The "I Can't Come Up with a Catchy Title" Disney Food Review - Updated 12/7!

[cbg1027]

Hello fellow food porn lovers!

If you want to read more about the cast involved with this review, click on the link in my signature for Abby and Estelle's Birthday Wish: A Food Centered Disney Trip!

A quick overview of our dining habits/preferences/restrictions:

I am extremely adventurous when it comes to food and will try almost anything once. I have not come across any menus for a place at Disney with something I wouldn't be willing to sample. My favorite cuisines are French, Italian, Thai, and Middle Eastern. Compared to most people, I have eaten some strange things. My mother is a really fabulous cook, so I was exposed to a lot of "different" foods at a young age and have always been a pretty daring eater.
The only stuff I've ever come across that I just plain don't like is Japanese. And it's not the raw aspect of it - I love carpaccios, tartares and the like. But something with Japanese flavors just doesn't do anything for me.

As for my traveling partner in gluttony (my grandma), she's not quite as adventurous as me. She's by no means picky, but she isn't a fan of any Asian cuisines, and doesn't like spicy food. Her favorite cuisine is definitely Italian - she even went so far as to marry an Italian (my Grandfather, he died before I was born).
Gram has somewhat of a lactose intolerance. She can't have milk, cream, or soft, young cheeses (like ricotta) or items made with them. But she is fine with butter confused3), medium (cheddar) or hard cheeses (parmesan). She can have goat or sheep milk products because they don't contain lactose.

We leave on Friday Oct 30 for a long weekend of Food and Wine Festival fun! I won't be able to post from Disney. Sorry guys, just not in to paying $10 bucks a day for internet access. I'll only be gone 4 nights, so you won't miss me too much!

I've done a few individual restaurant reviews, but never a whole trip's worth. So forgive me if I break any of the food porn commandments. I just got a brand new camera for my birthday yesterday, so you can expect lots of awesome photos! I've already told my traveling partner, my Grandma, that she's not allowed to eat anything until I've taken a photo!

We will be giving ratings on a simple 1-10 scale, 10 being the best! We will base our rating mostly on the quality and taste of the food, but also consider ambiance, value for the money, and service.

Our reviews will cover the following restaurants and dining events:

Oct 30 - Wolfgang Puck Express for Dinner

Oct 31 - Epcot Day
Everything POP for Breakfast
F&W Kiosks 'Grazing'
A Culinary Demo with Andrew Zimmern
Kouzzina for Dinner

Nov 1 - AK Day
Everything POP for Breakfast
Yak and Yeti
Everything POP for Dinner

Nov 2 - Epcot Day
Everything POP Breakfast
F&W Kiosks 'Grazing'
Citricos for Dinner

Nov 3 - Cape May Cafe Character Breakfast

 

[MickeyNicki]

Count me in!

 

[beroh2253]

See you Oct. 31 'Grazing' all day @ the F &WF
Less the 1 day till we leave this rainy place in PA.

 

[disneyfav4ever]

Have fun!

 

[Dis_Yoda]

I'm in!

 

[cbg1027]

See you Oct. 31 'Grazing' all day @ the F &WF
Less the 1 day till we leave this rainy place in PA.

Oooh wear your LGMH's! I will have 3 dangling from a red backback!

Thanks for joining in everyone! I'm soooooo excited to do this review! Only 6 more days til I leave!

 

[cbg1027]

Dinner addition for Nov 1 - instead of eating at POP, we have decided we will go the CS at another resort! Most likely Mara at AK Lodge....keep with the AK theme for the day. I was also considering Captain Cook's because I haven't been to the Poly in like 20 years! We're choosing more based on what resort we want to see more than the food. Soo.....Zebra Domes or Dole Whips? Yummmm.

Today is my birthday but I just want the day to be over with so we can be that much closer to Disney! 3 Days!

I got a new camera for my birthday and my photographer friend was showing me how to use it the other day and pointed out that there is a food setting! So I'm excited....we should get some awesome food porn!

 

[cbg1027]

I just got home an hour ago. I am sitting in front of the computer eating leftover food from the POP food court! Greek Salad and some pieces of flatbread...but more on those later.
I'm tired but couldn't resist getting on the boards....have yet to start uploading photos so I will probably begin the reviews tomorrow!

 

[BriarRosie]

Welcome back! Looking forward to the food porn.

 

[MickeyNicki]

Welcome home!

 

[Dis_Yoda]

Welcome back!

