Hey everyone! We are just finishing up our 7 night stay at Coronado Springs resort with free dining. It was my boyfriend and I. We had 6 TS meals including one signature dinner.
I am planning on writing a trip report and linking to the dining report for the meals, so here is where you'll find all of our reviews. I will also do my best to review the DDP and I'll let you know how we did with spending credits vs. What we would have paid OOP.
This was my first time planning a big trip (my parents have taken my siblings and I probably 5 times) and my first time on the dining plan. This was my fiance's first time at WDW. He is quite the eater!
I spent a lot of time researching restaurants. I probably changed most of my ADR's 2 or 3 times. Very few of the ADR's that I originally had actually stayed put!
For me, eating was one of the highlights of the trip.
As a kid, my parents would bring us (I have 4 younger siblings). We would drive down to Daytona Beach in our Suburban and stay at the beach for 2 weeks in May. My parents would drive us to WDW for a few days so we could experience all of the parks. We almost always packed lunches for in the parks. Can you imagine feeding 7 people at Disney!? OMG! I don't blame them! Plus we were so young, what did we care. We always had a blast!
Now that I'm older, I was so excited to plan to eat at all of the great restaurants. We did get free dining so that was a huge plus! I also watch what I eat almost every day. I splurge now and then but we don't go out to eat at nice restaurants all that often, so this was a huge treat for us!
Here is a lineup of reviews:
Saturday:
Ohana
Sunday:
Pepper Market Breakfast
Wolfgang Puck Express Lunch
Monday (Day trip to Tampa)
Pepper Market
Tuesday
Restaurantosaurus
Yak and Yeti
Yachtsman Steakhouse
Wednesday
Sweet Spells (DHS)
Pepper Market
Via Napoli
Drinking around Epcot
Thursday
Crystal Palace Breakfast
Pecos Bill Lunch
Be Our Guest Dinner
Friday
Pepper Market
Food and Wine
Teppan Edo
Saturday
Pepper Market
Earl of Sandwich
Final Review - Would we do DDP again!?
.... So hopefully you'll all join us for some YUMMY pictures and reviews! We are easy to please with food, we loved mostly everything here!!
We had McDonald's for breakfast at the airport that morning. We checked in at Coronado Springs around 4 and left for MK shortly after. We had rented a car.
At this point, we weren't sure if we should do bus transportation or our car. I was willing to give the bus a shot. I'm not yet 25 so J did all of the rental car driving, so I left the "bus or drive" decisions up to him. We decided to try the bus.
After about 20 minutes and no bus, we just decided to drive. We got to MK about 5:45. Our ADR was for 6:40, so we just hung around and took it all in for a few. It was j's first trip so I wanted him to see everything.
We took the monorail to the Polynesian around 6:15. We checked in at 6:30 (10 minutes early) and were seated almost right away!
We had a great table, with a window view of the castle.
First, they brought out the bread. At this point, we hadn't eaten in 10 hours, so we were starving! The pineapple bread didn't stand a chance with us. It was devoured within 10 minutes.
First, the pot stickers and the wings came out. I told myself I would have two of each. J grabbed the rest (this man can eat, you'll see!) When he saw me take two, he said "don't you want more?" I said, "I'm pacing myself.." To which he replied.. "I'm not!" Hahahaha. They were so good. I really loved them both. Excuse the fact that there are some missing in the picture, we were so hungry!
The lettuce wraps were out then, too. They were good. A little spicy, but I don't handle spice well. So others might love them, but I only had one.
Then came the noodles and the veggies. I had a serving of noodles.. Yum!! We both loved them. The veggies were okay. Ours were kind of cold. But I had some anyways.
We waited for what seemed like awhile for our meat. Everything was pretty well spaced out. The table next to us had a different server, but had arrived at the same time as us. They were already finishing up their shrimp and we still hadn't received our steak. But that's okay. It gave us time to digest our fabulous sides.
Next up was the main event... The meat!! Sorry for the chicken bones..
The steak was fantastic! Seasoned, juicy, perfection. Our server gave us plenty.
Now for the pork... I was not a huge fan. I don't usually like pork, though. This pork was super dry, and pretty thin. Justin liked it.
Justin doesn't like shrimp, so he passed on these, but I tried a few. Yum! So good. I didn't like having to peel them, but it wasn't too difficult. I probably only minded because I couldn't get them in my mouth as fast as I would've liked.
