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

[Redwitch]

I think she actually has some talent for photography. I'm sure she appreciates the compliment, and you are very welcome!

Next time (whenver that may be) I go to Trader Sam's, I'm probably just going to ask for a shot of this.

Shots might be the best bet everywhere. At least you won't be getting over priced and weak.

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

Snowing, sleeting, freezing rain here too. I'm over winter.

 

[Mikka]

LOL
That's actually really smart!

It works! Well, mostly. I tend to eat too salty, but I'm working on that. But as long as I don't call it a 'diet', I don't think of it as something with a failure cause: if I think of it more as 'eating healthy', I can occasionally have a treat and not feel like I failed and then drop down failure spiral of making stupid food decisions.

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

I hear a lot of reports abouit so-so food at HBD, which is a shame- as besides this dessert, we've never had a bad meal there and we go almost every trip for the fantasmic package. But iffy service seems to be more common, which it shouldn't be for the price. When service is good, it's really good- one of the best waitresses we ever had was at brown derby, who let us go on with our meal and gave us so much attention you'd think we were at a three course V&A meal- but when it's bad, it's just horrid in such a nice location.

I love the fried stuff at Raglan Road, too, but sometimes, you just need greens at Disney! You don't get enough of them unless you seek em out. XD

As for the weather, it warmed up since mom posted a tiny bit, but a BOG soup would still be nice. And that was indeed a pretty nice mojito. I may have to try making one of those at home, once Spring comes and we can start growing mint. I've never made one before!


Alright, now for...

THE WAVE​

I'm going to straight away admit a bias for this place. I think it's the non-signature resturaunt at Disney that comes closest to giving a signature experience. I'll give you an example from this trip: sitting at the bar was a lone diner who ordered an entree, then saw the soup another diner was eating and decided it looked good and ordered that as well. The soup came out first, but obviously the entree order was already in: they brought it out while he was still eating his appetizer. They brought it out with it already under a domed cover, showed the meal to him, then asked him if he would like it sitting out with him or if he would prefer they move it back in to the kitchen and he could tell the bartender when he was ready for it so he could have a break between courses.

You know what happened at the Brown Derby when we were eating our appetizer and our entrees came? They moved our appetizers a bit to put our entrees on the table, and walked away. Pretty usual.

So I generally give the wave top marks for having A) good service, B) interesting food for all three meals, C) consistent food (and usually service) that doesn't disappoint and D) awesome. This trip was no different- sure, it was non-signature, but it was one of the better meals we had.

Part of that was because of Bo, though.

Bo was (and hopefully still is) a bartender at the Wave, and Bo is awesome. Bo recognized us despite us having not been there in like, a year. Bo is the kind of bartender that when a lady would like a Chard, he goes through all of them and offers her a taste of the one she thinks sounds most interesting, and when her companion wants a diet coke, he teasingly asks if said companion would like to taste that, too. Bo gave us recommendations, allowed me to sneak a sip of mom's drink without telling on me, allowed mom to order whatever the heck she wanted basically, and was all around awesome. Every bartender and waiter should be like Bo. Bo rules.

(And if he's moved on from the Wave to somewhere else in Disney- or anywhere, actually- please let us know where, as we may just make a trip anywhere just to see Bo.)

This does come with a bad point, though- chiefly, I was so enjoying our food and our interaction with our bartender that I didn't pull out my trusty notebook. So there's going to be some blind guessing, I'm afraid, as I'm sure the menu has changed.

Anyway, we HAD reservations at the Wave the night before, but I told mom to cancel them- 'Who knows if we'll still be in the MK area that evening, besides, it's easy to get a res at the resorts around it'. I had to eat my words: the Wave was booked, GFC was booked, Kona was booked, Whispering Canyon was booked. I have no idea why. The Wave's bar was empty, though, and we took it.

(Weirdly, looking in to the Wave, it seemed pretty empty too, but the hostesses insisted they were booked and we could try after nine (or do the bar deal), and there were no spots on the app.)



As always, we started with drinks. Mom had, of course, a Rusty Nail, because for what is life without Rusty Nail's? (Nothing, I say, nothing!) I... had a dirty martini.

Before you laugh at me, understand this: mom is allergic to an ingredient found in basically every Gin. So Gin is not a big part of my life. Thus, I've never really had Gin drinks. So I wanted to try one of the classics, even if this classic is one that apparently drives bartenders nuts because it's 'boring/just salt' (I read an article about that in a food magazine once about how bartenders are sick of them being ordered because it doesn't take any skill/art). And what better place to try it then with an understanding bartender who would probably be okay if I completely hated it?

Good news: I didn't hate it at all; in fact, I liked it a lot. We found a local distillery that makes a brand of Gin that mom can drink (if you're in PA or planning a trip: Thistle Finch Distillery in downtown Lancaster PA deserves shoutouts and more, go for great whiskey/vodka/gin to buy and great craft cocktails to taste!), and I've been making these at home. Mom really likes it when instead of making it with olive juice, though, I use pickle juice. Don't knock it- it actually tastes pretty good! We're not totally weird. Well, okay, we are, but it is nice. Use regular pickles unless you're odd, though: she likes it with bread and butter, but I think regular pickle juice would be more 'drinkable' to the general public.



I always like it when even if you're at the bar, they bring you bread. This is the Wave's standard, which is an wheaty thick bread with various seeds and herbs and the like in it. It's not one of my favorites, though I like that it's unique (too many Disney restaurants have started serving the same thing), but mom absolutely loves this bread- and, honestly, I made a decent dent on it. It could definitely fill you up if you wished.

(I just went in a brief panic, thinking I lost my notebook. It was under a Brown Derby menu sitting on my desk. I should clean it.)



So, uh, here's the problem with no notes. Here's my fish dish!

It was a very good fish dish.

...What fish was it?

FISHY FISH. YUMMY FISH.

Actually, staring at it and going from memory, I'd bet 50$ on it being grouper. And as the only person that could prove me wrong would be mom and she has no idea (on the receipt, it's just going to be the pan-seared fish of the day), I think I win that. Woo! I do remember the sides, mostly as thankfully they're still there: this was edamame-farrow succotash. Succotash isn't something I'm familar with, even though Wikipedia tells me it's a big PA thing, but it basically means bean + corn + other stuff (mostly tomato, maybe pepper). On top of the fish was a cilantro based pesto that was delicious and more then enough to cover the fish, though the grouper was perfectly cooked and didn't really need it.

I have the fish of the day all the time when we go to lunch here (this was our first time at dinner), so I expected it to be good, honestly, but it really was. The wave is another place that does seafood very well for not being a seafood resturaunt: if you're in to them, try their fish taco app one day. The few times we've had it, we've loved it: it's not San Diego, but for not being San Diego, it's great.




Mom was doing that thing where 'I've had lamb (and nothing will ever compare to Morocco) so much that I want beef, but the lamb sides LOOK SO GOOD' so Bo being the best bartender ever suggested she order the beef and have the lamb sides with it, which he would arrange. And he did.

