Pooh & Eeyore eat Disney World 3/22 Le Cellier, Via Napoli, Pepper Market Lunch

[Skye23]

We're back from our long awaited trip to Disney World. The past year has been a rough one for DH and I with my Mother having had both open-heart surgery and being diagnosed with cancer. She's doing fine now and is almost through the chemo. Somewhere along the way she decided to treat us to a belated 15th, early 16th Anniversary trip. Originally we were slated to go elsewhere but that trip fell through and when I asked Hubby where he wanted to go - he said Disney World. I won't lie, I nearly fainted. Sure, he'd loved his previous and only trip to Disney World about 5 years ago with my friend and her family but you have to understand I'm married to Eeyore . At best if the most exciting thing in the universe happens he'll flash a quick smile and say "Cool". If a female Vulcan and Eeyore ever had a child - it would be my Husband. I cannot impress that point on you nearly enough.

Me, I have my Eeyore moments but I try very hard to stay in touch with my inner Winnie the Pooh (and Tigger too!). I'm also Pooh-sized, and my next meal is rarely far from my mind. What this means for all of you is that I have obsessed over our ADR's for the last 5+ months and because we got lucky enough to be able to book during "Free Dining" we were able to upgrade to the Deluxe Dining Plan. Our last trip to Disney involved the old DP where you got the 1 CS, 1 TS and 2 Snack credits a day, but you still got appetizers and tips were included. Because I tend to view mornings with suspicion at the very least and often outright hostility you will not be seeing much in the way of breakfast eating.

We love ethnic foods of all kinds, and are generally pretty adventurous eaters but we both have foods we just don't like or won't eat. Hubby prefers his fish to be fried unless its tuna, doesn't enjoy shellfish except scallops and will not eat uncured pork (ham, sausage and crumbled bacon are ok), "fatty" meat, or pretty much anything he has to eat off a bone. He also despises walnuts. I love everything he hates, as is often the case with married people.Still we managed to get ADR's for a wide array of restaurants and as you can see we left no hunny pot unturned in our quest to eat Disney World.

We had some changes and additions to our original plan. Hubby woke up on Valentine's Day barely able to walk so we canceled our park plans for the day, and our lunch ADR and ate at the resort and then later when the swelling in his feet and ankles went down went over to DTD before our scheduled dinner. The next day I woke up very sick and again we canceled lunch and our park plans. Once I felt better in the late afternoon we again did a little time at DTD and then went to dinner. We also canceled a single credit meal and booked a Signature due to us having a ton of credits left over. We ended up with no snack credits left but 4 meal credits (2 each). I could have used 2 of those on counter service early on if we'd known but oh well. We felt we got our money's worth. I'm going to update the list below and then will link reviews to this page as they're added. There may be a slight delay because I have to sort through all of the 200+ photos and we had a death in hubby's family before we left and have to travel up to see his family as soon as we get over the cold we both caught on the trip.


Sunday 2/12
Lunch at Philadelphia Airport - no pics
Dinner at Boma - Appetizers and Soups
Dinner at Boma - Main Courses and Dessert
Late night EMH food at Cosmic Rays + Snack - no pics

Monday 2/13
Lunch at Le Cellier
Dinner at Via Napoli Part 1 Appetizers etc
Dinner at Via Napoli Part 2 Entrees and Dessert

Tuesday 2/14 - Valentine's Day
Lunch at Pepper Market at CSR (was supposed to be Liberty Tree Tavern)
Dinner at California Grill

Wednesday 2/15
Take out Lunch from Cafe Rixx - no pics (Canceled Mama Melrose)
Snack at Ghiradelli Chocolate at DTD
Dinner at Artist Point

Thursday 2/16
Breakfast at Kona Cafe (Press Pot Coffee!!!!!! )
Lunch at Chefs De France
Dinner at Yachtsman

Friday 2/17
Lunch at Yak & Yeti
Dinner at Artist Point (canceled San Angel Inn)

Saturday 2/18
Breakfast Pastries from Cafe Rixx
Lunch at The Crystal Palace
Dinner at Orlando Airport - no pics

Snacks
Caramel Treats bought in Germany at Epcot and brought home
Macadamia Nut and Pecan Caramel Clusters from Main Street Confectionary (prepackaged)
Mickey Mouse Gingerbread Cookie - no pics

I've got 200+ photos to sort through and upload and once thats done the reviews will start. Can't wait to share with you!

 

[iloveeeyore]

Hi! Safe travels, wonderful trip, can't wait to read your reviews!

We will be doing some of the same as you (I just made my ADRs yesterday!) so I will be especially eager to read your LTT, Yachtsman and LeCellier reviews. We will be using DxDP for the first time, too!