I knew I couldn't hot any more meat in my belly if I wanted to save room for the dessert. And I did, so I stopped. Justin, however, kept going. He ordered some more potstickers to go with his steak.
He sure loved those pot stickers. I asked "soooo how many pot stickers did you eat?!" The answer I got? "At least 8!"
Our server offered us more meat, but we declined. It was time for dessert!
The bread pudding with ice cream and bananas foster sauce... Oh my. I really, really wanted to eat it all. I just couldn't. I usually know when I'm getting to the point that I'm uncomfortably full.. And I was definitely there. Justin doesn't really like cake (but he can survive on cookies alone) so he wasn't a big fan (even though I thought it wasn't similar to cake). I told him it was bread pudding, but he still didn't love it. He ate a little bit of it but ate most of the ice cream.
We were finished with our meal by 7:30. We used 2 table service credits here.
WOULD WE RETURN: We would definitely go back!! Everything was so good! With the exception of cold veggies and slightly dry pork.. It was awesome. J requested that we go back again in the same trip. Lol! We think that even if we weren't on the DDP, we would still pay $40 per person for this meal. The quality and flavor of the food was great, and the service and atmosphere were excellent. My favorite thing was the steak and dessert. J's were the potstickers.
I already have plans to return on my next trip in March!
Sunday morning, we woke up and were so excited to get our day started! At this point, we hadn't purchased any groceries or anything, so we decided to use a QS credit on breakfast. Only, both of us didn't think using a QS credit was worth it for breakfast this morning. I wasn't too hungry, and we knew we would want to save them for more expensive meals in the parks. So we paid OOP for this meal.
Pepper Market is the QS inside Coronado Springs. It has a few different breakfast stations to choose from.
Pepper Market breakfast was just fine. They have a variety of options including: Mickey waffles, french toast, breakfast sandwiches, breakfast burritos, fruit cups oatmeal, breakfast frittatas, make your own omelets, etc. There really is something for everyone! They also have a coffee station where you can do more gourmet stuff like cappuccinos and lattes.
One thing I wish I had seen, which maybe I missed? An iced coffee area. I would have loved to see fresh cold coffee at the refillable mug stations. Something I did (only once though) was fill my refillable mug the night before, and leave it in the fridge overnight. The next day when we went to breakfast I would just take it with me and add cream and sugar. I'm an iced coffee lover, even more so when it's 90 degrees out. Hot coffee just won't do it for me when it's that hot!
Justin chose the bacon, egg, and cheese breakfast sandwich, served on a croissant-like roll with two triangle hash browns. This was $6.99, which isn't bad for a decently sized sandwich and a side of hash browns. He liked it. He loves bacon/egg/cheese sandwiches though, so I knew he wouldn't complain.
I wanted something lighter, as I knew we'd be using QS credits at DTD later that afternoon. I chose to go to the yogurt/oatmeal/fruit area. They had an option of oatmeal, which Justin claimed was "too healthy for vacation". They had a fruit cup, which offered honeydew, canteloupe, grapes, and pineapple, but I don't like honeydew and canteloupe. So I opted for the "yogurt parfait".
Justin's choice: Bacon, egg, and cheese breakfast sandwich. All sandwiches come with two hashbrowns. $6.99
Granola Parfait - Low Fat Yogurt layered with Blueberries, Strawberry Compote, and Granola $5.99
Now, here is my gripe. If this were sold in a cup, with all of the listed accompaniments, I would have gone straight for it. This was not a "grab and go" item. This is an item they make for you, at the counter. So when I ordered it, I assumed it would be yogurt with fresh blueberries and some strawberry jelly-compote-whatever that you typically see in a parfait. The girl went to pile in the previously mentioned honeydew/melon mix. Immediately I thought to myself "EW"!! Now I'm kind of picky with food, but I tried to be as nice as possible in explaining that I didn't think fruit cup fruit went with blueberries and granola.. so I nicely said "I'm sorry, I didn't think that fruit was included? I don't like honeydew or canteloupe, could you please leave that off?"
The girl was dumbfounded as to why I wouldn't want the seasonal fruit, so she said "Well... what do you want then?" So I nicely explained that the menu said it came with blueberries. So she scooped in a wee bit of yogurt, added some blueberry syrup compote, and some strawberry compote, and sprinkled some granola on top.
