Dining Around the World – aka, How to Gain a Pound in 8 Days – an August 2012 Review!

[Eeyore98]

Hi, everyone! This is the first time I've ever done a dining review, so please bear with me. We just got back home early yesterday morning, and I wanted to share our experiences with everyone here on the DIS, because I've gotten so much great info here over the years.

The diners on this trip were my DH and I. You won't find any breakfasts on this review – we are night owls and I work 3rd shift, so no rope drop for us! But we still managed to have a blast. Most of our meals were at Epcot this trip, hence the "around the world" part of the title. We like to try new places whenever possible, and we hadn't hit a lot of the World Showcase restaurants yet...but we sure have now!

We also are not picture people, so all the pics you will see here have been borrowed from various places around the 'net – appropriately credited, of course.

We stayed at All-Star Music, and thanks to the late-summer room discount, we actually spent less on our room than we did to board our dog while we were gone! Granted, the boarding covered more days to account for our extra drive time, but still!

pic by Magical Mouse Planner

Our meals on this trip (I'll eventually turn these into links as I post each review):

Saturday, August 19:
Columbia Harbour House

Sunday, August 20:
San Angel Inn
Random Epcot Beverages, Part 1
Restaurant Marrakesh
Boulangerie Patisserie

Monday, August 21:
La Cantina de San Angel
Le Cellier

Tuesday, August 22:
Tangierine Cafe
Random Epcot Beverages, Part 2
Biergarten
Karamell-Kuche
Random Epcot Beverages, Part 3

Wednesday, August 23:
Intermission Food Court at All-Star Music
Sanaa

Thursday, August 24:
Lotus Blossom Cafe
Random Epcot Beverages, Part 4
Sommerfest
'Ohana

Friday, August 25:
Leaning Palms
The Wave
Plaza Ice Cream Parlor

Saturday, August 26:
Earl of Sandwich

Gotta run for the moment - I have class at 5:00, but I should have the first review up later tonight!

 

[Ginamarie]

Looking forward to your review!

 

[MickeyNicki]

Count me in!

 

[deenbrad]

Looking forward to it!

 

[Eeyore98]

Okay, let's jump right in!

We arrived in Orlando at about 6:30 pm after driving all night from Texas. We checked in at All-Star Music, and since our first-night tradition is always hitting MK for Wishes, we were on a bus within minutes of dropping off our luggage in the room. We quickly realized we were starving – we hadn't eaten anything since stopping at an IHOP in Pensacola at about 9 that morning!

Being night owls, we had mostly visited during evening EMH in the past, and had never managed to catch Columbia Harbour House while it was actually open. So we decided to try there first and find another CS if it was closed. But luck was with us, and even though it was about 7:15 by then, CHH was indeed open (and mobbed!).

photo by mrkathika

We ordered our food and headed upstairs to find seating, as the main level was packed. I was glad I knew about the upstairs from the DIS, as every staircase but one was roped off, and most people were assuming that the downstairs tables were all that was available. The second floor was nice and quiet by comparison, with only a handful of other occupied tables.

photo by Nicki Elson

There were two items that we both were stuck deciding between, so we decided to get one of each and split them both. We went with the Lighthouse Sandwich, which gets a ton of good reviews here on the DIS, and the new-ish Broccoli Peppercorn Salad, which was added during a menu change about a year ago.

pic by kelly_tressler

The Lighthouse Sandwich is listed on the menu as "hummus with tomato and broccoli slaw" and it is served on multigrain bread. It comes with a small bag of potato chips (the little corner of blue seen in the pic).

This was pretty good, but just a tad on the bland side; I didn't find it as amazing as others have. With a spicier hummus, it would be fantastic, though. As it was, I found myself deliberately interspering a bite of the salad or a potato chip for additional flavor.

pic by Josh from easyWDW

The Broccoli Peppercorn Salad is listed on the menu as “mixed greens, garden vegetables, chicken, broccoli, bacon, parmesan, tossed with a creamy peppercorn dressing”. This was delicious! The salad had a nice amount of lettuce and broccoli, with peas, corn, and julienned carrots, and huge pieces of grilled chicken, with a tangy, creamy dressing. Too much dressing on a salad turns me off, so I'm always a little wary of pre-dressed salads, but this was a good amount.