The beef was a standard beef tenderloin, but there was nothing wrong with that. Cooked to her medium rare, it was delicious and I did indeed steal some bites (though I stole more of her drink). The big deal was the delicious asparagus (which was absolutely perfectly done- thicker then I usually like, but still crunchy without being raw), and the perfection mac and cheese.

There was probably a bit more to the mac and cheese that didn't get written down, sadly, but all you need to know is that it was pure perfection. I believe it was one of those five cheese magic things, and I can't even begin to tell you how much we enjoyed it. One of the best mac and cheeses on property, which sadly doesn't seem to be on the current menu. Bring it back!

Here, mom made a mistake, not me (blame blame blame game!): we got wine with our meals (did you expect anything else? ). We did not get a picture of them. I believe mom had the recommended pairing with the beef, but for me, the recommended pairing with the grouper/fish was a Californian chard, which isn't my favorite. I asked Bo if he could recommend something different for me, and he asked what I liked/was in the mood for- and I mentioned though I love Rieslings, I do prefer reds to whites.

He told me quite firmly that we would find a red that would go with my fish, and that was that (and he indeed did- first pick, at that). I have to say that helped a lot, too: a bartender that knows their wine and is willing to experiment is a great bartender. It was a bold red that contrasted in good ways, and compared nicely. I'm going to see if I can find said receipt to see what the wines were, but both mom and I enjoyed what we had.



For dessert, the Wave had finally changed up their menu since the last time I had been there... and here I recorded our desserts, but can't read my own writing. Go figure. This was peach-strawberry tart-cake-thing, with 'bellini' flavored sorbet and strawberry sauce. It was very light, and tasted strongly of peach and a bit of strawberry (the sorbet was even lighter, but still had peach tones). It was a nice ending to a lovely meal.





Mom had the trio, in which I think they've mostly gotten rid of. There was a blueberry shortcake, a chocolate cake/brownie with banana chocolate chip ice cream, and then ending with a key lime tart.

It was all pretty good: we were both amazed that the banana ice cream wasn't horrible. It wasn't something either of us would go looking for, but it wasn't fake banana falseness of doom. It was actually rather softly banana. My favorite was the key lime tart: mom also really liked that, but said her favorite was the shortcake.


And sadly, though I could have ordered a million more drinks and probably an appetizer to boot, that was that, and we said a sad goodbye to Bo and spent five million years trying to get back to our resort, as is usual.

I kid, but- seriously, this was a very great meal. The food was very good: I'm not exaggerating that. But what made the meal was the service. Was this food better then my fish and lobster at HBD? It was probably about the same (which is a mark against a signature, but still). But with someone chatting with us, making sure everything was perfect for us, timing thing for us, and going out of his way to make the experience better for us... that made the meal from 'very good' in to 'one of those perfect Disney experiences'.

I'm guessing Bo wouldn't be everyone's favorite: he is kind of a smart-alack who lets daughters steal their mothers drinks (I really hope he's still at Disney!), but I think everyone can relate to finding a waiter (or bartender) that just makes the meal go from 'great' to 'bestest!'. This was one of those. We seriously discussed quite a few times later in the trip forgottetting everything else and going back to the Wave bar just to see if Bo was there. We never did, but they were serious discussions- which proves, again, that the staff around you can make so much difference. I hope Disney continues to remember that.


And that was ominous, wasn't it?

I'm not sure what's next, but it will be coming. If you missed it, there's a Trader Sam's review on the page before this. Thank you all for reading, and may you be eating at places with your own awesome Bo. ;P

 

[kastoney]

Your meal at The Wave looks and sounds delicious. I was just reading a review on the disney food blog this morning and commenting to the hubby that we'll have to try it next trip. Think your review just solidified that. Provided of course we eat at the bar with Bo

 

[TeresaNJ]

Really enjoying your report. When someone's report makes me rethink my reservations, and I actually change some, then that's a great report to me!

 

[Redwitch]

I'm trying to quote messages with Khan demanding attention. And what the Big Boy wants, he usually gets!

I'm going to straight away admit a bias for this place. I think it's the non-signature restaurant at Disney that comes closest to giving a signature experience.

Shh! Don't tell everyone about our spot!

Bo was (and hopefully still is) a bartender at the Wave, and Bo is awesome.

True that!

allowed me to sneak a sip of mom's drink without telling on me

Bo and I need to have a little talk about who had the credit card here...

As always, we started with drinks. Mom had, of course, a Rusty Nail, because for what is life without Rusty Nail's? (Nothing, I say, nothing!) I... had a dirty martini.

Look at that picture - if we had cropped it - wow! Wavy Wave glass in the background. Seriously, go back and look and crop it with your hands. Really cool picture!

mom is allergic to an ingredient found in basically every Gin.

Orris Root. We have had many a discussion about me drinking gin in the hospital parking lot to see how severe the allergy is.... I was tested at age 12 and have avoided gin ever since, until our local distillery opened. They willing shared their ingredients.

mom absolutely loves this bread

Yep! Love grainy breads!

if you're in to them, try their fish taco app one day. The few times we've had it, we've loved it: it's not San Diego, but for not being San Diego, it's great.

Oh, I so loved the fish tacos I had in San Diego in a little bar on Coronado. The Wave has good ones, but they don't compare.

Mom was doing that thing where 'I've had lamb (and nothing will ever compare to Morocco) so much that I want beef, but the lamb sides LOOK SO GOOD' so Bo being the best bartender ever suggested she order the beef and have the lamb sides with it, which he would arrange. And he did.

Once and a while, everyone should be treated like a Queen.

My favorite was the key lime tart: mom also really liked that, but said her favorite was the shortcake.

That shortcake was soooooo gooooood! But, I do love key lime as well.

Think your review just solidified that. Provided of course we eat at the bar with Bo

Yes! Find Bo and tell him we said "Hi!"

Really enjoying your report.

Thanks for reading and joining the craziness!

 

[Mikka]

Well, I have a computer again.

I'm sure you don't want to read excuses nor do you want hear my whine of everything that's gone on. Let's just say there was sickness, and then me not having a computer, and once again I'm really sorry for disappearing.

I'll start the food quick. It's not that useful to you now, unfortunately, but perhaps it will be come fall?

(Note: it won't let me preview this post. If anything is off, I'll be fixing it in a second: just give me a few.)

FOOD AND WINE BOOTHS​

We start with Australia's grilled lamb with mint pesto and potato crunchies and the Yangarra Estate Vineyard Shiraz. Once again, a chilled red that should be served room temperature. It wasn't even that hot that day. For all the wines we got that were reds served chilled, though, this is one of the ones that held up the best: it had a very bold flavor, so at least you could taste *something*. I can't really describe it, though, besides 'bold enough not to suck'.

The grilled lamb was a bit more interesting. The potato chip crunchies (that's really what they were) were surprisingly not stale, which was nice. As someone who doesn't like mint all that much (though it's starting to grow on me), the pesto was actually quite nice: just a tinge of mint, not too much, which added flavor. As is usual with the outdoor booths, the lamb was overcooked, but it sadly sort of has to be- and it still had a nice flavor. It was a lot of bone per meat, though, which isn't that unusual for lambchops of this side, but fair warning and all that.

