3 nights on the DxDP w/ pics

[hillo]

Hello everyone. My mom, dad, and I were in WDW from August 18-21. I convinced my mom that we should upgrade the free dining to the DxDP in order to try some signature restaurants. We have always wanted to try them, and we wanted to know if we should return to them using TIW.

I am just getting to these reviews as I stared back to college as soon as we returned home, so I have been busy. Fortunately, my class load doesn't seem like it will be too bad, but 17 hours is still a lot of work! I hope to finish these up pretty quickly - before I get bogged down in school work. (I'm optimistic that will not happen this semester - unlike last spring.) Even though last semester was tough, I still managed the President's List with all A's. Just thought I would brag for a moment.

Anyway... on to what people really want to know. Overall, we loved the food, and boy was it a lot of it. I gained 9.5 lbs!!! Fortunately, some of that was retaining fluid as my legs and ankles were swollen, so I dropped 7 lbs within 5 days of being home. I am in really great shape and thin, some I'm not sure why I was swollen. I guess it was a mixture of all the food and the heat. I lost 3.5 lbs in preparation for the trip, so I am already back under my normal weight and very glad I tried all the food. I just added in this tangent so everyone could get an idea of how much food it really was. Also, I cleaned just about every plate that was placed in front of me, since I had eaten pretty much only salad the week prior to the trip.

We wanted to try signature restaurants to see if they really were as special as I read here on the DIS. We decided that eating an early lunch and later dinner would be the best use of our credits.

The places I will be reviewing in order of visiting them...
Jiko
Whispering Canyon Cafe
California Grill
Tutto Italia
Artist Point
Restaurant Marrakesh

We did not take pictures of our snack credits, but I do have pictures of all of our meals except Artist Point (the camera was left in the room). At the end, I will post an analysis of the costs and savings with the DxDP.

 

[Pooh&OurHunny]

count me in...can't wait to read yummy reviews

 

[canoe86]

We are doing a DxDP in a couple months, I like reading these.

 

[hillo]

My mom took the camera to take pictures of my 1 month old nephew, so I won't be able to start reviews with pictures today, so I will do an overview of our snacks.

Refillable Mugs - $43.10

The Mara - We each had zebra domes as soon as we arrived for lunch. (We checked into All-Star Music, then drove to AKL.) They were delicious as always. My dad also had carrots and celery with ranch dressing. I don't think there's much to say about those. We ate light to save room for the rest of the trip. We also stopped by on our last day before driving home to pick up two more orders of zebra domes, and a Minnie's Bake Shop Chocolate Chip and Peanut Butter cookie (from the gift shop) which I have been nibbling on for the past three days. The cookie is surprisingly delicious and soft. $15.13, $7.86, and $3.46

Main St. Bakery - delicious frozen latté for me, very good plain croissant for my mom, and a wonderful apple turnover for my dad. I need to thank the DIS for making my dad happy this morning. He was sad that he didn't get a turnover covered in icing, so while the CM was getting my latté, I told my dad to ask for more icing on his turnover. The CM took the turnover to the back and covered it in icing - it was great! I had heard on the DIS about CMs adding more icing to cinnamon rolls, so I thought it would be a good idea to ask. $9.77

Animal Kingdom pretzel- My mom ate most of this, and I had a couple of bites. It was pretty good, but I have had better soft pretzels. $4.04

Kusifiri Bakery at AK - The paw print brownie was amazing! It was dense and chocolatey with a wonderful layer of fudge on top of the brownie and excellent vanilla buttercream on top of that. My dad wanted caffeine, so he had a double espresso from here. I don't know if he liked it or not. $8.18

Beach Club Marketplace - I had a mini key lime pie. I scooped out the filling and didn't eat the crust. It was good, but I wouldn't get it again. $4.04

Kringla Bakery in Norway - We shared a cream puff with fresh berries. It was fine. I didn't care for the puff pastry, and the cream was a little too light for me. The berries were fresh and great, though. I would not get this again, but I'm glad I tried it for a snack credit, since it was featured on the Disney Parks Blog. $4.25

Joy of Tea cart in China - First, I ordered a Peach Oolong iced tea. My mom tried it and decided she wanted one too. While she was at it, she also ordered egg rolls for all of us to split. The iced tea was excellent and a great use of a snack credit since it's $4.25 before tax. The egg rolls were surprisingly fresh and delicious. I would get the tea and egg rolls without the DDP, even if $4.25 is a little high for the tea. $13.30

Total for snacks: $70.08

 

[jakenjess]

Great start! I'm in!

