10 Days of Dining, 5 Days with Gluten Free Options, August 14-22 w/pics.updated 9/6

[JJ&JHsmom]

Brought home a cold as one of my souveniers, so boss told me to keep my germs at home for today. Unfortunately my kiddos say I should be resting in bed and are limiting my computer time. Who's the parent???? Anyway, I was very nervous about booking Boma in the first place. JH is very picky and I was way concerned that she would only eat from the kids station. Well we discussed it and her first plate would be trying new things and if she didn't like it she could make a plate from the kids stuff. So Her first plate:

Now JH is a ranch dressing kind of girl. She has the apple vineagrette on her greens...she liked it and ate almost all of it, JJ and I both tried a bite and it was tasty. She loves strawberries so that is a no brainer at every buffet.

JJ and I wanted to try all the different soups, but wanted to try the dressings for the salads too. This is JJ's first plate:

He has some mic=xed greens with the chili cilantro dressing and some tomato and watermelon salad. The dressing was alright, had a little kick to it. Tomato and watermelon had a weird taste. This was his soup choice:

Carrot Ginger Soup...This was a smooth soup. It was soooo good. Even JH tried it and liked it. A perfect blend of veggie and spice. We finished the whole bowl.

My first plate and soup choice:

Some mixed greens with mango vineagrette...very sweet with a little tang from the vinegar. My soup was Pearl Cous-cous Seafood Soup. It had mussels, shrimp, pieces of fish(not sure what kind), chucks of carrots and lots of cous-cous. I really liked the flavor of this soup. Broth was very mild and seafood was cooked perfect, not rubbery at all. JJ tried some and said it was good and tried to take the rest. Uh no, go get your own kid!!!!!

S I went up to grab the other three soups. There is the chicken pepper pot, Sausage and Lentil, Curry chicken stew. The pepper pot was okay, the curry one was okay, but the Sausage and Lentil had a very good flavor. JH would only try a bite of each and shuddered after each one. JJ liked them but still liked the Carrot and Ginger one the best. So off we go to the rest of the Buffet.

JH's first trip to the rest of the buffet, at this point she says it all looks way too different and can she just have the kids stuff. Uh no, that's not what we talked about. So she goes up to the buffet with JJ all pouty and mad. They returned to the table and she's very upset that he "made" her get the things on her plate. So I told her to just try it and we'd see.

So she has a piece of prime rib, no sauce, FuFu, Durban spiced Chicken, potatoes with Afritude, Mealie pap, and some bobtie. Didn't like anything but the mealie pap, basically a corn muffin. Meats tasted too spicy, didn't like the white potatoe chunks in the Fufu, Bobtie was gross, her face was priceless, I wish I had gotten a picture. She is now begging to go to the kids station...okay I tried. She ate mac and cheese, I think.

JJ came back at the same time as JH, this is his plate:

He had alot of the same things at JH, but added some nut crusted salmon. He must have been really hungry before he sat down because that was the way the watermelon came to the table, already eaten. He tried everything, and said it was okay. His meat has the tamarind sauce on it and he didn't really care for the flavor. He liked both kinds of potatoes. Took a couple bites of the salmon and proclaimed the nut topping to spicy.

Here is my plate:

I had alot of the same as the kiddos but I added some ribs, some Saffron rice. I had put a little of the Tamarind sauce on my plate next to my meat. The beef was good with and without the sauce, the sauce has a little kick but was not overly spicy. Not a real BBQ flavor though. The chicken was nasty. I can't explain why but one bite was enough. The potatoes were okay, not great. The rice was good. The ribs were very fatty, so fatty that I didn't try very hard to find the meat because their wasn't much on those bones. The salmon was good, the nut topping was a little spicy but now a hot spice. The bobtie was awful, just too spicy. That was all I could taste was spices. I did try to get some pork on two different trips to the buffet but they didn't have any. Now on to desert:

Okay so we did try a little of everthing on the buffet, I had pictures of three plates but can only find one. We'll start with the top, this was some kind of cake, it was dry and gross. Next was a Tirimisu kind of tart, JJ said gross, JH wouldn't even try it, I thought it was only okay. Nest was an upside down cheesecake. OMG, this was good. It had pineapple pieces in it and was very creamy and cold. Okay the Zebra Domes, JJ said "What's the big deal, only okay." JH thought they were kinda gross. Me, they are good, but not good enough to rave about. The chocolate mouse things were too bitter. The thing in the middle, was just plain nasty!!! I don't remember what it was but we each took a bite and spit it out. Gross!!!!! We did try the banana bread pudding, was okay nothing to rave about. The fresh cobbler was pear and was okay. JH tried the chocolate chip cookie and said it was too dry.