We then took a stop in to La Cava. I'll get that in the next post, to avoid breaking up the food booths no one really cares about.



Over at Africa, we had the Buttered Chicken with Micro Cilantro and Naan Bread and the DeMorgenzon DMZ Cab Rose. The buttered chicken was very similar to what you would get at Sanaa: not quite the same quality, but a good test to see if you would like the buttered chicken there. It was lightly spicy, but for people who can't handle spice all that well, it wasn't too spicy. The wine was amazing: it WASN'T chilled. Remarkable, right? Hurray for Africa!

It was a very light rose. It was hard to quite qualify it: it was more dry then it was sweet, but it was in no way dry. The first taste was sweeter then the after taste: there was definitely some fruit on the tongue. Maybe strawberries?



Off to Italia, where we had the... I'm not even going to try to type it out. It was chicken, mushrooms, bread, and Marsala sauce. I don't know why we keep getting things from the Italy booth, as they're always horrible, but as far as 'horrible things we've gotten at the Italy booth throughout the years', this was probably actually the best dish. I wouldn't call it good, but it wasn't bad-bad. The chicken was horribly dry to the point that it desperately needed the sauce to not taste like cardboard chicken, but as I said, compared to somethings we've gotten at this booth over the years, it was edible.

(I don't mean to be bitter here, but it seems ever F&G and every F&W, Italy puts out some of the worst preheated food in the festival. I'm not sure why, as Italy has three lovely restaurants and so many great foods to its name, but the festival offerings have never appealed. Even the margarita and frozen drinks, the last time we've tried them, have tasted bad. And it takes a lot for us to call an alcoholic drink bad!)



Over at Hops and Barley, we wanted to use a counter service credit and turn it in to three snacks, but they couldn't get the register to work for it. Fooy. So instead, just one lobster roll.

I read somewhere on the boards that these are more like a lobster salad then a lobster roll, and I have to agree with that (not that I have too much experience with authentic New England rolls- I wish I did!). As long as you go in expecting your lobster to be smothered in mayo, I think you can enjoy this: if you're looking for the authentic thing, you're out of luck, but if you think of it as a salad, you'll be alright. The lobster wasn't at all rubbery, and there was a good amount of it. It would have been better without the onion and celery put in: there was only a bit of onion (not enough for mom to complain about, and she generally doesn't like onion (texture-wise)), but there was a ton of celery. Even just cutting the celery in half would have made for a more enjoyable roll, even if they didn't add more lobster in return.



Over at Japan, we went with the Miso Udon: shrimp, veggies and noddles in a spicy broth. Spicy should have been in the title: people expecting generic miso soup broth would be very surprised by this. I found it very addicting, personally: I handle Asian spiciness a lot better then I handle Central/South American spiciness (IE, I can eat all the wasabi you throw at me, but chili peppers kill me). The problem here was the soup was served lukewarm, not hot, which was a bit of a bummer. Still, I enjoyed it, and it was one of my favorites. I don't think mom was as enthused.




Finally, Brazil! Escondidinha de Carne, which was a layered meat pie with yucca. The Yucca was delicious. The dish itself... well, someone we shared our table with compared it with hamburger helper. I wouldn't go that far, but it wasn't that remarkable. Not even the onions and peppers gave it much of a flavor.

The drink was a frozen caipairinha featuring cachaca. Let's just say I've had caipirinha before, and this was basically frozen junk. There was the lightest of light taste of something rum like (but not rum, because, well, cachaca!), and then some limeish tinge, but mostly it tasted like frozen blocks of light tartness. This was not a drink worth spending money on.


Don't take these reviews too much too heart: mom and I really enjoy the Food and Wine festival, and we'll be going again this year. But it seems prices are going up without the food quality going up with them, which is a shame. From the reviews I've read of this years Flower and Garden, it looks like the same cycle. I'm hoping with the manager change, there will be a few changes, but I guess we'll see!

Anyway, some comments...

Your meal at The Wave looks and sounds delicious. I was just reading a review on the disney food blog this morning and commenting to the hubby that we'll have to try it next trip. Think your review just solidified that. Provided of course we eat at the bar with Bo

Go! The Wave is really excellent. If you do go and get to see Bo, please comment and tell us if he's still there! If he is, we're definitely going back.

Really enjoying your report. When someone's report makes me rethink my reservations, and I actually change some, then that's a great report to me!

Ooo, you're going for F&G, huh? I'm jealous! I hope you like any reservations you changed... I'm a bit nervous now. My fingers are crossed that everything is great!



I don't want to make any more promises on when I'm going to get this or that done, as I seem to be breaking them all over the place. So let's just say I'm going to get up our small drinks at the Cave ASAP, and we'll see where we go from there. I will try to finish this as fast as I can: I know I'm over the 'due date' for finishing meals, and I'm horribly sorry about that. Next trip, I'll definitely do better!

 

[Mikka]

My favorite bar. They actually were mixing the drinks this time, too, rather then pouring from a pitcher.

LA CAVA DE TEQUILA​

Nice and simple: two margaritas. I had the Maelstorm, which was made in honor of Norway turning in to Arendelle: tequila, mango puree, orange liquor, agave and then blue berries, peppers, basil and a chili powder rim. Despite that, it's not really that spicy- it's more sweet with just a bit of smoky-spicness. This was supposed to be a limited edition margarita, but they said they'd keep it on the menu as long as people kept ordering it. So if it sounds interesting, order it while you're there! Who knows when it may disappear?

Mom had the cucumber margarita, which wasn't too different from mine. Cucumbers, obviously, and no peppers and blue berries. Oh, and pineapple juice instead of mango puree. It was just as tasty. While the standard is of course good and should be recommended, I recommend even more so trying the cucumber, the avocado, the jalapeno and so on. The 'odd flavors' are where the Cave truly shines, in my opinion.




We also each tried a shot of this Almond tequila liquor. It was crazy delicious, like the best of amaretto. <3

See, here's the deal about the Cave: once a week (I think either Monday or Wens), they offer specials if you follow them on facebook or twitter (it might be one is one day, the other is the other day). As long as you can show them you're following them with your smartphone/tablet/whatever you use, you may find discounts- like a dollar off a margarita, or a five dollar shot of their choosing. It NEVER hurts to ask. Just simply go to the bartender and say "Do you have any specials for following you on facebook or twitter today?", and they'll know, or at least be able to tell you the day. So go for it. You've got nothing to lose, right? Discounts at Disney are rare, so see if you can get one!

Just don't tell everyone, shh. Let it be this thread's secret.



And following that, we took a trip downtown to hit a bar and a restaurant (well, and explore a lot, first). That'll come... well, when I can get it out. But hopefully soon. Thank you all so much for your patience!

 

[squeezle]

Great reviews!! Happily following along now...

 

[Mikka]

Great reviews!! Happily following along now...

Thank you very much! I hope you keep reading and enjoy!


Next, the downtown stop at...