We checked out. Our total was $13.83.
I took my bowl of sadness, aka a "Yogurt parfait" and sat down. For $5.99. I believe Disney made at least $5.50 off of me for this one, haha.
You'll see when I add pictures just how sad it was. I really, really was hoping for some quality blueberry granola goodness, but I was mistaken.Instead, I was left with a bowl of sugar disguised as a "parfait". Justin just laughed at me, and told me this was my punishment for trying to be healthy the first day of our vacation!!
All bets were off after that, though. No more healthiness here!!
I stomached what I could of the parfait, which was at least half. It was 3/4 "compote" and a wee bit of yogurt and granola. I would not recommend the yogurt parfait to anyone. However, J certainly enjoyed his sandwich!!
WOULD WE RETURN: Yes, you'll see that we return later this week 4 more times. I would NEVER order what I ordered again, though. Maybe it was a miscommunication with the girl serving me (she wasn't very friendly and might have been new, she seemed confused), but the portion of what she gave me vs. what I paid was not worth the money.
We ate at Wolfgang Puck Express at Downtown Disney West Side for lunch that day.
I explained to Justin that we could eat at Earl of Sandwich, or Wolfgang Puck Express. Well silly me didn’t realize that WPE was on the Marketplace side. We went into the little tiny WPE that is attached to the big restaurant. I was like “Is this it!?!” but, we were hungry and had no clue. None.
So we ordered.. For Justin, a pepperoni pizza (mozzarella, caramelized onions, torn basil, parmesan – hold the onions, $12), chocolate chip cookie ($2), and a Diet Coke ($1.95).
For me, a pizza margherita (Fresh mozzarella, roasted tomatoes, and torn basil, $12), key lime pie ($9!!!!), and a Diet Coke (duh!! $1.95).
We ordered inside, but there are only a few tables, so we sat outside. A cast member was fixing the door to the outside patio, using a drill, so that was a wee bit annoying for the first 20 minutes of our meal, but we got over it.
I would say that on any given day, we would have just split the pizza, skipped the dessert, and probably just shared a snack later on. But, I wasn’t gonna pass on the key lime pie. For $9, this was not worth $9. It was good, though! It had a nice graham cracker crust, smooth texture, and a meringue on top. I’m not a huge fan of meringue. I ate about 1/3 of this.
We ate dessert first. Because we were in Disney, and also because our meals took a good 15 minutes to get to us. But that’s okay, because the pizza was great! They were very hot and fresh. We ate about half of ours, Justin maybe ate 2/3 of his. We boxed it up and took it to go. This would make for a great snack pre-Halloween party!
Our Review: I would go here again. Next time, I would go to the Marketplace WPE, though! The food here was great, but I would’ve probably ordered something different had there been more of a selection. J really enjoyed it. He’s not hard to please, especially when there is pizza involved. So he was definitely satisfied!
The total on this meal was about $40. Without DDP, like I said, I would’ve probably expected it to be about $20 because we would have split the pizza and skipped dessert. But, with the dining plan, we weren’t shy about eating.
WOULD WE RETURN: Definitely. I would try the one in the Marketplace next time, though. And I probably wouldn't get pizza, just because I have already had it and I would want to try something new. But, I know Justin would definitely get the pizza again. He loved it. This is a great restaurant for QS credit use!
On Tuesday we were at Animal Kingdom. Justin wasn't feeling all that well, and it was REALLY hot, so he wanted to get inside for lunch and get something "familiar" in his belly. To him, familiar is a burger and fries. Yak and Yeti and Flame Tree BBQ sounded good, he said, but he didn't want any of the sauces upsetting his stomach.
I was holding out for Yak and Yeti but I was happy to sit with him while he ate. We had done a lot that morning so we needed the break.
His choice at Restaurantosaurus was (and I'm sorry for the awful lighting):
Angus Bacon Cheeseburger - Flame-broiled Angus Burger topped with Bacon, melted American Cheese, and choice of Apple Slices or French Fries - $10.69
They also offered: a black bean burger, chicken BLT salad, grilled chicken sandwich, chicken nuggets, and a mac & cheese hot dog. The Chicken BLT salad sounded good, but I really wanted some good Chinese at Yak and Yeti!
