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Mikka + Redwitch's F&W craziness: food, drink, and as always, pictures! Updated 4/12: teppen edo!

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As much as I like to drink, I've never really tried sake other than a sip here and there.

I think.... If you go straight down the big steps from the restaurants in Japan, you can get a Sake tasting flight at the little kiosk. They changed some of the food stands in Japan, so I'm not sure if they still have it.

So disappointing that the Smores are no longer at 50s!

:sad2: Why ruin a good thing?

I swear my favorite place to get chicken is Redner's which is a grocery store

We get ours at Stauffer's, also a grocery store. All our Redner's closed about 5 - 8 years ago - maybe longer.


Yes it was! :woohoo:

Thanks for the review!

Thanks for reading!


Looks like it is time to start threatening Mikka so she finishes this.... What dastardly deed can I hold over her this time?
 


So, you know about the 'I will update every two days or so, I promise' deal?

I decided that didn't apply if one was in a car crash.

As you guys can, er, see (??), I am fine, and mom is fine. (The car is not, but the car will live.) As she's been posting happily despite being more hurt then I was, this was probably my blame. But couple the crash with a family health emergency, and I was sort of in complete panic mode for a while and just not up to really doing anything but writing angsty journal entries, panicking and downtiming by playing bad video games. Everyone is AOK right now, though, so no worries and no fuss. Still, that's where I've been. Pretty scary!

There is a review in this post, but it's down at the bottom after my replies to all you lovely people. If you're not interested in that, scroll down until you see the bold font. ;)

Wow. Your Tokyo dining experience looks simply amazing. We had a true Japanese meal in Vegas one time that was a little similar to what you all did and I still remember how amazing it was. Nothing like strip mall sushi and steakhouse places.

I"m going to have to try that sake place sometime. As much as I like to drink, I've never really tried sake other than a sip here and there. Seems the sake bar would be a good place to try some different selections.

Think we may hit up 50's for the first time in a long time next trip. My hubby usually prefers SciFi but I think I can lure him there with the promise of a PB&J milkshake

Ooo. We were in Las Vegas once- never put a coin in the machine, but had a great time. Do you remember what place your experience was at? Even if it's a rare special event, that sounds like something mom and I should keep an eye on. Las Vegas has cheap flights and cheap rooms, so it's a good idea for a vacation.

As mom did say, the sake bar outside (it sells the ichiban beer with the foam on it and a variety of mixed drinks with next to no alcohol in it) has a three sake flight. I'd recommend just going to the sake bar and telling the girls (it always seems to be girls) working there what kind of wine and beer you enjoy, though, as they have a bigger selection of things to taste and also tend to be less busy. In my experience, they are extremely happy to help you find something to try and are eager to have people try sake so they're very friendly about it without being pushy. The prices range from six to ten dollars, and you get around a shot, so it's not bad. I would recommend against trying an extra dry sake for your first big drink, but anything else can be good. If you want to start with something unique and different, see if they have the yuzu flavored sake for tasting. It's basically like limocello ala sake, only smoother then limoncello (er, if you like lemon flavored stuff, obviously). It's one of my favorites. For something else different, the Hana Awaka is a sparkling sake with light sweet flavors without being overwhelming. Er, but just a regular sake without any gimmicks is good, too!

As for the SciFi, mom likes it, but I just wasn't born in the era of those old horror films and thus don't have much interest. Now, when they do the Star Wars breakfasts with the Star Wars films showing, I'm totally there.

Hello! Glad you are back! Enjoyed reading your Japanese lunch but it would not be for me. Sushi rolls are as far as I go!

So disappointing that the Smores are no longer at 50s! DH does enjoy the fried chicken and I like the pot roast so we will probably go back at some point. But its not a must do for me any longer. And I definitely agree about the alcoholic milk shakes! Seems like a natural there!

The waitress told us that the staff wanted to keep the smores on the menu, as they were a good seller, but the higher-ups said the Menu Must Change, so they got cut. That leads me to hope that maybe a letter writing campaign could bring them back. I'm too lazy to write letters in this day of email, though! And yeah, an alcoholic pbj milkshake... mmm.

I hear you on the no good fried chicken places in PA. I swear my favorite place to get chicken is Redner's which is a grocery store :laughing:
I am not a milkshake person but the desserts looked great and I have to agree with Redwitch on the no vanilla ice cream :thumbsup2

Aww, I love vanilla ice cream. The crumble was really good, though, and chocolate wouldn't have gone with that! :P As mom said, we get ours from Stauffers, which is a grocery store, too. I occasionally pick some up at the local fast food Popeyes, but it's ridiculously expensive. Fast food always is, I guess.


It was! Thank you for posting!

Thanks for the review!

You're very welcome! Thank you for reading!

Looks like it is time to start threatening Mikka so she finishes this.... What dastardly deed can I hold over her this time?

You couldddd... buy me things! Yeah, bribes! Much better then dastardly deeds.