To drink, we got a large Coke and our first ice water of the trip. On previous trips we have taken frequent advantage of the fact that counter service locations give out free ice water for the asking, which is taken (or was) from the filtered water they use for the soda fountain, and not from the rusty-tasting tap. We didn't even worry about bringing a water bottle with us to the parks on our previous trips.

This trip would turn out to be a little different. The ice water we were given at CHH was the kid's size cup instead of the regular size, which was our first surprise, but okay, it's free, we can deal. But then I took a drink from it, and it was just as rusty and blech as the water fountains outside POTC. Ew! The ice water would continue to be hit-and-miss throughout the trip. We'll definitely be bringing our filter bottles along the next time we visit!

Overall, CHH was a tasty (and seemingly somewhat healthy) CS meal. The atmosphere upstairs was actually calm and relaxing, and it was neat to see the different bits of nautical-themed decor.

Next...San Angel Inn!

 

[jmm476]

Joining in! You weren't kidding when you said you ate at Epcot a lot. Looking forward to seeing your reviews. CHH is my favorite CS at MK, but I have yet to sit upstairs. I guess we go at off times because it's always blocked off.

 

[butiflfeet]

Joining in! We love Epcot restaurants too!

 

[iloveeeyore]

I'm in! Great start, and I love your avatar!

 

[SevenDwarfDiva]

Count me in!

 

[disnut1149]

Hi
I'm in. Can't wait to read your reviews!!

 

[disney212]

I'm in and caught up. DH and I also eat and drink around the world. Can't wait to read more!

 

[Eeyore98]

San Angel Inn was not our original hope for lunch this day, but I'm glad it worked out the way it did!

We had actually dragged our butts out of bed before park opening (a first for us in 4 trips to WDW) to take the Around the World Segway tour. It ended around 10:30 and our plan was to try to squeeze in at Le Cellier for lunch. I had been unable to get an ADR there despite looking online every day, because we'd only booked the trip about 90 days prior. But on our last trip in 2010, we'd run into the same problem, and we'd been able to get a walk-up without any trouble by being there right when World Showcase opened at 11.

This garden is always so pretty!

Photos from Orlando Theme Park News


Well, unfortunately, our luck did not hold that morning. The very kind CM at the Le Cellier desk said they were booked solid with seatings every 5 minutes and didn't have any cancellations that he could see. Drat! (We did get there eventually, later in the trip.)

At this point, my original plan had been to grab CS somewhere if Le Cellier couldn't accommodate us, but the early morning was already starting to take its toll on us, and DH really wanted to relax for a bit at a TS. So I checked on my phone to see who had availability, and we headed to Mexico.

Pic from arondaparks.com


I know SAI gets a lot of mixed reviews around here, but we really enjoyed it! We were taken to a two-top table right on the water. During our meal, we found ourselves wondering why the volcano was occasionally shooting something green...but discovered the answer later in the trip when we played the Agent P game!

Pic from disneyworld.com

From past pictures I've seen, it looks like San Angel has recently tried to go for a slightly more upscale feel. They have added tablecloths, and they have the same blue goblets for water that Cinderella's Royal Table uses. I have a weird liking for those glasses; I always think I'm going to go home and find some for my own kitchen, then end up forgetting a few weeks later. I find it funny that they don't even bother with tablecloths at Le Cellier's signature dinner, but we had them here for our lunch.

Photo from disneyfoodblog.com

Our server was friendly and efficient, though she did have a tendency to want to make our food choices for us, which was a little odd. (We ran into this once later in the trip with another waiter, too.)

For example, after she greeted us, she said, “I'll be right back with some salsa and guacamole for you, ok?” Now, I know from the DIS that guacamole isn't normally a complimentary item at San Angel (or at other Mexican restaurants in general, really), so I wasn't surprised to eventually see it on our bill. But I could understand other people being confused and thinking it was free, based on the way she worded it. We also probably would have gotten the tostadas for an appetizer if left to our own choices, which would have been more expensive and thus gotten her a bigger tip. But I guess maybe she is used to a lot of folks having the dining plan, and they would probably not be getting an app without her “suggestion”. So beware, if you are offered guacamole at San Angel, it will cost you $6.

