ANOTHER 21 days in WDW+DXDDP=hundreds of food pics (COMPLETED 3/2!)

[AlohaPolynesian]

Oh my god I want to eat at Citricos now!

 

[iluvpluto27]

Your day 6 looks like some amazing food. Now I am wishing I was eating at both Tusker House and Citricos on our next trip. Both of these places I didn't have much interest in until now. Sadly there is too much food and too little time.

I hope you get to give them a try on another a trip, Citricos especcially is a fantastic restaurant.

I'm so glad to see your review of Tusker House - we are going to eat there in February and my friend isn't the most adventurous eater, but I see plenty of things on your plates that she will eat! (I eat everything so it's never an issue if I'll find something to eat.)

Thanks so much for all of your reviews, they are really helpful and your photos are fantastic!

Thank you very much. There was plenty of plain food along with a few more adventurous selections, so your friend should definitely enjoy it.

I'm not a vegetarian, but I do eat veggie meals on occasion. I would be extremely frustrated that I couldn't get a good meal at the Signature restaurants. Being meat free isn't a new concept. It boggles my mind. Tusker House sounds yummy.

Thanks. Narcoosees was the only signature restaurant where I felt either the chef didn't have a clue what comprised a good veggie meal, or couldn't be bothered coming up with something decent. I know quite a few chefs have very little time for veggies, but you could still attempt to create an edible option.

Now I want to trade in my Narcoossee's for Citrico's!

They're both really nice restaurants, but I definitely prefer Citricos.

That salmon from Citricos looks to die for!!!

It was really, really good, one of the best entrees of the trip.

Oh my god I want to eat at Citricos now!

It's a really excellent restaurant, hope you get to eat there soon.

 

[dizneeat]

All caught up again!

Taking loads of notes for what to have next visit Keep up the good work and keep those reviews coming

Oh, and THANK YOU FOR DOING THEM!!!!

 

[iluvpluto27]

Today we had a morning away from the parks, which meant no rope drop so we had a bit of a lie in. We decided to split a CS meal from Artist Palette to use up one of the few credits I hadn't planned for.

We got a cheese omlette again, (DH really likes his omlettes), it was good, eggs light and fluffy but some of the cheese hadn't melted, so probably wasn't cooked quite enough.

We also used a snack credit on a Chocolate Croissant. This was very nice, flaky buttery pastry, plenty of chocolate filling, topped with a drizzle of chocolate icing.

After a morning spent lounging by the pool we headed to DHS for our 1:30 reservation at Hollywood Brown Derby. I had a look at the menu outside and noticed they had changed it, and now offered an all day menu, rather than the separate lunch and dinner menus they offered previously.

We checked in at 1:20 and were seated within about 5 minutes. The restaurant was pretty busy at first, but emptied out while we were eating, by the time we left it was half empty.
It's a large restaurant and seemed very loud, I think this was partly due to a large family sitting just across from us, who's kids seemed tired and cranky.

Our waitress greeted us quickly and paced the meal well, we didn't feel at all rushed here, and were never left waiting for anything too long. I ordered a Hollywood to drink, which was vodka, chambord, orange and pineapple juice. This was a refreshing drink, with a good amount of vodka in it.

We were given white crusty rolls and butter to munch on while we waited for our appetisers (I love crusty bread so enjoyed these.) My appetiser was the Potato crusted crab cake, with green cabbage slaw and dijon mustard sauce. This was very good, plenty of tasty fresh crab, surrounded by a potato crust (this part was ok, I prefer a breadcrumb coating over this), the slaw added a crunch and was sweet and slightly spicy. The mustard sauce was too spicy for me, but overall a nice crab cake, but not in the same league as Citricos Gateau of Crab.

DH had the Mushroom ravioli with tomato-fennel sauce and shaved parmigiano-Reggiano. He said the pasta was slightly undercooked, but he really liked the rich mushroom and cheese filling. The tomato sauce/broth was nice, but the dish should have been served warmer than it was.

For my entree I had the Ahi Tuna with mizuna, palm sugar cucumbers, pickled diakon, flavored soy and wasabi sauces. This was a good quality piece of tuna, and the crust added a good flavour. The cucumber salad was tasty and refreshing but the wasabi sauce was too spicy for me. My biggest criticism of the dish is that it was served pretty barely warm, and although the vegetables were good cold, the tuna itself would have been better served hot.

