Just back from a 2 week trip to Florida where did a few days at Universal and then a week and a half at Disney's Old Key West.
At Universal we ate at Toothsome, Mythos and Antojitos. Mythos is really excellent, definitely up there as possibly our favorite meal of the trip. The setting and food were both excellent. Toothsome was OK - the desserts were good and the theme was fun. Antojitos was nothing special.
Since this is the Disney board, let me move quickly to the Disney portion of our trip. I didn't really take detailed notes of what everyone ate, so these are really just some stream of consciousness thoughts. The party was me, my wife, and our 10 year old triplets. We bought a TiW card because we'll be going down for another trip within 13 months, and even with 10% DVC and AP discounts, we easily broke even for the cost of the card on just this one trip.
In a bit of irony, we started off our trip with the "Bon Voyage" Breakfast at Trattoria al Forno. We've done this before and really liked it and this time was no exception. Great character interactions here - Prince Eric even graciously recorded a birthday video message for my sister along with my kids that we sent her later on.
That evening we had dinner at The Boathouse. This was our third time here. I know there are some mixed views on DIS regarding the place, but it has always been a very good experience for us.
At our first full park day (DHS), we had lunch at Sci Fi Dine In Theater. My wife was here back when she was 16, but this was my first time here and our kids' first time here as well. I loved this place. I had the buffalo chicken salad which was really good. The food here was actually a nice surprise and was really much better than I thought it would be. Of course the vintage movie clips were a real hoot. Midway through our meal, a new server came by and said that our first server was sick with a stomach bug so they sent here home. I think I would have been OK not knowing that detail since she sat in the middle row of our car and touched all the surfaces. Nobody wound up getting sick, but I think the new waitress overshared a bit.
For dinner we went to 50's Primetime Cafe. This is one of my wife's favorites and a place we have both been to several times already. As I happily reported on here in a separate thread a couple of weeks ago, our server, Mary Anne, was fantastic. She was completely playing her role the entire time and everyone had a great time. The other server in our section was also very boisterous and chastising his tables, several times getting everyone involved to reprimand his tables. I had the chicken pot pie, which seemed identical to when I had it a couple of years ago. I would still recommend this place, as based on our experience, it hasn't slipped at all in terms of atmosphere or food.
The following day we had a half day plus at Epcot. One of the girls still wanted a princess meal, so I booked Akershus for lunch because we have done CRT several times, and Akershus, while not the same experience, is a suitable (and cheaper) alternative. I have always thought the appetizer/salad bar here is kind of lame. Aside from one or two things, there's nothing particularly noteworthy there. I have always liked the entrees though, and the desert sampler is pretty good (although I am generally not a fan of dessert samplers). Amazingly, our two girls actually participated in the princess parade - something they had never done when they were younger - and I thought for sure were too old for now. That was kind of a nice surprise.
Dinner saw us returning to The Boardwalk to try Flying Fish. This was our first time here. We had padded our arrival so we could look around the gallery, resort store, etc., but we allowed too much time for this. We checked in an hour early and said we totally understood if they couldn't seat us, but we wanted to ask. To our delight, they were able to seat us immediately which was a nice bit of pixie dust. I really liked the interior design of the restaurant and the service and food was great. This was probably our favorite Disney meal of the trip.
The next day we went to Epcot in the evening and had dinner at Garden Grill. This was our third time here. This is always an enjoyable experience for us, and we think the AYCTE platters are pretty solidly tasty. Our waiter was really funny, and we had some good character interactions. Dale even managed to get one of the girls to get up and dance with him b/c she was wearing a t-shirt from her dance school back home.
The following day we didn't have any lunch ADRs, but everyone was hungry and wanted a break so I was able to snag a same day ADR for Skipper Canteen. We've been here a few times already and have always enjoyed it. They were serving a special appetizer of Pão de Queijo, or Brazilian cheese bread. It's something I really love, so we got two orders of it. We hadn't even been waiting too long, but our server came over and said that there was an issue with the appetizers so because of the wait they wanted to give us any time Fast Passes. I was astounded. Overall the lunch only took us like 50 minutes. I always allocate about an hour at least for sit down meals, so I was really shocked that they thought the apps took too long to come out. They even wound up comping us for the appetizers - so we got free apps AND anytime FP+. It was really an example of above and beyond customer service, but to be honest, completely in a situation where we weren't even annoyed or thinking that anything was warranted. I'm still disappointed that they no longer serve the complimentary bread with the honey dip here, but c'est la vie.
