JimmyV
Por favor manténganse alejado de las puertas.
- Joined
- Jun 4, 2008
- Messages
- 8,060
We visited 5 days over President's Day weekend, celebrating my daughter's 16th birthday. As a result of the occasion, she got to choose the restaurants. They were, (in order of appearance, not preference):
Flame Tree-Lunch
California Grill-Dinner
Rosie's-Lunch (not so much her "choice", but it happened to be where we were at lunch time)
50's Prime Time-Dinner
La Cantina-Lunch
Via Napoli-Dinner
Columbia Harbor House-Lunch
Citricos-Dinner (she wanted V&A, but we opted not to pack a whole other stata of clothes just for a three hour dinner)
San Angel Inn-Lunch
Here are my impressions and one sentence summaries. (Sorry. No photos. My daughter absolutely detests the idea of people taking pictures of their food. A feeling that I will do nothing to deter.
)
Flame Tree-very consistent. Have never had a bad rack of ribs here. Honestly, this is quite good "theme park" food for the price. We sat among some very entertaining birds who knew all the tricks on how to steal food.
California Grill-Our first time since the re-do. Excellent service. Got a window table with a full-on view of the Magic Kingdom, adorned with "Mickey glitter" in honor of the birthday celebration. We enjoyed our meal, with the following observations. My daughter thought that the Goat Cheese Ravioli (which is really a raviolo) would be better executed as two or three smaller ravioli instead of one large saucer-sized pillow. By the time she had finished cutting it into bite-sized pieces, much of it had disintegrated into the broth. Perhaps that is the intent. Still, it tasted great. The "duck in all its glory" which appears on every menu that I have seen on line was not on the menu when we were there. Bummed. I wanted to try that. I had a tomato flat bread instead. It tasted fine, but should have been hotter and more crisp. It was too mushy for my definition of a flat bread. Entrees were Dragon Roll, Bell & Evans Chicken and Swordfish. Everything was vey good, but my swordfiah portion was a bit small for the price. My daughter ordered the only dessert and it was an excellent chocolate pudding cake. Overall, our impression of the new space is that they grew it too big. The place is absolutely huge and I imagine the kitchen is under a lot of stress.
Rosie's All-American: Ugh. We all had really tired burgers with really tired toppings. I won't be going back.
50's Prime Time: We ordered a Lettuce Wedge, Crab Cake and Fried Herb Cheese for starters and two orders of Fried Chicken and a Caesar Salad with Chicken as entrees. The fried cheese was a miss. The fried chicken was as good or better than I remember. For under $20, this is a lot of food and it is very well done. I could have eaten much more of the collared greens however, and next time will ask for an extra big serving. We had a great server who made us feel right at home both "in" and "out of" character.
La Cantina: Same as it ever was. Small-ish portions of perfectly acceptable theme park food. If you are looking for kick-butt Mexican food, this isn't it. But keep in mind that you are in a theme park and it is just fine. We all got tacos and a side of chips and guacamole.
Via Napoli: Arancini and a Shrimp and Bean platter as starters and then we split two small specialty pizzas: Carciofi and Piccante. I could live on Carciofi pizza. The crust had the beginning signs of black char. Personally, I would let it go for another minute in the oven, but I think they struck a happy medium for the clientele.
Columbia Harbor House: We detected a slightly thicker breading on the shrimp, but all in all, it is a nince menu to break up the "burger and fries" mentality. And sitting upstairs is always a refuge from the crowds.
Citricos: Best meal of the trip by a wide margin. Same price, essentially, as California Grill, with a lesser atmosphere, but they really hit it out of the park as far as the food went. We all agreed that we love our times together at the CG, but Citricos is the better Signature dinner (at least right now). My daughter tried the Arancini because she wanted to compare it to the one the night before and proclaimed this one to be better. I had the Mussels and they were plentiful and well prepared. For entrees we had a Grouper, a Veal Shank and the Short Ribs. All were interchangeably excellent, though the Veal Shank wins for pure volume.
San Angel Inn: We followed our best TS meal with our worst. My daughter had fond memories of this place so we chose it for a sit down meal before heading to the airport. The best that I can say about lunch here is that it wasn't terribly expensive. The service was disinterested and the food was a mess. Literally. Meat slopped on top of pureed this and that in a room so dark that one could not tell the skirt steak from the black bean cake. Crossing this one of my list.
That's about it. And for those keeping score at home on the DDP/DxDP/OOP front, I kept and calculated every receipt to the penny and by paying OOP we saved $339.26 over the DDP and $757.48 over the DxDP. Had we been in "Free Dining" mode, the value of the free dining would have been $523.15, meaning that the things we ate that would have been encompassed within the plan would have come to that amount. So by way of comparison, if "rack rate" is cheaper than a discounted room + $523.15, then that would have been the way to go. But if a discounted room + $523.15 comes out cheaper than rack rate, then that would be the way to go. So if rack rate is $350 a night for 5 nights and they throw in free dining, you would pay $1750 (plus tips and any added-on OOP costs). If you could get the same room at 30% off, you would pay $1225+$523.15 (plus tips and any added-on OOP costs). I use this example because $350 is about the break even point for what and where we ate. At $500 a room, the 30% discount gets you the better bargain.