He got a Diet Coke to drink and offered to let me choose the dessert. I chose the cheesecake in a glass for $4.19.
I lied when I said the sad little yogurt parfait was the worst thing I ate in Disney - this was definitely the worst, haha!
He raved about this burger! He loved it. He added ketchup and mustard, as he does to all of his burgers. A bacon cheeseburger is his go-to on a menu when he's not feeling adventurous (which is a lot of the time, lol).
He really enjoyed this. I had a bite too and I was impressed. I hear a lot about Disney burgers not being the greatest, but this one was pretty good. It was hot and juicy, and very thick.
The 'cheesecake in a glass' was weird. There was a crust on the bottom, runny cheesecake in the middle, and an orange flavored sour gelatin on top. I don't particularly like orange, and it was super gooey, so I pushed it aside to get to the cheesecake, which just tasted gross! I even tried to dig to the bottom for the crust and it was just meh.. I wouldn't get this again for sure. We soon found that the chocolate mousse was a great QS dessert option.
We typically do not get dessert at lunch or dinner out, but instead we'll do ice cream or something or another snack during the day.
The burger and fries with the drink alone would have been about $13, so that wasn't a bad deal considering the amount of food was decent and he really liked it. We would go here again. Not the best food ever but definitely not bad by any means. Except for the cheesecake in a glass.. I am scarred.
WOULD WE RETURN: Of course! Justin really liked his burger. Although, I don't think the restaurant(osaurus?) itself was anything too special. It was nice to cool off, and he received his food pretty quickly, but I think you can get a burger and fries just about anywhere.
MONDAY 9/15 - PEPPER MARKET (I'm not sure why this is out of order!?)
Here you'll find, we made a visit to Pepper Market again on our 2nd full day. I brought oatmeal and granola bars for myself and Justin just figured we would swing by Walmart after the baseball game. We were heading to Tampa later that day and had intended on getting him some breakfast stuff like bagels and a jar of PB and some jelly. Note: we never ended up doing this, haha.
Anyways, on to Pepper Market.. We would be driving to Tampa and knew we probably wouldn't eat another big meal until later that evening. We wanted something to tide us over, but I wasn't willing to swing through a fast food place when we had so many QS credits to use.
Today, Justin chose the Mickey Waffles with sausage. Sorry for the awful angle - he was not yet used to waiting to eat until after I had taken a picture!
Mickey Waffles - 4 Belgium style Mickey Waffles with Fruit Compote and choice of Meat - $7.99
I chose the biscuits & gravy. I wanted something different so that we could split both. I got bacon with mine, and it also came with potatoes. I got the gravy on the side.
Biscuits & Gravy - Savory Sausage Gravy over Buttermilk Biscuits with choice of Meat and Potato - $6.99
I got apple juice to drink ($1.99, I think) and I believe he got OJ (probably also $1.99).
You can't go wrong with Mickey waffles! Justin really liked them, and the sausage was really great that day. The biscuits and gravy were wonderful too. Typical Disney breakfast food, but it was good!
WOULD WE RETURN: Yep, you'll see us here twice more this week, haha. It was a nice stop for breakfast in the morning!
Justin was a trooper and waited in line with me at Yak and Yeti CS after he had just eaten at Restaurantosaurus. Well, we stopped in between to meet Minnie and Mickey!
The line at Yak and Yeti was super long. Longer than I would've liked, mainly because part of it required standing outside and I was SO HUNGRY! It was about 1 PM at this point. I had eaten a granola bar around 8, and had been walking around for 4 hours!
But let me tell you... the wait was worth it!!!
I was skeptical to eating a hot Chinese food meal on a super hot day, but I am glad I did it.
I was thinking of trying Flame Tree BBQ, but I don't typically like barbecue, but the turkey sandwich there sounded really good.
We waited about 40 minutes in line.
I ordered the sweet and sour chicken. I was between the honey chicken and the sweet and sour. I wanted to just order an order of the fried rice instead of an entree, but I knew I probably needed more food than that. Although, I was nervous I wouldn't finish an entree (while I was soo hungry, I didn't want to fill up too much since it was so hot), so I asked my trusty side-kick and plate cleaner what he would prefer. He said sweet and sour.
So that's what we got!
