Curiousers Dining Reviews and Photos- Days 1-6 Now Posted! (Mmm..clams)

[curiouser]

Just back from our Christmas Trip and boy did we eat well! I often stop and wonder: do I go to Disney for the magic or for the food? There were certain points during dinner when my head and belly were shouting: For The Food!!

Day 1: Well not really Day 1, because we arrived late 12/22 and couldn’t get any food at that point, so I’ll consider Day 1 the first day of grubbing (12/23):
Main Street Bakery: Neither SO or myself are big breakfast people, but SO loves the Cinnamon Rolls at Main Street Bakery so we headed there with his parents for breakfast. The line was about to the door on this day, but they did have a separate “grab and go” line for fruit, juices, and pastries that were set up on a rack. We waited in the long line for cinnamon rolls. During our wait I was assaulted with little signs for the ham, egg, and cheese croissant. Well isn’t that just yummy? Except I can’t eat eggs. They make me very very sick (but I can eat eggs cooked in things, oddly enough). So when we approached the counter I cheerfully asked John...
Me: Can I get the ham, egg, and cheese croissant without egg?
John: (looking confused) We have just plain croissants.
Me: Yes, but I would like the ham and cheese as well.
John: (really confused look) No, we can’t do that.

So there I was, severely disappointed after reading on these boards about how accommodating Disney food places are. Perhaps I should’ve mentioned my intolerance to eggs, but they were shoving us through the line so quickly I just spat out an order of French Toast Loaf. As always, SO loved his cinnamon roll. Its HUGE, I might add. I was less than thrilled with my french toast loaf. The outside was yummy, as was the cinnamon swirls inside, but the interior of the bread was very mushy and tasted like any overly soggy, rather flavorless bread pudding. Even the maple syrup couldn’t save it.
Main Street Bakery: B- (for a not so helpful CM and a not so yummy FTL)


Casey’s Hot Dogs:
Lunch was at Caseys, and if you’ve never been there, drop everything you are doing and get there. Neither SO or I like hot dogs, but something about the ones at Casey’s are just too yummy to pass up (I believe they are Hebrew National brand). We both had the MASSIVE quarter pound hot dog, split a chili to dress our dogs with and split an order of french fries. We both had a large water. All in all it came to around $15. Casey’s also has a nice toppings bar with yummy cheese sauce that, combined with the chili, make the perfect hot dog (IMO). Our visit was at about 12:30 and the line moved rather quickly, although the CM was less than friendly. My only wish for Casey’s is that they sold a smaller version of their excellent hot dog.
Caseys: A- (for not selling a smaller version of their yummy hot dog).

Restaurant Marrakesh:
We were standing in line for the Moroccan counter service when SO’s mom decided she wanted hot mint tea from Restaurant Marrakesh. We all laughed at her and told her she was crazy if she thinks we could get a table as a walk in, but lo and behold she proved us all wrong. We were seated within 10 minutes. We shared the Combination Appetizer for Two to start and this was my favorite part of the meal. The Beef Brewat Rolls and Chicken Bastilla were amazing. The combination of spiced meats, flakey pastry, and sweet powdered sugar make such a wonderful taste explosion in your mouth. Its to die for! The Jasmine salad that comes with it is very, very similar to a Greek Salad and very good as well.

For dinner we had the Chicken Kebabs, which were good, but I felt the chicken could’ve been a little less dry. Or at least had a little more sauce. I also kept wanting more vegetables on the skewers, which had a few peppers, onions, and cherry tomatoes. The rice was fairly normal except for the bits of carrot, peas, and corn in it. Don’t get me wrong, the entree WAS good, but I kept feeling it could’ve been so much better.

As an added FYI: SO’s mom didn’t end up getting hot mint tea. Oy!
Restaurant Marrakesh: B+ (food could be better, menu choices too few)

Combination appetizer for two:

Chicken Kebabs:

For dessert we hit the bakery attached to the Tangerine Cafe and had baklava and coffees. I got the almond baklava and the Kasbah Coffee (hazelnut) and SO had the walnut baklava and the Tangerine Coffee (with orange). We both preferred our respective baklava’s to the others: the almond is rich and buttery, the walnut is sweet and sticky. I would’ve enjoyed my coffee had I remembered that although I love the idea of hazelnut coffee, I don’t like hazelnut in my coffee. Oh well. SO enjoyed the uniqueness of the Tangerine Coffee and would recommend it.

Bakery at Tangerine Café: A- (Expensive.. Two baklavas, two coffees, and a bottle of water cost us $20!)