 

[cbg1027]

We drove down and went directly to DTD. We arrived around 8pm and boy, was that place hopping!

After getting our tickets at Guest services we went to Wolfgang Puck Express to have dinner. The West Side location of WPE has very limited seating. There are maybe 8 seats inside at a counter. There are about 20 tables outside on a covered patio so if you want to eat here, be aware you will most likely need to sit outside. This was fine for us Friday evening because the weather was perfect! It was 75 degrees and breezy. It was nice sitting outside because DTD was hosting a Halloween Trick-or-Treat so we were able to watch all the people going by in their costumes.

Gram selected the Roasted Ruby Beet, Spinach, and Goat Cheese Salad with candied pecans, mandarin oranges, and a citrus vinaigrette.

We both thought this was a very good salad. The spinach was fresh and crisp, the beets sweet and slightly soft, the pecans were nice and crunchy, and the goat cheese was tart and delicious. There was a good amount of dressing on it too, bur it wasn't drowning or lacking. I HATE when salads are drowning in dressing - you can always add more but you can't take any off once it's mixed in! The vinaigrette was slightly tart, but mostly sweet, not too oily. The only part of this salad that was slightly lacking were the mandarin oranges - they were definitely from a can.

I had the Chinois Chicken Salad made with roasted all natural chicken breast, fresh Asian vegetables, cripsy wontons, and dressed with Honey Mustard.

This was also a very good salad. It was tangy, a tad spicy on the finish, crunchy, and fresh. The dressing was much more mustardy than your standard Honey Mustard, but I liked it. There were shredded carrots, red cabbage, some other cabbages...maybe Napa? The portion was huge, there was probably 3.5 cups of salad. I took some of it back to our room at POP and ate it later that night.

I also had a fountain Coke with the meal. Gram just drank water.

Costs:
Spinach Salad $11.95
Chinois Chicken Salad $11.95
Coke $2.95

I purchased a Tables in Wonderland Card for the Passholder rate of $75. It gives us a 20% discount at most TS locations and a few CS places in WDW. WPE does not take TIW so we didn't get a discount here. I later realized they do offer a 10% discount for passholders, so we could have saved a couple of bucks.

For a CS place, the food is pretty darn good but it is a bit more expensive. Overall a good value though. A good option for CS at DTD.

Gram's Rating: 7.5
Mine: A Solid 7.5

Coming up next: Breakfast at Everything POP.

 

[cbg1027]

I got up before my Grandmother this morning to go to RD at Epcot so I had breakfast alone at Everything POP.

I got the Bounty Platter with scrambled eggs, bacon, a sausage patty, potatoes, french toast sticks, and a biscuit. I also got a small OJ.

I was disappointed when I walked up to the counter and they gave me an already packaged plate that had been sitting there for who knows how long. The eggs were too dry and overcooked. The sausage was ok, good enough that I ate it. The potatoes were too greasy for my tastes but had a good flavor. I liked the French toast sticks, but they would have been better if they were hot! The biscuit was ok, a tad overcooked, but certainly edible. Everything on the plate was just kind of lukewarm so I'm sure it would have tasted better if it was hot and freshly plated. I don't really like bacon and didn't eat that so I can't tell you how it was.

I know Disney carries Coke products, which I am very thankful for since I HATE Pepsi, but do they have to use Minute Maid OJ? I'm not looking for fresh squeezed at a food court, but some other brand that's not from concentrate would be a nice change.

The platter was $8.69 and the OJ was $1.69. I was able to use my TIW card for a 20% discount which brought the total to $8.50.

I would rate the POP Breakfast a 4.

 

[LarryinArk]

I'm in

 

[MissBritt]

Interesting to read that about the Bounty Platter... I wonder if they do the same thing with the ones at POR?

 

[msce2]

Great start! WPE looks great, we may have to go there on our next trip. Thank you for the tip on the AP discount!

I'm sub'ing

 

[cbg1027]

Interesting to read that about the Bounty Platter... I wonder if they do the same thing with the ones at POR?

I think it just kind of depends on how busy it is when you go and who is working. If it's super busy then you'll probably get a freshly plated dish. Seven months ago when we stayed at ASMo the breakfasts I got were always plated right when I ordered.

 

[mousebymarriage]

I'm in! Can't wait to hear more!

 

[cbg1027]

Gram and I headed straight for the WS around 11am when it opened. We first hit the Athens, Greece booth.

