Robert P
GLOBEX - taking over your world one country at a t
- Joined
- Oct 24, 2002
- Messages
- 2,550
Hope everyone is okay that I'm trying a new individual review style, versus having them all in one long report....
And this meal took us almost 2 hours (we weren't in a hurry), so notice the lighting changes as the pictures progress. Some of the light reflections off the food plates were spooky......
REVIEW: Artist Point (located at the Wilderness Lodge)
SUMMARY: Good food, great service.
Staying at the Wilderness Lodge, we walked down to the lobby, and arrived at Artist Point 10 minutes early for our ADR. We were seated within 2 minutes, one row removed from the prime window seats, along the corner of the restaurant closest to the pool. (Note: While we were willing to wait for a window seat, it was going to be an hour before any came available. Once seated, I found the fact that all of the window tables that sat 4 only had parties of 2 at them, while the tables for 2 weren’t occupied AT ALL, to be odd, and was most likely a deficiency in the training of the podium people, since the restaurant ended up being rather full later in the evening). Still, the table was fine, and our view of the ongoing monsoon in the courtyard was quite nice. We were very glad we didn’t have to brave WDW transportation to dine elsewhere.
We were quickly greeted by our server, Stephanie, who would turn out to be one of the best servers we’ve ever had at WDW. She went over the menu with us, knew the items, made a few suggestions, then left us some time to look things over. Upon her return, and after discussing drink preferences with my wife, who ended up having a glass of a blended white wine called Evolution, I ordered the North Flight Martini. The martini is Grey Goose vodka, with blue cheese stuffed olives. The drink was well made, but only came with 2 small olives, that weren’t exactly bursting with blue cheese. For $9.25 a drink, I would have expected better olive coverage. The Evolution was a blend of several sweet white wines, and was deemed to be ‘very nice’.
Needing more time to look over the menu, we ordered the Selection of Artisan Cheeses:
There were 3 different cheeses, in 2 ounce portions, for $13. I didn’t find this to be a very good value, especially when comparing it to the cheese samplers at other signature WDW restaurants, like Yachtsman Steakhouse and Flying Fish. At the top of the picture is a very sharp white cheddar. Nice, crisp tasting, good though not mind blowingly great. In the middle was a blended cheese. No name given, reminded me of a mild gouda. My wife liked this one best, so I relied on the white cheddar, and the outstanding third option, the Echo Mountain Blue. Creamy, strong flavor, but not overpowering. It was an excellent choice for representing the Washington and Oregon region. For accompaniments, the tasty crispy toast on the board was probably too thin (it crumbled easily), the dried cranberries were okay, but the clear winner was the Riesling soaked yellow raisins. We kept nibbling at them, long after the cheese was gone.
Deciding against the signature cedar plank salmon (largely due to the fact that it, and the tenderloin, were both priced over $40), we decided on the pork chop for my wife, and the scallops for me. I switched up the usual side items, and requested a newly offered pasta with asiago cheese and panko bread crumbs. The girls got the kids menu baked salmon, and the penne pasta (without cheese, just butter).
The scallops:
I am always leery about scallops, because it’s tough to know how much food you will be getting, unless you see an order come by your table beforehand. There were 3 scallopss on this order, and all were larger in size than my last experience with scallops at Flying Fish. Cooked perfectly, not overcooked but still cooked through, these did not disappoint. The surprise here was the pasta. Think mac and cheese, with asiago melted in, and panko bread crumbs baked on top. Absolutely the best side item we tried this trip, and it really went well with the scallops. Notice that this dish was so good, that Mr. Incredible is reaching out for it, while partially trapped under a plate.
The pork chop:
Well cooked, good flavor, but not the largest serving in the world. The accompanying vegetables (mainly roasted potatoes) were pretty good.
Kid’s menu salmon:
A decent portion of salmon. We were so glad to see Artist Point not dumbing down the kid’s menu. Trying to be healthy is one thing, but dropping the kid’s menu down to the same exact items property wide is overkill. Anyway, I tried a bite, and the salmon was very tasty. The potatoes and carrots with it were pretty fair as well.
Kid’s menu pasta:
Penne, usually comes with cheese sauce. Our daughter didn’t want the cheese this evening, so we asked for plain with butter. No problem. The picture is just to show that it was a decent size portion of pasta. Notice that Mr. Incredible is now totally trapped beneath this pile of penne.