Well, can you guess?

Yes, that's...

JOCK LINDSEY'S HANGAR BAR (or Jack London's, if you're us)​

Yes, taking a cue from that snarky guy (you know him, he has one of the best wdw websites), we refer to this place as Jack London. Why? Well, why not?

I like this bar because the prices are printed on the menu. That saved me from ordering the cool drink with the ice sphere, which was 30$. If we hadn't had menu prices and I had ordered that, I think mom would have strangled me in the middle of a bar in Walt Disney World. Which would have been a bad shame.



My drink on the left was the Scottish Professor: whiskey, gin, pear nectar, simple syrup and lemon juice. Compared to it's closest cousin, Trader Sam, Jack London- er, Jock Lindsey seems to be a bit skimpier with their booze pours. This still had a taste of whiskey, but the pear was the primary taste. It wasn't bad by all means- it was actually very good- but if you're looking for a boozy drink, I don't think this is it. A drink with booze that doesn't take all that boozy, though, this would be perfect.

Mom went with the Air Pirates Mule, which was bourbon, lime, and ginger beer. This was the stronger drink, at least in taste. It was very nice.



We also got these beauties, as I'd been wanting them ever since the preview information came out. Red beet deviled eggs with CRAB. They were so, so, so good. (And very photogenic: they look gorgeous.) I tried to eat moms, but she wouldn't let me, which was a terrible shame. I think the food here as a whole looks more interesting then what they serve at Trader Sam's, though this is the only item we got as we had a dinner ADR.


All in all, I don't think Jock Lindsey is where you would go for strong drinks- but for interesting drinks, sure. They had a fair amount of liquors you don't often see at other Disney bars, and it may be a fun place to go and try shots of various liquors from around the world. I think that's what we'll do next time we go there. The inside is amazing: even without the light shows and hippos of (again) Trader Sam's, there's so much stuff to look at- and a cool Hidden Mickey to find (I found it first!). It also looks like outside on the boat would be a fantastic place to cool off and maybe watch the sunset or the boats from the Boathouse that's basically next door, but I would definitely recommend taking a walk through the inside bar first.

It is very small, though. If you want to go inside, get there early, or at an off time- we were there in the middle of the afternoon on a non busy day at DTD. When we walked in, it was basically empty: when we left, it was starting to pick up and get packed.


Next review is going to take a while of typing: it was a long meal, and I need to dig out the receipts and make a few guesses. It was awesome, though.

(Hopefully mom will post before then. Hmph. Where are you, Redwitch? )

 

[Redwitch]

We start with Australia's grilled lamb with mint pesto and potato crunchies

A shame the lamb was over cooked, but the flavor from the pesto and 'tater crunchies was great.

DeMorgenzon DMZ Cab Rose

This is actually considered a "value" wine, probably $10 -14 a bottle. Pretty tasty, I might have to look for it as I'm growing fonder of Rose wines.

we wanted to use a counter service credit and turn it in to three snacks, but they couldn't get the register to work for it. Fooy.

This was an ongoing issue. Only select kiosks were able to do the conversion.

The problem here was the soup was served lukewarm, not hot, which was a bit of a bummer. Still, I enjoyed it, and it was one of my favorites. I don't think mom was as enthused.

I don't think I disliked this. I just wasn't over impressed.

LA CAVA DE TEQUILA

Yes! And when they are actually making drinks to order.... However, this is a pricey excursion, even by Disney standards.

We also each tried a shot of this Almond tequila liquor. It was crazy delicious, like the best of amaretto. <3

This was good. I've a few other flavored tequilas and this is in the running for the best.

we refer to this place as Jack London. Why? Well, why not?

Like I could even remember the pilot from the Indian Jones' movie in the first place.

That saved me from ordering the cool drink with the ice sphere, which was 30$. If we hadn't had menu prices and I had ordered that, I think mom would have strangled me in the middle of a bar in Walt Disney World. Which would have been a bad shame.

It would not have been pretty.

We also got these beauties, as I'd been wanting them ever since the preview information came out. Red beet deviled eggs with CRAB. They were so, so, so good. (And very photogenic: they look gorgeous.)

And, she's been trying to get me to make them at home too.

Where are you, Redwitch?

Over here. No not there. Here.

 

[Mikka]

I honestly have been struggling with doing this post, as it's just so... long. And it's been such a while since we ate there, that my memory is all screwy. But it was such an excellent meal that I want to do it justice. Please have patience with the fact that I can't really describe details on everything we ate due how it was eaten, but know: everything was excellent.

MORIMOTO ASIA​

And yes, we did see Chef Morimoto. He was standing right in front of us at the sushi bar as we sat down. We didn't get a picture or autograph with him, as he was very busy, but watching him prepare sushi and other items was a work of art that I think was even cooler then an autograph.



There's his back, as mom shows off her beer. It was the Morimoto Soba Draft. I think it was a bit light for her tastes, but she didn't dislike it. I thought it tasted like- guess, guess!- BEER. I am really bad at this judging beer by its taste thing, huh?



I meanwhile show off my Ishikawa 75. It was sake, plum wine, and sparkling wine. Nice and very light, and despite being all alcohol, very easy drinking.



And here is the sushi bar- and I believe that's chef Keniji (it may just be Keiji, which is a more common name, or it could have been Kaniji, which would be sort of odd- my writing is Keniji, but Keiji seems more probable), who stood right in front of us and served us the whole time. He didn't speak much English, and we didn't speak much Japanese, but he was awesome. Once he realized that we were sharing (and that the pieces were a bit big for my mouth), he cut each piece of sashimi in half for us so we each could have a piece. He also gave us the wasabi shown below, but dabled on the amount of soy sauce and wasabi he thought was best with each piece, which is always awesome when the chefs do that.



Morimoto SAKE FLIGHT. I like Sake Flights! This is includes all four of his signature sakes, including the one that's like, 150$ a bottle. All are served properly chilled. There's a Junmai, a Daiginjo, Junmai Ginjo, and then the 'Koshu' 5 year, which is the super expensive crazy thing. It was predictably the best, because what are we without expensive tastes.

Here's where we get to the confusing part. I'm just going to put all the pictures of the sashimi we ate in one row, and then discuss them all after wards, because honestly, I can't really tell you at this point how the mackrel tasted versus the shrimp, or even which one was the mackrel. Sorry.



Oh, but first, wasabi. This is how wasabi should look like. Root, not powered horseradish with food coloring!



Okay, and second, the BBQ Eel Roll. I know what I'm doing, I swear. I love sashimi, especially in a Japanese resturaunt- because the Japanese often don't do rolls unless it's to please us odd Westerners- but mother does love rolls. So we compromised by getting one roll. This was the BBQ Eel, as I said, which was... well, barbecued eel with avocado wrapped in rice and seaweed and the like. Like most Japanese rolls, it's pretty simple- one 'protein' and then maybe one vegtable is usually the biggest Japanese rolls get, as they want you to focus on the flavor of the fish (or tofu, or chicken, or beef).

Now for the sashimi.









