Dining Reviews 9/28 - 10/8 - I Started A Blog

[disneyfav4ever]

Day Six - Food & Wine Festival Booths

While waiting for the counter-service restaurant we wanted to eat lunch at to open up we went to the France Marketplace booth and got an order of escargot. I had never had escargot before, but wanted to try it, since I like trying new things, and then I could say I've had it before.

The Food and Wine Festival's portion of escargot was served in small hallowed-out pieces of brioche, which is a type of bread-like pastry. I liked the taste of the escargot, but not the texture. They were very garlicy, so garlicy, that that's all I tasted. So it was like eating a very oily-garlicy garlic bread, with a bite of tasteless rubber almost.

Cost - $4.50 (Used One Snack Credit)

Later that day, after a few cooking demonstrations, we stopped at the Ireland food booth and got a portion of boxty, which I thought sounded good, and wanted to try.

It was a potato pancake filled with bacon, garlic, and herbs, and topped with butter. I really liked it, my mom didn't think it was anything special though. I also thought the portion was too small, but we did share it.

Cost - $2.25 (Used One Snack Credit)

 

[disneyfav4ever]

Day Six - Tangierine Cafe

After spending the morning in Future World we went to Morocco in World Showcase to have lunch. We wanted to eat at Tangierine Cafe because my mom likes that type of food, and I'd read good things about it here on the DIS.

We decided to get the lamb wrap, even though my mom doesn't really like lamb, but it looked good, so we got that.

The wrap was filled with lamb, red onions, lettuce, and some kind of sauce. I'm not sure what kind of sauce it was, but it was very good. It also came with two sides; cous cous salad, (in the front,) and lentil salad, (in the back.) The cous cous was very good, but neither my mom or I cared for the lentil salad.

I would definatly get the wrap again, but next time I would ask for all cous cous and no lentils.

Since we were on the dining plan we also got a piece of baklava with our meal, which was very good.

Cost - $15.26 (Used One CS Credit)

 

[disneyfav4ever]

Day Six - Food & Wine Festival Cooking Demonstrations

Today we attended two of the free cooking demonstrations that are offered as part of the Food and Wine Festival.

We had looked at the schedule of events, and I had wanted to go to the one with the chef from Brown Derby, since that is one of my favorite restaurants, and my mom decided she'd like to go to a wine tasting.

We decided to check the menu that's posted outside the Odyssey building, to see what other things would be made that day. Well, it turns out that the chef from Brown Derby was making something with mushrooms in it, so I decided I wouldn't go to that one, and instead go to one that was not listed in the booklet, but was scheduled for the day. My mom decided it sounded good too, and decided she'd rather stay and see this demo, then walk all the way to the Wonders of Life pavillion for the wine tasting, especially after being told that we would get a taste of wine as well as our sample.

The presenter for this demo was Jason Wilson, who has a restaurant, Crush, in Seattle, Washington, and he would be making flat iron steak, with blue cheese spoonbread and smoked red onions.

It was a good demonstration, and everything was very tasty. I really like steak, and this was very good. I also really like blue cheese, and that was excellant, I may have to try making it, if I can ever find the recipe. My mom really liked it too.

After that, we got back in line for the next demonstration. This one was by Hope Fox, who has her own cookbook, Impress for Less. She made chicken with orange sauce and wild rice pancakes.

This was good too, and seemed very simple to make. As a matter of fact, after the demonstration we ended up going down to the Wonders of Life pavillion so I could buy a copy of her book, which is a compilation of restaurant recipes made easy.

 

[disneyfav4ever]

Day Six - Kringla Og Bakeri

I have to actually backtrack a little here. While we were eating the boxty from the Ireland booth, (see post sixty-one,) we sat at the tables that are by the Kringla Og Bakeri.

I mentioned to my mom that at some point in the next couple days I wanted to get a school bread, since that was something I had been meaning to try for the last couple trips.

Neither one of us were really hungry, but we decided to get it then anyway since we were there, and it was "just a snack." This was right after two cooking demos, and only about an hour before our dinner reservation.

It was like a very large cream-filled doughnut, with a coocnut topping. My mom and I both really like coconut, so that was good. We both loved it, but were not able to finish it, the thing was huge, and the size of four or so regular doughnuts, (at least compared to the doughnuts I'm used to.) I would get one again, but I don't know how I'd eat a whole one by myself.

