Dining Review - Sept/Oct 2021

[Noreen411]

Introduction and a bit about our trip:

Noreen: Me, the author of this report; Senior Vice President at an Investment Banking firm in New York City

Scott: My husband; independent contractor

Scott and I live in Northern New Jersey

We had some other people join us for a few meals during our trip. Lunch with co-workers/friends from the Tampa office of my company. Dinner with Scott’s ex-wife who was in Disney celebrating her birthday with some friends.

I also started working on a trip review that I have to finish and get posted. I’m going to try including pictures here too.

After many cancelled Disney trips and cruises due to the pandemic, we were super excited to finally get back to Disney World.

We drove from New Jersey to Florida. We attended a wedding the night before we started our trip. We stopped overnight on the way down and back. We spent the time at Disney at a sister resort to my timeshare and stayed at Vistana Villages (I own at Vistana Resort).

We were planning to be away from Saturday 9/25/21 until Monday 10/11/21, but ended up leaving to come home a day early once the crowds came to Disney (a combination of the start of the 50th anniversary and Columbus Day weekend).

We have Disney Annual Passes.

I logged onto Disney’s website or used the app on the phone 60 days before our trip each morning right before 6am and would book dinner ADRs. I kept checking and changing things as we went along, including making changes once we were at Disney. We had a few offsite meals which I will review as well.

Scott and I both lost some weight recently and we don’t eat as much as we used to. When we’re out we’ll sometimes share meals. We also tried to eat pretty healthy for breakfast, lunch, and some snacks. I have a sweet tooth so you’ll still see/read about plenty of desserts and sweets.

During our trip we normally had a pretty basic breakfast in the timeshare/villa each morning and most lunches were things like a protein bar and baby carrots so I won’t review those meals.

Most days our routine was to go to the gym in the morning, come back to the villa to shower and get dressed, have breakfast then leave for the park. We would normally be at the park right before they opened. We would come back to the villa to shower and change for dinner before heading back out. Since we have annual passes, sometimes we would hop to another park during the day or after dinner.

I’m going to try posting a picture (or few) of us so you’ll see us, and I really like some of the pictures from the Photopass photographers.

 

[Noreen411]

Saturday 9/25/21
We live in Northern New Jersey. My friend’s wedding was in South New Jersey so we drove down Saturday afternoon. The wedding was Saturday evening with normal wedding food so I won’t review that. The wedding was fun

We stayed over at the hotel which made our trip shorter as we were about 2 hours south of our home

 

[Noreen411]

Sunday 9/26/21
We left about 6am to start our drive to Florida. Not only were we almost 2 hours south of where we live, but not having to take care of feeding the cats, giving one cat her insulin, cleaning litter boxes, etc; it was so quick taking care of ourselves just showering and getting dressed and we were ready to go.

We packed a little cooler bag/snack bag with things like protein bars, fruit, and water for our drive.

We stopped in Santee, SC around 5pm and checked into the Fairfield Inn and Suites for the night. We booked this while driving when we were ready to stop.

We had dinner at Clark’s; which was recommended by the hotel staff.



I won’t post pictures of the menu from the Disney restaurants as everyone can see those online but since this was an offsite place that I don’t expect anyone to be familiar with, I figured I’d post the menu.

They didn’t have white sangria (my new drink of choice) so I had a Malibu Bay Breeze. Scott had a martini.



We shared the meatball appetizer which was surprisingly good. Scott makes meatballs and homemade sauce/gravy at home so is very critical of meatballs when we’re out and he thought these were very good. The sauce/gravy was very good too.



Scott had the fried chicken which the restaurant is known/famous for (according to the waitress). He said it was pretty good but a bit too greasy for him.



I had the roasted chicken and Scott took the chicken off the bone for me. I won’t eat meat off a bone. My dish was really good. The chicken wasn’t dry and had a lot of flavor. Scott ended up finishing my dish as his was too greasy.



We shared pecan pie for dessert. This was very good and we both enjoyed it.



We would eat here again if we were in the area. Dinner was better than we expected it to be.

 

[Noreen411]

Monday 9/27/21
We used the gym at the hotel in the morning then got ourselves showered and ready. The hotel had an included breakfast buffet. Scott had sausage and eggs. I had yogurt. We would stay at this hotel again if we were stopping here. We headed out a little after 8 to finish the drive to Florida. We didn’t rush out early but took our time this morning.

