Violet & Chernabog Do Disney Dining: Veggies and seafood abound!

[TillyMarigold]

Thank you for the wonderful reviews! While I am not as strict as you are and eat non-organic meat if I am eating out, I only buy organic meat for myself. I am really lucky to have an organic butcher in a market hall 300 yards from my appartment! I am very impressed about your eating habits!!

I'd probably eat more meat, but I'm usually too lazy to do the research. We have an organic grocery store chain in the US called Whole Foods that publishes its standards for where it gets meat from, and then you can be sure any meat you buy there (they have a butcher counter, but even things like frozen dinners) will meet those standards. So we just go there whenever we want meat, which isn't often.

By the way, I'm a serious lurker, but I loved your reviews too, and I'm looking forward to your sisters trip!

Im in! Cant wait to try the shrimp at CHH next wk! Looking fwd to your Kona review!

It was good! I was a little dubious because fried shrimp can be so heavy, but these were nice and light.

Awesome reviews and pics! I need to make it to WPE for breakfast one day...that omelette looks wonderful! And pizza for breakfast?...what could be better than that!

The omelet was wonderful, but I usually find all-cheese omelets too rich. This had a few tomatoes in it, and tomatoes on top, but was really pretty much a cheese omelet. The pizza was much lighter.

Having the boat to DTD was one of the best things about POFQ ... it wasn't quick, but it was beautiful, and since bus service to DTD usually sucks, in the long run it probably took about the same amount of time (and the boat dock is more convenient within DTD than the bus stops).

I love your reviews, too!

DINKS owned by felines. I'm in as well.

I didn't realize WP beef/pork came from Niman Ranch. May have to add this to our October trip. Your breakfasts look wonderful. We've only done lunch or dinner there.

Columbia Harbor House looks yummalicious. DH loves fried shrimp. Have to see what else is on the menu non-fried that I can eat.

Looking forward to more of your review.

Off the top of my head, they have a hummus sandwich, a tuna salad sandwich, clam chowder, and vegetarian chili.

Thanks!

 

[TillyMarigold]

I need to get some work done, so no more reviews right now, but here's the summary ... see if you can guess which is which.

• Four servers got a tip of 20% or more, of whom one also got a Guest Service Fanatic card from us.
• One server got a tip of less than 15% and his manager spoken to.
• Two restaurants were absolutely outstanding, among the best we've ever eaten at (and we eat out a *lot*).
• Two restaurants we thought were good (perhaps even very good) and we're glad we had the experience, but it's probably an experience we won't repeat.
• Two restaurants that we were expecting to be so-so surprised us by having absolutely wonderful food.

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Back to Previous Review (MK Pretzel & WPE Breakfast)
On to Next Review (Gelato in Italy Pavilion)

 

[Merryweather]

Off the top of my head, they have a hummus sandwich, a tuna salad sandwich, clam chowder, and vegetarian chili.

Thanks!

Oh those sound good. Maybe it'll cool off enough in late October to try the NEC Chowda.

 

[GoofySon'sMom]

Love your reviews - can't wait for the rest!

 

[TillyMarigold]

Love your reviews - can't wait for the rest!

Thanks, and welcome!

 

[TillyMarigold]

I have to warn y'all ... I am a huge fan of ice cream, but also a huge fan of not having my dessert/snack melt all over the place, so there will be many descriptions of ice cream, but relatively few pictures of it.

After DownTown Disney, we took the bus over to Epcot. We'd had a pretty big breakfast at Wolfgang Puck Express about 10:45 am, and we had a 7:40 reservation for Narcoossee's, so we weren't really hungry for lunch, but by mid-afternoon it was really hot out along the World Showcase Promenade. We were going counter-clockwise, and I had half a plan to go to Norway for the bakery, but then we discovered a gelato stand in Italy. (It's the same place that sells the Italian margarita.)

For those of you who aren't familiar with gelato, it's similar to ice cream, but with less cream and sugar and more flavoring. It is much denser and has a lower freezing point than ice cream (which is why you can't buy it in the grocery store; it requires a special freezer). It's normally served in much smaller portions than ice cream and eaten with a tiny spoon. We have a fantastic gelateria near my house that was started by a family that wanted to get their kids to eat more fruit, so most of their flavors are dairy-free [making them technically sorbetto and not gelato] and almost good for you ... a scoop of their fruit gelato is only one Weight Watchers point, for example, and their more traditional milk-based flavors are only 2.

