A First Time Family Review of 8 days on DDP (8/13-8/21)

[ajkoos]

Sunday, the 15th, was our DHS day because Toy Story Mania was going to close for renovations that day. So after getting to the park super early to make rope drop to get TSM fast passes and to be in the Jedi Training Academy, we were hungry. Since we had just finished going on Tower of Terror we decided to have lunch by the food pavilions along Sunset Boulevard.

Since there is no kids menu at Toluca Turkey Legs, I was able to use two kids CS credits to get two huge turkey leg meals that I split with DS and DD. And they tasted good and were hot and quite frankly, about as greasy as most turkey legs. The meals came with chips and I chose to get two bottled waters with it. However, we did not drink the bottled waters and saved them for later when we were walking around the park. Instead, I got three free cups of ice water and used Kool-Aid and OceanSpray drink packets and I, DS and DD had that for our drinks at lunch. Also there are no desserts at Toluca Turkey Legs, but that was fine with me, we had plenty of sweets already.

DH went to Catalina Eddie's and picked up a Muffalata Sandwich that came with chips. His dessert was the same chocolate cake that we started seeing at pretty much every CS place at WDW. He said the sandwich was good as it was a hot, italian type sub. It was about the size of a six-inch sub from Subway, maybe slightly larger.

Seating here is under pergola-type shade structures and is outdoors. So if you can snag a table by a fan or in somewhat shade, it is bearable. Just be warned there is no A/C.

Turkey Leg - $7.59 each
Bottled Water - $2.50 each
Muffalata Sandwich - $8.29
Chocolate Cake - $3.59
Sweet tea - $2.19

Total cost (with tax) - $36.49 (1 adult CS and 2 kids CS credits used)

Would we eat here again? It is fine for a CS, nothing outstanding and of course if you like turkey legs (which DS does) it's the place to go at DHS. Plus it's a good way to use kids CS credits where they can get a substantial amount of food as the three of us split two turkey legs and still had turkey leftover.

 

[ajkoos]

We decided to get an ADR at Teppan Edo because even though we have hibachi style restaurants here in D/FW, we have never taken our kids to one. And we thought they might like dinner and a show (of sorts...) plus our kids love Asian food (since they're part Asian! go figure...).

We arrived here about 20 minutes late for our ADR because on the way from DHS to Epcot (we took the boat) my DS said he had to go to the bathroom, so we had to get off at Yacht Club so he could use the restroom and then hoofed it to the International Gateway entrance.

They gave us a pager but then about 10 minutes later they started taking people in and having to announce parties by name because the pagers were sometimes working, sometimes not. After waiting for about 25 minutes, we went up to the podium and asked why we hadn't been called and they realized they had sat another party in our place on accident. Lots of apologies and they sat us at the next table, the only problem was at that point, we were starving because our 6:50 ADR ended up being a 7:40 seating time. (partly our fault for being late, partly their fault for screwing up the seating.)

We sat down and ordered and then waited another 15 minutes for the chef to come and cook our dinner (which I expected since it is a hibachi style place) But once she (yes, it was a she!) started cooking, it was a lot of fun.
What's nice about Teppan Edo is that the typical hibachi show is modified with Disney jokes. At one point, she is playing with a shrimp that says "Nemo, where's my friend Nemo?" And then she does a sharp cut with her knife and said "Oops, no more looking for Nemo?" I guess that might have terrified younger kids by my kids thought it was hilarious and still talk about it. And then there is the onion volcano but it's called Space Mountain. There are also Mickey designs every once in a while.

On to the food....

DH - He had the Asakusa which is combo sirloin steak and shrimp. The steak has a slight teriyaki flavor to it (like most Kobe beef steaks do...) and you get about half a dozen good-sized shrimp. He liked it but I know it's not his favorite way to have steak (that would be Le Cellier, the next day.)

Me - I ordered the Hotate, or sea scallops because I love seafood. She cooked the scallops perfectly with a nice sear on the top and cooked through without being rubbery. They were also excellent with the cream sauce that they put in a dish in front of you (There are three sauces, a cream for fish, a mustard and a teriyaki type, all were yummy.) I think I got about a dozen scallops.

DD - She is my vegetarian in training (who likes bacon) so she decided to have the Child Yasai which is just veggies. It came with broccoli, cucumber, yellow squash, carrots and mushrooms. And she loved it, she ate quite a bit of it with her rice until she was too full.

DS - Part of the reason we chose Teppan Edo was so my kids wouldn't have to eat nuggets and burgers all the time. And my 6-year-old son loves shrimp. So he ordered the Child Ebi which is large shrimp. He got probably six good size shrimp was plenty for him. And he loved it.

All of the dishes came with udon noodles, stirfried vegetables and white rice. There is no fried rice option which upset my DH since he prefers fried rice over white rice.

For dessert, we both had the chocolate ginger cake which was light and fluffy and not too heavy after this Asian meal. I can't remember if the kids had the softserve icecream for dessert or not since they were kind of tired.