DH had the Noodle bowl with coconut tofu, soy beans, sugar snap peas, bok choy and shiitake mushrooms in a red curry broth. This was a huge portion, the noodles were well flavoured, the vegetable well cooked and the sauce tasty. He wasn't too keen on the coconut crusted tofu, the flavour was good but the crust was so chewy it was hard to eat.

For dessert I had the Banana White Chocolate toffee tower. This was very good, a crunchy biscuit base, toffee mousse, chunks of soft banana on top and in the middle of the tower, topped with fresh cream and bananas foster sauce.

DH had the Flourless chocolate cake with red wine sauce and caramel ice cream. He really enjoyed this, the cake was incredibly dense, thick and rich, it combined well with the caramel icecream, then the red wine sauce just cut through the sweetness slightly. A very well balanced dessert.

Overall we had a nice lunch here, the service was very good and the food was good, although neither of us loved our entrees. It's not quite up there with the other signature restuarants, but worth the credits if you're on the deluxe plan.

 

[dizneeat]

That review puts the Brown Derby back on the map! I was not sure about it because of a few other reviews that were soso, but your review makes me rethink my decision. Guess I'll have to put it back on my list for next summer!

 

[AlohaPolynesian]

You must've caught the Brown Derby on an off day because I had the same dish and the tofu wasn't chewy at all. It was actually one of my favorite meals! Your drink looks delicious and I could go for one of those desserts right about now

 

[Miffy2003]

Excellent reviews of Tusker House, Citrico's and HBD

 

[MickeyNicki]

That omelette looks incredible!

We have yet to dine at BD but it looks awesome!

 

[klacey1]

Ugh, not properly heated entrees is one of my biggest pet peeves (along with not getting the bill quickly and unfriendly waitresses haha). I'm glad you it wasn't bad enough to ruin your meal, though!

 

[iluvpluto27]

That review puts the Brown Derby back on the map! I was not sure about it because of a few other reviews that were soso, but your review makes me rethink my decision. Guess I'll have to put it back on my list for next summer!

Hope you enjoy, we've only dined there twice but both times we've had decent meals there.

You must've caught the Brown Derby on an off day because I had the same dish and the tofu wasn't chewy at all. It was actually one of my favorite meals! Your drink looks delicious and I could go for one of those desserts right about now

I think it was just cooked wrongly that day. DH had the same dish last year and the coconut coating wasn't chewy and he really enjoyed it, but this time it was really quite difficult to eat. The desserts were both fab!

Excellent reviews of Tusker House, Citrico's and HBD

Thank you very much.

That omelette looks incredible!

We have yet to dine at BD but it looks awesome!

Hope you get to try Brown Derby on one of your trips.

Ugh, not properly heated entrees is one of my biggest pet peeves (along with not getting the bill quickly and unfriendly waitresses haha). I'm glad you it wasn't bad enough to ruin your meal, though!

I hate it too, I sometimes have real issues eating food when it's just lukewarm. Luckily with my dish it was ok warm, and DH really isn't fussy, so he still enjoyed his pasta.

 

[cbg1027]

Oh man I was just at Citricos a week ago and had the chicken entree, but now I'm kind of wishing I had gone with the Salmon I was considering! Ooooh Citricos It's me and my Grandma's all time favorite Disney restaurant now.

Tusker House looks pretty darn good too - I want to try those corn dog nuggets! From Citricos to corn dog nuggets....

 

[iluvpluto27]

Oh man I was just at Citricos a week ago and had the chicken entree, but now I'm kind of wishing I had gone with the Salmon I was considering! Ooooh Citricos It's me and my Grandma's all time favorite Disney restaurant now.

Tusker House looks pretty darn good too - I want to try those corn dog nuggets! From Citricos to corn dog nuggets....

The salmon was fantastic, but I bet the chicken was good too. We really liked Tusker House, and I love those little corn dog nuggets, I wish we could get them in the UK.

 

[iluvpluto27]

Sorry I've been slow with the updates this week, I'm still travelling a lot with work, and I've had a really bad cold the last few days which just sucked all the energy out of me.

Dinner tonight was the only night of the trip without a dining reservation. I always like to keep at least one night free, so we can do what ever we want, without having to be somewhere at a specific time.

