MrToadsWildRide
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Aug 17, 2009
I had the chance to eat at the newly remodeled Flying Fish last night.
First, an executive summary for those one or two, huge Disney fans who might be lerking about.
The Flying Fish has been changed.
"Oh, no! Disney what have you done with my favorite restaurant?" Hey, I'm still made the Tiki Burgers are gone from the old Adventureland Veranda.
The biggest change is the design of the restaurant. It's darker. Much darker than the photos I've seen posted. It's also less colorful and more formal. White table cloths and the wait staff wears white shirts, tie and black pants. Clearly, a lot less casual than the previous Fish.
I knew they were going to move up the fashion scale with the remodel, since cast members of the restaurant told us that before they closed up. So I found a shirt with a collar and some long pants to wear. It looked as if most everyone else in the restaurant did the same thing.
So, from a casual Disney guest perspective, you might feel out of place in your standard issue "I'm with Dopey" shirt, cargo pants and flip flops.
While I never counted seats, I think the new bar has more seating. Though it appears that counter tables in front of the kitchen are now standard tables. I thought the old counter seats were used for walk-ins. So this might be gone.
I find it odd, but they still don't have any bathrooms. Signature dining, with remote quick service potty. Though the candy shop where the bathrooms have been located is gone. Magically replaced by some form of an Abracadabra bar, which I didn't have time to check out.
I started out my dinner with a refreshing combination of orange and pineapple juice. Which turned out to be grapefruit juice. Good thing I didn't brush my teeth on the way to the restaurant. Two ingredients and they messed it up? Must be opening day jitters. I imagine the bar tender was like Chris Farley when he found out, pounding his forehead saying, "Stupid, stupid, stupid."
They now offer some great (expensive) wines by the glass, now that they have one of those fancy (nitrogen?) wine preservation systems. We were going to order a glass and our waiter said he had to check if they had it. Why wouldn't they have it, didn't you guy just open back up an hour ago? Turns out they had a soft opening for the past couple of days attended by Disney executives and they may have drank it all.
I had the Filet, continuing my on going quest to compare filet's around the (Disney) world. At first I thought, "Woah, Space Mountain Broccoli." Nope. It's some form of Frank-a-broc-o-flower-stein. Somehow they combined broccoli and cauliflower (who wouldn't if they could?) and ended up with a light green Fibonacci variation of a circular pyramid. The waiter told me what it was called, but I forgot. So, now it's just Space Mountain Broccoli.
The filet was good, nicely cooked over their wood fire. Though Jiko is still hard to beat, especially when you double down their fillet with their Taste of Africa appetizer. Plus, Jikos has beefed things up a bit, with both Bison and Rack of Lamp options. (still no zebra)
Their "free" bread was good. Nice and warm with little black squiggles in it. It was seaweed of course. Though it didn't really have much flavor to it. What makes the bread good? It comes with butter soft enough not shread the bread to little bread dust particles, which is covered in lots of fancy salt. As opposed to the (motor?) oil and olive oil swirl so many restaurants like to offer.
The deserts were good. Sadly, I will jump on the "why did you change it?" soap box. (did soap ever come in a huge box? and how did you use it? drop it in the tub and roll around on it?) Because, they used to have one of the best (as in dirty ash tray) creme brûlées, which is now absent. (dang) Their fancy banna-wavy-thing is also gone. It looked cool, tasted great but was very awkward to eat. However, they do have a new banana desert option and it was quite good.
Somebody needs to reformat their desert menu. Their very first option is called Under the Sea. It has Chocolate Coral Sponge and Dehydrated Milk Foam. Mmmmmm (I know, right?) But it word wrapped these items, so that sponge and foam were on the left side, by themselves so it appeared this dessert had sponge and foam in it. So of course I ordered it. The sponge and foam were fine. The chocolate was more milk than chocolate. But I'm chocolate snob.
I pointed out the fish-like scales on the wall so I could steal a cherry off the desert next to me. It had a pit in it. (bad karma) Luckily, I still had all my teeth after eating it. I left it on my plate and showed the waiter. I could not resist, "Waiter, this place is literally the pits." About 3.2 seconds later their new pastry chef came out to apologize. Which was not necessary. I've had restaurants try a lot harder to keep me from coming back and it's never worked. I felt bad because she got hired into Disney, just for this job.
I noticed on their desert menu, they had 100 year old Grand Marnier. (finally!) You'd think the newer stuff would cost more than the older (expired) stuff, but you'd be wrong. Turns out, they were out of the 100 year old option. Thanks Disney Executives. I wonder if Disney's medical plans cover rehab? A couple of days of soft opening with their executives and all the good booze is gone.
Everything we ate and drank was great. I will return.
Though walking out of this new, darker, less colorful, white table cloth restaurant is a rather sharp contrast to the casual design of the Boardwalk. You might want to wear your tuxedo T-shirt if you plan on going.
I suppose the only negative experience I had was the fact that Coney Island Chris was not performing that night. Hey Chris, call me a Wam-bulance. Wah, wah, wah ....