Child Ebi - $12.95
Child Yasai - $9.50
Asakusa - $29.95
Hotate - $23.95
Chocolate Ginger Cake - $5.95 each
Drinks - $2.95 each

Total with tax - $106.07 (4 TS credits used)
Tip: $20.82

Would we go back? Maybe. The food was good and the show was entertaining for the kids but I know the next time we head to WDW I think we may want to try other restaurants for variety. But I do recommend this for families that may not go to hibachi style restaurants at home or want a nice variety for the kids menu.

 

[ag98]

Still enjoying this!!!

 

[loveysbydesign]

Loving your reviews!

 

[ajkoos]

Thanks! After doing the Teppan Edo review last night, I thought to myself, why don't we take the kids to a hibachi style restaurant around D/FW sometime soon? And then my DH mentioned it in passing this morning! It must be a sign...

 

[ag98]

In Dallas he can get the fried rice!

 

[ajkoos]

In Dallas he can get the fried rice!

 

[ajkoos]

This was our first Epcot day and while we wanted to make rope drop, we weren't in a super huge hurry to get out of the resort. I thought we wouldn't make rope drop until my kids (who are not huge breakfast eaters) decided they just wanted granola bars for breakfast. I had brought two packages of granola bars with us to WDW precisely for this purpose.

So all I had to do was buy a bagel for DH at Pepper Market and some fruit. The do have a toaster at PM, although the person at the bakery had to toast it for me and then I bought a banana for me! It was a little on the firm side for me but still good and my DH's bagel was good size.

Cost:

Bagel - $2.77 (used a snack credit)
Banana - $1.38 (OOP)

Important to note, bananas are only 99 cents at Rix Cafe. I didn't find that out until the next day.

 

[Krissalee]

Great reviews. I don't do the dining plan, but appreciate the diversity available!

 

[ajkoos]

Great reviews. I don't do the dining plan, but appreciate the diversity available!

We went back and forth on doing the DP as well, but since we didn't rent a car, we figured we'd be eating on site all the time and this would ultimately save us money (which it did).

Even though we're first timers we figured out that if you looked at DISboards enough before going you could have more than just chicken nuggets and burgers (thank goodness). I only wish we had more days at Epcot, there were restaurants there we wanted to try but had to cut out of our plans because of which parks we were going to be at and didn't want to hop.

I see you're going to F&W, I'd love to be there for that, but we'd have to leave the kiddos at home!

 

[johnvree]

Thanks for the reviews. I had never even considered Teppan Edo before. But you've got me interested. I'm just worries my kids might not find something to eat.

 

[PrincessTaylorsMom]

Great reviews. Your kids seem to eat like my kids, so I'm taking notes on what they like for our trip next year! Thanks!

 

[ajkoos]

Great reviews. Your kids seem to eat like my kids, so I'm taking notes on what they like for our trip next year! Thanks!

I'm glad I can be helpful. Since every kid eats differently it's always hard to tell what they're going to like but usually there is someone on DISboards that has a kid like your own!

 

[ajkoos]

I had read about Sunshine Seasons and all the fresh food you could get there so I was really excited about having lunch here. The only problem was that we had an ADR at Le Cellier for dinner that night so I didn't want to stuff myself at lunch. So that limited some of my choices for lunch and that was the toughest thing about Sunshine Seasons...so many choices! All of them looked delicious!

Sunshine Seasons is set up like a buffet with several food stations. And depending on what you want depends on which station you go to. There is a menu at the entrance as you go into the station areas so you can look at once instead of heading to each one to see what is on the menu. There are several sections with tables and while it was a bit crowded because it had started drizzling outside, we were able to find a table pretty quickly. (Tip, always get your table first then send a parent food, it's much easier than trying to find a table at these CS places while balancing a tray of food.)

DH - He had the Smoked Ham and Salami Grinder. It was a good size sub sandwich that came with chips. It was very tasty and the bread wasn't soggy, which is always a plus.

Me - I chose the Seared Tuna on Mixed Greens since I vowed to be healthy and not too full for dinner. It had a light sesame vinagrette on it and this dish was wonderful. I love salads and this had a several pieces of seared tuna on the mixed greens. The only drawback is if you like your Ahi served correctly (which is usually very pink, almost sashimi like in the middle) then the tuna was seared a little too much. That was the only complaint I had about this salad. Because everything else was fresh and crispy and not wilted like it was from greens from last week.

DD and DS - both decided to have the kids make your own subs. My DD actually made the sub and ate it. My DS who does not like sandwiches because it has too much bread, he ate all of the insides of the sub and was happy with it. What I liked about these kids meals was I was able to substitute the applesauce with carrots or grapes. So instead of a carrots and applesauce or grapes and applesauce, I could drop the applesauce since neither one of my kids like applesauce. Can't sub in chips though which they would have like better.

Desserts....the kids got to have jello and pudding cups, which are pretty standard. I had a strawberry shortcake and it was fantastic. It was light and fluffy with the right amount of cream, shortcake and real, sweet strawberries. DH had a chocolate cheesecake which was also very yummy.