Only they cost money, while dastardly deeds don't. Darn.

Mikka's reviews are always so interesting; I'll be avidly reading when she resumes.

Thank you so much! And I saw you went back and read my old post, too; I hope you enjoyed it! :)


Alright, here we are at...


THE BROWN DERBY (AND LOUNGE)


This review is somewhat hard to make, mainly because the Brown Derby has always been a hit for us. We've never had a bad meal there. Our meal this time wasn't bad, either, but circumstances sort of made it iffy- mainly, we had absolutely horrible service. I'm not naming the waiter because it wasn't 'So Horrible That I'd Advise You To Run Screaming If He Was Your Waiter', but you'll notice I usually try to name waiters as a shout out to how wonderful they are. This... no. Not.



We start with bread service. Brown Derby's bread is nothing to write home about: it's relatively simple rolls that any family restaurant in the US would serve, with the advantage of the butter being decent and salted. Still American butter, though, not that lovely European stuff. ;)



We started with drinks, too: a Rusty Nail for mom, and a Whiskey Sour for me. These, oddly, were specialty drinks at the Brown Derby that day/week/month. I'm not exactly sure why. The Rusty Nail is one of mom and I's favorites, though (and really, where would you drink a Rusty Nail if not at the Brown Derby?) and I like sours. Don't judge me. ;;

This is where our waiter made his first, and probably for him, stupidest mistake- we told him straight out we'd like wine with our entrees, please. Yet someone else brought out our appetizers and entrees, and he never came to check on us till after our entrees were half done. Two glasses of nice wine at Disney prices is a pretty nice tip, dude. Especially as knowing us, if we were happy with the entree and drinks, there might have been dessert drinks as well. Sigh.




My appetizer was Beef Carpaccio. Yes, that is raw beef. It came with a little salad, lemon-mustard aioli, capers, that bread you see there, and... ceaser ice cream. Yes. Really.

If you can get over the idea of eating raw meat (which to some people is just too ACK- I can understand that), this is actually good. Yet even this small appetizer portion is almost too much. It's a very rich meal. I'll give a fair warning that I ended up feeling sick to my stomach for the rest of the night, and ended up finally throwing up around midnight: however, I do not think it was food poiosining (timing is all wrong) or that the beef was wrongly prepared. It was just that both this and my entree was rich, and my stomach had yet to adjust to eating such rich food yet. Still, I figure fair is fair: I doubt you want to know about me being sick, but it probably should be said to give full picture.

(Again, though, the timing is wrong for it to be food poisoning or anything unless I had some super special snowflake version that I and only I alone ever got. Which could be fairly interesting, but unlikely. Also, mom tried all the food I did and was fine.)



Mom's appetizer, which I may have prodded her in to getting, was Togarashi-Pumpkin Seed-crusted Ahi Tuna. Just seared at most, it was served with house made kimchi (ymmy) and then rice and a sake-ginger-soy glaze. It was simple and tasty. For a non-seafood place, Brown Derby tends to do excellent on it's fish dishes. I think it was the best dish of the night.




Mom's Lamb Two Ways, one with the Apple-Balsamic sauce being poured, and one with it already soaking in. It was a lamb shank and a lamb chop, and it was good enough... but you know what? The lamb at Morocco (which admittedly was done different) was just so much better. This was good; that was great. The butternut squash risotto underneath the lamb was on par with the couscous over at Morocco, though, if not better. Yum.



I almost always end up ordering the grouper at the Brown Derby, but this time I had an extra reason: LOBSTER. Pan Seared Black Grouper on an orzo salad, with... half a lobster tail. It was a pretty decent sized lobster tail, though, so that was something. There was also tomatoes and spinach, and the sauce was cognac=mushroom beurre blanc. It was again, alright: probably better then the lamb. But other meals throughout the week were definitely better, so a bit disappointing from the Brown Derby.




After dinner (non-alcoholic) drinks. The cappuccino is one thing: fair enough. The tea is taken mockingly. The Brown Derby used to have a lovely selection of twelve or so varieties of loose leaf teas, and when I asked the waiter at the start of the meal if they were still there and I could use my drink from the package on it, I was told yes. Come tea time, and all they have is twinings. Four different types, and four utterly uninteresting ones, too. I was very unhappy.

The cappuccino also lead to it's own drama. We were on the Fantasmic Package (using our dining plan credits for it), and mom asked if it was included. She was told yes. However, it turned out the answer was 'kind of maybe': it was included on the Dining Plan, but not on the Fantasmic Package, which meant she had to pay an extra tax and tip on it when we were under the impression that as we had been told it would be covered by the package due to him saying it was. /phew I think that's how it went, anyway.



