A tale of breakfasts and snacks from an Italian perspective! (with pics) - FINISHED!

[Disney owl]

great reviews thank you

 

[John's Mom]

Great reviews and pictures. Thanks for sharing.

Ciao,
Kathy

 

[Linda67]

Loving your reviews
I am a huge fan of breakfasts so it's great to see so many reviews of my fave meal of the day!
I love the look of the French Toast at Kouzzina and the Wave looks excellent as well

 

[t_daniels]

I'm so sorry, migraines are horrid!! Have you ever tried peppermint oil on your temples and the base of your neck? I find if I catch it early the oil really helps (especially the oil combined with ice!) Those little quiches look pretty tasty
I don't know about bland as my husband always douses them in Tabasco
Oh, I think (IIRC) Moroccan couscous is the smallest, Israeli medium and then Lebanese is the largest but I've seen varying sizes in between

Have to try this.

 

[Alby]

Loving your reviews

Thanks!

I love the look of the French Toast at Kouzzina and the Wave looks excellent as well

The Wave was really a surprise!

I am at the beach in these days, but I will soon go on writing.

 

[CanadianPaco]

Lovely reviews!! You're doing a great job!! Thanks!

 

[DnA2010]

Awesome reviews! Love your pictures and descriptions!

 

[NorCalGal]

Subbing!

I love your reviews, and it's nice to hear an international take on WDW dining.

I sometimes travel to either WDW or Disneyland (I live in California) alone, and it's a different but still enjoyable experience. I find that I tend to plan shorter trips when I'm alone, though.

 

[Alby]

I am back!

May 5

On May 5 I went to Epcot again, and later to the Cirque Du Soleil show.

As it was my 3rd Epcot day and I wasn’t in a hurry to do rope drop (although I did anyway), I had breakfast at Kona Café, and took the Epcot monorail. It was the first time I used the main Epcot entrance; it was more crowded than the international gateway, but I had no problems at all.

I had fantastic service at Kona (by Eric), and this is remarkable, because on May 7 I had breakfast at Kona again, and I had absolutely the worst service of the trip. My two breakfasts (same place, same time) took respectively 30 and 65 minutes. The server really counts!

I had the Macadamia nut pancakes with pineapple sauce (no butter) and bacon, and found them good and extremely filling, but strangely enough I discovered that I prefer ordinary pancakes with this sauce (the ones you get with the Big Kahuna plate).
Sorry for the half eaten picture … I remembered at the end, and I couldn’t eat much more than this!

For lunch I had some caramel corn from Karamell Kuche, which I love (it’s much better hot, though), but I unfortunately have no picture for it.

After La Nouba show, I had a nice walk around Downtown Disney by night (it was a first for me) and I bought a Cannonballs from Earl of Sandwich. I ate it in my room, but it survived well.

I found it delicious! There was a perfect balance between marinara sauce, cheese and meat, and the sauce and meatballs were fantastic.

As an aside, I had the very same sandwich in Disneyland Paris 3 weeks later with my family, and it was a sore disappointment. Not all EoS are created equal!

 

[Aulika]

I am really enjoying your reviews. Thank you for posting !

 

[ShortStuff]

Some of my favorites are Tangeriene cafe, Columbia Harbour House and Wolfgang Puck Express, in down town Disney. I will be there next month and your dining pictures are making me very hungry!! Thank you for the yummy reviews!!!

 

[Alby]

May 6

May 6 was Animal Kingdom day! Before going to AK, I often have breakfast at AK Lodge, as an excuse to look around the lodge: it is beautiful , and if it weren’t so far from everything I would stay here for sure.

Boma has a wonderful breakfast buffet, rich of unique items.

First of all I had a savory plate (clockwise from top): ham and cheese eggs (nothing special, in my opinion), sausage (the usual), grilled tomatoes (good), stewed tomatoes (a bit spicy and very good, the breakfast winner for me), corn beef hash (very good and different), bobotie (a bit bland), breakfast potatoes.

Then I had some more stewed tomatoes, pancakes with banana foster sauce and waffles, which were good as usual.

Finally, I had some grits with melon (a bit bland).

As usual, I was very satisfied with my Boma breakfast. It satisfies my desire for trying new things, but it has plenty of items for picky eaters… actually, most of the breakfast is all – American (this is less true at dinner).

I have always had good service here, and I find the surroundings very inspiring. Although AK is the only park you can’t walk to, the bus ride from AKL is very short and buses are plenty at 8 am, so my strategy of having breakfast as near to the park of the day as possible in order to get there for rope drop still works!

 

[Tracerr00]

I"m not a big fan of buffets but there seems to be quite a variety of foods at Boma! Not just your normal breakfast foods that you'd get anywhere. I might have to reconsider buffets!

Also, good tip about eating breakfast near the park that you'll be going to. We usually grab something in the food court and it's usually just ok. I may have to look at my ADRs again to see if I can squeeze in a breakfast somewhere!

