Dining Review - March 2024

[ThreeBoyMama]

Love your dining reports! As usual you guys are hitting some great locations.

 

[Dreams&wishes]

Love your reviews

 

[Noreen411]

I would expect that at Prime Time Cafe but not at FF!

Good point. It wasn’t too over the top or disruptive, it was just slightly odd. You are right, at Flying Fish, they shouldn’t have to have a schtick, but it didn’t interfere with our enjoyment of the meal.

 

[Noreen411]

So much good advice thanks for sharing.

Thank you. I enjoy doing this; it’s like reliving it

 

[Noreen411]

Love your dining reports! As usual you guys are hitting some great locations.

Thank you. There are so many places to choose from. I always feel like there are others we’re missing out on.

 

[Noreen411]

Love your reviews

Thank you. I enjoy doing them.

 

[Noreen411]

Tuesday 3/12/24
We started the day at Animal Kingdom.

That evening we drove to the Grand Floridian for our early dinner reservation at Narcoossee’s.



We had the same waiter as our last visit.

Scott had Tanquerey with a Splash of St Germaine and a lime. The waiter came back and said they don’t have St Germaine and suggested something like Rockleigh (sp?) which he said was similar. Scott went with the suggestion and liked it.

I had the Key Lime Pie Martini: Tito’s handmade Vodka, Midori Melon Liqueur, Vanilla cream, and cold-pressed lime juice with a toasted meringue. This was pretty good but not as good as the Key Lime Pie martini that I had at the Crews Cup Lounge (near Yachtsman’s Steakhouse).


The bread is really good.


For an appetizer we had the Buttermilk-fried calamari: Pickled garden mix, tomato coulis. This was tasty and I appreciated the ability to dip and avoid the pickled vegetables that I don’t like.


We had fried calamari here March of 2022 (2 years ago) and the presentation was different where I had to pick out the pieces I didn’t want. Picture below is from 2 years ago for reference.


For an entree I had the Blackened Redfish: Chorizo-Sunchoke hash, southern sweet corn, hominy, red pepper rouille. This was so good last visit I knew I wanted this again. I should have remembered to ask them not to include that red pepper rouille on the top but it was easy enough to scrape off. This is a fantastic dish.


Scott had the Plancha-seared Scallops and Parisian Gnocchi: Peas, Tasso Ham, Truffled Meyer Lemon Cream. He enjoyed his dish; he knew he would as he had this on a prior trip and loved it then too.


For dessert we had the Almond-crusted cheesecake: Lambert Cherry sauce, chantilly. This is a great dessert; the way it’s plated it reminds me of Cinderella’s coach (I know it’s a bit of a stretch) but look at the cream as wheels and the round cake as the coach she sits in.


This was another outstanding meal at Narcoossee’s.

After dinner we went to Magic Kingdom.

 

[KimM82]

I want to try all of these. You make everything look and sound so delicious. Thank you for all your detail and care you put into these reports!

 

[princessjilly]

I think we have the same taste in cocktails as I’d definitely have chosen a lot of the ones you’ve had

 

[Noreen411]

I want to try all of these. You make everything look and sound so delicious. Thank you for all your detail and care you put into these reports!

Thank you for the kind words. I really enjoy doing these reports and knowing others are enjoying them too makes me enjoy it doing them even more. Agree, there were so many good things we tried.

 

[Noreen411]

I think we have the same taste in cocktails as I’d definitely have chosen a lot of the ones you’ve had

LOL - that’s part of the fun, a nice tasty cocktail. I have some favorites at certain places that make it hard to try others (ex. Hoodunit’s punch) but I really like finding a new tasty drink at restaurants.

 

[Noreen411]

Wednesday 3/13/24
We started the day at Epcot.

We tried to find Keke’s (an offsite restaurant) for lunch, but couldn’t find it and gave up after driving around a bit looking. We went to Keke’s before and remember it was difficult to find then too. There are multiple locations and we just asked the car to take us to the closest one. Maybe next trip we’ll find Keke’s again. We enjoyed it when we found it last time.

