These are our dining reviews August 19-25, 2005
We were NOT on the dining plan as we have annual passes and also have the DDE card
We stayed at the AKL concierge level and ate most breakfasts there
Aug 19 Friday Boma for dinner
Good food as always, they did change the roasted chicken to something with a little more spices (not hot spicy) but I think I like the regular roasted chicken better. The prime rib was wonderful and I really enjoyed the soups I tasted. They had Butternut Squash, She Crab, Chicken corn Porridge. They also had two others that I didn't taste, Curry seafood chowder and Lentil Sausage
DDE savings $17.19
Aug 20
Lunch was in the Castle The food was good and the appetizers that they bring out must have been good because my two kids ate it all. It came with fresh mozzarella, fried wontons, some type of small crab cake, couple of pieces of grilled chicken over some greens. DH and I didn't get a taste of it at all. We ended up eating the kids appetizers of carrots, celery sticks with dip.
We had the Major Domo, Salmon and Pork Tenderloin for the entrees and my son had the kids pasta. He didn't care for the pasta at all and I tasted it and the sauce was really yucky. All our other entrees were very good. If the kids want pasta, I would suggest ordering it plain with maybe a little butter. Desserts were suprisingly good. I wasn't sure I would like the bluberry thingy but it was good. It is a blueberry muffin with lemon ice cream, which is wonderful. For the kids they give you vanilla ice cream with mickey sprinkles and a chocolate crown on top
DDE savings $14.79
It always surprises me how terrible anything with tomato sauce is on the kids menu, unless you are at Alfredo's. We are used to home made tomato sauce in my house and when it is bad canned sauce my kids won't touch it
Dinner - we just grabbed some counter service food at Mara
Sunday Aug 21 - breakfast was at tusker house in the AK after the sunrise safari, a lot of good choices
Dinner was at Jiko - DH and I both had the lamb and it was very good, DD had the grilled chicken with smashed potatoes and DS had the kids pizza. Kids appetizers were the carrots, celery sticks and sliced apple appetizers with ranch dressing and peanut butter on the side
We also had the appetizer sampler of duck spring rolls, Lamb Patis and Tamales
Everything we had was really good. The lamb dinner entree was huge and we could have definitely shared it
First time at this restaurant
DDE savings $19.40 and $6.40 on the wine
Mon Aug 22 - Marrakesh for lunch first time at this place - this was the surprise of the trip. I wasn't sure I would like this place. Everything but the dessert was really good
We had the Berber feast that came with a salad, chicken skewer, lamb and vegetable couscous. It also came with a fruit salad for dessert but it was in a honey water that I didn't care for. The kids both decided on hamburgers
DDE savings $13.15
Dinner was at Bistro de Paris for our anniversary - first time here- I have to say that we really enjoyed our meal here but there were a couple of things that I think would have made the whole experience a bit better.
First the bad, the butter plate and the amuse bouche plate they brought out were both on chipped plates, the water glasses hadn't been wiped clean so they had the streaks from the dishwasher in them. For the type of restaurant it is, I would have expected that we wouldn't run into any of that. The other thing I found is that the restaurant was louder then I expected it to be but this could have been due to the fact that there were a couple of large tables of people dining together. We also asked for a sugar free dessert for DH and no one ever mentioned that this was requested. I did ask and they didn't have it listed in our res even though concierge put a note in the reservation and I called to confirm it.
We were debating taking our kids as they like to have dinner with us but in the end decided that they would stay at Simba's clubhouse at AKL. We should have taken them as it would have been less expensive then what the kids club cost us. $80 for the two of them for 3 1/2 hours, OUCH!!! One of the reasons we didn't take them is that we wanted dinner alone and the other is that they do not have a kids menu here and didn't know if they would care of anything on the regular menu (for my son, my daughter would have found something to eat). That wasn't a concern at all as we found out. There were about 8 children in the restaurant in total. two were teenagers about 13 and the others were anywhere from 6 to 10 years of age. I noticed that the kids were given some choices like pasta, whether it was with a sauce or just with butter on it. I don't remember what the other choices were
On to the food -
Appetizers - I had the escargot and frog legs with mushrooms over watercress. I have never had frog legs before and I have to say they were actually good. I have eaten escargot since I could remember and this was also good. DH had the foie gras sampler, there were 3 different types and it was also very good
DH also had a salad, I tasted some and it was very very good and definitely enough to share if you do not want a large salad for yourself
I had the Lobster entree with rice that was in a light cream sauce
DH had the Lamb
Both entrees were delicious
Dessert - I had the Grand Marnier Souffle and DH had the cheese plate
Souffles are one of my favorite desserts and I thought this was too eggy if you can imagine that. The other thing that I didn't care for is that they pour, what I thought was too much grand marnier into it. Usually I like the creme angleis that comes with it and was surprised when it didn't. I did enjoy it but not as much as I normally do.
