21 nights in WDW+DXDDP =over 300 food pics!! (& a huge weight gain!)COMPLETED 11/30!

[iluvpluto27]

Another great review. Great to hear you had a relaxing lunch.

Thank you very much.

Nice to see a Wave lunch review as we will be dining there in a few short weeks. Thanks for the great review!

Hope you enjoy it. I was very glad we were able to try it on this trip.

 

[onelilspark]

What! No cocktails in the breakfast review!?

 

[wdwthanksgiving]

i'm finally caught up ---tho it is like reading a good book ---you just don't want it to end! thanks for these great reviews and pictures!

 

[iluvpluto27]

What! No cocktails in the breakfast review!?

I know, I'll make up for it with the dinner review though!!

i'm finally caught up ---tho it is like reading a good book ---you just don't want it to end! thanks for these great reviews and pictures!

Thanks, I'm really glad you're enjoying them. Still have a fair few to go, with Kona coming up next.

 

[smpb]

Just found your "book" of reviews and am loving them! I like your idea of using "snacks" for your breakfasts. Do you think the Deluxe Plan would be worth it for kids? Could my DH and I have the Deluxe and our 2 kids have the regular DP, (which is what we all currently have for our trip in a couple weeks.)? Thanks!

 

[iluvpluto27]

We were ready in plenty of time for tonights dinner reservation so decided to get the bus to Epcot, then the monorail to the TTC and walk across, so we could check out the Poly.

We'd only seen the main building previously so it was nice to see the grounds and pools. It looks a really nice resort, and I was saying to DH we should stay here sometime. Then we walked into the main building and it was just so loud and chaotic, with tons of people milling around waiting for Kona and Ohana reservations. I must admit it does put me off from staying here, I like to be able to have a nice quiet drink at night and Victoria Falls at AKL was great for that whereas the Tambu lounge was very busy and pretty loud.

We checked in to Kona about 15 minutes early, and it didn't look too packed. The hostess said we wouldn't be seated until our reservation time so we went for a wander around. Luckily a party was just vacating a table in the lounge so we grabbed it.

I can't remember what DH ordered but I had a Malibu Macaw. This was a very nice refreshing cocktail, you could taste the coconut of the malibu but it wasn't too strong. I had fancied trying a lapu lapu but I'm not big into strong rum drinks, and DH who adores rum refused to order a drink that was served in a pineapple!!

We were actually paged before our drinks even arrived, so we settled up quickly and were seated at a table on the outside wall of the restaurant.
Service here was adequate at best, our waitress was pretty slow and she would disappear for long periods of time, the food runner even had to run up our check as she was no where around.

We already had drinks, so our waitress brought the bread straight out. I really loved this sweet bread, with a gorgeous macadamia nut butter, I think I could have had a whole loaf to myself.

For an appetiser I wanted to try the sushi so went with the shrimp tempura roll. I really enjoyed this, the shrimp were tasty and the batter nice and crispy, which was complemented by the sweet mango pieces and mango sauce. The rice wasn't quite as good as Cali Grills or Tokyo Dining's sushi but it was still nice. It was also a big portion and I struggled to finish it.

DH had the Kona Salad. Again he's not a huge salad fan but this was the only vegetarian appetiser, he said it was good and he enjoyed the blue cheese. I think he ate the lot which must mean it was good.

For my main I had the Tuna Oscar with fried green tomatoes. I'd fancied this dish since it first appeared on the menu, and I'm sorry to say I was pretty disappointed with it. The tuna was fresh and served rare which was good, but it had been blackened, which although tasty overpowered the flavour of the tuna. The crab tempura it was served with were really good, and the hollandaise was tasty, but the fried green tomatoes were so hard I couldn't even cut them with the knife provided. Now I've never had fried green tomatoes before (not really an english dish) and I thought they'd be firm but I assumed they would be a little softer than that. Overall just ok, and I would order something else next time.

The vegetarian option was Pan Asian noodles with tofu instead of chicken. The tofu was nice but there was a lot of pineapple in this dish and it was very, very sweet. Neither of those aspects are my DH's kind of thing, and he didn't enjoy this at all. I had a taste and I love sweet and sour noodles, and this was a little too sweet even for me.

By this point neither of us was really feeling this meal, our waitress had disappeared again and we decided to just get dessert to go and call it a night.

I picked the Coconut Kiki tart and actually really enjoyed it. It looks a bit messy in the picture but it was very good. Lots of sweet coconut custard type filling, topped with cream on crumbly pastry. There was a decent coconut flavour to it, and it was served with raspberries and lychees, which cut through the sweetness. A very nice dessert.

DH chose the White Chocolate Cheesecake, which had a very nice creamy texture, served with a tart raspberry coulis. Only criticism would be he couldn't really taste much white chocolate, but still a good cheesecake.

