14 Days of Gluttony AKA Doing Free Dining Again! COMPLETE!

[MrsB1228]

After a fun morning in the Magic Kingdom, we decided to stop for lunch at Columbia Harbour House just before noon. After looking over the menu board, we made our selections:

DH chose the Fried Shrimp Basket with fries. It came with a small serving of cole slaw and cocktail sauce. It was a generous portion, there were 10 shrimp on that plate as well as a healthy serving of fries. DH said the shrimp were well cooked, crispy, not greasy and the breading was flavourful. The fries were the perfect balance of crispy coating and fluffy interior and were hot and fresh. He said the cole slaw was also very good, even though he usually prefers a vinegary slaw and this one was sweet. He gives it 4/5.

I had the Anchors Aweigh sandwich, which is white tuna mixed with mayo and served with lettuce and tomato on toasted multigrain bread. I've had this sandwich before and it never disappoints. They seem to have found the perfect ratio of mayo-to-tuna. Some places load on so much mayo that it ends up being the prominent flavour, making the sandwich sloppy and difficult to eat, and other places make it too dry. This is perfect. It was supposed to come with a bag of the Disney chips and I had requested apple slices instead. It wasn't until we got upstairs and started eating that I realized I didn't get either choice, LOL. I didn't bother going back for it as it wasn't really needed. I give this 4/5.

DH had chocolate milk to drink and I had white milk. We both had the apple crisp for dessert, which is really more of an apple blossom and is very tasty. The pastry is tender and the filling is generous, with hints of cinnamon and nutmeg. It's served warm and we both enjoyed it. You can see it in the picture next to DH's shrimp.

Overall, CHH gets a 4/5 and we'll be back!

Lunch used 2 quick service credits and would have cost $33.28 OOP.

Up next: Dinner at Raglan Road

 

[DonaldDoleWhip]

Agreed on CHH - it's nice to have a CS option in MK with some tasty seafood options. I've also enjoyed the anchors aweigh sandwich, but my favorite dish there has to be the grilled salmon with broccoli - yum. That apple dessert also sounds really good.

 

[MrsB1228]

Dinner tonight was at one of our favourite places in Downtown Disney, Raglan Road. This is a lovely restaurant, resplendent in brass and wood, and it's a lively, fun place to be in the evening with its Irish band and step dancers providing entertainment.

I started by ordering one of their specialty drinks, a Jay'Gail Sangria

This is tied for my favourite drink this trip! It was so refreshing after a hot day. It's basically a sangria made with Magner's hard cider instead of wine and I highly recommend it! The bread service also arrived with our drinks, although I failed to get a picture. It's an Irish soda bread served with olive oil and a Guinness reduction that tastes a lot like honey. You can see it in the photo below, to the right of my entree.

After looking over the extensive menu, we made our decisions:

Sorry for the blurry picture, I was struggling to find the best camera setting but I couldn't seem to get a decent photo of this. The restaurant lighting is quite low and we were seated against a wall with sconces that were creating quite a few shadows. Anyway, this is the best of the pics I took. I had the Serious Steak: a 10 oz. sirloin topped with Irish Whisky Marmalade glaze, fresh basil oil, mashed potatoes and topped with crispy onion rings. I ordered the steak medium but when it arrived it was definitely well done as it had no trace of pink anywhere. It was very good but a little drier than I like. The potatoes were fluffy and delicious. All in all, this was a very good meal, I just wish it came with a vegetable to balance the starchy carb and protein. 3-1/2/5

DH chose Fish & Chips: beer battered fish and chips served with fresh tarter sauce. It doesn't look like it in the picture, but there were quite a few fries with this, there's a lot more underneath the fish. DH enjoyed this, the batter was light and crispy and the fish was well cooked, but he said it wasn't better than the fish and chips he gets here at home. He can't comment on the tartar sauce as he never uses it. 3-1/2/5

Time for dessert (like we needed it )

Ok, confession time ... when this was placed in front of me, I immediately picked up the spoon and took a bite. DH said "wait a minute, you didn't take a picture!" D'oh! I didn't want to post a pic with a bite out of it so DH said, "here, cover the evidence with the leaf". I knew you wouldn't be fooled so I figured I better fess up.

This dessert is called Fluffy Lemon Clouds and it was heavenly! It's a lemon meringue tart with the lightest, fluffiest meringue I've ever had in my life. The pastry was very tender and flaky and the lemon curd was wonderful, lovely and tart which perfectly balanced the sweet meringue. It was seriously delicious, and I was sad that I could only eat about a third of it before I was stuffed. 5/5

DH had the Black Forest Kiss, and waited patiently for me to take a picture before diving in. He's got much better self control than I do, LOL! He loved this! It was sweet black cherries, rich chocolate mousse, pieces of sweet biscuit and a splash of kirsch. He ate every bite and wished it was socially acceptable to lick the glass. 5/5

Overall, Raglan Road receives a solid 4/5 and maintains it's "must do" status for us!