 

[KayleeUK]

Brilliant reviews

 

[honeybee213]

Thanks for the great reviews

 

[Zeebs]

These are great reviews, thankyou for taking the time to do them. I am finding the information very useful as we are staying offsite on our trip and will eat most of our meals at the villa. I need to choose just a select few places to eat which is very hard given we are going on our first trip and I am relying on reviews instead of personal preferences. Think I have decided on Brown Derby so we can do the Fantasmic package plus the menu looks good.

Kirsten

 

[disneyfav4ever]

These are great reviews, thankyou for taking the time to do them. I am finding the information very useful as we are staying offsite on our trip and will eat most of our meals at the villa. I need to choose just a select few places to eat which is very hard given we are going on our first trip and I am relying on reviews instead of personal preferences. Think I have decided on Brown Derby so we can do the Fantasmic package plus the menu looks good.

Kirsten

Brown Derby is great. This is the one time I didn't 100% love my meal. I would recommend the tuna or filet mignon over the entrees I had this time.

 

[saffymom]

I'm really enjoying your pictures and reviews. Thanks for sharing them!

 

[disneyfav4ever]

Day Six - Flying Fish

This was my first time eating at Flying Fish, (and my mom's, but it was her first time everywhere we ate.) I was very excited to eat here, especially since I'd had a reservation here last year, but didn't get there since I got sick that trip.

We got to the Boardwalk early, after taking the boat over from Epcot. We were able to check-in right away, and look at the menu while waiting to be seated.

We were seated as soon as the restaurant opened, at 5:30, which was our reservation time. Our server for the meal was Clifford, and he was very good. He was fast, and switched the hot entree plates for me when I was taking pictures.

We were served bread first.

It was good, but nothing spectacular. It reminded me of the bread I'd had at Citricos the year before.

For our first entree my mom ordered the crab cake.

It was excellant, the best crab cake of the three we had all trip, (the other two being from Brown Derby and Kona, which were both very good, but this one was just better.)

It was served on savory vegetable slaw, with roasted red pepper coulis and ancho chili remoulade. I didn't really care for the sauces, but they were easy to avoid since they were just dotted along the plate. I liked the slaw though.

For our second appetizer I ordered the calamari.

These were very good as well, though a little chewy. They were however, the easiest thing to share all week, since we were both able to just eat half a plate, though my mom didn't eat all of hers, so I got extra. It came with an Asian dipping sauce, which I liked, but my mom thought they were better without the sauce.

For our first entree my mom ordered what appeared to be a new menu item, the barramundi, which I didn't remember seeing it on the All Ears menu. (The All Ears menu is now updated, and includes it.)

I had never had barramundi before, and I liked it. It came with a mix of watercress, jicama, and hearts of palm, which my mom really liked, but I didn't care for. It was also topped with a tropical salsa, which I did like, and a piece of fried plantain.

For our second entree I ordered the potato-wrapped red snapper.

This was excellant, or at least I thought so, my mom wasn't too excited by it. It came with creamed leek fondue that I loved, but my mom thought was too salty. The sauce was a red wine and butter sauce that I thought was very tasty, and I usually don't care that much for wine-based sauces.

For our first dessert my mom ordered the valrhona chocolate galette, (at least I'm pretty sure that's what it's called.)

It was good, similar to the flourless chocolate cake we'd had at Brown Derby, except lighter, (but just as rich.) It was served with chocolate sauce, and dark chocolate ice cream, as well as some raspberries.

For our second dessert I ordered us the cappuccino panna cotta, which is a special dessert for the Year of a Million Dreams.

It was served with three small cream-filled meringue cookies, one each of pistachio, chocolate, and I believe strawberry. This was excellant, and my mom and I agreed one of the best desserts all week.

Cost - $141.16 (Used Four TS Credits)

 

[disneyfav4ever]

Day Seven - Everything Pop

Today we woke up late, or at least later then we had been, it was around 8:00 when we woke up, but every other morning we had been waking up around 6:00 to be at the parks at opening. Anyway, I woke up only to discover that my camera was not working, (and this was only two days after my autograph book was destroyed by a rain storm.) Thankfully, my memory card, and all the pictures I had taken so far, were fine. I was distraught at the thought of not being able to take pictures so I ran to the hotel gift shop, and bought a Disney digital camera for $80, (only to find it on sale at Circuit City after I got home for $20.) I'm mentioning this because some of the food pictures from now on are kind of grainy and dark, and not as good as the previous ones in my dining report. I did get a new camera since coming home, a newer model of the one I'd had that broke, so my pictures next trip, September and October 2008, will be good. After buying the camera, which is decent, it's just more like a little kids camera, then the Power Shot ones I like, we ate breakfast at Everything Pop.