 

[bluejasmine]

Woot! New reviews! Im in!

 

[Pooh&OurHunny]

great update, I have to try frozen latte at Main street bakery. Thanks for the idea.

 

[butiflfeet]

Those frozen lattes are addictive Looking forward to more of your reviews!

 

[hillo]

Yes, I adore the frozen lattés. There's nothing better than sipping one, looking at the castle, and hearing the trolley show sing "Walking Right Down the Middle of Main Street U.S.A." Thanks for reading everyone.

Jiko

My mom and I have wanted to eat at Jiko for a long time and we finally had the chance. We love the atmosphere of the restaurant and AKL in general. Our reservations were for 5:45pm, but we arrived early and checked in around 5:20pm. We were seated when the restaurant opened at 5:30.

My mom and I ordered virgin strawberry daiquiris which were delicious and refreshing on such a hot day. Then, our server brought out two different kinds of bread. One type was good, but the one with seeds was outstanding – especially with the delicious curry butter. I never eat butter on my bread, but this butter was amazing and I slathered it on.

Half-finished daiquiri

Curry Butter

Delicious bread

For our appetizers, we all had to order the Wild Boar Tenderloin. One, because it sounded interesting and none of us had ever had boar, and two, it was $16. This was outstanding. It was a little rarer than I usually eat meat, but it was so delicious and juicy, I didn’t care. All three of us would order this again, and I would not ask for it to be cooked anymore. It was sitting on top of a very spicy mixture of tomatoes and onions that was excellent. The size of the dish looks deceptively small, but it was actually a pretty large serving. We hoped this dish was an omen of amazing things to come.

Boar - missing a piece - sorry we were hungry and this was the best looking plate

For entrées, my mom had the famous filet, my dad ordered the duck, and I had the Maize-Crusted halibut. My halibut was perfectly cooked and delicious. However, in and of itself, it did not have a lot of flavor, but paired with the tomato butter sauce, it was outstanding. It came on a mixture of spinach, edamame, a baby carrot, and maybe a couple of other vegetables. The vegetables were fine and may have been better if I had eaten something besides fruits and vegetables for the entire summer. I asked about getting a different side, but the server said the potato and spinach masala would overpower the taste of the fish and I didn't ask about anything else.

Halibut

At first, my mom thought her filet was just ok as she didn’t care for the mac-n-cheese. She was going to order a different side to being with, but the server told her to try the mac-n-cheese, and she would bring something else if my mom didn’t like it. My mom said the filet was much better once she got the mac-n-cheese out of the way. She didn’t want to order another side because she said there was nothing wrong with the mac-n-cheese; it just wasn’t what she was used to. (I knew she probably wouldn’t like it and told her to order something else, but she didn’t listen to me.)

Filet

My dad’s duck was chewy even though it had a good flavor. He decided to send it back after having my mom and I taste it and confirm it was chewy. He ordered the halibut since I said mine was so good. He and my mom ended up splitting the filet and the halibut. At the end of the meal, he said he wished he had eaten the duck since he thought it had a better flavor than the halibut.

Duck

For dessert, we had no idea what to order and nothing really appealed to us. I had expected to order the coffee and donuts, but it was off the menu. Instead, I had the Malva bread pudding which is a traditional South African dish. It was very good paired with vanilla ice cream. I thought I made the best choice. The cookie was very good, too.

My mom ordered a pistachio layer cake which she really enjoyed as it was different from anything she had ever had.

My dad had the Tanzanian chocolate dessert which was a very rich dark chocolate which he seemed to enjoy.

Sorry about the weird angle

He ordered the press pot coffee to end his meal and said he preferred the Folgers he makes at home. I tasted it and was not impressed. It seemed very strong even with cream and sugar. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great. He also had some sort of amarula drink (pic below).