I had heard so many good things that I was really excited to try this buffet, now I can say I tried it. I don't think we'll be going back. I really wasn't that impressed with the offerings.

Okay that's it for today, JJ and JH have been nagging me to go lie down. So off I go, But MOM I'm not tired!!!!!!

Up next, Sci Fi lunch, and Tutto Italia for dinner. Hope you enjoyed my reviews.

 

[milmore104]

Your pictures and reviews are great. I'm loving them. Can't wait to see Sci-Fi. One of my Favs. Hope you feel better.

 

[catne]

great reviews, enjoying them immensely...I'm with JH & JJ on the Boma spices...too much! I would have eaten off the kids station there too, if I could have gotten anywhere close to it (place was slam/jam packed when we were there - 10 min. waits to get to any station & the kids station was longer than that.)

The bread pudding was the only dessert we really liked (did you put the vanilla rum sauce on the bread pudding...that was what really put it over the top good)

Your picture of the reuben from the Plaza made me hungry!

And thanks for that adult beverage picture! I can't wait for my first pina colava when we arrive a week from Saturday...that says "You have ARRIVED at Disney" to me (spend half the year trying versions at other restaurants that sound like they should taste the same but never,ever measure up to the Disney version. Must be the pixie dust they add at Disney)

 

[JJ&JHsmom]

So since I have no idea what we did for breakfast I'll go straight to lunch. We were hungry and we had 11:25 am ressies for Sci Fi. My original plan had be to grab a snack about 10:30 to tide us over but I could not locate the snack of choice, an apple stuffed pretzel. So a little after 11 we checked into Sci-Fi. We knew to stick to sandwhiches and burgers from the many reviews we had read before hand. We we seated in car, and JH and I shared the front and put JJ in the back by himself. JJ and JH wanted shakes and decided to share a burger and I wanted a Rueben and onion rings. I offered JJ half my sandwich and onion rings...he is a growing boy after all.

JH's vanilla shake

JJ's strawberry shake

Both shakes were very thick and they were scooping it out to begin with. It took awhile before they could drink them through the straw. Both loved their shakes. Me I drank a water. I was hoping to save some room for desert.

JH's half of the burger, seperated in the kitchen, she requested no onion and no pickle on her half. As you can see, she loves her some fries with her ketchup. JJ's portion was the same just add the onion and pickle.

Here is my portion of the sandwich after I had given JJ half and part of the rings. There is an additional $2 charge to sub rings for fries and we got 6 or 7 rings. The sandwich was good, the rings a little soggy and greasy. JJ and JH both said the burger was good.

Now I had been thinking about ordering desert, but it took our waiter forever to do anything so I skipped desert and paid the bill.

 

[JJ&JHsmom]

Since I wanted to watch the afternoon parade, and we had passed on desert, I felt a sweet snack as we waited was in order. JJ just wanted a water. JH and I walked over to Starring Rolls and this is is what we had:

JH's choice was a white chocolate cupcake. This was huge!!!!. She only ate a couple bites of it. I tried some, the white chocolate was good, the frosting was overly sweet, the cake was dry. Oh well it looked good. We ended up throwing half of it in the trash.

My choice was a slice of the Grapefruit cake from the Brown Derby. I had wanted to try this last year but was unwilling to make a ressie for Brown Derby as the food did not appeal to DH. I was excited that they had it.
I took my first bite and......eh, it was okay not fabulous, not even alot of Citrus taste. JH tried a few bites and made a little shrug. Not the best choices for snacks. Oh well. At this point JJ decides to go over to Min and Bill's and get some frozen Lemonades. No pics but these hit the spot in the heat and would become our favorite use of a snack credit.

