A May weekend of Beach Club Eats! (plus 'Ohana!) (Update 5/17: Cape May Breakfast!)

[LittleStinkerbelle]

Loving your reviews! Especially drooling over your meal at B&C - can't wait t get back there for another No Way Jose.

 

[BlovesC]

Loving your reviews! Especially drooling over your meal at B&C - can't wait t get back there for another No Way Jose.

I highly recommend the One No Way Jose a Day health regimen. It's the BC's best multivitamin. All that calcium and protein from the dairy and peanut butter MUST be good for us!

 

[wilma-bride]

I am so pleased to know I can get my ham, egg & cheese croissant fix at BC Marketplace - thought I might have to shlep all the way over to Boardwalk Bakery

Looks delicious by the way

 

[BlovesC]

After we spent a few more hours...wait for it, wait for it....SWIMMING IN SAB (I'm not kidding when I say we averaged between five-six hours a day there ) we headed off to another lunch at Beaches and Cream! What can I say, when something's this good, we're creatures of habit!

We were seated immediately in a back booth and had the same server as the previous day, Maria! She was happy to see us back. Probably because she knew we weren't going to force her to parade out a Kitchen Sink.

We decided to shake things up with our drinks! DH ordered a coke with raspberry syrup, I ordered a diet coke (I know I know, what's the point?!) with cherry syrup. While I loved the taste of my drink, it was a little too much sweetness and not refreshing enough. I'd order it again on its own as a treat, but not to go with a meal, if that makes any sense. DH loved his and had a refill or two!

I ordered the grilled chicken breast sandwich with fries, which turned out to be a perfect choice!

The chicken breast was a huge hunk of juicy white meat. It's clearly marinated before they grill it. Tons of flavor and perfect on their home-baked multigrain bun. Once again WAY too many fries though, I left half of mine on the plate. But they were delicious!

DH surprised me by ordering the turkey sandwich again. He really liked this...I think the huge strips of bacon had a lot to do with that.

And Maria wasn't surprised when we ordered yet another No Way Jose for dessert again. But this time we switched it up. The normal version is served with chocolate and vanilla ice cream...we asked to swap the chocolate out for coffee ice cream. I know that sounds weird, but trust me, coffee ice cream and peanut butter sauce is one of my FAVORITE combinations. It's delicious!

When Maria brought our sundae out...she said "I swear these get bigger and bigger each day!" and she's right...I have photographic evidence!

This sundae, with the coffee ice cream:

and yesterday's sundae:

that's a very noticeable difference! Maybe the staff just decided we were their favorite customers.

While we were eating we got to see FOUR kitchen sinks delivered. But the weirdest was one table, consisting of a dad and his two young daughters...they left within a few minutes of getting their KS, and barely touched it! What a waste of a WHOLE CAN of whipped cream!

 

[LittleStinkerbelle]

I totally also do the diet coke (with cherry syrup) at B&C. Wow, that was one fine looking No Way Jose!!

 

[wilma-bride]

Another great meal at Beaches & Cream. I guess that's another added bonus of staying at Beach Club. I can't believe the difference in those two No Way Jose's. That is DH's favourite - I didn't realise you could sub a different flavour ice cream though (although DH reckons it's pretty near perfect the way it is).

I just know I am going to return from our stay at the Beach Club the size of a house. And I'm willing to bet I will not be floating around the lazy river - in fact, they'll probably have to close SAB for maintenance to fish my poor, bloated body from the bottom

 

[MickeyNicki]

I had to laugh at your diet coke with cherry syrup...I love a diet coke with vanilla, if you order the regular coke it turns out too sweet.

That mango cupcake looks insane, I hope they continue to have them this fall when I get there!

 

[iloveeeyore]

I'm so glad you had a great experience at 'Ohana. We have loved it 4 times and have an ADR for August, but as you know, reviews are getting more and more mixed lately. Those cupcakes from CC...mmmmm...look like breakfast on August 4 (81 days)!

 

[Krissalee]

I'm glad you had a lot of time to relax. Focussing your meals around the BC is a great idea for a relaxing trip, that way you don't have to worry about traveling to other areas of WDW, which can be stressful and time consuming!
I have never made it to bEaches and Cream - I have to try to make it a priority the next time I stay in the area.

 

[BlovesC]

I totally also do the diet coke (with cherry syrup) at B&C. Wow, that was one fine looking No Way Jose!!

Yaaay, glad I'm not the only weirdo who likes contradictions then! And yessssss, it looks like a giant snow-covered mountain of ice cream, who couldn't love that?!

I just know I am going to return from our stay at the Beach Club the size of a house. And I'm willing to bet I will not be floating around the lazy river - in fact, they'll probably have to close SAB for maintenance to fish my poor, bloated body from the bottom

Awwww! Well in my case the repeat Beaches & Cream meals only helped matters...fat floats! And when I got into SAB I had no issue whatsoever turning onto my back and staying at the surface of the water!