This meal used 2 Table Service credits and would have been $85.63 before tip if paying OOP.

Up next: Day 3 includes lunch at Contempo Cafe and dinner at Yak & Yeti.

 

[sushi candy]

That lemon cloud just looks amazing! I really wish that was available when I went. Totally agree with you about the lighting at Raglan Road. We went in the evening and it was already quite dark outside. I know the function of Pub lighting is to make your date look even more mysterious and attractive when accompanied by alcohol, lol. It is the worst for food pics, Carol.

 

[MrsB1228]

Agreed on CHH - it's nice to have a CS option in MK with some tasty seafood options. I've also enjoyed the anchors aweigh sandwich, but my favorite dish there has to be the grilled salmon with broccoli - yum. That apple dessert also sounds really good.

I was also tempted by the salmon and had a hard time choosing between the two. Ultimately the tuna sandwich won because I know how much I enjoy it. I'm a creature of habit, LOL!

The apple blossom is lovely, and is probably my favourite counter service dessert.

 

[MrsB1228]

That lemon cloud just looks amazing! I really wish that was available when I went. Totally agree with you about the lighting at Raglan Road. We went in the evening and it was already quite dark outside. I know the function of Pub lighting is to make your date look even more mysterious and attractive when accompanied by alcohol, lol. It is the worst for food pics, Carol.

"The function of pub lighting is to make your date more mysterious and attractive when accompanied by alcohol" Rosey, your post made me snort tea and LOL! Thanks for adding laughter to my evening!

That lemon dessert was AH-MA-ZING! Our waiter told us it had just been added to the menu and he recommended it highly. He definitely didn't steer me wrong.

 

[DonaldDoleWhip]

I spy 2 new desserts at Raglan Road, and they both look great! It's never been one of my favorites (since I've often wound up with dishes that were a bit too heavy), but thanks to recent reviews of it (such as yours and Rosey's), now I really want to go back!

 

[MrsB1228]

I spy 2 new desserts at Raglan Road, and they both look great! It's never been one of my favorites (since I've often wound up with dishes that were a bit too heavy), but thanks to recent reviews of it (such as yours and Rosey's), now I really want to go back!

I hear you regarding the heavy dishes DDW! The last couple of times we've dined at RR, I ordered their signature dessert, Ger's Bread & Butter Pudding. While it's definitely tasty, it's huge and very heavy and rich. I can barely make a dent in it. I decided this time to branch out and try something different (and hopefully a bit lighter) and was so glad I did. I didn't try DH's dessert, but judging by the "mmm" sounds that were coming from that side of the table, it was very yummy, LOL. I don't think you'd go wrong with either choice.

 

[Roma]

I am loving the look of that Black Forest Kiss! DH and I have ADRs at Raglan our first night and I've been torn between the bread pudding and the Dunbrody kiss for dessert. Now they both may be completely off the table of possibilities in the face of that scrumptiousness!

I'm also having an ongoing internal debate over whether to go with the original risotto or the mashed potatoes at Le Cellier.

Loving your reviews!

 

[dgagnon519]

Love the reviews, so I am jumping in so I can see more.

 

[rachel09985]

Lol i just laughed so hard at the "Here cover it up with a leaf" remark!! Lol! Thats something we would do!

 

[DsnyMama]

Great reviews so far! Joining aboard!

 

[MrsB1228]

I am loving the look of that Black Forest Kiss! DH and I have ADRs at Raglan our first night and I've been torn between the bread pudding and the Dunbrody kiss for dessert. Now they both may be completely off the table of possibilities in the face of that scrumptiousness!

I'm also having an ongoing internal debate over whether to go with the original risotto or the mashed potatoes at Le Cellier.

Loving your reviews!

Thanks for reading! DH really enjoyed the Black Forest Kiss. He's a big fan of black forest cake, so this was right up his alley.

I completely understand the dilemma of trying to decide between the risotto and the mashed potatoes. Both are wonderful so you'll probably have to do what I did and just go with whichever appeals more on the day you visit. Enjoy!

Love the reviews, so I am jumping in so I can see more.

Welcome! Thanks for reading.

Lol i just laughed so hard at the "Here cover it up with a leaf" remark!! Lol! Thats something we would do!

LOL! That's my hubby, always ready with a fix for any situation!

Great reviews so far! Joining aboard!

Thank you and welcome aboard!