After our unsuccessful search for Keke’s we went to Bahama Breeze instead. The bar was closed for cleaning so we sat at a table.


I had a Strawberry Mojito: Malibu strawberry rum, Bacardi superior rum, sugarcane and lime juices topped with strawberry ice. This wasn’t that good so I only took a few sips of it. I think Scott drank Coke since I don’t have a picture of his cocktail.


I had the Coconut shrimp appetizer as my meal: six large, crispy shrimp, citrus-mustard dipping sauce. These were very good; I enjoyed them.


We ordered Beef Empanadas (another appetizer): Four housemade pastries with seasoned beef and potatoes, seasoned sour cream and pineapple chutney for dipping. We’ve had these before; I keep wanting to like them, but they are just OK. There is an odd seasoning in them that I’m not sure I like. Scott likes it a bit more than I do, but he’s not crazy about them either.


Scott had the Honey Butter Crispy Chicken Sandwich: Housemade jerk honey butter, citrus mayo and pickle on a toasted brioche bun. Scott thought this was very good.


We didn’t finish our food at Bahama Breeze and had a decent amount wrapped up and brought back to the villa.

 

[Noreen411]

Wednesday 3/13/24 Continued
Later that night we drove to the Boardwalk for dinner at Trattoria Al Forno.

We went a bit early for pre-dinner cocktails at Abracadabar. The bar was packed; we ordered our drinks from there but ended up sitting in the waiting area for Trattoria Al Forno since the bar was so crowded. Scott had Bombay Sapphire with Olives and I had my favorite Hoodunit’s Punch: Captain Morgan Spiced Rum, Orange Juice, Pineapple Juice, Coconut.


We were seated on time and had the same waitress as our last visit this trip. She remembered us (or so she said).


The bread is cute, but I prefer it with butter to the dipping oil.


We shared one Polpette (meatball) as an appetizer. This was good.


We shared the Braised Short Rib entree: Gremolata, Creamy Polenta, Arugula. This was another solid dish and sharing was the right amount of food.


We haven’t had dessert here in a while, but decided to get the Tiramisu: Lady Fingers soaked with Espresso and layered with Italian Mascarpone Cream. This was really good; suprisingly good.


Trattoria Al Forno continues to be a solid restaurant choice we both enjoy.

 

[2xcited2sleep]

For some reason I always forget about Trattoria Al Forno. Will need to give it a try next time. Love that fish dish at Narcoossee's .... so delicious!

 

[Noreen411]

For some reason I always forget about Trattoria Al Forno. Will need to give it a try next time. Love that fish dish at Narcoossee's .... so delicious!

Hi. Definitely give Trattoria al Forno a try; it was a pleasant surprise when we first tried it and it continues to be a solid restaurant. That Redfish at Narcoossee’s was our favorite entree of the whole trip.

 

[Noreen411]

Thursday 3/14/24
We started the day at Magic Kingdom.

Scott wanted something to eat and we were in FantasyLand so stopped in Pinocchio Village house when I mentioned they had pizza. We planned to mobile order originally but the pick up time wasn’t for 30 minutes so I got in line to order the old fashioned way while Scott found a table.

I ordered the All-Meat Flatbread: topped with sausage, pepperoni, ham, bacon, tomato sauce and mozzarella. And a Coke.

When I went to pay, the cashier said there was a “Pay it forward chain” going and did I want to participate and have the lady ahead of me pay for my order. I agreed. I offered to keep the chain going and would pay for the person behind me. The person behind me wouldn’t accept so the chain broke. That’s the first time I’ve heard of a pay it forward chain at Disney.

Scott enjoyed the pizza/flatbread. I wasn’t hungry but ate a bit of the crust.


On the way out of the park we stopped at the Confectionary for one of the Mickey cookies Scott loved and a Dipped Pretzel rod. These will be wrapped to bring home.

 

[Noreen411]

Thursday 3/14/24 Continued
We drove to Disney Springs to pick up a few more goodies to wrap and bring home.

We started at Summer House Cookie bar. I didn’t get a receipt so am guessing at some of the names of the cookies we ordered. They all came home with us so the cut in half pictures are from later; I’m including them here to keep the pictures of them together.