Overall, I would return to Jiko. I would love to go and just order the boar and a flatbread for my meal. With the bread and butter, it would be plenty of food. Of course, I would also have room for zebra domes from The Mara at the end.

 

[hillo]

I am very sorry, but I thought I had pictures of our food here. Unfortunately, I only have pictures of dessert.

We started off with three unlimited vanilla milkshakes. These are amazing! My mom and I have gone to WCC to split a meal and ordered these milkshakes many times.

The three of us had the BBQ potstickers. These were even better than I was expecting. They were delicious with the BBQ – mayonnaise dipping sauce. I would love to get them again, but they are a little pricey at $10.

I decided to have the quinoa cakes which were very flavorful. I have had them before with the usual side of edamame and cucumber salad, but I asked for mashed potatoes instead. My plate looked a little sad, but it was delicious. I adore WCC’s mashed potatoes.

My mom had the rainbow trout with arugula salad. She ate all of it. I tasted the trout and it was very good.

My dad surprised me by ordering a hamburger and French fries. He enjoyed them but said he was uncomfortably stuffed at the end. He ended up sleeping in the lobby while I had dessert, and my mom and I walked around the Lodge.

My mom said she didn’t want dessert, and I couldn’t decide between the Kahlua chocolate cake and the berry dome, so I ordered both. I ate about 1/3 of each. The chocolate cake was good, nothing special. It paired well with my milkshake. The berry dome was different and the berries were fresh. I guess it tasted like a slightly sweet version of a berry smoothie that had the consistency of a pudding. I think that’s the best way I can describe it. The server said the chocolate ice cream was fat free and it was actually pretty good, but I only took a couple of bites after having so much milkshake.

Kahlua chocolate cake

Berry Dome

This meal was wonderful and very filling. We didn’t know how we would ever be hungry for the California Grill that night. We will continue to return to WCC, but will never pay for dessert. The milkshakes are more than enough sweet stuff, and the cake and dome were very tiny.

 

[vinotinto]

Signing in ! Great start and I'm looking forward to the rest of the reviews!

 

[TruBlu]

Can't wait to read the rest.

 

[hillo]

We were really excited about eating here; however, none of us were hungry. So, we took our time looking over the menus, enjoying the sunset, and asking questions. We were seated almost immediately at our reservation time of 7:15pm, but our appetizer orders were not taken until about an hour later. We had a beautiful view of the MK and didn't care, but I was hungry by the time our server took our order.

The server brought us delicious bread and delicious butter and... goldfish. I still haven't figured that one out. My dad ate one goldfish, but I really wanted them removed from the table. I mean, I'm about to have a $300 meal, and there's goldfish on the table?

I had decided months before that I would order sushi and that I would probably get the Spicy Kazan Roll, but I was a little worried that the "fireball sauce" would be too hot. Our server was kind enough to bring me a sample of the sauce. I decided it wouldn't be too hot and ordered it. I really enjoyed it. I couldn't eat all of the sauce, but I loved the freshness and tastiness of the fish with a bit of sauce on each piece. The tiny scallops were also very good.

Spicy Kazan Roll

My dad had the Tuna Three Ways. I tasted each type and loved them all. I would order this dish when returning to CA Grill. The tuna was moist, delicious and not chewy at all (which was my concern). It was also beautifully presented.

Tuna Three Ways

My mom had the CA roll, but substituted half for shrimp instead of crab based on the server's recommendation. She enjoyed both types of rolls, but didn't find that they were anything special.

CA roll- half shrimp, half crab

For my entrée, I had the pork tenderloin. The goat cheese polenta was incredible, and I believe I would have enjoyed the pork even more if I had not been full. It was very good, but it could have been warmer. There was a little bit of fat on one piece which I gave to my dad and he enjoyed it.

Pork tenderloin with goat cheese polenta

My mom ordered the filet here as well, and she loved it. She said it was perfectly cooked with a wonderful flavor.