We decided to get chocolate chip pancakes today. I'd had them before, and enjoyed them. My mom didn't particularly want to order them, but she wasn't really hungry, and since I wasn't my usual cheerful self, (I am usually a happy person, and in Disney am usually always extremely happy,) but I was upset about my camera breaking, so we ordered what I wanted.

They were good, as good as I remembered them, and my mom thought they were okay. I didn't really eat much though, I just kind of picked them apart and moped about my camera. (I was really down this morning.)

Cost - $9.96 (Used One CS Credit)

 

[disneyfav4ever]

Day Seven - Culinary Demonstrations

We went to Epcot in time for the first culinary demonstration of the morning, which was a demonstration by Allen Susser from Chef Allen's which is a restaurant in Florida.

He prepared shrimp with a Caribbean ratatouille. I tried to take a picture of it, but my camera was not coporating. It was a very tasty dish however, and I especially liked the ratatouille part which was made from tropical fruits. So this was a sweet-savory dish, which I always like.

We also attended the following demonstration by Buddy Valastro, who is from Carlo's City Hall Bake Shop, which is in New Jersey. He made tiramisu.

Here's a picture, sorry, I know it's not very good, but like I said, it was taken with a new camera, that didn't take the best pictures.

I was expecting a small sample of the tiramisu, but as the picture shows, we were given full martini glasses of it. It was excellant, and I'm used to very good tiramisu, so that is definatly a compliment.

I should add that both of the chefs who we saw demonstrations from made dishes at the following Party for the Senses which we attended two days later. (I'll be writing a review of that as well.)

These were the last culinary demonstrations we attended, so we only made it to four total, which was slightly dissapointing. We meant to make it to more, but we always got distracted by other things. In fact we weren't even going to go to Epcot this day, we were planning on MGM instead, but we decided to just focus on the demonstrations that morning, and not do any rides.

 

[disneyfav4ever]

Day Seven - Food & Wine Festival Marketplace Booths

Neither my mom or I were hungry, but I was getting worried that we had too many snack credits left. We were on day seven of a ten-night trip, and we still had twelve out of twenty snack credits remaining. We had said at the begining of the trip that we were going to use all of our snack credits at the Food and Wine Festival, so I wanted to get some items today, since I knew we would only be at Epcot two more times, and one of those times being for Party for the Senses, and we would not want to snack then.

Since we had been watching the demonstrations at the Odyssey building, we decided to check our map and see if there was anything we wanted to try close by. The only thing that struck our interest nearby was the chiquila at the Mexico booth.

My mom liked it, I thought it was okay but too spicy. I probably would have really liked it if it hadn't been so spicy.

Cost - $3.75 (Used One Snack Credit)

 

[DisneyJo]

Loving your reviews

 

[disneyfav4ever]

Day Seven - Wolfgang Puck Cafe

For various reasons my mom decided to skip dinner tonight, which I thought was ironic, since out of all the restaurants we had reservations for the one she was most excited about was Wolfgang Puck. Having taken three trips solo, I had no problem going to dinner by myself, especialy considering that I had loved Wolfgang Puck so much the first time I had eaten there last December that there was no way I was going to miss it this trip just because my mom was being stubbron.

I arrived on time at 4:30, after spending the last two hours shopping at the Marketplace and walking to West Side. (My mom had gone back to Pop from Epcot earlier.)

I was seated on time, at a table for four, which I thought was a little odd, especially considering I was only one person, and it was too large of a table for just me, but whatever.

My server for the meal was Dale, and he was very good, and very fast. He asked for my room key right away, explaining that they ring up the meal before ordering when guests are on the dining plan. I thought that was odd, but knew that this wasn't technically a Disney restaurant, so didn't think that much of it, except I did not like not being able to keep track of my reciepts to the penny, though I did figure out a cost.

When Dale brought my card back out he brought along the bread with him.

I had loved the bread the last time I was there. There are two kinds, herb foccacia, and olive foccacia, (though I've heard that they have since replaced the olive with a sun-dried tomato one.) I absolutly love the bread here, though last time I was given oil with balsamic vinegar, and this time I was given just oil.

I was told I could have any appetizer on the menu, except for sushi, which if I wanted, I could have for my entree. For my entree I could choose from any of the regular entrees, except add-ons would cost extra, sushi, or pizza.

The menu had changed recently, and everything I'd been planning on ordering had been taken off the menu when it did.

For my appetizer I decided on the barbecue chicken quesadilla.

