Our Deluxe 25th Anniversary Dining Review WITH PICS: UPDATED Coral Reef & Flying Fish

[SunnieRN]

Happy 25th Anniversary!! Looking forward to reading your reviews!

 

[Sandy321]

To the Dis!!

I see you only have 7 posts - I believe you need 10 to post pics and send PM's -
so tell us more about you... one sentence per post!

Also to post pics the easiest way for me is to go to photobucket.com - and follow their directions - they make it so very easy - they resize pics for you!!

then once you you get all those amazing food photos uploaded -

write your review with photobucket open in another window when you want to include a picture you use the img message board choice (I think its the last one of the choices under the picture!! - also photobucket makes it easy to edit your pics - rotate as well as get rid of red eyes!!)

Thanks for your reviews in advance - I look forward to them, dh and I also celebrated our 25th in Disney - and we're going back for #27 in October!!

 

[luvfigment]

Count me in!!! I am going the Deluxe Dining Plan for my 1 yr Anniversary in Oct and am also staying at the WL!!!! I can't wait to see what you have to say about your meals since we are eating at some of the same places...also feel free to add in any info on WL.

Congrats on 25 yrs of marriage!!!

 

[Lynnsky]

Thanks for being patient. We had to take our son back to college this weekend. Hope to start the review tonight.

 

[Lynnsky]

How come he won't eat strawberries?

He says he likes the look of strawberries, the scent of strawberries even the texture of strawberries, but not the taste so much. There is an exception, and that will come in a review.

 

[Lynnsky]

To the Dis!!

I see you only have 7 posts - I believe you need 10 to post pics and send PM's -
so tell us more about you... one sentence per post!

Thanks so much. This should be number 10. Now the fun begins.

 

[Avojeo]

I am so looking forward to your reviews. We are eating at Kona's and Narcossee's for the first time in December......

 

[Lynnsky]

Can finally post pictures now! Here we go…

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 13th 2008

We had a 9:00 reservation for dinner at Raglan Road. We arrived about twenty minutes early and were seated right away. We had a great table, one that was around the interior circle seated towards the dance floor. We told our waiter Paul that we were on the deluxe dining plan and he explained to us that we could each get one appetizer “for one” or just get one between us from the “to share” list. We found it a little surprising since a few of the appetizers that were to be shared were the same price as the individual ones. Since we like to taste different things, we opted to each get an individual appetizer. DH ordered the Kilmore Quay Crab Salad, A Crabmeat and potato salad with diced apples and greens.

He really liked it, and remarked how the crab was the star of the dish rather than the potato. I tasted it and agreed, it had a really nice flavor.

I got the Simply Smoked Salmon. This was a large rectangular plate filled with salmon and included a piece of toasted bread, crème fraiche, chopped onions and capers.

I was surprised by what a generous portion it was. It was your basic lox, but delicious nonetheless.

The waiter also brought a basket of small soda bread muffins.

I didn’t care for them. The muffins were pretty dry and tasteless. DH commented on how they needed the oil and honey that were served with it to give it any flavor. Not worth the carbs.

For his entrée, DH ordered the Mighty Mixed Grill. This was a plate of sausage, chicken, lamb chop, beef tenderloin, chicken and a drumstick. (My poor vegetarian daughter would have died! At least it was served with mashed potatoes).

He thought it was very good. DH loves his meat just barely dead, so was appreciative that it was incredibly juicy while still being cooked. The mashed potatoes absorbed the juice, which gave it a terrific flavor. He felt that really elevated the dish.

I had Ribs to the Power of Two. It was short ribs over mashed potatoes served in a pot that was placed on a plate. The plate also had a bowl with carrots and an unidentified vegetable. (Leeks, perhaps?)

I wasn’t crazy about this. The meat wasn’t terribly flavorful. There was a lot more potato than there was meat, but the spuds weren’t great either. I wouldn’t order this again. DH, however, thought it was even better than his dish. To each his/her own, I guess.

Now on to the important part…dessert. Before I begin I have to explain that my husband is a diabetic. In the past, whenever we have gone to Disney, each restaurant has had some kind of sugar free option for him, even if it wasn’t on the menu. When we made our ADRs for this trip, we specified with each one that he needed something sugar free. When we asked our waiter at Raglan about it, we were told that they had nothing there for him. DH decided to get the fruit that is supposed to come with honey and yogurt, sans the honey. He didn’t eat the yogurt and picked out the fruit he could eat, clearly disappointed.