Sweet-and-Sour Chicken - Tempura Chicken, Bell Peppers, Pineapple, Sweet- and- Sour Sauce, and White Rice - $9.99
Other menu entrees included: honey chicken with white rice, mandarin chicken salad, beef lo mien, and an Asian chicken sandwich. The beef lo mien sounded really good too. Ok, everything sounded awesome.
I also got a Diet Coke to drink ($2 maybe?) and triple chocolate mousse for dessert ($3.59). Again, not in the mood for dessert. I wasn't very trusting of the CS desserts after the nastiness of what was the cheesecake in a glass.. but I owed Justin dessert, and well, it came with the dining plan! He chose the chocolate mousse.
I'm happy to report that the chicken was outstanding!!! I was so impressed. It came in a little black tray that was reminiscent of a TV dinner container, but it was still very good. It was well worth the wait.
The sauce was great. It had little pieces of peppers and pineapple, and maybe carrots too. The rice went very well with it. You could also choose sauces from the cart that had the silverware and napkins on it. We didn't add any.
The chicken was all white meat and very juicy. I honestly found the quality of the chicken to be more along the lines of a PF Chang's than a mall food court Chinese place.
WOULD WE RETURN? We'll definitely eat here again. Next time, I think I may try the fried rice and egg rolls instead just for something different. Or maybe the honey chicken. Or maybe the beef lo mien. Or maybe everything. Justin's kind of picky when it comes to Chinese, so he'll probably get the honey chicken or the sweet and sour.
I definitely have found my favorite Animal Kingdom CS!
I'll start off by saying this is the meal we were most looking forward to (food wise) for the entire trip, and it did not disappoint!
We had eaten at Restaurantosaurus and Yak and Yeti earlier that day. This was meant to be our nice, upscale meal of the week.
We checked in around 6:15 for our 6:35 ADR. We had gone back to the room to rest before coming to dinner, so we were a little bit early. We sat for less than 5 minutes before being seated.
We had a wonderful server named Yun from Korea. She was so friendly, and was willing to explain anything to us that we asked. She also made sure that we knew we could substitute anywhere we liked.
She brought us our drinks. We each had a Diet Coke and I also had a water. I run frequently, so I'm constantly drinking a ton of water. Diet Coke or Pepsi is like water to Justin.
We started off with some bread. The bread basket consisted of sourdough rolls and onion rolls with salted butter and roasted garlic.
I apologize in advance for my photos. They're taken on my iPhone and the quality is not the best!
The bread basket also came with salted butter and roasted garlic.
The bread was delicious! The clear winner between the two of us was the sourdough. Neither one of us is too fond of onion. I think next time we go, we'll ask for just sourdough. The sourdough rolls were crusty on the outside, and soft on the inside. The onion rolls were kind of soft all over, and pulled right apart. Don't get me wrong - they were great - we just don't really like onion flavor that much.
The salted butter was excellent. I believe she said it was from Vermont. It paired amazingly with the sourdough rolls.
The roasted garlic was good. I tried it with the onion roll. Again, I'm not a huge fan of the garlic flavor either. It was a little overpowering for me, but I think others would really enjoy it.
These were a nice start to our meal.
For our entrees, Justin ordered the 18 oz Kansas City strip. I ordered the 12 oz New York strip. I knew I wouldn't like the peppercorn brandy, so I asked if I could substitute for the blue cheese butter, and Yun said that was a great choice. My entree came with a white cheddar twice baked potato. Justin's came with truffle fries. She explained that truffle oil had mushrooms (or a mushroom oil?) in it, so he asked if he could instead switch to the white cheddar twice baked potato.
Justin's entree:
18 ounce Kansas City Strip - truffle fries, black garlic aioli, chimichurri $55.00
Substituted white cheddar twice baked potato instead of truffle fries
My entree:
12-oz Prime New York Strip Steak - White Cheddar Twice-baked Potato, Peppercorn-Brandy Sauce - $48.00
Substituted Point Reyes Blue Cheese Butter (from 16 oz Ribeye) instead of Peppercorn Brandy Sauce
I'm sure that they pair the sauces with the different cuts of meat for a reason. Neither one of us are steak experts. We love it, but we don't know much about it! So we asked Yun about the different cuts. I chose the Strip because she said the Ribeye was a marbled cut. I usually order filet, but I wanted to try something new. Justin didn't need as much guidance, but she explained the black garlic aoli and chimichurri sauce to him.