Anyway, since it was about a million degrees out (ok, it was probably about 85°, but we're not used to the humidity), gelato sounded really good to me. They had several flavors for about $5 each, and then several three-scoop sundaes for about $10. We decided to split a sundae rather than each getting our own scoop (since it wasn't available on the dining plan in either case). I was leaning towards one of the fruit ones (IIRC it was berry gelato, strawberry gelato, cream gelato, strawberries, and raspberry sauce; they also had one that had mango sauce) but then Chernabog saw that there was another sundae that had cream gelato, strawberry gelato, cookies and cream gelato, dark chocolate sauce, whipped cream, and—this is the point—amaretto cookies on top. [By the way, I keep saying "cream" gelato. It was a traditional Italian cream flavor, but I forget which one ... crema, panna cotta, fiore di latte, or zabaglione. It basically tasted like cream.)

Apparently (I did not know this), Chernabog's step-grandmother is from Italy (although she lives in Scotland, where his mother and stepfather live). And when he was growing up, she used to have her family back in Italy send amaretto cookies every Christmas for her to give out to the grandkids. (Chernabog's parents divorced when he was 9 and found their current partners soon after, so his step-family was a big part of most of his childhood.) So once Chernabog saw the amaretto cookies on the menu, there was no talking him out of it, even though he's not really usually a chocolate person.

Unfortunately the sundae came with only 2 amaretto cookies on top, so we each got only 1, but they were very good. The whipped cream was fresh and real and delicious. All 3 flavors of gelato were very good--the cookies and cream had ENORMOUS chunks of Oreo in it. The chocolate sauce was Hershey's (to Chernabog's great amusement) but it was dark chocolate, not milk. The only problem was that it was served in a tall cup that made it hard to get the last bits out with the tiny gelato spoons (they had real spoons, but we hadn't thought we would need any).

It was absolutely delicious but there's no way I can imagine eating a whole one by myself ... by the $10 price tag, I'd guess you're not expected to, though.

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Back to Last Entry (Preview of Things to Come)
On to Next Review (Narcoossee's Dinner)

 

[Flossbolna]

I'd probably eat more meat, but I'm usually too lazy to do the research. We have an organic grocery store chain in the US called Whole Foods that publishes its standards for where it gets meat from, and then you can be sure any meat you buy there (they have a butcher counter, but even things like frozen dinners) will meet those standards. So we just go there whenever we want meat, which isn't often.

By the way, I'm a serious lurker, but I loved your reviews too, and I'm looking forward to your sisters trip!

Thanks for the nice comment on my reviews! My sister and I are seriously planning our ADRs at the moment and we will certainly write a dining review - which reminds me that I still need to finish the one from January 2009!

Loved your explanation on gelato. I never thought about it being different from American ice cream. I would say that gelato is the standard I gre up with as we have many Italians here in Germany with small ice cream shops. Only recently chains like Hägen Dazs and Ben & Jerry became popular here. I guess they are good representatives of the American type of ice cream? I definitely can see a difference there!

 

[LilyWDW]

Great reviews so far and I can't wait to see more! I really enjoy the food choices (seafood and vegetarian) as I have sworn to myself to eat lighter on my next trip (too many giant steaks last time... ) so these are PERFECT!

Well, except for the F&W booths... then it's all fair game!

 

[TillyMarigold]

Thanks for the nice comment on my reviews! My sister and I are seriously planning our ADRs at the moment and we will certainly write a dining review - which reminds me that I still need to finish the one from January 2009!

Loved your explanation on gelato. I never thought about it being different from American ice cream. I would say that gelato is the standard I gre up with as we have many Italians here in Germany with small ice cream shops. Only recently chains like Hägen Dazs and Ben & Jerry became popular here. I guess they are good representatives of the American type of ice cream? I definitely can see a difference there!

I'd imagine so, when I lived in Spain it was gelato we got there even though it's the same word in Spanish for both (helado). I'd say B&J and H-D are more "gourmet" ice cream, B&J has more interesting flavors than you'd usually see here and H-D is much richer (more cream--Ghirardelli is the same). What I'd call normal American ice cream is actually the hand-scooped stuff you get at WDW, which is a brand called Edy's.

BTW is it true that Häagen-Dasz means absolutely nothing in German?

Great reviews so far and I can't wait to see more! I really enjoy the food choices (seafood and vegetarian) as I have sworn to myself to eat lighter on my next trip (too many giant steaks last time... ) so these are PERFECT!

Chernabog says "Good luck with that!" He gained a few pounds on the trip ... I actually lost a tiny bit because of all the walking, though. We normally walk a lot (we have a crazy dog, for one thing) but I hadn't been walking as much as normal lately because of my knee. It only just started improving about a week before our trip.