I had the Ger’s Bread and Butter Pudding. Now I should mention that I love bread pudding, and was really looking forward to this.

I was a bit disappointed in this. It was pretty uncomplicated. Of course it was still yummy, after all isn't anything covered in caramel?

Overall it was a great way to start the Disney trip. We love starting out at Downtown Disney, and had never eaten at Raglan Road before. It was fun to try something new and we really enjoyed the music they played there.

 

[World Bouncer]

Loved the Raglan Road Review, this is a first night dinner for us in September!

 

[Quacktatty]

I'm glad I cancelled my Raglan Road ADR now. I probably would have gotten just about what you did (ribs and bread pudding). Thanks for making me feel good about my decision!

 

[CanadianPaco]

Yum Yum - can't wait to see more!

 

[Lynnsky]

Thursday, August 14th AKA Our Anniversary

Whispering Canyon Café – Breakfast

We had an ADR for 8:00 A.M. but the place was almost empty. I was a little worried about the “antics” I’ve heard about, as I am a bit shy, but I needn’t have worried – it was completely tame at breakfast time. We both ordered the breakfast skillet, which comes with scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, potatoes, Mickey waffles, biscuits and gravy. There was plenty of food for both of us – the only refill we asked for was some bacon. DH asked for ketchup; and the waitress brought him “one”.

My plate

DH's plate

I also ordered tomato juice. Wow, what a huge glass of juice.

DH had iced tea. And I tried a café mocha for the first time.

We enjoyed breakfast. There was a lot of food and it was nice being able to eat in our hotel.



Chefs de France – Lunch

Before we headed off to Epcot, we put on our Happy Anniversary buttons which we picked up the night before in Downtown Disney. (I was afraid to wear them at Whispering Canyon Café for breakfast). I also want to mention (for the future) that we had them note that it was our anniversary when we made all our ADRs.

We had a 2:00 P.M. ADR, showed up a bit early and were seated within five minutes. We had a table for two by the window. Our waiter was Johan (yes, he was French) and he was wonderful. We both ordered iced teas. We decided to share two appetizers – the Champignons sauvages et quatre fromages – wild mushrooms and four cheese flatbread.

And Bisque de homard – Lobster bisque.

The flatbread was pretty good. I thought the bisque was terrible – very watery and not a single piece of lobster. DH enjoyed the taste of it though, so he ate most of it.

DH also enjoyed the French rolls – I’m not much of a bread person.

For our main dishes, DH ordered Beef short ribs braised in Cabernet with pasta, pearl onions and mushrooms. The pasta was fettucine. He really enjoyed the taste although he said it wasn’t as rich as he expected.

I ordered broiled salmon on mixed cabbage with cubed apple and corn salad with herbed vinaigrette. This was so delicious - it was one of my favorite dishes of the trip. I had asked for the salmon to be fully cooked (I don’t like my fish partially raw which is how it’s usually served in most places) and it was perfect without being overdone and dried out. The cabbage slaw (the apple and corn were mixed in) was so good, especially with the dressing. I ate every bite of food on the plate.

OK, now on to dessert. I already knew I was going to have the crème brulee. I’ve had it there before and loved it and I love it still. Yum.

There was nothing on the dessert menu for DH. Absolutely nothing. He called over Johan, who went over the menu one item at a time with him. Johan seemed genuinely concerned. He offered to bring DH a fruit salad, but DH really didn’t want fruit salad again. He really thought that DISNEY would have had something available and you could see in this face that he was so disappointed. So Johan tells DH he’ll see what he can do. He came back a few minutes later and in his beautiful French accent says, “I can bring you a cheese plate, would that be alright?” You betcha!!

DH was so thrilled. I was so happy for him. There were four large pieces of cheese on the plate (There is a cheese plate on the appetizer menu, but I don’t know if this was the same). There was brie, goat cheese, another soft cheese and a harder cheese. And Johan brought over a toasted roll as well.

So we really enjoyed Chefs de France. We were so stuffed …..its a good thing our ADR that night at Narcoosees wasn’t until 9:15 P.M. I wasn’t sure if we would even be able to eat anything ever again. But we managed….