Dessert was another disappointment. Last time we were here, they had switched to the mini-desserts, but allowed you to pick any three. This time, they just gave you three: a chocolate something that I have no idea what it was as no one explained it to me or could be flagged down for a menu (it didn't taste very interesting, anyway), the standard grapefruit cake (...I don't really like grapefruit, and I think this spongy thing is not worth the hype even if it was lemon or another citrus I enjoyed more), and what I think was supposed to be creme burlee due to the slight brown on the top but was not caramelized and thus was actually pudding. None of them were very pleasant, and the fact that mom and I went to a signature and didn't eat dessert (rather just sort of prodded at them) is another thing on the list of sads.


So, in summary: 50's was better then Brown Derby this trip. Yeah. And that does sort of suck.

On a happier note, we then just headed outside to the bar/lounge, and...



...We got more drinks. She had another Rusty Nail, and I had a Manhatten. And we talked to the bar tender for a while, who was cool and nice but whose name I didn't note. Drinks were decent, at least. :)

(Did you know that Disney banned Marlyn Merlot wine after years of it being a feature at Brown Derby from their property one year because the picture on the bottle was too risque? Interesting!)


...On an unhappy note, skies opened up during Mickey getting chased by snake Jafar during Fantasmic in an absolute downpour that destroyed both our shoes (mine, to this day, still feel damp no matter what I do) and kept mom in a brace the rest of the week and ended up with me buying new shoes. I've seen it downpour at Disney, but never for so long: it just poured and poured and poured, and there was no place to hide or avoid it as it stuck past our ankles on the ground everywhere in a gigantic puddle that never dried up. If I had been somewhere dry, it might have been delightful to watch. But I so would have not wanted to be on a scooter in that. Scary!


More reviews coming... um, sometime soon! I actually don't remember where we ate next. Huh.
 
For a non-seafood place, Brown Derby tends to do excellent on it's fish dishes. I think it was the best dish of the night.

I agree, they do a great job on both fish and shellfish dishes.

It was a lamb shank and a lamb chop, and it was good enough... but you know what? The lamb at Morocco (which admittedly was done different) was just so much better. This was good; that was great.

When I saw the picture, I said "Ooh, that was good!" then Mikka reminded me how good the the Moroccan lamb tasted, and yeah - it was better.

I almost always end up ordering the grouper at the Brown Derby, but this time I had an extra reason: LOBSTER.

Mikka was on a lobster quest this trip.

After dinner (non-alcoholic) drinks.

The after dinner drinks, the tea bag and cappuccino covered/not covered incident, and desserts were a disappointing end to meal. Coupled with with the lack luster service, not one of the best meals we've had here.

On an unhappy note, skies opened up during Mickey getting chased by snake Jafar during Fantasmic in an absolute downpour that destroyed both our shoes

We've all experienced the Florida down pours, but this was something else. As we were in the theater when it started, there was no where to hide. Even with our dollar ponchos, we were soaked. We walked thorough puddled water to the bus stops and stood in the rain for what seemed like forever. There was really nothing to do but laugh, we were all soaked.
 
I am glad you guys are ok, car accidents are not fun in any way at all :(
Sorry Brown Derby was kind of a bust! I read a lot more not great reviews than great reviews. It sounds like some work needs to be done there!
Wow the down pour does not sound fun!
 


I am glad you guys are ok, car accidents are not fun in any way at all :(
Sorry Brown Derby was kind of a bust! I read a lot more not great reviews than great reviews. It sounds like some work needs to be done there!
Wow the down pour does not sound fun!

No, the accident was not fun. :-( I swear my little red car is cursed.
We have had numerous wonderful meals at the BD, and the food was certainly good. It was just a weird day for service. I am sure we will return as we like to do the Fantasmic package to avoid lines and crowds.
Thanks for following along!
 
I am glad you guys are ok, car accidents are not fun in any way at all :(
Sorry Brown Derby was kind of a bust! I read a lot more not great reviews than great reviews. It sounds like some work needs to be done there!
Wow the down pour does not sound fun!

No, that wasn't fun at all. I'm still sort of shaken up over the whole thing, honestly.
Usually the food at Brown Derby is great. It's pricy, but it's good, and most people will want the Fantasmic package anyway. But the end of the meal and the horrible service... well, boo. It left a bad taste in the mouth.
And that downpour was crazy! I have fond memories of standing in the China store one day watching a Florida downpour. It was crazy and hard and lasted... maybe twenty minutes, probably less. This one went on for hours, and there was just no place to hide. Standing waiting for the bus while being soaked in ankle deep water surrounded by other people who were soaked and everyone was grumpy was not an experience I would like to repeat. Ever!


Well, the next day started with a round of mini-golf (I don't remember who won, but it doesn't matter, considering mom and I both suck- the little boy behind us was trying to give us tips, that's how bad we sucked), and then a walk to Epcot. You know, finding the path to get to the Fantasia minigolf from the Swalfin is hard to find if you don't know where it is. We went completely the wrong way: a groundkeeper eventually just escorted us over the grass and told us to tell no one. (Shh!) Thanks, mister groundskeeper.

