Five Days of Disney Dining - Sept. 30 - Oct. 4th, 2008

[kittylady1972]

My first ever dining report is coming soon. I took lots of photos of our delicious food around the World and even had my husband trained to help out. I'll admit I missed a few photos, but I'll still review the food here. Here is where we dined last week:

Sept. 30th
Brown Derby (lunch) - POST #5
Pecos Bills (dinner) - POST #5

Oct. 1st
Spoodles (breakfast) - POST #7
Food and Wine Festival booths (lunch) - POST #7
Narcoossee's (dinner) - POST #8

Oct. 2nd
Beach Club Marketplace (breakfast) - POST #17
Columbia Harbour House (lunch) - POST #17
Captain's Grille (dinner) - POST #18 & 21

Oct. 3rd
Kona Cafe (breakfast) - POST #22
Wolfgang Puck Express (lunch) - POST #23
California Grill (dinner) - POST #23

Oct. 4th
ABC Commissary (lunch) POST #24

 

[MickeyNicki]

Yay I'm first and so excited!

 

[TigerKat]

I'm right behind ya Nick!

 

[chocolateMinnie]

looking forward to these too.

 

[kittylady1972]

We arrived at our resort (Beach Club Villas) early in the morning after a 7am flight out of Baltimore. We walked around a bit and decided to hit Hollywood Studios. I have always wanted to try the Brown Derby so I called Disney Dining as we sat on the dock waiting for the boat to the park. They were wide open for lunch so we took an 11:30am seating. We arrived right on time and even though it was pretty empty it seemed to take a while to seat us. No matter.

Moses was our server and he was personable if a bit hard to understand. We decided to split the Cobb Salad to save room for dessert. I love bleu cheese but not a big fan of avacado or tomato. It arrived quickly and Moses mixed it up at the table for us and split it into portions for each of us. IT WAS FAB-U-LOUS! We were still talking about it days later. Sorry I did not take photos...it went fast!

When it comes to dessert, I'm a major chocoholic, but I don't like really heavy desserts. The flourless chocolate cake sounded good but Moses said his favorite was the Banana White Chocolate Toffee Tower:

It was WONDERFUL, not too light and not too heavy with the right amount of Toffee Pieces in the middle to give me my chocolate fix. The only thing I didn't care for was the little cookie thing on top.


DH decided on the Pistachio Cheesecake:

He seemed to enjoy it as well.

OVERALL: This restaurant gets an A in my book and we can't wait to go back. This may have to be one of our regular visits on future trips. The atmosphere was nice too, despite the woman in the booth across the restaurant enjoying a bottle of wine alone and talking loudly on her cell phone.
Total cost here was $39.42 which included a $7 DDE discount and the tip for Moses.

Next stop was the Magic Kingdom for Mickey's NSS Halloween Party. I was SO looking forward to using one of our counter service credits for dinner at Columbia Harbour House but when we got there at 6pm they were closing. We headed to El Pirata, another place I've never tried, and it was also closed. So we headed to Pecos Bills, and old standby but not one of my favorites. DH got the Bacon Double Cheeseburger and fries, nothing special. It was $11.75 but free thanks to the Dining Plan. I grabbed a Turkey Leg from a nearby cart and a bottle of water and that cost me $8.50. I LOVE the Turkey Legs so it was a perfect meal for me.

Later that night we hit Mrs. Pott's Cupboard for ice cream. We paid $7.12 for a vanilla cone (DH) and Hot Fudge Sundae (Me). I LOVE their Sundaes there, lots of fudge for the chocoholic in me. It was a big mistake to ride Space Mountain soon after that though...UGH!

 

[kittylady1972]

 

[kittylady1972]

Another first time for us this time was Spoodles for breakfast, an easy walk from the Beach Club Villas over to Boardwalk. We both decided on the same thing for breakfast...the Ham and Cheese Frittata. The only difference was that I got Sausage mixed INTO mine and DH got his on the side. I'm just showing mine:

Let me say, these were EXCELLENT but I think we could have split one between us as I took half of mine back to the room and so did DH. I am not a fan of breakfast potatoes, but I tried these...and they were also VERY good. The had some Italian seasoning to them that just made them taste so good. It was so hard to stop eating them.

OVERALL RATING: A definite 'A' from me, another one I'd love to try. I don't think DH was thinking it was anything special, but he did enjoy it. Total cost was $32 here and that included a $5.69 discount for DDE and about a $6 or $7 tip.

We then headed over to EPCOT with plans to pretty much make the Food and Wine Festival booths our lunch. We didn't want to fill up as we had plans for Narcoossee's for dinner.

