7 days DXDDP Mom and son trip Just back 8/23

[Prosaic nation]

This was the first place we noticed what I like to refer to as the Disney sauce effect. It seems if you cant make it taste good you should glop on a rediculous amount of (frosting, goo, cheez, sauce)
exhibit A

the roll itself wasnt too heavy. And listen I knew what I was getting into with this sugarbomb but still!
Exhibit B

Holy cheese goo! I scraped this with my plastic knife but I think it regenerated itself or something. Yuck! Both of the above went into the bin.

My son enjoyed this pastry but again could not finish as it was just too sweet.
I know this is probably an unpopular opinion but I stuck to the bagels with cream cheese for the rest of the mornings.

 

[nanienamou]

Awesome reviews! And fantastic pictures! Thank you for sharing.

 

[Roma]

Wow I am loving your photos! Thanks so much for posting .

 

[kelleigh1]

Your photos are amazing! They are really making your review stand out...although it could probably stand on it's own too.

I love your honesty. Cali Grill looks so good. Glad that is on our list. We will also be on the Deluxe and like you, won't be ordering alcohol. Hope we don't run into attitude because of that. We just aren't drinkers. There were enough alcoholics in my family that I never felt the need to really drink.

I had thought about trying the escargot at Chefs since I've never had them, but I think I'll steer clear since it sounds like they won't be a good representation.

 

[bowbat]

Really enjoying your photos & reviews so far! Every time someone posts the Cali Grill menu, I see the "Tuna Three Ways" and start drooling. Your photos only added to my problem. YUM.

We enjoyed a fantastic lunch at Brown Derby last November, but from reading other reviews, it seems really hit-or-miss. Our service was the best of any we've ever had at Disney, and our food was wonderful (though neither of us ordered the filet, which I've also seen some dicey reviews of). So if you've got an open spot on any future visits, you may want to give it another chance.

Can't wait to read the rest!

 

[Prosaic nation]

nanienamou and Roma, Thanks! I got a lot of info from these boards so Its nice to finally be able to share with others who are as interested as I was.

kelleigh1- Thanks! I did order wine with some of our dinners but I cant imagine how anyone could drink at lunch in that heat! I would have passed out on the sidewalk. I know we did get better service when I ordered drinks but we were also at the signature restaurants so that may have had something to do with it. The servers were extrememly helpful and attentive.

bowbat- The tuna was amazing! I had to go back and order it again and the sushi dinner as well, it was spectacular. My favorite was the poke wth the seaweed salad. I am sure we were at brown derby on an off day. There is no way they could serve the food that salty all the time without massive complaints.

 

[Prosaic nation]

Now I knew this wasnt going to be a gourmet meal so I was prepared. I did not know they would serve me enough food for four people. OUr server was great, very personable. I did hear him using the same line on every table "the pot roast is so good, I come here on my day off to have it!" Which had I known I would NOT have ordered it. When he said it to me it sounded like an insiders tip. When he said it to everyone else it was obvious they told him to push the pot roast. This is obviously premade well ahead of time so when they first open and fill up quickly they can get the meals out rapidly. We had the same experince later at the 50s diner.
I digress.
For ap I ordered the seafood dip. It is for two but he said no problem for me to order it alone. It was really closer to a portion for four.

It wasnt bad! I dont think I would order it again because it was so heavy, but it was certainly adequate. He also mentioned that they had just started including lobster in it and he wasn't kidding. There was a substantial amount of lobster in it.

My son ordered the veggies but they didnt come until he got his main meal. and then they came without dip but our server quickly brought some over when we asked.

Also no gravy! We had to fix that too. All in all he liked his meal and ate most of it. Not the beans, those looked like they came out of a cafeteria steam pan.
I got the pot roast because I am a fool. Anyhow, I can't totally blame them as I didnt want mashed potatoes and got rice instead. The rice was supposed to be on the side but wasnt. I dont know if the mashers can save this dish or not but I will give them the benefit of the doubt. The rice was terrible. It was almost sour? which makes no sense. The food had obviously been sitting for some time and heated up.

It looks good right? The veggie part was good. The meat was dry. The rice totally ruined it but I will take the blame on that one. It was a fun atmosphere but being from new england we have this amazing place called Randall's Ordinary that makes Disney's LTT theming look like seaworld so I was a little jaded.

Desert!
Son had the Sundae (I had no idea he ordered that so often!)

Standard except the mickey heads were red white and blue stars- nice touch!
I had the Ooey Gooey Toffee Cake.

Which turned out not to be ooey gooey or in fact toffee!
It wasn't bad but it was terribly sweet.
It was actually a huge warm chocolate chip cookie bar with caramel sauce and icecream and crushed heath bar on top (a nod to toffee)
This was heavy on the chocolate. So if you love sweets, chocolate and desert, you will love this! Unfortunately I like gooey and toffee so it wasnt so much for me. I barely made a dent in this thing which was kind of sad because it would have been devoured by the right person.