Coffees and Baklava:

 

[curiouser]

Day 2 (12/24)

As I said, we’re not really breakfast people, so we skipped breakfast this day and saved our tummy space for lunch. We went in search of one of those high-falutin’ turkey legs we’ve seen so many people eat, but sadly when we went to The Lunching Pad they were completely sold out! So we headed ourselves and our tummys to...

Cosmic Rays:
Which, really, should be called Chaotic Rays. No matter what time you enter CR’s its a crazy, mad house. Now, I do give CR’s the illustrious honor of the title of one of the most efficient CS lines in all of WDW, but its the constant people, running loose children, scrambling for napkins, and don’t even mention finding a table.. That makes Cosmic Rays: Chaotic Rays.

So after nearly avoiding getting kicked in the shin by children swinging on the metal line separators, and getting my shirt stained by someone spilling their coke, we munched down on a shared meal of chicken tenders and fries. CR’s never fails to disappoint in this department. Its not gourmet food, but for what it is, they’re pretty darn decent chicken tenders and fries. I just wish they had sweet and sour sauce.

Cosmic Rays: B- (Just for being so darn crazy and not having sweet and sour sauce)


Boma:
What a better way to spend Christmas Eve dinner than at Boma! We’d been here once before and enjoyed it so much we decided to visit again. I was so hoping that they would again have the Curried Coconut Chicken Stew... I’ve been dreaming about it since I last had it, so of course once we were seated I made a beeline for the soup section. Boma did not disappoint me. The CCCS was sitting there in all its glory awaiting my spoon. So of course I found the biggest bowl possible (without actually taking the entire soup pot back to my seat) and chowed down. I highly recommend the CCCS. Its slightly sweet, slightly spicy, slightly creamy and so very WONDERFUL! I debated making my entire meal just out of this soup, but I was enticed by the other offerings on the buffet.

The spareribs were yummy as usual. Sweet to the first bite with a mild kick afterwards, and the meat just fell right off the bone! The prime rib was cooked perfectly, although I did find the meat a bit on the fatty side and I couldn’t find a sauce I thought really complimented the meat. The nut crusted salmon was quite yummy, although I would’ve preferred it a bit more on the rare side (my favorite way to eat salmon is raw, so that’s just IMO). Oh, and I have to mention the kalamata olive hummus. If you like hummus, this is the holy grail. And don’t say to me, “I don’t like olives!”.. Because I don’t like olives either, but this was just fantastic!!

The dessert options at the buffets usually fail to impress me, and though Boma’s was a bit better than usual, its not much to rave about. (And no, I won’t promote the Zebra Domes because I hate white chocolate). The fruit selection is very nice, however, especially the strawberries which were the size of my fist and were very nice dipped into the chocolate mousse part of my chocolate moose crunch dome. Oh, and the chocolate crunch bit on the bottom of those domes? Amazing! They need to put just those out.

Boma: A (I love Boma, but I really wish they had better desserts!)

Coconut Curry Chicken Soup:

Prime Rib, Spare Ribs, Potatoes with Afritude, Roasted Chicken, Veggies

Chocolate Crunch Mousse Domes, choco chip cookie, grapes, huge strawberries, fresh pineapple

 

[bugbugmom]

Wonderful reviews. Can't wait for the rest

 

[SamSam]

I'm really enjoying your reviews with pics. We'll be there at the end of the month and I can hardly wait!

 

[VanniGirl]

Sounds & looks yummy - waiting for more!

 

[DisOrBust]

Huh?? Not enough desserts at Boma?? . You must have had bad luck there. We have always seen pinapple cheescake, bread pudding, passion fruit tarts, regular fruit tarts as well as the Zebra domes.


None of these were there??? Thats my main course!!

 

[we3disneygo]

great reviews and pictures!

 

[SeaSpray]

Great job on the reviews, I am tempted to try Restaurant Marrakesh now!

 

[richard_andmel]

Thanks for the reviews.

Mel

 

[Minniespal]

Enjoyed reading your reviews ~ Thanx for posting.

 

[tiff211]

Great job on the reviews, I am tempted to try Restaurant Marrakesh now!

I was thinking the same thing. Hey Seaspray, where was your pic taken?

 

[GeorgiaAristocat]

Thanks for the reviews. Your review of Marrakesh makes me more inclined to bump that restaurant up the "I want to eat at . . ." list.(I want to eath there, but somehow always find someplace else that I want to eat at just a little more. Choices, priorities, buyer's remorse!)

 

[HollyJoy]

Thanks for the reviews and pictures! I'm interested in Marrakesh, so loved that you had a review of it!