It was time for a new event for us and everyone, the Parisian Afternoon!

I should say, Monsiour Paul really needs a better way of opening their events. Sixty or so people just crowd in the small space right in front of the restaurant and mill around aimlessly, then you basically get escorted one couple by one to your table while everyone waits impatiently and imagines the other people are getting wine before they are. For the amount of people the event takes, it seems there has to be a better way- that works for the Italian events and the Japan events, but there's much less people. There's many more over in France.

...But that's my only complaint about said event, so spoiler: it was awesome. :)



The French Regional Lunches have been a constant do for us, but mom was not sure about the new French one and the note it would be served family style (as we're both germphobic neatfreaks). So when details about this event came out, we were very relieved and hopeful about it. The cute little 'suit' napkins aren't at all new to us, but I always liked them.

We were seated with four others, an older couple and what I think was a mother daughter pair (it was hard to tell). It was nice.



Unlike the score of wine glasses from French Regional Lunches, there was only one glass this time. (We were also offered tea and coffee and lots of water.) But that glass. That glass. It just kept getting refilled. They had orange juice and they had champagne (we talked to a waiter, and checked it on our phones, though I can't remember the brand now- it was French and from the champagne region, though certainly one of the cheaper bottles), and they were going to pour it till we were done sitting around, darn it. It was their mission. Towards the end of the afternoon, the proportions started getting skewered- as you could see here, there's a lot of orange juice to the little bit of wine, but later on they were doing more half and half, and at dessert it was more like 'Do you guys just want champagne? Yeah, orange juice and chocolate doesn't always taste the best, have champagne!'. It was lovely.

I cut myself off around halfway through dessert, as I was starting to feel tipsy, but mom was able to keep going and not be drunk, darn her. You definitely could get drunk on this, though, especially if you kept asking for more champagne, less OJ. I know the volume of the room kept going up and up throughout the meal. They might want to limit it to like, four or so drinks in later years rather then 'unlimited', I almost want to say- but I do enjoy unlimited drinks, too, so it's hard to say that. :P



First course was Cold Pea Soup with Bacon Mushroom Toast. I'm not going to lie, I saw it on the menu and wrinkled my nose, and even when it was put in front of me I was more like "Well, how.... green" then "OOOOO". That's sort of a childish reaction from me, though, as I've never actually had pea soup- but I've never had a desire to have pea soup. It's just sort of sounds meh to me; I don't like peas to begin with, so why would I want pea soup? And look how green it is. So very green. Blue food = cool, green food = vegtables, usually not my favorite ones. Sorry.

The taste of this proved me very childish, though.

This was crazy delicious, coming from someone who doesn't like peas and still (I've tried them since) doesn't like peas. It was a very light, thin soup with a bit of a smoky smell that was absolutely mouth-watering and very intriguing. The bacon mushroom toast then added to it: it was one of those absolutely perfect pairiings only someone far more creative in the kitchen then me could come up with. Taking a bite of one then a bite of another was great: dipping the toast in the soup and getting both flavors was excellent. For such a tiny little cup of cold soup, it packed a ton of flavor. The chef (Olivier Saintemarie) said it was supposed to bring to mind a Paris bistro: you go out shopping, then pause in your shopping to get a cup of soup and sandwhich at a bistro somewhere and people watch. Disney was too hot for hot soup, though, so they put their minds together for a cold one. I think they succeeded.






The second course (but the one the room spent a long time on) was the sammies. They called this an 'Assortment d'amuses bouches', which sounds fair enough. What it was was, again, delicious.

Starting with the close-ups, there's a smoked salmon quiche with spinach and dill. I love smoked salmon, so this was an instant hit for me. It was great and surprisingly filling for such a little portion. Oddly, though, despite loving the smoked salmon, I thought the pasty shell itself of the quiche was the best part. It was no real different then the good shell of a tart, but that's it's charm.

The sandwiches are a mouthful to get through. I think I have the right order when I say furthest from the camera, on the left, we start with the curry turmeric bread sandwich with garlic aioli and chicken. Then the multi-grain cranberry bread sandwich with mayo and turkey. Then the tarragon and spinach bread sandwich with mustard tarragon butter and ham. Then finally the tomato and basil bread sandwich with basil pesto, tomato, carrot and cucumber. I'd bet money that's the right order, but not too much money.

What to say about these? They were all great. Mom's favorite was the curry one and the cranberry one: I couldn't decide my own favorites, declaring I loved them all (though I thought the curry one was the most interesting). Each was extremely flavorful and unique: even the mayo and turkey sandwich was brought a new taste with the cranberries in the bread. If they had a sampler platter of this somewhere, I would order it every time.

