A Few reviews wih pics:Tony's Town Square/Captain's Grille/Coral Reef/Yachtsman

[Carol17]

Hello All! Having almost completed a full trip report, I thought I might include a dining thread here as well. If you would like to see our full trip report including dining, take a look here:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2178485

Here is the list of restaurant I will be reviewing here, all of which will include pictures:

Tony’s Town Square(dinner)

The Beach Club’s Marketplace ( counter service breakfast)

50’s Prime Time Café (lunch)

The Yacht Club’s Captain’s Grill (breakfast)

Caribbean Beach Club's Old Port Royal (counter service lunch)

Epcot’s Electric Umbrella ( counter service lunch)

Epcot’s Coral Reef (dinner)

Animal Kingdom's Restaurantosaurus (lunch table service)

The Yacht Club’s Yachtsman Steakhouse (dinner)

So, let’s get straight to it! A little info to start: We(Tony and Carol) were on the dinning plan(not deluxe this time...too much food for us!)

First up is Tony’s Town Square. April 26 2009 ADR-7:15pm.

A friend had been to the restaurant a few weeks prior, and he said it was really nice sitting outside on the patio. So, we considered asking to sit outside. We got to the restaurant at about 6:45, a half hour before our reservation. We had hoped we could get in a little early. The placed was PACKED. There were people sitting on the floor and it was difficult to walk anywhere. It was also very loud and incredibly hard to hear your name being called when your table was ready. I wonder why they don’t have those buzzer things like they had a Hurricane Hannah’s…a small counter service area? So, we stood around for about half an hour before finally getting a seat in the waiting area.

We were called in about a 20 minutes after our reservation time and boy were we hungry!
It was a nice looking restaurant, but it was very loud! We had a table for 2 squeezed between two large tables for 8. I sat down on the bench seat against the wall, and suddenly felt like a 4 year old again! The table was so high (or I should say the seat was so low!) I could practically put my chin on the table! It was just too loud that we didn’t bother to talk much, and Tony could hardly see me peering over the table anyway (ok slight exaggeration I admit it). We waited for about 10 minutes before meeting our server. Having already looked up the menu online before coming, we already knew what we wanted for dinner. We were preparing ourselves for a long wait for dinner, so we took our time eating the bread. Tony had a coke and I had iced tea. Bleech! I forgot that iced tea comes without sugar. I dumped a few packets in and it was drinkable. I think I will stick to lemonade from now on.


Next thing you know, our meal came out! Already? It must have been less than 10 minutes since our order was taken! How did they do that so fast?

Tony ordered the chicken parmigiana

I had the spaghetti and meatballs

Although the food was very hot, Tony felt the chicken was overcooked, so he didn’t enjoy his meal very much. I liked mine. The spaghetti was cooked perfectly and the sauce was good. I didn’t like the meatballs much though, and they were too big.

We both had the ice cream bomb for dessert.

We both enjoyed the dessert.

Next up: The Marketplace for breakfast and 50's Prime Time for lunch!

 

[Carol17]

Monday April 27 2009-Marketplace-breakfast and 50's Prime Time Cafe-Lunch

For some strange reason, the Yacht Club does not have a counter service. So, we went over to the Market Place at the Beach Club to get a little breakfast, and a much needed coffee for me. It was pretty busy over there and neither of us was in the mood to fight the crowd and figure out what they had and where it was. Nonetheless we wandered around a bit and figured out what to have for breakfast. Where are the cups? I NEED a coffee. How can I not find the cups? I finally figured out that you have to ask for cup as you are paying. I forgot about that! So we went to pay for everything and I was told that I can get another bakery item since we are on the dinning plan. Oh, oh ya. I forgot about that. Sheesh, I’m off to a great start this morning aren’t I! So I look over at the line up and realize I have to go through that line up again? So, back over I go to pick a second bakery item. How in the world am I going to eat TWO giant muffins?

So with my second bakery item in hand, I go to get my much needed coffee. Ummm, where is the cream? How can I not find the cream? I was looking for the little containers of cream. The cream was in a dispenser. Wow. I REALLY need my coffee. I am s-l-o-w today! LOL. So finally we head out to find somewhere to sit. Where are we supposed to sit? There were just a few tables outside, all of which were taken. So we wondered down the hall a bit and found a nice quiet spot here.