 

[curiouser]

Thanks for the kind words everyone! I'm glad you enjoy reading them as much I as enjoyed eating them! lol

And DisOrBust, its not that Boma doesn't have enough desserts, its just that they don't have anything that personally makes me go all a flutter.


Day 3 (12/25)

Again, no breakfast, but we got hungry early and headed to The Lunching Pad to see if we could get our hands on a turkey leg so we could finally try one! This is pretty much how our eating of the turkey leg went:

First bite: Mmm.. Very juicy. Not bad
Second bite: I can see how this could become addicting.
Next few bites: Hmm.. Skin is kind of difficult to chew.
Bites after that: Erm.. Is that cartilage sticking out now?
Slow bites after that: This is kind of nasty...
After dodging even more cartilage: If I don’t stop eating now I will end up a vegetarian by the time this over. throws turkey leg in trash

So that’s our experience. I’m sorry you turkey leg fans out there, but eating around all that bone and cartilage structure is just disgusting. I don’t like thinking too much about where my food comes from (or else I’d be vegan, if I really did think about it) so that was too much of a reality check for my tastes. Yuck!

Turkey Legs: C- (They were good to start, so I have to give them some credit!)

‘Ohanas:
We arrived quite early for our ADR so SO and I stopped into Tambu Lounge for drinks. I had the ‘Ohana Colada and I think he had a rum and coke. And we ordered the cheese plate. If I had known what was to come later at ‘Ohanas I would’ve recommended skipping the cheese plate, but we ordered it and it was wonderful. I believe there was some sort of extra sharp cheddar, a wedge of blue cheese, and some other cheeses as well as pineapple, strawberries, grapes, and a large chunk of crusty bread. Mmmmmmm!!

Finally it was time for our seating at ‘Ohanas and we met our server who was very nice and very Southern! She brought over our wonton chips, the dipping sauces, and the salad. I adored the wonton chips and SO’s dad quickly developed an obsession with the peanut sauce. I also enjoyed the pesto type sauce, although it did make me long for the hummus over at Boma. The salad was good— the dressing is light, sweet, and very refreshing. But with all the other choices the salad got severely overlooked, despite how good it was.

Next came the chicken wings and the sweet and sour shrimp. The shrimp were good, the sweet and sour sauce it came in was fairly traditional, but the fact that the shrimp were peel and eat was a lot of work. And referring back to my earlier turkey squeamishness, I didn’t like having to rip the little guys legs off while doing the peel portion of “peel and eat”. I was surprised to learn that I didn’t enjoy the chicken wings as much as I thought I would. They were very, very sticky. Almost tar-like sticky. And a bit tough. It was a good sauce though. Maybe its because the food was coming around so quickly I just didn’t get enough quality time with the chicken wings.

Then in a whirlwind of fury our potatoes, veggies and meat all started piling up on the table. This is where I started to dislike ‘Ohanas, or maybe it was our server. Everything was served really quickly without time to try each one. And our server would not take no for an answer! The woman was relentless! She would push two pieces of each meat on your plate before your brain had a chance to even recognize what kind of meat she said she had in her hand! I started eating faster for fear that I wouldn’t be able to try everything before something new was brought. I’ve heard of speed dating, but this was speed eating! Two minutes to get to know each other and then NEXT DISH!

Verdict? LOVE the potatoes. LOVE. Rich and creamy and cheesy and the potatoes are sliced super thin. I wasn’t actually too crazy on any of the meats. The sausage was disgusting, IMO. The turkey was dry. The steak and pork were good, but not memorable. I think the sides are the star of the show at ‘Ohanas.

Dessert was the bread pudding with bananas foster sauce and vanilla ice cream. I had read here that the sauce came on the side, which worked out well because both SO and I hate bananas. Well, no sooner did our waitress put the plate down then she picked up the sauce and poured it all over the bread pudding and ice cream. I was really disappointed that the waitress would take the liberty of assuming that we would like the sauce, especially when the chefs purposefully put it on the side incase you didn’t like bananas. Oh well, I was stuffed by this point anyway.

‘Ohanas: B (Great sides, OK meats, food is served too fast and too much is “pushed” on you)

Cheese Plate:

Wonton Chips:

Sauces:

Salad:

Shrimp:

Wings and a Backstratcher (drink!):

 

[sunny04]

What great reviews and great pictures!

 

[SeaSpray]

I was thinking the same thing. Hey Seaspray, where was your pic taken?