Filet with mashed potatoes, broccolini, and teriyaki sauce

My dad had the lamb "chops" which appeared to be rack of lamb. The server said that rack of lamb is smaller than the lamb chops, but my dad insisted that they were not "chops." He still enjoyed them, but for some reason it really bothered him that the menu did not say rack of lamb. He didn't care for the side of garbanzo beans.

Lamb "chops"

After finishing our entrées, it was time for Wishes. Originally, I thought we would be finishing dessert right before Wishes, but instead our dessert order was not taken until after Wishes. We wanted a nice, relaxing evening, but we had to be at Epcot for the 7:45am segway tour the next morning and would have liked to have left a little earlier than 11pm. (Also, my mom and I usually eat supper around 5pm at home.)

For dessert, my mom and I both adored the Valrhona chocolate cake. It was absolutely delicious. I may have been full, but I ate the whole thing. We ordered it with vanilla instead of chocolate-cherry ice cream.

My dad had the Bananas and Caramel. He really enjoyed it.

Overall, the CA Grill was great. I would definitely return on a night when I haven't eaten a lot of food already that day. The view of Wishes was incredible, but I would like to eat earlier, so I would settle for using the viewing platform.

 

[ChefColette]

I think they have the Goldfish at CA Grill for children. I don't know why they would serve it to a table of adults.

 

[hillo]

I think they have the Goldfish at CA Grill for children. I don't know why they would serve it to a table of adults.

Yeah, I noticed other tables have goldfish for children, but I'm not sure why he brought it to us.

 

[hillo]

After enjoying our segway tour and Captain EO, it was time to make our way to lunch at Tutto Italia. We arrived when the restaurant opened and were seated quickly.

We had been to Tutto Italia twice before and enjoyed our meals, but were not amazed by them. However, the service has always been top notch as multiple servers take care of all the tables. Our glasses were never empty.

We were brought breads, olives, and olive oil. Our server told us that we really weren't allowed coffee on the dining plan, but that he would ring it up as a soft drink and serve us coffee anyway.

I had read on the DIS that the Eggplant Parmigiana appetizer was delicious, so my mom and I ordered that, and it was wonderful! It was much lighter than I was expecting and very flavorful. I was most impressed!

Eggplant Parmigiana

My dad claimed he didn't read or understand the menu and couldn't decide what to order so he finally chose the minestrone soup and for his entrée, lasagna. I tasted the soup and it was pretty good. The lasagna was also much better than I was expecting.

Minestrone soup

Lasagna

My mom and I chose something I would definitely come back for - the baked spinach potato gnocchi. It was covered in cheese and delicious. It far exceeded my expectations and I was very pleased with my choice. I would come back and split this meal if paying OOP.

Gnocchi

For dessert, my mom and dad had the sampler plate of tiramisu, cannoli, and some type of chocolate cake. They enjoyed it. My dad, however, said he would have rather had my dessert.

Sampler plate

I had the Gianduja chocolate torta. It was very tasty, and I loved it! I would never pay $10 for it, but with the dining plan, I loved it. It tasted light while still providing a strong chocolatey finish.


Gianduja chocolate torta

Overall, Tutto Italia far exceeded our expectations. It was the best meal we have had there. We will definitely return if on the dining plan, but we will also consider visiting when using TIW as our meal was so good.

 

[Jaimiebear5]

Thank you for all the yummy reviews. You pictures turned out really nice! DH and I had a reservation for Tutto, but when Via open my husband changed it. Your yummy food makes me hope it was worth it!

 

[MickeyNicki]

I love your reviews!!!

 

[SweetSerenity]

My mom and I chose something I would definitely come back for - the baked spinach potato gnocchi. It was covered in cheese and delicious. It far exceeded my expectations and I was very pleased with my choice. I would come back and split this meal if paying OOP.

Gnocchi

Thank you for reminding me exactly why I chose another lunch reservation at Tutto! I've been kicking myself for not snagging a dinner ADR, but after seeing another picture of this amazing dish I realize I made the right choice in the first place. Great reviews, keep them coming!

 

[emmysmommy]

I'm loving your review!!! So much of your food looks familiar. We went to some of the same restaurants and ate the same things! The sushi at Cali Grill looks like a work of art.