 

[eroilersgal]

Signing on!!! We are also staying at POFQ during our trip NEXT WEEK and have a number of your places on our itinerary. Looking forward to more reviews!!

 

[TillyMarigold]

I'm sure y'all were wondering if we were ever going to get to a table-service meal!

Our first table-service meal was scheduled for 7:40 pm on Sunday the 6th, at Narcoossee's, at the Grand Floridian. We had chosen it because we wanted to see Wishes (originally scheduled for 9 pm) and the menu there appealed to us more than California Grill's. Also because Narcoossee's faces the Magic Kingdom more head-on than California Grill does. Unfortunately, just before we left, they changed the time of Wishes to 10 pm, so we planned to arrive right at 7:40 or as close to it as possible, have a leisurely dinner, explore the grounds, then watch Wishes from the boat dock.

However, since all we'd had was breakfast and gelato, we decided we were hungry earlier than that, so we decided to show up earlier than that and then try to get to see Wishes from Main Street. Our plan, since I'd never really been inside the Grand Floridian, was to get there early and explore a little (so we took the monorail over from Epcot ... we changed clothes at the TTC, by the way, so we could arrive feeling clean and fresh and not rushed). I have to say, I liked it more than I thought I would—I'd expected it to feel stuffy, but it really didn't.

Unfortunately, just as we stepped outside at a couple minutes past 7 pm to explore the grounds, it started to pour. So we hustled as best we could across the grounds. We got to Narcoossee's a bit damp about 7:10, and were seated about 7:15 or 7:20.

I took a not very good picture of the dining room from the waiting area:

We were eventually seated on the first level away from the windows, where the woman in pink with the blonde hair and her back to the camera is sitting. (The male server behind the woman was our server, Chevy, not that I knew that yet.) We actually had a pretty poor view ... I could see Space Mountain and the Contemporary, but the castle was behind a pillar, and all Chernabog could see was me and the waiting area.

I took a picture of the mural over the bar from our seat:

Our server, Chevy, introduced himself and told us it was pronounced with a hard CH like Chevy Chase (or "checkers") and not like the car. He offered to bring us water and bread while we were looking over the menus. The water must have been filtered or something, because it tasted fine.

I didn't take any pictures of bread anywhere, because I figured every dining review starts with the same bread so everyone has seen them before. In any case, Narcoossee's has a soft sourdough that you pull apart with your hands, and butter sprinkled with sea salt. The bread was nice and warm and soft and the butter was the perfect temperature.

We each ordered a glass of wine ... I ordered a South African chenin blanc (Spice Route) and I'm pretty sure Chernabog ordered an Australian sauvignon blanc (Brancott Reserve), even though it's not listed on the wine menu as being available by the glass. The wines were both very good. The server brought them to the table in already-opened bottles and poured out a bit for us to try, which is hilarious, because you're not testing to see if you like the wine—you're testing to see if it's corked, which is the only legitimate reason to return a wine. Not only would it have been obvious to the *first* person to taste the newly-opened bottle if it was corked (so a half-empty bottle must always be okay),... but also both bottles had screw tops and not corks (so they could never possibly become corked)!

I was really in the mood to eat vegetarian, but the menu was a new one (I can't find it anywhere) and the vegetarian entree and some of the seafood entrees we would normally have chosen all were mushroom-centric. I can't stand mushrooms, and Chernabog has a relatively mild but annoying sensitivity to them.

Anyway, we ordered our entrees. I should mention here that I try to avoid using flash and try to adjust the camera settings to compensate. Unfortunately, while that can produce really great pictures, such as this one of my entree:
Crab-Crusted Halibut with Crushed Fingerling Potatoes, Haricots Verts, and Meyer Lemon Sauce

... sometimes you get really blurry pictures, so this is the best I could do with Chernabog's:
Pan-Seared Scallops with Baby Summer Vegetables, Prosciutto, Parmesan, and Chimichurri Sauce

Yes, he had prosciutto ... told you he's not as strict as me. To my surprise, the prosciutto was separate, not wrapped around the scallops, which I think of as the usual way of doing things.

I'm not usually a fan of halibut, but this was perfectly cooked. I couldn't really taste the crab that was allegedly between the breading and the fish, but the breading was very nice and light and fluffy. The fish worked particularly well with the lemon sauce, which was absolutely delightful. I wouldn't have minded a few more haricots verts or a few fewer potatoes, but they were both very good. It was, overall, a fairly light dinner,... it would have been lighter if I hadn't finished the potatoes though.