In Georgia we stopped at Peach World. It’s not peach season, but we bought some pecans and peach jam.

We arrived at Vistana Villages around 3:45. We got ourselves settled into the villa.

We drove over to Disney Springs and went to Guest Services to pick up our annual passes.

We walked right into Homecoming. I wasn’t able to get a reservation but when we showed up we were able to be seated right away. We chose to sit at the bar but regular tables were available too.

Scott had the bourbon flight which he enjoyed.



I had the Rumshine Punch (blackberry moonshine). This was good but very strong.



Last time we were here we loved the chicken biscuit appetizer so we ordered two of those as our entrees. The chicken biscuits weren’t as good as they were the last time we were here; we were a bit disappointed. They weren’t bad, just not as good as we remembered. The chicken was a bit too thick.

Scott also ordered mac & cheese. He enjoyed this. It’s very rare he has Mac & cheese that he doesn’t like.



We ordered chocolate pecan pie to go which I forgot to take a picture of. It was pretty good.

The cast members/servers at Homecoming were great. We enjoyed sitting at the bar and interacting with them.

The line for Gideon’s was 50 minutes and they weren’t doing a virtual queue so we figured we would try that another day.

 

[Noreen411]

Tuesday 9/28/21
We spent the day at Magic Kingdom.

For dinner we drove to the Contemporary and valet parked. We had dinner reservations at California Grill. This was before the special 50th anniversary menu started.

I had the San Francisco Mai Tai and Scott had a Martini. Our drinks were well made and we both enjoyed them.

Bread was brought out with an interesting spread/dipping sauce; olive oil and maybe roasted peppers. Whatever it was we enjoyed it, but kept reminding ourselves not to fill up on bread.



We shared all the food we ordered. We do that often otherwise we would never finish our food.

For appetizers we had the California Roll and the Short Rib Wontons. The California Roll was very good, it tasted nice and fresh. The wontons were OK but a bit too salty.



For our entree we ordered the filet with corn soufflé. The filet was cooked perfectly medium as we requested. The corn soufflé was a bit different and we enjoyed it.



For dessert we ordered the Pistachio Cherry soufflé. We originally weren’t sure about the combination of pistachio and cherry in a soufflé but we are really glad we gave it a try. Scott also had a double espresso and a Grand Marnier.



We really enjoyed our dinner at California Grill

 

[Noreen411]

Wednesday 9/29/21
We spent the day at Animal Kingdom.

We drove to the Grand Floridian for dinner at Citricos; this was our first time at this restaurant.

When we checked in they were very welcoming but it was a bit over the top at first. Three different people escorted us to our table.

Funny beverage story…I tried one of the specialty cocktails (Agridolce) but didn’t like it so I gave it to Scott and tried a different one (Amaro Grapefruit Spritz). My new drink had a fly in it so they remade it. Scott‘s martini was good from the start. He was so busy laughing at my beverage issues, it was hard to get a picture of the drinks.



The bread they brought out was really good. Soft on the inside, crunchy on the outside. We had to remind ourselves not to fill up on bread.



For an appetizer we shared the smoked duck breast with fresh tagliatelle. This was described on the menu as Smoked Duck Breast, fresh tagliatelle pasta, celeriac purée, and duck confit. This was delicious and I don’t normally like duck.

I had the Butter Poached Cobia for my entree. This was served with mashed fingerling potatoes, grilled asparagus, local mushrooms, and grapefruit beurre blanc. Wow this was so good; I finished the whole dish.



Scott had the Golden Tilefish which was served with Jupiter rice-chorizo risotto, key west pink shrimp and confit tomatoes. He also thought it was great and finished his dish.


We ordered the truffle Mac and cheese as a side. This was described as House made gnocchetti, summer black truffles, sottocenere al tartufo, and tarragon. Scott loves Mac and cheese; he will order it whenever he sees it. I can take it or leave it. I wasn’t crazy about this one, it was too watery. Even Scott didn’t love the Mac and cheese.