 

[doitforlove]

Boma looks yummy! I'll have to try to fit that buffet in for a future trip

 

[Alby]

Sadly, after Boma my camera stopped working, and I have no more pictures to show.
I will nevertheless review my last meals, as a few of them are not reviewed often on the DIS.

Yak and Yeti

To begin with, I had lunch at Yak and Yeti TS, and I had the dim sum basket , the wok fried green beans and the fried wontons for dessert.

The dim sum was nothing special: I really appreciated only the pork dumplings, which were the same you can find in any Chinese restaurant anyway.
The green beans, on the other hand, were very good (but not too exotic), and the wontons were fantastic. I went against my decision of not buying dessert anymore but they were the dish that appealed most on the menu, and they were not too sweet.

Yacht & Beach Club Private Dining

On my last evening in WDW, I wanted to relax in my room and pack, and therefore I had room service. The Yacht & Beach Club Private Dining menu doesn’t particularly appeal to me, but I had the crab cake appetizer and the burger with homemade chips.

It wasn’t bad… and it wasn’t very good either. The best part of the crab cake appetizer was the accompanying fennel salad, which was actually very good, and the best part of the burger were the chips.

I had the burger because I have never had one in the US (and very few in my life) and I hoped this would be a better first try than CS burgers, but it actually wasn’t so (I presume, as I have not tried CS). The patty was very thin, dry and tasteless. Oh, well, I am not going to waste one of my very few TS chances on a burger, so this will have to do.

Kona Café

My last breakfast was at Kona Café again, but it wasn’t a good experience as the first time around. I had Tonga Toast with bacon (although I had asked for it with sausage), and it was good. The strawberry sauce was fantastic.

But I never got my juice, the Toast took 45 minutes to arrive, and the bill 20 (although I had asked for it as soon as I had my Toast delivered). Service was really abysmal, and this put a damper on the whole experience… I barely made MK rope drop! (this is unbelievable for me!)

 

[DLFan123]

Enjoyed reading your reviews! Sounds like a nice trip with lots of good breakfasts and some other goodies too. :

 

[Alby]

Columbia Harbor House

For my last lunch, I had the clam chowder with fries again, and my experience was consistent with the one I had previously in the week.

The chowder was outstanding for a CS, fries were hot, the rooms upstairs after 1 (or maybe 1.30) pm are uncrowded, well themed and very relaxing.

I suggest CHH to anyone!

Casey’s Corner

I later had a light early dinner (my flight was at 8.40 pm) at Casey’s, and I had corn dog nuggets and fries. My dinner turned out to be lighter than expected, because I found the nuggets to be overwhelmingly sweet, to the point that I could not eat them.

I have little experience with corn dogs, so my disappointment might be a cultural thing. My only other experience with corn dog nuggets has been at Nathan’s in Universal Studios (when it was still open near Jaws), and I found those much less sweet, though.

Casey’s fries, on the other hand, were among the best I have ever had.

Even at 4 pm, the place was crowded, but with some patience I found a seat on the inside bleachers. I am sure that Casey’s is a quite stressful experience at peak lunch time, though!



Next comes my final analysis of a week of Disney dining!

 

[DonaldDoleWhip]

I love CHH too! It's nice to have a well-themed CS location with plenty of seafood choices. I love the grilled salmon there, but the chowder and fries also look like a lovely CS lunch.

 

[Alby]

I love CHH too! It's nice to have a well-themed CS location with plenty of seafood choices. I love the grilled salmon there, but the chowder and fries also look like a lovely CS lunch.

Sooner or later, MAYBE, I'll try something different...

 

[Alby]

Final analysis
So, did I enjoy my week of Disney dining? Thoroughly!

I was very happy with the quality of the food, although this may be due to the fact that so much of it is unusual to me. I found it better than it was in January 2011, anyway.

I think the theming of restaurants is generally wonderful and really adds to the experience (notably in Columbia Harbor House and Boma). TS service was sketchy this time around, particularly in the early morning, while CMs in CS places have always been were kind.

Here are my winners:
Best breakfast: The Wave and 1900 Park Fare
Best TS: Yachtsman Steakhouse
Best CS: Columbia Harbor House and Boulangerie Patisserie
Best snack: walnut brownie from Main Street Bakery

I don’t know if and when I’ll have the chance to repeat this experience: unless I get on a business trip again with time to spare, I’ll have to wait for 2016 or 2017 to visit the World again (when our kids will be finally old enough… in my DH’s opinion! )

But if I manage to sneak in another solo trip before then, I have some new favorites I am going to revisit, and some new places I can’t wait to try! I will be back to all the winners listed above, for sure, and to Boma, which has not made the favorite list only because it was already well known to me.

I have already planned on trying The Crystal Palace (unless they simply have no tables for solo diners before park opening), Fresh at the Dolphin and Wolfgang Puck CS, and I am curious to see the new Boulangerie Patisserie!