Justin's meal - I was nervous about the sauce that came with his steak. He would pour A1 all over it if we were at home, and he's usually not adventurous about things, but he loved it! He ate all of it. There was some fat with it, I think. He also really liked his potato. He likes his steak well done.
My meal - This was AMAAAAAZING! I love blue cheese (and who doesn't love butter), so it made for a great addition. I am glad I chose this instead of the peppercorn brandy sauce. The cut of steak was wonderful. I like my steak medium well, and it was cooked perfectly. It was so juicy and tender, and the butter made it even more moist. Justin loved mine, too. He finished about 1/3 of it for me. He said he liked mine even better than his! I really liked the white cheddar twice baked potato. I think Justin liked it more, but I still found it to be really good.
We also ordered a side of the truffle mac and cheese to share. Since we didn't have a salad or anything, and this was our special night out, it seemed like a good idea to share this. Yun agreed.
Excuse my finger in the photo (I am really not good at taking pictures, lol):
Truffle Mac & Cheese - Orecchiette Pasta and Reypenaer Cheese $12.00
We didn't dislike it, but it was not our favorite item of the meal. First, we were so full from everything else that we didn't really pay much attention to it. Second, the onion straws on top kind of overpowered the rest of the dish. I didn't really taste much cheese - I tasted onion throughout the dish. Some may like this, I did not prefer the strong onion taste. We boxed up about half of this to take home, but we never did finish it.
Now, dessert time! Towards the beginning, we kind of decided that we would try different things at each restaurant, so that we can get a sampling of everything.
Justin chose the chocolate peanut cake.
Chocolate-Peanut Cake - Pretzels, Salted Caramel Gelato, and Liquid Ganache $11.00
I chose the vanilla creme brûlée:
Creme Brulee - Vanilla Custard, Fresh Berries, and Chocolate $10.00
Once they arrived, we took a few bites and then swapped to try the other. I ended up loving his, and he ended up loving mine!
I originally wanted the chocolate peanut cake, but that was what he said he wanted, so we agreed to try the creme brûlée too.
The creme brûlée was great. It had the nice hard top layer, with creamy custard. The berries and chocolate added a nice touch.
The chocolate peanut cake was so, so good. The cake was chocolatey with a nice crunch from the pretzels. The middle layer I think had kind of a caramel taste if I remember correctly. The salted caramel gelato was delicious. I polished this one off.
Overall, we LOVED this restaurant! We know we can't come back here every time because it is expensive. You'll see later in the report that Justin found another restaurant to have a great steak as well. I love steak too, but like I said we're no experts so Longhorn will do for us, too.
I was back and forth between this restaurant and Le Cellier. I am really glad I chose this one!
WILL WE RETURN: Of course! Probably not any time soon since it is pricy and we only will return every year or two, but we would like to come here again eventually. I probably would order the same thing again because I loved it. I would probably not order the mac and cheese next time. The restaurant was lovely. Yun was a fantastic server, and the food was just delicious!
TOTAL: About $155, I think.
We used 4 TS credits, 2 each, and paid $12 OOP for the mac and cheese.
So I haven't been the greatest at keeping up with this - I have been busy studying and planning for our March trip! I will update this with pics ASAP!
Pizza Planet was appealing, but we were going to have pizza at Via Napoli. Nothing else sounded worth trekking across the park for, so we headed back to our resort.
We decided to split a QS lunch entree at Pepper Market.
Our options were: a grill area, a pasta area, pizza, a Mexican area, and one more that I cannot think of off the top of my head!
The Mexican area sounded good to us. We love Mexican food.
We had a few options - quesadilla, taco, fajita, etc. We decided to split the tacos. We had the option of chicken, beef, and I think pork. They were served on soft shells. The taco meal came with 3 tacos – Justin chose 2 beef and I chose 1 chicken. It was shredded chicken that had been marinating in some juices, so it looked delicious. The beef was shredded too. The woman serving added some mild sauce and cilantro for us. The taco meal also came with a side of rice and beans.
We chose a water to drink, and Justin let me pick the dessert. He was so excited when I came back with.. a GIANT M&M COOKIE! Yes, the cookie we had been searching for forever. It was able to be included as our dessert item (which was awesome, considering most of the QS dessert options did not appeal to us).
Note how big it is - It takes up an entire to-go container.. Its home for the next 3 days.
