A Veggie and a Meat Lover vs Dlx Dining, June 8-18, Closing Thoughts 11/12

[gardengirl628]

Ohana looks yummy.....I think I will have to put it on "the list" for July.

 

[eeyore81]

I just got caught up on your reviews. We are vegans and leaving in 3 weeks. I called the Dietary Request line and filled out the request form. I am worried about Hoop Dee Doo Revue, since it is a fixed menu. How did you go about talking to the chef? Thanks!

 

[shippedtosea]

I think I told you that O'hana's breakfast is my favorite. I am so glad you liked it. Isn't that juice just heavenly? They really need to bottle it I agree. I would drink it everyday! I am glad that they were so good with your requests for no meat.

Hmm...yea I think you did! OMG whhhhhy can't they bottle it? I would buy like a case. hahaha. I want to convince DH to go again (I kind of booked too many breakfasts and he wasn't to happy about them.....he isn't a breakfast person....OOPS) He did really like the food though so i think I have a chance!

I'm so ashamed. It's "lilikoi". I spelled it wrong. I'm waiting for the phone call which asks me to return my Poly Addict membership card

haha oops. Well i'd say I won't tell anyone....but this is a public forum...sooo...at least you probably will remember for next time!

Ohana looks yummy.....I think I will have to put it on "the list" for July.

I would def agree! Their food gets a big from us. a must do.

I just got caught up on your reviews. We are vegans and leaving in 3 weeks. I called the Dietary Request line and filled out the request form. I am worried about Hoop Dee Doo Revue, since it is a fixed menu. How did you go about talking to the chef? Thanks!

I was worried about them as well. Did you get emailed from the dietary request? if not here is their email WDW.Special.Diets@disney.com. All you have to do is email them and say I filled out the form but I am a little concerned with HDDR (or any other ones!) and they will contact a chef for you....who will then call you! Which I think is pretty great. Though when you get there.....even though you talked to someone they will still ask you what you want. I had a veggie burger but I have heard you can have pasta and I think they offered me stir fry as well. SO they are really accommodating. I wanted something that could go with the potatoes and cornbread so thats why I went with that. But I'm sure those are vegan. Maybe they can make you roast potatoes? I would def email the dietary request they were very helpful.

 

[klacey1]

Hi, I just joined in! I love the detail of your reviews.

 

[eeyore81]

Thanks for the advice. I emailed Special Dietary and let them know we were a little concerned about HDDR. Thanks again!

 

[shippedtosea]

Hi, I just joined in! I love the detail of your reviews.

Thanks! and Welcome!

Thanks for the advice. I emailed Special Dietary and let them know we were a little concerned about HDDR. Thanks again!

No problem. I hope they can help you and i really hope you enjoy HDDR!

 

[shippedtosea]

Hey all

Day 7 Part 2

Tonight we had an ADR at Biergarten.

DH accidentally wrote the wrong time down....and we ended up being like an hour and a half late.....needless to say they were a little annoyed at us. We waited about 15-20 mins.

Even though there were tons of tables open, we were seated with a large family and the very end of the table. I guess we shouldnt have been late. Now Biergarten was one of the restaurants that I spoke to a chef ahead of time because I knew it was very meaty. She was extremely nice and helpful and assured me that everything would be great. Well...when I got there that was not my experience. While I do take some of the fault for this I also think they could have been better.

This was NOT our view.....our view had a whole family in our way..

When we arrived I mentioned my dietary request, to which I got a complete blank stare. The CM ran off and got another CM who again stared at me. Finally I got them to get the chef. While I was waiting I told DH he might as well go get some food. Well....it took the chef 20 mins to come out. DH had gotten his food and was halfway through. They came by at one point to tell me that the Chef was taking care of a more important allergy issue and I had to wait. I was more annoyed with how they said it then actually the wait. The Chef came over but was not pleased. I totally annoyed him. So...he was kind of like what do you want? I told him I spoke to a Chef Anita and she told me what my options were. She said she could make a stir fry and would show me around the buffet. Now maybe its because we were late....(or maybe he is just cranky) but none of this way okay with him. He kind of snapped fine i'll do a stir fry. then when I said could you please take me around the buffet? He almost threw a fit. He did in the end but OMG it was like pulling teeth.