All in all if I was looking to eat at MK and wanted to sit down I would go back. The service was good and the food passable. It was probably what I ordered but I found this to be an extrememly heavy and filling meal so if you are looking to power up for a long day, this may be the spot for you.

 

[DLFan123]

Enjoying your reviews. I was laughing as I read your explanation of Disney's solution to any food not that great-to pour cheese, sauce or frosting on it etc. I say the more saucy or cheesy something is, the better! Sometimes the sauce is my favorite part. Maybe this means I haven't been eating the highest quality foods.

Your review of California Grill makes me want to go there. I have read many others and just never felt interested in trying it, but somehow yours struck me and now I know I must!

We always stay at Beach Club but have never eaten at Captain's Grille. Will have to give it a try for lunch. That omelette looks delicious.

Your seafood dip at LTT looks a whole lot better than ours, which was really unusual. (We dined there in April 2012.) Now I want to try the new one!

Can't wait to read more.

 

[Prosaic nation]

We headed to the California Grill for dinner. I felt I had to make up for the greivous error of not ordering sushi for dinner the last time.

Our service this time was not as great as the last time. But then it was excellent. Here is what happened. Last time we were among the first tables there. Our server doted on us. This time our server was doting on other people when we got there. But when they were finally settled, he doted on us! Lovely.
For ap I ordered......

Surprise!
And for dinner I ordered Yoshi's platter which is actually listed as an appetizer but falls in the range of entree at $28 and is not included as an ap on the dining plan. Nor should it be. It was a masterpiece.

Now I will mention here that there are some inventive rolls on the menu. I hear these are quite popular. If you like your sushi all jazzed up with sauces and garnishes that would be the way to go. If you like fish, raw, and lots of it, go for the Yoshi.
There was only one problem with this dish. Our server had no idea what any of it was. Seriously. No idea. I will give you my best educated guess. If you are a roll and sauce person this will be boring so skip over it to desert.

First I will say that this needed no soy sauce. There were tiny garnishes you probably cant even see in the pictures. Each bite was a tiny masterpiece. I did use the wasabi which was confusingly the best wasabi ever. What? I finally figured out that it was sweet. Sneaky Yoshi!

This was the most pedestrian part of the dish. The rolls. The shrimp was tasty and I think had mango? to cut the grease salt factor. It was quite good. The crab roll was impeccably fresh but had some sort of binder (mayo?) and I could have done without it entirely.

Here you see the tuna roll, crab roll and shrimp nigiri. Pretty basic, impeccably fresh.

Moving clockwise we have what I believe is hamachi then maguro. Oh my! These were light and delicious. I question the herb topping but I am silly. Never question a master sushi chef. Stunning.
Then we get to the top.

These are the oily fish. These will lose your devotion if you are a calforinia roll kind of person. The salmon was melt in your mouth. for the first one I confered with the waiter and we settled on Mackeral and then I lost him but I am pretty sure the last one is....
pickled herring. I kid you not. If it wasnt pickled herring I have no idea what it is. Have you ever had pickled herring sushi? me neither but I am a believer! The fatty rolls were garnished with flakes of seasalt and a touch of lemon zest so mild I cant be sure it was just straight up lemon or preserved lemon or what. It was all so subtle and utter perfection. What is on the Herring? No clue but it was unbelievable.

If I had to criticize this dish I would say it wouldnt suffer from losing the rolls. If I was to be so bold I might even order this as sashimi and see if they would make it for me. I am kicking myself we didnt go back to the cali grill again but I thought I would be a little bananas ordering that tuna three times in a week.

My son had exactly the same thing as last time and he would do it again in a heartbeat. He LOVED Cali grill!

 

[Prosaic nation]

My son had...

Sushi! This was adorable and he scarfed it all down. They even gave him cheater chopsticks.
I had Florida Blueberry Tart
Florida Blueberries, Lemon Ice Cream,
and Honey-Thyme Anglaise

This was a lovely desert. I did not eat the crust (tasteless) or the 'tart' portion for the most part. The blueberries had a wonderful blueberry flavor, the ice cream was excellent and the tiny pools of creme englaise infused with thyme absolutely stole the show! I couldnt believe the thyme would work in this dish but it added such a fresh green quality to the rich englaise. the blueberries, lemon, creme and thyme were an inspired combination. I don't know how but I am stealing this combo to replicate some kind of dish. I asked Javier if they had a pastry chef exclusive to the cg and he said they were borrowing the one from the wave. So there is your insider tip. Can't get in to the cg? Go to the wave!
I would recommend this place to anyone. I think if you are in a hurry or have small kids with you skip it, because you wont really 'get' the whole experience. Actually, I would say only go here with someone you really enjoy, and savor it.

 

[Prosaic nation]

One thing to note. almost all the 'fancy' deserts we had came with some sort of wild chocolate garnish. I sampled probably five of them before realizing they are all repulsive. Yes I am that slow (I prefer thorough) that I had to do it over and over again. They just looked so gorgeous I couldnt believe they tasted awful. Trust me, they do!!!