First, an executive summary for those one or two, huge Disney fans who might be lerking about.
The Flying Fish has been changed.
"Oh, no! Disney what have you done with my favorite restaurant?" Hey, I'm still made the Tiki Burgers are gone from the old Adventureland Veranda.
The biggest change is the design of the restaurant. It's darker. Much darker than the photos I've seen posted. It's also less colorful and more formal. White table cloths and the wait staff wears white shirts, tie and black pants. Clearly, a lot less casual than the previous Fish.
I knew they were going to move up the fashion scale with the remodel, since cast members of the restaurant told us that before they closed up. So I found a shirt with a collar and some long pants to wear. It looked as if most everyone else in the restaurant did the same thing.
So, from a casual Disney guest perspective, you might feel out of place in your standard issue "I'm with Dopey" shirt, cargo pants and flip flops.
While I never counted seats, I think the new bar has more seating. Though it appears that counter tables in front of the kitchen are now standard tables. I thought the old counter seats were used for walk-ins. So this might be gone.
I find it odd, but they still don't have any bathrooms. Signature dining, with remote quick service potty. Though the candy shop where the bathrooms have been located is gone. Magically replaced by some form of an Abracadabra bar, which I didn't have time to check out.
I started out my dinner with a refreshing combination of orange and pineapple juice. Which turned out to be grapefruit juice. Good thing I didn't brush my teeth on the way to the restaurant. Two ingredients and they messed it up? Must be opening day jitters. I imagine the bar tender was like Chris Farley when he found out, pounding his forehead saying, "Stupid, stupid, stupid."
They now offer some great (expensive) wines by the glass, now that they have one of those fancy (nitrogen?) wine preservation systems. We were going to order a glass and our waiter said he had to check if they had it. Why wouldn't they have it, didn't you guy just open back up an hour ago? Turns out they had a soft opening for the past couple of days attended by Disney executives and they may have drank it all.
I had the Filet, continuing my on going quest to compare filet's around the (Disney) world. At first I thought, "Woah, Space Mountain Broccoli." Nope. It's some form of Frank-a-broc-o-flower-stein. Somehow they combined broccoli and cauliflower (who wouldn't if they could?) and ended up with a light green Fibonacci variation of a circular pyramid. The waiter told me what it was called, but I forgot. So, now it's just Space Mountain Broccoli.
The filet was good, nicely cooked over their wood fire. Though Jiko is still hard to beat, especially when you double down their fillet with their Taste of Africa appetizer. Plus, Jikos has beefed things up a bit, with both Bison and Rack of Lamp options. (still no zebra)
Their "free" bread was good. Nice and warm with little black squiggles in it. It was seaweed of course. Though it didn't really have much flavor to it. What makes the bread good? It comes with butter soft enough not shread the bread to little bread dust particles, which is covered in lots of fancy salt. As opposed to the (motor?) oil and olive oil swirl so many restaurants like to offer.
The deserts were good. Sadly, I will jump on the "why did you change it?" soap box. (did soap ever come in a huge box? and how did you use it? drop it in the tub and roll around on it?) Because, they used to have one of the best (as in dirty ash tray) creme brûlées, which is now absent. (dang) Their fancy banna-wavy-thing is also gone. It looked cool, tasted great but was very awkward to eat. However, they do have a new banana desert option and it was quite good.
Somebody needs to reformat their desert menu. Their very first option is called Under the Sea. It has Chocolate Coral Sponge and Dehydrated Milk Foam. Mmmmmm (I know, right?) But it word wrapped these items, so that sponge and foam were on the left side, by themselves so it appeared this dessert had sponge and foam in it. So of course I ordered it. The sponge and foam were fine. The chocolate was more milk than chocolate. But I'm chocolate snob.
I pointed out the fish-like scales on the wall so I could steal a cherry off the desert next to me. It had a pit in it. (bad karma) Luckily, I still had all my teeth after eating it. I left it on my plate and showed the waiter. I could not resist, "Waiter, this place is literally the pits." About 3.2 seconds later their new pastry chef came out to apologize. Which was not necessary. I've had restaurants try a lot harder to keep me from coming back and it's never worked. I felt bad because she got hired into Disney, just for this job.
I noticed on their desert menu, they had 100 year old Grand Marnier. (finally!) You'd think the newer stuff would cost more than the older (expired) stuff, but you'd be wrong. Turns out, they were out of the 100 year old option. Thanks Disney Executives. I wonder if Disney's medical plans cover rehab? A couple of days of soft opening with their executives and all the good booze is gone.
Everything we ate and drank was great. I will return.
Though walking out of this new, darker, less colorful, white table cloth restaurant is a rather sharp contrast to the casual design of the Boardwalk. You might want to wear your tuxedo T-shirt if you plan on going.
I suppose the only negative experience I had was the fact that Coney Island Chris was not performing that night. Hey Chris, call me a Wam-bulance. Wah, wah, wah ....