We walked across to DTD and DH played in Disneyquest for a few hours, before browsing the shops. Around 9:15pm we decided to get something to eat. We tried Wolfgangs but it was absolutely rammed, with huge queues and no available tables, so we decided to try Earl of Sandwich instead.

There was a small queue here but we ordered quite quickly and found a table easily. I chose the Meatballs, with marinara sauce, mozzarella and parmesan cheese. This was a really nice sandwich, the meatballs were flavourful and not fatty or gristly, the tomato sauce was tangy and there was plenty of mozerella.

DH had the Caprese, sliced fresh mozzarella, roma tomatos, fresh basil and drizzled balsamic vinaigrette. Again he really enjoyed this, fresh thick slices of mozerella, the balsamic glaze contrasted well with the tomatoes and mozzerella, and the bread was very soft.

We took dessert back to the room and ate it after we'd digested the sandwiches. I had bread pudding which was actually really good. It was a very dense, heavy pudding, but was sweet, packed with plenty of dried fruit, cinnamon and a sugar topping. It was too heavy to eat the whole thing in one go, but I did enjoy it.

DH had a chocolate cupcake. He said this was alright, just plain sponge with a chocolate topping, he preferred my bread pudding.

Overall this was a very good cs meal, not quite as good as WPE but still somewhere we'd definitely come back to.

 

[iluvpluto27]

This was the only day of the trip we had 3 table service meals planned. I had heard so much about Tonga Toast here, so even though I'm not a huge breakfast eater, I booked a 7:30am reservation at Kona.

We caught a cab from SSR to the Poly, and arrived about 7:15. We were able to check in and get a pager, but they didn't start seating until 7:30.

While waiting I took a couple of pictures of the empty restaurant, and of the goodies on offer at the Kona Island Coffee Bar.

We were one of the first parties seated at 7:30. Our server was ok, she was friendly but quite busy as they sat 3 parties in her area all at the same time, so it took a while to get drinks and our food.

To drink we ordered the Kona Coffee French Press Pot for 2, and and two glasses of the Lilikoi Juice. You get two drinks each with breakfast on the dining plan so this was all covered by the plan.

The coffee was very good, much better than the standard disney nescafe coffee, and the juice was delicious, very similar to the Frunch served at Boma.

I wanted something light so went for the Fruit Plate, served with Banana Bread. This was very good, a huge amount of fruit (melon, pineapple, banana, strawberries, grapes and kiwi fruit). It was all very fresh and ripe, and the banana bread was sweet, soft and tasty. A very nice, light breakfast.

I persuaded DH to go for the Tonga Toast (mainly because I wanted a few bites but didn't think I could eat a whole one!). It's normally served with bacon or sausage, but as DH is vegetarian they offered to serve it with breakfast potatoes instead.
This was really good but very sweet. Sugary, soft bread, crispy on the outside, soft in the middle, filled with warm banana. It was absolutely huge but DH polished it off. He was served various condiments for it, including strawberry sauce which he liked too.
He wasn't keen on the potatoes as they hadn't been cooked all the way through and were still hard in the centre, but to be honest the toast was too sweet to enjoy something savoury with it anyway.

Condiments - maple syrup & Strawberry sauce

Overall we had a nice breakfast here, the restaurant filled up very fast so it's obviously a popular choice, and we would definitely come back.
We finished our meal within 45 minutes, and by catching the monorail to Magic Kingdom we made rope drop easily.

 

[podsnel]

Haha- I did the same thing with the Tonga Toast and my DS12- made him order it so I could have a bite because I knew I could never finish the whole thing, but I just HAD to try it!! I did manage to put a nice dent in the macadamia nut pancakes I ordered, though- they were amazing!!! Your fruit looked really, really good though, I saw an order of that while I was there and it looked gorgeous. I'm not much of a breakfast eater either, but I loved breakfast at Kona, too, and will make a point of going back again!

Love your reviews, hope you're feeling better!

 

[Schmoodle]

Yummy, I am eating my oatmeal with banana right now and wishing it was Tonga Toast! Just wanted to pop in and say "hello". I really enjoyed your review from last year's trip and was excited to see you were doing another one. I love to live the DXDP vicariously, as I know I will never be able to manage it myself. Your reports are so thorough and descriptive, I feel like I have really eaten there with you. I did try the regular dining plan on my recent trip, and I am probably taking the kids back in January, possibly with the QSDP. Do you plan to go back next year?