Finally, we have the piece of lettuce. It was... actually very tasteful lettuce, with a nice little aioli that was a bit creamy and a bit lemony on it, though nothing tells me what it was. More importantly, there was also the homemade (from the bakery downstairs that morning) thyme croissant. That thing was delicious: I could have eaten around six of them. And needed to be rolled down the stairs (actually, the elevator would be smarter), but I could have. It really made me want to go to the bakery and try some of their savory stuff, though sadly we never got around to it that trip. And on the dining plan, too. Sigh. One day.



It ended with the course of ridiculousness. Have some close-ups!






Can I admit that despite this only being three courses, I was basically full on bread by dessert? So some of this ended up coming home with me in the trusty zip-lock I had in my purse. Mom had a more healthy appetite when dessert was involved, and managed a bigger dent.

I'm going in a bit of a random order this time: first, the chocolate cream with equatorial milk and Guanaja chocolate. That's the white stuff in the expresso cup, and it was as chocolate as chocolate gets. It was, in fact, too rich for me: I took a few bites and passed the rest up to mom, who thinks the idea of too rich and chocolate together is a ridiculous expression of lies, from what I understand. It was just- woah. Chocolate. Milk or no milk, cream or no cream, all that tasted like was rich dark chocolate.

The three macaron's (I'm used to spelling it with two o's like spellcheck wants, but my menu only has one, so I'll go with the French) were sort of interesting, if only because we have no idea what the one in the left is. The reddish one was just pure dark chocolate (72%!), the blue one was blackberry and 63% chocolate. The yellow was white chocolate, 'Macaroon exotic'. The chef hinted they tried something different with it, but we didn't get a chance to confront him and ask him what, and the waiter admitted he didn't really know, either, just that it was very good (and very exotic, he stressed). Everyone on the table seemed to get something a bit different from the macaron itself, though the popular guess was that it was some sort of lemon or citrus, considering the color.

The little pastry was a vanilla and mixed berry puff choux, which was the lightest thing and a bit of a relief with all the heavy chocolate. It didn't really stand out, surrounded by delicious chocolate as it was, but it was good.

Then there were two little chocolates, called bonbons. I believe one was salted caramel, while the other was just dark chocolate. The design on the second was beautiful: we didn't get a real close up of the other, though you can see it behind the puff choux. Finally, there were little chocolate pieces from the company the bonbon's chocolate had come from, Valhrhona. We also got coupons to go buy Valrhona chocolate online. It tasted good, I won't lie, but a bitttt expensive there.


We had various different waiters running around bringing us food and drinks fthroughout this meal, so I don't have their names, but all of them were in a good mood and prompt at making sure your mimosa was never even one third empty. That may admittedly be why I didn't get their names. Hm. Nice guys, to be sure: I've heard people say the waiters here in Epcot-France (and Epcot-Italy, for that matter) are all snobs, but they seemed like perfectly nice young men (they were all male, now that I'm thinking) to me. :P That seems like just another stereotype.

Anyway, this went down as one of the meals we would definitely do again. No question.


As an aside... I'm going to try and rush to the finish for this soon. Don't pay too much attention to the date up in the title. First, half the time I forget to update it (I did for the Brown Derby, if any of you missed it- it's ^ there!), and second, there may be a few days (though not today) where I update more then once a day. Thanks!
 
As it was a weekend at Epcot during F&W, we ran screaming out of there as soon as possible after our meal to check out downtown (which, admittedly, can get just as crowded, but that's okay). After a lot of wandering in circles and discussing where we should go, we finally settled on an old favorite.

RAGLAN ROAD
We had to wait a while for our table- we hadn't made reservations- but that was fine with us. We just sat down at the bar, and ordered a whiskey flight.



And, predictably, the one thing I didn't write down was what Whiskey Flight it was. Thankfully, my memory isn't too bad, and I can remember that it was the Midlands Flight, which is three kinds of Tullamore Dew (the last is room temperature water, which is preferred by some when drinking whiskey- especially scotch whiskey). I remember both of us found the Tullamore Dew Phoenix the most interesting. There's a lot of debate on that particular whiskey, as I remember reading on our iphones while sitting at the bar: it's a mix that some people found too rough. Mom and I enjoyed it, though.

I would have been happy to just sit at the bar the whole time, but they eventually found a table for us. Being the nice, good daughter that I am I crammed in to the back seat, leaving me with no view of the dancers no matter how much I turned, while mom at least could see the edge of them. As I usually hog the best seats, I figured it was only fair. :)


(Our waitress was Sharron, and she was fine. :))



We started with more drinks, though vowed to stay away from the (delicious looking but expensive) mixed ones. Mom had Kil Kelly Cream Ale, which isn't her usual (she had been hoping for one of Raglan Road's beers, but they were out of them due to that Irish hoopladoopla thing they do). You'll have to ask her what she rated that: I just remember it being bitter. I say that about all beer, though.