 

[JJ&JHsmom]

We were all looking forward to this dinner. JH loves pasta and we had drooled over reviews for months. This place was packed when we arrived for our 6:00 ressie. There was a line of people outside, but luckily we were able to check in inside and were seated within 10 minutes. OUr waitress spoke very softly so it was difficult to hear her in the loud restaurant. JJ wanted the veal ravioli, JJ wanted the spaghetti and veal meatball, and I wanted the shrimp and black squid ink linguini. I have never had squid ink pasta and asked our server if it had a flavor, she said she wasn't sure but she did not think so. So we all ordered, as we snacked on bread and olives they had brought. Oops, forget to take pics, cause I was distracted by JJ who tells me after the waitress walks way that he thinks he ordered the wrong thing. I am looking all over for the waitress, do not see her anywhere, after a few minutes go by we give up and decide he is stuck with what he ordered. Maybe next time he'll use the menu and not his memory to order....

So as he watches numerous plates with the veal ravioli all around us, this is what he ended up withCasarecci which is pasta with sausage. Not even close in sounds or description to what he wanted. Not sure where his brain went but he ate about half of this and said it was okay just not what he wanted.

JJ loves pasta, not so much meatballs. I figured she would inhale her meal. Not quite. She tried one meatball and said they were okay. Now the amount of spaghetti on he plate was only a little more than she would usually eat at home, but she only ate about one quarter of it. Maybe it was the fact that no one offered her any freshly grated cheese? Everyone else around us was offered cheese for their pasta, JH loves lots of parmesan cheese on hers. By the time our waitress came around with the cheese the pasta was cold and JJ would not eat it.

This was my shrimp and black squid ink linguini. It was in a slightly spicy tomato sauce and it was yummy!!!!! The shrimp were cooked perfectly and the pasta was a perfect al dente.

Deserts:

JJ ordered the Copetta Sotto Bosco.

JH ordered these, not sure of the name but you get the idea.

I ordered the Gianduja Chocolate Torta.

Now JH had ordered the chocolate sauce on the side because she wanted to take the ice cream out of the puffs and then pour on the sauce. Nope, the server (not ours) brought it out and before she puts it on the table poured the sauce on the desert. JH was so crushed, just at that moment our server sees JH's face and offers to get another desert. JH is just so disappointed at this point she just says no. JJ likes his except for the frozen berries(I mean deep freeze frozen, break your teeth frozen). Now both of them are making eyes at mine. Uh, I really like it guys,.... but please mom?! So I ended with like three or four bites of heaven and of course let the two of them finish it while I ate ice cream puffs with chocolate sauce. I keep hoping that they will eventually just learn to order what I do, then maybe I won't always be giving up mine. Oh well we live and learn. I loved what I ordered and would return and hope for a different server she wasn't terrible but she wasn't great either. JJ and JH said it was only okay.

So okay I'm up for a quick stroll to France and a little liquid desert, sadly JJ and JH have decided all they want to to is get back to the resort. No stops, no rides, not Illuminations and Grey goose slushes. Where did I go wrong? Oh well, tomorrow is our full day at Epcot and I have a list of the beverages I want to try!

Did I get to try any alcoholic beverages? Lunch at Coral Reef, Dinner at
Chef's De France, and Mom needs to be careful what she wishes for!!!!!

 

[SnwflkCts]

Love the reviews.

Although you didn't like it much, where did you get the grapefruit cake? Was it at the Brown Derby or somewhere else (Starring Rolls?) -- sorry, if you said ... I already forget - (short term memory loss - I'm old and too busy drooling over the food pics! )

 

[GoofySon'sMom]

Signing in a little late! Great reviews so far!

 

[amandelba]

Great start. Looking forward to the rest.

 

[basketlacey]

Thanks for the reviews. Looking forward to the rest!

 

[Sleepydormouse]

Can't wait to hear what your neice ate. I am Celiac also, so we are always looking for good places to eat gluten-free in Disney!

 

[iluvpluto27]

Really enjoying your review. The squid ink linguini at Tutto looks really good.

 

[JJ&JHsmom]

Love the reviews.

Although you didn't like it much, where did you get the grapefruit cake? Was it at the Brown Derby or somewhere else (Starring Rolls?) -- sorry, if you said ... I already forget - (short term memory loss - I'm old and too busy drooling over the food pics! )

I got it at Starring Rolls, they didn't have it out, I had to ask for it.

 

[JJ&JHsmom]

Finally tackled the mountain of receipts I brought home, here is some pricing info for the previous reviews.

Pina Colava at Team Spirits was $8.03 with tax, worth it everytime!!!!!!

I must of thrown the receipts for the next few day away because I have none for Typhoon Lagoon, Plaza, or Sci-Fi.