So Chernabog's dish had several large scallops which were perfectly done (he gave me a bite of one), some proscuitto, and the baby summer vegetables were bell pepper, onion, baby zucchini, what he called "baby squash things" ("I remember those because I love them"), and he thinks there was also beet. He found the crust on the scallops a bit too much in some places, but overall they weren't overdone. He says the vegetables, rather than the scallops, were actually the highlight of the meal. They were perfectly paired and perfectly done, tender but not wilted.

There were two things that bothered him about this dish: he loved the sauce, which he describes as "zesty and citrusy," but he said that you needed to have a fair amount of it with each bite for the flavors to balance correctly, and there wasn't enough sauce to have enough with every bite. Two, the proscuitto was fried and crispy ... he liked the change in texture, but since it was crispy, you couldn't pick it up on the fork with other things and mix the flavors. He says he liked it but isn't sure he'd order it again, but thinks it's great if you like scallops, as long as you're willing to be annoyed by the sauce and the prosciutto.

I have to say that Chevy was just the perfect server. We never noticed him at all until we finished a plate or a drink, then he appeared almost instantly (but not quickly enough to make us feel rushed) to clear away the plate or refill. So he was one of the servers that got a 20% tip from us.

I am mostly a chocolate person, but after a seafood meal I often like key lime pie, but I'm not really a huge creme brulee fan. So I was torn, and in the end, I ordered the key lime creme brulee.

As you can see, it was perfectly bruléed and had two raspberries and two blackberries on top, all very fresh. I had been curious how the key lime and custard would play off each other, because they are both strong flavors, but the balance was absolutely perfect. Neither one overpowered the other. This was a definite winner.

Chernabog isn't usually into chocolate, but he loves blood oranges, so I wasn't too surprised he ordered the Valrhona chocolate cake with blood orange sauce (I know they rotate accompaniments, so we lucked out here).

You can see it also had a little bit of blood orange sorbet and a couple wedges of blood orange.

He thought this was absolutely wonderful ... the cake was very warm and moist and the sorbet was very good, although not as good as our local gelateria's housemade blood orange sorbetto. It was very rich, though--I don't think he finished it all. He says the best part was that there was a pool of dark chocolate orange sauce in the middle of the cake.

Because we'd had water with our meals, Chevy said we could each get a press pot of hot tea on the dining plan (a press pot is 2 cups, so I hadn't been sure if we could each get one). I got the cassis tea, which was black tea with a blackcurrant flavor and was quite nice and not too sweet. Chernabog got a tea called something like Jamaican Spice, which he absolutely loved. In fact, he loved it so much that he asked Chevy if he knew what brand it was so he could try to buy it again. Chevy replied that he thought it was imported directly from them, but he thought it could be ordered online from the importer and offered to find out. Chernabog said he didn't have to bother, but Chevy said it would be quick, and it actually was! Chevy went in the kitchen and looked at the box and was back in 2 minutes or less with the website of the tea supplier written on the back of a business card.

Which is why he was the server for whom we filled out the Guest Service Fanatic Card.

We finished dinner about 8:45 or 8:50, and went to the boat dock (hoping to catch the tail end of the 9:00 Spectro parade), where we waited a bit for the boat and then took the boat first to the Poly ... where we had to dock and sit while the Electrical Water Pageant went by. I'd never seen it before, and I thought it was pretty cool. So we missed Spectro, but saw the Electrical Light Pageant and also got the perfect seats for Wishes, on the 2nd floor of the train station, by arriving just as Spectro ended.

Between now and the next review, I shall try to get Chernabog to get his own login so I don't have to keep asking him for his (quite wordy) opinion and they typing out everything he says ...

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Back to the Last Review (Gelato in Italy Pavilion)
On to the Next Review (Sassagoula Food & Floatworks Breakfast)

 

[John's Mom]

Really enjoying your great reviews! Thanks for sharing.

 

[TillyMarigold]

On Day 3 (Monday) we had Keys to the Kingdom booked, so we got up early and grabbed breakfast at SF&F.

It bears mentioning here that Chernabog gets really shaky and dizzy (not to mention grumpy) if he doesn't have both caffeine and protein in the morning. So he was torn between scrambled eggs for protein and French toast, which he loves, until I pointed out that there was a scrambled eggs and French toast combo. So he got that, coffee, and a bottle of orange juice. He said the eggs were just okay, nothing wrong with them but nothing to recommend them either; the French toast was excellent but there wasn't enough of it. I think it was 2 small slices.

