Sunday lunch
Around about 10:45, we decided no way could I do all the walking from Epcot parking, and then through the park. So we decided to go to Downtown Disney for lunch...figuring hubby could drop me off near the restaurant end of Marketplace and then we could go to Wolfgang Puck...figured we'd be getting there right in time for early lunch, beat the crowds, etc. Hah! Our first clue something was amiss...all the guys on segways stopping people from turning into all the parking lot entrances anywhere near Marketplace. Hubby dropped me off down by the hotels end on DTD and went to find a parking place. He ended up getting one of the last parking places down by Planet Hollywood. And could barely walk through the crowds back up to Marketplace end. Meanwhile, I hobbled my way over to Wolfgang Puck. And found a line that doubled back on itself inside and trailed about 20 people out the door. This before 11:00 AM. By the time hubby joined me, about 11:10, WPE had switched over to lunch menu and the line was about 10 people longer than when I first arrived! Where were all these people coming from...I guess everyone in Orlando decided to go shopping at DTD that Sunday morning. There was some sort of art show going on, I think...and the golf tournament crowd may have been at DTD that morning, too, judging from some of the sports broadcaster/promotional vehicles parked down near the theater end of DTD.
Well, seeing that crowd at WPE, we said heck with it, let's go to Earl of Sandwich (when I walked by there 20 minutes before, there was only a few people in line.) Well, by 11:15, the EoS line was about twice as long as WPE. We decided to throw in the DTD towel, and go back to Coronado Springs Pepper Market, since we always meant to try it out one of these trips anyway.
Pepper Market is attractively decorated, and bright & sunny on a pretty day. The food all looks so good, we had a hard time deciding what to get. I finally decided Id try the reuben, and hubby went for the grilled steak.
Steak, grilled veggies and French fries
looked good, but were just barely OK. Give it a grade C, very average taste/quality. The steak is about ½ inch thick, which is not very thick as steaks go. They must cook from frozen, or the grill is very low heat. It took a good 10 minutes to cook this...as thin as it was, to get it rare should have been about 2 minutes per side. But hubby stood there & watched it cooking. Virtually no seasoning on it (grill flavor, very little salt.) The veggies were in a big bowl near the grill, and we expected them to spoon them onto the grill & cook them, but apparently the veggies were pre-made because they just spoon them out of the bowl onto the plate next to the steak. They were kind of mushy instead of crispy-grilled. The big chunks that look like mushrooms are actually some odd sort of squash or eggplant
tasted like dirt and thoroughly gross mush-texture. French fries were average.
I had the Reuben sandwich, chips and pickle; very fresh bread that looks like a great flavorful mix of dark & light wheat, but actually tasted like classic white wonder bread (as in meh) Tons of corned beef
totally flavorless. How do you have flavorless corned beef? I didn't know that was possible! The only flavor on this sandwich came from the over-abundance of sauerkraut
way too much, and way too vinegary. There was a tiny bit of dressing on the bread so little I couldnt taste it, had to peel sandwich open to see if theyd forgotten it. The sauce was there, again, just no taste to it. Chips were straight out of a bag, they were crisp & fresh but just regular old potato chips. Pickle was good. So basically, this was a wonderful looking sandwich with a great big NOTHING taste...unless you want sauerkraut. Then it's your dream sandwich because that's all the sandwich tasted of.
We wandered over to the bakery counter to choose desserts. I've seen reports that people were limited as to what they could choose for desserts, but we were told we could choose anything, including the ice cream sundaes. Several of the bakery items looked really good. The Fudge Dessert looked familiar, and then I realized it looked like the dessert I had in January at the Maya Grill (the CSR table service restaurant) so I asked, and the bakery server said yes, its the same dessert. My recollection was it was very thick, very rich creamy sort of fudge
almost like eating fudge frosting. Hubby wanted a chocolate dessert, so he chose this one. The version we had at Maya Grill had a tasty raspberry/dark chocolate sauce but it turns out this sauce seemed to be more like just Hersheys syrup (no raspberry flavor to it.) This fudge also had an over-abundance of golden raisins - was about 1/2 raisins in there. In January, the raisins were few & far between, just an accent in the fudge
the fudge flavor totally overwhelmed the raisin flavor in the Maya Grill version. This time, ugh
way too many raisins for us non-raisin-people. We ended up taking most of this to-go , but then couldnt eat it the next day because the raisin flavor was even more pronounced on day 2 - this was a poor imitation of the Maya Grill dessert (or maybe they've cheapened up the Maya Grill version too.)
I chose the Strawberry shortcake- this was definitely the highpoint of both meals
it was delicious. All that frosting is actually whipped cream, and tons of fresh strawberries in there. Cake is the drier/spongy sort kind of like a classic homemade shortcake, so a very good counterpoint to the richness of the whipped cream.
I had a coke, hubby had an iced tea. Now I have to say, I can see why folks object to the so-called service in this place
it was virtually non-existent. The server brought our initial beverage and explained the stamp-card system (which had already been fully explained by the hostess at the check-in podium and then again by the woman who seated us and told us who our server would be. ) Anyway, that was the last we saw of our server until we were ready to leave. She never brought refills, never cleared our table, never checked back. When we got up to go get our dessert, she was walking by a nearby table and asked us if we were getting ready to leave
we said no, going for dessert & hubby asked for more tea. She brought his tea when we were almost done with dessert. Just in time for us to leave. Don't know why they even pretend these folks are servers in here. Really, you get your own food and bring it to your table. Bussers is all they really need. Put in self-serve fountains like all the other food courts
thats what this really is, just a glorified food court. Pretending youre getting served here is just beyond ridiculous.
Anyway, nice décor. Lots of variety, but our experience on 3 out of 4 dishes was that though everything is attractively presented and appears like wonderful food, the reality is this is just very average cafeteria quality food (the strawberry shortcake was a bit better than average.) Service wasnt any. Overall, Pepper Market would get a 4 out of 10. Would not go back even if we ever stayed at Coronado Springs again. Under no circumstances would I suggest anyone make a special trip over there. Total cash cost would have been $41, but all was covered by the regular
Disney Dining Plan counter service credits (and no way was it worth $41, really.)
Note: Heads up to all on the dining plans...there's been discussion as to whether or not expected gratuity - mentioned on all receipts as "10% will be added to total" is actually included when you're on the dining plan. We were told the 10% gratuity was
not included in the total billed to the dining plan - cashier told us the restaurant is reimbursed for food-only from the dining plans. We were told outright the tip is not covered by any of the dining plans
it is up to us to pay cash or charge to our room for the tip, according to the cashier.
Summing up our weekend...had a good meal at La Hacienda & lunch at Cosmic Rays & Captain Cook sandwich was tasty, but other that it seems like we had a lot of "misses" this time! Main Street Bakery, 'Ohana, Captain Cook's pastry, and Pepper Market were just not all that great. Well, we're just about done with our "Disney Restaurant Bucket List" so other than a couple of signature places (and any new places they may open) we're going to resume choosing restaurants completely on what we know we like. It's been fun trying out so many different restaurants but actually kind of glad we're done experimenting. We'll be back to Disney World in January 2011 with a grown-up son who hasn't been to Disney World in more than 10 years. We'll be doing the Deluxe dining plan, so 8 restaurants in 4 days: should be fun!
We usually get a studio but for this trip we booked a 1 bedroom villa which will give him his own space.