Wolf Gang Puck Express Mac and Cheese $10.95, @ BBQ Quesidilla $21.90. Creme Brulee $4.95, 2 frozen yogurt $8.50, @ bottled water $5.50, 1 fountain drink $2.65. Grand Total with tax $57.99

Boma for the 3 of us all considered adults, $92.63 or $30.88 each with tax.

Starring Rolls Grapefruit Cake $7.00, White Chocolate Cupcake $3.99

Tutto Italia Soft drinks $3.00 each, Spaghetti with meatball $22.00, Shrimp and Linguine, $25.00, Casarecci $25.00, Profiterolles $10.00, Chocolate Torta $10.00, Copetta Sottobosco $14.00 Grand total with tax $122.48

From now on if I have the receipt I will post the costs with the review.

 

[JJ&JHsmom]

Okay I wasn't so good at getting breakfast photos yet, I guess I needed more caffine in the am. We had ressies at 11:50 for lunch at Coral Reef. JJ had wanted to try this one last year but I was too nervous because of all the negative reviews. This year this was the one restaurant he chose. He really wanted to try the Lobster Soup. We checked in shortly after 11 as we were hungry. This place was packed, people we lined up on both sides of the corrider going into the dining room. There was easily 50-75 people waiting to be seated. We were seated within 15 minutes. Not too bad. The waitress informed us the we could have soft drinks or smoothie as our beverage on the dining plan. JJ ordered the Sour Apple Freeze $3.99

We all agreed that it did not taste anything like sour apple. Not sure what it tasted like but he only drank about half. JH ordered the Lava Smoothie $ 4.29

We all thought this tasted like my Pina Colava, which JH did not like. I ordered a Strawberry Freeze $4.29

We all liked this one best, of course I ended up giving it to JH and I drank hers. We ordered a lobster soup $7.99 and the waitress brought out some bread and butter.

The bread was warm and the butter soft. The waitress brought 3 spoons with the soup so we could all try a taste. JJ dug right in, made a face, tried another bite and put his spoon down. He did not care for the flavor. JH tried it and really like it. I thought it tasted a little strong but not like seafood. JH ended up eating most of it.

Okay now remember when I said I wished they would just order what I did, well to my surprize they both did. I ordered the Lobster Ravioli $24.99, I had planned on this as soon as I found out it was on the menu. JJ loves lobster claws, JH doesn't like lobster usually at all. I asked if she was sure and she really wanted to try it. Okay.

Only took a picture of one, they did look pretty much the same. I thought the sauce was good but a little overpowering for the lobster. There were five or six good size ravioli in the bowl. The filling was a mixture of cheese and chopped lobster, there were several large pieces of claw meat in the sauce. As I was eating I glanced at JJ, he wasn't eating much, JH was pushing hers around. Neither one of them liked the sauce. Hopefully they would like their desert. JJ ordered the Butterscotch Creme Brulee $7.99

JJ ordered the Chocolate Wave $7.99

I ordered the Bailey's and Jack Daniel's Mouse $7.99

We each tried all three. The Creme Brulee had a hint of butterscotch flavor, it was good. JJ ate about three quarters. The Chocolate wave was okay, JJ really likes this kind of desert and ate it all. I tried each layer of the mouse seperately and together. I could not tell the difference in taste between the two layers. It was okay but I was dissappointed. JJ usually eats way more than he has been eating, he told me he thinks it's the air in Florida.

 

[JJ&JHsmom]

JJ went to ride Test Track as a single rider, JH and I went to World Showcase to report for our Kim Possible mission. We ended up in Japan for our mission, when were finished we were hot and thirsty. I got a tangerine kaki gori to share and she got a Sprite.

It is a flavored shaved it. It was refreshing in the afternoon heat. Not too sweet. We enjoyed it.

 

[JJ&JHsmom]

So as soon as I found out Remy would be at Chefs, I decided JH would just have to deal with the menu and find something!!! I wanted to see Remy. We had a ressie for 5:00. The line to check in here was almost as bad as the line outside of Tutto the day before. It moved pretty quickly and we were seated within 5 minutes. We started off with drinks, I ordered and iced tea with lemon, JJ ordered and French Lemonade, JH ordered some French citrus soda. These are not part of the dining plan, I had to pay OOP, but I was okay with it. I don't have this receipt but I remember it being under $10 for the OOP part of the bill.