What a nice sunny spot to have breakfast! For some reason this picture reminds me of the Titanic. I think they had an area that looked similar to this in the movie. Perhaps it’s the wood floors. Does anyone know what I’m talking about? Well, anyway, Tony had the cheese omelet, an apple juice and a water to save for later. He didn’t like the omelette much.

I had coffee, orange juice, a blueberry muffin and a chocolate croissant. I saved the muffin to eat later.

Overall, my pasteries were fresh and tasty, and the coffee was decent. My only complaint was they had the same things there all week. It would have been nice to have something different in terms of the bakery items.


50's Prime Time Cafe

We had ADR's at 50’s Primetime for lunch at 3:20pm. We had a seat on the couch in the lobby…well, living room I guess I should say, and our table was ready within 5 minutes.

Aunt Deb waited on us and gave us gentle reminders to keep our elbows off the table, and we did what we were told! We ordered our food, then sat and enjoyed the atmosphere. It was funny to watch the kids sitting next to us react to their bossy, loud waitress. They just weren’t sure what to make of her!

It wasn’t long before our order arrived. We started out with sharing a plate of onion rings, Tony had a coke and I had a strawberry milkshake.

I had the barbeque chicken sandwich

It was a good sandwich, but it just had too much barbeque sauce on it for my taste. It was a little sickly sweet to me. The fries were very good.

Tony had the fried chicken. He liked the chicken, but he wasn’t thrilled about the potatoes, and certainly didn’t like the “green stuff”. Tony is not a veggie eater, and he definitely won’t eat anything green.

After the onion rings, milkshake,chicken sandwhich and fries, I was stuffed. The problem with having the dining plan is you feel obligated to eat dessert because you have already paid for it. But I just couldn’t do it this time. So, I just had a couple bites of Tony’s brownie sundae.

We did enjoy our meal for the most part. The service was good, the food was hot and it was a fun atmosphere. We will definitely eat here again!

Next up: Captain's Grill and Old Port Royale at the Caribbean Beach Club

 

[KatMark]

Great reviews so far. Looking forward to the rest.

 

[Carol17]

Great reviews so far. Looking forward to the rest.

Thanks for reading Katmark!

 

[Carol17]

Captain's Grille- Tuesday April 28 2009-no ADR

This morning we headed down to the Yacht Club’s table service restaurant, Captain’s Grille for breakfast at about 10 am. It was nice to see that there was no line up or wait for a table. Things were fairly quiet, which was a nice change. We decided to have the buffet breakfast. Here are a couple pictures of the buffet.

Scrambled eggs,potatoes,sausage,bacon

Pastries...yum!

I tend to like having sweet things for breakfast, so I started out with the ever popular Mickey waffles.

Then I had a couple of pastries with coffee and orange juice.

Tony is a bacon and egg man, so had filled up on scrambled eggs as well as toast and apple juice.

Final Virdict- we enjoyed it! Everything was hot and didn't seem like it was sitting out for too long as is sometimes the case with buffets. It was surprisingly relatively quiet in there, so that made it more enjoyable as well. We didn't have to wait in the dreadful,slow buffet line up! So that's always a bonus!

Old Port Royale-Tuesday April 28 2009-lunch

We spent the morning doing a little resort hopping. I decided I wanted to collect mugs for evey resort we stayed at! So, when we went over the the Caribbean Beach Club, we decided to have lunch at the counter service area, Old Port Royale. I had Pizza, cranberry juice and a chocolate chip cookie.

Tony had a burger, fries, coke and chocolate chip cookie.

I liked my pizza! Tony wasn’t thrilled about his burger, but it was edible. It was fairly quiet there so again, it was nice not to have to wait in line too long or stand around looking for a table. As always, the area was very clean and tidy.

Just a little teaser:

A nice snack while watching Illuminations!

coming up: Electric Umbrella and Coral Reef

 

[DisneyHolidayFan]

Great reviews and pictures!! Thanks!

 

[Miffy2003]

Wow! Great reviews and really good photos. I am looking forward to reading more.

 

[Carol17]

Wednesday April 29 2009-Electric Umbrella

So this morning,we committed the unforgivable Disney sin of sleeping in late....really late! We missed breakfast! So when we went to Epcot(at noon!) I still felt like eating something "breakfasty", so I got a coffee and danish and E.C.Joffreys ( or something like that!) just outside of the Canada pavillion. we were in such a big hurry to make up for lost time that I didn't take a picture Tony was ready for lunch so we headed over to the Electric Umbrella. Boy was it busy in there!