We are repeating CG this trip. You MUST try the pork tenderloin and if you eat sushi, pick a roll, but we LOVED the Spicy Kazan roll. And on the DxDP, you can get it as an appy! The best items on the menu at San Angel dinner is the steak (I can't remember the name, I think relleno, but it was soooo good), and the chicken (my memory for the names is blank, I have to go back to my 2010 report). Lunch at Chefs de France is one of our favorites! Happy eating!

 

[Skye23]

I'll keep those suggestions in mind! We're really looking forward to this trip. Its been years since we had a vacation that was more then a weekend and it was just the two of us. We always end up visiting family or going somewhere with relatives. It will be so nice to just enjoy Disney as a couple and relax.

 

[iloveeeyore]

Pollo a las Rajas and Sirloin Relleno (I went back to my old dining report). These dishes were absolutely awesome! Also, I don't know if you drink alcohol, but the margaritas there are over-the-top awesome and worth the price. My favorite is the avocado margarita, but they are all very good. I have read again and again to avoid the mole sauce at SI. This is disappointing to me, because I love a good mole sauce, but I understand that SI's is pretty blah.

I'm so glad your mom is doing better! I can't wait to read your report.

 

[Skye23]

Trust me, those margaritas are on my to-drink list! We're not big wine drinkers, but I'm hoping to try a few glasses at some of the signature restaurants on this trip and a few of the special cocktails. Normally I'd flip out at the prices they charge, but with the majority of this trip a gift and most of our dining costs paid for I plan to use some of our spending money that I saved up on some drinks.

 

[irishsharon]

Wishing you lots of pixie dust on your trip! I look forward to reading your reviews. I am planning a trip for Nov. we will also be celabrating 15 almost 16 years by then but we will have kids with us so wont be able to try all the great places your going, but would like one great adult night dinner out Have fun

 

[Skye23]

And away we go....

Before I start - I apologize in advance for any blurry photos. Before we left on this trip I had taken exactly 7 photos with my new camera. I had planned to read the manual on the airplane as we flew from PHL to MCO, until I realized the booklet I thought was the manual was the quick-start guide in a bunch of languages and I was supposed to print the insanely long manual on my printer. Needless to say I pretty much put the camera in "Food" mode, turned on the image stablization and hoped for the best. Its a very nice Canon L120 but I still had to struggle with learning how to use it. I didn't realize until most of the way through the trip that I could totally change the "color" of the lighting while taking photos vs having to edit them later.

Secondly, I have a medical condition where my hands shake, some days the image stablization kept up with me, and some days not so much. I did my best to delete the worst photos and only use the best.

Lastly but not least - this was a vacation. I didn't always take photos of something if schlepping the camera wasn't convenient or hubby was starving (or I was), or if at a buffet hubby and I picked mostly the same foods and I figured you knew what mac and cheese or something looked like. I will review everything we ate but I may not always have photos. As I said to myself at times - its not like I'm getting paid for this


Day 1 - Philadelphia Airport

I know, airport food, how boring. I didn't take any photos but I wanted to let those of you flying in from PHL what we found to eat before our flight. I don't know how I do it, but I always end up on the wrong side of the airport from any Starbucks. Having said that there are 3 Au Bon Pain kiosks in the PHL airport. We stopped at the one near our gate and got sandwiches.

Hubby got a breakfast sandwich of sausage, egg and cheese on a bagel and some coffee. He declared it edible, a small step up from McDonalds and slightly overpriced. I told him all airport food is overpriced and he should just get used to it before we hit Disney World. I got a Grab and Go sandwich that I do not see on their menu - Roast Beef & Brie on a Baguette. It had a reasonable quantity of quite rare roast beef slices on a semi-crusty baguette with what I'd consider thick (for non-homemade food) slices of Brie cheese. It also had romaine lettuce and tomato slices on it. You had to grab the mayo or mustard packets yourself and put them on. I didn't get hubby's receipt for his sandwich but mine shows a total price of $7.29 (tax included) for my sandwich. I thought this was quite reasonable so I'm not sure what hubby was thinking when he said his was expensive. Frankly there are a lot of airports, travel plazas and so forth where I'd be perfectly happy to get this sandwich again.

 

[Skye23]

Arrival Day Dinner at Boma - Part 1

I had wanted somewhere special for dinner this night, someplace where we could fill up after our day of traveling. You never know what food you can get at the airport or on the airplane and I knew we'd need a good dinner to get us in the right frame of mind to do the late night EMH at the Magic Kingdom that night. I had originally planned to eat at the Crystal Palace or Artist Point but worried about the possibility a snowstorm causing issues with our flights so I went with Boma.