I had to laugh at your diet coke with cherry syrup...I love a diet coke with vanilla, if you order the regular coke it turns out too sweet.
That mango cupcake looks insane, I hope they continue to have them this fall when I get there!

You're right about the sweetness...when I tasted DH's regular coke with the raspberry syrup, it was so cloying it tasted like cough syrup to me! But he loved it. I hope they have the cupcake still too, it's a total winner. And BTW I LOOOOOOOOOOVE your reviews! Looking forward to your fall trip.

I'm so glad you had a great experience at 'Ohana. We have loved it 4 times and have an ADR for August, but as you know, reviews are getting more and more mixed lately. Those cupcakes from CC...mmmmm...look like breakfast on August 4 (81 days)!

Cupcakes are the breakfast of CHAMPIONS! And honestly the disparity in 'Ohana reviews continues to shock me, but we had such a fantastic meal, and if you've loved it so much before I'm sure you'll enjoy it again!

I'm glad you had a lot of time to relax. Focussing your meals around the BC is a great idea for a relaxing trip, that way you don't have to worry about traveling to other areas of WDW, which can be stressful and time consuming!
I have never made it to bEaches and Cream - I have to try to make it a priority the next time I stay in the area.

TY! And we didn't intend to cling to the resort so much, but it was just SO relaxing and the parks were so busy it was just too easy to stay there and avoid any extra hassles. Still managed to have great food!

 

[happy2012]

Great review!!! & Yum! Now, I have to get over to B&C!!!! I think your cherry diet coke looks like a great treat!!! I could see how that would be like a dessert type thing. Everything looks fantastic!

& if we ever get to stay @ BC we'll be @ that pool ALL DAY too!!!
We'll be @ SSR,our 1st DLX!!!!!! Wahoo!!!! & the pools look fabulous!!!!! I can NOT wait!!!

 

[hogwartsdropout]

Raspberry syrup in coke?? That is something I need to try!! I love your reviews!

 

[vettegirl]

One of these days I am going to visit Beaches and Cream just for those fab desserts!!!

 

[darthtatty]

Great reviews

Love B&C, sad that we couldnt do it last time as we were just way too full up.

 

[BlovesC]

We'd originally had plans to have dinner at Via Napoli, but with our reluctance to part with the BC we wound up deciding to give Cape May Cafe a try for dinner (we'd had breakfast planned for our departure morning already). Dinner buffets and me do NOT get along well. I'm weirdly picky when it comes to meat and poultry and what I will and won't eat. I find that generally every dinner buffet, no matter what the 'theme' is, offers the same basic proteins; roast beef, salmon, roast chicken on the bone, and some sort of pork. Which are pretty much the worst possible offerings to me. I love most types of fish except salmon, I won't eat chicken on the bone, I don't eat any pork products, and I'm not a fan of prime rib or roast beef or pot roast or anything of that nature. SO! My disclaimer is to take my experience at Cape May with a grain of salt, given how difficult dinner buffets can be for me. DH is the opposite of me and would eat at a buffet every night if given the option, and since my picky nature means I usually choose our restaurants, I was happy to concede one meal to him.

We checked in at the Cape May podium about a half hour early and it was a mob scene, so we knew we'd have plenty of time to kill. We wound up wandering over to Martha's Vineyard, which was nearly empty. It would be a REALLY relaxing lounge if not for the TVs airing different sporting events.

I ordered a white sangria and DH ordered the red:

This was the BEST white sangria I've ever had! It was deliciously fresh and light and sweet-tasting. I tried a sip of DH's and much preferred mine, the red was a little too strong. I highly recommend this!

Our beeper went off and we checked in, to be seated at a booth under a cute white trellis. We ordered drinks (that light pomegranate lemonade they offer in all the restaurants now is AWESOME) and hit the buffet!

My first plate:

This is a small salad (lettuce, cheese, and dressing), a single potato from the potato salad (just to try it), some marinated black olives, the cucumber salad, some rice and mushroom salad, and shrimp from the quinoa shrimp salad (I left the quinoa behind ).

I love black olives and I know they're always salty from the brine, but whatever they marinated these in was WAAAAY too much salt for my taste. The cucumber and potato salad and shrimp were fine, but that rice and mushroom salad was easily the winner here.

I also tried the butternut squash soup, which I was VERY happy to see offered. I'm a huge fan of anything butternut.

This was just fine. It tasted like a recipe I make myself for a very low-calorie butternut squash soup, because it clearly didn't contain any cream. It had a very lumpy consistency and not much flavor to it. It certainly paled in comparison to the butternut squash soup offered over at AKL, which is silky smooth and tastes like liquid pumpkin pie.