So as Tony stood in line for 20 minutes, I wandered around on the hunt for a table. After about 10 minutes of searching I finally landed a table. Now, where is Tony? How am I going to tell him where I am? What if he can’t find me? Eventually he appeared, slowly scanning the room as I wave my arms trying to get his attention without getting EVERYONE’s attention! He decided on his typical fare of a burger, fries and Coke.

Again, just your typical fast food burger, not great, but not bad either.

Now, let's get to the GOOD review:

CORAL REEF-Wednesday April 29 2009-7:10 pm ADR

As many of you know, it can be pretty difficult to get ADR’s for a table for two. When booking our ADR’s back in January, we were unable to get into Le Cellier or Coral Reef. However, I had read on the DIS boards that some people(you know who you are!) have been booking tables for 4 instead of two because there are more tables for four than tables for two, and many restaurants will not book two people at a table that is for four. Are you following me so far? So, when you go to the restaurant, you tell them that the other two people couldn’t come( they were sick, hit by lightening, whatever). So, I thought I would give it a try. Well, it worked. We got an ADR at Coral Reef for 4 people. Yes, I felt a little bad about it.

So here comes the requisite justification for lying. I wanted to get into Coral Reef! We have tried to get ADR’s for Le Cellier and/or Coral Reef many times. Since it is just for two people, we are at a distinct disadvantage. We have always called at least 80 days out, but always got a big fat NO. It could have just been bad timing sometimes (during the Christmas season, a particularly busy day etc). Nonetheless, I decided to take the advice of a DISer and improve our chances of getting in. So, how do you think it worked out when we arrived at Coral Reef without the other two people for our table for four? Read on!


We decided to go to Coral Reef a little early because we were pretty tired and very hungry! We were given a buzzer so we decided to wait outside where it was quieter, had a place to sit and was a lot less crowded than inside. I wanted to lie down on the nice grassy area outside the entrance in the shade, but Tony preferred sitting on a bench.

As I was sitting in the grass enjoying the shade and the flowers, a very handsome fellow peaked out from the flowers to say hello!

It was so nice to watch the little bunny nibbling away on the grass. Part of me wanted to show everyone around me this cute little guy, but then again, I didn’t want the kids running up and scaring him away! I wanted to keep him all for myself. I did get Tony’s attention and he snapped a couple more pictures of him.

All together now….Awwww…so cute!

Eventually he was noticed by others and he got scared off.

After waiting for about an hour, we were called in at 7:25 for out 7:10 reservation. We were seated at a nice booth up on the second level. Then, it happened. The waiter asked,
“Are the other two people coming?” Shoot.
Tony quickly replied, “Oh, no, they couldn’t make it.”
He hesitantly said, “Oh, ok, I see.”
I felt bad. I knew he knew we were scammers. Then he came back. He started to tell us that they have a table for two for us. I thought, well, we are busted. He is going to through us a bad table in a corner somewhere with no view of the tank. Well, we deserve it for lying I guess. We got up to follow him, and where are we seated? Right at the Tank! We couldn’t believe it. How (undeservedly) lucky are we? So we decided to celebrate our good fortune with a drink! When our waitress came to take our drink order she apologized for the noise. Apparently she felt it was especially crowded and noisy tonight.

I got the ever popular GLOWTINI!

Yum!

It was very tasty! I could have had a few of those! I loved the little dolphin and of course the glow cube. I took it out of my glass to take it home much to Tony’s chagrin. He didn’t think I was supposed to be taking it, but for the cost of the drink, that glow cube was mine! After checking with the drink list, the cube was indeed a “souvenir” to be taken! Yeah! They have a little button on the bottom that you push to change colours and to turn it off.

Tony had a Bud:

Now, Tony and I are not seafood fans. So why would we go to Coral Reef? Well, I mainly wanted to go for the atmosphere! We had reviewed the menu online, and Tony agreed to go because they had his favourite meal…caesar salad and steak. It seemed to take a long time for the Caesar salad to come. Next thing you know, our meals arrived. Oh. Ummmm, no salad? Eventually our waitress returned and we told her we never got the salad. She was very apologetic, and offered to give Tony his beer for free. So, that was nice. No biggie.