We're actually missing one picture, because we shoved it in our mouth before getting a picture of it. (I think it was the oh-toro?)

Besides the oh-toro, we also had tai, hamachi, aji, mizudako, hotake and kohada. If you count, you'll notice we got something for free as we did eat that toro before a picture came: I believe it's the third picture down. I'm not sure how we rated free sushi, but I didn't want to cause a commotion- I whispered it to mom, but I'm unsure if she even heard it. If any sushi experts want to take a guess at what the third item down is, go for it: I have a suspicion it might be eel, but I couldn't tell you for sure.

Oh, but I guess you're wondering what all that stuff is. Okay. Oh-toro is fatty tuna (usually from the belly), and we actually shouldn't be eating it (something I only found out after this trip): the bluefin tuna they usually use to get the toro from is coming close to being endangered by us sushi eaters, and we could lose it if people don't start cutting back on it. It is the 'king' of sushi, probably the best sushi cut in the world- but wait a few years to eat it, hm? Like we should have. ;_;

Tai is Japanese red mackrel. Hamachi (the only one I knew by heart besides the toro) is yellowtail. Aji is not a pepper, but another kind of mackrel. Mizudako is live octopus- which is not actually live. What they do is basically throw it in to a boiling thing of water very fast and very quick to kill it, but the tenticles can still be a bit wiggly. Hotake is scallop. Kohada is gizzard shad, a fish I've never even heard of and that wasn't on the menu.

The nice thing about the sushi counter was you could basically point and go 'What's that?' and either Keniji or our lovely waitress Misa (who was constantly nearby- never hovering, but all you had to do is look in her direction and she's be there in a second) would explain and tell us what it tasted like, as they did indeed have some items off the menu. It really was like a classic sushi place, where you pointed something out and the chef would give it to you. Almost all these fish we ordered one at a time, enjoyed, then ordered a different one. The sushi bar wasn't crowded that night, so no one seemed to mind.

I really wish I could tell you what each fish tasted like, but... I don't remember! So instead I'll give this suggestion: if you go to Morimoto's and want to try sashimi but have never tried it before, I suggest the hamachi- yellowtail. You can find it in probably any sushi resturaunt in the world, but Morimoto's was so much better then any yellowtail I'd ever had before- but still was lightly sweet and very mild. For someone who wants to start with raw fish, yellowtail would probably be my top recommendation.

For more adventurerous eaters, try the octopus or the scallop (or any other shellfish that might be there- they were out of shrimp, sadly, which I really wanted). Those are harder to find unless you're in the big city, and still tasty.

Everything was tasty, I have to say. We enjoyed every item we were offered. I've heard the price of the lunch and dinner at Morimoto's has went up like, three times since we were there, but the price of the sushi seems to have stayed market price. So if you're going to Morimoto's, I strongly suggest trying some sashimi. It is delicious!





To finish our meal, we went with Buri-Bap. It's a Korean style dish: basically, the bowl is baked super hot, so the yellowtail fish inside it (and the rice) bake with it. Then they bring it to your table and dump an egg in it and cook it at the table, making the rice all creamy with egg yolk (which is cooked by the heat of the bowl). It was probably more then we needed, but we finished it all anyway, so there you go.



Mochi mochi! We had to have dessert, right? This was the oddest thing on the menu, so of course we had to try it. It's tofu, coconut mango soup, boba (those little popping bubbles that aren't made from tapioca- they're more fruit/gelatin like), frozen mango and lemon-yogurt powder. Or so says the menu. I'm not even sure hot to describe it, to be honest: it was very good, with a ton of different sweet flavors going on there. I'm guessing not many people order it, which is a shame, as it was really quite interesting and different as well as delicious.



The downer: the worst Thai Iced Tea I've ever had. They forgot the condensed milk! How can you have Thai Iced Tea without any sort of milk in it? /woe Mom had regular tea, which was perfectly standable, but... my Thai Iced Tea! /sadness

But considering how good the rest of the meal was, I'll forgive them.


I don't usually post prices, but I will say this: we got out of here for around 160$, and that's including tax (but not tip) (though it does include TiW). And the sake flight was 35$ alone. While this was certainly an expensive dinner, it was not a ridiculously expensive one for the amount of fish we ate. I would definitely go again, though going for lunch and dim sum or going back to the sushi counter would be a hard choice for me. Or even chillin' at the bar...

Ahem.

...I think next might be Sunshine Seasons? Or do we have more food booths? I guess we'll see. Thanks for the patience with this super long review!

 

[Redwitch]

And yes, we did see Chef Morimoto. He was standing right in front of us at the sushi bar as we sat down. We didn't get a picture or autograph with him, as he was very busy, but watching him prepare sushi and other items was a work of art that I think was even cooler then an autograph.

Come on Mikka! I took some good pictures of The Chef! Why didn't you share?

It was the Morimoto Soba Draft. I think it was a bit light for her tastes, but she didn't dislike it.

Really not to my taste. I was trying to be traditional by having a beer before my sushi.

He didn't speak much English, and we didn't speak much Japanese, but he was awesome.

He seemed to enjoy our enthusiasm for the point and eat style. He also seemed fairly confident of his abilities when interacting with The Chef.

Morimoto SAKE FLIGHT. I like Sake Flights!

Go figure! Really? You like alcohol?
It was fun to try the different sakes.

I'm not sure how we rated free sushi,

He liked us? We got something intended for someone else? We'll never know.

To finish our meal, we went with Buri-Bap. It's a Korean style dish: basically, the bowl is baked super hot, so the yellowtail fish inside it (and the rice) bake with it.

It was fun to watch them mix and cook this right in front of us.

Mochi mochi! We had to have dessert, right?

Of course, and roll us out the door. This was an interesting and tasty treat.

 

[Jerusalem Gal]

Oh my goodness, Morimoto's looks amazingly mouth-watering!!!!
Over the past few days I've been watching professional sushi chefs on YouTube, that's after watching "Jiro Dreams of Sushi" for the second time last week and I've been craving good sushi!!!
We've got dozens of sushi places where I live, but none that look as professional or traditional as Jiro's or even Morimoto's. So now after enjoying your pictures I think I'll have to order me some for dinner!
Thank you so much for sharing these!! I look forward to another update soon!

 

[Redwitch]

Oh my goodness, Morimoto's looks amazingly mouth-watering!!!!
Over the past few days I've been watching professional sushi chefs on YouTube, that's after watching "Jiro Dreams of Sushi" for the second time last week and I've been craving good sushi!!!

I wasn't aware of that film. Hmm, might try and watch it.
I really enjoyed Morimoto's and we plan to return. I know some give it bad reviews, but I think they were expecting it to be like their local Asian fusion restaurant. We are torn between going for sushi again, lunch for noodle dishes and/or dim sum or just hanging at the bar.
Thanks for stopping by to say Hello!

 

[Mikka]

Come on Mikka! I took some good pictures of The Chef! Why didn't you share?

Only for you, mom.


A good picture of the Chef. Look, he's smiling, even! Probably not at us, but we can pretend.