I, though, had the Rekorderlig Strawberry and Lime Pear Cider, which is my new favorite cider ever (well, favorite commercial one- some of our local places make better ciders, but you have to buy them at the winery/meadery). Not Irish at all- it's Swedish- it's popping up at almost every restaurant at Disney. If you're a cider fan, I strongly recommend trying it. It's sweet, tart and light all at once, and the bottle is decent sized. I absolutely loved it, and was tempted many other times during the week to order it again, though I never did.



The standard Irish Soda Bread with Guinness dipping sauce. If you've been to Raglan Road, you've had it. The dipping sauce is what makes it: Irish Soda bread is a bit too grainy on its own, in my opinion. We made the sauce at home once; it turned out really good.



Off the dining plan, we went for a salad. Yes, this early in the week, and we were already craving healthy food. It was the heritage tomato salad. It was basically just heirloom tomatoes, greens, shallots, a huge parmesan crisp/cracker, and a light balsamic reduction. Nothing to get overly excited about, but it hit the spot and tasted good. I love heirloom tomatoes, especially when there's a variety of different ones like there was here.



I had the 'It's Not Bleedin' Chowder', which is a lie. It is so chowder. But hey, there's nothing wrong with being chowder, right? This had shrimp, white fish, scallops, and some sort of shellfish (I can't tell the difference between mussels and clams most days, I'm sorry; I just know I like them both, but I get them confused in my head). And potatoes and other vegetables, of course, in a very creamy soup. Although it's one of the specials, I'd actually never had it, but I was very happy I had. Everything- even the scallops, which I tend to be wary of- were cooked to perfection, with no rubberyness that you sometimes get in chowders. It was a very big helping, though. Because the bowl is huge (with a large white part) it doesn't look that big, but trust me, it was big.



Mom had the Pork by Pork. It was basically cider braised pork stuffed with stuffing and sage and onion, with various apple products scattered around- and some boring mashed potatoes. Really, the mashed potatoes had no flavor at all. Everything else, however, was quite good. The only non mashed potatoes complaint was there was a lot of fat on the pork: good for flavor, but hard to eat and left the portion feeling a bit smaller then maybe it should have been. Still, mom enjoyed it, as did I.



Oh, look, it's my magic band AND a stitch bracelet. PRODUCT PLACEMENT!

Ahem.

This was 'Strawberry and Apple Crumble'- fresh strawberry and apple crumble with vanilla ice cream and a side of fresh cream to pour in and make it even more unhealthy (which I happily did). Raglan Road does these deconstructed 'pies' (well, crumble in this case) pretty often and well, so they usually end up being my dessert of choice. This one was no different. It was like eating a crumble, only out of a jar and with random cream involved. It's too bad the chowder filled me up so much, as I couldn't eat as much of it as I wished I could have.



Mom had this thing, called 'Fluffy Lemon Clouds'. I really thought she'd go for the bread pudding- it's her favorite- but she said she was too full. This was 'intense lemon curd' (admittedly, she loves lemon curd) topped with fluffy meringue. Of all the meringue we had this trip, I think this was one of her least favorite: she ended up mostly pushing it aside just to get at the lemon curd and tart. I don't remember finding anything wrong with it, but I only had a bite.


And... that's that, indeed. As usual, I have no idea what we did next- it might have been the BoG lunch day? Hm. We'll seen soon, I suppose. Thanks for the reading and the views! :D
 
there's a lot of orange juice to the little bit of wine, but later on they were doing more half and half, and at dessert it was more like 'Do you guys just want champagne?

I was basically waving at the OJ by the end of this meal.

For such a tiny little cup of cold soup, it packed a ton of flavor.

I was also a bit apprehensive at the "pea soup." But I should have known better. Remember Monsieur Paul's vinegar chicken from last year? Same wrinkled nose and disappointed sigh while looking at the menu. Then - Wow! This is awesome! The overly green soup was amazing!

They called this an 'Assortment d'amuses bouches', which sounds fair enough. What it was was, again, delicious.

A lot of flavor games going on here. It was hard to pick winners, but, "curry" and "cranberry" are favorites of mine. I enjoyed everything.

It ended with the course of ridiculousness.

Mikka is a macaron/macaroon fan. I enjoy them, but the chocolates! Oh my!
I would definitely book this F&W event again!


We just sat down at the bar, and ordered a whiskey flight.

That's just how we roll.

Mom had Kil Kelly Cream Ale, which isn't her usual

No, not my favorite. I only rated it 2.5 on Untapped. I think I was trying to find an "Irish" beer that I hadn't tried before and they were low on them.

I, though, had the Rekorderlig Strawberry and Lime Pear Cider

I rated this one a 3.5. I strangely run from liking dark stouts and porters to liking ciders and even some wheat beers.

We made the sauce at home once; it turned out really good.

I found the recipe online and it was pretry easy. I also found the bread recipe, but I'm not much of a baker. (I have a hard time following directions.)

we were already craving healthy food

Anyone else do this on vacation? After three days...I want a salad, a veggie, something healthy!