Although I like a good steak too, I decided to try the pork tenderloin with green beans and sweet potatoes.

Tony really enjoyed his steak. It was perfectly cooked. He also liked the potatoes, but there weren’t enough of them! I of course ate his tomatoes.

I enjoyed my meal as well. The pork was tender and tasty. There was a bit too much sauce on it (I think it was some kind of pecan sauce if I recall correctly) and I’m not really a fan of sweet potatoes. The beans were nice, but again, not enough of them(and they were a little undercooked for my taste).

We enjoyed our meal as we watched the fish slowly swim around

Next up is dessert! Tony decided to try out the Bailey’s Jack Daniels chocolate moose.

I had The Wave….as Rachael Ray would say, it was YUMMO!

Overall, we enjoyed our dinner at the Coral Reef. Our only complaint would be the incredibly slow service. For some reason we seemed to be easily forgot…or ignored…one or the other. We saw so many people around us come and go while we were still waiting for our waitress to show up. She was certainly nice enough, but rarely saw her!

Next: Captain's Grille again and Restaurantosaurus

 

[natalielongstaff]

Great reviews so far

 

[Rafikifan]

I'm loving your reviews and photos. Thanks!

 

[MickeyNicki]

Awesome pics and reviews!

 

[danalee]

Nice reviews! I'm in

 

[Golf4food]

Nice reviews. No worries about the ADR problem - we have the same issue. Haven't had to tell them we would be a party of 4 yet, but I would have no problem doing it at some point if necessary. If the system wants to play you, play the system back in return.

 

[Carol17]

I'm loving your reviews and photos. Thanks!

Awesome pics and reviews!

Nice reviews! I'm in

Nice reviews. No worries about the ADR problem - we have the same issue. Haven't had to tell them we would be a party of 4 yet, but I would have no problem doing it at some point if necessary. If the system wants to play you, play the system back in return.

Thanks so much for reading everyone! I hope to have my final reviews of The Captain's Grille and The Yachtsman Steakhouse up in the next couple days...stick around!

 

[Brita]

thanks for your reviews.. im so excited to be going to the coral reef next week. mmm the desserts looked amazing. i just hope there's something for me, a vegetarian, can eat!

 

[Carol17]

Thursday April 30 2009- Captain's Grille, Restaurantosaurus and Wetzel's Pretzels!]

Well, it’s Thursday. I am starting to feel the dreaded our-vacation-is-almost-over blues. So after having slept in the past two mornings, we wanted to get up at a decent time today to make the most of our last two days here at Disney. Today was Animal Kingdom and Downtown Disney day! We got off to a great start this morning by having a nice breakfast at the Captain’s Grille around 9:00. Again, it was a nice quiet breakfast. This time we decided to order off the menu rather than have the buffet.

My favourite:french toast!

Tony had poached eggs

We both enjoyed our meals! You can't beat a quiet breakfast,a good cup of coffee and warm french toast. a great start to the day!

We spent the day at the Animal Kingdom today. We decided to have a quick lunch at Restaurantosaurus.

This place has a very large seating area so there was no problem finding a quiet spot away from the crowds that tend to sit in the first section close to the counter.

The hot dog and fries were ok, and I really liked the little chocolate cake!

Later in the day we went over to Downtown Disney. We did have ADR's for T-Rex, but really weren't that hungry n'or up for the crowds and noise. So we just grabbed a pretzel at Wetzel's Pretzels.

I had a pepperoni pretzel

Tony just had a plain one

We sat outside by the water as the sun was starting to set, and we listened to a guitarist playing outside. It was very nice to sit by the water listening to music while we munched on our snack!

Can't leave Downtown Disney without visiting Goofy's Candy Company for some cotton candy!

Coming up next, The Yachtsman Steakhouse!

 

[JerseyJanice]

Great reviews!

 

[glasslipper]

I'm really enjoying your reviews, especially of the Captains Grille. We are staying at the yacht club in August so it is nice to see some pics!!

