe kept us busy while waiting for these exotic concoctions to arrive. Dash takes this game very seriously; Little Mickey haphazardly places Xs and Os all over the board to declare himself the winnew (winner) every time.
The drinks arrived, and we placed our order. DH selected pan seared scallops and a ribeye steak (medium rare) with onion rings. I couldnt pass up the lobster bisque along with a filet (medium) and garlic mashed potatoes. Grilled cheese, please!, requested Dash. Not to be outdone, Little Mickey shouted, Me too!
pause
Pweeease? The server smiled and informed the boys that they also could have either shrimp cocktail or a salad for an app, so they opted for salads.
The boys eyed up their drinks. Their concoctions resembled blue and red bubbly soda with plastic light-up glow cubes floating in them. One sip each, and yuck! was the unanimous verdict. What?!?! I thought that these drinks would taste like my childhood favorite, the good old Shirley Temple. I took a sip of the red one. Ewww! It tasted like colored club soda, without any trace of sweetness. Radiant Red Fusion may have a cooler name, but Ill stick with my dear Shirley Temple any day. (Maybe the soda machine was out of syrup and we just got a bad one?)
The blue drink tasted a little better
but not much. Oh well! The glow cubes were cool, and we were in Disney World. Yay! No worries here.
As we nibbled on our appetizers, the boys couldnt keep their eyes off of the monorail silently speeding over our heads. This is, after all, Little Mickeys favorite ride. (He really thinks of it as a ride, not just transportation.) Their faces lit up each time a new train made its way near the restaurant. Then the waving began.
Incessant waving. They waved their little hands so hard at each and every monorail car I thought their appendages might actually fall off from all the effort. Nonetheless, it kept them occupied while I ate my soup. The lobster bisque was a little bit salty, but still delicious. (I never met a bisque I didnt like!!!) DH enjoyed his scallops, and the boys picked at the croutons out of their salads in between waves.
A cast member (not our server) promptly delivered our entrees soon after we finished the appetizers. Question: Why is it that your server never actually
serves you your meal???? It seems like some stranger always appears out of thin air bearing your food. Server is a bit of a misnomer-- not a whole lot of serving going on from the actual server. Whats up with that?
Anyhoo, it really didnt matter who brought our food because it was here. And it was good! For those who frequent big chain restaurants like we do, I would rate the quality of CSH steaks better than Outback but not as good as, say, the cuts of meat which arrive sizzling in butter at Ruths Chris Steakhouse. The chef here cooked our meat to order perfectly; not overdone or underdone. It was just right! I almost finished my last bite of mashed potatoes when it happened
. IM ALL DONE, announced Little Mickey in his loudest
outside voice. Oh no! I quickly suggested a little field trip to the bathroom as a diversion so that DH and Dash could finish their meals.
We returned just in time for dessert: a Mickey brownie for Dash, the Painters Palette for Little Mickey, and a crème brulee for moi. (DH passed on dessert this time.) M and Ms covered Dashs Mickey brownie so he was a happy camper! I loved my crème brulee. The best dessert, however, went to Little Mickey. The painters palette featured a Mickey-shaped sugar cookie with a palette of three different colors of icing, decorative sprinkles, and a paintbrush. Little Mickey happily painted his cookie while the rest of us ate our desserts and DH settled up the check.
The server and I chatted about what a great idea the Painters Palette was, and she gave me a simple recipe for replicating the dessert. You just combine powdered confectioners sugar, a little water, and food coloring to form a paste. I tried this at home with the boys when the new
Cars movie was released, and we had a car-themed play date with some friends. It was such a hit! I just used a car-shaped cookie cutter to cut shapes from store-bought Pillsbury sugar cookie dough, mixed up the edible paint, and let the kids attach mini-oreos to the bottom for wheels. Very cute! I got big props for that idea, of course it wasn't really my own. Shhhh!
Im really getting off topic here, so lets wrap this one up with our ratings for the Concourse Steakhouse:
Food: A- (Very good overall)
Fast: A (Efficient service)
Fun: B+ (The monorail overhead was entertaining. Fun dessert options for kids!)
Next up: We have lunch with a bunch of characters from the Hundred Acre Woods. Can you guess where?
about dh and his comments!! Too true!! 
At least now I know! 