We had dinner at Liberty Tree Tavern, another one of our favorites. Note for future trips - make sure not to book two nights of AYCTE dinners in a row. Also note to self, once kids turn into "Disney Adults," cut back on the number of AYCTE meals. I enjoy all the proteins here, but the kids ate more at Garden Grill the night before. The ooey gooey toffee cake was delicous, although I can't say I ever had any major complaints about the Johnny Appleseed Cake dessert that it has replaced.
The next morning we had breakfast at 1900 Park Fare. We left our hotel a little bit on the early side and in another bit of pixie dust, they were able to seat us about 40 minutes before our ADR time. We've been here several times and this is one of my favorite places for character interactions. Mary Poppins and Alice are both good, but the Mad Hatter is my absolute favorite. The dude is always on point. The buffet is, well, a typical breakfast buffet, but it's solid. Again, I find myself eating much more than normal at these meals to try to make them "worth it."
That night we were supposed to have dinner at Toledo, but everyone wanted to go to Disney Springs and look for souvenirs, so we wound up at Frontera Cocina. This place was nothing special. The kids liked their meals but my wife and I were unimpressed. I doubt we would return with there being so many other options.
The following evening we were attending MNSSHP so we had an early (4pm) dinner at Olivia's. This has always been one of our favorites for lunch/dinner and a place that really flies under the radar. Service is always friendly and outstanding and the food is good. I hope this place never changes (for lunch and dinner, at least).
The next day we had nothing going on until Moonlight Magic at Animal Kingdom, so I asked my wife if she wanted to go to Olivia's for breakfast. This is one area where I wish they would change things up a bit. All of the breakfast items come with eggs, and I don't really like eggs. While they'll happily sub something out for the eggs (fruit, grits, whatever you want, basically), I wish they'd put together a few items that were not egg-centric. They do have the banana bread french toast (which our son ordered, and really liked) - but I also don't like bananas - so for breakfast Olivia's is kind of a miss for me. I wound up having waffles, sausage and fruit which were totally fine but the same stuff you could get for breakfast at any other WDW restaurant. This is in contrast, to say, something like Ursula's Cauldron at Trattoria al Forno which is both delicious and unique.
Update to include Yak and Yeti. We dined here using our Landry's card before Moonlight Magic at AK. MM didn't start until late and we knew the kids wouldn't last until we got our free food voucher, so we decided to stop in to Yak and Yeti at around 5:30 after debating going to Tiffins. We have been to Tiffins twice and I really like it, but the kids wanted to do Yak and Yeti so we went there. We have also been to Y&Y a few times in the past. Unfortunately, I wish we would have gone to Tiffins. Y&Y quoted us 10-15 minutes to be seated with Landry's Select, but it wound up being around 5 so things were off to a good start.
After waiting a while for food, I see the food runners coming with our entrees. "We never got our appetizers." No apologies or anything, they simply asked if they were in the window did we still want them? We said that we didn't really want cold apps that have been sitting out. The food was fine, as expected - basically the same as every other visit here. The kitchen must have been struggling that night, because the manager went to the table behind us and apologized to them for not having food out yet and that he was making their table "a priority." I wish we had gone to Tiffins instead.
The following night, night we dined at Yachtsman Steakhouse. This was our first time dining there and our first time visiting the Yacht Club/Beach Club resort as well. The resort was wonderful and I do hope to stay here at some point in the future, even though booking on DVC points at 7 months is very difficult. One day. At Yachtsman, our waiter was very over-animated and a little annoying. He also "walked us through" the menu which basically consisted of him reading the menu to us verbatim. He was definitely attentive, but his style wasn't jiving with us. Overall, the meal here was a letdown. The french onion soup was very good. My wife and I ordered the porterhouse for two which was the smallest porterhouse for two I've ever had. The worst offense though is that the meat was completely unseasoned - it tasted like it was not salted at all. This is going to be a harsh comparison, but i have had steaks at The Outback that have been better seasoned than this one. We got truffle fries (extremely small portion size) and creamed spinach (just ok) for our included sides. I thought the dessert options were somewhat underwhelming as well. For a premium steakhouse experience, I was definitely expecting more, and I would rank our local steakhouse back home several steps above Yachtsman. Maybe my expectations were out of wack, and this place always seems to have favorable thoughts posted here, but for us it was a letdown. It's not a place we'd be aching to return to. As far as signature meals go, we both felt Flying Fish was much better.
On our last full day we had breakfast at Boma. We've been here a bunch of times and always like it. Once again, AYCTE and I ate way too much.
Dinner that night was at Art Smith's Homecomin'. Excellent food and service. Definitely satisfying and this is a place will return to in the future.
Overall our dining experiences were very positive and I have very few complaints about food and service. As you can infer, we spend quite a bit on meals at Disney, but we're not terribly demanding or extremely picky when it comes to food. YMMV at any of these places, but overall I think it's a very good time for dining at Disney with a lot of options for everyone.