I have to be honest I thought both of these gross. JJ liked his JH tried it and thought it was okay. I thought of seltzer with lemon squeezed in it. JH thought hers was going to be more like orange soda. It definately had a citrus flavor but was not sweet enough for her. I thought it tasted almost like Fresca. I am not very big on carbonated beverages can you tell?

JH wanted the Macaroni and cheese, is anyone surprised? I talked her into the Fixed price menu by saying I would eat the Creme Brulee and she could order whatever desert she wanted. We ordered the Onion soup as her appy and we split it.

I really hoped she would eat more of this than she did. She like the flavor of the broth, but the crouton was too hard for her and she didn't like the cheese. JJ and I split the better part of this. We liked it. Here is her mac and cheese

I was a little nervous that she would not eat this grown up mac and cheese....she loved it, it was creamy and not overpoweringly cheesy, she ate almost the whole bowl. JJ said it was pretty good.

JJ decided to order the beef short ribs, but didn't like any of the desert options so he did not order from the fixed price menu

He took one bite and said "Mom you have to try this, this is AMAZING!!!" Okay we found something he likes!!!!! I tried it and the flavor of the beef was really good, not overwhelming but rich and tasty. He ate all the beef and a good portion of the noodles. JH even said it was good but was really happy with her dish.

I ordered the Boullabaisse, it came with rice, not potato.

This was very good. The seafood was perfectly cooked. The rice had a nutty flavor and was a good compliment to the seafood. I made both the kiddos try some. JH didn't care for it. JJ said the seafood was good, not the rice.

So we know I was getting Creme Brulee, JJ and JH both decided on the Crepes with cinnamon, apple and vanilla ice cream.

JJ and JH both thought the crepe itself was gross, unrolled it and ate the inside with the ice cream, weren't to crazy about the sauce on the plate either. I thought is was okay. I was aprehensive about the Creme Brulee after reading so many negative comments on it. I took a bite, it was really good. It had just the right hint of vanilla, the top was just right, not burnt. I took a bite of the Madeleine and was surprised, I thought it would be like a cookie, it was more like a sponge cake. It was good. Both JJ and JH tried it a said it was good. They both like the creme brulee too.

We would definately return here for another meal in the future. Remy did make a brief visit at our table, he was very cute.

 

[JJ&JHsmom]

My plan was to grab a Grey Goose Slush on my way out of France and explore some more of World Showcase before the night show. DH and DN are joining us in the morning so I called to make sure he checked in for his 7:05 am flight. Now he is totally computer illiterate, I have left him detailed instuctions, step by step so that he can do this. I showed him how before we left. It has only been five days. This should have been a short phone call. Notice I said shoud have been. 45 minutes later, I finally give up and told him I will call my sister and have her check both of them in. I quickly call and have her check them in and print their boarding passes, call him and tell him he is all set. Now I REALLY need that drink.

The cost for this was $9.58 with tax. It was really good! It melted fast because of the heat, but I drank it pretty quickly. I had decided to try the Grand Marnier one later.

 

[JJ&JHsmom]

So we found a spot to watch Illuminations, and I walked over to France to get some snacks and a drink.

We have a Napolean, a Chocolate Eclair, and Raspberry Schuss, each was considered a snack on the dining plan. We each tried a little bit of each. We loved the Schuss, so creamy with a hint of the Raspberry, YUM!!! JJ and JH were disappointed with the Napolean and the Eclair. JJ thought the Napolean was to crispy and not enough cream, very hard to eat with a fork. JH did not like the fact that the cream in her eclair was chocolate. She is used to vanilla custard in hers. Maybe I'm just raising very picky eaters, I think they were all very tasty and I finished everything in the box!!!! I'll diet later.

Okay so I had stopped and gotten the Grand Marnier slush, but it was melting faster than I could walk. Of course the camera was with JJ and JH. I had to drink some before I could take a picture. This was $9.58 the same as the Grey Goose one from earlier.

As much as I love the Grey Goose, I disliked this one. The flavor reminded me of the St Joseph's chewable aspirin my mother gave me as a child. Can you say GROSS!!!! I usually let both the kids try a sip, both made the funniest faces, I'm not the only one who didn't like it. I felt obligated to finish it, thank goodness for those snacks to help wash it down.

That's all for today. Tomorrow's lunch reviews will have gluten free option as well as regular. We had lunch at the resort and dinner at Whispering Canyon Cafe. Stay tuned.

 

[mcrabeck]

I have a son who is a picky eater as well- really enjoying your reviews