What a perfect choice, I think this is now our new arrival day ritual.

We arrived early for our reservation and were seated within minutes, they put us under one of the Boma's at a 2-top next to the window overlooking a garden and a walkway to the savanahs. It was very pretty and we really enjoyed watching the people as they walked by. Unlike some window seats we didn't feel on display though because of the garden area between us and the walkway. For my first plate I got a selection of several kinds of Hummus, Pita Bread Wedges, a Salad of Mixed Greens with their Mango Vinagrette, some Marinated Cucumber Salad and one of their Mealie Breads. Hubby got pretty much what I got minus the hummus and pita and plus some curried pasta salad so I didn't take a photo of his plate. We both loved the fresh salad with the various dressings, and I thought the mango dressing was bright and lively tasting. We both also liked the cucumber salad and remarked how wonderful this would be after a long, hot day running around the park. The mealie bread was essentially a corn bread muffin and was ok, but I'm not sure I'd spend the calories on it again when there are more interesting things to try. I liked the hummus and pita breads, but they were also pretty standard. You can see part of Hubby's plate of salad behind mine.

Then we both got soup, I got some sort of Chicken & Corn Soup who's exact name escapes me and Hubby got the famous Carrot Ginger Soup. I liked my soup, it was pretty sweet but I'm used to chicken and corn soup being sweet since we live so close to PA Dutch Country and its often done that way. Hubby loved his soup but said it was almost better suited to being a hot dessert then appetizer course. He has only recently realized that he likes carrots, provided they taste like carrots and don't just taste sweet and one dimensional like "baby" carrots often do. He said he could taste the carrots in this and the ginger added some needed "zip" but he couldn't finish his big bowl because it was so sweet. He thought he'd get it again, but as a smaller serving and between his main course and dessert vs between his salads and his main course.

Cont...

 

[Skye23]

Boma continued...

For our second plates Hubby and I got many of the same things so I only took a photo of mine. For his plate he got more of the Curried Pasta Salad which he loved so much he asked the waitress if he could get the recipe so HE could make it. That thudding sound you hear is me fainting... not that my man doesn't know his way around a kitchen. He doesn't starve if I go on vacation with my mom and leave him home, or I'm sick but he tends to stick to a short list of favorites and his normal course of action would be to ask me to get the recipe and make it for him. The waitress said the recipe was over on allears.net and I've already printed what I think is the right one out for him. He also got some of the Carved Beef Striploin rubbed with spices, Mashed Potatoes, Mac & Cheese and a piece of the Durban Spice-Rubbed Chicken. He thought the mashed potatoes were good, the spices on the striploin were interesting although it was a pinch tough, the chicken was ok but he wished it was a bit moister and the mac and cheese was as expected. I filled up my plate with (starting from the top and working clock-wise) Some sort of Spiced-Rubbed Pork Loin, Beef Striploin with Horseradish, Beef Boboti, Roasted Root Vegetables, Salmon with Harissa, Fufu and some of the Curried Pasta Salad. I agreed with Hubby about the beef striploin, it was really tasty and my slice at least was quite rare. The pork loin was quite good, moist and tender with a hint of spices. I liked the boboti more then I thought I would, I wasn't sure about it when I got it but (geek confession time) recently I had to make a lot of it while playing Cafe World and I decided I really had to try it. It was basically sweet scrambled eggs with beef, cinnamon and other spices in it. The first few bites I wasn't sure how I felt but I decided I rather liked it by the time I was done and I finished my entire serving. If you're not into sweet egg/meat things it might not be for you. The roasted root veggies seemed to be parsnips, yams or sweet potatoes and a few other things. I thought they were tasty, but honestly they needed to roast a few more minutes as they weren't quite as soft as I prefer my roasted veggies to be. The salmon with harissa had a bit of spice to it, as you'd expect since Harissa is made from chiles. I think its probably unfair to expect any buffet salmon to be cooked medium rare like I prefer, but it wasn't too dry and the flavor was good. I know fufu can be made from many different starchy vegetables but as near as I can tell it was either all sweet potatoes/yams or a mixture of carrots and sweet potatoes/yams the night we were there. It tasted a lot like thanksgiving dinner to me, sweet and familiar. Hubby was right about the cold curried pasta salad, it was good. It too was sweet and I note the recipe includes sugar in it. I can understand how some people feel that everything on Boma's menu is either sweet or uses cinnamon, its not entirely true but its not entirely untrue either. It probably helps that I love sweet food in general and have a fondness for cuisines that use sweetener in their main courses.