For dessert we shared the blackberry tartelette. This was described as lemon Bavarian and blackberry mousse enrobed in glacage and violet syrup. This was beautiful; it looked too good to eat. But we ate it and it tasted very good. It was a nice light dessert. We also received a little plate with truffles on it and a “thank you” written in chocolate.




The cast members taking care of us were great. After the initial, over the top start, we ended up having a great time chatting with them and enjoying our meal.

We will definitely come back to Citricos again; we really enjoyed our time here.

 

[Noreen411]

Thursday 9/30/21
We spent the day at Epcot.

During the afternoon, in Norway I got a rice cream which I usually love and look forward to each trip. I used to say this is the best rice pudding I’ve had. Unfortunately, it was not as good as it used to be. It wasn’t bad, just not as good as I remember it being.



We looked at the various food and wine booths as we circled World Showcase, but nothing jumped out at us.

Then Scott saw the Mac & Eats booth; he was like a kid in a candy store. He got the Cowboy Mac & Cheese, which has smoked pork belly, brisket burnt ends, pickled peppers and onion straws. He thought it was really good with a nice combination of flavors, and the onion straws added a different crunchy texture. I took a taste but I’m not a huge mac & cheese fan so not the best judge (It tasted fine to me).



Later that evening we drove to the Yacht Club for our dinner reservation at Yachtsman Steakhouse.

Scott had a martini and I had a glowtini


We were a little disappointed that they didn’t have tuna tartare on the appetizer menu anymore. The last time we were here we had that and it was probably one of the best tuna tartare’s we’ve had.

We went with the shrimp cocktail appetizer which was very good. The shrimp were a nice size and very tasty.



The onion pull apart rolls were delicious with butter. Neither of us liked the roasted garlic on them. While we normally try not to fill up on bread, we asked for a few more of these onion rolls.



I had the filet with fries. The filet was cooked perfectly. With our healthier eating lately we haven’t had French fries in a long time so while it’s something simple we enjoyed them.



Scott had the Cioppino; described as lobster tail, shrimp, scallops, clams, mussels, lucid absinthe and fregola. He wasn’t thrilled with it; he said the spices were a bit weird with the seafood. He ate it but wouldn’t get it again. He also ate some of my filet and fries.



For dessert we shared the chocolate cake (it’s meant for 2). This is chocolate decadence cake, dark chocolate mousse, mixed berry curd, peanut butter crunch and mousse. OMG this was huge. The presentation was fun and the waitress split it for us.




We had a nice time at dinner.

 

[wannabee]

great reviews-- thanks!

 

[DLo]

Thanks for taking the time to review. Enjoying your honest opinions.

 

[lotsohugginbear]

Great reviews! I love that cake at Yachtsman. Scott has a great collection of Caribbean shirts! I'm jealous!

 

[FBS@WDW]

Thanks for the great review! Love the pics!

 

[Noreen411]

Great reviews! I love that cake at Yachtsman. Scott has a great collection of Caribbean shirts! I'm jealous!

Hi

We love cruising too (even though we haven’t since the pandemic started) and he would always buy Tshirts on all the different islands. Usually the same brand/style (sometimes the same color since blue is his favorite); at least the island name was different.

Thank you

 

[Noreen411]

Thank you all for the kind words. I plan to continue the review over the weekend.

 

[purpliequeen]

Thank you for the reviews! Following along.

 

[Noreen411]

Friday 10/1/21
We spent the day at Hollywood Studios.

I found the Mickey Pumpkin Spice cookie near Tower of Terror. We made sure we brought a ziploc bag for this; we wrapped this big cookie up to eat later. We shared an ear of it before wrapping it up. It’s good.



We had a reservation for Oga’s Cantina this afternoon so we headed over there to check in. We were at a shared standing table. It’s a cute place, but I haven’t seen the Star Wars movies (I may have seen one when I was younger) so the intricacies are lost on me. Scott was impressed with the venue as he’s a Star Wars fan. I had the Carbon Freeze (non alcoholic with popping balls) and Scott had the Dagobu Slug Slinger (with Tequila). We also had the Batuu bites. This was a cute place and a nice way to spend a little time and have a snack. We chatted with the couple sharing the table with us. They have been here a several times and were ordering drinks that came with souvenir glasses they were collecting.



Later that night we drove to the Riviera for dinner at Topolino’s Terrace.