So overall opinion on Kona is another mixed one, I really liked my appetiser and we both liked dessert (and the bread!!), but the entrees weren't too good. Service also let this meal down slightly, and it's quite a loud restaurant with it being so open. It's really unusual for my DH to dislike a dish so much he just can't eat it, so we'd only return if they had a different vegetarian option.

Coming up next lunch at Tutto Italia.

 

[iluvpluto27]

Just found your "book" of reviews and am loving them! I like your idea of using "snacks" for your breakfasts. Do you think the Deluxe Plan would be worth it for kids? Could my DH and I have the Deluxe and our 2 kids have the regular DP, (which is what we all currently have for our trip in a couple weeks.)? Thanks!

Thank you very much, glad you're enjoying them.

If you're all under one room reservation you all need to be on the same plan, either deluxe or normal.
Honestly I don't know if it would be a good plan for kids, I guess it depends on your children and whether they would be happy eating in restaurants so often, lunch was pretty quick but dinner often took around 1 and half hours. We had tons of time there, so didn't mind spending a lot of time dining, but if you're are trying to see everything you may find it quite tying. We did see a family at Chefs with about 6 kids, on the dxddp who seemed to be enjoying it.

 

[MickeyNicki]

I felt the same way about the noodle dish at Kona....way too sweet!

 

[suzimar57]

that coconut tart looks pretty good!

 

[chell]

Wonderful thread! Your reviews are awesome! I love reading these and all the little things you point out.

 

[jeminni]

I've been to Kona twice and while the food was mostly good both times the service was very very slow.

Waiting for your Tutto Italia review. I'll be going there for a late lunch my next trip.

 

[mickeysgirl17]

Another great review.

 

[petbren]

Ok, I've finally got the first lot of pictures uploaded and resized so I'm ready to go.


For my main I had chicken stuffed with feta and spinach, served with lentils. This tasted better than it looked (it was a weird shade of green inside the chicken)

Stay tuned for tomorrow when it's WDW food all the way, and I'll update with Sci Fi diner and Yachtsman. Thanks for reading.

Just got going on the review now, just at the end of page two--hooked already .
Wow, look at the little S&P shakers---little airplanes
Some day I too will travel like this---come on lottery Gods, smile on me please
__________________

 

[iluvpluto27]

I felt the same way about the noodle dish at Kona....way too sweet!

Glad it wasn't just us!

that coconut tart looks pretty good!

It was actually very nice, and better than I expected.

Wonderful thread! Your reviews are awesome! I love reading these and all the little things you point out.

Thank you so much. I'm glad you're enjoying them.

I've been to Kona twice and while the food was mostly good both times the service was very very slow.

Waiting for your Tutto Italia review. I'll be going there for a late lunch my next trip.

It wasn't although our waitress had tons of tables either, I think she had three, but it was just slow, slow service.

Another great review.

Thank you very much.

Just got going on the review now, just at the end of page two--hooked already .
Wow, look at the little S&P shakers---little airplanes
Some day I too will travel like this---come on lottery Gods, smile on me please
__________________

Thank you. I liked those S&P shakers, I was going to pocket them but decided not to at the last minute. I loved that flight, but the only problem is now I've done it I want to travel like that all the time, but I'll need the lottery gods to smile on me for that to happen.

 

[scrappystamper1]

What a dinning adventure. I have one question for you, do you guys do any park stuff other than eat?
It seems like you have a very relaxing vacation which is something I don't usually equate with Disney. This would be something to look forward to once my kids are grown and gone.
Imagine 2 weeks just ENJOYING the Disney atmosphere and food.
I envy you!

Janet

 

[wilma-bride]

Wow, only just found these reviews but they're great. I am actually quite disappointed that we're not going to be eating on-site much next trip. I have to say, I don't know how you managed two or three TS meals a day - when we did the dining plan, we could barely manage to eat a CS and TS per day and we had loads of snack cedits left.

 

[iluvpluto27]

What a dinning adventure. I have one question for you, do you guys do any park stuff other than eat?
It seems like you have a very relaxing vacation which is something I don't usually equate with Disney. This would be something to look forward to once my kids are grown and gone.
Imagine 2 weeks just ENJOYING the Disney atmosphere and food.
I envy you!

Janet

We did loads of park stuff We were lucky to be there while it was pretty low crowds, so we hit rope drop every morning and had often rode most of the rides we wanted to by lunch time. It definitely was a relaxing vacation, but I was still a bit too commando for my DH, but we rode pretty much every ride, multiple times with minimal waits. Having 3 weeks there makes a massive difference aswell, as we had at least 3 days in each park, so loads of time to see everything.

Wow, only just found these reviews but they're great. I am actually quite disappointed that we're not going to be eating on-site much next trip. I have to say, I don't know how you managed two or three TS meals a day - when we did the dining plan, we could barely manage to eat a CS and TS per day and we had loads of snack cedits left.

