Continuing with Figment Goes to the Flower & Garden (& Food) Festival...
Via Napoli (Epcot, Lunch)
Via Napoli is one of Figment's favorite places to eat at Epcot. The food is very good, the restaurant is nice and bright, with an airy feeling, and watching the chefs make the pizza is fun. Available upon request, is bread. It wasn't anything fancy.
Figment started the meal with his two favorite appetizers: the Calamari Fritti (top), prosciutto e melone (middle), and the Arancini (bottom). Yum! The calamari is cripsy on the outside and tender on the inside. The dipping sauce is very good (but if you get one of the chili flakes on top, it can be hot). The prosciutto e melone is slices of cantelope with proscuitto on top. It's very good (especially if you like prosciutto). The arancini is one of his favorite appetizers. Its crispy on the outside and filled with risotto and mozzarella. So yummy!
For his entrees, Figment had the Linguini Frutti di Mare (top) and the Prosciutto e Melone pizza (bottom). The linguini has lots of seafood (shrimp, clams, and squid) and a slightly spicy tomato sauce. The pizza is thin crusted with prosciutto and melon slices on top. It's Figment's favorite pizza.
And then it was time for dessert! Via Napoli has one of Figment's favorite desserts: the Coppa de Brutti Ma Buoni (the ugly but good) Sundae. It's vanilla gelato with Amarena cherries, a cookie, and cherry sauce. It's very rich, but very good.
Via Napoli also helped celebrate the anniversary by giving Figment's family a cookie with two candles!
Monsieur Paul (Epcot, Dinner)
This was another new place for Figment. He'd been to the Bistro long ago, but was looking forward to trying the new incarnation. Sadly, the meal did not live up to expectations/hopes. The food was good, but the service was lacking and the atmosphere was fairly stuffy (at least compared to other Disney World signature restaurants). The meal begins with the Amuse-Bouche (top). They were bite-sized cheese puffs. Following that was a baguette with butter (bottom).
Figment opted to skip the appetizers because nothing really jumped out at him (or they were really expensive). So on to the entrees. Figment started with the Rouget Atlantique en ecailles de pommes de terre, fenouil, sauce romarin (Red snapper in potato "scales", braised fennel, and rosemary sauce) (top). It was good and the presentation was very pretty.
The next entree was the St. Jacques parfum d'hiver, emulsion de creme au rhum (Seared scallops, black truffle spaghettini, Romanesco cabba). The scallops were cooked perfectly. The foam was a little weird (kind looked like soap and didn't have much flavor).
The final entree was the Magret de canard aux epices, navet con fit, pommes paillasson, compote vierge (Roasted duck breast, oriental spices, turnip confit, grated potatoes). Again, it had good flavor and a pretty presentation.
Then it was on to dessert. Figment tried three of the desserts and they were all okay, but not terribly memorable (which means not outstanding). The first was the Millefeuilles aux Fruits rouges (Berries Napoleon with light lemon cream and strawberry sorbet).
The next dessert was the Vacherin glace vanille, sorbet framboise, creme chantilly (Vanilla ice cream and raspberry sorbet in a meringue, whipped cream). It was very pretty in the restaurant (dark lighting).
The last dessert was the Entremets aux trois chocolat, glace au chocolat (Three chocolate cake, chocolate ice cream). It had lots of chocolate and Figment's favorite chocolate puffs on top.
Next time...Raglan Road Sunday Brunch and Be Our Guest for dinner...