I'll answer any questions that anyone has. Happy eating!
Flame Tree-Lunch
California Grill-Dinner
Rosie's-Lunch (not so much her "choice", but it happened to be where we were at lunch time)
50's Prime Time-Dinner
La Cantina-Lunch
Via Napoli-Dinner
Columbia Harbor House-Lunch
Citricos-Dinner (she wanted V&A, but we opted not to pack a whole other stata of clothes just for a three hour dinner)
San Angel Inn-Lunch
Here are my impressions and one sentence summaries. (Sorry. No photos. My daughter absolutely detests the idea of people taking pictures of their food. A feeling that I will do nothing to deter.
)Flame Tree-very consistent. Have never had a bad rack of ribs here. Honestly, this is quite good "theme park" food for the price. We sat among some very entertaining birds who knew all the tricks on how to steal food.
California Grill-Our first time since the re-do. Excellent service. Got a window table with a full-on view of the Magic Kingdom, adorned with "Mickey glitter" in honor of the birthday celebration. We enjoyed our meal, with the following observations. My daughter thought that the Goat Cheese Ravioli (which is really a raviolo) would be better executed as two or three smaller ravioli instead of one large saucer-sized pillow. By the time she had finished cutting it into bite-sized pieces, much of it had disintegrated into the broth. Perhaps that is the intent. Still, it tasted great. The "duck in all its glory" which appears on every menu that I have seen on line was not on the menu when we were there. Bummed. I wanted to try that. I had a tomato flat bread instead. It tasted fine, but should have been hotter and more crisp. It was too mushy for my definition of a flat bread. Entrees were Dragon Roll, Bell & Evans Chicken and Swordfish. Everything was vey good, but my swordfiah portion was a bit small for the price. My daughter ordered the only dessert and it was an excellent chocolate pudding cake. Overall, our impression of the new space is that they grew it too big. The place is absolutely huge and I imagine the kitchen is under a lot of stress.
Rosie's All-American: Ugh. We all had really tired burgers with really tired toppings. I won't be going back.
50's Prime Time: We ordered a Lettuce Wedge, Crab Cake and Fried Herb Cheese for starters and two orders of Fried Chicken and a Caesar Salad with Chicken as entrees. The fried cheese was a miss. The fried chicken was as good or better than I remember. For under $20, this is a lot of food and it is very well done. I could have eaten much more of the collared greens however, and next time will ask for an extra big serving. We had a great server who made us feel right at home both "in" and "out of" character.
La Cantina: Same as it ever was. Small-ish portions of perfectly acceptable theme park food. If you are looking for kick-butt Mexican food, this isn't it. But keep in mind that you are in a theme park and it is just fine. We all got tacos and a side of chips and guacamole.
Via Napoli: Arancini and a Shrimp and Bean platter as starters and then we split two small specialty pizzas: Carciofi and Piccante. I could live on Carciofi pizza. The crust had the beginning signs of black char. Personally, I would let it go for another minute in the oven, but I think they struck a happy medium for the clientele.
Columbia Harbor House: We detected a slightly thicker breading on the shrimp, but all in all, it is a nince menu to break up the "burger and fries" mentality. And sitting upstairs is always a refuge from the crowds.
Citricos: Best meal of the trip by a wide margin. Same price, essentially, as California Grill, with a lesser atmosphere, but they really hit it out of the park as far as the food went. We all agreed that we love our times together at the CG, but Citricos is the better Signature dinner (at least right now). My daughter tried the Arancini because she wanted to compare it to the one the night before and proclaimed this one to be better. I had the Mussels and they were plentiful and well prepared. For entrees we had a Grouper, a Veal Shank and the Short Ribs. All were interchangeably excellent, though the Veal Shank wins for pure volume.
San Angel Inn: We followed our best TS meal with our worst. My daughter had fond memories of this place so we chose it for a sit down meal before heading to the airport. The best that I can say about lunch here is that it wasn't terribly expensive. The service was disinterested and the food was a mess. Literally. Meat slopped on top of pureed this and that in a room so dark that one could not tell the skirt steak from the black bean cake. Crossing this one of my list.
That's about it. And for those keeping score at home on the DDP/DxDP/OOP front, I kept and calculated every receipt to the penny and by paying OOP we saved $339.26 over the DDP and $757.48 over the DxDP. Had we been in "Free Dining" mode, the value of the free dining would have been $523.15, meaning that the things we ate that would have been encompassed within the plan would have come to that amount. So by way of comparison, if "rack rate" is cheaper than a discounted room + $523.15, then that would have been the way to go. But if a discounted room + $523.15 comes out cheaper than rack rate, then that would be the way to go. So if rack rate is $350 a night for 5 nights and they throw in free dining, you would pay $1750 (plus tips and any added-on OOP costs). If you could get the same room at 30% off, you would pay $1225+$523.15 (plus tips and any added-on OOP costs). I use this example because $350 is about the break even point for what and where we ate. At $500 a room, the 30% discount gets you the better bargain.
I'll answer any questions that anyone has. Happy eating!