On to Dessert!!! Can I be honest here, we're all friends right? I have no idea what is on our dessert plates. My notes say "one of just about everything" which isn't very helpful 2 weeks later when you're trying to write a review. I think its safe to say if I can't remember what it was, then it didn't matter. As for exact names - we'll just have to wing it together. Hubby's plate is first, and he got what appears to be a Sugar Cookie, Oatmeal Raisin Cookie, 2 Peanut Butter thingies, some Chocolate whatchamacallit, a Zebra Dome, a Kenyan Coffee Tartlet, a Caramel Cheesecake, a Brownie and some sort of Cinnamon Bread Pudding with I think Vanilla or Rum Sauce. He really liked the Oatmeal Raisin Cookie (he's not hard to please)and the peanut butter thingies (see previous note). He also liked the bread pudding UNTIL the fourth or fifth bite when he got a piece of walnut. Hubby agrees with Andrew Zimmern that if there was one food he never had to put in his mouth again - he'd pick walnuts. On my plate I see most of the same things except it looks like I picked a Caramel sauce for the Bread Pudding and I added some sort of Mango Passionfruit Dome-y thing. I thought it was ok, but golly was it tart compared to everything else. My favorite was the Kenyan Coffee Tartlets, I could eat a bunch of those. They were less sweet then most of the other items (but more then the Mango thing) and I found that rather refreshing at this point in the dinner. As for the Zebra Dome, don't take away my Disboard membership but I thought it was too sweet. I get why everyone likes it, and normally I'm the type of girl who can and will eat sugar-bombs with the best of people but by this point in the meal (and dessert) it was too sweet. I really was craving some contrast either texturally or flavorwise. Most of the dessert offerings were sweet and soft and I'd just reached my fill of those two things. As such half the Zebra dome and some of the bread pudding were left uneaten.

All in all we loved Boma and plan to go back every time we're in Orlando, even if we don't make it to the parks for some reason. Its one of our top restaurant choices for the trip.

Meal Cost - $65.98 for 2 Adults
Tax - $4.29
Total Cost - $70.27
Used 2 Dining Credits and charged the tip (not included above) to room

 

[Skye23]

Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe - Late night EMH & Snack

Last post for the night, its pushing morning and I'm still getting over the cough/cold that Hubby and I both caught either at Disney World or on the airplane flying there. Luckily despite other health problems the cough didn't settle in until we'd hit the airport on the way home but boy is it a doozy.

After Boma we went to the Magic Kingdom which was having late night EMH until 2am. We managed to survive until 1am, barely. Normally I'm a go to bed at 6am kind of girl but neither of us had managed hardly if any sleep the night before and we'd gotten up at 5:30 in the morning to get to the airport in time for our flight out. So all things considered, 1am was pretty good. Since I know I saw the alarm clock at least once an hour the entire time I was trying to sleep I suspect I didn't actually sleep more then a few minutes and by the time we did get back to the resort and go to sleep I'd been up 40some hours. Not quite my record of 56 hours but pretty impressive for someone who's in her late 30's. At any rate, I digress...

No matter how much food we ate at Boma, we finished dinner around 6:30pm and by 11:30 we were feeling a little peckish. I knew our options would go down drastically the later it got and by then they were really limited. We settled on Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe. I have vague memories of loving this restaurant when I was a child. I suspect now that it was based purely on the animatronic lounge singer and the air conditioning. Since we often daytripped the Magic Kingdom when we'd visit my grandparents in the summer - I'm going to give the edge to the air conditioning in that equation. At this point in the night they were only offering a couple of items for sale - the Angus Bacon Cheeseburger, the Veggie Burger, the Hot Dog, the Chili Cheese Dog and posted on signs at the register the Chicken Nuggets. We decided on the Chicken Nuggets with Fries and an Iced Latte to split. I don't have pictures, but don't worry because even if I did they would underwhelm you and quite possibly bore you to tears. The Chicken nuggets were larger then some nuggets you get and maybe 2-3 bites each. You got 8 of them and a side of fries with your order. I'll give them points for being hot, not greasy and having a decent crunch breading. The fries were ok too, a little limp perhaps but I so rarely find fries I like that I wasn't expecting much. We ate most of them with ketchup so they couldn't have been that bad. I will also give the restaurant points for still having one of the topping bars available with fried mushrooms and sauteed onions along with pickles etc. We got some pickles to go with our nuggets and they were decent - fast food pickles.

I will now take away points for the Iced Latte. It tasted fine for something that came from a machine but seriously Disney? This thing was more expensive and smaller then Starbucks and nowhere near as good. Didn't stop me from ordering a few more over the course of the week muttering all the while about the price but sheesh... It was the same size as a Starbucks tall, maybe 12oz? but it was $3.99. I was sorta expecting at least a 16oz drink for that price.