 

[disneyfav4ever]

I can't wait to hear about Narcoossees.

 

[CherylDan]

Sounds like a delicious trip! Looking forward to the rest.

 

[luvfigment]

Thanks for the review on WCC for breakfast we are thinking of eating there the morning we leave but I don't think we are going to make ADR's just in case we sleep in a little later before we check out.

I am looking forward to seeing the review of Narcoossee's!!! This is a new one we are going to try and it was DH's pick.

 

[Lynnsky]

We had made a 9:15 P.M. ADR for Narcoosees for the night of our 25th anniversary. We’d never been there before, but from reading these boards, I had a good idea of what I wanted to eat. We checked in and were given a pager and waited. Everyone there wished us a happy anniversary. After about 10 minutes, we were shown to our table, not right by the window, but one row of tables away from the windows with a really good view of the Magic Kingdom. We were given personalized menus printed with “Happy Anniversary” which we took home with us of course. To begin with, I ordered a pomerita – a pomegranate marguerita.

It was delicious – I didn’t have much alcohol on this trip, but this was definitely my favorite. DH ordered a sweet reisling (bad diabetic) which he enjoyed very much.
For starters DH had the Buttermilk Fried Shrimp with green apple-celery root slaw and creamy horseradish dressing. The big surprise was the amount of shrimp. DH commented that it could have been a main course.

I tried some of his and it was so good.

Now, all along I had planned on having the crab cakes because of these boards but when reading the menu, the heirloom tomato salad with cantaloupe, prosciutto, house made mozzarella and aged balsamic really caught my eye.

Wow. I really loved this. It was much bigger than it looks in the picture – there were lots of tomatoes, quite a bit of prosciutto and cantaloupe. The mozzarella was on the left of the plate, underneath the white stuff (crème fraiche perhaps, or maybe unsweetened whipped cream) – I’m not really sure what it was. The mozzarella was great, although there wasn’t too much of it. All together, it was a great combination of flavors.


For our main dish, we both ordered the same thing – the Surf and Turf – twin medallions of filet mignon, butter-poached lobster tail, potato gratin and classical béarnaise sauce (this was also served with broccolini).

They served the main course just as Wishes was starting. They dimmed the lights and piped in the music. Several people went outside, but we stayed (my husband wasn’t going to leave his food at this point). And we had a really good view of the fireworks right from our table.
Dinner was amazing. The filet mignon was cooked perfectly and almost didn’t even need a knife. The lobster was delicious and much bigger than I thought it would be. The potatoes were really good too. I couldn’t finish the steak, so DH finished it for me. He’s so considerate.
The waitress also brought us two complimentary glasses of champagne to celebrate our anniversary, which was such a nice touch and made the dinner really special (even though neither one of us is a big fan of champagne.)

Now I’ve eaten cheesecake all my life, and being from New York, I’ve had lots of very good cheesecake. In fact, I never usually order cheesecake anymore. But I heard so many rave reviews right here on the Disboards about the Almond Crusted Cheesecake with Lambert cherry sauce, that I figured I had to try it.

This was absolutely, positively the most delicious cheesecake I’ve ever eaten in my entire life. It was worth every single calorie; I wish I was eating some right now.

Again, there was no perfect sugar free option for DH, so after speaking to our waitress Maureen (who by the way was wonderful) he ordered the no sugar added mango sorbet and fresh fruit. She explained to him what fruit was included and DH mentioned that, although he loves pineapple, it’s really loaded with sugar and he shouldn’t have it. She explained that the fruit is already prepared and mixed together, but DH thought that he’d just pick around it (and pick around those strawberries which he doesn’t like either).
Well Maureen brought him his dessert, and NO PINEAPPLE! They took the time in the kitchen to remove them from his dish. DH said he really liked it and was happy to have a lighter desert to go with the big meal.

I ordered coffee and Maureen brought me a press pot. All for me. And it was really good. (DH had an iced tea).

Overall, this was an incredible meal. I’m so glad we chose Narcoosees for our actual anniversary meal – the location, the service and especially the food were exceptional.

 

[kiwitinkerbell]

I am so pleased to read your review on Narcoosees as I have just decided to try and get an Adr there on the first night of our December trip. I thought it would be a wonderful way to kick off our dream holiday and how amazing, being able to see Wishes as well.