I always enjoy our meals at Raglan Road. We have had one or two episodes of spotty service, but we've also experienced over the top attentive service. It is a fun place to hang out and enjoy drinks and I think they have an interesting menu. The band and dancers are a bonus!


Now? Where is everyone? I finely convinced Mikka to come back and finish and you've all disappeared! (...disappear, disappear, disappear. Aye. Back. Over the falls...)
 
thanks for the great photos and reviews...I think maybe a trip to Raglan Road is in the future for us...thanks again
 
Loving your dining report ! Your writing style is great, I love descriptive reviews that include presentation as well as taste . . . . When I can't be at WDW, I live vicariously through the disboards ! :)
 
thanks for the great photos and reviews...I think maybe a trip to Raglan Road is in the future for us...thanks again

It's a great place, isn't it? Unless someone doesn't like noisy places, it's one of those places I'd recommend to almost anyone. Has stuff for everyone. Very enjoyable. :D

Loving your dining report ! Your writing style is great, I love descriptive reviews that include presentation as well as taste . . . . When I can't be at WDW, I live vicariously through the disboards ! :)

Thanks! I know I can be a bit too wordy at times, but I'm glad it's appreciated. ;) I know what you mean about living vicariously through the dis!


A QUICK BE OUR GUEST LUNCH

As in, an actual quickservice! Yeah, we actually did use some of those credits on our trip. Amazing.

We switched out the dessert credits of uninteresting (to us) cupcakes over to soup. Also, we preordered, which seemed to save a huge line- and there was no problem explaining we wanted to use the dining plan but had switched out the desserts. If you are going, I strongly recommending preordering: I think you can do it the morning of, and at least for us it saved what looked to be thirty or so minutes in line.



I had the French Onion soup. Was it the best French Onion soup I've never had? No. (If you care, I think that honor goes to Burn's steakhouse in Tampa- try it if you're ever in the region and love steak, dessert, or wine and dessert spirits.) But it's certainly the best French Onion soup I've ever had at counterservice at Disney. ;P Okay, that's a pretty narrow description, so let's just go with it was tasty.

These seem to be the exact same soups as are served at dinner, and I personally think they're much better then the cupcakes. If you're a cupcake fan, the filled ones with the nicely flavored icings you can get scattered around fast food bakeries at Disney seem more of a thing to look for then the ones at Be Our Guest, which on top of being small, also seemed somewhat flavorless and dry when we tried one. But your mileage may very, as always.



Mom had the potato leek soup, which tasted the same as when I'd had it here at dinner. Still quite good.

Which soup is better is sort of a 'hm, up to you', in my opinion. Mom's not an onion fan, so for her, the choice is obvious, but if it was just me I'd probably switch each time I went. Both are great.



I had ordered the roast beef. I had been a bit worried about this, hearing reports here on the dis that the roast beef was grey brown bleh (which is horrible), but it was delightfully pink. A grey roast beef sandwhich might be one thing in this world that could actually make me ask for a replacement meal. That's just sad. If you don't like your roast beef pink, though, then I tsk at you, but this might not be the best.

I don't really remember there being anything on this sandwich but the roast beef and the horseradish sour cream, though on the picture it looks like there's some arugula or spinach hanging out. It's served with just plain normal counter service french fries, which are surprisingly addicting when you never eat them.

The baguette it was served on wasn't bad. Couldn't compare to the French bread we'd had at the lunchen (and would have at the breakfast), but it wasn't bad.



Mom had the Croque Monsiour. I don't think we've ever actually had the one at Chefs, so I don't know how this compares. I was so happy that my Roast Beef wasn't grey that I honestly don't really remember much about the taste of her sandwhich, though I remember her liking it. I thought the bread got a bit soggy with the gruyere cheese, but I don't really hold that as a fault: the bread was good, and gruyere cheese can sog up almost any bread unless it's hard as a rock and you wouldn't want it anyway.


And... yeah, nice and quick. :)

Next: BO, the best waiter/bartender! Or, uh, the Wave.
 
We switched out the dessert credits of uninteresting (to us) cupcakes over to soup. Also, we preordered, which seemed to save a huge line- and there was no problem explaining we wanted to use the dining plan but had switched out the desserts.

I was a little nervous about this - but it worked out fine with no questions asked.

Mom had the Croque Monsiour.

I enjoyed this sandwich. No, it isn't signature dining, but it was a perfectly acceptable counter service sandwich.

Next: BO, the best waiter/bartender! Or, uh, the Wave.

One of those perfect Disney experiences that is just...magical.
 
I am really enjoying your trip report! Why do I always read these food reports when I am starting a diet? :headache:

My 2 sisters and I went to Hollywood Brown Derby is Dec 2012. We had the Fantasmic dinner pkg also. The food was very, very good but it took FOREVER to order. The waitress was SO slow. We only had one day for DHS and with this meal and Fantasmic, we only saw a few attractions. Of course, that would be no problem these days as there isn't much to see...:rolleyes1
 
Great pictures. Thanks so much for sharing.