We sat at the bar for a drink and the cast member said we could eat there if we wanted to instead of moving to a table. We ended up staying at the bar area for dinner.

I had the French rose drink which was Grey Goose Le Citron vodka, Combier Crème de Pamplemousse Rose Liqueur, Raspberry, Agave, Lemon, and Soda water. Scott had a martini.



The bread while adorably shaped, was a bit hard. It didn’t stop us from eating it.



For appetizers we shared the Gnocchi: Duck confit, pesto blanco, garden kale, and pine nuts. This was good, we both enjoyed it.



We also shared the Ricotta: tomato, aged balsamic, cracked pepper, basil, epi. We asked them to hold the balsamic as neither of us like balsamic. This was good, very fresh. And a nice combination with the tomato and basil. More of the adorably shaped bread was served with the ricotta.



For our entree we shared the Filet Mignon: Potato purée, soubise, pickled scallions, onion jus, guanciale-shallot jam. We added the Shrimp enhancement to it. The filet was good. The shrimp weren’t anything special, just regular shrimp.



For dessert we shared the pumpkin mousse. This was very nicely presented and we both enjoyed it.



We enjoyed our meal at Topolino’s Terrace, but it isn’t somewhere we would rush back to. It was good but not great.

 

[Noreen411]

Saturday 10/2/21
Our day started with our normal routine but we weren’t heading to a park today.
We went to Disney Springs and arrived when they opened.

We put our name/number into Gideon’s virtual queue. Then we did some shopping.

At 12 noon I went to D-Luxe Burger to meet some of the ladies from the Tampa office of my company. What a great time. We were hanging out and laughing for a few hours. Some of us have never met in person before. I forgot to take pictures of our burgers and fries but they were really good. They had all these cute dipping sauces too.

Scott didn’t join us for lunch; instead he cleaned his car, walked around Disney Springs and had lunch at the Boathouse. He didn’t take pictures of his food but he enjoyed it and suggested we try to add a visit there

We went to Amorette’s pastry shop after and had some treats. Scott joined us at Amorette’s and we all hung out a while longer. The anniversary cake was delicious but huge (good thing it came in a box). It’s meant to serve one but that’s crazy. Scott and I both had some of it and we brought most of it back to the villa, put it in the fridge to have more another time. The ladies headed back to Tampa after Amorette’s.



While we were at lunch, I got a text from Gideon’s that we could come back to the virtual queue. When we were on line earlier waiting to put our name/number in we were talking with others on the line and someone mentioned that once you receive the text to come back, it’s OK not to run right over, you can come a little later if that’s more convenient.

We went to Gideon’s and waited a bit on the return line, chatting with some people there. It’s a cute little store and smelled great.

We got 6 cookies: 1 Coffee Cake, 1 Cookies & Cream, 1 Pistachio, and 3 Chocolate Chip. We also got a piece of Red Velvet Cake and Peanut Butter Iced Coffee. Everything was boxed up except the iced coffee which was surprisingly very good. I thought it was a weird combination but after reading about it figured we should give it a try.



Later that night we drove to the Grand Floridian for dinner at Citricos. We had the same cast members taking care of us as our last visit.

Scott had a Martini. I forgot what I had to drink but I’m guessing one of their special cocktails.

For appetizers we had the Smoked Duck Breast: fresh tagliatelle pasta, celeriac purée, duck confit.
We also had the Berkshire Pork Belly: Boniato and Plaintain Croquette, salsa verde, jicama.

We knew we would love the duck again. The pork belly was also great; a little fatty as it’s supposed to be but not overly so, and a nice crispy skin.



For our entrees
I ordered the Butter Poached Florida Cobia: mashed fingerling potatoes, grilled asparagus, local mushrooms, grapefruit buerre blanc

Scott ordered the Guava-Barbecued Short Ribs: Aged Cheddar Creamy grits, roasted poblano, Curtido slaw, brussel sprouts

My Cobia was delicious. Scott’s ribs were good. He wanted to try something different but we both preferred the fish.



We didn’t order dessert at Citricos knowing we had the Gideon’s cookies and the piece of cake waiting for us.



WOW - this cookie is all it’s cracked up to be. It was so good. Now I understand why people are waiting on long lines for these cookies. We shared one chocolate chip cookie given how big they are. Scott put his half in the microwave so it was all melty/gooey. I liked my cold from the fridge.