Thanks so much for the review and HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!

 

[SoonipiLady]

Chefs de France – Lunch



We had a 2:00 P.M. ADR, showed up a bit early and were seated within five minutes. We had a table for two by the window. Our waiter was Johan (yes, he was French) and he was wonderful.

We had Johan in April, and I agree he was wonderful. He managed to get DS a grilled cheese, which wasn't on the menu. Made our meal, as there's nothing worse than a whining 6 year old when you are trying to enjoy a family meal!

Karen

 

[dogodisney]

We had made a 9:15 P.M. ADR for Narcoosees for the night of our 25th anniversary. We’d never been there before, but from reading these boards, I had a good idea of what I wanted to eat. We checked in and were given a pager and waited. Everyone there wished us a happy anniversary. After about 10 minutes, we were shown to our table, not right by the window, but one row of tables away from the windows with a really good view of the Magic Kingdom. We were given personalized menus printed with “Happy Anniversary” which we took home with us of course. To begin with, I ordered a pomerita – a pomegranate marguerita.

It was delicious – I didn’t have much alcohol on this trip, but this was definitely my favorite. DH ordered a sweet reisling (bad diabetic) which he enjoyed very much.
For starters DH had the Buttermilk Fried Shrimp with green apple-celery root slaw and creamy horseradish dressing. The big surprise was the amount of shrimp. DH commented that it could have been a main course.

I tried some of his and it was so good.

Now, all along I had planned on having the crab cakes because of these boards but when reading the menu, the heirloom tomato salad with cantaloupe, prosciutto, house made mozzarella and aged balsamic really caught my eye.

Wow. I really loved this. It was much bigger than it looks in the picture – there were lots of tomatoes, quite a bit of prosciutto and cantaloupe. The mozzarella was on the left of the plate, underneath the white stuff (crème fraiche perhaps, or maybe unsweetened whipped cream) – I’m not really sure what it was. The mozzarella was great, although there wasn’t too much of it. All together, it was a great combination of flavors.


For our main dish, we both ordered the same thing – the Surf and Turf – twin medallions of filet mignon, butter-poached lobster tail, potato gratin and classical béarnaise sauce (this was also served with broccolini).

They served the main course just as Wishes was starting. They dimmed the lights and piped in the music. Several people went outside, but we stayed (my husband wasn’t going to leave his food at this point). And we had a really good view of the fireworks right from our table.
Dinner was amazing. The filet mignon was cooked perfectly and almost didn’t even need a knife. The lobster was delicious and much bigger than I thought it would be. The potatoes were really good too. I couldn’t finish the steak, so DH finished it for me. He’s so considerate.
The waitress also brought us two complimentary glasses of champagne to celebrate our anniversary, which was such a nice touch and made the dinner really special (even though neither one of us is a big fan of champagne.)

Now I’ve eaten cheesecake all my life, and being from New York, I’ve had lots of very good cheesecake. In fact, I never usually order cheesecake anymore. But I heard so many rave reviews right here on the Disboards about the Almond Crusted Cheesecake with Lambert cherry sauce, that I figured I had to try it.

This was absolutely, positively the most delicious cheesecake I’ve ever eaten in my entire life. It was worth every single calorie; I wish I was eating some right now.

Again, there was no perfect sugar free option for DH, so after speaking to our waitress Maureen (who by the way was wonderful) he ordered the no sugar added mango sorbet and fresh fruit. She explained to him what fruit was included and DH mentioned that, although he loves pineapple, it’s really loaded with sugar and he shouldn’t have it. She explained that the fruit is already prepared and mixed together, but DH thought that he’d just pick around it (and pick around those strawberries which he doesn’t like either).
Well Maureen brought him his dessert, and NO PINEAPPLE! They took the time in the kitchen to remove them from his dish. DH said he really liked it and was happy to have a lighter desert to go with the big meal.

I ordered coffee and Maureen brought me a press pot. All for me. And it was really good. (DH had an iced tea).

Overall, this was an incredible meal. I’m so glad we chose Narcoosees for our actual anniversary meal – the location, the service and especially the food were exceptional.

I am so looking forward to our dinner there. We have ADR's for 9/6 for my DD's 14th birthday.

 

[TigerKat]

We'll be dining at Narcoossee's with another DISer and her family in November and I can't wait!