Now before I go on i'll just say that...this whole thing annoyed me to such extreme. I think its because everyone else is so nice that when you have someone who is a little mean its 10x worse in comparison. so...my experience is a lot different then DH's. (who did feel really bad) so I took no photos of DH's food.

So after I was shown around the buffet I realized how much I could eat! I was very excited. BTW it took me like 15 mins to explain to the chef the difference between Vegan and Vegetarian. shouldn't you know this if your a chef? so......the first half of the buffet *may* have had more stuff I could eat but he was convinced I couldn't have cheese or milk...so I guess i'll never know.

DH very much enjoyed the show. I had been looking forward to it…but with all the headache….I kind of ignored it….which I regret.

We both had sodas and beers

I was way too excited about the beer! Hahaha

This was my first plate. I would love to be able to tell you everything on here but I can’t I would say I like everything except those doughy balls….they were a little strange to me. But all the salads were yummy and the pretzel bread was heaven

I didn’t even get a second plate from the buffet….I just got a bowl of pretzel bread. Does anyone know if they sell this outside of Biergarten?

Well then….cranky came out to ruin more of my life. He brought a stir fry and kind of threw it at me.

So…..it was just a plate of spice. I don’t like spicy food…at all. I deal with a little bit of spicy food but not overly spicy. Well this was literally a plate of spice. That’s all I tasted. It was hot and spicy. Even if I could get away from the spice…..it wasn’t very good. I had wished I knew about the selection in the buffet before I said make me a stir fry because it sucked but I felt I had to eat it. (just in case he came back or something! He was kind of scary)

I’m pretty sure I got more pretzel bread to make myself happier. I could have just eaten that and salad and I would have been extremely happy. (note to self)

I think I was happy about my bread because I did take a picture of DH’s dessert

Here’s mine

I don’t remember what the chocolate cake this was but the other is Bavarian cheesecake. Oh my. So good.

So….the moral of the story? I should have just done the buffet. Now the buffet food was great! And there was so much. For Vegetarians out there…there is plenty for you to eat. You really don’t need to have anyone take you around most things have labels that tell you in detail what things are (but I didn’t know!!) For Vegans…..a lot of things I don’t think were vegan friendly….I hope for your sake if you go…you get someone nicer to help. I was not impressed by the stir fry. ( I contemplated putting it on someone else’s table so I didn’t have to eat it and could just eat the buffet)

DH loved the food and ate tons. So…..yes we would go back but I wouldn’t bothering telling them about being a vegetarian is was a big annoyance.

 

[Stephie77]

That sucks they were not nice to you about your food needs. I am actually really surprised. At least you know for next time to stick to the buffet. Did stitch enjoy it?

 

[shippedtosea]

That sucks they were not nice to you about your food needs. I am actually really surprised. At least you know for next time to stick to the buffet. Did stitch enjoy it?

The chef on the phone before we went was so nice so I think it was just this one chef. he also might have been mad because we were late I do recommend the food though....so i'd like to give it another chance and have a better experience! haha I made DH put stitch in a bag.....because I thought that the people sitting next to us would think we were even stranger then they already thought we were. We got some strange looks for taking food photos. (and they were like right next to me....awkward) hahaha poor stitch.

 

[Stephie77]

The chef on the phone before we went was so nice so I think it was just this one chef. he also might have been mad because we were late I do recommend the food though....so i'd like to give it another chance and have a better experience! haha I made DH put stitch in a bag.....because I thought that the people sitting next to us would think we were even stranger then they already thought we were. We got some strange looks for taking food photos. (and they were like right next to me....awkward) hahaha poor stitch.

hahaha! Nothing wrong with strange I have never been there but I told DH we have to go when we go back in December for our anniversary trip(we are booking this weekend! It is actually anniversary and kind of 2nd honeymoon since our first trip was very sad and this time I will do a TR!). I really want that pretzel bread. I hope you get to go when you go back for your anniversary trip and that it is better hon.