We really liked the meal here. The tortillas were more of a corn tortilla, which were good, but thin. The juice from the meat along with the mild sauce made them slightly soggy, but that wasn’t really an issue. Usually, we think of tacos to include cheese and sour cream. Here, they did not, they seemed more like traditional tacos with flavorful, juicy meat, that didn’t really need much toppings!
The side of rice and beans was great, too. The rice was fresh and had a great flavor. It wasn’t really a Spanish style rice (which I usually think of as spicy red rice with tomatoes), it was more of a steamed rice. The black beans were the star of the meal, to me. I could not get over how good they were. They were flavorful and moist without being dry or runny. I feel like sometimes, at Mexican places, the beans are either really mushy, or dry and crusty. This was neither. They also had queso fresco on top, which made them even better.
This was a nice meal to tide us over until dinner. We were eating in 3 hours, so I am glad we split something. We needed food in our bellies, but we didn't want to overdo it!
WILL WE RETURN: For a restaurant food court, the food was good. Nothing to write home about, but definitely exceeded our expectations. It was a meal we enjoyed, but we would not go out of our way to come back to CSR if we could eat at a decent restaurant in the parks.
TOTAL: The taco meal was $11.99. With a bottled water and a giant cookie, our total came to $19.
We got to our ADR in Italy a few minutes early and we were seated right away. We had a great server. I cannot remember her name, unfortunately. She was in training, but she did a great job and was very sweet. She even taught us to pronounce our entrees in Italian.
I had my idea of what I wanted, from looking at the menus before our trip! I was between the Prosciutto e Melone and the Carciofi pizza. I am not a huge fan of melon, so I honestly wasn't sure if I would like it or not. But I am head over heels for artichokes, so our server assured me I could not go wrong with the individual carciofi pizza. Our server told me that I was making the right choice! Justin went with his favorite, a pepperoni pizza. We were thinking of getting one pizza and one entrée, but I really wanted to try the carciofi and he doesn't like artichokes, so I knew he would be happier with his own pizza and I would be as well.
We thought about ordering an appetizer, but after seeing the size of the pizzas, we didn't think we would need one. I did want to try the arroncini, though! Next time.
We each had a Diet Coke to drink. After placing our orders, I was hoping for some bread, but alas, I realized that the tables on either side of us did not have bread either. I wonder if they serve it only at dinner, or if I am imagining that we should get bread and we don't!?
I forgot to mention we were seated to the right of the restaurant. The big table in the middle was slightly to the left of us. We were seated at a table for 2 with one side as a booth and the other as a chair, so we had a couple pretty close to my left, and a family with a 5 year old daughter pretty close to our right. Our pizzas came out with only a tiny bit of a wait. Although we had just split a taco meal 3 hours later, we were hungry and ready to eat!
The carciofi pizza was so, so, so good. I was more than pleased with my choice. In fact, I want that pizza, NOW! It was cheesy, the perfect amount of oily, with a great artichoke taste.. YUM!!
My choice - Carciofi - White pizza, artichoke, fontina, mozzarella, truffle oil - $21 for an individual size
Justin's choice - Pepperoni Signature Pie - pepperoni, tomato, mozzarella - $21 for an individual size.
I only managed to finish about 2/3 of mine, and Justin finished all of his. He loved it! Usually we like a pizza with a thicker crust, but this traditional Italian pizza was so good. He did eat some of mine, but picked off the artichokes.
For dessert, I decided on the zeppole. We try to order 2 different things so that we can get a sampling of both. Justin ordered the Coppa dii Brutti Ma Buon. It translates to "ugly but good". He wasn't sure what to get, because the zeppole were appealing to him, too. Here is our delicious dessert! I should mention, they also brought out this tasty little cookie for us to celebrate our engagement, which was so thoughtful and delicious too.
Zeppole di Caterina - Ricotta cheese fritters, served with whipped cream and chocolate sauce $10.00
Coppa dii Brutti Ma Buon! - Amarena cherry and vanilla gelato sundae $14.00.
As expected, the zeppole were amazing. I love anything doughy, and with the chocolate and whipped cream.. ahhh. Justin enjoyed at least half of my dessert because he wasn't a huge fan of his. He doesn't love cherry, but it was the next best thing other than the zeppole on the dessert menu. I thought his dessert was good, but it did have a very strong cherry flavor. There were a few cookies stuck in there as well which were good! Overall, we really enjoyed our meal here!