Chicken Nuggets & Fries - $8.19
Iced Latte - $3.99
Total Cost - $12.18
Tax - 0.80
Total Meal Cost - $12.98

If I'd known I'd end up with credits remaining at the end of the week I'd have used a meal credit on this, but at the time I thought it was too cheap to "waste" one on it.

At some point before we ate at Cosmic Ray's I also got one of the cones of Spiced Almonds just in case we didn't find anything later we liked. We ended up eating it over the course of the week and I took the last of it home and had it a few days ago. Yummy! They're better warm of course but those cinnamony-spicey-sugary nuts are good no matter when you eat them. They cost $3.99 (possibly plus tax) and I used a Snack Credit.

 

[chocolateMinnie]

Great start - Boma is our favourite buffet and favourite breakfast at WDW. Could almost taste it with you :

 

[vettegirl]

Love your Boma review. I want to go to WDW again just to eat there, the food is sooo good. The lamb curry I had was the best entree I have ever had.

 

[Skye23]

Monday 2/13 Lunch at Le Cellier

Ah, lunch. A civilized meal after a long, cold night of running around the Magic Kingdom during EMH. On the plus side we managed to ride just about every single ride we wanted to go on except Peter Pan and Space Mountain with no wait. On the down side when we finally woke up we were famished and our feet hurt. Oh well, we still had to trek half-way through Epcot to our lunch ADR of Le Cellier. More then once we thought of the old joke that Epcot really stands for "Every Person Comes Out Tired". But we made it with time to spare and we were seated after a very short wait in the nice cool entryway. Just long enough to cool off and to have our eyes adjust to the dimmer lighting that Le Cellier offers.

There was a new menu which I've already forwarded on to the appropriate person to update the website with. It featured several items that I hadn't seen on other menus in the past including a couple we didn't get including the new appetizer of Crab and Spinach Gratin and a Salmon Burger. Anyway back to what we did get. The first thing I ordered was a Torontopolitan Cocktail which is supposed to be a "delicious combination of Iceberg Vodka, Chambord, and Cranberry and Orange Juices. It was muddy dark reddish orange color as you might expect and honestly didn't photograph well so I didn't bother. It tasted sweet and fruit with a sour hint and while tasty, I'm not sure I'd pay $9.50 for one again. One of the other restaurants we went to later on had a similiar cocktail that I thought was better balanced.

For appetizers Hubby ordered the Spicy Chicken and Chipotle Sausage with Roasted Corn Polenta and Sweet Onion Jam. If he could have figured out a way to pick up the small cast iron skillet it came in and licked it clean without looking terrible doing it, he would have. The sausage was spicy and meaty without being too rich and the roasted corn polenta tasted like what you wish sweet corn tastes like. It reminded us both a bit of the sweet corn cake that Chi-Chi's used to serve and that they sell a mix for. We mean that in the best possible way, considering we used to eat at Chi-Chi's just for that sweet corn cake. Hubby begged the waitress for the recipe and she took our info and promised the chef would send it to us eventually. (We're waiting Ashley - we love you, please don't let them forget!!!). I plan to make this for him using locally available chicken sausages as soon as I get the recipe.

I decided to go for the Roasted Prince Edward Island Mussels with Tomatoes, Garlic, and Fennel Cream. As I'm sure some of you know Prince Edward Island Mussels are some of the top in the world, along with New Zealand Greens and a few other types. Pristine waters, good flavor, never flabby. I also was not disappointed, my Mussels were perfectly cooked, tender but well-steeped in the broth and I ended up asking for a spoon to get the last of the broth with. They were served with a bit of toasted bread which I also used to mop up the broth. Heaven!

We also decided to order a cup of the famous Canadian Cheddar Cheese Soup made with Moosehead Beer and Bacon, to dip our pretzel bread in of course. We told our server that we'd pay oop for it, and it was mostly to taste and dip the bread in. She brought us a nice little cup of it and I note she decided not to charge us, its possible that the cup size was smaller then if you ordered it for your appetizer and thats why it was on the house. I took a pictures of the soup, my bread from my mussels and a partial shot of the bread basket. We thought the soup was really good as a dipping sauce for our pretzel bread but no angels came down from the heavens to sing for us when we ate it. Sorry people, maybe we used them all up on our other appetizers.