At Universal we ate at Toothsome, Mythos and Antojitos. Mythos is really excellent, definitely up there as possibly our favorite meal of the trip. The setting and food were both excellent. Toothsome was OK - the desserts were good and the theme was fun. Antojitos was nothing special.
Since this is the Disney board, let me move quickly to the Disney portion of our trip. I didn't really take detailed notes of what everyone ate, so these are really just some stream of consciousness thoughts. The party was me, my wife, and our 10 year old triplets. We bought a TiW card because we'll be going down for another trip within 13 months, and even with 10% DVC and AP discounts, we easily broke even for the cost of the card on just this one trip.
In a bit of irony, we started off our trip with the "Bon Voyage" Breakfast at Trattoria al Forno. We've done this before and really liked it and this time was no exception. Great character interactions here - Prince Eric even graciously recorded a birthday video message for my sister along with my kids that we sent her later on.
That evening we had dinner at The Boathouse. This was our third time here. I know there are some mixed views on DIS regarding the place, but it has always been a very good experience for us.
At our first full park day (DHS), we had lunch at Sci Fi Dine In Theater. My wife was here back when she was 16, but this was my first time here and our kids' first time here as well. I loved this place. I had the buffalo chicken salad which was really good. The food here was actually a nice surprise and was really much better than I thought it would be. Of course the vintage movie clips were a real hoot. Midway through our meal, a new server came by and said that our first server was sick with a stomach bug so they sent here home. I think I would have been OK not knowing that detail since she sat in the middle row of our car and touched all the surfaces. Nobody wound up getting sick, but I think the new waitress overshared a bit.
For dinner we went to 50's Primetime Cafe. This is one of my wife's favorites and a place we have both been to several times already. As I happily reported on here in a separate thread a couple of weeks ago, our server, Mary Anne, was fantastic. She was completely playing her role the entire time and everyone had a great time. The other server in our section was also very boisterous and chastising his tables, several times getting everyone involved to reprimand his tables. I had the chicken pot pie, which seemed identical to when I had it a couple of years ago. I would still recommend this place, as based on our experience, it hasn't slipped at all in terms of atmosphere or food.
The following day we had a half day plus at Epcot. One of the girls still wanted a princess meal, so I booked Akershus for lunch because we have done CRT several times, and Akershus, while not the same experience, is a suitable (and cheaper) alternative. I have always thought the appetizer/salad bar here is kind of lame. Aside from one or two things, there's nothing particularly noteworthy there. I have always liked the entrees though, and the desert sampler is pretty good (although I am generally not a fan of dessert samplers). Amazingly, our two girls actually participated in the princess parade - something they had never done when they were younger - and I thought for sure were too old for now. That was kind of a nice surprise.
Dinner saw us returning to The Boardwalk to try Flying Fish. This was our first time here. We had padded our arrival so we could look around the gallery, resort store, etc., but we allowed too much time for this. We checked in an hour early and said we totally understood if they couldn't seat us, but we wanted to ask. To our delight, they were able to seat us immediately which was a nice bit of pixie dust. I really liked the interior design of the restaurant and the service and food was great. This was probably our favorite Disney meal of the trip.
The next day we went to Epcot in the evening and had dinner at Garden Grill. This was our third time here. This is always an enjoyable experience for us, and we think the AYCTE platters are pretty solidly tasty. Our waiter was really funny, and we had some good character interactions. Dale even managed to get one of the girls to get up and dance with him b/c she was wearing a t-shirt from her dance school back home.
The following day we didn't have any lunch ADRs, but everyone was hungry and wanted a break so I was able to snag a same day ADR for Skipper Canteen. We've been here a few times already and have always enjoyed it. They were serving a special appetizer of Pão de Queijo, or Brazilian cheese bread. It's something I really love, so we got two orders of it. We hadn't even been waiting too long, but our server came over and said that there was an issue with the appetizers so because of the wait they wanted to give us any time Fast Passes. I was astounded. Overall the lunch only took us like 50 minutes. I always allocate about an hour at least for sit down meals, so I was really shocked that they thought the apps took too long to come out. They even wound up comping us for the appetizers - so we got free apps AND anytime FP+. It was really an example of above and beyond customer service, but to be honest, completely in a situation where we weren't even annoyed or thinking that anything was warranted. I'm still disappointed that they no longer serve the complimentary bread with the honey dip here, but c'est la vie.
We had dinner at Liberty Tree Tavern, another one of our favorites. Note for future trips - make sure not to book two nights of AYCTE dinners in a row. Also note to self, once kids turn into "Disney Adults," cut back on the number of AYCTE meals. I enjoy all the proteins here, but the kids ate more at Garden Grill the night before. The ooey gooey toffee cake was delicous, although I can't say I ever had any major complaints about the Johnny Appleseed Cake dessert that it has replaced.