First stop at the booths was Canada. I had the Cheddar Cheese Soup, Maple Glazed Salmon and sample of the Riesling wine. It was all very good. DH also had the soup. We used Dining Snack Credits (3) for the food which would have cost us about $11. The soup was good but I felt it seemed like it had more of a flour taste to it than I would have liked. The salmon was VERY good and a nice size for a sample. It was served on a bed of greens with walnuts and corn and even that was all good too. I cleaned my plate, a rare thing. Wine was good too.

Next stop was France. I had thoughts of trying the Escargot but once I saw it I just couldn't do it. DH did get it, here is the one he had left.

He said it was okay, but mostly he could only taste the breading which had a garlic taste to it.

My husband is also a big fan of Grand Marnier, so I headed to the booth that had the Grand Marnier Orange Slush and got this for DH. This was yummy and not very strong at all.

Final stop was at Hops and Barley Booth. I got the New England Lobster Roll which was a whopping $7 and covered by the snack on the DDP.

Had I known what this was ahead of time, I probably would not have ordered it as I wasn't in the mood for a sandwich. It was a cold lobster/shrimp salad-type thing and it was okay but nothing spectacular. We also got two wine samples from the New York State Wine Adventure. I only remember that I liked DH choice over mine and his was an Arctic Fox white wine.

 

[kittylady1972]

We ate at Narcoossee's in October of 2006 and were going to skip it this time, but we decided instead to use our Disney Dining Plan Table Service Credits to eat at TWO Signature restaurants, so we scheduled this one a few weeks before our trip.

We were not disappointed.

I was too busy enjoying the food to get too many photos here. I can tell you we started with a bottle of Fess Parker Riesling wine, a favorite. It was hard to stay away from the bread, though I wish the butter was salted instead of having them just add sea salt to it. I love a good Caesar salad, so I had the Romaine Salad. It was excellent. DH had the Heirloom Tomato Salad which sounded odd with the fruit and proscuitto mixed into it but DH said it was EXCELLENT as well. Of course we had to order the good stuff for dinner. I had the Steamed Whole Maine Lobster and DH had the Surf and Turf. Both were very good but DH said the meat was a bit overcooked (closer to well than medium) but still good.

Amazingly, we still had a bit of room for dessert after this. I had preordered the Mini Castle Cake with Cheesecake from the Disney Cake Hotline the previous week. It arrived at our table and it was VERY good. I'm not a huge fan of white chocolate bit still enjoyed this:

It was really just the right amount of food after our big meal, and yet we were entitled to a free dessert since we were using our DDP credits. So we ordered more dessert.

Mine was the Gelato Sampler:

If I can recall, it was chocolate, cranberry (or raspberry?), pumpkin and strawberry. They were nice little samples, though I don't think I need pumpking and ice cream in a mix like that.

DH got the Key Lime Creme Brulee, as he is a HUGE fan of Creme Brulee as well as Key Lime Pie:

He wasn't overly impressed with this one, but he did eat most of it. I had a small taste and enjoyed it.

Overall the bill for this meal would have been $221. Keep in mind that includes a $37 bottle of wine and my mini castle cake which was $25. Our dining plan total would have been about $137 and the extra food we ordered would have cost us $85 before tax and tip. As it is we shelled out about $110 for this meal. What I did like was the fact that the 20% DDE discount came to about $17 and they even discounted my specially ordered Mini Castle Cake.

OVERALL: This place is wonderful for both atmosphere and the food and service. I'd give it a B only because the desserts they had there (or at least the ones we chose) weren't really the best and for what we paid I would think the steak would have been prepared better. We probably won't get back here anytime soon because I have no desire to spend that kind of money on a meal again unless we are using the dining plan.

 

[kittylady1972]

Ok, that's enough for tonight. I'm off to bed and will try to post some more reviews tomorrow sometime!

 

[luvpooh]

great reviews! can't wait to read the rest!

 

[PrincessMonkey]

I look forward to the rest of your pictures! I liked that you two shared the Cobb salad; what a good idea.

Your pre-ordered castle cake at Narcoosee's is adorable. (If you don't mind, where can it be ordered for a special occasion and how much did it cost?)

 

[deanie]

Loved your reviews and can't wait to read more!! I am certainly going to add the Brown Derby to our list during our next visit.

 

[jeminni]

Great reviews

The mini castle cake looked really good.

 

[kittylady1972]

Regarding the Mini Castle Cake, you can order it by using the Disney Cake Hotline number....let me see if I can find it for you.