We were having lunch at the Sci-Fi Dine In at MGM Studios! Almost all of the tables there look like cars

curiouser: Excellent 3rd day, and your commentary makes me laugh because I feel the same way; I try to forget that what I'm eating today, was walking around a few days before. I like meat that is unrecognizable from its original form!

 

[curiouser]

Day 4:
Again, no breakfast. Notice a theme, yet?

After ill feeling of fullness that followed yesterdays meal, SO and I learned a valuable lesson: split meals! There’s plenty of food, and its cheaper, too!

Pizza Planet:
Now, I know a lot of people hate Pizza Planet. They think its overpriced, the pizza tastes like cardboard, and its too loud. I don’t know what Pizza Planet those folks are going to, but I’m convinced it must be different from the one I visit every trip in MGM Studios. Okay, it IS a bit loud, and having to carry your tray upstairs to get a table is a bit annoying, but if you get lucky you can grab a table near the barriers and watch the kids downstairs do DDR. (I love DDR!)

We got Buzz’s Meal Deal (cheese pizza and tossed salad) which is $7.49, and we think (remember, you ARE in Disney) is a very good deal. We also got an another tossed salad so we each had our own and split the pizza. Yeah, the salad is average. Mostly lettuce, a few carrot shreds, two cherry tomatoes, there might’ve been a cucumber in there. But hey, it made me feel all healthy and it was a welcome change from the greasy foods. Besides, its no different from many of the starter salads you get with meal at family owned restaurants.

I swear the pizza’s gotten better. I was hugely impressed when SO brought the tray over and I saw the pizza. Its personal size, so its cut into four fat but smaller slices. The crust on the pizza was fat and golden while the cheese was perfectly melted with flecks of crunchy-almost-slightly-overcooked that I love. While there’s not a ton of sauce on the pizza, that suits me fine because I’m not a big sauce person. Both SO and I were quite pleased and quite satisfied with our salad and two slices of pizza.

Toy Story Pizza Planet: B+ (High marks for food, low marks for awkwardness of seating areas.)

Cheese Pizza:

San Angel Inn:
We kept with our plan of splitting meals at San Angel Inn and had no problem. Our waitress was happy to bring us an extra plate and we cut the portions in half. We were seated about 15 minutes after our reservation time and the place was packed. I have to say my least favorite thing about San Angel is the way they pack the tables in. You need to be a pretty skinny person to fit into the room they leave for some of the chairs to back in and out. Its really disappointing as the atmosphere is so nice, but then you’re piled on top of each other.

SO and I started with the Nachos, and I was thinking nachos.. OK. Huge plate like what we get at the Mexican restaurant back home. Uh, no. Not that they weren’t good, because they were, but I think we got relegated to 14 chips total. Its not a dish to split amongst a large group of people. It was yummy, however, and I have to make special note of the jalapenos, which were fresh and just amazing!

We split the Plato Mexicano, and SO’s mom and dad each had their own plate of the same dish. I do think that San Angel has some of the best rice and beans I’ve ever had. They were so yummy and flavorful, and the beans were cooked perfectly: not hard and not overly mushy. The chicken enchilada was fairly average to me, no different than what we get at our home mexican restaurant (we have a very good, authentic restaurant near home), and I wasn’t really impressed with the beef burrito. The Beef Tenderloin Tampiquena really impressed me. It was juicy, flavorful, and very tender. We ordered it medium and it was served just as we had ordered it. Definitely one of the highlight foods of our trip.

San Angel Inn: B+ (Excellent tenderloin, great service, hate the way you’re packed in)

Plato Mexicano:

 

[jugglinfish]

Thanks for the reviews and pics - I really enjoyed reading them and seeing what the food was you were talking of. We're trying to decide between Boma and O'hanas which would you reccomend?

 

[Kaycee]

Thanks for the reviews and the pics.

I tried Pizza Planet for the first time last month, and I was also impressed by the food there. It's so nice to have found a good counter service restaurant at MGM - I had just about given up.

 

[curiouser]

Thanks for the reviews and pics - I really enjoyed reading them and seeing what the food was you were talking of. We're trying to decide between Boma and O'hanas which would you reccomend?

If you're not afraid of trying new things, I'd recommend Boma all the way. The food is really fantastic and its a wonderful experience of trying new foods and seeing what you like and don't like (like I, personally, dont like the pap and sheeba, but I got to try it!).

Since Boma pulls its flavors from all over Africa, its a wonderful mix of curries, moroccan, middle eastern, and just some really unique flavors. Spices are really well represented in the foods without being over powering. I think Boma is a really great food experience that if you're thinking about trying, you should.

Not that 'Ohana's isn't good.. but I don't think its as unique and memorable as Boma.