The next morning we had breakfast at 1900 Park Fare. We left our hotel a little bit on the early side and in another bit of pixie dust, they were able to seat us about 40 minutes before our ADR time. We've been here several times and this is one of my favorite places for character interactions. Mary Poppins and Alice are both good, but the Mad Hatter is my absolute favorite. The dude is always on point. The buffet is, well, a typical breakfast buffet, but it's solid. Again, I find myself eating much more than normal at these meals to try to make them "worth it."
That night we were supposed to have dinner at Toledo, but everyone wanted to go to Disney Springs and look for souvenirs, so we wound up at Frontera Cocina. This place was nothing special. The kids liked their meals but my wife and I were unimpressed. I doubt we would return with there being so many other options.
The following evening we were attending MNSSHP so we had an early (4pm) dinner at Olivia's. This has always been one of our favorites for lunch/dinner and a place that really flies under the radar. Service is always friendly and outstanding and the food is good. I hope this place never changes (for lunch and dinner, at least).
The next day we had nothing going on until Moonlight Magic at Animal Kingdom, so I asked my wife if she wanted to go to Olivia's for breakfast. This is one area where I wish they would change things up a bit. All of the breakfast items come with eggs, and I don't really like eggs. While they'll happily sub something out for the eggs (fruit, grits, whatever you want, basically), I wish they'd put together a few items that were not egg-centric. They do have the banana bread french toast (which our son ordered, and really liked) - but I also don't like bananas - so for breakfast Olivia's is kind of a miss for me. I wound up having waffles, sausage and fruit which were totally fine but the same stuff you could get for breakfast at any other WDW restaurant. This is in contrast, to say, something like Ursula's Cauldron at Trattoria al Forno which is both delicious and unique.
Update to include Yak and Yeti. We dined here using our Landry's card before Moonlight Magic at AK. MM didn't start until late and we knew the kids wouldn't last until we got our free food voucher, so we decided to stop in to Yak and Yeti at around 5:30 after debating going to Tiffins. We have been to Tiffins twice and I really like it, but the kids wanted to do Yak and Yeti so we went there. We have also been to Y&Y a few times in the past. Unfortunately, I wish we would have gone to Tiffins. Y&Y quoted us 10-15 minutes to be seated with Landry's Select, but it wound up being around 5 so things were off to a good start.
After waiting a while for food, I see the food runners coming with our entrees. "We never got our appetizers." No apologies or anything, they simply asked if they were in the window did we still want them? We said that we didn't really want cold apps that have been sitting out. The food was fine, as expected - basically the same as every other visit here. The kitchen must have been struggling that night, because the manager went to the table behind us and apologized to them for not having food out yet and that he was making their table "a priority." I wish we had gone to Tiffins instead.
The following night, night we dined at Yachtsman Steakhouse. This was our first time dining there and our first time visiting the Yacht Club/Beach Club resort as well. The resort was wonderful and I do hope to stay here at some point in the future, even though booking on DVC points at 7 months is very difficult. One day. At Yachtsman, our waiter was very over-animated and a little annoying. He also "walked us through" the menu which basically consisted of him reading the menu to us verbatim. He was definitely attentive, but his style wasn't jiving with us. Overall, the meal here was a letdown. The french onion soup was very good. My wife and I ordered the porterhouse for two which was the smallest porterhouse for two I've ever had. The worst offense though is that the meat was completely unseasoned - it tasted like it was not salted at all. This is going to be a harsh comparison, but i have had steaks at The Outback that have been better seasoned than this one. We got truffle fries (extremely small portion size) and creamed spinach (just ok) for our included sides. I thought the dessert options were somewhat underwhelming as well. For a premium steakhouse experience, I was definitely expecting more, and I would rank our local steakhouse back home several steps above Yachtsman. Maybe my expectations were out of wack, and this place always seems to have favorable thoughts posted here, but for us it was a letdown. It's not a place we'd be aching to return to. As far as signature meals go, we both felt Flying Fish was much better.
On our last full day we had breakfast at Boma. We've been here a bunch of times and always like it. Once again, AYCTE and I ate way too much.
Dinner that night was at Art Smith's Homecomin'. Excellent food and service. Definitely satisfying and this is a place will return to in the future.
Overall our dining experiences were very positive and I have very few complaints about food and service. As you can infer, we spend quite a bit on meals at Disney, but we're not terribly demanding or extremely picky when it comes to food. YMMV at any of these places, but overall I think it's a very good time for dining at Disney with a lot of options for everyone.
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