Long time lurker, first time WDW food reviewer taking a stab at sharing the food-love...
A little background before we begin, so that you know who the guilty parties are and why they do the seemingly bizarre things that they do:
Me: Brenda, celebrated my 37th birthday the day before we arrived at WDW. I want to eat well, and sometimes I do, but Crohns disease makes me a picky eater (it's a defense mechanism - no one wants their intestinal tract to explode at Disney World). My gastronomic philosophy can best be summed up as this: I don't like stuff in my food.
DH: Jason, trailing behind his aging wife at the ridiculously young age of 36. He wants to eat well, too, and has spent the last ten years convincing me that there is more to life than tuna fish. He is Mr. Adventure when it comes to food - the spicier the better as far as Jay is concerned. His gastronomic philosophy is simple, but effective: Bye-bye belt!
We were joined for the last seven days of our trip by my parents. I mention this only because the pictures will start to include their choices as well as ours, but their reactions to everything they ate were pretty much the same regardless of where we had a meal. It went something like this: "Oh my yes, that souffle at Victoria and Albert's was wonderful; I really enjoyed that reuben from the Plaza; I don't know where I am or what I'm eating but it sure tastes good." I think I could have asked the wait staff to serve them re-treaded tires and they would have said it was a gourmet experience.
Here's a picture of the hubby and me because I think in our goofy way, we're kinda cute:
Anyway, enough about all that. You're here for the food, right? Well then, seeing as how I ate leftover Halloween candy for dinner tonight, let's get to the good stuff.
Between traveling and relaxing at the Mandara spa on our first day in Florida there wasn't much time for food until dinner. Luckily, thanks to years of overplanning and months of prowling the DIS, I knew enough to make dinner reservations months in advance. We were not on the dining plan until my parents joined us, so these first few days were all out of pocket and worth every penny.
October 18th: Dinner, House of Blues
Our reservation was for 8PM and we were a few minutes late thanks to our decision to walk over to the West Side from our room at Saratoga Springs. This was the first time we stayed at SSR and we underestimated the length of time it would take to walk, especially because we forgot that HoB is at the very end of all the stuff on the West Side. Thank goodness for ADRs!
The place was packed when we checked in, but I don't think we waited more than 10 minutes before being seated. We had a very personable waiter from Cuba whose name escapes me but he took great care of us and made some wonderful recommendations.
Jason and I started the meal with an appetizer:
Pan Seared Voodoo Shrimp with Rosemary Cornbread and Dixie Beer Reduction.
This was yummy! I love shrimp and although I was worried about too much spice, this dish was all about flavor. The cajun seasoning was great and resulted in a bit of kick on the back of the tongue, but nothing too extreme. The cornbread was moist and flavorful and soaked up the dixie beer sauce just fine.
We both really enjoyed this selection (I could have made a meal out of it by myself).
Jason ordered the Grilled Fillet of Atlantic Salmon with Shrimp Jambalya Risotto, Asparagus Tips, and Green Onion Butter. I'm not a big fan of salmon but Jay loves it and orders it whenever he can - he said it was very tasty indeed. I thought it was pleasing to the eye, don't you agree?
As for me...I tried something different at the suggestion of our waiter who said, quite rightly, that I could eat chicken tenders anywhere. I was flying high from my successful experience with the voodoo shrimp and decided to roll the dice by ordering the Grilled Marinated Chicken Breast with a Savory Andouille-Cornbread Pudding, Pinot Noir Sauce, and Sauteed Vegetables.
Well, I should have remembered that I was going to order chicken tenders for a reason...said reason being that I don't like things like andouille sausage and many vegetables often result in an intestinal reversal of fortune (was that more than you needed to know, gentle reader?). The chicken breast was actually quite good - tender and flavorful thanks to the pinot noir sauce, but I thought the bread pudding was disgusting - the flavors just didn't do it for me.
Here's a picture of my dinner before I didn't eat much of it:
Our wonderful waiter with the name I can't remember was very concerned that I didn't eat much, especially when it came to the bread pudding thingie. I told him I was a picky eater on a good day and that I liked plain cornbread better than the bread pudding thingie that actually came with the dish. Bless his kind heart if he didn't come back a few minutes later with some plain old boring cornbread for this old crohn!
We wanted to order dessert but we didn't have room for it, so this was it for our first evening at the World. Our waiter gave us a 10% coupon for the Gospel Brunch that HoB has on Sundays and we would have loved to have attended but we already had other plans, as you will read further along in this review. Still, it was a nice gesture on his part.
We used our DVC discount and got 20% off the dining tab for the evening and then we strolled back over to the room to watch the Cardinals lose game 6 of the NLCS before falling asleep. Overall, the experience at HoB was pretty darn good and we'd definitely go back again. Next time I'll be sure to order something a bit more boring.
Stay tuned for Day 2 when we have the first of our official Food & Wine Pairings and attend a "free" beer seminar!
...but....can you tell me if you were still able to order sushi for an app at Cali Grill on the DDP??? 