I would return to this restaurant and would definitely bring our kids with us
DDE savings $26.80 and $9.29 on the wine
Tuesday - Aug 23
Lunch was a last minute decision at LTT and it was great as always. We didn't think we would get in without a reservation but we went at 2pm and walked right in
Kids had the corn dog and the Turkey dinner - the Turkey dinner from the kids menu was HUGE. Two people could have definitely eaten from one plate. The kids also had clam chowder
I had the declaration salad and the hamburger with mushrooms and provolone cheese
DH had the soup of the day, can't remember what it was, and the Grilled turkey panini with Swiss cheese, Applewood smoked bacon, avocado tartar served on multi grain bread with arugula and mache salad. We all shared the pound cake dessert
Everything was really good but one thing I don't get is why they would use sandwich meat turkey instead of the roasted turkey as that is something they cook daily at this restaurant
Service here was also exceptional.
DDE saving $11.38
Dinner was supposed to be at Tony's town square but everyone was tired and we left to rest at the AKL for a while. We didn't make it back to the MK so we went to Spoodles instead.
DS had the pizza from the kids menu and never again. I don't know what they thought they were passing off as tomato sauce
DD had the grilled chicken with veggies and mashed potato
I had the Grilled chicken over couscous and baby spinach
DH had the Salmon
The kids also had the make your own sundae dessert
DDE savings $16.16
Wednesday Aug 24 - lunch was at Blizzard Beach
Dinner was at 50's Prime time Cafe - first time for DH here and we had a great server.
DS had chicken soup and chicken nuggets - nuggets weren't very good
I can't remember what my daughter had beside the chicken soup
DH had the pot roast and I had the fried chicken both were good
DDE savings $15.00
Total DDE savings $149.56
Word of warning on anyone thinking of fibbing about their children's ages now that Disney is charging adult prices for 10 year olds and up. I have noticed that the hostess/hosts checking you in for your reservation are asking the children directly how old they are instead of the parents for the all you can eat places. I noticed this at many of the restaurants we have walked past as people are checking in. Even if the children are little they are asking their age. Our server at Boma told us that he has had people try and pass off their teenagers as children. Of course they have a policy where it isn't questioned if you say a certain age but he was telling us that he had one family that had a 16yr old and tried to pass him off as 9yr old. Imagine that.
Our server also said that the cast members at restaurants have been asking for a middle of the road category for kis age 10-12
We were NOT on the dining plan as we have annual passes and also have the DDE card
We stayed at the AKL concierge level and ate most breakfasts there
Aug 19 Friday Boma for dinner
Good food as always, they did change the roasted chicken to something with a little more spices (not hot spicy) but I think I like the regular roasted chicken better. The prime rib was wonderful and I really enjoyed the soups I tasted. They had Butternut Squash, She Crab, Chicken corn Porridge. They also had two others that I didn't taste, Curry seafood chowder and Lentil Sausage
DDE savings $17.19
Aug 20
Lunch was in the Castle The food was good and the appetizers that they bring out must have been good because my two kids ate it all. It came with fresh mozzarella, fried wontons, some type of small crab cake, couple of pieces of grilled chicken over some greens. DH and I didn't get a taste of it at all. We ended up eating the kids appetizers of carrots, celery sticks with dip.
We had the Major Domo, Salmon and Pork Tenderloin for the entrees and my son had the kids pasta. He didn't care for the pasta at all and I tasted it and the sauce was really yucky. All our other entrees were very good. If the kids want pasta, I would suggest ordering it plain with maybe a little butter. Desserts were suprisingly good. I wasn't sure I would like the bluberry thingy but it was good. It is a blueberry muffin with lemon ice cream, which is wonderful. For the kids they give you vanilla ice cream with mickey sprinkles and a chocolate crown on top
DDE savings $14.79
It always surprises me how terrible anything with tomato sauce is on the kids menu, unless you are at Alfredo's. We are used to home made tomato sauce in my house and when it is bad canned sauce my kids won't touch it
Dinner - we just grabbed some counter service food at Mara
Sunday Aug 21 - breakfast was at tusker house in the AK after the sunrise safari, a lot of good choices
Dinner was at Jiko - DH and I both had the lamb and it was very good, DD had the grilled chicken with smashed potatoes and DS had the kids pizza. Kids appetizers were the carrots, celery sticks and sliced apple appetizers with ranch dressing and peanut butter on the side
We also had the appetizer sampler of duck spring rolls, Lamb Patis and Tamales
Everything we had was really good. The lamb dinner entree was huge and we could have definitely shared it
First time at this restaurant
DDE savings $19.40 and $6.40 on the wine
Mon Aug 22 - Marrakesh for lunch first time at this place - this was the surprise of the trip. I wasn't sure I would like this place. Everything but the dessert was really good
We had the Berber feast that came with a salad, chicken skewer, lamb and vegetable couscous. It also came with a fruit salad for dessert but it was in a honey water that I didn't care for. The kids both decided on hamburgers
DDE savings $13.15
Dinner was at Bistro de Paris for our anniversary - first time here- I have to say that we really enjoyed our meal here but there were a couple of things that I think would have made the whole experience a bit better.