 

[MrsB1228]

This was supposed to be a morning spent at Hollywood Studios with lunch at 50's Prime Time Cafe but we had decided that after the busyness of the past few days, we needed a slower pace this morning. So I cancelled our ADR and did a search to find what was available instead. Since Yak & Yeti popped up with an available ADR at 4:45 that evening, DH was all for grabbing it since Y&Y is one of his favourites. We have a lunch ADR for later in our holiday, but he was quite happy to go twice, lol.

We had a sleep-in this morning and didn't get going until after 9. We just had coffee and juice for breakfast as neither one of us was very hungry then we hopped on the bus for the MK. After arriving at MK, we caught the resort monorail and headed over to the Grand Floridian as I wanted to shop at Basin White. They have the most wonderful body butters!! I discovered them quite a few trips ago and always stop by to purchase some when we're at the World. We spent some time poking around some of the other stores and taking photos, this is such a beautiful resort.

It was getting close to lunch time and as we hadn't had anything to eat, we were starting to get hungry. We decided to hop on the monorail and head to the Contemporary. We'd never eaten there before and as I'd been hearing some good things about it, we decided to try it.

You place your order at a kiosk which is equipped with a touch-screen ordering system. After making our entree selections, we headed over to the bakery to pick up our dessert. This is what we chose:

For DH: a Chocolate Peanut Butter cupcake

For me: a Spiced Apple cupcake

We each chose the same entree, the Stacked Sandwich with fries. You also have a choice of a green bean salad. We both chose a soft drink as our beverage.

This was really delicious, but HUGE! It could easily be shared by two people. The serving of fries was also very generous. The sandwich contained smoked ham, smoked turkey, salami, cheddar, provolone and sundried tomato spread. This was very tasty and satisfying, but too much food for one person. We each give it 4/5

Here's a cross-section of the Chocolate Peanut Butter cupcake. Sorry it's a bit mangled, DH did the best he could but it wanted to fall apart when he cut it.

DH loved his cupcake! It was moist chocolate cake covered in a light frosting that isn't quite whipped but also isn't quite as heavy as a traditional buttercream. The frosting on both cupcakes had a very nice texture IMO, and wasn't grainy at all. DH's cupcake had a peanut butter filling, which was different than the frosting and was more like the filling of a peanut butter cup. He ate every bit of it and enjoyed it immensely! 5/5

Here's a cross-section of the Spiced Apple cupcake:

OH. MY. GOD. This cupcake was amazing!! It's a cinnamon-spiced vanilla cake with a caramel frosting which was the same texture and consistency as DH's, very light and smooth. The real star of this show was inside though. The centre of the cupcake was filled with an amazing mixture of apple, dried cranberries and golden raisins. WOW!! I can never manage to eat all of a Disney cupcake because they're usually so rich but I came close with this one. Highly recommended!! Definitely a 5/5.

We really enjoyed our lunch at Contempo Cafe. Everything was very fresh, the sandwich was delicious and those cupcakes were to die for! This was our first visit to this quick service location but definitely will not be our last!

This meal used 2 quick service credits and would have cost $37.00 OOP.

Up next: Dinner at Yak & Yeti.

 

[wdwloverz]

LOVING this review! Can't wait for more

 

[jockey]

Really enjoying your report looking forward to more

 

[emmysmommy]

It is a shame that they don't sell the spiced apple cupcakes at CC year-round!! Yours is the second that I have seen (and the first for which I could see cranberries) and it looks lovely! With all the apple desserts (CHH apple pastry too) it's making me crave something sweet and apply!

Your photos as the GF are so lovely! You take great photos!

 

[MrsB1228]

LOVING this review! Can't wait for more

Thanks for joining in, more coming up!

Really enjoying your report looking forward to more

Welcome! The next review will be up soon.

It is a shame that they don't sell the spiced apple cupcakes at CC year-round!! Yours is the second that I have seen (and the first for which I could see cranberries) and it looks lovely! With all the apple desserts (CHH apple pastry too) it's making me crave something sweet and apply!

Your photos as the GF are so lovely! You take great photos!

Thanks so much Brenda, I only have a little point-and-shoot but it does the job pretty well and I enjoy playing with the various settings to see what results I get.

That spiced apple cupcake was incredible!! I love apple desserts so when I saw that one on display I knew I had to try it. I was so glad I did! I'm really hoping it's available during our next trip.

 

[DonaldDoleWhip]

I love Contempo Cafe for its savory options (salads, flatbreads, sandwiches, etc), but the most recent cupcake I had there wasn't great. That spiced apple cupcake makes me desperately want to return there! It looks phenomenal.

 

[DisneyFansInLINY]

Great reviews and pics. You made me hungry. And I had no idea about those waffle sandwiches. I am so having one of those.