handinpocket
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 19, 2009
- Messages
- 1,553
This was the meal we were most looking forward to on our trip. We scheduled it for my son's birthday meal and we had looked forward to it for months and months. I had read several stellar reviews here on the DIS, so I was confident it would be a night to remember.
There were 3 adults and one child. We started off with 2 portobello mushroom soups with chive oil and 1 pork belly appetizer. The soup, that I had heard orgasmic reviews over, was bland at best. It honestly did not have a strong mushroom flavor, but rather a non-descript creamy, milk flavor. The most flavor I could derive from it was when I dipped into the chive oil, but I can't say it was an altogether pleasant flavor, rather sort of bitter. The pork belly was excellent, it was soft, creamy decadent pork fat. MMMMMMM doesn't get much better than that, however; that will be the last excellent bit of food for the whole night.
I ordered the cedar plank salmon - medium rare. It came out cooked as ordered but it too was very bland. There were little to no seasonings on it (very little salt or pepper) and the vegetables it came with were 1 steamed carrot and 2 large pieces of steamed zucchini. There was about 1 teaspoon of sauce in my plate that was tasty, it was eaten in one bite, leaving me with a large piece of low quality salmon and unappetizing vegetables. Absolutely, my worst meal of the entire trip.
My husband ordered the filet - rare. It too was cooked correctly. He said it was just ok. Le Cellier and Kona had far better steaks in his opinion. He did have a large piece of gristle in the middle of his steak. I urged him to send it back and have another filet prepared but we had already waited over 1 1/2 hours for our entrees to be served, he didn't want to bother with the hassle so just ate around the gristle. He did enjoy the baby potatoes that came with the meal but thought the green beans were very undercooked.
Our dinner companion had the buffalo - medium rare with mac and cheese. This was the best entree at the table, but it was still on the mediocre side. The buffalo was a bit chewy, but did have a nice flavor with sweet hints to the meat. The macaroni and cheese had pasta so overcooked that it literally fell apart when it was stirred up. It had a nice flavor, but if anyone has ever had severly overcooked pasta, you know that texture I'm talking about, it is just unappealing and really shouldn't happen at a signature restaurant.
My son had the kid's chicken breast and mashed potatoes. The chicken breast was so dry and the outside so tough that he just decided one bite was enough for him....even ketchup wasn't going to make that any better.
He did enjoy his mashed potatoes immensely, and his cup of chicken noodle soup for his appetizer was also a hit.
Now, let's discuss service or rather, our lack of service. We all ordered iced teas for our drinks and received NO REFILL for the 2 1/2 hours we were there. Well, my husband did hunt a waiter down (not ours) and ask that we have refills. Nobody came to our table after. After 15 more minutes he took our glasses to the check in stand and waited there until they were refilled (they asked him to sit down and did bring them to the table). After those drinks were gone, we still received no service. If you will recall, I said it took 1 1/2 hours for our entrees to appear. Ok, I understand this is a signature restaurant and the dining experience takes longer. When our waiter finally appeared - 15 minutes after our entrees were served we told him we would like our dessert to come out rather quickly because we wanted to watch the MS Electrical Parade at the Magic Kingdom, he said "of course". We waited 45 MORE minutes and our desserts never came out. We were so DONE.
With the terribly mediocre food and horrible, HORRIBLE non-existance service we complained to the manager. He saw no problem because it was a signature restaurant and we should expect a long wait between courses*45*minutes for dessert to arrive (which it never did), is absurd! We were there 2 1/2 hours, utterly ridiculous to me. We have eaten at Citricos, Jikos and Yachtsmen's and never had such long waits. He really didn't have much to say about the "service" except sorry, we are known for the best servers.....ooooookay. He did offer to refund our credits but we were leaving the next day and we would have no use for 8 extra credits. The main reason we talked to him was to let him know about our unsatisfactory experience so they could improve it for the next guests.
Can't say we will go back anytime soon, maybe one day when we are feeling cheeky.
There were 3 adults and one child. We started off with 2 portobello mushroom soups with chive oil and 1 pork belly appetizer. The soup, that I had heard orgasmic reviews over, was bland at best. It honestly did not have a strong mushroom flavor, but rather a non-descript creamy, milk flavor. The most flavor I could derive from it was when I dipped into the chive oil, but I can't say it was an altogether pleasant flavor, rather sort of bitter. The pork belly was excellent, it was soft, creamy decadent pork fat. MMMMMMM doesn't get much better than that, however; that will be the last excellent bit of food for the whole night.
I ordered the cedar plank salmon - medium rare. It came out cooked as ordered but it too was very bland. There were little to no seasonings on it (very little salt or pepper) and the vegetables it came with were 1 steamed carrot and 2 large pieces of steamed zucchini. There was about 1 teaspoon of sauce in my plate that was tasty, it was eaten in one bite, leaving me with a large piece of low quality salmon and unappetizing vegetables. Absolutely, my worst meal of the entire trip.
My husband ordered the filet - rare. It too was cooked correctly. He said it was just ok. Le Cellier and Kona had far better steaks in his opinion. He did have a large piece of gristle in the middle of his steak. I urged him to send it back and have another filet prepared but we had already waited over 1 1/2 hours for our entrees to be served, he didn't want to bother with the hassle so just ate around the gristle. He did enjoy the baby potatoes that came with the meal but thought the green beans were very undercooked.
Our dinner companion had the buffalo - medium rare with mac and cheese. This was the best entree at the table, but it was still on the mediocre side. The buffalo was a bit chewy, but did have a nice flavor with sweet hints to the meat. The macaroni and cheese had pasta so overcooked that it literally fell apart when it was stirred up. It had a nice flavor, but if anyone has ever had severly overcooked pasta, you know that texture I'm talking about, it is just unappealing and really shouldn't happen at a signature restaurant.
My son had the kid's chicken breast and mashed potatoes. The chicken breast was so dry and the outside so tough that he just decided one bite was enough for him....even ketchup wasn't going to make that any better.
He did enjoy his mashed potatoes immensely, and his cup of chicken noodle soup for his appetizer was also a hit.Now, let's discuss service or rather, our lack of service. We all ordered iced teas for our drinks and received NO REFILL for the 2 1/2 hours we were there. Well, my husband did hunt a waiter down (not ours) and ask that we have refills. Nobody came to our table after. After 15 more minutes he took our glasses to the check in stand and waited there until they were refilled (they asked him to sit down and did bring them to the table). After those drinks were gone, we still received no service. If you will recall, I said it took 1 1/2 hours for our entrees to appear. Ok, I understand this is a signature restaurant and the dining experience takes longer. When our waiter finally appeared - 15 minutes after our entrees were served we told him we would like our dessert to come out rather quickly because we wanted to watch the MS Electrical Parade at the Magic Kingdom, he said "of course". We waited 45 MORE minutes and our desserts never came out. We were so DONE.
With the terribly mediocre food and horrible, HORRIBLE non-existance service we complained to the manager. He saw no problem because it was a signature restaurant and we should expect a long wait between courses*45*minutes for dessert to arrive (which it never did), is absurd! We were there 2 1/2 hours, utterly ridiculous to me. We have eaten at Citricos, Jikos and Yachtsmen's and never had such long waits. He really didn't have much to say about the "service" except sorry, we are known for the best servers.....ooooookay. He did offer to refund our credits but we were leaving the next day and we would have no use for 8 extra credits. The main reason we talked to him was to let him know about our unsatisfactory experience so they could improve it for the next guests.
Can't say we will go back anytime soon, maybe one day when we are feeling cheeky.