 

[shippedtosea]

hahaha! Nothing wrong with strange I have never been there but I told DH we have to go when we go back in December for our anniversary trip(we are booking this weekend! It is actually anniversary and kind of 2nd honeymoon since our first trip was very sad and this time I will do a TR!). I really want that pretzel bread. I hope you get to go when you go back for your anniversary trip and that it is better hon.

haha.. I'm so glad you guys are going back! that will be great! where are you staying? I think you guys deserve it and you can def enjoy it more. I can't wait for a TR! We were trying to go in December for my bday but we could do both trips so we are going back for our one year.

 

[Stephie77]

haha.. I'm so glad you guys are going back! that will be great! where are you staying? I think you guys deserve it and you can def enjoy it more. I can't wait for a TR! We were trying to go in December for my bday but we could do both trips so we are going back for our one year.

Thanks hon. We are staying at AKL club level. I have never stayed there and we would love to stay at the GF like we always do but it is way too expensive even for a Garden View. I heard it is nice and I am really looking forward to doing the private Safari and breakfast for our anniversary. That stinks you can't do both but at least for your anniversary you get to go.

 

[shippedtosea]

Thanks hon. We are staying at AKL club level. I have never stayed there and we would love to stay at the GF like we always do but it is way too expensive even for a Garden View. I heard it is nice and I am really looking forward to doing the private Safari and breakfast for our anniversary. That stinks you can't do both but at least for your anniversary you get to go.

oh thats awesome! i've always wanted to stay there. Let me know how you like it. yeah....we tried but even going for 2 days was too expensive because of flights. Oh well. we can try and figure out a disney themed day somehow in chicago

The anniversary trip is more important to us and we get to stay at boardwalk which makes me so happy.

 

[emmabemmainc]

If you live by a Trader Joe's, they sell pretzel bread that is very similar to WDW's!

 

[shippedtosea]

If you live by a Trader Joe's, they sell pretzel bread that is very similar to WDW's!

oh! thats very good to know. i'll have to go get some! Thanks

 

[shippedtosea]

Hey everyone.

Day 8 Part 1

Today we had early ADRs at 1900 Park Fare. We arrived on time and checked up. we waited a while because it was so busy.
We got our photo

and then were escorted in. We were told where all the characters were and how much time we had before the first one would be at our table. which I thought was really nice. it was the only place that did this.

We waited because Mary Poppins was close to us. She really loved DH because he is from England.

I have to say after 8 days on the Dlx Dining......we were running out of room....so the buffets were getting to us. so much food and we weren't nearly as hungry

My first plate

Pancakes with banana syrup. (the actual syrup was banana and honey flavored then with actual banana's in it) SO good....omg and a fresh omelet. This was the only place I got an omelet...but it was super good as well.

DH's plate

again awesome banana syrup with a mickey waffle. Strawberry soup, fresh fruit and breakfast pizza.

So DH was def over Breakfast by this time and i'm shocked he got more than fruit haha. DH loved the strawberry soup and i'm sad I didn't try it! looks good to me now.

Here is where I should have stopped...but what is it about buffets that makes you need to take more? but I did...second plate

granola with strawberry yogurt, bagel and jelly, mickey waffle, chocolate croissant. seriously...i don't think i ate that much of this plate. I was so stuffed. the first plate was too good.

DH's second plate. fruit and some meat. Croissant and chocolate croissant.

Food was great, Character interaction was great. All characters were extremely in character and friendly. lots of fun. We enjoyed it but..I donno if we'd go back only because the food is very similar at all the character buffets. but it was really nice.

 

[pezaddict231]

I had a lot of catching up to do but I'm loving all the reviews! I've never done HDDR and now I really want to go, it looks so fun! We had Ohana breakfast scheduled but skipped it since it was the day after the wedding, so we'll definitely have to do it next time, and they do bottle the juice! Only they don't sell it around here, but in Hawaii they have giant jugs of that and POG juice (like they serve at Tuskerhouse).