I ordered the pancakes topped with strawberries, which comes with a side of meat. I was somewhat annoyed that they would not allow me to substitute any non-meaty side for the bacon or sausage. It was 3 pancakes about 6" across that were cooked absolutely perfectly, and probably a bit less than a cup of strawberries, which were very fresh and delicious. I got coffee and some sort of tropical fruit drink that came in a bottle ... I remember it was sort of pinkish, but the primary flavor was pineapple. I thought it was OK, but Chernabog really loved it--he got it at least one more time on the trip.

Chernabog pronounced the coffee terrible (he drinks it black, no sugar) but the food court had a dispenser for real half and half, and with sugar and half and half it was palatable.

It was too early for photos, sorry!

 

[onelilspark]

Wow, I really like how the people in Narcoosee's went all out with the Business Casual dress code... (note sarcasm...)

Glad you had a great server. It's amazing how that 2 second thing he did can really make the meal!

 

[DLo]

Great reviews. Narcooses looks amazing.Maybe one day I will get there. Looking forward to sci fi and cape may as we are going to these next month.

 

[Nancy for Disney]

Great reviews. Thanks for posting pictures of the inside of Narcosse's. I don't look at all like I expected.

 

[CanadianPaco]

Wonderful reviews!!! Thx for posting!

 

[disneyfav4ever]

That chocolate orange cake at Narcoossees sounds wonderful.

 

[TillyMarigold]

Wow, I really like how the people in Narcoosee's went all out with the Business Casual dress code... (note sarcasm...)

Glad you had a great server. It's amazing how that 2 second thing he did can really make the meal!

That one table (I think there were 8 of them) were pretty much the only people I saw not in business casual. But we didn't get very far into the restaurant, we were seated pretty close to the entrance.

He was a great server.

Great reviews. Narcooses looks amazing.Maybe one day I will get there. Looking forward to sci fi and cape may as we are going to these next month.

Welcome! Narcoossee's was pretty cool.

Great reviews. Thanks for posting pictures of the inside of Narcosse's. I don't look at all like I expected.

It looks very casual, doesn't it? It reminded me of a description I read somewhere of someplace I think on Cape Cod. Something about being so well-established it doesn't need to try.

Wonderful reviews!!! Thx for posting!

Welcome!

That chocolate orange cake at Narcoossees sounds wonderful.

I think it was wonderful. DH wouldn't let me try it.

I believe they always have the cake, but change the sauce/ice cream it comes with pretty regularly.

 

[TillyMarigold]

Sorry for the lack of updates--I've been playing with my new photo-editing software (Windows Live Photo Gallery), and wow am I loving it. It's so easy to use and gives such great results. It almost makes me look like a good photographer. So look for more beautiful photos from now on.

As I mentioned, on that day (Monday, Sept. 7) we had booked the Keys to the Kingdom tour, which includes lunch at Columbia Harbour House.

When we checked in for our tour, they handed us a laminated CHH menu and asked us to pick an entree and a drink. I ordered the Anchors Aweigh (tuna salad) sandwich, which came with chips, and a light lemonade. Chernabog ordered the Lighthouse (hummus and broccoli slaw) sandwich, which also came with chips, and a Coke. (No dessert ... our tour guide said at the end of lunch "Did you wonder why there was no dessert? That's because dessert is a RIDE ON THE HAUNTED MANSION!")

When we got to CHH, our tour guide went inside and made sure we were set up, then led us in through an exit to the 2nd floor, where a section was roped off for us. There were little name cards at each place and our lunches were all laid out for us. (The name cards also contained our KTTK pins.)

Everyone raves about these two sandwiches, and I have to say, they were very, very good. They were both served on a multigrain bread that was very grainy and dense. The tuna salad had obviously been made fairly recently. It was ... people say it's the best tuna salad they've ever eaten, and it may well have been the best I've ever eaten as well, but it wasn't absolutely blow me away, to die for. It was merely slightly better than your average tuna salad. It also had sliced tomatoes and romaine lettuce, which was nice because usually you'd expect iceberg. The chips were Mrs. Vick's sea salt flavor kettle chips, which I happen to think are very good. The overall theme of my lunch, and it was a theme common to most of the QS meals we ate, was that it was somewhat better than you would normally expect for what it was. Not astoundingly good, but slightly above average. I liked it quite a lot, and I'd certainly order it again; but I doubt I'll dream about eating it lke I've heard some people do.

The only comment I got out of Chernabog when I asked him at the time how his sandwich was, was "garlicky," but he pretty much put his head down and inhaled it, so I guess he liked it.

No pictures of lunch--I didn't want my fellow tour attendees to think I was any weirder than they probably already did. Here's a photo of Rae, our tour guide, though. She was a riot!