For our entrees Hubby decided to get the 2nd most famous steak at Le Cellier. I'm of course talking about the New York Strip Steak topped with Bercy Butter served with Cream Cheese Mashed Potatoes. In a word - Yum! He loved it, said it was tender and delicious and easily one of the best steaks he'd ever had. He also said it was too big for him and he saw no point in coming back for dinner when he could get this for lunch. I gratefully took the part he couldn't finish and I agree with his assessment. Why pay 2 credits for dinner when you can get this for 1. I won't say it was the best steak I've ever had, but it was top 10 and clearly a cut above the chain steakhouses like Lone Star, Outback etc. We can't afford Ruth Chris etc so I simply can't compare it to that.

After quizzing our server as to the number of Korean immigrants they actually had in Canada (oodles apparently) I decided to try one of the new menu items since I love Korean food and they had enough of a population to warrant it being on the menu. It's called the Korean Barbecue Beef Skewer and is served with Pickled Mushrooms, Bok Choy and Jasmine Rice along with what appeared to be a few drops of Srichi chili sauce. ($22.99) Now, let me be perfectly clear - it really is only 6 "kabobs" of beef, although each one is easily 2-3 bites if you cut it into pieces. Or one bite if you're a caveman, your call. If you are a light eater then this is perfect, if you've had a heavy appetizer and plan on a dessert then this is perfect. If you're the type who can eat a 12oz steak and ask for seconds you will be disappointed. I normally fall into the eat a steak and ask for seconds category but I was not disappointed, probably because I got about 4 ounces of Hubby's Strip steak since he was full from the Chicken Sausage appetizer, plus I had all those gorgeous mussels. I loved the pickled mushrooms, I think they were oyster mushrooms but don't quote me. The Jasmine rice was perfectly steamed, the bok choy was tender with a bit of crispness left in the stems. And the Beef, oh the beef... it was sweet and salty and garlicy and tangy and everything Korean Barbecue should be. I could have eaten like 4 more skewers, easily. At the same time I was totally satisfied with what I got (plus hubby's steak) and had just enough room for dessert.

Speaking of, on to dessert. Hubby got the infamous Chocolate Moose, because somebody had to I guess. He liked it well enough, I thought it was cuter then it was perhaps tasty. I'm not saying it wasn't good, but this is clearly a dessert that survives at least in part based on its looks. And yes, I laughed my pooh-sized posterior off when our waitress told him that it was very important that he eat the tongue first, so it couldn't scream for help! He tried not to chuckle but was thwarted, probably because he wasn't expecting her to say it and he reacted before he could do his usual Spockian thing.

I decided to go for a dessert that was new/old to the menu. It wasn't on the current menus I'd seen, but it apparently had existed in various incarnations in the past. My notes call it a Bumbleberry Cobbler with Cheesecake Ice Cream. I really liked it, Artist Point's Berry Cobbler it was not. But it was warm and sweet and fruity and the ice cream was so nice as it melted on top. I'm a sucker for the hot/cold thing in desserts, what can I say. The strusel crumbs added a nice sweetness to the tart combinations of fruit. I'm told by others its raspberry and blueberry but I could have sworn I tasted some apple in there too. I'm not sure, I didn't ask... at any rate it was a mixture of fruits and it disappeared pretty fast off my plate.

Overall we loved our meal at Le Cellier and felt it was a great use of 1 credit. We didn't feel we'd get enough added value to go for dinner at use 2 credits, but Hubby did say if I ever planned a trip and we had too many credits floating around like we did this time we could put that up for a test and try it for Lunch one day and Dinner another. We definately will return to Le Cellier anytime we can get reservations in the future.

I'm missing my unedited receipt here, I just have the dining plan one

Meal Cost - Appetizers and Entrees - $76.96
Dessert (unsure) - $12 - $15
Tax - $6.50 - 7.50ish
Total Cost - $95.46 - 99.46
Used 2 Dining Credits and charged the tip (not included above) to room
Also charged the cocktail (not included above - $9.50) to room

 

[MissTeacher]

Great reviews! The NY Strip at Le Cellier looks really delicious! I think this is what I will get when I'm there in two weeks. You just added to my anticipation for sure

 

[Skye23]

Monday 2/13 Dinner at Via Napoli - Part 1 - Appetizers

I scheduled this dinner purely to placate Hubby. I knew he'd like some of the meals to come, but there was going to be a lot of "fine dining" and while he's usually up for that, my Hubby is at heart a burger, pizza, meat and potatoes kind of guy. We love our local "hole in the wall" pizzeria with a passion, but I've recently convinced him that there is a place for artisan pizza that is a bit more complicated then a really, really, really (really, our hitw place is THAT good) good pepperoni with extra cheese. He now appreciates a thin crust wood-fired pizza done in the traditional manner with fresh mozzerella and herbs, or other gourmet toppings. As he finally realized the comparison between the extra cheese with pepperoni and the artisan stuff is really an apples to oranges comparison, they're just not the same and you're either in the mood for one or the other. I made sure he knew in advance which type of pizza Via Napoli was going to be so there would be no confusion or disappointment and trust me, there was no disappointment.