Tuskerhouse is my favorite, we usually have a late breakfast ADR. Gives us just enough time to do Everest and Dinosaur and then we head over. Donald used to be inside and they would take your picture just in front of those plates, I guess they figured you're more likely to buy the picture if Donald is in it? I liked it better when he walked around though. And I really think they should just give you the pictures since they do print them up already to show you.

I definitely think you made a good choice with Citricos! We like it a lot better than Narcoosee's but we don't eat seafood. I have found the service and everything at Citricos to be better too.

Sorry that Chef was so mean to you! I totally agree, when you encounter a mean person at Disney it's so much worse. We really liked the food at Biergarten too but not sure if I would go back without a big group...I don't really like sitting with random people.

I love 1900 Park Fare but DH isn't a fan, I think the Mad Hatter is so funny though!

 

[shippedtosea]

I had a lot of catching up to do but I'm loving all the reviews! I've never done HDDR and now I really want to go, it looks so fun! We had Ohana breakfast scheduled but skipped it since it was the day after the wedding, so we'll definitely have to do it next time, and they do bottle the juice! Only they don't sell it around here, but in Hawaii they have giant jugs of that and POG juice (like they serve at Tuskerhouse).

Tuskerhouse is my favorite, we usually have a late breakfast ADR. Gives us just enough time to do Everest and Dinosaur and then we head over. Donald used to be inside and they would take your picture just in front of those plates, I guess they figured you're more likely to buy the picture if Donald is in it? I liked it better when he walked around though. And I really think they should just give you the pictures since they do print them up already to show you.

I definitely think you made a good choice with Citricos! We like it a lot better than Narcoosee's but we don't eat seafood. I have found the service and everything at Citricos to be better too.

Sorry that Chef was so mean to you! I totally agree, when you encounter a mean person at Disney it's so much worse. We really liked the food at Biergarten too but not sure if I would go back without a big group...I don't really like sitting with random people.

I love 1900 Park Fare but DH isn't a fan, I think the Mad Hatter is so funny though!

OMG now I need to drag DH to Hawaii just so I can drink that juice all day long

hmmmmm....well DH told me that they are doing that will all the character meals. Like mickey at chef mickey's is now in the front instead of the plate because they really want to push for those photos. I know....seems like a waste for them to just throw it away. You get it free at the castle!

hmmm...good to know. I asked DH if for our one year if he wanted to try Narcoosee's instead and I got a big NO.

I want to find a big group to go with to Biergarten! so maybe we can have more. fun...now I need to find people to drag to florida with me.

1900 was def nice. I'd like to go for dinner next time. Though I really don't think DH likes the buffet meals very much.....or maybe its just the BF ones.

 

[shippedtosea]

Sorry....I'm taking so long for these reviews. Have I lost all my readers?

Day 8 Part 2
So around 2:30 we had an ADR at Garden View Tea Room at the GF. I was so excited for this. When we arrived there was a lady in front of us asking if she could be seated early. The CM was super nice about it and said yes but even though he kept saying yes of course where is your party she was still yelling at him that she needed to be seated early....it was pretty weird. The CM was very happy when she decided to just storm off mad (why....i'm not sure she was getting what she wanted!) and we came up.

We were seated very quickly. This is probably one of the cutest restaurants on property. It has just a great feel to it. Our waitress came over and was also extremely nice.

We both went with the Buckingham Palace - Our traditional tea sandwiches, scones and jam tarts complimented by fresh strawberries & cream, or a selection of freshly baked pastries, served with your choice of tea.

We ordered our tea first. DH got

Eros

and I got the

Mad hatter.

We both were very happy with our choices. I even spent a while trying to see if they sold it...they don't which sucks. SO good. DH still looks for a similar tea in the Grocery store....he hasn't found it yet!!

I mentioned that I was a vegetarian so she told me thats not a problem and just removed the two sandwiches with meat and gave me a choice of which sandwiches I wanted to double.

This was mine

I had an egg salad, Gorgonzola cheese pear sandwich and a sprout sandwich (don't remember exactly what was in it) and then thats a caramelized onion tart. I got 2 of the egg and pear. which i was very happy I did. OMG. they were so good.....makes you want giant sandwiches of them and not small ones. the tart was also awesome....would have preferred like 3 more instead of the other type of sandwich I was very surprised at how much I liked the sandwiches.