Mom's the one who does the pictures: I think she actually has some talent for photography. I'm sure she appreciates the compliment, and you are very welcome!

I am really enjoying your trip report! Why do I always read these food reports when I am starting a diet? :headache:

My 2 sisters and I went to Hollywood Brown Derby is Dec 2012. We had the Fantasmic dinner pkg also. The food was very, very good but it took FOREVER to order. The waitress was SO slow. We only had one day for DHS and with this meal and Fantasmic, we only saw a few attractions. Of course, that would be no problem these days as there isn't much to see...:rolleyes1

We have a rule in our house that there are no diets. There is just 'eating healthier'. As if we try dieting, we fail ourselves miserably by doing a 'Oh, I'll have just one cookie... NO I FAILED MY DIET NOTHING MATTERS ANYMORE I GUESS I WILL HAVE FIVE COOKIES AS THE DIET DIED'. Cutting back on the bad works, though. It's really just wordplay in our heads, but it's the only way we can actually work it. XD

Slow service at Disney resturaunts drives me nuts, but seems to be eerily common for a place that mostly wants you in and out in as soon as time possible. We always seem to get missing waiters and waitresses between entrees and dessert, or dessert or check. They just disappear for fifteen minutes while we stare at each other over dirty dishes. Really odd.

And yeah, MGM/HS is kind of... sad. I really miss that stupid animation building, personally. And I'm so worried for Muppets. I love the Muppets.


Anyway, I thought this was the Wave, but there was an Iphone picture I had missed... we had made a quick stop.



Can you guess? :P

TRADER SAM'S

The inside was of course packed. That's actually probably a good thing, because if we had went inside, we would have been entertained by the craziness and probably bought more then one drink each. And food. Hm.

Mom had the Mosquito Mojito (I wish that word would decide if it wanted to be spelled with a j or an h). Dragon Berry rum, falernum, and then generic stuff like agave nector and lime and mint and la de da. Falernum is a maybe-alcoholic, maybe-booze free sweet syrup with spices added to it (and occasionally rum) that can be used in various cocktails or just drank on its own on the rocks. Caribbean thing, from what wikipedia is telling me. :P I've been warming up to mojito's recently, probably because they're made from real mint rather then some horrible extract of doom, and this one wasn't bad at all. Easy sipping.

I went for the Tahitian Torch, which is basically a lot of juices and then ByeJoe Dragonfire Spirit. I ordered it because I was interested in that. It's baiju, a Chinese liquor that is basically Chinese vodka but made with sorghum (yes, that's basically grass). Usually you'd have a sort of grassy and very strong drink (baiju is generally much more alcoholic then say, shochu/shoju) with a fantastic variety of smells, but this version in paticular infuses dragonfruit and chilies. Which supposedly makes a sweet spicy mix of awesome. As it is, though, mixed with the 'various tropical juices', I only got a tinge of it. This drink wasn't bad by any means: it was delicious and easily drunk in like, two minutes- but I wish I had tasted more of this unique spirit that I can't really find here at home. Next time (whenver that may be) I go to Trader Sam's, I'm probably just going to ask for a shot of this. Oh, and if you're concerned- despite the chilies, in the mixed drink, there was very little spice flavor. The bar runner said that if you drink it straight, though, the spice is definitely there.

Trader Sam's isn't the place to go if you want really strong drinks, nor if you don't want rum drinks (as they have maybe four non rum drinks, including the one I had, and despite claiming to have a full bar I've seen them be unable to make relatively simple cocktails due to not having the ingredients (or maybe just not wanting to go off the menu)). But it's fun and the drinks are tasty, with some even being unique- and there being some spirits you don't find at every bar, such as this one and some of their rum collection. Even out on the patio, we had a pretty waterfall and a guy playing a ukulele to entertain us, as well as people watching. There are a ton of seats on the patio, and you can sit there while waiting with your buzzer if you so desire, so no reason not to head there, in my opinion. :)

It was altogether a fun little stop.


Next will be the Wave. And Bo. <3
 
We have a rule in our house that there are no diets. There is just 'eating healthier'. As if we try dieting, we fail ourselves miserably by doing a 'Oh, I'll have just one cookie... NO I FAILED MY DIET NOTHING MATTERS ANYMORE I GUESS I WILL HAVE FIVE COOKIES AS THE DIET DIED'.
LOL :rotfl2:
That's actually really smart!
 
Catching up on all your adventures. Your food at HBD looks really good, especially that carpaccio. Unfortunately like you we had horrible service and that coupled with so, so food will likely keep us away.

Good on ya for having salads at Raglan Road ; ) Not sure I could stay away from all the fried goodies.

It's currently snowing here and I'm freezing so either of those soups at BoG would totally hit the spot.

Your Mom and I had the same drink at Trader Sams and I enjoyed it too. Love the freshness of a mojito
 
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