Blue Zoo Review

[sueg]

This past Tuesday evening, DH & I ate at Blue Zoo. The restaurant is on the ground level of the Dolphin, so if you enter from the front of the Dolphin, you must go down. This was a little confusing for us, especially because we couldn't see the escalator thru the piano bar, which was full of business people at a reception. But once we found Blue Zoo, we were quite impressed with the atmosphere - modern & interesting.
DH & I decided to share two appetizers: chicken skewers & Seared Scallops. While the chicken was good, the scallops were GREAT! Perfectly cooked and tender, sitting on delicious short ribs. A must order appetizer!
For main courses, I selected the swordfish, which was a thick chunk - perfectly cooked. DH had the salmon in filo with mushrooms. The salmon was good, but the mushrooms were VERY good. We wanted to try the fish-your-way, but we didn't recognize any of the three fish offered & opted to stay with fish that we knew.
Alot of the incidentals added to the meal - the bread basket was excellent and varied. The whole grain roll was delicious, esp. with the accompanying fennel butter. The onion foccacia was great. I had a full bottle of SanPelligrino water, which was offered when I requested water. I was surprised that it was so reasonably priced at $6.50. DH had a Republic of Tea Iced tea- delicious blackberry & sage flavored, unsweetened & only $4. We shared a half bottle of pinot noir, which was reasonably priced & a very good choice for our meal.
We shared a dessert. We took our server's suggestion & had the chocolate coffee pecan cake. It was out of this world. Somewhere between a torte & a mousse. We scraped the dessert plate clean. We also enjoyed cups of cappucino, with perfect crema.
The total bill was $160 before tip. (It was slightly more than the wonderful meal that we had at California Grille) Valet parking costs $10 at the Dolphin, but was validated by our server, who also offered to call ahead to order our car at the end of the meal.
We will return to Blue Zoo & may bring DSs. The restaurant is not really kid friendly, but at 16 & 9 YOA, they are seasoned diners. We think they would enjoy the experience, because in addition to a very good meal, Blue Zoo is an experience.
Just a note on reservations. I had trouble with Disney dining, because as I learned later from this Bd., the restaurant is listed as "Todd English's Blue Zoo" and therefore in "T" not "B". I eventually made my reservation thru the website for the restaurant, but the time was incorrect. It was corrected easily by phone. The restaurant was not crowded.

 

[Ron from Michigan]

Thanks for the great review. Blue Zoo sounds like a great place to have a special dinner. I love fish and seafood so this sounds like a fantastic place to eat.

 

[Micca]

Glad you had a wonderful meal. I'm no stranger to fine dining, but I don't normally order bottled water at such restaurants. $6.50 is reasonable?

 

[catnik]

sueg:

Thanks for posting...I was waiting for your review. Sounds like we will have a terrific time in May

 

[Uncleromulus]

Enjoyed the review!
Blue Zoo--(er, I mean Todd English ) is on our Oct. dining list.

 

[Lexxiefern]

Great review - you made me hungry reading it!

 

[QBUSH]

Very much enjoyed your review. DS(12) and I have a reservation at Blue Zoo for April 6. Can't wait now that you've told me how good the scallops are!!!

 

[ILUVDXL]

Thanks for the review. This is a definate for our up-coming October trip. Now I just need to decide if it will be for our anniversary dinner or not. We have several "new to us" restaurants we will be trying this trip.

 

[Minniespal]

Great review ~ Thanx for sharing.

 

[MandaMom]

thanks for the great review. had never heard about this restaurant before reading about it here on the boards.

mandamom

 

[sueg]

MandaMom,
Your comment made me think about the tremendous amount of information that we get from all these Bds.(not just Restaurant) I had two good examples of DIS info that influenced our eating during this past trip. First, While I knew of Todd English (from poor Martha Stewart), I became committed to dining at Blue Zoo after reading a great review on this Bd. I also learned about the "correct" way to request a PS for Blue Zoo i.e. Todd English's Blue Zoo--T not B from this Bd.
We also really enjoyed 2 lunches at Columbia House in MK. In fact, they were the best 2 theme park lunches for our whole trip. I don't know if we would have ever tried Columbia House without reading some great (and well deserved) reviews on this Bd. I think of CH as a little known gem. Not crowded w/ great upstairs dining tables. Interesting menu. But what we discovered on this trip is that CH is very accomodating. We always have the wonderful salad --chicken, pineapple, nuts & cheese. When we wanted to eat there on Friday, we needed a meatless meal because it is Lent & we don't eat meat on Fridays. CH offers a wide variety of meatless meals & was more than willing to make our salad without the chicken--still yummy. When we ate at Electric Umbrella, special orders do upset them. They couldn't change the dressing on a salad.
Thanks DIS Boards!!!!

 

[Dana49]

Great reviews! Thanks. We have reservations in April for BlueZoo and after reading your review, I'm ready. Thanks again.

 

[lenshanem]

This restaurant also has the free childcare, too thru the Swan/Dolphin Clubs, correct?

 

[nicholas 25]

bump....is this true about childcARE? is this place child friendly?

 

[lenshanem]

Here ya go -

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=525681&highlight=+bluezoo

 

[sueg]

I don't think Blue Zoo is particularly child friendly, but like any restuarant at WDW, I think they TRY to allow for young diners. My DSs are 9 & 16. They absolutely could have joined us, esp. DS16, who is quite the adventurous eater (i.e. he has buffulo at Artist Point). DS9 is a little more difficult, but I know he could have found something he liked to eat. Both boys are VERY well behaved diners. For our own reasons, DH & I chose this as our one night out & DSs were happy, back in our unit (we're DVC) eating whatever they wanted from Goods-to-Go.
I saw 2 families with quite young kids-2 and under. One family asked for a booster seat, which they couldn't provide. They offered a high chair, but apparently their young eater doesn't care for high chairs. I don't know how their meal went, because they were seated away from us. At the risk of getting flames, I can honestly say that I was glad we weren't sitting by them because we were eating adults, only and although it's WDW, I prefered a quieter, calmer meal. I did see both parents taking turns walking aroung the restaurant with an unhappy child, but Blue Zoo is large enough to allow for this, without disturbing other diners, esp, when it was half empty.