DH's

all the same except he had the meat ones. I think one was fish and the other chicken salad. He actually liked them a lot too and was very surprised to like the pear one.

up next is the scone and Jelly tart

now the only scone I have ever had is a line cinnamon chocolate chip...so I didn't know what to expect, especially when I saw this one had dried fruit in it (which gave me the fear of fruit cake) buuuuut it was really good and moist! I ate the whole thing. DH also liked it....but he knew what to expect haha.

so finally you get a choice of dessert. Either Strawberries and cream or a choice of 2 pastries.

I had seen the pastries before so I knew I wanted them

These were my choices. The swan was a cream puff type and the purple was a berry kind of pudding. They were both good and I really got them because they were so cute! hahaha

Dh got the strawberries

omg was he excited about these! haha he loves strawberries and pretty much licked the plate.

We loved the Garden Tea Room. it was so relaxing. It was really quiet....which I am guessing is normal because its really small and they are only open in the middle of the day. The food and service was great and I think we will have to plan to go back! If you have time try this out. This was out of pocket...because it is not on the dining plan...but to us it was well worth it.

 

[shippedtosea]

Continued

So we had an ADR at 8:45 at Ohana's. When we arrived I asked if we could get a window seat to see the fireworks but they had all been requested. We did end up getting to see bits of them which was fine. we were really there for food! I had heard such great things about Ohana's and how awesome the food was. I didn't ask if Chef TJ was there...specifically because I didn't want to be disappointed if he wasn't!

Here we are being super ready to eat!

So if you have a special dietary request you get a bright flower so they don't miss it! which I thought was cute and useful...other places should do this!

So in case you don't know much about Ohana's there is no menu. They just keep bring out food (pretty much non stop)

First up of course is bread.

word of advice....while this bread is really good.....don't eat it. there will be more than enough food later and you'll regret it!

Our Server noted our request and said the chef would love to make me something special. which sounded good to me (I trusted them to do something great)
Then came out the dipping sauce for the potstickers

I really enjoyed the dressing. it was light and citrus. its honey-lime YUM

Potstickers which I couldn't have. but DH liked! They were pork I believe

Chicken Wings


We both got Lapu Lapu to drink.

Okay so I have heard a lot of people get this and love it. It is really good....but it is pretty much straight alcohol. (at least mine was!) It was so strong.

So for my app they gave me pita with different kind of hummus

from what I managed to eat.....this was really good...however like a second later this came out

and then this

so...hummus was forgotten

Seriously I think we both would have be happy with just this food. I liked it all. everything was fresh and just awesome. but...this is just the starters!!!

Soon after...this was brought to me

the tower of amazing veg. It was just as amazing as everyone has raved about. It is veggie tempura with crispy noodles and marinated tofu. This is beyond filling.

DH had a lot of meat on skewers, he liked the beef and chicken best

Here is our table of craziness

I'm pretty sure they give the same amount to a table of 4.

soon after our food came out.....the chef came by to say hi. it was TJ! I was very happy that he was there (I think thats why I lucked out with my tower) he was so nice!

In this next photo...while you can see how much I ate (I was very proud of myself) this is my Lapu Lapu is defeating the lightweight face

I don't drink a lot so...I was getting kind of drunk despite all the food.

Now we didn't actually see out waitress much. but when we did she was the one of the nicest CMs we had of the whole trip!!! She was just so happy to be there and made sure we had a nice romantic meal! she was also nice enough to take our picture.

She also brought us a happy honeymoon cupcake

Dessert is bread pudding and bananas foster

After so much food I only had a little but it was soooo good.

We would def go back. I loved it. They do dancing with kids and stuff. We didn't really see it we were in a quiet corner which worked for us. We did see some fireworks but the restaurant has such a nice welcoming atmosphere..that it wasn't a disappointment. We liked being in such a quiet area.

okay...so this food was fantastic! but like 1/3 of the food would have been enough for a normal person....so word of advice....do not be us....do not eat much before going here! you want to eat all this food....so you need to be starving.