 

[Noreen411]

Sunday 10/3/21
We spent the morning at Animal Kingdom and hopped over to Hollywood Studios at 2 when you are able to park hop.

For dinner we drove to the Dolphin, valet parked, and headed to Shula’s

We sat at the bar to have a drink first. I had white sangria and Scott had a martini.



We decided to eat dinner at the bar instead of moving to a table.

For an appetizer we shared the tuna tartare: Diced Ahi tuna, red chili, sesame vinaigrette, avocado cream, and crispy wonton. This was really good. The little wonton chips went so well with it.




For our entree we shared the prime rib. Herb-crusted and served with Yorkshire pudding and au jus. This was huge but wasn’t cooked enough for us at first so they cooked it a bit more. The Yorkshire pudding (I call them popovers) were also really good.



We had sides of asparagus and macaroni & cheese. Scott continues his quest to have mac & cheese everywhere he can. He thought this Mac & cheese was very good.




Even sharing an entree, we couldn’t finish it so had it packed to go. We also wanted to save room for dessert.

For dessert we had the chocolate soufflé. OMG this was so delicious.




We had a great time at Shula’s. We enjoyed sitting at the bar and interacting with the cast members there.

 

[Noreen411]

Monday 10/4/21
We spent the morning and early afternoon at Magic Kingdom.

We left Magic Kingdom and drove to Disney Springs deciding to go to Splittsville Bowling. We haven’t bowled in ages. We had so much fun and it was nice to do something different. They have lane-side service so we ordered soda and shared a kids pizza. This was pretty good.



For dinner later we drove to the Contemporary and valet parked. We had dinner at California Grill. It was the first night of the special 50th anniversary pre-fixe menu.

I had a Mai Tai and Scott had a martini.



We were served bread with a dipping sauce made with roasted tomatoes and chive. This was really good and we had to remind ourselves not to fill up on bread.



Since this is a pre-fixe meal, we each had an appetizer, entree, and dessert. It was a lot of food.

For my appetizer I had the sushi trio: blue crab California roll, shrimp tempura roll, and spicy Kazan roll. The spicy Kazan roll was too spicy for me so Scott finished that, but the others were very good.



Scott chose the House-made Artisinal-style Duck A’L’Orange Pizza (with no blue cheese): Duck prosciutto and confit, pickled shallots, orange-black mission fig jam, aged blue cheese, arugula. This was really good. Both appetizers were good but I think Scott’s was the better one.



For my entree I had the Oak-fired filet of beef; black truffle-brown butter chateau potatoes, golden raisin vinaigrette, cauliflower, roasted tomato butter. This was very good.



Scott had the Monterey Bay Cioppino: Pink shrimp, clams, mussels, scallops, butterfish, uni butter and crab sourdough, rich tomato broth, handmade fregola. He enjoyed this; it was so much better than the one he had at Yachtsman Steakhouse.



For dessert Scott had the Five Magical Bites: Honey, Lemon, Carrot, Strawberry, and Chocolate Bites. This was great. It was a good way to get a taste of different types of sweets.



I ordered the Earidiscent Grand Marnier Soufflé: Creamsicle ice cream, macerated Florida citrus.

A manager delivered our desserts and my soufflé was deflated. I mentioned it to the manager and his response was that “it’s delicate”. Even worse was that it wasn’t cooked (It was eggy). When the waitress came by and asked how our desserts were I told her mine was deflated and not cooked; she immediately wanted to fix it and bring another one. I didn’t want another soufflé after being served one that wasn’t cooked so had the 5 bites instead.



Everything was great except for the soufflé and the manager’s handling of it. I know soufflés are delicate but if you have them on your menu and it’s the first night of the special 50th anniversary dinner, they should be perfect. It should not have left the kitchen like that.

We enjoyed our meal, but enjoyed the regular menu better than the special 50th pre-fixe menu.

 

[TXFamilyofFour]

Thank you so much for posting your reviews! I'm in the process of planning for my early summer trip and these are so helpful!

 

[Noreen411]

Thank you so much for posting your reviews! I'm in the process of planning for my early summer trip and these are so helpful!

Thank you for the kind words