Here it is:

Special Order Cakes 407-824-2165

It is VERY small....really enough for one person. The Castle is a hollow white chocolate and it sits atop a mini cheesecake. You can also have it sitting on a chocolate or vanilla cake as well, but I figured the cheesecake would be good. It was. I do believe that you can ONLY order this item for the restaurants in the Grand Floridian area, so another good reason to eat at Narcoossee's. It was $25.

 

[bakerhouse]

Enjoying your reviews so far!

 

[PixieDustandEeyore]

Mmm that cake looks delicious! And spoodles breakfast potatoes are amazing !

 

[kittylady1972]

Sorry folks, no pictures on this one as they were quick service.

We were up early hoping to hit Animal Kingdom when it opened. For some reason my brain had it opening 8am so I had my poor DH at the bus stop just before 8am before he mentioned to me about the time. Oh yeah, it opens at 9am. So I guess we have time for breakfast at our resort after all!

We headed to the Beach Club Marketplace where they have a small are of counter service foods. We each had the Ham and Cheese Omelet Croissant and I have to say they were VERY good and we really could have split one of them once again. For the dining plan, we were allowed two drinks each, so DH got coffee and milk and I picked up milk and a bottle of water for later. Cost here was probably around $22 with tax, but FREE for us with the dining plan.

OVERALL RATING: B Typical counter service, though I have to say the omelet was VERY VERY cheesy, and if there's one thing I like as much as chocolate, it's CHEESE! I'd go here again for breakfast for sure.

Next it was on to Animal Kingdom.

I have to mention here that DH was really anxious to try a caramel apple. The problem is that my husband is allergic to many kinds of fruits, apples included. SOME apples don't give him problems, usually Granny Smith (I know, very strange). Cooked fruits are also fine. I told him to go ahead and get the apple and if he couldn't eat it, I would help, though caramel isn't really my thing. We share the apple, eating it quickly as we walked through the park. He figured out AFTER it was gone that yes, it was not a good idea. Luckily his allergy isn't too bad and he just knows NOT to try it in the future.

We did a few rides at AK before heading to the Magic Kingdrom around lunchtime because I was DETERMINED to get my Columbia Harbour House fix. I LOVE this place and it did not disappoint.

We ordered 2 bowls of clam chowder, DH had the BLT Salad, I had the Fried Fish Basket with apple slices, and dessert was the chocolate cake for me and apple crisp for DH, plus 2 lemonades. Total for this meal was probably around $40. Since our meal plan did not include appetizer, we paid for the bowls of chowder out of pocket for a cost of $10 to us, putting about $30 worth of food towards our dining counter service credits. The clam chowder here was GREAT as always, and the fish was good too, though not as good as the Fish N' Chips at Yorkshire County Fish Shop in EPCOT. I found that it helped to dip the fish INTO the chowder...YUM! DH enjoyed the BLT Salad and it was pretty HUGE. Of course the chocolate cake dessert was good, but a bit heavy for me so I mostly ate the frosting. DH seemed to enjoy his apple crisp as well. OVERALL RATING: Oh yeah, I love this place...A is my grade and we'll be back!

Before we left the Magic Kingdom, we did have to have our Dole fix. DH picked the Dole Float and shared a bit with me, though I was still STUFFED from lunch. We both enjoyed it and it was paid for by one of our DDP Snack Credits.

 

[kittylady1972]

So after spending some time in our FABULOUS resort pool, we get back to the room and are trying to decide where to eat dinner. We have no reservations and DH has a preference to stick close to our resort. We call Disney Dining and ask about the Captains Grille, located within walking distance for us at the Yacht Club Resort, in the same building as the Beach Club. They tell us there is nothing until after 9pm (it's about 7pm when we call) and they also say they do not accept walk-ins. The only place we find that has an opening is...you know, I don't even remember what it was now. All I know is we made a reservation, then I decided we should just walk over to Captains Grille to check on the place.

The restaurant is practically EMPTY. Seriously. We walk up to the podium and ask if they take walk-ins (they do) and they seat us right away. Score!

Stay tuned...the food report is coming up soon...with pictures this time!

 

[MickeyNicki]

Last April we stayed at YC, called to see if we can get into Capt Grill, they said sorry they are booked up and no walk ins.

We went downstairs and checked with them about 10 minutes before they opened, we were seated right away and were there for an hour, in a very empty restaurant.......

The food was very very good!

 

[CanadianPaco]

That castle cheesecake is tooooooooooooo cute!!! Thanks!