Dining Review Week of 1/17/2016, a few days at The Dark Side

[TravelMommy]

We had a few favorites and a few new favorites and a few misses, but all par the course for WDW... We had an excellent snack when we arrived at the Boardwalk Pizza window and Boardwalk to Go and Boardwalk Bakery. It is a trip staple to get pizza, fries and cheesecake brownie on arrival day, as well as purchase a refillable mug or two from the Boardwalk Bakery. All in all, a good arrival/lunch/snack.
Day two started at Captain Cook's at the Poly, another "must do" each trip for us. The Tonga Toast was good as ever as were the other items we ordered (except for the fresh pineapple-was so tart!) (Mickey waffle, breakfast sandwich, etc.) All good! Love the Poly! We went to Disney Springs for the rest of the day. Some of us had lunch at Cooke's of Dublin (fantastic fish and chips and shrimp and chips-did not like the cheese, bacon dip), Morimoto Asia (Peking Duck was good-liked it) and T-Rex (loved it, but then, I think the ambiance is so good, that is the real draw-a build a Dino take home was a plus too). For dinner we had Wolfgang Puck Express and it was good, but the portion size for my pasta was not what I remembered and my DH BBQ salad was strangely sweet, he liked it though. The Star of Disney Springs for us this trip was truly the new Gelato Place, Omg, one of the best things we had on this trip, I highly recommend the Creama and the Chocolate. Made a trip here well worth it!
We went to The Dark Side for a few days (Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure). I was about a $40. cab ride from Boardwalk Villas, each way. We went to Hard Rock and had breakfast at The Kitchen, fabulous as usual. We had lunch at Leaky Cauldron, I thought it was great, not everyone loved it, but they found things they liked, and the overall rating was good. The theming here was fabulous!!!I tried Butterbeer, hot and cold, preferred hot but way too sweet and I won't get it again, but I tried it. Ice Cream at Florean Fesque(sp)was good (ah, theme parks $6.38 for a chocolate on a waffle cone, got to love it). We stayed for the fireworks at Universal Studios and they were nice. We watched them from right in front of Kings Crossing, a very great viewing spot. The next day we went to Royal Pacific for breakfast, which was good and we ate at a place in Jurasic Park, not bad, I had roasted chicken and it was a bit dry, Turkey legs were good, as was what everyone else ordered: soup, burgers,milkshakes. We had a great snack at Croissant Moon, excellent coffee and desserts!We had one of the best meals we had all week at Red Oven Pizza Bakery, fennel sausage pizza and Blue Moon Draft, let me just say, had I known it was this good, I would of eaten all my Universal Meals here, quite possibly the best pizza I have ever had.

 

[TravelMommy]

We spent the next day at the Luna Pool, it is a great pool and awesome slide! Had a few Mickey Bars. We had sandwiches at the villa for lunch and for dinner we had a fantastic meal at Trattatorio al Forno. We split a flatbread for an appetizer, it was good, rosemary, potato one and the bread and olive oil they serve is great. We had carbonara and linguine and clams, both were good, I thought the linguine and clam was better. The desserts are a real winner here, tiramisu and gelato and chocolate hazelnut cake, as well as the press pot coffee, all outstanding! Service here was top notch (our server Jose was excellent!) ***As a side note, if you are looking somewhere to good to get engaged, the couple next to us got the bride and groom mickey ears, a framed photo and a dessert platter, their server bent over backwards and I was shocked at everything the restaurant gave them! Wow! You get 10% off with a Disney Visa here.
Our last full day in Florida we went to Disney Studios, $812.00, for admission,(for 6 or so rides--including a few shows--when I look at it like that, boy not such a good "deal"--even though one of our kiddos got to ride the thrill rides for the first time this trip--ok,priceless!) it was a bit rainy we had a snack at Writer's Stop-coffee, cookies and the imfamous carrot cake cookie-- a continuous "must do" on our list each trip to the Studios, and we had lunch at ABC Commissary, cheeseburgers and fries, not bad, especially when we snagged a table with an umbrella a to wait out the rain and have our lunch..We had a fantastic character meet and greet with Darth Vader here, thanks to the Disney Visa, it was one of the best pictures we took all trip long and it was free!!! to download, love that card!!! We had a great last night dinner on the Boardwalk again and finished up with funnel cakes! A great way to end a great trip.PS-- Magic Express made a boo boo on our return, we have a few family members with the same first name, they only listed one of them, I spoke to Magic Express and they corrected but they couldn't print out the new letter, concierge had to hand write. I spoke to one of the concierge's and I commented on how crowded the parks were even during this "slow" time, he said with all the hotel capacity and no new parks, alas, they get crowded. I was surprised too at how crowded Universal was too, we might try another "not so busy time" next trip and January appears to get more and more crowded. I cannot say enough about how fabulous the Boardwalk Resort is, we had a refurbished 1-Bdrm villa, the room was fantastic, the service here was great. My one (and we knew about this prior to our stay) and only complaint was that our room was a bit far away from the elevator. The ability to have the Boardwalk Bakery and Boardwalk to Go and Arcade, Pool and Thimbles right "outside" our door was wonderful. I am sad to learn that Seashore Sweets may be going, we bought ice cream here (was really good!) and a few gifts to take home. It has been a "must do " stop for us each and every trip, we will miss it!
** Now, our last day we had dinner at 1900 Park Fare, I had read so many great reviews on the food, I was really looking forward to it, I was very, very disappointed with the food. Especially after reading all the good food reviews.The character interaction here was top notch! Each and every character spent a great amount of time with us and we have some truly fabulous photos, now was it "worth" $351.00??? (6 of us ate here)no, no it wasn't. I also found out the hard way (my fault for not asking) that the nonalcoholic "specialty" drinks were $10 a piece, yes $10/each (no alcohol!!) omg, but the desserts were ok, the characters fabulous!!! the food extremely blah, bland meat, salty, rubbery turkey, even kids options were blah, definitely will not go back here for dinner. We will probably to Gasparilla Grill if we go back. The resort is lovely. Had a great monorail ride back to the park and left for the cold, cold north. Ps, yes,yes, we are planning another Florida trip!