We started with the Greek Salad with Pita Bread:

As Greek salads go, I thought this was good. It wasn't anything special, but I definitely enjoyed it. The vegetables were fresh, it had Kalamata olives, and it wasn't drowning in dressing. I liked the preparation of small chopped vegetables, which made it easier to eat without having a table to sit down at and cut up your food. I think the Feta in the salad was American made cow's milk cheese. Real Feta is made from sheep's milk and is much stronger so it lost a few points for me there. The pita bread was a bit hard around the edges, but it didn't taste stale...so I don't know what that was about. Cost: $2.75. Overall, a respectable 5 rating.

We also had the Spanikopita:

Again, decent, but nothing special. The phyllo was buttery, flaky, and crisp, but I thought the filling was lacking something. It was kind like spinach and not much else.I just thought it was kind of like the Spanikopita you could get in the freezer section at a grocery store. Back home a week before our trip, I attended a Greek Food Festival and their Spanikopita was much more flavorful and exciting. Cost was $4.00. So we give the dish a 5 rating.

We also got the Chicken Souvlaki with Tzatziki:

We thought this was best dish of the booth. The chicken was flavorful and moist, it wasn't dry like Souvlaki can easily be. I'm not positive, but I think Souvlaki is traditionally made from Pork....but I'm not a pork fan, so no points lost there for me. We rated this a solid 7. It was $4.00.

After Greece, we hit up the nearby (and busy!) Montreal, Canada booth.

Our first selection was the Canadian Cheddar Cheese Soup, of course!

Well this was more my selection since there was no question that Gram couldn't eat this. I'm glad I had it all the myself though. I had tasted this back at the 2006 Festival and remembered liking it. It was just as good this time around. I don't normally like bacon, and that is partially what flavors this soup, but this I love. I understand why everyone raves about it so much. The only thing I didn't like about it was that it's a really heavy dish for a hot day, and it was like 88 degrees out that day so that killed my enjoyment of it a little. I'd rate it an 8. The soup was $3.75.

We also picked up a Spicy Chicken Sausage with Sweet Corn Polenta:

They weren't kidding when they said spicy. Now, I like spicy foods, but on a hot day, this was just too much. I liked the sausage, it was very good, but just too spicy for me to be able to enjoy on that day. The pairing with the sweet polenta was a great idea. It cooled your palate down and the items complemented each other very well. Gram doesn't like spicy, so she took 1 little bite of the sausage and said "ick"! I couldn't finish it due to the heat, but we ate up all the polenta. This gets a 7 from me....Gram's rating we won't count. Cost was $3.75.

We also ordered a Maple Glazed Salmon with Lentil Salad:

This was one of the standout dishes of the Festival to me. The salmon was perfectly cooked - not overdone, or undercooked, moist and just finished all the way through. The top was nicely crusted from the Maple glaze and oh so tasty. Sweet but complex flavor - definitely something else in there besides Maple syrup...maybe some cracked black pepper? The fish is served hot off the grill, but the lentil salad it sits on top of is cold. The lentils were cooked til they were soft but not mushy and mixed with a somewhat sugary dressing. I thought the items paired really well and this dish was absolutely delicious! Gram agreed and we rated it a 9, short of a 10 because we thought the dressing on the lentil salad was a bit too sweet. $4.50 very well spent!

On our way up to the Festival Center, I grabbed a Bacardi Frozen Dragon Berry Colada:

Oh man this was good. I could get in to some serious trouble with a few a these! Rum is probably my favorite liquor, and I love a good, sweet, frozen adult beverage. It was a tiny cup - maybe 4 oz, but I'm a lightweight so it was a great portion for me. I didn't get to sample as much alcohol at the festival as I would have liked because if I have more than 1 serving in an hour, I'm pretty much shot for the next day. This was a very berry tasting drink - I tasted mostly strawberry flavor. Again, since I'm a lightweight, I don't like drinks that taste overwhelmingly of the booze. This was great on that front to me because it had just enough rum that you could taste it and tell it was in the drink without it being the overwhelming presence. A bad value for those who really like their liqour, especially at $7.25. This was freakin' expensive, but I REALLY liked it! An 9 rating!

These were only the booths we made it to that day! We were attending a culinary demo at 1pm so we had to head over to Festival Center before then.

Coming up next: Andrew Zimmern's Culinary Demo!

 

[klacey1]

We went to the other WPE-- no lines and PLENTY of indoor seating. DEfinitely the superior one!
Subscribing and can't wait to read the rest!