I didn't see the point in taking a picture of the iced tea by itself, but it was the best iced tea we drank at Disney World. We asked the waiter what brand it was because it tasted so different and he said he gets asked that pretty frequently and people tell him all the time that its the best. He checked for us and said it was Harney and Sons but admitted that if he was being honest he couldn't compare it because he doesn't drink iced tea. I told him I certainly understood that, it was quite an "American" thing but not to worry I'd be getting a proper espresso later. It was cute, his eyes lit up and he gave me a really big grin. I suppose I should get this out of the way since it may have influenced my view of the meal (but not hubby's), but lets just say our waiter added to both the scenerio and atmosophere of Via Napoli in a favourable way

Appetizers, to start with my Hubby decided to get the Salame e Provolone which is described as Dry Cured Sausage and Imported Provolone Cheese. The menu posted on the wdwinfo site shows this as being $7.00 but we found the price had been raised to $9.00 when we were there. As soon as you look at the picture below I know that everyone here is going to have the same thought cross your minds - is that appetizer as small as it looks? Yes, yes it is. It really is 3 slices of salami admittedly cut on the bias so they're a bit bigger then a straight slice, 3 cubes of cheese, 2 olives and I think it was a single grape tomato. It was as good as it was small. The cheese was far more flavorful then American provolone typically is, although it wasn't quite "sharp" provolone, I'd say it was half way between the dulce or sweet provolone and the sharp stuff. The salami was high quality, although Hubby remarked that he's used to American made salami, typically deli vs stick and often beef so he found this a bit pungent and strong. I thought it tasted like it should. All his comments aside all I got of it was a single bite so you can judge for yourself how much he liked it. I did get all his olives (yeah 2 olives!) because he doesn't like them, they were as good as I can get from the specialty olive bars at home. Those of you with huge appetites may want to pick a different appetizer, but honestly by the time we were done eating we were trying to figure out how to roll out the door so I didn't feel the portion size was bad. I do think that if I'd paid OOP for the appetizer I'd probably feel a bit cheated because then it would be $1 per slice of salami, cube of cheese, olive or tomato.

For my appetizer I got the Mozzarella Caprese which is described as being Vine Ripened Tomatoes with Fresh Milk Mozzarella. The posted menus say its $8.00, its actually $9.00 now. I thought it was quite good, considering it was February and there's no such thing as a great tomato in February, there just isn't. If this had been made with a sun-ripened, Jersey (or better yet back yard) tomato in August it would have been pretty close to a "When Harry Met Sally" kind of dish. But its February so instead we'll settle for the fact it was impeccibly fresh, extremely refreshing, and the mozzarella was very creamy, sweet and milky as it should have been. The olive oil drizzle on it was flavorful and fresh basil is always a welcome touch when it comes to such dishes. And yes, again you might ask - is that really just 2 slices of Tomato and 2 slices of Mozzarella. Yep, but they were large-ish slices, about the diameter of a good dinner roll and somewhere around 1/2-3/4 inch thick. I gave hubby 1/2 of a slice of each in trade for my bite of salami and cheese and his olives and I was still satisfied.

 

[Skye23]

Via Napoli - Part 2 - Entrees and Dessert

Obviously we came to Via Napoli for the pizza and thats just what we got. Hubby ordered the Individual Pepperoni which is pretty basic - Spicy Pepperoni, Tomato, Mozzarella. I pondered ordering some of the more esoteric choices, and next time I probably will but since Hubby was having trouble deciding between the Pepperoni and the Quattro Formaggi with its Mozzarella, Parmesan, Fontina and Provolone I told him I'd get that one and we could trade slices. Both of our pizzas were incredibly good, thin with a crispy outer crust and a touch soft in the middle. We found you needed to either fold and hold the slice, or eat the first few bites with a knife and fork and then you could just hold the slice from the crust and proceed. As I reminded Hubby most Europeans eat their pizza with a knife and fork anyway so this wasn't unexpected. Still, being American I wouldn't have minded if they'd given the pizza about 30 seconds longer in the oven so the end of the slice didn't droop. Having said that, those ovens are so hot that I'd imagine you'd be risking the outer crust at that point. I wanted to eat all of my "bones" but there just wasn't room with dessert coming so I only managed to eat 2 of the crusts. As it turned out, Hubby liked the Quattro Formaggi better, the Pepperoni was really good - thick slices of the small traditional pepperoni vs our thinner, larger American style ones. As he put it, there was nothing wrong with that pizza and a lot right. But when he took his first bite of my Quattro Formaggi he heard angels sing. Seriously, he had a moment right there at the table - his eyes glazed over, he couldn't hear anything I was saying, there was nothing in the world except him and that slice of pizza. So good wife that I am, I swapped with him. He told me if they'd install this restaurant next to our hitw place he'd split his pizza devotion between them. I guess that makes it his new pizza Mistress.