First the bad, the butter plate and the amuse bouche plate they brought out were both on chipped plates, the water glasses hadn't been wiped clean so they had the streaks from the dishwasher in them. For the type of restaurant it is, I would have expected that we wouldn't run into any of that. The other thing I found is that the restaurant was louder then I expected it to be but this could have been due to the fact that there were a couple of large tables of people dining together. We also asked for a sugar free dessert for DH and no one ever mentioned that this was requested. I did ask and they didn't have it listed in our res even though concierge put a note in the reservation and I called to confirm it.
We were debating taking our kids as they like to have dinner with us but in the end decided that they would stay at Simba's clubhouse at AKL. We should have taken them as it would have been less expensive then what the kids club cost us. $80 for the two of them for 3 1/2 hours, OUCH!!! One of the reasons we didn't take them is that we wanted dinner alone and the other is that they do not have a kids menu here and didn't know if they would care of anything on the regular menu (for my son, my daughter would have found something to eat). That wasn't a concern at all as we found out. There were about 8 children in the restaurant in total. two were teenagers about 13 and the others were anywhere from 6 to 10 years of age. I noticed that the kids were given some choices like pasta, whether it was with a sauce or just with butter on it. I don't remember what the other choices were
On to the food -
Appetizers - I had the escargot and frog legs with mushrooms over watercress. I have never had frog legs before and I have to say they were actually good. I have eaten escargot since I could remember and this was also good. DH had the foie gras sampler, there were 3 different types and it was also very good
DH also had a salad, I tasted some and it was very very good and definitely enough to share if you do not want a large salad for yourself
I had the Lobster entree with rice that was in a light cream sauce
DH had the Lamb
Both entrees were delicious
Dessert - I had the Grand Marnier Souffle and DH had the cheese plate
Souffles are one of my favorite desserts and I thought this was too eggy if you can imagine that. The other thing that I didn't care for is that they pour, what I thought was too much grand marnier into it. Usually I like the creme angleis that comes with it and was surprised when it didn't. I did enjoy it but not as much as I normally do.
I would return to this restaurant and would definitely bring our kids with us
DDE savings $26.80 and $9.29 on the wine
Tuesday - Aug 23
Lunch was a last minute decision at LTT and it was great as always. We didn't think we would get in without a reservation but we went at 2pm and walked right in
Kids had the corn dog and the Turkey dinner - the Turkey dinner from the kids menu was HUGE. Two people could have definitely eaten from one plate. The kids also had clam chowder
I had the declaration salad and the hamburger with mushrooms and provolone cheese
DH had the soup of the day, can't remember what it was, and the Grilled turkey panini with Swiss cheese, Applewood smoked bacon, avocado tartar served on multi grain bread with arugula and mache salad. We all shared the pound cake dessert
Everything was really good but one thing I don't get is why they would use sandwich meat turkey instead of the roasted turkey as that is something they cook daily at this restaurant
Service here was also exceptional.
DDE saving $11.38
Dinner was supposed to be at Tony's town square but everyone was tired and we left to rest at the AKL for a while. We didn't make it back to the MK so we went to Spoodles instead.
DS had the pizza from the kids menu and never again. I don't know what they thought they were passing off as tomato sauce
DD had the grilled chicken with veggies and mashed potato
I had the Grilled chicken over couscous and baby spinach
DH had the Salmon
The kids also had the make your own sundae dessert
DDE savings $16.16
Wednesday Aug 24 - lunch was at Blizzard Beach
Dinner was at 50's Prime time Cafe - first time for DH here and we had a great server.
DS had chicken soup and chicken nuggets - nuggets weren't very good
I can't remember what my daughter had beside the chicken soup
DH had the pot roast and I had the fried chicken both were good
DDE savings $15.00
Total DDE savings $149.56
Word of warning on anyone thinking of fibbing about their children's ages now that Disney is charging adult prices for 10 year olds and up. I have noticed that the hostess/hosts checking you in for your reservation are asking the children directly how old they are instead of the parents for the all you can eat places. I noticed this at many of the restaurants we have walked past as people are checking in. Even if the children are little they are asking their age. Our server at Boma told us that he has had people try and pass off their teenagers as children. Of course they have a policy where it isn't questioned if you say a certain age but he was telling us that he had one family that had a 16yr old and tried to pass him off as 9yr old. Imagine that.
Our server also said that the cast members at restaurants have been asking for a middle of the road category for kis age 10-12
) We prefer TS most of the time, and think our savings will be significant with DDE.