I thought the straws with the kids menu drinks were cute, and we got to keep them.
Dessert:
After much debate, and another round of drinks, we were almost settled on splitting the cobbler. My wife wanted the black raspberry ice cream from on top, and I wanted the cobbler. But Stephanie pointed out that the ice cream serving on the cobbler is pretty small. She checked, and instead my wife got a small bowl of the ice cream as a dessert, and I got the cobbler we had been discussing. As you can see, the cobbler is loaded with 4 different types of fresh berries, but I didn’t find any that were actually baked inside. They all seemed to be scattered around afterward. A lot of berries for sure, but not what I think of as true cobbler. Think of it as a good muffin top, in a dish, with a lot of berries scattered around it. And Stephanie was correct, that dollop of ice cream on top is about the size of a golf ball. If we had tried to share this dessert, we would have been disappointed in the results.
Summary: The food (and drinks) were excellent, though I found some items to be overpriced for what we received (namely the cheese tray and maybe even the martinis). I would have liked to try the salmon, but at $43 I believe (new menu, and probably out of season), it was just too much to spend for one entrée. We ended up with 2 adult entrees, 2 childrens entrees, 2 glasses of wine, 2 martinis, one cheese tray, and desserts all around (the kids got the white chocolate Mickey puzzle and cookie). After applying the DDE discount, the total was just under $160. We of course tipped extra for the outstanding service, on top of the automatic DDE 18%. Not a cheap meal, but good quality ingredients, nice preparation, and excellent service.
When we are near the Wilderness Lodge again in the future, I would not hesitate to go back. Hopefully the salmon will be in season next time, and more affordable.
Misc: Neat bar area, nice restaurant atmosphere. Everyone was nicely dressed when we arrived, but by the time we left, there were two parties seated who were wearing mostly tee shirts (the adults), and were underdressed (compared to everyone else). Just mentioning that, in case anyone had questions about what the standard attire was for this location.
If you want to see, here are some drink menu snapshots that came out okay.
And this meal took us almost 2 hours (we weren't in a hurry), so notice the lighting changes as the pictures progress. Some of the light reflections off the food plates were spooky......
REVIEW: Artist Point (located at the Wilderness Lodge)
SUMMARY: Good food, great service.
Staying at the Wilderness Lodge, we walked down to the lobby, and arrived at Artist Point 10 minutes early for our ADR. We were seated within 2 minutes, one row removed from the prime window seats, along the corner of the restaurant closest to the pool. (Note: While we were willing to wait for a window seat, it was going to be an hour before any came available. Once seated, I found the fact that all of the window tables that sat 4 only had parties of 2 at them, while the tables for 2 weren’t occupied AT ALL, to be odd, and was most likely a deficiency in the training of the podium people, since the restaurant ended up being rather full later in the evening). Still, the table was fine, and our view of the ongoing monsoon in the courtyard was quite nice. We were very glad we didn’t have to brave WDW transportation to dine elsewhere.
We were quickly greeted by our server, Stephanie, who would turn out to be one of the best servers we’ve ever had at WDW. She went over the menu with us, knew the items, made a few suggestions, then left us some time to look things over. Upon her return, and after discussing drink preferences with my wife, who ended up having a glass of a blended white wine called Evolution, I ordered the North Flight Martini. The martini is Grey Goose vodka, with blue cheese stuffed olives. The drink was well made, but only came with 2 small olives, that weren’t exactly bursting with blue cheese. For $9.25 a drink, I would have expected better olive coverage. The Evolution was a blend of several sweet white wines, and was deemed to be ‘very nice’.
Needing more time to look over the menu, we ordered the Selection of Artisan Cheeses:
There were 3 different cheeses, in 2 ounce portions, for $13. I didn’t find this to be a very good value, especially when comparing it to the cheese samplers at other signature WDW restaurants, like Yachtsman Steakhouse and Flying Fish. At the top of the picture is a very sharp white cheddar. Nice, crisp tasting, good though not mind blowingly great. In the middle was a blended cheese. No name given, reminded me of a mild gouda. My wife liked this one best, so I relied on the white cheddar, and the outstanding third option, the Echo Mountain Blue. Creamy, strong flavor, but not overpowering. It was an excellent choice for representing the Washington and Oregon region. For accompaniments, the tasty crispy toast on the board was probably too thin (it crumbled easily), the dried cranberries were okay, but the clear winner was the Riesling soaked yellow raisins. We kept nibbling at them, long after the cheese was gone.