DH's first plate:

He had the shrimp quinoa salad (WITH quinoa!), potato salad, cucumber salad, a house salad with egg, and melon flavored with fresh mint. He cleared his plate!

He also had a bowl of the clam chowder...which is hiding underneath the ten pounds of oyster crackers he added, but it's there, I promise!

I honestly don't remember any specific comments about this, but again he cleaned the bowl so it had to have been decent!

My weird second plate:

My favorite things on this plate were the mashed potatoes and the roll. I decided to try the beef roast since I couldn't find any other protein I really wanted. I asked for well done, and boy did I get it, in the form of a hockey puck posing as meat! The vegetables were very undercooked, as was the vegetable penne pasta. I left most of them on my plate. I figured while I was there I'd try a crab leg, since they seemed to be the main attraction. It was actually pretty good! I don't mind crab, but I'm not a fan of the messy cracking of crab legs, so I didn't want to try more.

Now, I've learned that Cape May has a rotating dinner menu, and feature various seafood offerings on various nights. Everything I've read says that on Saturday, when we were there, they offer cod, peel and eat shrimp, and fried shrimp. These are three things I LOVE and was looking forward to, but they were nowhere to be found. There wasn't a single shrimp anywhere except in the quinoa salad! And the only fish offered was salmon. I don't know if they changed their rotational menu or they ran out or what, but there weren't any signs or empty pans indicating I was missing them, they simply weren't there.

But on a happier note, here is DH's second plate:

Now multiply that by three or four and you have the rest of his meal! Seriously, he LOVED the clams, mussels, and crab so much he kept going back for more. That seems to be the name of the game at Cape May Cafe! The couple seated behind us each came back to their table with plates FULL of crab legs no less than six times. I stopped counting after that. DH was in heaven!

Alternate shots of plates three or four, I can't remember!

Meanwhile, I'd long given up on the hot food and decided to hit the desserts. Desserts are always my shining salvation after any unsuccessful buffet dinner. I may be picky with 'real' food, but with sweets I'll eat pretty much ANYthing. So I loaded up a plate of goodies!

We have...a blondie brownie, oreo bonbons, strawberry cheesecake, a mini key lime tart, and a giant oatmeal cookie.


I know the oreo bonbons are infamous here, but for me, they were greatly overshadowed by the strawberry cheesecake, which was just perfect. Not overly rich or sweet, just perfect. The bonbons were good too though. The key lime tart and blondie were pretty standard. I didn't eat the cookie and I'm not sure why I took it. But I DID finish everything else shown here, and like every other dinner buffet, after eating more sweets than I did proper protein and vegetables, I wound up with a slight stomach ache!

DH actually skipped dessert entirely, since he was so full on mussels and crab at that point. When he asked me about my feelings on Cape May, I told him I'd rate it just slightly below Biergarten, which, as my previous least favorite restaurant in the world, he knew meant Cape May had received the kiss of death. Honestly I would go again just because DH loved it so much, but it's hard to justify the $35 price if all I'm going to eat are salad and desserts....when I could be feasting at 'Ohana for the same price!

SAB was set to close in about an hour and a half after we finished our meal, so as usual we hightailed it to our room and then out to the pool for our regular post-gluttony-float&groan!

 

[MickeyNicki]

Thanks for the tip on the White Sangria, I prefer that over red as it can give me a migraine...but I LOVE the red sangria from BWI take out window.

Your DH's plates look alot like my hubby's, anything with a shell and lots of it!

 

[ocalla]

Man, we LOVE Cape May!!! But I'm more of a shellfish eater than a meat eater.....so Biergaten would NOT be a place for me, much less Ohana

I will definitely try the White Sangria while we are there!!!

 

[LJD2143]

Love your honest and detailed reviews! Especially since these are all places that we will be visiting in September.

The lack of shrimp at Cape May really caught my attention - I wonder what thats about? According to the menu on AllEars, Saturday should have had Fried Shrimp:

Seafood Selections
Snow Crab Legs, Steamed Clams, Prince Edward Island Sound Mussels,
Baked Seasonal Fish, Tortellini with Lobster Sauce, and Seafood Pot Pie .

Fried Cod (Sunday and Friday),
Batter-Fried Calamari (Tuesday and Thursday),
Fried Shrimp (Monday, Wednesday and Saturday)

 

[deenbrad]

Uh-Oh!! I am NOT gonna be happy if they don't have the peel & eat shrimp when I get there! I love crab legs too but I have to have my shrimp! I don't think their fried shrimp was very good either

 

[Trentmom]

I am trying to find a buffet for our upcoming trip as those my hubby's favorite and we always go where I want, so trying to be nice.

But, I have an extremely picky son. You didn't happen to see the kids buffet did you? I think I saw they have chicken nuggets. Do you or anyone reading know what is offered at kids buffets?

Thanks