The quesadilla was huge, and if I had been paying out-of-pocket, would of been more then enough for a whole meal for me. It came with pico de gallo, guajillo chili sauce, and citrus sour cream. I thought the quesadilla and the sauces were a little on the spicy side, but it was good, though I couldn't detect any citrus flavor in the sour cream. I didn't eat all of the quesadilla, knowing I wouldn't be able to eat my entree if I did, and saved a third of it to take back to Pop with me.

For my entree I ordered the macadamia nut-crusted chicken.

The chicken was delicious, very moist and juicy. It came with papaya marmalade, that was good, and garlic mashed potatoes, which I thought didn't quite go, and it would of been better to just have plain mashed potatoes with this dish instead of garlic. I ate all of the potatoes, (they were good, they didn't just go that well with the chicken,) and the larger piece of chicken, (the smaller piece I saved and took back to the room.)

My mom ate the quesadilla and chicken I took back with me. She liked the quesadilla, but had the exact opposite reaction to the chicken I had, she hated it, she thought it was dry, (I thought it was really juicy.) I'm not sure if that's because it had been out for about two hours before her eating it, but whatever.

For my dessert I ordered the seasonal bread pudding, which today was apple.

It was very good, and I was given a very large portion of it, which I couldn't finish. It was good though.

The ladies at the table next to me said that they were also on the dining plan, and the food they recieved at one meal, would be enough for three meals for them at home. I have to agree with them there, the dining plan is a lot of food, and even though I've heard that Disney's portions have gotten slightly smaller in the past few years, it's still more then enough food.

Cost - Approx $54.17 (With Tax & Tip) (Used One TS Credit)

 

[sandym718]

Oh, isn't that bread pudding delicious!! I had the Peach in May and it was wonderful! I want to go back just for that!

 

[disneyfav4ever]

Oh, isn't that bread pudding delicious!! I had the Peach in May and it was wonderful! I want to go back just for that!

I almost didn't order it, since I knew I'd be having bread pudding for dessert the next night, (at Ohana,) but I'm glad I did, it was really very good.

 

[disneyfav4ever]

Day Seven - Everything Pop

A little while after I got back from Downtown Disney, (I got back from dinner around 6:00,) my mom decided she was getting kind of hungry, (she skipped dinner remember.) We still had plenty of counter-service credits, so she decided to get a meal before Grey's Anatomy came on, since we both like that show, and it was a new episode that night.

So we went down to Everything Pop, my mom decided she wanted to get a salad, and I went over to pick up a dessert, since she always constantly forgot that dessert was included with the counter service meals. (I did the majority of the ordering while on this trip.) After getting our food, we went back to our room to eat.

My mom had gotten an Asian chicken salad;

I really liked the presentation of it, which was in a Chinese-styles take out container. The salad was good, I didn't eat much, but had a few bites since I wanted to try it, but from what I could tell there was lots of chicken and other veggies.

I had picked up a piece of carrot cake for our desset.

This was excellant, and if I hadn't known, I wouldn't of thought it was store bought.

We also got a bottle of water, but didn't drink it since we both had our refillable mugs with us, and had used them. We ended up with several extra bottles of water that we got with counter-service meals at the resort, but we kept them in the ice bucket, and were always able to take them to the park with us.

Cost - $13.49 (Used One CS Credit)

 

[disneyfav4ever]

Day Eight - Everything Pop

Today we had breakfast at Everything Pop again. We decided to get the breakfast pizza this morning.

It was very good, almost as good as the one at Crystal Palace, but not quite. It was a thin crust, (thinner then the crust of Crystal Palace's pizza,) with a white sauce, and topped with eggs, cheese, and bacon. (Crystal Palace's breakfast pizza has no bacon.) I really liked the addition of bacon though.

My one complaint about the pizza though is that the crust was a little burnt on one half, so we ate around the burnt part, and ended up throwing the burnt crust out.

Cost $9.85 (Used One CS Credit)

 

[disneyfav4ever]

Day Eight - Flame Tree Barbecue

We spent the day at Animal Kingdom today. Since Tusker House was now closed, and my mom hates Pizzafaria, we really didn't have much choice then to eat lunch at Flame Tree BBQ.

We decided to get the bbq ribs.

The ribs were very good, and the portion was definatly large enough for two people. The ribs are smoked, and have their own special BBQ season rub on them. They came with a corn muffin, (it used to come with corn on the cob,) and baked beans. The baked beans, which I'd had once before, were better then I remembered them. The corn muffin was just okay, but an improvment over the corn on the cob I'd had on my first visit to Flame Tree BBQ.

For our dessert we got the key lime pie.

It was good, and a nice size portion for the two of us to split.

Cost - $15.63 (Used One CS Credit)