Pizza finished except for a couple of crusts it was time to move onto dessert! I had known for MONTHS what dessert I was getting. There was no question I was getting the Coppa Di Brutti Ma Buoni or Ugly, but good sundae of Amarena Cherries and Vanilla Gelato with ugly but good cookies of Carnevale. I love gelato, and I love marischino cherries which are sad, pale approximation of the glory of Amarena Cherries. These things are so expensive and hard to get I'd never actually had one before, but I'd read and heard about them in all my gourmet magazines and cookbooks and I was bound and determined to try some. I'm going to leave it with they were right. They were so right that even Hubby who HATES marischino cherries was stealing them off my Sundae right and left. He was lucky the waiter had already taken the forks away or it could have gotten ugly but not so good. I'm kidding, I love him, I shared (lets not talk about if I wanted to though). Just as I was positive what I was going to get, I had also been positive which dessert Hubby would get. Surely he would get the Zeppole, this man eats the donuts that are on Chinese Buffets, there's no way he was going to turn down a freshly made fried piece of dough. And then of course he decided he'd order something entirely different. I considered fainting into the arms of our dashing waiter but that would have been a bit over the top. Plus I'd have been unconcious and unable to enjoy it so.... I am partly to blame for this, I recently exposed Hubby to real gelato and he fell in love so I guess its no surprise he decided to go for the Gelati E. Sorbetto - Pistachio. He loved it, he got the same look of quiet desperation on his face when I stole a second bite of it as I did when he took that second cherry.

Glancing at my receipt I note that the prices differ from the posted menu on the desserts too, the Coppa Amarena has gone from $10 to $14 and the Pistachio Gelato has gone up from $7 to $9. As with the appetizers, if you're paying OOP this may trouble you, but we were on the Dining Plan so it didn't trouble us. I think if I came back here OOP we'd skip appetizers, split a large Quattro Formaggi for $30 and then get the desserts regardless of the price. Considering the charged us $3.00 for the Caffe Americano (just brewed Coffee) and $6.00 for the Double Espresso I'd probably skip getting coffee with dessert despite how good the Espresso was, and wander over to the Tangerine Cafe in Morroco for a Moorish Coffee ($3.50) which is Espresso brewed with spices. We had one of those between Lunch and Dinner and it was not only good, but different from the usual fare.

Meal Cost - Appetizers, Entrees, Desserts and Iced Tea - $83.00
Coffee & Double Espresso - $9.00 (paid oop)
Tax - $5.98
Total Cost - $97.98
Used 2 Dining Credits and charged the tip (not included above) to room

 

[gardengirl628]

Great reviews so far! Thanks for sharing!

 

[SnwflkCts]

I am enjoying your reviews. Hope this year goes better for you and I hope your mom continues to improve. Last year was not good for DH and I either and I am looking forward to a WDW trip early next year. I certainly enjoy looking at all the good food -- YUM!!!

 

[st4rrab0vemybed]

Great reviews so far! The Bumbleberry Cobbler w/ Cheesecake Ice Cream sounds awesome. Via Napoli looks amazing too, and is definitely a place to consider for a future visit. Thanks for sharing, and looking forward to the rest of the reviews!

 

[Skye23]

Glad everyone is enjoying them! Not to be overly personal, but my Mom had her last chemo treatment on Thursday and got to "ring the bell" at the hospital. She has one last immune system bolstering shot later today and then we wait a month for her scans to see if its all gone or if she'll need radiation. So we're feeling really hopeful that once she regains her strength in the next few months this will all be behind us. Hubby also started his new job this week, which is really good since he'd been laid off just before Christmas and just after final payment (lol). Lets just say that everything I wished for during Wishes seems possible right now. We all need a little pixie dust in our lives from time to time - and a belief in the possibility of magic.

I'll get more reviews done soon, next up are the Pepper Market Lunch Buffet and dinner at the California Grill. If anybody has any questions about a restaurant on my list I haven't gotten the review posted for yet please feel free to ask and I'll answer it if I can!