It was good guacamole, though. And we were grateful to have it, because the salsa was the one thing on the menu that we did not care for. I've heard folks complain about the chips before, but ours were fresh and warm, and not Tostitos. But the salsa...well, it tasted like someone mixed equal parts ketchup and Tabasco. Very different from the salsas I've had in Cozumel (chunks of diced jalapenos and tomatoes tossed with spices) or at Mexican-owned places here in Texas (a little more of a “sauce”, but still with actual, identifiable bits of vegetable).

The chips and funky salsa:

Photo from disneyfoodblog.com


The guacamole, served with little fried flour chips that have a specific name that I can't remember. The red stuff drizzled on them is more salsa though...blech!

Photo from mainstgazette.com

We each ordered a margarita; DH got passion fruit and I got pineapple.

Wild Passion Fruit Margarita - El Mayor premium white tequila and Canton ginger liqueur mixed with passion fruit, mango nectar and fresh lime juice, topped with passion fruit foam, served on the rocks with hibiscus Himalayan salt rim.

Pic from disneyfoodblog.com


Pineapple Margarita - 100% Agave Tequila Reposado, ginger liqueur, carmelized pineapple nectar, fresh lime juice and agave nectar served on the rocks. Mine also had a crushed red pepper rim that doesn't appear to be mentioned on any online menu.

Pic from mousechow.com

Boy, these were strong! I do not drink very often – maybe five drinks in a year? Ten in a year that includes a Disney trip? And I still basically have the palate of an 11-year-old when it comes to alcohol. So I pretty much had to wait for all the ice to melt in my margarita before I could actually drink it! Luckily, the ice water here didn't seem to have the funky taste problems we ran into the night before, so I had water with most of my meal and finished my margarita at the end.

I got the enchiladas for my entree and DH got the flank steak (aka 'arrachera' in Spanish).

Enchiladas Verdes de Pollo - Corn tortillas filled with pulled chicken, covered with green tomatillo sauce, topped with sour cream, queso fresco and onion, served with black beans. This also came with rice.

Photo from disneyfoodblog.com

I really enjoyed this entree. Everything was very fresh and flavorful! There were three small enchiladas, which turned out to be a perfect lunch portion. Our waitress brought the tomatillo sauce on the side, unasked, “just in case it is too spicy for you”, but I didn't think it had much heat compared to the Mexican food we usually get in Texas. It was tasty, but the idea that it would be “too spicy” for someone would never have entered my mind.

Arrachera Con Chilaquiles - New York strip steak with chilaquiles (layers of fried corn tortilla, green tomatillo sauce, topped with queso fresco, onion, and sour cream), served with black refried beans.

Pic by Tropical Wilds

DH liked this as well. It came out a little more done than he requested (he usually asks for medium rare and this was more like medium well), but he said it was still tender and not dried out. He nearly cleared the entire plate, so I guess he enjoyed it!

Ultimately, this was one of the best meals of our trip. The atmosphere just can't be beat – it's so peaceful and the scenery is gorgeous. And the food was delicious. We usually aim to try new restaurants in WDW rather than revisit places we've been (with the exception of Le Cellier, which we do every trip). But I think San Angel may be joining the “must-do” ranks for us!

 

[Eeyore98]

Between the (for-us) early morning and a full belly, DH was feeling tired after lunch. Standard wisdom would have had us going back to the room for a nap, especially since we would be hitting MK evening EMH that night. But DH gets migraines whenever he takes a nap (weird, huh?), so instead, he decided to hit the coffee stand on our way back to Future World after lunch, in search of a caffeine infusion.

He got a frozen cappuccino and proclaimed it “good, not too sweet”. It helped wake him up, which was the important thing.

Pic by jerseytinkerbell

Later in the day, we were back in World Showcase wandering through the countries, and DH wanted to get something from the little wine shop in Italy. He opted for Rosa Regale, knowing it's one of the few drinks I actually like, so we could share. (There are three glasses in this borrowed photo, but we only got one.)

Pic from alwaysrunningbehind.blogspot.com

I'm sure this is probably disgustingly sweet to many people, because I still can't stand most wines, but I like this one!

 

[NoOrdinaryPrincess]

Joining in! I really liked your review of SAI!

I have eaten there only once, many years ago at age 15, and I think my palate wasn't sophisticated enough for "authentic" Mexican food. I was expecting the Americanized version you can find here in the states. I'm eager to try it again as an adult to see if I will appreciate it more!