Deciding against the signature cedar plank salmon (largely due to the fact that it, and the tenderloin, were both priced over $40), we decided on the pork chop for my wife, and the scallops for me. I switched up the usual side items, and requested a newly offered pasta with asiago cheese and panko bread crumbs. The girls got the kids menu baked salmon, and the penne pasta (without cheese, just butter).
The scallops:
I am always leery about scallops, because it’s tough to know how much food you will be getting, unless you see an order come by your table beforehand. There were 3 scallopss on this order, and all were larger in size than my last experience with scallops at Flying Fish. Cooked perfectly, not overcooked but still cooked through, these did not disappoint. The surprise here was the pasta. Think mac and cheese, with asiago melted in, and panko bread crumbs baked on top. Absolutely the best side item we tried this trip, and it really went well with the scallops. Notice that this dish was so good, that Mr. Incredible is reaching out for it, while partially trapped under a plate.
The pork chop:
Well cooked, good flavor, but not the largest serving in the world. The accompanying vegetables (mainly roasted potatoes) were pretty good.
Kid’s menu salmon:
A decent portion of salmon. We were so glad to see Artist Point not dumbing down the kid’s menu. Trying to be healthy is one thing, but dropping the kid’s menu down to the same exact items property wide is overkill. Anyway, I tried a bite, and the salmon was very tasty. The potatoes and carrots with it were pretty fair as well.
Kid’s menu pasta:
Penne, usually comes with cheese sauce. Our daughter didn’t want the cheese this evening, so we asked for plain with butter. No problem. The picture is just to show that it was a decent size portion of pasta. Notice that Mr. Incredible is now totally trapped beneath this pile of penne.
I thought the straws with the kids menu drinks were cute, and we got to keep them.
Dessert:
After much debate, and another round of drinks, we were almost settled on splitting the cobbler. My wife wanted the black raspberry ice cream from on top, and I wanted the cobbler. But Stephanie pointed out that the ice cream serving on the cobbler is pretty small. She checked, and instead my wife got a small bowl of the ice cream as a dessert, and I got the cobbler we had been discussing. As you can see, the cobbler is loaded with 4 different types of fresh berries, but I didn’t find any that were actually baked inside. They all seemed to be scattered around afterward. A lot of berries for sure, but not what I think of as true cobbler. Think of it as a good muffin top, in a dish, with a lot of berries scattered around it. And Stephanie was correct, that dollop of ice cream on top is about the size of a golf ball. If we had tried to share this dessert, we would have been disappointed in the results.
Summary: The food (and drinks) were excellent, though I found some items to be overpriced for what we received (namely the cheese tray and maybe even the martinis). I would have liked to try the salmon, but at $43 I believe (new menu, and probably out of season), it was just too much to spend for one entrée. We ended up with 2 adult entrees, 2 childrens entrees, 2 glasses of wine, 2 martinis, one cheese tray, and desserts all around (the kids got the white chocolate Mickey puzzle and cookie). After applying the DDE discount, the total was just under $160. We of course tipped extra for the outstanding service, on top of the automatic DDE 18%. Not a cheap meal, but good quality ingredients, nice preparation, and excellent service.
When we are near the Wilderness Lodge again in the future, I would not hesitate to go back. Hopefully the salmon will be in season next time, and more affordable.
Misc: Neat bar area, nice restaurant atmosphere. Everyone was nicely dressed when we arrived, but by the time we left, there were two parties seated who were wearing mostly tee shirts (the adults), and were underdressed (compared to everyone else). Just mentioning that, in case anyone had questions about what the standard attire was for this location.
If you want to see, here are some drink menu snapshots that came out okay.
) and just read your review. I don't blame you for being let down. WHY would a parent not take their kids out of a restaurant if they are misbehaving?!
And no, that's not a typo. As Mrs. P had already laid claim to the pork chop, I went with the scallops. They were delicious, and the deluxe version of mac-n-cheese helped fill the quantity void. But your assessment was correct, and I had plenty of room for dessert....