Chocolate Bomb. This was good; it reminded me of the chocolate side of a black and white cookie. I forgot to take a picture of this one cut in half when we ate it.


Chocolate Chip. A pretty good cookie.



Cinnamon Bun. This one was my favorite.



Crispy Chip. Also pretty good.



On prior trips we’ve made numerous stops at Gideon’s throughout our visit to get cookies to freeze to bring home. We didn’t go to Gideon’s at all this trip. We still have a few cookies from our last trip in the freezer at home and we wanted to get some new/different treats this trip. I think we over-did Gideon’s the last few trips. After taking a break this trip I expect next trip we’ll be excited to have Gideon’s cookies again.

 

[Noreen411]

Thursday 3/14/24 Continued
Continuing to purchase goodies to bring home, we stopped at Everglazed and bought 4 donuts. I’m including the cut picture of the glazed one here even though we ate it a different day to keep the pictures together. Since we already had the other 3 flavors and I showed the half pictures I won’t do it again here. Even though we ended up sharing we each chose two of them. I chose the classic glazed and strawberry iced (preferring the plainer not topped with as much stuff donuts) and Scott chose the Cookies & Cream and the Fruity Pebbles.

Classic glazed



Strawberry Iced


Cookies & Cream


Fruity Pebbles


We finally stopped at Salt & Straw. This was enjoyed right away. I got one scoop of Sea Salt with Caramel Ribbons. This was a really good creamy ice cream. I appreciated how they offer to let you taste different flavors to help you choose what you want. I was torn between the Sea Salt with Caramel Ribbons and the Salted Malted chocolate chip cookie dough. They gave me a little tasting spoon of each. I liked the Caramel better so ordered that. Surprisingly, Scott didn’t want any ice cream. I have been wanting to try Salt & Straw for a while so was glad to finally get to try it.

 

[Noreen411]

Thursday 3/14/24 Continued
We brought our snacks back to the villa and got them organized to be packed to come home. We finished most of the regular packing too. Scott loaded some of the stuff into the car so we won’t have to do it tomorrow morning when we’re leaving.

Later we drove back to Disney Springs for dinner at the Boathouse. We changed our plans as we originally had California Grill booked, but cancelled that earlier in the day planning to wing it at the Boathouse bar and hope we can find seats. It was crowded but we found seats near the end, short seats. We ended up liking the short seats.


Scott had Bombay Sapphire straight with Olives. I had the Shipwreck: Marti Gold and Silver rum, Passionfruit liqueur, fresh tropical juices, fresh oranges and cherries. I wanted to try something different than my usual Duck Duck Razz. The Shipwreck drink was very strong. The bartender even mentioned it was strong when he gave it to me. It was just OK tasting to me; probably because it was too strong. I drank a little of it but wouldn’t get it again.


We started with 5 Wild Sea of Cortez Shrimp: London Dry Gin Cocktail sauce. These are always so good. Whenever we get these Scott always orders 5: I usually eat 2 of them and Scott eats 3 of them (sometimes we share the 5th one). Next time I think we’ll order 6 of them instead of 5.


I wanted the Filet Mignon Sliders: Maitre d’Butter. These are really good. I gave one to Scott.


Of course we needed a side of French fries. They have the best fries at the Boathouse.


Scott had the Maine Style Lobster roll with kettle chips: Chilled Maine Lobster, Lemon chive dressing, buttered toasted split top bun. He enjoyed his lobster roll. I had a little bite to taste it, but I don’t really like lobster rolls because of the sauce on them.


We ordered dessert. Key Lime Pie (serves 2): Vanilla Bean Chantilly cream, raspberries. This was really good. The dessert menu looked great; we’ll have to get dessert more often here to try the various treats they have.


We have really been enjoying our meals at the Boathouse.

 

[2xcited2sleep]

You have me craving those filet sliders. Sitting out at the dockside bar and having those with some fries is just perfection. Really love the 2-hour cancellation policy - it allows so much more flexibility. Boathouse will do the lobster roll "Connecticut style" (hot with butter) if you'd prefer that preparation.