5 days on DxDP....too much food? NO! or yes?

[sarobison]

We're recently back from a short trip to WDW on the Deluxe Dining Plan.

The Cast:
DW- I can usually pick what she'll order with about 90% accuracy, doesn't really like to venture outside of her comfort zone.
DS8- The one I THOUGHT would be the adventurous eater, WRONG- wanted nothing to do with anything not made of chicken or beef....
DS5- The picky eater who tried everything I ate and liked all of it.
Me- Heck, I'm on vacation and heartburn comes with the territory so I'll try anything that looks different or appealing and drink some pepto later...

Restaurants we ate at:

Tokyo Dining (dinner)
Kona Cafe (breakfast)
The Wave (lunch)
Cinderellas Royal Table (dinner)
Everything POP (breakfast- 2x)
Coral Reef (lunch)
Chefs de France (dinner)
Sci-Fi Dine In (lunch)
Cape May Cafe (dinner)
Cap'n Jacks (lunch)

I'll try to put one or two reviews in each post. Sorry, didn't take any pictures of the food (although DW did manage to take over 1600 on the trip...) and honestly there's enough pics on the board of these meals anyway....

 

[sarobison]

I was nervous about this restaurant for our first night meal but it turned out to be really good. DW and I had the same appetizer and entree here (grr....) so this is a shorter review.

Appetizer- Tempura combo- Bland, I thought it was decent, probably wouldn't order it again. DW liked the tempura sweet potato.

Entree- Sushi deluxe (one of 2 sushi only options on DDP). We really enjoy sushi and we really enjoyed this platter. The only thing that was different was what I THINK was some type of caviar. It was RICH and salty. DW tried it and couldn't eat much. I ate half and couldn't finish the piece. All of the other offerings were very good. If you like sushi I think you'd enjoy this.

Dessert- DW- Green Tea Pudding- tried it and didn't like it...I ate it and LOVED it. Me- Chocolate Ginger cake- the one bite I had was good, DW really enjoyed it. I think DW didn't like the pudding because of the texture, it didn't bother me, I found the pudding quite good.

DS8 and DS5- Ate the Tempura Kids Platter. Neither finished it (a recurring theme) but both liked it. Same chicken and shrimp that was on the appetizer DW and I had. DS5 tried several different types of my sushi and liked it all. DS8 thought the sushi smelled and wouldn't get near it (I couldn't smell anything, if I had I wouldn't have eaten it, I think it was in his head...). Since he wouldn't try the sushi I gave him a piece of my pickled ginger...and the face he made was horrible He should have tried the sushi....

 

[sarobison]

Just to start- yes I had the Tonga Toast.

This was a late addition to our ADR's and we were the among the first seated at 7:30. Service was admirable, regular coffee was nothing extraordinary (I really wanted a press pot...) the Lilokoi juice was excellent.

DW- Steak and Eggs- I was going to order this but since she did I didn't...She really enjoyed it, thought the eggs (over-easy) were perfect and the steak was really good as well (I tasted and thought so too). She liked the potatoes, they looked like potato wedges from KFC to me....

Me- Tonga Toast . First taste of this I thought I had made a mistake. I tried it without the strawberry compote first and I was really worried. Adding the compote made a huge difference, actually made the dish. I'm not a huge fan of sourbread but I could hardly tell that's what it was. There really wasn't a huge amount of bananas inside but enough to make the dish sweet. I liked this but I felt like it was a little to sweet for 7:30 in the morning, it would make a great brunch dish or even (on a smaller scale) a good dessert at lunch or dinner. I'm glad I ordered it but when we go back to Kona I'll probably order the steak and eggs . I had the sausage with the toast and found it to be satisfactory. Almost tasted like kielbasa a little, not exactly southern style pork sausage that's for sure.

DD5 and DD8- Mickey pancakes. DD8 ate his with no problem, liked them fine. DD5 got mad because DW cut up all the pancakes instead of just the big one and got mad and refused to eat. It took a tremendous amount of effort to get him to eat at all....

 

[sarobison]

Okay, I know this restaurant is new and therefore little known, but jeez this place was empty at 1:00 on a Saturday. Other than us there were 2-3 tables of professionals attending a conference at the resort and one other table of vacationers. It took us a few minutes to find the restaurant after getting of the monorail (have to go down to the main lobby level) since there are no signs anywhere to provide direction.

For appetizers DW had the lettuce wraps and I had the lump crab cake. The lettuce wraps come un-built so you get to stuff your own lettuce. The meat was good, DW thought the lamb was too spicy, I found it to be rather good. The crab cake was good but was better when paired with a few slivers of the papaya slaw and some of the balsamic glaze. I'm not usually a crab eater (DW is) but I ordered it in case DW didn't like the lamb so we could switch.