Oh my goodness, Morimoto's looks amazingly mouth-watering!!!!
Over the past few days I've been watching professional sushi chefs on YouTube, that's after watching "Jiro Dreams of Sushi" for the second time last week and I've been craving good sushi!!!
We've got dozens of sushi places where I live, but none that look as professional or traditional as Jiro's or even Morimoto's. So now after enjoying your pictures I think I'll have to order me some for dinner!
Thank you so much for sharing these!! I look forward to another update soon!

We have a lot of little Asian fusion resturaunts where we live, but none of them really have sushi that's interesting. They have tuna, salmon, mackrel, and yellowtail, basically, and that's it- and the colors are so obviously different from the sushi Morimoto's has that you know they're using cheaper fish. So Morimoto's was really an experience with 'good' sushi that I never get, so it was super exciting.

I think if you wanted rolls, there are probably better places for rolls on property, but if you're looking for the raw fish- nothing beats Morimotos. No, not even Kimonos (though Kimonos is also very enjoyable if you couldn't make Morimoto's for some reason). And always sit at the sushi counter if you can! Nothing beats it.

I'm so happy you came to your thread. I don't often read dining reviews when I'm writing up one, because then I get distracted, but I read a bit of yours and it looks like you two had a ton of fun!


Okay, a quick review at...

SUNSHINE SEASONS​

We actually don't appreciate this place as much as we should, as there are so many good counter-services in the World Showcase, but bearing maybe Landscape of Flavors (which we have yet to go to) it's definitely the best foodcourt at Disney.



My entree is what they were calling the power salad. This thing seems to change every few months as they redo it, but basically it's a salad with protein (chicken, in this case), nuts, some cranberries, and lots of cheese. So not that different then most salads, really, but it's meant to keep you going for a while. I was not having a good day that day, and I desperately needed something to keep me moving, so this was a plus. The greens were not at all withered, and the dressing (while light) was put on after the greens were served, so it wasn't a sloppy mess.



For my dessert, I got chili. Because... well, there's no real reason besides that I like chili. It's not at all healthy or good to pair with a salad, but I enjoyed it.



Mom's dessert was this caramel peanut butter brownie thing we shared that truly was as dense as a cake, but with two people sharing it it wasn't too bad. It was tasty, if a bit heavy.



For her drink (yeah, yeah) she got butternut squash soup. She loves that stuff. Actually, I do too, as long as I have some meat with my main course. I'm not sure what the seeds were doing on top of it, but they added a nice crunch to the soup.



I got an actual drink. Because I'm sure you were wondering.

(I love these Honest Teas, but they are far too expensive for me to be buying one by one at home, so they're a nice vacation only treat if I ever have QS credits.)




Mom had the Cuban, which she wanted to brag about. Not about the Cuban, exactly: it was a perfectly servicable Cuban, but we've made better at home. No, the side is what she wanted to brag about: those plantain chips. Those things were out of this world delicious. They were incredible. They need to bag them up and start selling them to me as snack credits ASAP. Now, here in Tourist Trap, PA we don't often get plantain chips, so there is a bit of bias going on, but these were great. I'm sure there are people who don't like them, but... well, those people aren't us. They were very good, with just the right amount of sweet to them.

(The weird thing is, we don't like their closest 'Americanized' equivalent, banana chips all that much. Hm.)


I like the way you can play around with quick service credits now- get a snack instead of a drink or dessert. As we don't always want dessert, and are almost always carrying around bottled water, this has made quick service credits a lot more useful to us. Nice.


The next meal is another doozy: the habachi experience at the Japanese pavilion for the food and wine festival. It may take a bit to write it up, but it was all incredible, so please be patient for it.

 

[Redwitch]

A good picture of the Chef. Look, he's smiling, even! Probably not at us, but we can pretend.

Why, oh why, didn't I get a picture with him???? I am such a chef groupie! I bet if I asked... <regrets>

For her drink (yeah, yeah) she got butternut squash soup

I forgot about this! The topping? Those were pepitas, or pumpkin seeds. The soup was good. And the swapping items on the DP was great when it worked!

Mom had the Cuban, which she wanted to brag about. Not about the Cuban, exactly: it was a perfectly servicable Cuban, but we've made better at home. No, the side is what she wanted to brag about: those plantain chips. Those things were out of this world delicious.

Yes, my Cuban was better. As is the Cuban we used to "order out" from work from some lady in an unlicensed kitchen that had them available when the mood was right, so you had to call and ask if she was cooking today. However, it was a fine sandwich for a QS. The plantain chips were amazing, and yes, totally snack credit worthy. Banana chips are disgusting.

 

[Jerusalem Gal]

I wasn't aware of that film. Hmm, might try and watch it.
I really enjoyed Morimoto's and we plan to return. I know some give it bad reviews, but I think they were expecting it to be like their local Asian fusion restaurant. We are torn between going for sushi again, lunch for noodle dishes and/or dim sum or just hanging at the bar.
Thanks for stopping by to say Hello!

It's a really great documentary about Jiro, who's 90-something, and his amazing sushi place. I recommend it, especially if you like sushi!
I'm definitely stopping by there next time around!! I need me some good sushi!

We have a lot of little Asian fusion resturaunts where we live, but none of them really have sushi that's interesting. They have tuna, salmon, mackrel, and yellowtail, basically, and that's it- and the colors are so obviously different from the sushi Morimoto's has that you know they're using cheaper fish. So Morimoto's was really an experience with 'good' sushi that I never get, so it was super exciting.
I think if you wanted rolls, there are probably better places for rolls on property, but if you're looking for the raw fish- nothing beats Morimotos. No, not even Kimonos (though Kimonos is also very enjoyable if you couldn't make Morimoto's for some reason). And always sit at the sushi counter if you can! Nothing beats it.
I'm so happy you came to your thread. I don't often read dining reviews when I'm writing up one, because then I get distracted, but I read a bit of yours and it looks like you two had a ton of fun!

That's it- I want the traditional, high quality, simple sushi. I like rolls but I like sashimi and nigiri better. It's just that nowadays it seems most places serve rolls.
I want the original sushi experience! At the counter and everything!
Is Kimonos also at Disney? I don't think I've ever heard of it
I'm really enjoying your review!!! I love your writing style and the food looks amazing!

 

[kastoney]

Wow, your Morimoto experience looks truly amazing. First, I can't believe he was actually there. Pretty impressive. But second, your sashimi looks absolutely divine. I must admit we tend to do more rolls that sashimi, but largely because we rarely ever see that expansive selection or freshness. I haven't been blown away by the reviews, but yours just changed. that. Gonna have to get the family there soon so we can try the sashimi for ourselves.

Your sunshine seasons food looks delicious too. It is always a favorite of ours, with that butternut squash soup being my all time favorite! Glad your Mom enjoyed

 

[Mikka]

Why, oh why, didn't I get a picture with him???? I am such a chef groupie! I bet if I asked... <regrets>

Well, he was actually busy Doing Stuff while we were there. He didn't seem to like the way his chefs were making the cold appetizer/sushi big plate- the one with the shellfish and sushi on it- and kept interrupting their work to do it himself. You don't want to get in the way of a busy chef!