 

[Carol17]

Friday May 1 2009-The Yachtsman Steakhouse


When we arrived at the Yachtsman Steakhouse we were a little disappointed to see the typical restaurant scene. Lots of people standing around outside, the lack of places to sit, the loud cranky kids, tired people wandering around. Sigh. We were hoping the Yachtsman would be different. Quieter. Civilized. I know, you are in Disney World, what do you expect? True enough. However, by the end of the week we really wanted to have a nice, quiet relaxing dinner. Anyway, we got in line to check in. We told the girl we are here for our 6:15 reservation. She looked at the computer screen, and looked…and looked. Uh oh, this doesn’t look good. You see, way back when I called to make the ADR, we decided to call back and change our ADR for an hour earlier. So, for whatever reason, our reservation wasn’t there at all, for either of our requested times. We were told to wait and they would get us in soon. Sigh. Well, these things happen.

So we assumed our usual position of holding up a wall while we waited…and waited. Then that sicky feeling started creeping up on me. I had a bad headache, and the back of my left eye hurt oddly enough (migraine perhaps?) then the smell of the food was making me even more nauseas. This was the one restaurant Tony was really looking forward to. I was sick on the last trip the day we had the ADR here, and I hated that this was happening again! He could see I was looking a little “green” so he said we’ll just go back to the room and order room service. I could tell he was pretty annoyed with sickygirl, and I was annoyed with me too! So when I got back up to the room I decided to take a couple Advil for my headache and a Gravol for my nausea. I can’t ruin our last dinner. So back down we went while I tried to incur the power of suggestion. “I am feeling SO MUCH better now! I am feeling great now!" I hoped that simply repeating it enough would make it so. I checked in again to make sure we weren’t called in while we went back up to the room. As it turns out, we were the next to be called.

Luckily we had a nice table for two in a somewhat quiet little area. I perused the winelist but decided not to press my luck and perhaps upset my stomach even further. So, it was just a bottle of Pellegrino for me(similar to Perrier)

Tony had a Budweiser.

Luckily by the time the bread came I really was feeling much better. I just loved those buns! They were soft, warm and very tasty!

We had a very nice couple sitting at the table beside us. I am always a little embarrassed to take pictures of food because people tend to look at you oddly. What is wrong with these people? Don’t they know we must take pictures to post on the DIS boards! Anyway, as it turns out, the couple next to us were also taking food pics! We had a little laugh about it together as they felt the same way!

Finally our meal arrived.I'll give you one guess on what Tony got. Yes, that's right, caesar salad and steak.

He had the 44oz. porterhouse steak with garlic butter and fries.

I had the filet mignon with mashed potatoes.

The filet was melt in your mouth perfection, as was the porterhouse. (I wasn't thrilled with the sauce with my steak. It reminded me of the BBQ sauce on the chicken sandwich at 50's Prime time Cafe.) The potatoes were very good. They tasted exactly like the mashed potatoes at The Keg! My only small complaint was the lack of vegetables.The did have an option of a side order of carrots or creamed spinach, but neither appealed to me. I would have loved some corn, broccoli or perhaps beans or asparagus. Anyway, it was a wonderful meal. I was just so relieved that we actually made it there at all and we were both able to enjoy our meals.

For dessert I had the Signature Banana Napoleon with custard, white chocolate and banana mousse and crispy phyllo. I do prefer a chocolate and/or berry type dessert, but I LOVED this dessert! It was something so different and so tasty! It was so light and creamy,and it had a nice…oh what is it called….not caramel….it’s like caramel, but it was a little crispy…oh man, what is it again? Ugh! Well, anyway, it was on the slices of banana and it was so tasty! Toffee! I think that’s it! Very thin toffee. Delicious!

Tony had the Antique Apple Tart with caramel gelato which he enjoyed as well.

We chatted a little more with the couple at the next table. They told us all about the wonderful meals they have enjoyed, especially at the California Grill and the Grand Floridian Café. I never met anyone so enthusiastic and downright joyful about their Disney dining experiences! It was a pleasure chatting with them! By the way, our waiter, Al was wonderful! He was very friendly and he enjoyed chatting with Tony about their beloved hockey teams,The Rangers and the Canadiens.

So overall, The Yachtsman was excellent. Great service, great food, we lucked out and got a nice quiet corner sitting next to a lovely couple...you can't ask for anymore than that!

So that brings my food report to an end! Thanks for reading everyone! Happy Disney dining to all!

 

[donaldtutter]

Great report!!! Thanks