For entrees DW had the "Sustainable Fish of the Day that I don't remember what it was but it was some kind of white fish". She found the fish to be quite good but she really enjoyed the corn and edamame stew. I had the Mediterranean Tuna Salad. The salad was excellent, the tuna was...well it was decent. It was a seared and chilled, exactly as it should of been. The sear was done well, not too far past rare but it was supposed to be herb-crusted. There was no herb crust on the tuna, it was bare and as a consequence quite unremarkable.

The desserts at the wave are served as a sampler trio. DW had the Decadent Flavors while I ordered the Sorbets. The chocolate mouse elicited a continuous flow of oohs and ahhs as the ate so I take it she enjoyed it. The liked the other two offerings as well. I tasted the lemon cornbread and found the texture to be somewhat disconcerting but the flavor was good. The sorbets I had were all excellent but the strawberry was probably the best. The lemon sorbet was very tart but good. The pineapple reminded me of the taste of the Dole Whip (imagine that).

DS5 had the cheese pizza with carrots and celery and the sundae for dessert. DS8 had the grilled chicken strips with carrots and celery and the sundae. It was typical WDW kids fare....

 

[tonilea]

In post #3 you refer to your children as:

DD5 and DD8

Did you do a Kid swap for some girls?

 

[wilma-bride]

Thanks for the reviews so far - my DS never finished a single meal while we were at WDW in April either - it must be a kid thing.

 

[suzimar57]

enjoying your reviews so far!

 

[sarobison]

In post #3 you refer to your children as:


Did you do a Kid swap for some girls?

No but there were some times I would have considered it . Guess I was more tired than I thought when I was posting that one!

 

[sarobison]

CRT...we did it....and we won't do it again....

I'd read all the reviews and knew going in that this was more about the experience than the food, well honestly I don't know that either were worth the effort (and the 2 dining credits each...). The best part of the meal was waiting to check in and being able to watch Wishes at the check-in area, DW got some good photos of the fireworks with the carousel in the foreground.

Admittedly the CM's were good about the pictures with Cinderella, allowing DW to take all the pictures she wanted with no problems, but hey this thread is about food!

For apps DW had the Corn and Crab soup and liked it okay, nothing to write home about though. I had the BLT salad expecting a salad. What I got was a lettuce wedge with a few pieces of bacon crumbs on top with some other misc salad toppings. It was good, just not what I expected.

For entrees DW had the lamb and I had the Prime Rib (mistake!). I guess DW was on a lamb streak having had it at lunch too but she wanted to try it and liked the lamb better here than at the Wave. I thought the opposite, finding the lamb at CRT to be bland and unseasoned.

I KNEW from reading the reviews that Prime Rib was going to be a chance (in terms of quality) but I wasn't really feeling lamb and while walking to our table I was of course scoping out other people's food and the cuts I saw looked edible (read not dry and actually pink). Well apparently I got the piece of medium rare that had been sitting under the heat lamps for 2 hours and was now beyond well done. It was horrible. If I had a meat hammer maybe I could have tenderized it enough to eat it.... As I was vigorously chewing my shoe leather I looked around to see what might have been a good choice and saw others with the Pork Chops doing the same thing. Guess the cooks at CRT have mastered the art of drying out pieces of meat.

For dessert DW had the Chocolate Cream Cheese Buckle while I had the Raspberry sorbet. The buckle was decent, although a little dry for my liking. The sorbet was good but not quite sweet enough for my taste. It's worth noting the Pear wasn't on the menu....

DS8 had chicken strips and ice cream, DS5 had a hot dog (I think, maybe fish?) and ice cream. Again, typical WDW kids fare which is why I don't exactly remember what they had...

Overall I am glad we have finally eaten here so now we don't have to endure it again. I think it's kinda screwed up that Cinderella doesn't make appearances (other than pictures) at dinner, having only the mice and the fairy godmother to interact with the kiddos. IF we were to go back I would try to get a time so that we could be in the restaurant when the fireworks are going off, that might be cool, but otherwise...not on the dining list in the future.

 

[Parksfamily5]

We will also never do Cinderella's Castle again. After all the hype we finally booked it. I was so disappointed. The food was blah and I couldn't believe that Cinderella didn't come around.

 

[suzimar57]

wow - how disappointing CRT turned out to be....

 

[iluvpluto27]

I'm enjoying your reviews. Sorry CRT was so bad, we've considered trying it but another signature restaurant has always won out.