 

[iluvpluto27]

Haha- I did the same thing with the Tonga Toast and my DS12- made him order it so I could have a bite because I knew I could never finish the whole thing, but I just HAD to try it!! I did manage to put a nice dent in the macadamia nut pancakes I ordered, though- they were amazing!!! Your fruit looked really, really good though, I saw an order of that while I was there and it looked gorgeous. I'm not much of a breakfast eater either, but I loved breakfast at Kona, too, and will make a point of going back again!

Love your reviews, hope you're feeling better!

I thought about getting the pancakes as they also sounded delicious, may be next time!

Yummy, I am eating my oatmeal with banana right now and wishing it was Tonga Toast! Just wanted to pop in and say "hello". I really enjoyed your review from last year's trip and was excited to see you were doing another one. I love to live the DXDP vicariously, as I know I will never be able to manage it myself. Your reports are so thorough and descriptive, I feel like I have really eaten there with you. I did try the regular dining plan on my recent trip, and I am probably taking the kids back in January, possibly with the QSDP. Do you plan to go back next year?

Thank you very much. We always do some sort of dining plan, though the deluxe was just a bit too much for us this time round, we might book the plan for a shorter length of time next time.

I would love to go back next year but I've got to go to Mexico for my sisters wedding in May, so we just can't afford another big trip. Hopefully we'll make it back in 2011 though, I can't go too long without my disney fix!

 

[Miffy2003]

Breakfast at the Kona cafe - lovely! I always want to love the Tonga Toast (and I do love the idea of it) but somehow the reality is never as good as the anticipation

 

[iluvpluto27]

Breakfast at the Kona cafe - lovely! I always want to love the Tonga Toast (and I do love the idea of it) but somehow the reality is never as good as the anticipation

I really liked the Tonga Toast, but I only had a few bites of it. I don't think I could eat a whole one as it was very heavy, we'll definitely go back to Kona for breakfast again though.

 

[iluvpluto27]

After spending the morning in a pretty empty Magic Kingdom, we had an 11:45 reservation at The Plaza.

This was a restaurant we'd never tried before, but I heard lots of good things on about it on here, so we though we'd give it a go. We checked in a couple of minutes late and were sat around 12:00.

This really is a very small restaurant and we were taken to a table by the window, which gave us a nice view out onto Main Street and the Celebrate parade that went by during lunch. Initially we couldn't actually get into the table, as there were children from the next table running on the seat where DH needed to sit (it was one big long booth type seat, running round the whole wall of the restaurant)

These were some of the worst behaved children I've ever seen in a restaurant. Even when DH was sitting down, the little girl was actually running behind him (on his seat) and clambouring over him (who lets their kids behave like that) Eventually the mother took the youngest one outside, but the older two (who again were running around and would not sit in their seats) were allowed to stay and have ice cream. I like kids, I really do and I definitely want to have my own someday soon, but really children should remain seated in a restaurant, it's just common courtesy to fellow diners and waitstaff.

Anyway rant over and onto the food. Service seemed quite slow but they were busy, it took a while to be greeted and get drinks, and there was a long wait for dessert to be delivered.

We were still pretty full from breakfast so skipped appetisers. I had the cheeseburger served with Broccoli Slaw. This was good, the bun was nice and soft, the burger was ok (tasted like a standard frozen patty to me), topped with american cheddar. I liked the broccoli slaw (it's not something I've ever seen before back home), it was tangy and had plenty of flavour.

DH had a veggie burger and fries. Again he said the burger was alright, and it had recognisable bits of broccoli and carrots in the patty, he had it topped with mushrooms and american cheddar which he enjoyed. The fries were good, thick chunky chips, crisp on the outside and soft in the middle.

I was pretty full when it came to dessert so decided to go for a milkshake. You can choose any flavour from the menu, so I went for mint choc chip which is my favourite flavour of ice cream. This was really good, very thick creamy milkshake and absolutely huge. The silver shaker behind the glass, contained around another two glassfuls of milkshake, DH had to help me finish it.

DH chose the Brownie Sundae, which again was absolutely huge. He really enjoyed this, there was a ridiculous amount of brownie (two huge pieces), vanilla icecream, hot fudge sauce and cream. He finished it all except for the brownie, as there was way to much.

Overall we had a nice lunch here. It took over an hour for the two courses, which seems slow by disney standards, but it was a nice relaxing meal, and we'd definitely return.

Coming next - Artist Point.