 

[deenbrad]

One thing to note. almost all the 'fancy' deserts we had came with some sort of wild chocolate garnish. I sampled probably five of them before realizing they are all repulsive. Yes I am that slow (I prefer thorough) that I had to do it over and over again. They just looked so gorgeous I couldnt believe they tasted awful. Trust me, they do!!!

 

[dixonsontour]

Stunning photos - enjoying all the reviews

 

[John's Mom]

Great reviews and pictures! Thanks for sharing.

 

[lblume91]

Enjoying your reviews & your gorgeous photos! Thanks for sharing!!

 

[Prosaic nation]

I will preface this by saying I really really thought I would love Kouzzina for breakfast. I love strong flavors like olives and artichokes. I much prefer savory to sweet and I have a soft spot for perfectly poached eggs.
That is what makes this all the worse.

When we first entered Kouzzina we were asked to wait. There was no one there except lots of employees standing around.

chirp...chirp...

Then they seated us and gave us some song and dance about the iron chef. Blah blah blah. Celebrity restaurants mean nothing to me. If they did I would have been over at the Todd English joint as I love him on PBS and he is a Boston boy. Unless she is back there cooking my eggs, I could care less. I can assure you right now that she was not cooking my eggs!

When we were seated I noticed that they had put us into a nook in the wall.

a wall behind each of us off to the side of the restaurant. Even though it was empty. Weird.
I ordered coffee because I had heard it was good here. Because I was one and not two I didnt get the good coffee. I got a mug of what I would compare to boarding school dining hall coffee. If you have had it you know what I mean. Swill.
I was keeping an open mind because the stacked breakfast was right up my alley.
Our waitress came over and told us that breakfast was one course even though many things were listed as a starter and that we should know that if we ordered oatmeal (or something else) to start that would be our meal and we would have to pay extra for anything else. It was weird and slightly uncomfortable as that was not our intention and we hadnt assumed we would order more than one thing. I dont normally order a starter for breakfast(???) but frankly after the three course meals we were getting elsewhere would it really kill them to throw in a bowl of oatmeal or a nice cup of coffee if someone wanted it? Whatever. I also thought it odd that they didn't offer to allow my son to order of the adult menu (again not that he wanted to) since it was not exactly caviar and lobster on the menu. He ordered Mickey waffles and was happy with them.

I ordered the Stacked Kouzzina Breakfast – Two Poached Eggs, Kalamata Olive Toast, Artichoke Spread,
and Sweet Potato Hash with choice of Bacon or Chicken Sausage

what a bummer. The only warm things were the plate and the eggs. everything else had been cooked well in advance. The potatos were flaccid and redolent of red peppers. And cold. Terrible. The bacon had great flavor but lacked any crispness. Buffet bacon. The toast was the biggist disappointment of all. This was great bread but had been lightly toasted and left to sit. Plain and spongey like day old toast. It is so easy to make a killer kalmata toast. A grill, some olive oil. no brainer. This toast was sad.
The artichoke spread was gloppy, cold, and had no standout flavor. Again a victim of the disney sauce. The eggs were warm (yay!) and the yolk cooked solid (boo!) which leads me to believe their first few oders are poached in advance and dipped into a hot water bath. I was just glad to have one warm thing on my plate. The rest was fully cold.

Now I was totally disgusted. Bad food, bad ambiance (the nook), bad/weird/uncomfortable service. Its not that hard to make breakfast. I make made to order breakfast times five every morning. But I was willing to believe they keep their A team for dinner. We will see.....

 

[labfan]

Great reviews and awesome pictures. You can see every detail and they are making me hungry.
Sad to hear about Kouzzina. With it being run by Cat Cora you'd think the food would be much better. Lately all the reviews on this place have been disappointing. Makes me not want to try it.

 

[nanienamou]

Kouzzina seems very hit or miss. We have a diner there planned in October, but I'm getting worried. As for your son's choice, is that the complete plate? My 4 year-old would not have enough with two little waffles and a little bowl of fruit. I know my 3 boys are big breakfast eaters, but jeez, that plate seems skimpy.

 

[butiflfeet]

Too bad Kouzzina failed for breakfast. Cold food is inexcusable in my opinion. Where you were seated though looked like a great spot to me. It looked like you were out of the way and not around other people so it would make for a quiet breakfast.

 

[Prosaic nation]

Too bad Kouzzina failed for breakfast. Cold food is inexcusable in my opinion. Where you were seated though looked like a great spot to me. It looked like you were out of the way and not around other people so it would make for a quiet breakfast.

I agree. Cold food = bad food.
The nook was weird. There were actually a ton of two tops by the windows and the kitchen is open so that is always good too. There were maybe five tables occupied in a restaurant that probably seats 300+ and we were squashed into a nook against the wall. it was fairly quiet which wasn't our experience later.