It's a really great documentary about Jiro, who's 90-something, and his amazing sushi place. I recommend it, especially if you like sushi!
I'm definitely stopping by there next time around!! I need me some good sushi!

That's it- I want the traditional, high quality, simple sushi. I like rolls but I like sashimi and nigiri better. It's just that nowadays it seems most places serve rolls.
I want the original sushi experience! At the counter and everything!
Is Kimonos also at Disney? I don't think I've ever heard of it
I'm really enjoying your review!!! I love your writing style and the food looks amazing!

I had to look up the documentary, too, and it looks like something mom and I would both enjoy. Amazing!

And Morimoto's is totally the place to go for the traditional experience. The only difference is you usually point things out to the waitress rather then the chef (as the chef's don't all speak English and are busy), but it was still very interactive with the chef often directly handing you the sushi.

Kimono's is one of Disney's least known restaurants! It's in the Swalfin (the one on the left coming from Epcot, that doesn't have Bluezoo and Shula's in it) Resorts. It's tiny- Beaches and Cream level tiny- and is part lounge, part sushi bar. All they serve is sushi and appetizers (so miso soup, edamame, takoyaki type stuff), and they have both sashimi/nigiri as well as rolls (and they also have soy paper if someone in the party is allergic to seaweed), and then a large collection of sake (with some beer and plum wine stuff). As it's not on any dining plan and it's so small, it doesn't get a lot of talk. It's always mostly been eaten at by convention guests staying at either the Swan or Dolphin, especially Japanese ones. They used to have karaoke each night.

It has a traditional sushi counter for the traditional experience, and I think their quality is as good as Morimoto, but I don't think their variety is as good. Having said that, though, they also specialize in rolls as Americans know them, so if you have like, someone who wants sashimi and someone who wants rolls, it's a great compromise place. We haven't been there in two years or so, though, so I can't give it a full recommendation, but we liked it and though the service was quite nice and the selection was good.

I'd say try both, and see which is better! I'd love to do that one trip.

Wow, your Morimoto experience looks truly amazing. First, I can't believe he was actually there. Pretty impressive. But second, your sashimi looks absolutely divine. I must admit we tend to do more rolls that sashimi, but largely because we rarely ever see that expansive selection or freshness. I haven't been blown away by the reviews, but yours just changed. that. Gonna have to get the family there soon so we can try the sashimi for ourselves.

Your sunshine seasons food looks delicious too. It is always a favorite of ours, with that butternut squash soup being my all time favorite! Glad your Mom enjoyed

I can't believe he was there, too. Supposedly, if we had gotten there the first night it opened (which was our arrival night) there was some sort of photoshoot/crazy op going on where the Chef and our good friend Chef Mickey (who really needs to work on his buffets quality, sigh) went and cooked a duck together for the crowd of onlookers (there's a giant glass wall at the downstairs kitchen, so you can see what's going on). Interesting stuff.

I think a lot of people were expecting Morimoto's to be either A) more Americanized (having American style rolls and the like) OR B) be more traditional Japanese like his other restaurants (which would be awesome, but simply wouldn't be feasible- have you seen the kids menus at Morimoto's other places?). Usually, it seems to be the first. I thought their sashimi was incredible, though, and the buribop and dessert was good too.

But I have a feeling- if I went there and ordered orange chicken, it would taste like the orange chicken I could get for 5.99 at my local Chinese place (with soup, eggroll, and fried rice). That's not a *bad* thing, but there are only so many ways to do orange chicken, and there not going to reinvent the wheel on orange chicken (or general tsos, or whatever generic chicken dish they have). That's there for the people who don't like the more 'ethnic' (I hate that word) stuff. Still, if you go there and order it, it's going to be... orange chicken. Ta da.

But I just went on a rant, didn't I? I'm sorry about that. Thank you for reading!



Here we go with yet another long long review..

TEPPEN EDO FOOD AND WINE PAIRING​

Habachi! Habachi! This was the event we were most excited to do, I think. Disyoda was at the pairing with us, and I believe posted a review of this event long ago back when these events were actually supposed to be reviewed, if you want to look back and see if you can find it.

As I said earlier, I was not doing well this day with anxiety blah blah issues. I held it together for the meal, but I was a bit out of it, and I'm not sure I took the best notes. For that reason, I'm going to be posting a few pictures of the cooking process for when I can't explain stuff.

I also unfortunately did not get the name of our chef. This was a shame, as he was really friendly and awesome.



Thanks, chef.

Anyway, we started off- as is traditional- with a beer and some salt.




The beer is a Kirin, which is often compared to Bud/Miller/Whatever Light. I personally think it's a bit better, as I can't stomach those and I managed to drink this whole one (yes, I drank a whole beer- is anyone proud of me? Anyone?). It's sort of just light and not really full of much flavor, but it paired well with salt.

The salt were these house-made potato chips: purple potato, sweet potato, then lotus root chips. All three were excellent. We, er, had a favorite, but I can't remember which one it was. They were all good, though, so it didn't matter.

After this little snack (which took place where the Tokyo Dining demonstration does, at tables pushed together), we were all lead to the backest of back rooms, where we each had an assigned seat waiting for us at the table.



Cute little setup. We got to take home the gold crane, the chopsticks, and the small painted clay piece that's used as a chopstick rest.

We immediately were served are aperitif and appetizer. Well, actually, the appetizer still had a bit of cooking to do, but only a bit.



The aperitif was Hana Awaka sparkling sake, which was a sweet sparkler with a tiny bit of a nutty finish. Apparently cedar wood is soaked in that sake like wood chips may be soaked in wine. It gave it a nice refreshing taste.






The appetizer was an owl. An adorable owl. I can't get over how cute these things are. I'm not sure what I would do with them, but I want them.

It was a Seafood Egg Custard, made with sea urchin (soaked in sake, IIRC), gingko nut, namafu (a sort of squishy bread) and mitsuba. It used traditional dashi stock, and was made with some sort of steaming method I didn't quite fully understand. What I did get was that it was great. I know a lot of people get nervous about sea urchin, but it tastes really good- it's just the 'shape/texture' (or knowledge) that's weird. In a dish like this, you didn't even really see it beyond being covered by egg, so I didn't see anyone at the table looking grossed out or anything.

(If it makes you feel better, the first time I made mom eat sea urchin, she made horrible faces. She liked it, though. It just looks so odd!)



First course (appy's don't count!) came with cocktail hour. We were given Takara Shochu (though my notes say it was actually a different brand they switched to at last moment- I just can't read what it was (teastiay?)), and a grapefruit. The idea was to squeeze that grapefruit in to tiny little pieces and get all the yummy juice out, then pour it in to the shochu. I'm not very good at squeezing fruit out (I wanted to stand up and try it, but I thought that would look rude- still, it would have given me more leverage!), but it still helped the shochu taste amazing and was such a simple little drink. We (and the guy sitting next to me who we talked to a lot) had two of these, as we drank the first almost before the first course was even ready. As an aside, the grapefruit was deliberately chosen because of the acid in it (compared to other citrus) goes very well with roe, apparently.