Cost:
Ham and Salami sandwich - $9.19
Seared Tuna on Mixed Greens - $9.29
Kids mini-subs - $4.99 each
Strawberry Shortcake - $3.99
Chocolate Cheesecake - $3.99
Regular soda - $2.39 each

Total cost: $43.90 (4 CS credits)

Would we go again? Most definetly. There were menu items I wanted to try that looked too filling for a Le Cellier night. All the ingredients were so fresh, I felt like I was eating at Whole Foods. I highly recommend this CS to anyone eating in Future World.

 

[ajkoos]

We had read so much about Le Cellier on DISboards that when I was able to get an ADR for 7:40 p.m., we rearranged which park we would be in that day just because of where we would be eating dinner. As we got closer to our trip and read more reviews about Le Cellier, we were a little concerned that it wouldn't live up to the hype.

It was worth it.

This was DH's favorite meal at WDW. He loves steak and living in Texas, we eat lots of steak and steak of varying quality. And this is one of the best steaks he has ever eaten. My DD still talks about the steak she had at Le Cellier whenever we have steak at home, a month later.

It took about 20 minutes to be seated after we showed up around 7:30 for our ADR. We were in the main dining room and while they do put quite a few tables in there, we didn't feel cramped. The waitress, Amy, was okay. She made sure we had everything we needed but did take my DH's mushrooms away a little too early (he wasn't quite done.)

The meal started off with a variety of breads and it took everything I had not to eat half of the pretzel bread provided. The sourdough and rye breads were good too, but the pretzel bread was extremely yummy. DD and DS both had Red Maples (raspberry smoothie with Sprite) and DH had a Niagara Refresher (mango smoothie and cranberry juice) since they were included in the DP (plus it had been hot all day, so a smoothie was refreshing...) Since I was going to have steak, I decided to have a glass of Pinot Noir.

On to the food!

DH - He ordered the NY Strip Dinner with a side of roasted mushrooms. It was cooked perfectly rare and my DH looked like he had died and gone to heaven while he was eating that steak. The gratin that came with it was also fantastic. He said it was one of the best steaks he has ever eaten.

Me - I went with the Mushroom Filet Mignon and I loved it. It was the perfect size (probably about 8 oz.) and sat on a yummy bed of mushroom risotto. The butter sauce that surrounded the risotto and the steak was probably artery-busting but absolutely delicious to my taste buds

DD and DS - they both had the kids steak. It came with an appetizer which both kids chose the Cheddar Soup. They didn't like the soup but DH and I got a quick taste and I thought it was a little too cheesy for my taste but my DH thought it was wonderful. Back to the kids...DS ate a little bit of his steak, mainly because he drank too much of his smoothie and had too much pretzel bread so he wasn't as hungry by then. My DD ate the whole steak and loved it. She also felt really grown up because the waitress gave her a steak knife and she could cut the meat all by herself because it was so tender.

Desserts - I couldn't resist and had the chocolate moose which my kids thought was cute since it looked like a moose. DH had the Canadian Club Cake (which was a chocolate cake.) And both the kids had ice cream sundaes.

Cost:
NY Strip dinner - $34.99
Side of mushrooms - $5.99 OOP
Mushroom Filet - $34.99
Glass of Pinot Noir - $11.00 OOP
Kids Steak - $10.99 each
Red Maple and Niagara Refresher - $4.29 each
Canadian Club Cake - $7.99
Chocolate Moose - $5.99

OOP costs (mushrooms and wine) - $18.10
Total with tax - $126.54 (4 TS credits used)
Tip - $30.00

So we paid OOP with our tip $48.10 and DP covered the rest.

Would we go again? Most definitely. I can see why people make ADRs here 180 days out. Since it's going up to 2TS for dinner, we may try to get lunch instead the next time we head out to WDW. However, compared to the quality of food at our 2 signature restaurants later in this trip (CRT and Narcoosee's) Le Cellier's would definitely be worth the 2 TS for dinner.

 

[ag98]

More! We want more!

 

[cjsm&d]

More! We want more!

Get the lead out! We're waiting!

 

[ajkoos]

Sorry I've been away from DISboards! Work got absolutely crazy and then my DS had oral surgery to take out an extra adult tooth he had growing in his gums. I thought he'd spend the day napping on Tuesday so I could do more reviews but instead he was awake and wanting to play board games all day!

I'm going to try to get more up tonight!

 

[ilovepete]

Nice reviews, thanks!

 

[ajkoos]

I will start this off as saying, this was probably our most unhealthy day of eating at WDW, as we spent the day at Blizzard Beach and then back to DHS for Fantasmic.

DH skipped breakfast and DS wanted a granola bar and a banana and DD wanted a muffin.

So all we got from Rix Cafe was a banana nut muffina, a banana and two Minute Maid apple juices.

I have to say the muffin was really good and fresh. And the banana was not mushy which was good.

Cost:
Apple juice - $2.99 each
Muffin - $2.50
Whole fruit - 99 cents

Total - $10.10 (3 snack credits and $1.06 for the banana)