Thank you, we don't drive so are pretty much limited to on-site dining while we are at WDW. To be honest, I was really worried it was going to be way to much food but I absolutely loved the plan. I rarely finished a meal and just ate what I wanted of each course, but I loved having a sit down lunch rather than a counter service. The choices were normally much better for DH and it was just much more relaxing. We really struggled with all the snack credits, and had 20 left with 2 days to go!! We somehow managed to spend nearly all of them, by midnight on our last day though.

 

[iluvpluto27]

I wanted to use snack credits again for breakfast as we had tons left, and no plans to spend them. I asked DH to get be another Yogurt Parfait, however overnight they'd gone up to $4.19 and no longer counted as a snack. As he didn't know what else I'd want he paid OOP and got yet another chocolate twist as a snack credit.

We spent the morning at EPCOT, which wasn't too busy then headed across to World Showcase for our 11:30 ADR at Tutto Italia. I was really excited about trying this place, we'd both liked Alfredos, and Tutto was getting good reviews on the boards. As a bonus there was also multiple vegetarian options on the menu for DH.

When we checked in at 11:30 the restaurant was very quiet with only a few tables occupied. We had fantastic service here, our waiter was very efficient and friendly, and he was assisted by a waitress who cleared dishes and kept our water glasses topped up.

They had some interesting cocktails on the menu here so of course I had to try one. Here's the menu on the table, and there were others listed on the dinner menu.

I chose the Primavera which was an excellent blend of strawberry, banana juices, peach nectar and grey goose vodka.

I decided to forego an appetiser as I knew I'd be having pasta for an entree, but DH decided to try the Mozzarella and Tomato Salad. He said this was very good, with fresh, ripe tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella, drizzled with olive oil and a hint of salt. While he ate that, I helped myself to the bread basket, which was served with a fruity olive oil for dipping.

For my entree I chose the Buccatini Gratini. This was very nice but very, very rich. It was a portion of spaghetti, peas and prosciutto, in a rich creamy sauce, baked in the oven and topped with quite a thick layer of cheese, and it was just a bit too rich for me. It was a big portion too, and I couldn't even finish half.

DH chose the Sacchati, which was basically pasta parcels filled with ricotta and mozzarella. He really enjoyed this dish, saying the pasta was well cooked, the filling had plenty of flavour which went well with the tomato sauce. It was a much smaller portion than my dish, and he ate it all.

For dessert I chose the Cannoli, because I'd never had the opportunity to try one before (they don't seem very big in England). This was really nice, with the pastry being crisp and chewy, and the ricotta filling very rich and sweet, with a good orange flavour.

DH chose their signature dessert of Bugie/Chiacchere, Signature anise and Sambuca flavored crisp pastry with chocolate or apricot sauces. This was an absolutely massive dessert, and the picture doesn't really capture how big a portion this was. The pastry was crisp and flaky, dusted with icing sugar, neither of us could taste the sambuca or anise in it. Both dipping sauces were good, with the chocolate being a bitter dark chocolate sauce, and the apricot being much sweeter. It was quite an ususal dessert, and although interesting I think he'd make a different choice next time.

Overall we both thought this was a really nice restaurant. The atmosphere was quiet when we were there, the food was good and service excellent. Although it is pretty expensive, we'd definitely return.

We walked round world showcase for a bit, and although we were both stuffed from lunch decided to try something from the F&W festival in a desperate attempt to use up some snack credits.
We went to the french booth and I ordered escargot. I really liked these, the brioche was soft and the garlic and parsley butter was very good.

DH got the chocolate creme brulee, which was good but tasted like a mass produced creme brulee, the topping was nice and thick though and was the best part.

I think DH also got the Cheese Trio again from the Mouse Catch, but I mustn't have got a picture. I also had a glass of Rose Imperial Champagne from the Champagne booth which was very good.

That's it for our afternoon of pigging out in Epcot, up next dinner at Artist Point.

 

[Schmoodle]

Thanks so much for taking the time to write up all these reviews. I am really enjoying reading them and willl definitely bookmark this thread for reference next time I am planning a trip, which won't be for another couple of years unfortunately. 3 weeks of grownup fun does sound heavenly! DH and I won't have that opportunity for probably 10 years!

Sorry your tuna Oscar was a disappointment. It sounds like it could be a wonderful dish if executed well. You are right about the fried green tomatoes, they should be nice and crispy outside but soft inside. Try them again sometime when you have a chance, they are fantastic, fattening fun!

 

[DisneyJen]

We just love Tutto ... and I can't wait to try the Sacchati next month

Looking forward to reading your Artist Point review as we are dining there as well.

Thanks so much for such wonderful photos and reviews