First course was an assortment of three little things, so let's see if these pictures make sense.




First up, marinated shio-jime salmon with salmon roe (and Japanese veggies- mushrooms, napa cabbage and the like, the mushrooms in particular were incredible). The salmon was seared, and very delicious. The roe was juicy and... I'm sorry, I do love roe. But I have to call it roe, not fish eggs. Or else I get squicked.

While the drink was designed for all three items, it was meant to go particularly well with this one- and it did.



Chef doing some cooking... are those tomatoes? Why, yes, they are.



This was peruvian sea bass in saikyo miso sauce (salty, yet creamy) with heirloom tomatoes (which I circled and put exclamation marks around, so they must have been good) and a bit of bok choy. I think this was my favorite of the three fish we got, although all three were excellent. Oddly, I like salmon and eel more in general, so that just shows this was an excellent dish.





This is our eel on top of rice.

Okay, that was very simple to make, but the fun of this places is just watching the chef do work like this. While this meal goes out, your average habachi restaurant uses very simple spices (usually basically just salt and pepper) and instead offers dips to you. The fun is watching the chef cook in front of you. We have many habachi places nearby, and they're good- probably as good as Teppen Edo- but to me there's always something magical about this place.

(Also, one of my favorite dining experiences was here when we dined with a beautiful young woman who was a 'close friend' of Ariel. Without ever breaking any disney magic, she explained what her job was like and details that we never would have known, not usually being able to talk to a face character- not that she ever broke it and explained she was a face character.)

Anyway! The eel was very good, but it was the rice that had my love. The eel sauce was very sweet on the rice, which was interesting.

This was also when the chef started getting in to talking to the table, and talked about one of the famous fish markets in Japan, Makish (?? spelled wrong, almost assuredly) in the Ginzo district where he'd go, and what it was like. Cast members can really break and make these things, and he was very open to questions, discussing why he did this or that, and talking about life in both Japan and America.



Sake being poured in interesting cups. This was Kurosawa's Junmai Ginjo. I didn't make any notes about it, so I would guess it was basically 'good, but not worth an ode'.



Chef starting to prepare the asparagus and the mushrooms.



And here's how they looked on the plate. They were quite tasty, I think with a squirt of lemon on them but otherwise little spice. Oh, the mushrooms were buttered.



This was waiting on the side. It was NOT soy sauce, like people kept assuming: instead, it was a spicy yuzu pepper sauce. Still very nice, just had to eat a lot less of it.



Here comes the chicken... which mom actually forgot to take a picture of on our plates. Ooops.

It was Jidori Chicken, done with heavy lemon and absolutely perfect. It was crisp and tasted lovely with the yuzu pepper sauce. Those who wanted it were also given basically the fried pieces of fat (this might actually be a picture of them), which were so bad for us but so delicious. So very delicious. I never order chicken when out, so I always am surprised when a place serves it to be and it tastes so good.

We also forgot to get a picture of the Yuzu Plum Wine Freeze, which is basically exactly what it sounded like: a plum wine slushie with yuzu (Japanese lemon, basically, remember) added. That was the 'refreshment' course, whatever that means. I guess we must have been busy chatting or something. Our bad!



What, no sake? This was the third course's pairing, "Koshu" Merican Chateau White Wine, a 100% Japanese grape. Bits of apple and pear, slightly sweet and a bit creamy but not at all buttery. Made to go with the coming lobster, we actually enjoyed it very much: as people who don't like Chard's, finding a white to pair with shellfish (lobster especially) can be very hard. This paired admirably well, though it was different to our taste buds of usually American wine.



This big thing of cheese was sitting on the grill cooking. In Japan, lobster is usually not done with sauce: it's eaten plain. But they wanted to try something for the American audience, and, well, why stop with butter? Here we have CHEESE to go on the lobster. Really.

(Spoiler: it tasted good.)





This sequence of events was actually funny: the lobster got TOO steamy, and the Chef had to duck down for a while for the steam to subside before he could continue cooking. Heh. No one was hurt, no fire alarms went off, etc. Just amusing.



Here, again, no lobster with cheese sauce, but rest assured it was poured all over the lobster. It was served with Fuji apple and Japanese pumpkin (that also got a bit cheesed). The whole thing was remarkably tasty, and I wish someone was serving me apple, pumpkin and lobster with cheese sauce right now. Alas, they are not.



As for the fourth course... you really didn't think they'd serve anything but this, did you?

Wagyu beef. As usual, the 'If you don't want it medium rare, just walk out now and go get a hamburger' jokes were made.



This was a very artistic photograph of Ozeki Platinum Daiginjo being poured. It was by far my favorite sake of the night. Oddly, I think it's from California.



The Chef making rice bread in to Mickey's. So we can eat his ears off. Tasty!



There's the Wagyu getting prepared...



And this was awa shoyu (soy dashi), basically a cream beaten in to foam for eating.



Without the foam (which again, we lacked a picture of) it looked like this. Snowpeas, pepper, a cabbage like veggie, the rice bread, and of course the wagyu sirloin. Oh, and some wasabi. While all the courses were excellent, you really can't beat wagyu beef. I mean, you can try, but you really can't. This was the winner takes all, go home now.

But wait, don't, actually. Stay!



There was still a plate of fruits- and a tempura daifuku mochi- to eat.



With some heated berry compote to go with it. This was great, though I'm glad they went with such a light dessert: we would have been rolling out of here without it. It was just a nice, soft ending to the meal.



It also came with some Izeko Peach Jerry sake (Ozeki), which was 'yummy!' I quote. I think I sort of gave up at detailed notes halfway through. Most courses drinks were refilled once, if wished: the first and last course, not so much, but still fair enough. You could do some decent drinking here.

The focus though is on the food, and the pairing of the food with the drinks- and that's where this excels. The Tokyo Dining experience may be my favorite due to how authenic it is (habachi cooking as we know it is not really traditional Japanese, so this is sort of 'Japanese-American fusion' in its own way), but I have absolutely nothing bad to say about this whole experience. Save for maybe wanting more. Though I'd really be rolled out then.


This is a very small experience: I think around 24 people for each serving, if that? So if you want it, be prepared to die with everyone else calling at the crack of dawn. I sort of hope you don't, so we can get it again- but in all serious, I recommend it. It was a lot of fun, a lot of good food, a lot of friendly interaction with the cast members, and you got to watch everything get prepared. Very few things can beat that.


Oh, and update report: we got a bag of popcorn on the way out of the park because that was around the time of the Great Popcorn Disaster where Disney changed who they bought their kernels from and the Disboards exploded in rage. It tasted the exact same as Disney popcorn always does: fake butter and a lot of salt. That is all.


No idea what is next, but it will come. Some day soon, the dawn will come. ;P

 

[Mich123]

Love your report! I would like to try the Tokyo Dining Experience, but I'm wondering if there are any alternate choice for a table mate with food allergies?