WILL WE RETURN: Absolutely!! We love Italian food and this was great. I don't know if we'll make this an every trip occurrence because there are so many others we want to try, but it was really good. Justin really loved it and so did I!
TOTAL: Our pizzas were each $21, our desserts were $10 and $14, and our Diet Cokes were each $3 = $72. We used 2 TS credits here.
I think in the future, if paying OOP, we will just do an appetizer and split a pizza. Probably get the zeppole at the end because they were outstanding - but $21 for an individual pizza is kinda pricy.
While in Epcot, we sampled drinks from a few different countries. We tried..
MEXICO: Strawberry Margarita (I think this was $9.50).
CHINA: Peach Snap, $7.50, with peach schnapps.
And my wonderful fiance with the peach snap.. haha
GERMANY: Schofferhofer Grapefruit beer, $7.50
JAPAN: Tokyo Sunset, with coconut rum, peach schnapps, banana liqueur, and pineapple juice. I think this was $8.50
FRANCE: Grand Marnier Slush, I think this was about $8.50.
We really enjoyed all of these. My favorite was the Schofferhofer Grapefruit beer. The margarita was great, but it was a typical frozen margarita. The Tokyo Sunset was also AMAZING! So many great flavors. I really also liked the grand marnier slush (although I wanted to try the lemon one, but Justin doesn't really like lemon flavor), and the peach snap was refreshing as well. All were a hit!
We woke up bright and early on Thursday 9/18 for our Crystal Palace breakfast. We left around 7:30 and arrived at MK and were on a boat by about 7:50. Our ADR was at 8:10 and it was an EMH day. I wanted a pre-park opening ADR and when I scheduled it, I didn't check to make sure it wasn't EMH. Whoops. The boat would not leave until it was full, which almost caused us to be late - oops! Maybe we should have left earlier. We arrived at CP at exactly 8:10 after hustlin' down Main Street.
Justin had a diet Coke with breakfast, I had an OJ and a coffee (part of me thinks I had apple juice, although I wrote down OJ. I am never really an OJ drinker, haha).
We each made two trips to the buffet.
Justin's first plate, top and clockwise: Bacon (some sausage under there), Pooh's puffed french toast, Mickey waffle and syrup, and what I believe are some awesome cheesy potatoes.
My next plate: banana bread, Mickey waffle, Pooh's puffed french toast, and a cube of cheese (no idea why this was thrown in there, haha). And in the bowl, some breakfast lasagna.
Justin's next plate: Pancake, sausage, and biscuits and gravy. I think there are also some cheesy potatoes in there.
We really liked the food. Character interaction was good. When we got there, Pooh was arriving to our table. Tigger came after we got our first plate, and Piglet not long after that. Unfortunately, Eeyore was in our area when we arrived and when we were getting ready to leave, he was nowhere in sight. We had some other things we wanted to do, so we did not wait for him.
My favorite: Pooh's puffed french toast. I love anything fried and doughy (who doesn't!?) so this was great. Biscuits and gravy were also really good, but standard throughout Disney. I liked the breakfast pizza too, it was different.
Justin's favorite: He loved those cheesy potatoes! He also loves biscuits and gravy, so he was happy with those, too.
The breakfast lasagna was WAY too sweet for my tastes! One little bite and that was plenty for me.
The omelet station was fantastic looking, but wasn't what I was in the mood for that day. I really liked how they had the buffet set up on two sides! I was really looking forward to this meal. It was $53 for the two of us.
WILL WE RETURN: Probably. I enjoy breakfast food. Justin isn't as big as of a fan, and I am perfectly fine with a QS or TS breakfast that would not cost me $25/person. On any given Sunday, we would love to eat a breakfast buffet, but here, we had so much else to do and so many other great meals planned that we did not want to stuff ourselves. So this won't be one we do each trip, but it is one I enjoy (I love Pooh) so we will come back!
TOTAL: Our bill was $53 for the two of us. I want to say it is about $25/person plus tax. We used 2 TS credits here.
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They had a fruit cup, which offered honeydew, canteloupe, grapes, and pineapple, but I don't like honeydew and canteloupe. So I opted for the "yogurt parfait".
I will update this with pics ASAP!
